I'm not completely AWOL.
But wasn't that much happening in the leagues, IM went down at some point, my evo sims stagnated...
Figured I would wait for DB3.
One thing though.
I originally found DB because I had tried gun tactix, where you write some code for little robots shooting each-other, and I was wondering if there was other good programming games out there.
I found a listing that mentioned DB and said it was actually a programming game but an A life simulator, however the leagues allowed for programming battles.
And I was very surprised to find this lost gem. The programming game part of DB is way more interesting than the other games I've tried. The way poison, venom, viruses and replication and all that works. It makes for endless possibilities, whereas robot fighting games are very basic and straight forward.
Basically, what I say is, look at these listings out there:
(Taken from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_game)
- This is the first link on wikipedia to a place listing programming games, and DB is not on the list. (There is a button allowing you to add it to the list though. I could add it, but maybe someone else can write a better description, but keep in mind this is with programming games in mind, so focus on the leagues and how DB is so different from the regular (booring) programming games.)
http://programminggames.org/AllPages.aspx- This is the second link on wikipedia, but the site is very hard to navigate. Also could not find DB in there anywhere, but then again could hardly find my way anywhere.
http://www.dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/Simulation/Programming_Games/- The third link on wikipedia actually has DB, but it's pointing to an old page (
http://digilander.libero.it/darwinbots/dwienglish.html):
http://www.aiforge.net/game-links.htm (Just ctrl+F and type darwin)
- We are actually listed on wikipedia here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_digital_organism_simulators#Notable_simulators(However there is no link to the new site or the forum, and not even a description (Red link))
- Also one more list, not as extensive, but may be possible to submit DB:
http://www.pouet.net/topic.php?which=6653So basically if we want some more trafic I would start by adding a description with a link to the forum instead of the red link on wikipedia.
(And make sure to tag it as a Programming Game as well as an ALife, to make sure it'll show up here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Programming_games)
Then I would submit DB as a programming game on the listings where we're not mentioned (If possible with a description of why DB is such a great programming game)
And for the ones with old or broken links it may be possible to submit a request to update it.
That might help start things up a bit. I mean currently it's like we don't exist.
Another thing could be just adding a blog about alternative programming games, and mention DB among them (As the best one of course), and maybe encourage others to list their favorite programming games. And then add a reference to that blog from the main wiki page on programming games.
Maybe even add a part directly in the wiki page, mentioning that sometimes even ALife simulation games can serve as great programming games, such as the leagues in Darwin Bots (Linking to the description of DrawinBots on wikipedia).
Basically there's a LOT we could do to increase traffic here. Can't guarantee it'll work, but won't know unless we try. (Who knows, we may even get more people who want to help with DB3)
I suspect someone more "official" and with better writing skills may want to do these things. But if not then I'll volunteer to do the things listed above. (Let me know)
Also while on the topic, might be worth checking out this other post concerning ease of getting started with the leagues:
(Currently I can't get them to work actually, but may be doing something wrong)
http://forum.darwinbots.com/index.php/topic,1755.0.html
