Aaaaand we're back! (Downtime and plans for this server)

Hi all (dozen or so) of you! Sorry about the downtime earlier this week -- things are back to normal now.

This community is, obviously, pretty quiet. But there are a few people using this as their fediverse home server, so I figured I should explain why it was down for a couple days. I also want to share my plan to make this server more useful to the FGC.

I'm Givin' Her All She's Got Cap'n!

The CPU was running at well over 100% for twelve hours in a row, which caused sporadic downtime before it eventually crashed. So when looking at some threads this week from other servers, they will likely be missing a few posts. I do not plan to backfill those posts, they will just be missing. C'est la vie.

I upgraded this server's CPU, and things look good now. I also don't see any evidence that the previous CPU spike was some kind of intentional attack -- it looks like the lemmyverse is just getting more popular (the shitposting communities in particular are shitposting at full power), so we needed an upgrade to keep up.

Engage!

So, what about this server, anyway? When the Reddit exodus first started, the major lemmyverse servers (lemmy.ml and kbin.social) were having a hard time staying up with all the new traffic they were getting. So I started this one, intended for the fighting game community, so that your super sweaty match clips wouldn't burden the major servers.

However, within just a few days, lemmy.ml and kbin.social got their problems figured out and have had very little downtime since then, leaving this server looking redundant. (As the lack of posts would indicate.)

BUT! I have an idea. I want to make a matchmaking and tournament-running bot, and it will live on this server.

I'm still figuring out how it will work. Something like this:

1. You tell the bot what games you own, and other info relevant to matchmaking (like your in-game nicknames, Steam username, etc). The bot will remember this about you.
2. You message the bot when you're up for a game, telling it which games you're looking to play (or just any game in your collection).
3. The bot will find someone else waiting to play the same game and start a group thread with both of you in it, and tell you which games you have in common, plus what info you need to know about each other to connect in those games.
4. Optionally, tell the bot what game you played, how many rounds, who won, etc.

If you're just looking to play something popular (like SF6, MK1, or Tekken 8), there would be no reason to use this bot. You'll find more opponents much faster by just using the game's online system.

However, smaller fighting games always have a problem where the player count drops quickly after release, and if there is anyone still playing them, they're an absolute god at the game. That makes it difficult for new players to get into these smaller games after they've been out for a while. You have to open a specific game, hope that someone else is online right then, and then also hope that they are at your same skill level.

I think a bot like the one I described could fix that. You would message the bot and say, "I'm looking to play Melty Blood or BlazBlue Centralfiction or Samurai Shodown," and then play a singleplayer game or make a sandwich while you wait for the bot to ping you.

The bot could also start threads whenever it finds a match, drawing attention to the fact that a few people are playing that game, which would then make other people go, "Oh hey, I can join them."

That would all be a long way off, but it's something I've been thinking about. I've always liked the idea of creating an online community that organizes groups to play unpopular games.

Anyway, thanks for reading if you got this far, hope you have a good weekend and I'll see you online sometime! :)