13 hours in

[mooncows]

God dammit guys..... i'm hooked. I've been playing the game so much i keep forgetting to report stuff lol. I gotta say, there is a masterpiece here, just needs some spit n polish.

[x4000]

Sweeeet.

[crazyroosterman]

God dammit guys..... i'm hooked. I've been playing the game so much i keep forgetting to report stuff lol. I gotta say, there is a masterpiece here, just needs some spit n polish.

nice to see not every ones not like us grumpy old men who are always finding to moan about.


(disclaimer this a joke)

[jerith]

Arcen Mantis is a lot more fun than most AAA titles I've played. It's like Farmville for grownups with bugs instead of crops, better social networking, and a really fantastic ever-improving minigame driving the reward/feedback/addiction cycle. It also has a really interesting monetization strategy where the base game is free to play and invite only, but at the end of each round the minigame gets packaged as a standalone thing and sold to the general public.

[Elijah]

Yeah the game is great. The art is really cool, and the sense of accomplishment when you can look at your majestic city is incredible.
This game has great potential. The fire-trial will be when real ai is unleashed and combat as well!

[ptarth]

Arcen Mantis is a lot more fun than most AAA titles I've played. It's like Farmville for grownups with bugs instead of crops, better social networking, and a really fantastic ever-improving minigame driving the reward/feedback/addiction cycle. It also has a really interesting monetization strategy where the base game is free to play and invite only, but at the end of each round the minigame gets packaged as a standalone thing and sold to the general public.

I have to say, scoring and ranking mechanisms are hard. How many points do you get for creating a duplicate mantis entry? How many if your mantis report is lost in the shuffle and a later report is credited with the fix?

[jerith]

I have to say, scoring and ranking mechanisms are hard. How many points do you get for creating a duplicate mantis entry? How many if your mantis report is lost in the shuffle and a later report is credited with the fix?

Ah, that's what makes it interesting. The scoring is esoteric, bordering on eldritch. There's also a complicated and ever-shifting relationship between humour and changelog credits. Did you really think Chris would design a simple game?

[topper]

I have to say, scoring and ranking mechanisms are hard. How many points do you get for creating a duplicate mantis entry? How many if your mantis report is lost in the shuffle and a later report is credited with the fix?

Ah, that's what makes it interesting. The scoring is esoteric, bordering on eldritch. There's also a complicated and ever-shifting relationship between humour and changelog credits. Did you really think Chris would design a simple game?

But Chris and Keith are players in the Mantis game, just like us. Of course, there are asymmetric powers for different player classes. I'm sure this is inspiration for many Arcen games.

[jerith]

Ah, there's the difference. They're participants, but not players -- like the game masters in tabletop or live action RPGs. (Also an enjoyable role, but a very different one.)

[ptarth]

You guys joke, but there are games about forums. It is quite possible that someone creates a game centered around mantis.

And if you think that is too dull, consider that Euro Truck Simulator 2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_Truck_Simulator_2) is amazingly popular.

[jerith]

I'm joking about it being a game in itself, but I'm not joking about enjoying it more than a whole lot of big publisher games. I'm weird that way -- I spent a marvellous Sunday afternoon reading a four day backlog of issues because I wanted to see what had happened while I was busy with work madness.

It's really rare to have this level of interaction with anyone building any kind of software without actually being part of the team. Just look at the huge influence we've had on the core gameplay merely by complaining until things change. I love it, and I'm sure most of the people reading this post do too otherwise we wouldn't be here.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bug to report for the 1am incoherency bonus.

[crazyroosterman]

I'm joking about it being a game in itself, but I'm not joking about enjoying it more than a whole lot of big publisher games. I'm weird that way -- I spent a marvellous Sunday afternoon reading a four day backlog of issues because I wanted to see what had happened while I was busy with work madness.

It's really rare to have this level of interaction with anyone building any kind of software without actually being part of the team. Just look at the huge influence we've had on the core gameplay merely by complaining until things change. I love it, and I'm sure most of the people reading this post do too otherwise we wouldn't be here.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bug to report for the 1am incoherency bonus.

I love it when my report turns green and I get a thank you message honestly whenever I find a bug I squeal with joy at the thought of bitching about it on mantis.

[jerith]

I love it when my report turns green and I get a thank you message honestly whenever I find a bug I squeal with joy at the thought of ponying about it on mantis.

An honest "hahaha" from Chris is worth at least two of those for me.

The thing that's pleased me the most so far in this beta was surfing the coat tails of one of ptarth's issues and having my comment about naming used almost verbatim in the changelog. I still get a silly grin on my face whenever I see Computational Psychosemantics in the tech tree.

[Cinth]

I'm joking about it being a game in itself, but I'm not joking about enjoying it more than a whole lot of big publisher games. I'm weird that way -- I spent a marvellous Sunday afternoon reading a four day backlog of issues because I wanted to see what had happened while I was busy with work madness.

It's really rare to have this level of interaction with anyone building any kind of software without actually being part of the team. Just look at the huge influence we've had on the core gameplay merely by complaining until things change. I love it, and I'm sure most of the people reading this post do too otherwise we wouldn't be here.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bug to report for the 1am incoherency bonus.

I love it when my report turns green and I get a thank you message honestly whenever I find a bug I squeal with joy at the thought of ponying about it on mantis.

I got some major feels helping them find that years old bug.

[crazyroosterman]

I love it when my report turns green and I get a thank you message honestly whenever I find a bug I squeal with joy at the thought of ponying about it on mantis.

An honest "hahaha" from Chris is worth at least two of those for me.

The thing that's pleased me the most so far in this beta was surfing the coat tails of one of ptarth's issues and having my comment about naming used almost verbatim in the changelog. I still get a silly grin on my face whenever I see Computational Psychosemantics in the tech tree.

we really are just a pair of big attention whores aren't we? (disclaimer that was a joke)