You read that right! Today, the PWO Staff are pleased to announce the relaunch of the entire Pokémon World Online Network. To start us off, you probably have already noticed that the Forum has been reset once again, and now contain a comprehensive list of sections for which to contain practically everything and anything that could get posted as a topic here on PWO. The Forum is also now using our brand new PWO Forum Style, which has been modified since the public testing stages to fix various bugs and incorporate a more consistent look and feel which should now work everywhere you look on the Forum.
The new Forum also brings back the Reputation system to the general public, but it's been significantly changed from its original concept. Whereas the old Reputation System could have been thought of as a simple "like this/dislike this" vote, the new system is designed purely to focus on post quality. Here's how it works. If you see a rather informative post, you're asked to give your opinion on whether the post was useful or useless for you. If you thought a post was useful, click the plus button. If you didn't, click the minus button. This feedback is recorded by the Forum software and used to judge the overall quality of each post. The main point of this is that if a post gains fifteen or more plus votes than minus votes, the Forum will consider that post extra special and it will be marked a "Featured Post". Users will soon be able to narrow down the Forum to only showing topics containing Featured Posts, hopefully meaning that soon, people will be able to easily find the topics considered the most useful for everyone to read; and thus find out the things they need to know easily. To keep this system objective - and to combat abuse - the reputation score for each post will not be shown to anyone, and there will be no indication of who voted what. You are also allowed to vote only once on each post. The votes are still being logged, however, so abuse may still be acted upon. Hopefully this system creates a fairer and more honest view of what is and isn't a useful post.
Of course, this is just the appetiser. You're all probably waiting for the main course, which is thus: The game is back! The Pokémon World Online MMO is now online and open for everyone - whether a new or returning face - to play. Existing users will be required to reset their password in order to play the game or contribute to our Forum, for security purposes - so please visit the Playerdex, use the "Lost Password?" option and follow the instructions to set a new password and regain access to your account (your registered email address must be valid and still active). New players - and those just wanting to make a fresh start - can also visit the Playerdex and register their account as normal. Whichever you are, the details you set will also serve as your user name and password for our brand new Forum, for your convenience - this is the same system as before, but improved so that account creation is now instantaneous on both ends and the entire system is much less buggy, so it should be much less of a nuisance to some people now. Also, if two accounts have the same email in-game, they will be treated as two separate accounts on the Forum as well now, rather than getting combined; so no more headaches for people with multiple accounts <img src="http://www.pokemon-world-online.net/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" class="bbc_emoticon" alt="
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By the way, about resetting passwords. If you change your in-game password in future via the Playerdex, your Forum password will automatically change to using the new password too. However, right now, passwords set via this method are randomly generated and cannot be altered. The reverse is true of the in-game /password command though - you can set your own password but it won't apply to the Forum - however, due to changes in the system, this may cause issues, so we highly discourage using it. In the next few days, we will replace both methods with a built-in password set option on the Playerdex itself, so that you can set the exact password you want on the Playerdex and have it applied automatically to your Forum and in-game accounts. Therefore, if you'd prefer to set an exact password for your accounts, please wait until then.
The final part of this three course meal has effectively already been mentioned, but the Playerdex has now also been relaunched, to once again offer the same user lookup and account creation services you'd expect - such as looking up the contents of a player's box or party; changing your own account details such as the registered email address and so on; and the Token Store among other services - and new services will be added in the future.
Some of the Staff may appear in-game over the next few hours - though they may not all be visible - in order to ensure everything is running smoothly. If you see them, we ask you do not bother them during this time unless you have a serious issue. Well, okay... since I'm also going to be online and floating over the various regions, casting my eye on things, not only will I let you bother me this one time, but why don't I add a little fun to the already joyous nature? The first person to see me pass by them and refer to myself in the local chat will get a shout-out from me in game. I won't be visible for too long, though <img src="http://www.pokemon-world-online.net/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif" class="bbc_emoticon" alt="" /> And speaking of shout-outs, I just want to quickly say a special kudos to CheshireCat for successfully deconstructing a message I left on the temporary Forum and discovering a hidden meaning behind it - that takes the deviousness of a Gengar and the sharp wit of a Mewtwo (and anyone who expected me to say the name of any OTHER Psychic Pokémon poses a threat to use Ghosts) to manage successfully. I regularly make cryptic references, but usually they go unnoticed, so well done.
As usual, if you find any Bugs while playing our game, browsing our website or using our Forum; or you have any suggestions to make, bring them up at the Tracker for us to look up and discuss. The Bug Reporting and Suggestion sections of our Forum will automatically direct you to the correct area of the Tracker to use if you forget.
I hope you've all enjoyed reading this announcement; and now that we're back to full working order, it is my hope that we see less of the users who just respond to everything with the same messages or repeat the same questions over and over; and more of the people who are thoughtful, friendly and know how to keep this game fun and easy for everyone to get into. It's for you that the PWO Staff continue to work every day on making PWO the best fan-made Pokémon MMO... nay, the best Online Communal Game and Forum on the entire internet. Thanks to you all.
Until next time, remember - The only way to take command, is to release the power that's in your hand! Gegeh!
The new Forum also brings back the Reputation system to the general public, but it's been significantly changed from its original concept. Whereas the old Reputation System could have been thought of as a simple "like this/dislike this" vote, the new system is designed purely to focus on post quality. Here's how it works. If you see a rather informative post, you're asked to give your opinion on whether the post was useful or useless for you. If you thought a post was useful, click the plus button. If you didn't, click the minus button. This feedback is recorded by the Forum software and used to judge the overall quality of each post. The main point of this is that if a post gains fifteen or more plus votes than minus votes, the Forum will consider that post extra special and it will be marked a "Featured Post". Users will soon be able to narrow down the Forum to only showing topics containing Featured Posts, hopefully meaning that soon, people will be able to easily find the topics considered the most useful for everyone to read; and thus find out the things they need to know easily. To keep this system objective - and to combat abuse - the reputation score for each post will not be shown to anyone, and there will be no indication of who voted what. You are also allowed to vote only once on each post. The votes are still being logged, however, so abuse may still be acted upon. Hopefully this system creates a fairer and more honest view of what is and isn't a useful post.
Of course, this is just the appetiser. You're all probably waiting for the main course, which is thus: The game is back! The Pokémon World Online MMO is now online and open for everyone - whether a new or returning face - to play. Existing users will be required to reset their password in order to play the game or contribute to our Forum, for security purposes - so please visit the Playerdex, use the "Lost Password?" option and follow the instructions to set a new password and regain access to your account (your registered email address must be valid and still active). New players - and those just wanting to make a fresh start - can also visit the Playerdex and register their account as normal. Whichever you are, the details you set will also serve as your user name and password for our brand new Forum, for your convenience - this is the same system as before, but improved so that account creation is now instantaneous on both ends and the entire system is much less buggy, so it should be much less of a nuisance to some people now. Also, if two accounts have the same email in-game, they will be treated as two separate accounts on the Forum as well now, rather than getting combined; so no more headaches for people with multiple accounts <img src="http://www.pokemon-world-online.net/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" class="bbc_emoticon" alt="
" /> By the way, about resetting passwords. If you change your in-game password in future via the Playerdex, your Forum password will automatically change to using the new password too. However, right now, passwords set via this method are randomly generated and cannot be altered. The reverse is true of the in-game /password command though - you can set your own password but it won't apply to the Forum - however, due to changes in the system, this may cause issues, so we highly discourage using it. In the next few days, we will replace both methods with a built-in password set option on the Playerdex itself, so that you can set the exact password you want on the Playerdex and have it applied automatically to your Forum and in-game accounts. Therefore, if you'd prefer to set an exact password for your accounts, please wait until then.
The final part of this three course meal has effectively already been mentioned, but the Playerdex has now also been relaunched, to once again offer the same user lookup and account creation services you'd expect - such as looking up the contents of a player's box or party; changing your own account details such as the registered email address and so on; and the Token Store among other services - and new services will be added in the future.
Some of the Staff may appear in-game over the next few hours - though they may not all be visible - in order to ensure everything is running smoothly. If you see them, we ask you do not bother them during this time unless you have a serious issue. Well, okay... since I'm also going to be online and floating over the various regions, casting my eye on things, not only will I let you bother me this one time, but why don't I add a little fun to the already joyous nature? The first person to see me pass by them and refer to myself in the local chat will get a shout-out from me in game. I won't be visible for too long, though <img src="http://www.pokemon-world-online.net/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif" class="bbc_emoticon" alt="
" /> And speaking of shout-outs, I just want to quickly say a special kudos to CheshireCat for successfully deconstructing a message I left on the temporary Forum and discovering a hidden meaning behind it - that takes the deviousness of a Gengar and the sharp wit of a Mewtwo (and anyone who expected me to say the name of any OTHER Psychic Pokémon poses a threat to use Ghosts) to manage successfully. I regularly make cryptic references, but usually they go unnoticed, so well done.As usual, if you find any Bugs while playing our game, browsing our website or using our Forum; or you have any suggestions to make, bring them up at the Tracker for us to look up and discuss. The Bug Reporting and Suggestion sections of our Forum will automatically direct you to the correct area of the Tracker to use if you forget.
I hope you've all enjoyed reading this announcement; and now that we're back to full working order, it is my hope that we see less of the users who just respond to everything with the same messages or repeat the same questions over and over; and more of the people who are thoughtful, friendly and know how to keep this game fun and easy for everyone to get into. It's for you that the PWO Staff continue to work every day on making PWO the best fan-made Pokémon MMO... nay, the best Online Communal Game and Forum on the entire internet. Thanks to you all.
Until next time, remember - The only way to take command, is to release the power that's in your hand! Gegeh!
