In order to have the tracker be and remain an enjoyable and useful place, here are a set of practices which have been tacitly set up during the beta test. These are not strict rules, but following them is definitely suggested!

• Stay for more than a few seconds
  I have been told, and I have observed myself that there are people who come in the tracker only to leave after a few seconds. Now it's possible that some of these people were just trying to click on the "2P Internet" button to see what it does; however, I hope I don't need to explain how rude it is if someone actally wants to play but leaves that way, even and especially when there is no one to play with. I fact, I don't need to explain anyway, CAD did it much better than I ever would. So if you want to play but there is no one present (or no one who can play with you for various reasons), then just leave the game in the background and do some surfing, work, whatever, until you hear scribble sounds which mean activity. The dock icon will even bounce if you're invited. So there is really no reason to leave that way.

• Ask Before Inviting
  It is definitely considered rude to invite someone without prior notice. First the recieving person could be Away From Keyboard, then he may be in a conversation with someone else in the tracker and may not want to be interrupted by an invitation popup, or he may want to play with someone else. So just ask shortly, in the like of "Mack, can I invite you?" and wait for a short answer like "Okay" before inviting.
  A corollary of this rule is that you should answer inviting messages, even if you don't want to be invited don't ignore, just answer "No", or "No, Kirk".

• Tell When Going Away From Keyboard
  If for any reason whatsoever you are going Away From Keyboard (AFK) but want to stay in the tracker, then you should first check the "Ignore Invitations" box to tell you can't be invited (your name will be greyed out on the tracker for the other people to know). Then I suggest changing your name to append "(AFK)" for everyone to know (even when your "I'm going AFK" message is long gone from the window); if you're feeling whimsical you can always append "(cooking)" or "(swimming)" instead of "(AFK)" for people to know the reason, but that's facultative.

• Don't Overuse The Tracker Lobby
  The tracker lobby is not really meant for game setup and such - once you've agreed to play with each other (with the protocol described in 1), invite the other and discuss the details in the game setup dialog, between you two only. Leave the tracker lobby available for player matching.

• Tell When Returning To The Lobby
  In the game aftermath dialog or the game setup dialog, tell in advance the other player when you go back to the lobby; nothing fancy, just tell "let's go back to the lobby" (or "lobby" if you're in a hurry) just before clicking lobby, so as to let the other player know why he's dumped to the lobby.

That's it for now. It is by no mean a complete set, and I welcome any suggestion for new "rules" or ones I may have forgotten, especially from beta testers; just post in this topic and I (may) integrate it to this post.

Have fun playing networked multiplayer!

Okay, I've thought about it some more, and I have two new rules I'd like to put, but these two need to be discussed first.

First, in the beta test we took the habit of using the tracker as much as a general chatroom between beta testers (for discussing issues we found in testing but also for unrelated matters) as an actual player matching system; that's what fprefect (Matt Slot, single-handedly responsible for the whole network play part of the game, so he does have a say in the matter) is implying in the IRC channel topic. But I'd rather advise you people not to use the tracker lobby for general chat. In the beta it was acceptable since we were never more than a few at a time, but now with release there are going to be many more people in search for a game and I'd rather not have them have to do so in the middle of a flurry of conversations, and messages disappear very fast from the chat window. So perhaps it would be better for chatters to leave the tracker and join #sketchfighter instead. I have no problem with people having a private head-to-head discussion in the game setup dialog, since it does not interfere with other people. Now only having experience with the tracker in its beta time, I don't know if it's actually a problem, and if there is no problem there is no need for a solution. So I call for opinions and actual experience on crowded trackers from you all (living in France, I can't be in the tracker in the most busy hours since I sleep at these times). For now, I just call for your sense of responsibility, for you to chat when you are only a few but to stop doing so when the tracker begins to be crowded.

The second issue is a bit related, in fact. It's about the proper use of the "Ignore invitations" checkbox. One could think about it as being used only when going AFK, but on the contrary it could also be used by people who want to be in the tracker but don't want to be invited for now. But this raises the question of why would anyone be in the tracker, only not to play games. Actually, there can be reasons for that, so for now I again call for your sense of responsibility, for you to stay in the tracker while ignoring invitations (and not being AFK) only if you've got a good reason to do so.

So far, I haven't seen much interest in chatting in the 2P internet lobby- most people either stay long enough to find a match or leave. It is possible that this will change once more people are through their first impressions of the game and there is more of a proper community, but right now I think that the IRC channel and these boards are the best places to find people to talk to.

@zacha-pedro, on Dec 2 2006, 01:29 AM, said in Sketchfighter Tracker Etiquette:

Tell When Going Away From Keyboard

@zacha-pedro, on Dec 3 2006, 05:45 AM, said in Sketchfighter Tracker Etiquette:

I'd rather advise you people not to use the tracker lobby for general chat.

This could be helped a little by some extra features in the lobby. If you're at the computer but not in SketchFighter have the dock icon bounce when you get an invitation (it might do this already, I don't know, but I thought I'd mention it just in case it doesn't). Then you could make the idle indicator indicate when the user has not been using the computer at all rather than just not been using SketchFighter, and have it kick in after about 3 minutes rather than about 14. Compress chat messages to one line, like " Guy: Hello World" (without the time stamp all the time - instead have a time stamp appear on the chat every 5 minutes or, I dunno, what do other chat systems do? And show the current time too! It's no good showing who said what when if you don't know how long ago that was from the present time). Perhaps messages in the chat to say when people come/go would be nice, in addition to the scribbly noises. And finally, add a scroll bar!

Btw, it looks rather odd the way some of the words at the top move slightly when you expand/collapse the chat.

This post has been edited by Guy : 28 December 2006 - 05:14 AM

I added a very important rule that I though so obvious that I didn't need to say it.