MFGG Monthly News - May 2008

So I guess I'm doing these now. Think of it as "DJ Yoshiman's Weekly announcements" but on a montly basis because I doubt I'll have the content for a weekly programme and I really can't be bothered making a topic every week.

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IN THE MONTH THAT WAS MAY 2008

- A bunch of shizzle was leaked regarding PM security and the result was DJ Yoshiman, MFGG's global moderator, resigned. Then MFGG went into a drama period leading to depression until...

-...I got a promotion to administrator, and I made a big deal out of it and made graphs. I'm still aiming to make MFGG a better place but I don't want to go on about that again. Already there's been improvements, mostly down to the fact that...

-...the CCC has returned to it's original "casual member-only" status. Some kids complained because they now have to work, more rejoyced. But again, you probably already know the details when I went on about it a few days ago.

- As the first forum administrator since ShadowMan to have a role as quality control on the main site (apart from TD), I'm also aiming to bring the main site a little bit closer to the forums again. They're not side-by-side, probably never will be, but it means I'm a little bit more flexible to do something long-talked about; a "Game of the month" programme. See below for this week's. Fangames both old and new will hopefully be picked by random staff members and uh... get attention I guess. Either way it's been talked about for a while, but was never put into action. Now it has.

- I'll also be announcing review drives using this method as well. The main site was doing those for a bit a few months ago, but seeing as each had a different length of time and quality control action could not be guaranteed, I think it might be slightly better to do it this way. Note that accepting/declining could potentially be slow - we're lacking staff activity on the main site as well. But it'll go up as time progresses I think.

- Tragic stepped down as administrator to a global mod status, but in his last few days offered a few "extra chance" name changes. Now I have no idea who some of you are. Please note it was just ONE extra chance. I'm not bypassing the current system just because it ended up being a bad choice. Who knows maybe I'll make a MFGGday in honour of Tragic and call it "TRAGIC NAMECHANGE DAY". But either way that would be in a year's time.

- Russia won Eurovision despite the fact most of it is in Asia and their song sucked. Ours came last and it apparently didn't suck as much. So even though I've not heard the song and don't know the guy, sorry Andy Abraham. Also thanks Ireland for giving us 8 points. THOUGH YOU COULD HAVE GIVEN US 12. Political voting sucks, kids. Voting for countries next to you regardless = bad.

- Walrus came back from an extended holiday break to find that Trasher had moved house and left the Walrus to fend for itself. Second time too. But I have taken it in off the streets because I'm a nice guy. Though it was a very long flight over and it's very jet-lagged. Give it a pat on the head or something.

- MFGG went through the entire month with only 9 bans. Hurray?

- Smellevision replaced television.

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GAME OF THE MONTH: MAY 2008

Because the site staff didn't get their act together when I said "make a list of good games and we'll randomly pick one", I've gone out of my way and found one myself. Take that =P

This month's GotM is...

Mario vs. the Koopas, by Castor

I was quite surprised when Mario vs. the Koopas arrived on the door of quality control. The name doesn't automatically make you think "good quality". But it was a pleasent surprise. Once apon a time MFGG's list of fangames were all a bit... "dodgy", not bad, but without a decent supply of rips and no perfect engines, MFGGers had to experiment a bit to make something great. Often the result was terrible, but occasionally you'd get one which, although looked a little under-polished and was a little slippery with it's engine, was still amazing and was due to become a classic.

Due to the creation of various engines this doesn't happen much anymore. In fact Toad Strikes Back is one of the only games in the last couple of years to still have this "MFGG feel". But now we've got Mario vs. the Koopas. MvtK doesn't have that level of polish that many games strive to have, but it's managed to bring that "MFGG feel" into the present day, with higher quality music and a brand new set of homemade graphics. It's proof that an engine doesn't have to be perfect for a game to be fun.

It also boasts some originality. Aside from the obviously brand new graphics, its settings are interesting as well. When the mushroom kingdom is attacked, Mario gets on board an airship which eventually crashes into the side Princess Peach's castle, causing all sorts of damage.

So yeah, this thing's worth downloading and stuff, and good job to you, Castor.

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Review Drive #8 (I think)
This month's review drive, also picked by myself because nobody else did shall be:
Super Peach Dreams Demo, by Soiyeruda
and
Journey of the Hyper Stars, by King Piranha Plant

They currently have no reviews whatsoever. Help fix it by writing some. Generally active forum members are good at writing since they do it all the time, so put your skills to good use!

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Stay tuned for MFGG's monthly updates, the next one obviously being at the beggning of July, assuming we make it. It'll probably feature news like reduced energy prices for our hover cars and how the Segendo Megabox 3 is doing in the video game market.

Other things to think about
-General Friendliness for Casuals only too?

Oh I haven't written a review in a long while. I should consider doing one for the Review Drive.

Anyways good work BS. But lol @ "montly"

I knew that

Mario vs. the Koopas definitely deserved that, even though it's a bit too hard.

Mario vs the koopas was very good (Although a tad bit hard)

The only thing that annoyed me was the ugly start screen -- but it really wasn't that big of a deal actually

Why not get rid of it altogether

I mean, no one actually goes there anymore

Haha sweet job BS, I love your quirky writing style and I'm sure it'll be a mood lifter for whenever I ain't feelin' so good!

this x 10

You should really continue doing these monthly news threads because I think they're pretty informative about current events and help bring fangaming into the mix.

No

This post has been edited by Bob Hoskins on Jun 1 2008, 06:38 AM

Game of the month? Most excellent idea.


PS I'm going to play thaat one now.

I think that the GF should at least require a login to view.

Unfortunately this was due to overall under-moderation, not to an increase in good behavior. :/

I already mentioned this on the main site, but I was considering writing a review for that game already until I found I couldn't play it. Gave me a file error when I installed it and then tried to open it. Lots of other people had that error as well, which probably has to do with why it has no reviews.

Yes please. This is a good idea.

...Even better idea.

Oh we were supposed to pick for that? Shoot

Next time we're all on the same page though.

Well I'm not a big fan of the GF either but I don't want to put ShyGuy Grey out of a job because of it.

As for JotHS, my bad. Didn't realise the thing was b0rked, though nobody reported it either. HOWEVER, luckily for KPP the thing wasn't protected, so I might be able to fix it in TGF myself.

...and done. Nearly two years of delays just for a 5 minute job. Wow.

EDIT: Actually no scratch that. This is one crazy game.

EDIT2: I AM STUPIDS. I went and completely transferred the game into a brand new .gam file thinking it was a compilation error, but no, it was a freaking missing .dll file. Bass.dll, which I think is available from the main site anyway. Jesus.

But anyway hopefully problem solved.

Man, that's a nice looking game

Super Peach Dreams, huh? Well, since Soiyerdua sent a review my way on my Princess Peach Coin Chase fangame project to help me better the Princess Peach representation fangame wise in future projects, I'll just have to return the favor.

I just have to download the game again so I can go through it carefully and render a verdict. Watch for it, Soiyeruda!

I'm still waiting for my old reviews to be...reviewed . But I'll review some more, if dial-up wants to be my friend.