State of Digibutter Address #7
Posted by Francis Apr 16 2013 16:50 GMT in Digibutter News
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Six years ago I setup the digibutter forums. It was just a typical phpbb install which I started modifying, adding features like alternate characters and items that could be used on posts, users, or even on the entire site itself. Various "mod plots" kept me up late at night frantically making changes to the site. I wanted digibutter to not just be a forum, but an entire world. I found the limitations of phpbb to be too much, so I decided to start from scratch and made the site you see now aka "Nerr 1.5"

Nerr 1.5 was a hybrid forum, social network, and news site. I finally had a good foundation to build my crazy features on top of and Nerr 2.0 would return the site to it's former glory. But I was burnt-out (for lots of reasons, not just this), so I went on a hike for 6 months and got some new perspective. The truth is forums don't make good games. All the role-players left (do people still do that?) and anyways, I would probably just end up making a gaiaonline clone (which I think is about dead now?).

So that brings us today. Nerr 2.0 never happened and Nerr 1.5 is showing it's age... but I still want to make a game and I still love this community. All my ideas that I had for the original site still want to exist. So I've been working on a *real* game... a Massively Multiplayer Online Platformer sandbox (MMOPs?) that many of you have been testing (and fighting) in the beta-lands. Coming soon an entire world to jump, run, and build in. A Super Paper Mario MMO of sorts.

"But what is to come of digibutter?" you ask. Nerr 3.0 of course! digibutter.nerr will continue as a place of discussion, but with a more chat-like feel. It will run on the same server as the bitlands game, so there will be some interaction between the two. It's not quite ready yet, but expect some nice changes in a few weeks.

I haven't been this excited since 2007. Try out the betalands (especially Doopliss' clever levels) if you haven't already, and let me know if there is anything in particular you'd like to see in Nerr 3.0

Thanks again for sticking around, this place wouldn't still exist without [you]


Replies:

Reply by MM Apr 16 2013 17:01 GMT
Congrats on 6 years all of you. Hopefully I'll be able to stick around for the next years.
Reply by hero of time Apr 16 2013 17:12 GMT
look, i know all you nerds make a huge *crag*ing mockery of me all the time and you all call me fat and ugly and shit (dont even pull that "wow cant you take a joke" shit, you do this all the *crag*ing time its hardly a joke when i cant go a day here without some dumb shit happening like that), but i just wanted to say, thanks. it's been a long and rough 6 years for me and you guys helped me through it a lot, you definitely played an important role in my life.
this doesnt mean im coming back though. im not coming back here to face constant harassment every day. i was just curious if anything changed here.
Reply by Nastasia Apr 16 2013 17:20 GMT
Drama will always be a problem, unfortunately. I think of anonymous people online as being like NPCs in a game. If they are jerks then that's just their character and I try not to take it personally.
Reply by Francis Apr 16 2013 17:41 GMT
Wow Francis I'm kind of excited too. I alway did get a "whole world" vibe from what you were trying to do after making betalands.
The only thing I personally want from 3.0 is items. You know the thing I was begging for since 1.5 started. It was really fun messing with them, and you could probably do a lot with them in betalands, if maybe you added some RPG mechanics like super paper mario itself has. But, that's a lot of stuff, so I'm not asking for anything specific, just some more complexity would be fun. Like, complexity that isn't required for newbies to grasp immediately, since it's just a simple platformer. But something that can be learned and toyed with over time for a more enriching experience. I think the easiest way to at least start that would be to develop some sort of inventory system rather than just a hotbar, mainly just make more space for items, if you were to add them. But, again, that's just all future hopes, aside from the countless suggestions I said about world options, I'm pretty cool with the direction it's going in.
I hope these changes become more enticing to new members. I tried getting some people on here before, they didn't seem to stick.
Reply by Fortran Apr 16 2013 18:04 GMT
Yeah digibutter has always had an identity crisis. I think soon it will be more clear what it *is* and new users will stick around.
Reply by Francis Apr 16 2013 18:11 GMT
yes please. Though I do think we should finally give in and start being a bit more accepting to new users. Here's to nerr 3.0. I still refuse to accept memefags though, there's enough sites that do that on the internet. I do have one question for you francis, will the Nerr 3.0 you're releasing be anything like the Nerr 3.0 we were planning and testing not too long ago, the one with each message in the chatbox style format being able to be treated like its own topic, and each reply having the same trait?(Also I hope you keep the fonts and background themes, otherwise it just wouldn't be digi, or any variant thereof)
Reply by Super-Claus Apr 16 2013 18:33 GMT

will there be digital butterflies

'cause, you know, it's digibutter and all

Reply by Lord Crump Apr 16 2013 23:08 GMT

like here's an example of cross forum-game functionality; there's digital butterflies you find in-forum that you can use as currency in game

Reply by Lord Crump Apr 16 2013 23:10 GMT
crump did you get a butterfly fetish while you were away
Reply by Super-Claus Apr 16 2013 23:26 GMT
I'm surprised I'm still even here
Reply by Fallen Shade Apr 16 2013 23:35 GMT
i'm glad to see that the entire population of digibutter showed up to comment on this post
Reply by Lord Crump Apr 17 2013 00:20 GMT
even nasty came, truly an eventful occasion.
Reply by Fortran Apr 17 2013 04:37 GMT

Long live digi! Heil Farnis!

Reply by Doopliss Apr 17 2013 07:31 GMT
It's been a fun six years, and I look forward to seeing where we go in the future.
Reply by Gold Prognosticus Apr 17 2013 08:43 GMT

we used to be kids

we might be giants
Reply by Super-Claus Apr 17 2013 20:05 GMT

Wow, didn't even realize how much y'all have changed since I was last here.  Legitimately interested in this Bitlands thing you've got going (although it isn't loading for me, so...)

Reply by ? Block Apr 17 2013 21:54 GMT
I'm pretty sure you need to have Java installed to run it. If you have it try updating it.
Reply by hero of time Apr 17 2013 22:05 GMT
I was under the impression Betalands was HTML5 rather than Java.
Reply by Gold Prognosticus Apr 17 2013 22:07 GMT
I just vaguely remember Francis talking about working on it in Java, so I assumed you'd need to have Java installed to run it.
Reply by hero of time Apr 17 2013 22:08 GMT
Could be JavaScript you're thinking of, which is used in the game.
Reply by Gold Prognosticus Apr 17 2013 22:17 GMT
A forum is fundamentally different from a bulletin, which every image board is. I was going to suggest an option to toggle between them, but quality and content in posts just differs so much between them. That is to say, I miss signatures, avatars, and items.
Reply by Smaug Apr 17 2013 23:41 GMT

oh hey ? Block, all you need is one of the latest browsers (firefox, chrome, IE10). Let me know if you see any other errors or anything. The "?" in your username might be causing problems.

Reply by Francis Apr 17 2013 23:45 GMT

Suddenly the oldies are crawling out of the woodwork

Reply by Grievous Apr 18 2013 04:38 GMT
Yep, here we come.
Reply by Jr The Dark Knight Apr 19 2013 02:24 GMT

You guys are freakin' awesome

Reply by Harhar Apr 19 2013 04:44 GMT
Makes me wonder just how many of the old members have been regularly lurking the site but not posting.
Reply by Gold Prognosticus Apr 19 2013 12:30 GMT
lord boozer should come back
Reply by Lord Crump Apr 20 2013 23:28 GMT
Cool stuff. Crazy to hear that it's already been six years. We've sure come a long way since the beginning of the website. Not really sure how Bitlands are gonna go, but I'm sticking around for the ride.
Also, I've actually seen this thread from the moment it was first posted, Digi is just sometimes a pain with logging me in and out. It's so fickle with how it works, it seems. I'd probably post a bit more if I wasn't logged out randomly half the time.
Reply by Viddd Apr 21 2013 19:40 GMT
yeah i have that problem too, what gives, farnis
Reply by Lord Crump Apr 21 2013 21:29 GMT

oh wow lol

Reply by Whackaweed May 08 2013 16:43 GMT

L2sage

Reply by Ignorant May 08 2013 18:28 GMT

Man..if only I'd stayed around longer than the 3 days I initially did...that would've been about a year ago, I think..

Reply by JacobDaGun Jun 29 2013 22:03 GMT

L2sage

Reply by Doopliss Jun 30 2013 00:28 GMT
shit what is shit is a movement or an authority a redefinition of thought or morale a conservative approach to referential subhumanity or a complete reimplementation of life degenerics available in multiple statistical analyses of influence and comprehensive vision
Reply by lain Dec 08 2013 01:05 GMT
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