Blog - Playstation 3 Ireland - PS3 Leagues and Tournaments

I was having PS3 Problems with a new Linksys Router i bought whenever i tried to connect the PS3 to the internet.  I kept on getting an error message saying "Can’t Obtain IP Address".  It turns out the problem was down to the firewall on the router blocking the PS3.  There are a couple of ways to deal with this like opening ports onn the router but another way is by using DMZ on the Router.  It involves setting your PS3 a static IP address and then putting this specific IP address through the DMZ.  This method gives the PS3 complete access to the Router with any of the common online PS3 Problems such as not being able to join up with friends or not being able to chat.  For a full guide on how to Setup DMZ on your Router if your PS3 Can’t Obtain an IP address, have a read of this good article I found.

– Go To PS3 Leagues & Tournaments Ireland —

 

I have just purchased the domain Irish Gamer Forum which will be a gaming forum for Irish gamers.  I still have to setup the site but it is going to be a community based project for XBOX 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and DS and PC games.  When i have got my act together and got the site up and running i’ll post more details about it.

The next big title due for release on the PS3 were we can get some really good Leagues and Tournaments going will be arriving soon.  Not too many details about the game have been released yet but Gamespot have some details.  It will be the first footy game that will have online support on the next gen console so it is a much anticipated game. We dont have much info on the game yet but you can chack out the release date here Pro Evo / Pro Evolution Soccer / PES release date.

I have since written an article and added a forum for Assassin’s Creed.  This is a much anticipated game and is due for release on the 9th November later this year.  You can view the artciles here Assassin’s Creed Forum and follow the link to the new forum for this game.

I have started to write articles on the site now about upcoming games starting off with info about the game LittleBigPlanet (also know as Little Big Planet).  Two reasons behind this, firstly it is extra content for my users so they can keep up to date with the upcoming titles and secondly it is good for getting new users onto the site.  The article can be viewed here LittleBigPlant Forum - Little Big Planet Forum where you can find out about the game and release date.

I was accepted into the ps3 home beta on Friday so was well excited as I was waiting for the 250mb download to finish.  I had been waiting for this with great anticipation for the last few months so couldn’t believe my luck when I opened my email and saw the invite.

Unfortunately it turns out to be a big letdown.  I thought it was going to be along the lines of "Second Life" where you can go anywhere you want, buy a house wherever you please and basically walk about the place and do a bit of exploring.  It turns out that all you can do is hang around 4 different rooms….. the lobby (where you start off), the games rooms where you can play some fairly poor arcade games, play pool against another person but unfortunately this is really poor…. you cant even change the power of your shot or you can have a game of ten pin bowling which is laughable (press the X button and the ball moves down the bowling alley, no aiming, no power, just hit x and watch), a cinema type room where you can watch movie trailers and game trailers (all of which you can get anywhere on the net) and then your own house.  The entrance to your house is just a door from the main lobby, everyone uses this same door to get to their house, you just walk through it, wait for the loading screen to finish up and then your home sweet home.

All in all its a very poor attempt, all I can hope is that this is only the start and much will be added in time, after all this is just the beta.

I got the Warhawk Beta on Friday too which turned out to be a much better experience. 

 

So I have been busy building up links over the past couple of months.  I have about 3,500 to the English site and 1,500 to the Irish site.  Allot of these links are from highly rated site in Google searches but unfortunately I think I did a bit of overkill.  I had expected my pr to go up in the last update but unfortunately it stayed at 3…… big disappointment!!  Many of the inner pages have risen up to pr3 (PS3 Game Forum UK and PS3 Game Forum Ireland) which makes it even more of a surprise that the homepages of both sites didn’t rise any higher.  If I had to put my finger on the cause I’d say its probably because allot of the links I have are from the same sites i.e. site wide link exchanges, by the looks of things Google doesn’t add much weight to them so from now on I’ll be more interested in getting one or two good quality links from a site instead of going down the road of site ides.

I got a couple of new links today from gaming sites, the latest to agree to do an exchange is "web site forumz" which should be a good fit with my site as their forum covers topics such as gaming along with a host of other forum categories such as an entertainment forum and general discussion forums.

I have been busy with a few other projects recently so its time to get the finger out and start putting in the required elbow grease before a host of new sites come along and wipe me out.

Ever heard of a Search Engine Sandbox?  Unless you’re a web designer probably it’s not likely.  This is a system some search engines are believed to use to stop new sites rating well in Search Engine results.  It does note officially exist but the standard thinking amongst the web developing community is that it’s alive and kicking. 

For the first month of PS3 Ireland the site was ranking well for search terms such as PS3 Ireland, PS3 Leagues, Playstation 3 Ireland and PS3 Clans but out of the blue the site fell dramatically.  The site wasn’t being listed in the top 100 results for any of the keywords it was doing well with before.  As far as anyone knows the reason for this is to stop people setting up loads of sites and point them to another site that they are trying to promote, as your search engine rank is greatly influenced by the number of links you have from other sites. It can take anywhere from a couple of months to a year for a site to be removed from the “Sandbox” and it is not known when it will be removed or why.

The good news for me is that today the site is back to its good old self.  It’s been languishing in the murky depths for about 2 months or so.  Most of the site’s main features are now finished so it’s just a case of finishing of tail ends.  It should be all ready to go when the Playstation 3 is released later this month.

I have been working on all the code for the Ladders section of the site.  It has taken allot longer than first anticipated to write the code but at long last it’s just about done.  Just a bit of testing and tweaking where necessary and it will be ready to go.

I have based the scoring on the Elo rating system which is what they use in the Chess world.  Everyone starts off at a base equal point’s level (on my site this will be 1000 points).  It works as follows:  If you play someone who has a higher point score than you do you will earn extra points if you beat them as they are considered to be a better player than you.  Conversely, the higher ranked player will lose more points for losing the game as they have lost to a player who is considered to be weaker then them.

With the Ladder code I wrote gamers can play in Ladder matches were the result can either be submitted as Win - Lose - Draw or just Win Lose (PS3 Ladder’s and Tournament) depending on the type of game they are playing.  I have also got the option to set up a Ladder were the result can be Win - Lose - Draw and goal difference/kills and deaths, are also taken into account.  In this ladder the points you receive will again be based on your opponent’s points but will also take into account the goal difference/kills and deaths difference.  The matches for this are a variation on the Elo rating system and is the system being used in all the calculations for the World Football Rankings.

Now that this section of the site is just about done it’s on to beggar and better things, next stop is to get the Leagues code up and running.

Now the hard part begins.  Getting people to your site is no easy task, especially for a web site with such an abundance of stiff competition.  I hope to generate some traffic by word of mouth, with current site users letting other gamers know about it while chatting on the Playstation 3 Live service. In the meantime it’s a case of spending allot of time improving my rank in the major search engines.  This is a task often underestimated by web developers, it takes allot of time and allot of effort and then allot more time and effort.  You can easily spend more time doing this than time actually spent making the site.

The most effective way to improve your search engine rank is to get other sites with similar content to link back to your site and to have good unique content.  So at the moment that’s what I am concentrating on and to date I have about 250 links to my ps3.ie site and 650 my ps3-leagues.co.uk site.  In order to get other people to link to your site you will more than likely have to offer them a reciprocal link back to their site, some search engines are wise to this technique of link trading so they may not be as valuable as before so if at all possible it is much better to get one way links to your site.  For this reason I have linked to peoples sites from say my ps3.ie and then get them to link back to my ps3-leagues.co.uk site.  This way we both benefit more by having one way links.  I have added an affiliates section to the site and this is where I place important links to other PS3 sites but it is also a good idea to have a links page so you can also trade less important links from this page.  To see what I am talking about look at my PS3 links page.

With all this going on I am still working on the rest of the site.  I’m just about finished the code for the PS3 Ladders Tournaments and then I’ll get a chance to finish the Leagues code.  Just over a month and a half to go before launch and sooo much to do.