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Arimaa >> General Discussion >> Got mentioned on MetaFilter
(Message started by: omar on Aug 22nd, 2005, 5:02pm)

Title: Got mentioned on MetaFilter
Post by omar on Aug 22nd, 2005, 5:02pm
I noticed a lot of new players in the game room and checked the server logs. Looks like Arimaa got mentioned on MetaFilter weblog site.

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/44484



Title: Re: Got mentioned on MetaFilter
Post by 99of9 on Aug 22nd, 2005, 7:02pm
Wow, we should do this more often!

By the way Omar, how many concurrent users do you think the server can handle?

Title: Re: Got mentioned on MetaFilter
Post by omar on Aug 22nd, 2005, 9:29pm
Actually I hope this doesn't happen too often. We are not really ready for the general public. I really only want to attract bot developers and a few good players right now. The server would probably get too slow if there were more than 30 people in the gameroom at the same time; especially if they were all playing. Eventually the general public will be able to play Arimaa on other sites.

In a way we can think of Arimaa as being released, but in beta testing. There's still a lot of work to be done with finalizing the tournaments, challenge and rating system not to mention learning more about the game itself.

Omar

Title: Re: Got mentioned on MetaFilter
Post by Fritzlein on Aug 22nd, 2005, 10:04pm
Let us pray we never get mentioned on slahdot, which has more than ten times the traffic of metafilter, if the metafilter mention alone was enough to bring the server to its knees.

Title: Re: Got mentioned on MetaFilter
Post by PMertens on Aug 23rd, 2005, 12:25am
I can offer you a (windows 2k3) server to run a bot or two from if that helps.

Title: Re: Got mentioned on MetaFilter
Post by Arimanator on Aug 23rd, 2005, 12:25am
I must say I was worried that that sudden glut of new guests could be some sort of attack of the site.

It happened to chat rooms I frequent.

Title: Re: Got mentioned on MetaFilter
Post by 99of9 on Aug 23rd, 2005, 3:34am
Suddenly POTM is looking a whole lot easier ;-)

Title: Re: Got mentioned on MetaFilter
Post by Arimanator on Aug 23rd, 2005, 4:04am

on 08/23/05 at 03:34:54, 99of9 wrote:
Suddenly POTM is looking a whole lot easier ;-)


To average people certainly.  ;)

I mean if you're willing to play round the clock against novices, you don't have to be particularly good to win a score sky high that will be hard to keep up with.  ;D

Title: Re: Got mentioned on MetaFilter
Post by Arimanator on Aug 23rd, 2005, 4:12am

on 08/22/05 at 22:04:33, Fritzlein wrote:
Let us pray we never get mentioned on slahdot, which has more than ten times the traffic of metafilter, if the metafilter mention alone was enough to bring the server to its knees.


I concur in spades, simply triple that affluence and it's the site that'll be in "no move"* state very soon.

* and not the bots.

Title: Re: Got mentioned on MetaFilter
Post by omar on Aug 23rd, 2005, 9:02am

on 08/22/05 at 22:04:33, Fritzlein wrote:
Let us pray we never get mentioned on slahdot, which has more than ten times the traffic of metafilter, if the metafilter mention alone was enough to bring the server to its knees.


Even, high traffic sites like chessbase.com feel it when they get mentioned on slashdot. Im sure the Arimaa server would definitely crash if we got mentioned there.

We also got mentioned on http://www.makezine.com/blog/ now. Search the page for Arimaa since the entry has moved down.



Title: Re: Got mentioned on MetaFilter
Post by omar on Aug 23rd, 2005, 9:06am

on 08/23/05 at 00:25:19, PMertens wrote:
I can offer you a (windows 2k3) server to run a bot or two from if that helps.


Thanks for the offer Paul, but only bot_Arimaanator runs under Windows and I have it running from my XP system. The rest of the bots run on Linux. A Linux account on a not too busy system would definitely help.



Title: Re: Got mentioned on MetaFilter
Post by Adanac on Aug 23rd, 2005, 12:23pm

on 08/22/05 at 21:29:33, omar wrote:
Actually I hope this doesn't happen too often. We are not really ready for the general public. I really only want to attract bot developers and a few good players right now. The server would probably get too slow if there were more than 30 people in the gameroom at the same time; especially if they were all playing.


Well then, you shouldn't have made a game that's so much fun to play  :)  The early comments on the weblog site weren't very positive (I liked the 'Stratego on crack' comment) but I believe that we'll pick up several hardcore regulars once the new players try a few games and the word of mouth spreads.  I'm an optimist, and I believe that once arimaa has its inevitable explosion of popularity that the 'beta testing' phase will be complete and you'll be ready, Omar.

Title: Re: Got mentioned on MetaFilter
Post by Fritzlein on Aug 23rd, 2005, 1:12pm

on 08/23/05 at 12:23:58, Adanac wrote:
inevitable explosion of popularity


I agree that for Arimaa an eventual explosion of popularity is indeed inevitable.  The game is just too good to languish in obscurity.  And even our present rate of growth is impressive.  For example, it looks like the first 8 months of 2005 will see as many games played on the server as in all of 2003 and 2004 combined.

I'm afraid that pretty soon Omar will start actively discouraging newcomers in order to prevent the server from buckling under the strain.  :-)



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