@Elfenix - One of the things I plan to add is a "communication log" or something, which will allow the assigner and assignee to talk about the mission. This will be viewable by anyone, but only the two participants can comment / post. I planned on this being completely separate from the forums, though it would essentially be a thread. Any thoughts on that? Should it be limited to the two participants or should we just go with a new forum and create threads for each mission and anyone can join the discussion?

Hrm, would it be possible to have the communication log adopt the same privacy settings as are used by the merc guild already? Place the onus on the mission recipient to dictate who gets to join in the discussion?

So if you're set to public, anyone can give you missions and anyone can comment in the log.
If you're set to friends only, only friends can give missions and comment in the log, but anyone can view it? (seems weird that anyone would view the log if you wanted to keep things friends only though)

I think utilizing the existing privacy settings for communication log stuff makes perfect sense, let's go with that :D

I'd love to surface mission activity on the Home page and / or Game Details page. Being able to see community activity is one of the goals of this feature, but it can adhere to the privacy settings. So maybe only public users can have their activity surface on the aforementioned pages.

I'm going to try and implement the communication log stuff this weekend, at least the first version of it. Given that I haven't even touched a game that I had been assigned, I cancelled my existing missions and came up with an entirely new list, which focuses on much shorter games :P I'm hoping this will allow me to actually utilize the feature, haha!

Surprisingly, I've been doing a very good job of (mostly) staying focused on one game at a time, so if I can continue down that path, then these shorter missions will be a nice, secondary gaming option for me.

I know I've alluded to a motivation feature on the mission stuff, but here's what I'm thinking. If you're on the Mission Details page (i.e. you click on a mission on the My Missions page, which right now is empty...), you'll see details about the mission, as well as the communication log. If no time has been entered on the playthrough for 7 days, a button will be enabled that will let you "check on mission status". This will send an email to the user that's on the mission and ask them to check in. Once the button is pressed, another 7 day period must pass before it's enabled again. I don't know if it'll actually be 7 days, we could make it longer or shorter, I'm just using that as a starting point.

Other notes:

• The button will only be available to the user who assigned the mission.
• There will be a new account setting for whether or not you want to receive the email

I know some games keep track of time and you may not actually use the time entry stuff on the playthrough (I know I haven't always used it for bounties). I think by only enabling the button every x days will keep the annoyance factor down if you're not using the time entry stuff.

Here's another question for you guys...

I think the motivation email makes sense, but what about communication log changes? Do you guys want to receive notifications when a new entry appears in the communication log for missions you're involved with? This could be via email or just a little icon on the left menu when you have "unread" messages (kinda like how the achievements and friends icons work, if you've seen those before). We could do one, both, or neither. This could also be something we add later on. If we go with emails, I might make it so you can opt in / out on a per mission basis, rather than a global account setting.

I'd say go with the icon thing. That sounds best to me. I mean, maybe someone will want to get e-mails, who knows, but personally, I wouldn't want to get one every single message that comes in, lol

Here's a very early preview of the Mission Details page:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/cloudbase.production/e6dd4e9f-92f0-4ebd-ae22-cfb5b616bce7/MissionDetailsPreview.jpg

Looks fodhijdsioi!

I just pushed out a barebones release for the communication log. You can view and post messages, but that's about it haha. Only the two users that are involved in the mission can post at this time. There are no notifications yet and no motivation. So yeah, definitely barebones...but it's ready to use!

More to come this weekend...

Hey! I've recently joined the Mercenary Guild and it's great. I was wondering if you could add code so that people without games on their backlog wouldn't appear as having missions available. Because out of the ones that appear this way, only about 20% truly have available missions.

This is neat. Should help me decide what to play. With a big backlog that can actually be a bit of a stressful decision. If you already have something like this implemented I apologize, but for those of us that allow multiple missions, it would be nice if each user was limited to assigning only one. That way there should be more of a variety of games, and not three from one user.

NEVERMIND! That's already a feature :-) Looking forward to getting some missions!

Got my first two assignments! Exciting!

What happens if I want to fail the mission? Some games in my backlog I want to play, but it could be that I decide it's not worth it to finish once I get in to it.

I'd also like to be able to reject a mission. Maybe a huge RPG is in my backlog, but it's just not a good time for me to take that on right now and I want to be assigned something else. Or maybe I get assigned the second or third game in a series and don't want to play it until I have finished the first (i.e. Half Life 2: Episode 1). Maybe it could reserve that spot for whoever assigned me a mission to reassign something based on a little message I send them with feedback about why I rejected the mission. They could use the feedback to help them select a more appropriate mission for me within a certain timeframe before the slot opened back up for the community.

Some of the games in my backlog you can't really FINISH. It'd be good if you could attach a reasonable target score to those types of games, or other such objective. other games it might be nice to be able to assign an extra level to, such as, "Finish Mario Sunshine with at least 100 Shines," or, "Play Final Fantasy until one character reaches level 25," or, "Reach the final level of Contra without using the Konami code." My point is sometimes games aren't about finishing or completing them. A little customization of the nature of mission objectives would be fun, and for some score-based games (i.e. Tetris) almost necessary.

In your missions tab you can hit Cancel if you don't want that mission :)

Also, assuming you haven't seen this yet, you can actually create a list and use that as the basis for your missions. I think you can define what list that is your account settings.

I know some of us utilize missions for shorter/easier games to get through between bigger games.

@Cliff - I think @Drymonema and @jwcooley responded to most of your feedback, but I will also add that I do plan to add "special instructions" when assigning missions, which should cover your last bit of feedback.

Awesome. I'm really enjoying this feature since I discovered it! I am all alone in my gaming passion where I live, and it's great to have a community to share it with. Missions are such a great way to feel like others are involved in what I'm playing. I plan on joining in on some bounties eventually too.

I finished my first mission, but I don't think I am showing up as having a mission available now.

@Cliff You show up as having 1/3 missions available on the merc list. Seems to be working.

I completed a mission for BattleTanx. The game no longer appears on my missions list, but there's an active playthrough now that can't be deleted.

@Cliff - I meant to send you an email about this, but you beat me to it here ;)

I'm looking at the data and it looks correct, so I think all you need to do is archive the playthrough to get it off your active list.

Once a mission is completed it disappears from the mission list. I'd like to be able to access completed missions somewhere so I can continue the conversation with whoever assigned me the mission, or whoever I assigned it to.

Also, any chance you'll add some notifications so a I know when someone has replied to a conversation or thread I'm in?

By the way, this is my favorite thing about his whole site. Being able to recommend games and play others' recommendations is really meaningful and satisfying for me. I love learning why people recommend games, and sharing a few comments about them. It feels like I'm sharing the experience.

Cliff:

By the way, this is my favorite thing about his whole site. Being able to recommend games and play others' recommendations is really meaningful and satisfying for me. I love learning why people recommend games, and sharing a few comments about them. It feels like I'm sharing the experience.

This is one of my favorite things now too! Also, welcome Cliff! I'm glad you are enjoying this feature of the site. I'm a little late on picking up on missions, but I've already completed one and working on another. Like you said, I really enjoy being able to play and beat games that I otherwise would have passed up. Feel free to share any missions with me at any point as well!

Love the idea of this! I tried to enlist me for it but i can't seem to find myself in the list after activating it. Is this something known or am i doing something wrong?