rec.games.roguelike.dungeon_crawl, rec.games.rogulike.larn, rec.games.roguelike.omega, rec.games.roguelike.tome

[David Chmelik]

I propose rec.games.roguelike.dungeon_crawl (or should it be
dungeon.crawl or dungeoncrawl?,) rec.games.rogulike.larn,
rec.games.roguelike.omega, rec.games.roguelike.tome (for Angband
derivative, not unrelated newer game by same programmer.)

[Jason Evans]

We already have rec.games.roguelike.misc whose description is "Rogue-style
dungeon games without other groups.". Wouldn't it be better to bring that
newsgroup back to life and once people there are enough people talking
about those other games, then create new newsgroups for them?

Also, you forgot Dungeons of Dredmor which is also awesome.

Jason

[Russ Allbery]

rec.games.roguelike.angband traditionally welcomes discussion of all
Angband derivatives, including distant derivatives like ToME, and is
extremely low-traffic. I'm not sure there's enough discussion to warrant
trying to break that traffic up into multiple groups.

For the others, rec.games.roguelike.misc is the intended home for
discussion of games like Dungeon Crawl and Larn, and has almost no
traffic. The previously-created spinoff group for ADOM seems to be
completely dead, and I'd worry about the same thing happening with more
spinoff groups.

--
Russ Allbery (ea...@eyrie.org) <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>

[David Chmelik]

And rec.games.roguelike.slashem.

[David Chmelik]

On Mon, 4 Apr 2022 15:16:02 CST, Russ Allbery wrote:

> David Chmelik <dchm...@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I propose rec.games.roguelike.dungeon_crawl (or should it be
>> dungeon.crawl or dungeoncrawl?,) rec.games.rogulike.larn,
>> rec.games.roguelike.omega, rec.games.roguelike.tome (for Angband
>> derivative, not unrelated newer game by same programmer.)
>

> rec.games.roguelike.angband traditionally welcomes discussion of all
> Angband derivatives, including distant derivatives like ToME, and is
> extremely low-traffic. I'm not sure there's enough discussion to
> warrant trying to break that traffic up into multiple groups.
>
> For the others, rec.games.roguelike.misc is the intended home for
> discussion of games like Dungeon Crawl and Larn, and has almost no
> traffic. The previously-created spinoff group for ADOM seems to be
> completely dead, and I'd worry about the same thing happening with more
> spinoff groups.

Above (typo) I meant rec.games.roguelike.larn. Maybe a ToME one is
unnecessary then, but ToME had so many additions (world map, systems
including skills/magic/etc. more like AD&D second edition than first)
it's more than any other Angband variant. ADOM is the only proprietary
rec.games.roguelike.* so of course there's less discussion because no one
can discuss programming their additions/patches/forks and so there's also
less possible spoilers.

On Mon, 4 Apr 2022 15:16:11 CST, Jason Evans wrote:
> We already have rec.games.roguelike.misc whose description is
> "Rogue-style dungeon games without other groups.". Wouldn't it be better
> to bring that newsgroup back to life and once people there are enough
> people talking about those other games, then create new newsgroups for
> them?

Maybe in some cases, but already a large part discussion in
rec.games.roguelike.nethack is Slash'em; a large part discussion in
rec.games.roguelike.angband is/was ToME (unless I'm thinking about on
news.gmane.io) a large part of discussion in rec.games.roguelike.misc is/
was Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup... at least these three (mentioned Slash'em
in follow-up) have deserved their own newsgroups for over 1 or 2 decades
(ones that existed 2+) (but apparently the ToME one is on Gmane so
unnecessary, and a Slash'em development one is there but not a Slash'em
players one.)

> Also, you forgot Dungeons of Dredmor which is also awesome. [...]

If it doesn't have an ASCII mode, I don't consider it roguelike and am
only interested in Free/Libre/Opensource Software (FLS, OSS, FOSS,
FLOSS; ) discussion in all roguelike newsgroups except one (ADOM)
includes people programming their updates/patches/forks.

[Russ Allbery]

David Chmelik <dchm...@gmail.com> writes:

> Maybe in some cases, but already a large part discussion in
> rec.games.roguelike.nethack is Slash'em; a large part discussion in
> rec.games.roguelike.angband is/was ToME (unless I'm thinking about on
> news.gmane.io) a large part of discussion in rec.games.roguelike.misc
> is/ was Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup... at least these three (mentioned
> Slash'em in follow-up) have deserved their own newsgroups for over 1 or
> 2 decades (ones that existed 2+) (but apparently the ToME one is on
> Gmane so unnecessary, and a Slash'em development one is there but not a
> Slash'em players one.)

So far as I can tell, there have only been about 20 messages posted to
rec.games.roguelike.angband in the past year, and only about 5 articles
posted to rec.games.roguelike.misc. I don't think those discussions are
overwhelming the groups.

rec.games.roguelike.nethack *might* be a different situation (I've seen
over 500 articles to it), but I'd have to look more closely.

There have been more messages in rec.games.roguelike.announce than in
either .angband or .misc (and most of those are the monthly FAQ post).

Once upon a time about fifteen years ago I probably would have agreed with
you, but now the traffic volume in all the Rogue-like discussions is so
low that I think the cross-polination between different games is more
helpful than harmful to getting more discussion.

[Thomas Hochstein]

Russ Allbery wrote:

> rec.games.roguelike.nethack *might* be a different situation (I've seen
> over 500 articles to it), but I'd have to look more closely.

About one message a day last year. It's no longer a high traffic group,
but not dead yet.