Community Gaming

= What is Community Gaming? = Open game sessions intended primarily for members of the Fedora community. This includes regular users as well as official contributors. = What is the point? = The point is to give Fedora community members a way to have fun and socialize with each other. A secondary goal is to have this strengthen the community. = Status = Waiting for new champion. Bruno is pretty busy with other Fedora stuff and the turnout so far doesn't justify spending time with this project as opposed to other things that need doing. However if someone else wants to take this on, they should do it.

= How to =

Participate in a session
Pretty much just show up at the announced time. Though if you know you are likely to participate, it can help with planning to add yourself to the list of people interested as how the games are set up may need to be tweaked based on the number of participants.

This is social gaming, so behave well. Some good natured ribbing is OK, but be extra polite when playing with people you haven't played with before.

Please be on time, as for some games, accommodating late arrivals may not be practical.

Choose game
Pick a game in Fedora (not add-on repositories, and preferably not using third party data downloads) that you think will be fun to play socially. Preferably people with any supported version of Fedora should be able to play together. If the game isn't compatible between releases, be sure to note which release will be used for the session. We want significantly different games played over time so that more people (with different tastes and available hardware) will participate.

Pick date and time
Currently we are thinking Friday nights through Sunday afternoons are good times for games. Getting a mix of start times for the various sessions so that more people will get a chance to participate is a good thing.

Pick communication channels
This is social gaming, so the participants need to be able to communicate. This could be using in game communication if it is supported, IRC (#fedora-games) or Fedora Talk. The communication channel should be part of the announcement. Having people not playing be able to observe or listen is a good thing. Have people initially meet in #fedora-games and the sponsor should try to monitor it for people having problems or joining in late.

Let people know
You should fill out a game session entry below on this page. For now send a message to the users mailing lists with details and a link back to this page for people that want to announce their intention to participate.

Be sure to tell them where to meet up (IRC, lobby, Fedora Talk, etc...). Also letting them know what packages to install and/or any other special set up ahead of time will allow people to be ready to go at the start time.

Servers
For now we don't have Fedora servers to use. Some games provide public lobbies and using those will normally be fine. In other cases it might be necessary to get a co-sponsor for a session that has a static IP address so that it can be pre-announced for participants. = Upcoming game sessions =
 * Session 7
 * Sponsor: New volunteer wanted
 * Game: To Be Deterimened (netpanzer has been suggested, but has a crash bug on the suggester's platform).
 * Time and Date UTC: Needs new volunteer
 * Time and Date EDT: Needs new volunteer
 * Estimated session length: TBD
 * Communication channel: We'll meet up in #fedora-games. Fedora Talk will be available.
 * Other notes:
 * Likely participants (sign up below):
 * Bruno
 * Julian (sorry, lost sight of it last time)
 * Hedayat

= Historical Session notes =
 * Session 1
 * Sponsor: Bruno
 * Game: bzflag (It's 3d, but a low end card seems to work OK.)
 * Time and Date UTC: 0100 Saturday May 1, 2010
 * Time and Date EDT: 9pm Friday April 30, 2010
 * Estimated session length: I'll hang around at least two hours, but will play significantly longer if people are interested.
 * Communication channel: Fedora Talk (optional voice chat usable by cla-done people), #fedora-games for pre-game issues and emergency fall back and bzflag's in-game chat. The game seems pretty fast paced for social text based chatting while playing, so I think most socializing will be done with Fedora Talk. The game server will be games1.wolff.to using the standard port set up as a private server. I'll try to get conference room 0 (x2010), but if that's busy I'll get another one and announce the game in #fedora-games. If something bad happens, #fedora-games will be a fall back, but once things get going I won't be monitoring it. More details as I learn more.
 * Other notes:
 * bzflag allows players to join at any time.
 * 'yum install bzflag' to get the game.
 * I had to use 'modprobe analog' to get my game pad driver loaded (though you can use a mouse effectively to play).
 * I am not any good at this game and don't expect good tactical advice from me.
 * Likely participants (sign up below):
 * Bruno
 * Kevin
 * After Action Report
 * There were four of us that showed up, but Kevin had video problems and couldn't really play.
 * "BulletCatcher" knew what he was doing and helped me set good settings for the server (bzfs -mp 999 -mts 10 -tk -world /home/bruno/hix.bzw -a 50 38 -j -ms 3 +r) and taught the other two of us some basics about the game.
 * bzflag appears to be a good social game, and if this service continues, it should probably be a regular game.
 * I was the only one able to use Fedora Talk, so we did some chatting using the in game methods as we were being extra social. This doesn't work when you are really playing.
 * I filed a bug with the Fedora bzflag component to include the two maps that come with the game source in the rpm.
 * A Two hour session seemed to be good for this game, though with a larger pool of players a longer session could make sense.
 * Session 2
 * Sponsor: Bruno
 * Game: Battle for Wesnoth 1.8 or 1.8.1 (teams vs AI or teams vs teams depending on number of particpants, ending when first human team member is defeated. A test or scratch build will be needed for F12 or F11 users.)
 * Time and Date UTC: 0100 Saturday May 8, 2010
 * Time and Date EDT: 9pm Friday May 7, 2010
 * Estimated session length: 3-5 hours depending somewhat on the number of players. (We'll use a time limit on player's moves to keep things moving.)
 * Communication channel: In game chat, probably we'll meet in the official Wesnoth lobby in the "fedora" room. I'll also watch the #fedora-games channel before we get started in case people are having trouble getting Wesnoth installed and working.
 * Other notes:
 * Wesnoth is turned based and there can be a significant wait between turns. This allows for kibitzing or social chatting, but will not be to everyone's taste.
 * It will probably not be possible to accommodate late arrivals as players. You should be able to observe and chat. If someone leaves early you might be able to take over for them.
 * We will meet in the "fedora" room. To do that you need to check the "Use new lobby interface" in preferences - multiplayer. "/join fedora" can then be used so that chatting occurs in that room.
 * Getting a 1.8 or 1.8.1 version
 * For rawhide, 1.8.1 is already built and you should be able to update to get it if you don't already have it.
 * For F13, 1.8 is already available in stable and 1.8.1 is available from updates-testing. However you can also get a scratch build.
 * For F12, you will need to get scratch build.
 * For F11 you will need to get a scratch build.
 * You can also use the F13 games spin from nightly composes.
 * For any of the scratch builds you should go into the arch specific part of the scratch build and download the wesnoth and wesnoth-data rpms for your architecture. Then as root you can run yum install with a list of the rpm files. Note that old save games from before 1.8 most likely won't work with the 1.8 version of Wesnoth. Note that wesnoth-data is about 260 MB and will take a while to download. You can use yum downgrade to go back to the latest official version of Wesnoth for the Fedora release you are running.
 * Likely participants (sign up below):
 * Bruno
 * After Action Report
 * Four people played and 2 people were part time observers. 2 of us started a game and then we switched to a 2 vs 2 game, calling the initial start a warm up. The 3 of us that had played before, were rusty and made mistakes. The newbie of the game was the hero.
 * We had problems getting started because of a bug in boost on x86_64 which was entered into bugzilla after the session.
 * The new lobby interface for Wesnoth was still buggy and we mostly used #fedora-games before starting to play the game. The in game chat worked well. We spent about 3 hours total getting ready and playing, including pregame diagnosis of the boost problem and the warm game played for a few turns. The actual team game was about 2 hours and was decided in a bit over an hour. We didn't have enough time to start a new one, so we played on for a while even though it was clear which team would win.
 * The 3-5 hour estimate was for a game with more players against the AI on a larger board. The smaller map we used worked pretty well. The real action started sooner and the game went pretty quick.
 * Session 3
 * Sponsor: Bruno
 * Game: armacylces-ad
 * A tron clone. You drive light cycles around leaving a trail and try not to hit trails or walls.
 * Time and Date UTC: Saturday May 22nd 1700
 * Time and Date EDT: Saturday May 22nd 1pm
 * Estimated session length: 2 hours
 * Communication channel: Meet in #fedora-games, but will use in game chat and/or Fedora Talk
 * Other notes:
 * Rounds of this game are pretty short, so dropping in and out won't be a problem.
 * It's a light chaotic game.
 * 'yum install armacycles-ad' to get the game.
 * If an experienced player would like to make suggestions for server settings, I'll be all ears.
 * The server will be at games1.wolff.to and you will be able to connect to it by going to Play Game -> Multiplayer -> Custom Connect and then entering games1.wolff.to for the address. Leave the port as the default.
 * My level of experience of this game is that I know z turns left, x turns right and that you don't want to hit things.
 * This game was recommended as a fun game by a third party.
 * Likely participants (sign up below):
 * Bruno
 * After Action Report
 * Five people participated, but at most four were in the game at once.
 * One player had serious lag issues and couldn't play effectively.
 * One player was good.
 * The rest of us weren't so good.
 * A few of us learned some very basic strategy.
 * I used the default server settings when running armacyclesad-dedicated.
 * The map was a bit big for only four players.
 * We got going a bit late, and had about an hour of actual play time.
 * Two of us used Fedora Talk. It worked pretty well in one direction. Chopped sound in the other direction sometimes made it difficult to make out the words.
 * Session 4
 * Sponsor: Bruno
 * Game: hedgewars (0.9.12)
 * Time and Date UTC: Saturday May 29th 1700
 * Time and Date EDT: Saturday May 29th 1pm
 * Estimated session length: 2 hours
 * Communication channel: Meet in #fedora-games. Once we're playing we'll use the in game chat. Fedora Talk will be available for those that want to also use that (2010@fedoraproject.org). Chatting won't get you killed instantly, but you may miss a chance to hurt an enemy if you don't act when it's your turn.
 * Other notes:
 * The players all need to be running the same version. We will match up with the F13 version (0.9.12). For F11 or F12 users go to the appropriate scratch build and then go to the appropriate architecture and then download the hedgewars rpm. Then install the rpm with yum as root. Later you can use yum erase or yum downgrade to get rid of it.
 * F12 scratch build
 * F11 scratch build
 * We will be using the server at games1.wolff.to.
 * To connect go to Network Game -> LAN game -> Specify and enter games1.wolff.to as the host.
 * Advice from any experts in this game is appreciated.
 * Björn offers to explain the basics while we're playing.
 * Likely participants (sign up below):
 * Bruno
 * Björn
 * After Action Report
 * We had seven people show up. The game has a limit of six players in the same game. Since several of us were new I wanted people all in the same game and was an observer the first game. I had to do some yard work after the first game finished, a four player game was started, but two people got disconnected. (One network issue, then other accidental laptop suspend.) The remaining two played that game and two more two player games.
 * We had some initial confusion about teams. It turns out that each player needs to configure a team of hedgehogs with a unique name, and it's best to do this in advance. If you configure a team after entering a game, you have to leave and enter again for the new team to show up. (That's probably a bug.)
 * Game length depends on the number of players and the number of hogs per player. The session wrapped up about 2.5 hours after we really got started.
 * Drop outs seem to not be a huge problem.
 * Game limit is six players on the same map.
 * The number of hogs a player starts with can be used as a handicap. (Though players can gang up on the leader as well.)
 * One more player would have played if we could have made an el5 build. I did a quick try, but el5 had too early of a cmake, so it wasn't going to be simple to do on short notice.
 * One player used a scratch build (that I knew of).
 * In order to get a private server (which makes meeting up a bit simpler), I needed to work on the hedgewars package. In the end I have become a co-maintainer of hedgewars.
 * It is important not to make scratch builds too early. I didn't get burnt here this time, but for something else I referred to some only a couple of days older and they were no longer available. For sure build them less than a week before they are needed.
 * I also fixed (with Hans doing the commits and builds) a FTBFS bug that affected F13+ for hedgewars.
 * It's a good social game. The only time pressure is during one's own turn. (And that can be slowed down to where there is time to ask questions.) So that chatting in game is pretty easy.
 * Next time I run this I might look at using 0.9.13 which was recently released and should get built for F14.
 * Since in-game chat worked well, we didn't bother with Fedora Talk (though I monitored 2010 just in case someone else tried to use it).
 * Having Björn around really helped.
 * Björn's catching that people needed to run the same version and that F11 and F12 didn't have the same version was important. That's something that needs to be checked for every session game ahead of time.
 * Session 5
 * Sponsor: Bruno
 * Game: bzflag (again)
 * Time and Date UTC: 1700 Saturday June 5th
 * Time and Date EDT: 1pm Saturday June 5th
 * Estimated session length: I'll hang around at least two hours, but will play significantly longer if people are interested.
 * Communication channel: We'll meet up in #fedora-games. We'll use the in game chat somewhat, but chatting in this game tends to get you killed. Fedora Talk will also be available (2010@fedoraproject.org), but so far hasn't been used much for sessions. The game server will be games1.wolff.to using the standard port, set up as a private server.
 * Other notes:
 * bzflag allows players to join at any time.
 * 'yum install bzflag' to get the game.
 * I had to use 'modprobe analog' to get my game pad driver loaded (though you can use a mouse effectively to play).
 * I am not any good at this game and don't expect good tactical advice from me.
 * I am looking at starting out with the FFA map 'Urban'. If people don't like it, we can change to HiX.
 * Likely participants (sign up below):
 * Bruno
 * Hedayat
 * After Action Report
 * We hade up to six players (including my wife) at one time.
 * We played for about 2.5 hours.
 * Resetting after a match was a bit weird. Team scores would only reset if there were no players from a team in the game. So everyone needed to leave the team at the same time. Switching team colors in use seemed to fix that.
 * Two of us used Fedora Talk.
 * Chatting was sparse as the action doesn't let up much.
 * I liked the "urban" map better than HiX. It had more variety.
 * Session 6
 * Sponsor: Bruno
 * Game: Wesnoth 1.8 (team vs team or team vs AI)
 * Time and Date UTC: 1700 UTC Saturday July 17th
 * Time and Date EDT: 1pm Saturday July 17th
 * Estimated session length: 2 hours (We'll play on a small map and Bruno promises to play quickly this time.)
 * Communication channel: We'll meet up in #fedora-games. We'll use the Wesnoth lobby to set up the game once we see whose playing. Fedora Talk will be available (x2010) for people that want to try it.
 * Other notes:
 * For F12, you you can use a scratch build at http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/taskinfo?taskID=2316236.
 * We'll go with what the people who show up want to do as far as dividing the humans into two teams or playing humans vs the AI.
 * Likely participants (sign up below):
 * Bruno
 * Julian (I'd suggest wesnoth)
 * After Action Report
 * Did not happen
 * One other person showed up who could play late, but forgot to start a download before going off and after getting back found it would be another hour to download a 1.8 version of Wesnoth. So at that point we called it.