Mefight Club 4.0

August 8, 2012 5:59 PM

If you've never visited MefightClub, or maybe you drifted away because of the server capacity issues we were having for a while a while back, the site's had a big round of updates, and right this very minute is a great time to come play games and hang out with us!

MefightClub is the (soon to be 5-year-old) MeFi offshoot site, primarily for MeFite gamers and friends and family of, but welcoming to all. We tend to talk mostly about video games, and mostly on PC, but we have lots of people who play on other platforms, and we have active discussions about non-video gaming too, and welcome more. We're up to around 2500 registered users these days, and going strong.

I've been working hard on the site recently -- upgrade all the things! -- and the design has gotten a fresh coat of paint, and now smoothly rejiggers itself for whatever size screen you're on, all the way down to phone browsers. There are lots of new features to play with, with more in the greased-up functionality pipeline. The site is much faster now, and hopefully our struggles with server load last year are well behind us.

The community is the same great bunch of people it always has been, and although summertime is always a bit of a slow time for gaming as people get out and explore the big blue room, there's always something happening.

Our mission is to try and create a comfortable space where the sexism, racism, and overall sophomoric behaviour that exists in so much of the gaming world is not tolerated. We run some great, friendly, fun-focused servers for current and older games, including our two long-running (and now free-to-play) Team Fortress 2 servers and the Aporkalypse (well, now it's the NewPorkalypse, with a whole new world, but you can still portal your way through to the original Aporkalypse), where some amazing and cryptic Events have been occurring of late.

So, come and join (or rejoin us), and hit up the Introduce Yourself thread to say hi. We are a friendly bunch, and we'd be happy to have you. Per rotato ad astra!

posted by stavrosthewonderchicken to MetaFilter-Related at 5:59 PM (50 comments total)

And now, if history is any guide, the web server will inexplicably catch fire, fall over, and explode, no more than 2 minutes after I hit post.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:59 PM on August 8, 2012 [4 favorites]

Do you know if there's a way to change the theme? I really want to hang out on there but I have a hard time with white-on-black (or, grey, I guess.)
posted by griphus at 6:02 PM on August 8, 2012

No, I haven't implemented any user-selectable theming, but it's something I could consider as a feature in future...
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:05 PM on August 8, 2012

griphus: I really want to hang out on there but I have a hard time with white-on-black...

You know who else had a hard time with that?
posted by gman at 6:08 PM on August 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

The site looks very pretty! Good work.

I've just signed up, as it seems my son is getting more and more into gaming, so hopefully I will find the answers to the questions he has...
posted by KokuRyu at 6:09 PM on August 8, 2012

Someone ought mention the drinking, not mandatory, but still...
posted by vrakatar at 6:09 PM on August 8, 2012

DON'T MENTION THE DRINKING
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:10 PM on August 8, 2012 [3 favorites]

No, I haven't implemented any user-selectable theming, but it's something I could consider as a feature in future...

A client-side solution (userscript? custom style-sheet maybe?) would be just as good.
posted by griphus at 6:13 PM on August 8, 2012

You know who else had a hard time with that?

Bele?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:14 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

A client-side solution (userscript? custom style-sheet maybe?) would be just as good

Sure thing -- you could use Greasemonkey or Stylish (I think it's called), but I'm not sure if anyone has shared any scripts to do that so far.

For my part, I find that light text on a dark background (like Mefi's default, for example) tends to be easier on my eyes, but I totally understand that it's not to everyone's taste.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:16 PM on August 8, 2012

There's drinking over there? Maybe I need to visit more often.

(and my friends and I started up Six Pack Gorge Friday on TF2. Except one of the guys spent $400 in keys one of those nights. Whoops).
posted by deezil at 6:25 PM on August 8, 2012

Hello. I would really like to play crowbar-only MetaFilter melee combat! Is this where I sign up?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:27 PM on August 8, 2012 [2 favorites]

Is this where I sign up?

Yes, sir, it is.

Except one of the guys spent $400 in keys one of those nights.

Your friend's name isn't hugecranium, is it? huge likes giving stuff to people. especially when the scotch has been a-flowin'.

hopefully I will find the answers to the questions he has...

If you can't find, just ask, and we'll see if we can help.

A client-side solution (userscript? custom style-sheet maybe?) would be just as good

Don't spend too much time on this, in case you were planning to. I think I may be getting geared up to test out a user-selectable style feature (I'd done some work on it in past -- I just had a look, and it was further along than I thought it had been.) Stay tuned!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:55 PM on August 8, 2012

Thanks as always, stavros. Taking a break from Repork for a few weeks but I've had a blast over the last year and half playing on in and previous incarnations.
posted by octothorpe at 6:56 PM on August 8, 2012

If I can help somehow, let mek now!
posted by griphus at 7:11 PM on August 8, 2012

I will, and thanks!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:14 PM on August 8, 2012

I've always used the magic TF2 "find me a good server" genie. How do I go about things if I'd like to join the noble ranks of MeFight TF2-ers? I've tried filtering the server list, but I'm not sure what tags to look for, and it doesn't seem to be in the alphabetized list as TF2-MFC. Help a noob out? And thanks for working on the site!
posted by Salvor Hardin at 8:30 PM on August 8, 2012

Erm, nevermind, it occurred to me maybe I should actually LOOK at the lovely website you've created. I found the server list thread.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 8:32 PM on August 8, 2012

I miss all of you from Aporkalypse. Mefightclub is an awesome, awesome place, full of awesome, awesome people.

I'll be back someday.
posted by odinsdream at 9:31 PM on August 8, 2012

How long has it been since I've MeFightClubbed myself? It still thinks my name is wendell.

And I thought the first rule of MeFightClub was you never MetaTalk about MeFightClub.
Am I the thousandth person to make that lame joke? what do I win?
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:42 PM on August 8, 2012

You win your choice of hats from my very small TF2 hat-related inventory! (Been a while since I've been able to play TF2, though, so... be patient.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:49 PM on August 8, 2012

And if you do join, don't try to cloak all the threads you aren't interested in. That makes some people scratch their heads and look at you funny.

Seriously, it's a cool feature with a kick ass animation and pretty much triggered my data organizational OCD like it hasn't been triggered in a long time.
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:59 PM on August 8, 2012

Heh. Yeah, we do kind of encourage everyone to leave threads unhidden and participate in the community at large, but I built the feature so that when there were busy threads (and so bumped to the top of the page all the time) that they weren't interested in, they could just cloak them. Actually, RolandOfEld's cloaking frenzy was a good test to prove that heavy use of the feature wouldn't explode the database -- it didn't, thank goodness -- so all good in the end.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:11 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

That's it. I'm getting a tattoo tomorrow, something along the lines of "Born to Stress-Test" or so. Now to design some sort of skull and crossbones background that's suitable for an impromptu QA role...

Yea..... it's getting late, I'm going to bed.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:18 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

I go over there sometimes and press my nose to the glass and watch all the cool kids having fun playing games that won't run on my five-year-old Mac and I sigh and a single tear rolls down my cheek.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:58 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

So, I've been on a feature-building roll for a couple of months now, and if something seems like a good idea (and I know how to do it (which is rare, if a little less rare than it used to be)), I've been trying to Get It Done.

Which is to say, griphus, your style-selector feature is almost ready. The CSS on the white theme is a little rough around the edges, but I'll keep working on it. Most of the heavy lifting was already done with the recent design refresh, which made stuff like this possible.

Note that I have called the white theme the MFC Professional Theme, because I am a scamp.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:02 PM on August 8, 2012 [3 favorites]

Yes, thank you stavros!
posted by R. Mutt at 5:17 AM on August 9, 2012

stavros works really hard over there on MeFightClub, and I recommend everyone go over and give the site a look.

I'm LitChick over there, because I kick serious ass at word games but I'm a total chicken otherwise. By which I mean, I enjoy casual gaming, but I'm kinda intimidated by the very serious skilled gamers. You know who I mean--the people who build massive infrastructures on Minecraft, drop terms like "aggro" and "nerfing" into casual conversation and actually understand how TF2 works.

But EVERYONE has always made me feel really welcome at MeFightClub! They have lots of help for gaming-challenged folks like me, and people gift keys to games if they have extras, and the smartypants gamer types even do gaming walk-throughs for us noobs.

Plus, you can post images! Of cats! And babies! And cookies!

Seriously, go check MeFightClub out.
posted by misha at 8:10 AM on August 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

playing games that won't run on my five-year-old Mac

For the record, there's actually a fair number of games that will run on your five-year-old Mac. Valve's been converting their whole catalog to run on Mac, for one thing, and the Source engine it's all built on is eight years old now, so if you want to get some TF2 on or whatever you can probably manage it even if you need to turn down the pretty stuff some.

But there's also a ton of little indie games that run on Mac at this point, which is nice for me because my workstation is a Mac and being able to pop into something or other during a Mefi lull without having to reboot or whatever is pretty keen.

Plus there's all the endless bullshitting, which doesn't actually require one to play any games themselves, which I find handy. I probably chatter about games I'm not personally playing on MFC as much as I, you know, play games.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:05 AM on August 9, 2012

stavros you are a gentleman and a scholar.
posted by griphus at 10:12 AM on August 9, 2012

(Is there a Chrome plugin that can just cleanly kill all the images on a specific domain and replace them with an equally sized transparent box or something?)
posted by griphus at 10:14 AM on August 9, 2012

Is this the right place to mention that a year and a half after initially downloading it, I finally finished Plants vs. Zombies while bored on a road trip?

Yes, this is why I'm too embarrassed to show my face over there.
posted by Phire at 11:15 AM on August 9, 2012

Man, I still haven't finished PvZ. My recent thing is SpaceChem, which is fantastic and makes my brain want to die.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:48 AM on August 9, 2012

Is anyone else here playing 10,000,000? 'Cause man does that make me want to smash my phone against a wall. In a good way.
posted by Phire at 3:08 PM on August 9, 2012 [2 favorites]

Wow. So I just read through the entire epic drama of the rebirth . . . and I literally teared up. I've popped into the reporkalypse here and there, but haven't done much. I'm sorry to have missed the awesome rebirth of the apork, but I'm really excited to come back, and I have to echo what everyone else says . . . the MeFi gaming community is AWESOME. Such a privilege to play with y'all.
posted by exlotuseater at 5:52 PM on August 9, 2012

(Is there a Chrome plugin that can just cleanly kill all the images on a specific domain and replace them with an equally sized transparent box or something?)

Why do you ask, griphus? Because if you're wanting to hide the rotating banner images at work or something to as to do your Mefighting stealthily, I've just now written a new forum preference extension to let people hide them if they want (the header also tends to slow down loading the site on phones with slow data connections, so I've been wanting to do make a preference toggle for a while).

Anyway, if that's what you were thinking, just hit up your forum preferences (this link, if you're signed in, or go to your Account page and hit the Forum Preferences link in the sidebar, and toggle at will).
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:14 PM on August 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

PERFECT
posted by griphus at 6:29 PM on August 9, 2012

I beat 10,000,000 over last weekend. I wish there was more content :/
posted by griphus at 6:30 PM on August 9, 2012

Also I am submitting my first bug report: the user preferences section looks a little weird.
posted by griphus at 6:34 PM on August 9, 2012

Yeah, the PROFESSIONAL THEME is a work in progress -- very rough around the edges, as I suggested upthread. Keep using it if you want, but please expect it to get cleaned up and tightened up over the next while....
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:38 PM on August 9, 2012

Oh, okay, sorry, I thought it was done.

I don't want to seem like I am rushing you because damn dude that is hella turnaround for a request from someone who isn't even a (contributing) member.
posted by griphus at 6:40 PM on August 9, 2012

I aims to please! And I have a very long mental list of things I want to do, things I have tried to do and failed because my skills weren't up to snuff yet, and things people have suggested which seemed sensible, so when you reminded me of those two features I had in mind, I realized that after all the other stuff I've done recently, I could whip them up pretty quickly.

someone who isn't even a (contributing) member.

I hope that you'll decide to become one -- the more the merrier.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:47 PM on August 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

MeFightClub is rad, and stavros is pretty much the best goddamn mod / manager a gamer could ask for. If you like games, and want to avoid the cesspool of sexism / racism / nasty-ism that is the hallmark of most gaming culture, we are your home. Come play with us.
posted by lazaruslong at 8:26 AM on August 10, 2012

Is anyone else here playing 10,000,000?

I am as of this afternoon; seeing it pitched as a deeper twist on Dungeon Raid was basically an instant sale. And it's pretty great so far! But man, the move to real time puzzling vs. DR's turn-based is huge and it's kind of giving me puzzler anxiety because I am not accustomed to having to do the GO GO GO thing with this style of game.

My other complaint is that I have fat fingers and do not get a match in position all the time even when I am specifically trying to. Controls are a wee bit fiddly as far as that goes. But man do I not care because the core nutty fast short iterating RPG-lite gameplay loop is tickling my fancy something fierce.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:03 PM on August 10, 2012

stavros you are a gentleman and a sober.
posted by komara at 8:37 PM on August 10, 2012

I tend to prefer single-player games even though a wise man once told me it's dangerous to go alone, but maybe I should take a peek.
posted by ersatz at 9:04 AM on August 11, 2012

I just beat 10M last night, and it is super satisfying to have gotten that far. You're shown how long you spent on the game, too, which is a neat bonus.
posted by Phire at 9:58 AM on August 11, 2012

Well, if you like to chat about single player games, no matter how obscure and weird and Eastern European, chances are you'll find at least one other RABID fan for that game on the forum.

And yes, games are at a state, or technology is at a state, that the vast majority of interesting/new/indie kinda games do NOT require a $2000 state of the art computer to play or enjoy. $500 could build you a computer that could play almost anything. Although, granted, $500 ain't nothing.
posted by eurasian at 10:28 PM on August 11, 2012

Free-to-play and still kneequiveringly fun TF2 is getting the co-op Man Vs Machine update as we speak. Now it's an even more gooder time to come and join us on our servers and shout wheeee into the microphone! Shouting wheeee is not required, but is nonetheless encouraged.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:53 PM on August 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Bwaugh every time I try to get out... The 'Pork sucks me back in!
posted by Wretch729 at 12:45 PM on August 16, 2012