RMN V4.5 (AND BEYOND) FEATURE IDEA LIST

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InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
I actually do like a "questionnaire" type approach, good thinking alterego!
I'd second this, it's way easier and less biased as far as I'm concerned, unless someone has something to say that would change my mind.
It needs to be fair, yet helpful, without praising or spitting on any certain part of a game and touching on nothing else.
meisam
meisam your not using semicolon properly, and that's a laughing matter.
0
You should know that, not everyone participate in poll events, though if you only care for active community that actually read the review and see the media its a different story. Personally, before I become serious in this whole RPG maker thing, I didn't bother with pictures or media and I only read reviews with the most comments. (hint :P)
But if RMN try to cover more than elites it should change its rating system, maybe as far as, Staff score and user scores

edit: The problem with questionnaire is that you would never cover all aspect of a game, sometimes people don't even know why they like a game.
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
That's a major problem though, if you don't even give the time of day to reviews that don't have a lot of comments.
And your edit is the exact opposite of it. Reviews don't usually cover all aspects, if the reviewer is in-depth and awesome they will, but not everyone does it, or they don't do it well.

Something like a questionnaire could have TONS of possible questions that can be answered way more easily, than someone trying to explain each system or feature, etc.
A questionnaire, while probably being more simple could show potential players what to expect from a wide variety of things the game has to offer. Very simple, but you could view an entire list of what the game excels in or what it doesn't.

I'm not saying a questionnaire would replace reviews altogether, but would work best as an optional thing or a side thing. Would make it easier on a potential player who is reading the review to judge it, as well as for the author of the review to not feel like they missed anything. Or feeling they have to go super in-depth about every little thing if it can be shown easily through some kind of form.
It would be totally different than poll, this is all at least how I see it.
Stupid request, but what about having an "RMN Member Of The Month?" You could pick somebody who has been contributing, or has contributed stuff in the past, and acknowledge them on the front page for their hard work and dedication and do a little piece about them, telling everybody what they have done to make RMN a better place. As a reward, they get an achievement bonus and a "blue" usertitle for the remainder of the month.
I noticed this last night when I was submitting some plugins.

When you post threads or replies, you can "Preview" them, but you can't with submissions (at least with utils/plugins?) You basically need to submit them, wait until their approved, and then edit the post if there's any mistakes, which is not ideal as it can takes 12-24 hours before a submission is approved. Please fix this by adding the Preview button to submissions! :)
^ This would be ace. ^
I'm a little late but I just want to pop in and say that divorcing ratings from reviews would only make the problem with numerical ratings worse. a rating needs a decent review attached to give it context.
author=PepsiOtaku
I noticed this last night when I was submitting some plugins.

When you post threads or replies, you can "Preview" them, but you can't with submissions (at least with utils/plugins?) You basically need to submit them, wait until their approved, and then edit the post if there's any mistakes, which is not ideal as it can takes 12-24 hours before a submission is approved. Please fix this by adding the Preview button to submissions! :)
huh. I thought it had that. Will do!
author=mawk
I'm a little late but I just want to pop in and say that divorcing ratings from reviews would only make the problem with numerical ratings worse. a rating needs a decent review attached to give it context.

Well, yeah, I'm trying to keep that in mind. Didn't you like questionnaire idea? That's your context right there... I mean, the lack of ratings is an issue that needs to be addressed, just as there are many other issues surrounding this bigger issue that is the review system. But we can't just wave a magic wand an fix them all, so I think we should reach a compromise at some point. And anything short of lowering the standards of reviews so there are more reviews and more ratings, the questionnaire idea is not that bad.

Edit: How hard is to implement is besides the point. It's just an idea. But it would make rating games more 'affordable' to non-reviewers.
a questionnaire is much more effort to implement and, at best, offers exactly the same amount of information. what do you think it will fix, specifically? you can't just say "something needs to change, therefore this".
It'd be great if we can set a custom image for download now button in game pages :D
author=Archeia_Nessiah
It'd be great if we can set a custom image for download now button in game pages :D
ahem http://rpgmaker.net/games/4531/

What did you dooooo
author=Addit
Stupid request, but what about having an "RMN Member Of The Month?" You could pick somebody who has been contributing, or has contributed stuff in the past, and acknowledge them on the front page for their hard work and dedication and do a little piece about them, telling everybody what they have done to make RMN a better place. As a reward, they get an achievement bonus and a "blue" usertitle for the remainder of the month.

I missed this, but this seems like it could be a feasible alternative to the "like this post" button someone proposed earlier. they both seem to serve roughly the same purpose, at least, and if it's down to a vote you won't get people hitting "like" on posts just because they support their own views or something.

I think the rewards are a bit excessive, but that's not really important.

e: also, how easy would it be to tweak things so that when the forum gives its little "hey, hey, slow down there!" anti-flooding message, it preserves the message you were trying to post in the reply field? it's not that much work to reconstruct a ten-second post, but it is a bit annoying.
I've thought for a while the Help Requests & Resources section could do with an overhaul. At the moment, all requests and offerings for all kinds of resources are dumped into the same subforum like a list of BBS threads.

This is fine for discussions, but it would make a lot more sense to split it up a bit for requesting and offering resources - those two things should be in their own sections.

You could even go a step further and divide those into subcategories for different kinds of resources. Either way, it would make it much easier for people to find what they're looking for, instead of having to wade through what they're not.
author=mawk
a questionnaire is much more effort to implement and, at best, offers exactly the same amount of information. what do you think it will fix, specifically? you can't just say "something needs to change, therefore this".


It wouldn't replace the reviews by any means, just offer another such option for reviews for people who either normally don't bother doing a review, or have the time to do a review.

Essentially, it would be a form they fill out, like a checklist, that they associate a number with, and perhaps brief thoughts if allowed. It'd offer a faster option because the format is already laid out, and all they would have to do is read an either indicate NA if not applicable, or include a number.

I'm not sure if this is a great option or not, but it could encourage more feedback this way for people who would normally not bother. Then again, people who can't even bother to add a quick post in the main game page will probably not be bothered to do a questionnaire.
I explored that option the last time this came up, and it would be unfeasible to make a suitable questionnaire that would both apply to all potential games AND still have meaning to potential viewers of the results. A questionnaire is not on the table.
a subscription search <:3c
So I would just search games where I've been recently added as a dev or something and then unsubscribe so I can stop having double notices ;v;
We looked into that actually. It might be possible to do (or at least fake well enough that it is workable).
author=kentona
I explored that option the last time this came up, and it would be unfeasible to make a suitable questionnaire that would both apply to all potential games AND still have meaning to potential viewers of the results. A questionnaire is not on the table.

Care to elaborate? Cause I can't really see the problem with it... The main idea is to allow people to rate games. We don't really 'need' any more "meaning" than the final rating (The idea of offering statics was mainly a bonus). It can be as simple as asking: How do you rate this game's Gameplay? Graphics? Writing? Audio? And then average the results.

The idea to further break it down was not to make it genre-specific or anything but to help people consider things they often don't - to help them take more objective decisions. For example, one of the most common observations I've seen people make about music is, if they've heard a track before or not. e.g. "This track is from X game, therefore +/- final rating" They don't take into account if the track was used well: if it fits the mood of the moment, if it was timed-in correctly, if it loops appropriately, etc...

In short, I don't think it's too hard to come up with a fine-tuned questionnaire that can apply to all games. The thing is to come up with questions that encourage people to think about games as a whole - at a "form and function" level, rather than focusing on conventions or expectations of a specific genre or program... The hard part is that it's probably going to be a community-wide effort to come up with such a questionnaire, but I don't think it's as unfeasible as you're making it out to be.