Letters Any letters or e-mails received on an adventuring-related topic may be reprinted in here unless marked 'not for publication'. ------------------------------------------------------------------ First, an email from: Graham Raven - graham@raven.cjb.net Dear SynTax, First of all may I complain bitterly about that dreadful game 'Fates of Twinion'. I started out being mildly irritated by it, I hate using the mouse, what's the matter with good old fashioned keys I ask you? As if that wasn't enough I now find myself being attacked by gangs of anything up to ten Marauders simultaneously. I'm doing the best I can, wandering about aimlessly as I always do in computer worlds, and apart from making new levels occasionally, am I any further on in the game, hmm? And will the big knight fight me? Will he blow! I'm not good enough apparently and he just hurls me to one side and storms off in a huff. Worst of all though, I'm really busy right now, I've better things to do with my time than play this confounded game, and, I er, well keep finding myself playing it! Thanks, Sue, for rubbing salt into my wounds, telling me of all the wonderful things that you've discovered and which I didn't know existed! Turning people to stone? Ballroom? What Ballroom? Had bricks fall on your head? Controlling monsters? Um, you mean I've got to read all those words as well as kill the bad guys? By the by, I'm that sad character who's an out and out RPG 'case' and who occasionally reviews the odd game for Syntax. In the unlikely event of there being any other RPG addicts like myself out there who'd like contact, I'd be delighted to make their acquaintance, by email or whatever. Please put my email address onto your contacts list. Anyone want to argue over whether giants are better than elves? Or failing that discuss any aspects of RPG? PS Anyone who knows something about programming databases with Visual Basic and who would like to show off how clever they are, please get in touch! ------------------------------------------------------------------ Next an email from: Peter Smith, Waterbeach I've been busy (or wasting time) on a web database of graphic adventures. There are a number of websites out there which already have some kind of database admittedly. I wanted to play around with web design and pages for one thing. Another reason was to be able to find games that suit me better - I (personally) don't go for games with timed sequences but some reviews don't mention if a game does have timed sequences. You can see the database at: http://www.alofmethbin.com/adventure/query.html One problem I had and have is deciding what is an adventure game. I've included puzzle games though perhaps I shouldn't have done. Other games with strong adventure elements I haven't included (usually due to them also being action games.) One site considers RPGs to be a subset of Adventure games but I haven't included RPGs (I think they're different even though there may be some overlap.) @~You didn't program your database using Visual Basic, did you, @~Peter ...? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Next a suggestion by email from: Trevor Jones, Cheltenham Ever considered opening a PBEM role-play game, maybe including the SynTax members who are interested? @~When I said I thought that was an interesting idea but would @~have no idea where to start, Trevor sent this: The hardest part of PBEM is keeping the players together and deciding how multi-person battles will occur. A friend of my sister started a PBM game, but it fell apart because she didn't have time to keep all the players informed, it was a shame because there were quite a few people interested. Most of the decisions were made by dice rolls that she made, but character creation was up to the player, obviously you couldn't be too far fetched or make your character too powerful, but it's good to be given the freedom of thinking up your own character with its own background and abilities. There's plenty of guide books that can be bought to create the story or help you with the more serious side of GMing. But I suppose if you're not too sure then one of the other members might be interested in being the GM, but as I've never had any contact with the other members I wouldn't know. @~Would anyone be interested in this idea? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, an email from: John Ferris, Coventry I was one of the subscribers to REDHOTANT.COM which went bust mid January. You may have heard of it on Watchdog. Basically it was taking subs for next year (œ130) by cheque right up to the day they shut, which peeved a lot of people off. Now I "only" paid œ50 for the year, off-peak access, so as I had about 9 months service and at least œ50 worth of calls I wasn't too worried. I knew it was a risk at the start, but this time it paid off. The thing is, they couldn't offer such a service for œ4 a month and still stay solvent. For about œ70 they did full 24/7 access which really was financial suicide. They also ran it very poorly, you could get 2 log ons simultaneously (which was used by those who had 2 lines and very clever (as in dubious) software to use them. Their security was poor, I know my account and password was public domain at the end, but I didn't have email or webspace so no real harm done. And system abuse by users was rampant and tolerated, apparently. The sort of things (like using it 20 hours a day) that had got people kicked off other ISPs wouldn't get you kicked from RHA. Give these people enough rope and they'll hang everybody. I have now gone with Madasafish, which are more expensive but seem a better organised system. They also use caller line ID where only calls from a set telephone number are allowed connection. That's œ11.99 a month off-peak and it seems okay to date, also more economically viable. I may be looking at Plusnet's œ9.99 a month offering as well in the future, but I'll wait for some balanced reviews first. @~Does anyone else have any recommendations? I'm still using @~Freeserve quite happily, my only moan would be that it can go a @~bit slow sometimes. - o -