My suggestion is rather simple to do, for coders and it should help people want to stay more.  Let me first start by asking, why do people play?  Well, there's multiple answers for this question but I personally keep coming back because of all you wonderful people.  However, the new people that come here usually don't experience that kind of experience here because it takes longer to get to know people just via 'Mobmail'.  My counter strike suggestion to this is to make the hyperlink to the 'Chat' more visible and not hidden in the drop down menu.  Perhap in the upper right hand corner, all the way to the right futhest you can go and have your timers on the left of the chat hyperlink.  Doing this I feel would catch the newbies attention that there is infact a chatroom here and have more of a chance to meet great people here and gets them into the game faster.  I know I didn't really start getting into it until after I found the chat and met a lot more people.

What's your thought?

I don't see that as necessary as most leaders encourage players to join IRC whether it's in the rules or or mail when they first join, it's down to the individual whether or not they actually pay attention & use irc.

Towards the end of the life of the original Mafia.org a brief chat system was introduced. It ran purely out of the browser from what I remember and allowed communication between family members. It was situated below the main game and above the 60 second list, from what I can recall.

To your suggestion, I think it is something that has merit and would at least keep people more involved in the actual game rather than on IRC. I know for many people it is as much the people here that create an atmosphere worth playing in, so the sooner you're able to access that; the better.

How about rather than a full chat room, there was an area where CLs, RHMs, LHM or your sponsor could essentially 'tweet' small pieces of information? Between your balance and the timers for example.

So, rather than a full mail, something like;

"PoisonousJelly: Congrats to Grin on being Made. Party in the HQ."

Or

"Stone: Welcome aboard Grin, replace me. Please?"

You get the idea. Brief statement, different colour for Godfather/CL/Sponsor? I don't know. Something to consider maybe.

Id like to see something like that added Grin. Vote from me.

I like grins suggestion also. It allows for quick updates.

this feature was on the m2 lay out. really think it should be apart of MR

Perhaps a better place for this would be above or below the 60 seconds list due to the vote +'s on say a laptop get pretty close to the petty timer as it is.

The only issue is this will be another extra bit of data that will be loaded with every page load and will slow things down for those on slower connection or playive via mobile so an option to turn it off in your options like turning of WYSIWIG would be a good idea.

If I'm correct in the m2 version there is a HQ chat, although I can only speculate I'm assuming that once the bugs in m2 are worked out, the game will transition over there so the HQ chat will be able to be used.

Grin's suggestion is very good, however, the issues Flash pointed out are very real. People on slower connections or mobile connections will suffer. So as Flash said it would be great to see it in the options menu it could be toggled on/ off. Also the point about moving it further down the screen would be necessary as those who may log in from their mobile will have more problems navigating the screen.

I like the original idea of placing the Chat link in a more visible place. While some people do not intend to use IRC at all, I am sure many others don't use it because they don't notice the link.
As for the in-game chat system, I don't think it would be more convenient than a mibbit client in a new tab/window.

The tweet-like feature sounds interesting. We already have a place for communication between the family members, which is the HQ crew forum. However, you don't know whether there are any new threads/posts in the HQ forum until you go there. Maybe there should be a notification for new HQ posts in any of the following forms:
1. A flashing icon, just like for new MobMail.
2. A new area, as Grin suggested, which would show a short summary of the latest HQ forum activity
3. An option for a CL/RHM/LHM to make an HQ thread automatically watched by all crew members, so that you get a Personal notification

The instant chat-message board feature that Grin has mentioned, I believe it's already on the to do list. At the time the idea was sent to the admins, I made an example to show them how it used to work on .org. I lost that example but I made another.

http://www.mehwhatever.com/profile/pics/chatidea.jpg

Back on .org the instant chat was HQ based, there was at the most 5 lines of chat which would go away fairly quick. To open your typing box, you simple had to click on the + sign. It was created with the intention of generating a faster communication between family members and also to avoid the entire crew getting spammed with mass mails. It was also viewed as a way to promote interaction between family members, specially new members who may not be totally comfortable with joining IRC just yet.

The message board was open to every member of the family and it was up to each CL to make rules about the usage of the message board.


I believe it is a good idea to create more interaction between people inside the game, instead of just IRC. I will be sponsoring this idea to bring it to the PC forums.

Thank you both for sponsoring my suggestions and the added on suggestions by others.

I can remember when I first came to this game. At that time I had no idea what IRC even was. Luckily I had a friend able to tell me all about it and how to connect. Then again the setup back then was not how it is now. I do think that the new users can find the IRC Chatroom more easier than they could have before. I don't think a hyperlink should be placed anywhere. If your suggestion to let new players know we have a chatroom we could do that by perhaps a mobmail you get at the start of every character.

This mobmail would have the subject of perhaps "Chatrooms" and explain that they exist and how to access them. In my opinion I believe this method would suffice in getting the new user base the knowledge. The message could give a brief explanation of all the ways to get on IRC: Mibbet, Java Client, mIRC, etc.

As for the Headquarters chat, there is nothing wrong with that idea. People are on their phones all the time so I can see this being beneficial in the long run to phone users and new players. Keep in mind this is only a prediction. Placement on the server may be a little tough though. I do like the idea of the drop down chat system like PC-tita described and shown in her screenshot. That way if you do not want to see it you may simply minimize it in a way.

The only problem I can see arriving is if people posted things like Congratulations to such and such on achieve the rank of... When the chat goes away after the maximum lines are put up wouldn't all the other members that didn't see the chat in time, never know that the person in this particular situation was promoted? This is only an example of a problem that could arise.

In all this suggestion could be worked into the game and benefit the site as a whole.

A screen shot of the old message board was found, I'll link it here :)


http://www.mehwhatever.com/profile/pics/dotorgscre.jpg