A new continent?

[Tom]

And I would bet you serious money there are people here who would pay at least a small amount for an app that could give them push notifications when their characters got messages

Yes, but I have a few hundred bucks up-front costs to make that happen.

What would be easier would be an e-mail gateway.

[Azerax]

I play on my phone *constantly*. Probably more than on a desktop, at this point. Luckily, my phone has a hardware keyboard. I wouldn't want to do it on one of those on-screen virtual keyboards.

I have spent weeks playing only on my iphone because I was travelling.  I do it when I visit my in-laws, and during the 6 hour drive to get there.

If you have google analytics set up, they now report mobile devices.

[Azerax]

Yes, but I have a few hundred bucks up-front costs to make that happen.

What would be easier would be an e-mail gateway.

The e-mail gateway is cool, especially if it worked like LinkedIn.  Someone sends you a message on LinkedIn and you get the message there, and emailed to you.  You can reply to the message via email and it appears in your conversation history on LinkedIn.  It's really handy.

[Tom]

The e-mail gateway is cool, especially if it worked like LinkedIn.  Someone sends you a message on LinkedIn and you get the message there, and emailed to you.  You can reply to the message via email and it appears in your conversation history on LinkedIn.  It's really handy.

That would be a lot trickier. I was thinking more along the lines of the usual "you have new messages in BattleMaster" notification.

[Anaris]

That would be a lot trickier. I was thinking more along the lines of the usual "you have new messages in BattleMaster" notification.

Actually, I've implemented something along those lines before. Provided you have cooperative email server software, it can work pretty well.

In this case, we would probably want to implement it along the lines of the ones that have auto-generated email addresses for each message or conversation, with a hash in the actual recipient address (or at least after the +) so that it gets into the right message stream.

Certainly, it's trickier than a simple "you have new messages" notification, but it's far from impossible.

[Indirik]

And if you screwed up the implementation, it would even be possible to send fake messages attributed to other people.

[Azerax]

And if you screwed up the implementation, it would even be possible to send fake messages attributed to other people.

Forged letters...cool, start some more wars!

[Ehndras]

Forged letters sound *awesome*, though the mechanic must be limited. Perhaps a significant chance of it being discovered as false due to most folks recognizing a Lord's seal, which isn't exactly easy to recreate. (Signatures and seals were a BIG deal back then in terms of royal and noble correspondence.)

[Foundation]

A major problem with forging letters is it encourages people to use OOC forms of communication as IC communication isn't reliable.

[Indirik]

Forged letters sound *awesome*, though the mechanic must be limited. Perhaps a significant chance of it being discovered as false due to most folks recognizing a Lord's seal, which isn't exactly easy to recreate. (Signatures and seals were a BIG deal back then in terms of royal and noble correspondence.)

No thanks. We've discussed forgeries and message interception many times. They are both, IMNSHO, horrible ideas. As Foundation says, they create distrust in the message system. And since the message system is really the heart of the game, it creates distrust in the game itself. People will get around it by simply asking OOC, or asking the sender "did you *really* send that?" It really won't add anything worthwhile to the game.

[Azerax]

No thanks. We've discussed forgeries and message interception many times. They are both, IMNSHO, horrible ideas. As Foundation says, they create distrust in the message system. And since the message system is really the heart of the game, it creates distrust in the game itself. People will get around it by simply asking OOC, or asking the sender "did you *really* send that?" It really won't add anything worthwhile to the game.

You do have a very good point. 
If the idea of forgeries is to spread misinformation / bad intel, what about bogus monters/undead/battle reports? (battle reports would be very easy to spot as fake as seeing your name in a battle you didn't participate in will be obvious).  However, fake undead/monster reports may cause people to go investigate, which wastes their time.  Scout reports could easily disprove the forged monster/undead reports.

[DamnTaffer]

That would be a lot trickier. I was thinking more along the lines of the usual "you have new messages in BattleMaster" notification.

I'd just settle for a little pc ap that gave you a popup everytime you got a battlemaster message

[Tom]

Forged letters sound *awesome*,

Only on paper. This has been rejected before, for the reasons Foundation posted. We do not want to encourage people to use OOC communications.