Forum Features / Suggestions

There aren't enough people in our community to honestly have contests. The best you'll get is mikezilla's texture making contest.

I dunno about reviews...don't really see the point as we can just as well create threads to discuss our opinions. i think what we need to do is make the place more attractive for people not using Source/HL engines and artists in general.... As an artist when I post my work i do so to get feedback and constructive crits....focused. This is usually not the case on Mapcore.... I see a lot of art or levels posted and then a bunch of replies a la "looks great but you need to work on the brushwork" (without going into detail where and how to improve it) or "needs work"..... a good example for very good focused art critique is the Polycount forums... I hope we can have something similar at Mapcore one day...

Well the few ideas I got, were rather large. But that is what you get when you introduce a level 12 intelligence to a idea mill (for those that don't know, Brainiac 5 is a level 12 intelligence, the whole earth population is level 9 intelligence)

But enough with the jibba jabba!

Following kleineys idea and taking bit of Izuno, a popular game site Gamespot. I have come up with an idea that could work nicely.

Gamespot has pretty neat feature of reviewing games, I know, sometimes the reviews are crappy, but then again, the whole site is populated by something like molemen and such.

Mapcore, we have an advantage over many other sites, kinda like CGTalk, professionals who pay their bills working in the business.

Well, what I'm suggesting is that we have some sort of publishing system where we could review maps, the requirements would be that you have actually played the map, not necessarily played it in a server, but strolled through it, not just looked some pictures. Write a good review on how the map works and how does that graphics work and so on.

I know that there is a chance that ppl come here, and release awful maps that aren't serious or anything. But it's a risk involved here.

But there is also another idea that I like more, since I'm not a mapper, nor a professional, so my opinion about maps are purely from gameplay perspective.

The other idea is similar to Gamespots Freeplay, freeplay is basically a wordbridge, someone writes an article and the next one takes the end of that article and continues, this makes sure that ppl don't just write about the same damn thing all the time, the conversation moves on. We could present our own views in it and discuss about hot topics.

This could be achieved by using some blogging tool, they usually have user levels and we could give some members account and we could decide who writes article that month/week/day.

Quote

wait...idea brewing...this would take work, coordination yada yada, but what about a "Mapcore Article" or "Mapcore Analysis" or "Mapcore Review" every couple weeks about a hot new game or some industry development? We could possibly even conduct polls and runs some threads for members to comment on a particular topic, then we write up a good article on the subject with results of our quantitative/qualitative analysis/opinions. In the end, this could be a "hardcore gamer / game-designer" opinion about industry topic. Even a game review.

Quote from Pericolos0

i would love writing some articles for the frontpage, maybe having a system where articles can be submitted (to be approved by the moderators) would be best for this.

I suggested an article system to Mike and Mojo about half a year ago, I think all of us were kind of fond of the idea, but sadly nothing became out of it.

It was surprisingly close to your idea Izuno, so I'm all up for it!

I agree that game news don't really work out, there enough other sites with a full staff. I guess game reviews are a sort of greyzone, we could have them but they shouldn't be the focus of the articles.

I was also thinking more about Industry related topics, MOD scene, interesting design approaches etc.

I think giving people the opportunity to submit articles which will then be reviewed either by the community or a commitee and get posted on the mainpage would be nice. So in first case the article would be posted here first in the forums, discussed, rated and then posted (or not), or it will be submitted to a commitee, internally reviewed, posted and then discussed.

I like the 2nd idea better, because variety and quality of the articles is ensured and the article lands on the mainsite when it's fresh and not when it has been discussed to death in the forums before (would increase the chances that it gets bumped by newcomers when it is already uninteresting).

Also wanted to say a blog forum, developers blogs

I agree with klein that you want to attract people from not just HL, reviews prolly wont help for that

I run a review site, most reviewers give up after 2-3 weeks because its so much work

You could hold a couple of those forum discussions about whatever topic you want, like the modding scene topic a while ago, and after a week turn it in to a nice article and post it. Presents nicer, and not much work because the discussion was there anyway

Or interviews...

Articles itself are always great too

Whatever you do, you should do some marketing. If you place a new article/whatever email some big sites and tell them so you can get a newsost -> get peoples attention, now no one knows this place..

What you basically want if you add a feature is that it is self growing. A forum is an example of that, newspost is not. For news you need a lot of effort, for reviews too, etc..and there will always be a point where you dont have the time for that anymore so its a dead end, you wont keep it up forever. If it grows itself by user content you dont have to worry. It does the work for you.

Users give other users a reason to come by. And not admin content/work gives other users a reason to come by, a small site cant keep that up.

Quick replies would indeed be nice to see.

Couldnt we get some exclusives from games ppl work on here

Has anyone ever timed this board?

GOD THIS REFRESHES SLOWLY!

But anyway. We should start by looking in to a fresh new look for the front page, new style for the board, maybe even upgrade this POS (or migrate like I suggested ) then take a look at how we could make the site part of this community more attractive than just the boards. I mean, at this state, this place is just a board, the site has nothing interesting on it.

Is it just me or does anyone else not care about the forum theme and version.

I think the looks should really be the last thing to think about, we don't desperately need new people here, but attracting talented minds with content is fine. People who only visit to see flashy images might as well stay away imo.

whats wrong with the current boards?

Quote from FrieChamp

People who only visit to see flashy images might as well stay away imo.

With most of the members doing something graphically intense for games I think that is so strange point of view. I would agree if this forum was a programmer forum.

There is nothing WRONG with the forum, but it's like "there is nothing wrong with Mercedes Benz, but it could be Ferrari."

what's the theme going to look like?

I like the theme.Maybe it was the default one. But after what? 2+ years of viewing it like this its grown in my heart and now I love it. Changing it is like being white until you're 40 and than deciding you want to be an african american. no dice.

The new theme will hopefully make the forum look editor-esque. It's got some kinks to it and I can't possibly stare at tiny little gif files anymore today.

Quote from von*ferret

I like the theme.Maybe it was the default one. But after what? 2+ years of viewing it like this its grown in my heart and now I love it. Changing it is like being white until you're 40 and than deciding you want to be an african american. no dice.

Outside of the fact that this is just a webforum, you draw a strong and compelling comparison

Quote from Lurker

Outside of the fact that this is just a webforum, you draw a strong and compelling comparison

Although an impossible one. We all know only Michael Jackson can change his race.

I would like a theme that was more minimalistic than this. There is way too much going on here, confuses and scares me.

I know, most of the time any of us doesn't even notice the theme, we are all here for the content, right. But that doesn't mean that the theme couldn't be more lightweight and clear.

And regardless of how people try to twist my words, I don't think that the current theme has anything wrong, or is bad or anything. Mojo wanted suggestions, and may god try to stop me, I give him feedback.

But anyway. Mojo, if you need help in anything, let me know, I know thing or two about thing or two.

nevermind