Friday, April 11, 2008

wikipedia

At one point I had a link pointing to my site www.TowerOfDefense.com on wikipedia specifically on its Tower Defense page.

I added it directly below the only other link(which I won't mention, now gone just like me) in the "external links" category. The link before me had a text description along the lines of "a forum to talk about Tower Defense Games".

So I ever so politely did not touch this link and entered my link www.TowerOfDefense.com below it with the text description: "The Ultimate Tower Defense Games Portal". My site traffic got an instant boost! But after only a few days it was gone. So I figured the person who posted the link just above me didn't like having some of his traffic diverted.

I went and re-entered it again. But this time I thought maybe I'm stepping on a few toes when I wrote "The Ultimate Tower Defense Games Portal" so I instead put something along the lines of "Free Flash Online Tower Defense Games". This time a few days goes by and I'm thinking great its going to stick this time.

But no I was deleted again! But to make things worse this time instead of just being deleted, the above link added a 2nd link in place of mine pointing to his collection of TD games!

So now it was war! I had been super polite and always posted below others and seemed to follow all the rules and this guy just keeps deleting me! So I go back and delete him and post my link with the original text description. Guess what happens next. Boom were both gone. Wikipedia removes us both. Isn't that great instead of sharing a little and he gets nothing just like me.

What have I learned from this? 1- People are greedy. 2- Wikipedia is taking control over its content. Is less user input and stricter control a good thing or bad? You tell me?

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Flash Element TD 2

My latest tower defense game addiction comes in the form of Flash Element TD 2.
As you know from previous posts I like my Tower Defense games to be a good challenge to complete. A game that's frustrating but keeps you coming back to try on new strategies.

So when I first heard about Flash Element TD 2 I was chomping at the bit to play it. Part 1 was one of the first online Flash tower defense games and its still one of the best today. The 2nd installment ups the ante on the cute graphics and sounds. The new element towers are cool and upgrade well.
But the biggest innovation comes in the form of the elements you need to protect. The elements sit at the end of the usual path enemies travel down and once they reach them they pick them up and begin traveling back the way they came. If they escape with all the elements its game over!

I really like this game but here's my beef: level design.
There are only 3 levels. And only the first 2 are free to play. (Easy) is way too easy. Next level is (Harder) and yes its insanely harder. I can't beat it for the life of me. My highest score is 34864. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong? Upgrades get expensive and it seems powerful enemies give out the same amount of money as the enemies from the first level???

Well at least this time I won't go spoil my frustration by checking out a youtube.com video. ;)