Thoughts and Numbers

Just a quick update, to let you know how the game is doing, and how I am doing.

First, some statistics on the game:

In February, the number of players logging in each day ranged from 6,568 to 8,051.
32,729 Players have registered.
1,306 registration emails sent since the 15th are still pending.
131 donors made 151 donations before 2007
433 donors made 486 donations during 2007
39 donors made 39 donations so far in 2008
Thank you!

The new server design and code seem to be handling the load without any trouble. Most of the problems have been in the design of the game board and the wording of the emails, and thus my fault ;-) The rest are either browser incompatibilities, over-protective Norton and McAfee software, or still mysteries to me.

I am about to go take a two-day CLE (Continuing Legal Education) seminar that will satisfy most of my professional requirements for the year, but more importantly will enable me to start defending people accused of misdemeanor offenses. I hope that this step will allow me to get my financial house back in order, and help some people who really need it at the same time. Unless I get more clients than I anticipate, though, this will still leave me with plenty of time to keep improving the game.

Facepalm

A new version went up early this morning. It should speed things up a lot, and fix many of the minor bugs that y'all have been reporting. There's also a first draft of score list "abbreviation", in which only the most "interesting" parts of the list (i.e. you and your team, people you have marked, the top 5, and the bottom 2) are shown right away.

Oh, and it had a "fix" for the problem of pop-up blockers preventing the links to this blog and to PayPal from working. This "fix" rendered those links completely inert, even for players without pop-up blockers running. The situation has now been remedied, and those responsible (me) have been smacked.

Nomination

Here's a post to present my favorite names from among those suggested so far, and to provide a home for your further suggestions:

LinkLetters, Word Weaver, Word Weasel, Word Flex, Word Maze, Word Jam, Logophilia, Logomania, Word Ferret, LetterNet, WordCore, Word Mine, Oh My Word

Dammit, Jim, I'm a Lawyer, not a UI Designer

Many of you like the new design. Many of you loathe it. Whichever way you feel, please understand that I'm not wedded to the way it looks now - it's not "my way or the highway." Only one thing about the new site is fixed in stone, and that is that each player shall have a cookie containing a unique account code if they are to play. This is the reason for the email-based registration system. There are other ways to provide this cookie. Two that I have in the works are Facebook-based registration, and sub-accounts (allowing registered players to generate account codes for their kids or students). But if you routinely clear cookies, or play on a new computer every day, you're going to have to log in. Sorry.

Everything else is subject to change at your suggestion. I have had an unavoidable enforced break from working on the game, due to paid work on a deadline, and this has given me a chance to reflect on things as the praise, complaints, and cries of "Help! I can't play" have rolled in. I'm not a good user interface designer, and I know it, yet I keep trying to guess at design elements that will work, spending precious time implementing them, then discovering too late that they were mediocre additions at best. I need to stop guessing.

I need your help. While I squish bugs, please give me ideas. However you feel about the current look, think about it. What do you like? What do you not like? SPECIFICALLY. I'm not talking about bugs, new features, or general sluggishness here, just design. It would help me to hear either "I like that the board is resizable, and the way it is done" or "The list of guessed words would be much better if it was one word per line, rather than a comma-separated list." Not helpful would be "I hate the look" or "Don't change the score list!" or "The last round word list is confusing." These are not specific recommendations. If your first reaction is "Make it like WEBoggle!", then I have to ask "Really? Just like it? With 200+ players in the score list?" One of the motivations for the new, flexible interface was the volumes of complaints that I got about the old interface.

There are radically different views amongst you. This is why configuration options have multiplied, and why I added Themes and drag-and-drop rearranging of parts. At the moment, Themes are just simple color schemes, but they can radically alter the look of the game.

Here are some possible topics: Should I discard the ability to rearrange the play area? Enhance it, allowing free-form positioning and sizing rather than columns? Should I have two alternating page layouts, one during play and one during scoring (and the ability to stay on the scoring page even though a new game has started)? Put in a toggle button to turn the "frames" of the game parts on and off? Use a different color scheme? Change fonts?

Meanwhile, some people still can't play. I'm on it.

Aftermath, and Onwards

It's mostly working, for most players. Now I will make it work well, for everyone. My priorities for the next week are:

1. Get Safari on Mac working again (Safari on Windows works fine).
2. Make the interface snappy, or at least not slow. I feel your pain - my development machine has all kinds of debugging stuff turned on, and the game drags. As a band-aid, I will add a setting that cuts the score list down to size. I propose that, when this setting is turned on, the score list will show only the top five + your team & members + at least 5 players just above and below you + any players you have marked. Please suggest alternatives / variants in the comments!
   

I apologize for this transition. I am frustrated that everyone isn't able to have fun. It will get better.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention: a few hours after last night's transition, all seemed to be going well, so I went to bed. A half-hour later, network access to the server was cut off for about three hours. The server itself was fine, but nobody could reach it. Argh!

Crossing the Finish Line

Beta version w18 is live; It should fix the column bug, focus-grabbing, and other minor issues. Thanks to a diligent, skilled, and generally nifty volunteer tester, I was able to iron out the IE6-specific issues. This version has passed all tests on IE6, IE7, Safari 3, and Firefox 2. I'm going to leave it alone for a few hours, and if disaster doesn't strike, I will make the supremely painful (for fans of the old interface) switch-over from WEBoggle.

If you are an old-interface fan, please explore the customization possibilities of WordSplay's interface before you give up on it. Drag the panels around, resize the board, turn the guess notifications on and off - take it for a proper spin. It has lots of options.

If you can't play, due to some bug, email me right away and describe the step at which the game fails (loading the front page, registering, logging in, going to a game, etc), your browser and operating system, and the result of visiting http://www.wordsplay.net/?tests. I will do my utmost to get the new game working for everyone - I don't want any of you to be left out!

Once more into the breach...

I just put up version 17, which tries to do the same things in very different ways. Does that make sense? In any case, there should be all sorts of minor improvements in speed, play, and appearance. It also tries to let you know if (and which) words you've guessed didn't make it to the server in time for scoring due to Internet lag. The board-resizing bar (for those of you who find the default too large) should be easier to see.

If you are only seeing two columns, not three (not counting the sidebar menu) please let me know! This is a bug that I've only just become aware of, and I don't know the circumstances under which it appears yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that I'm nearing the finish line with this release.