MEDIAPROFILES WOULD BE RAD AS HELL

Then what happens to the artistic license and literature thread? For example: you can't post topics on your super-awesome game since there are game profiles. This media idea can just as well remove art topics altogether since there'd be a place elsewhere to talk about art.

I don't like the idea because it doesn't exactly fit into the site goals. It has to be rationalized in.

And yes, the Locker is in the same situation. I built that more as a way to be feature competitive with GW.

maybe if the site goals were 'being fucking rad / popular' it would fit

other things that need to be rationalised: everything

come on, 'be fucking rad' should always be the goal in EVERYTHING. words to live by.
popularity, on the other hand = not necessary.

i'd say WIP's doing a fine job being fucking rad already and if he deems something necessary/useful, i'll go with whatever as a user. tl;dr- i trust his judgement, and it's his site.

The heart is in the right place, but I'm going to have to side with WIP on this one.

The site's present function is to provide, as intuitively as possible, complete games to the masses, and provide information for games in development. While reviews support this goal, it's actually a little bit of a distortion of the goal to also provide articles and tutorials on game development. Why? Because the focus of the site isn't developer-centric. In fact, articles and tutorials are the only official resource that the main RMN portal provides to developers. The locker is a feature for registered users, yes, but it's not specifically there to help developers.

What IS here to help developers is the community behind the curtain; the forums. Long has it been the meeting place for developers to ask for help, recruit, or discuss development theories. This tradition also pre-dates RMN, but that's not really important. Implementing media profiles without a clear, established goal for aiding developers make games would end up being just that; a lot of work for a neat-to-have feature that doesn't add to RMN's primary draw, and doesn't encourage developer creativity any more than current features do; lockers and forum topics.

Would it be rad as hell? Absolutely. But it would nothing more than a "cool feature," until the day WIP decides to turn RMN into the Facebook of game development.

You did remind me about makerscore, which is also obviously developer-centric.

And yes, as makerscore and tuts/articles together prove, the site isn't at all committal to a non-development stance. If the site were to lose these two things, however, I feel the focus of the site wouldn't really change at all. In the best case, they are cool features that do promote game development (and eventually, submissions). In the worst case, they are a necessary evil to get the games needed to fuel the site.

I don't think WIP consciously took either of these viewpoints when he created the site, but one thing is clear. Makerscore (and in turn articles which produces makerscore) was created as an incentive to get games made and on the site. Is this catering to developers? Most certainly is. Maybe I'm nitpicking, but there's a bit of a difference here. Makerscore is awarded for generating content that goes on the site, and is then accessible by the main RMN portal. Win-win, the author gets a little bonus, and RMN fills its coffers with stuff to offer the masses. This is where the dilemma of media profiles comes in. RMN does not serve music and art and other physical resources to the masses. Assisting with developer networking to create game content that COULD eventually end up on the site is a possibility, but far less tangible than the immediate transaction of makerscore for content. Even less so when you factor in that this sort of networking occurs daily in the forums, which we are all reading now.

Because, I think we can agree, RMN does not put a focus on attracting developers to the site, there's little need to provide incentive for them to stick around and make RMN their home. Actually, let me hone that thought a bit. RMN's focus is to show games to the masses, which in turn attracts developers looking to deliver their games to said masses. This helps RMN's goal, more content coming in, more content going out. Need help making a game? Well, I hope said developer stuck around and perused the forums, because that's currently how networking is done on the site.

Your main point still stands, RMN needs to be clear on what services it intends to provide, and for whom. This will ultimately determine which features will be of greatest use to the site. And it's probably a lot more difficult than it sounds to achieve that level of clarity. WIP built a site (initially within the scope of Holb's vision) that had a specific purpose within a limited context. We're a greater site than GW, and a lot of that came from identifying problems with GW's system, but at the same time a lot was built around preconceptions most of us have contributed to regarding amateur game-making sites and what we expect to find within them. Since that time, WIP, and all of us, have been growing up to see just how narrow our vision really was. It took bold steps for WIP to end forum advertising and promote alternative engines for game development. With each revision comes a new outlook on the site and what it can do. The question now is what direction does WIP want it to go?

I don't really know where that all came from, but I think we can all agree that it's only fair that WIP dedicate his time to something that will help RMN to achieve its goal. But don't stop coming up with the ideas and discussing them. If establishing developer networking becomes a logical step in RMN's future, these are the kind of ideas that will be needed.

post=132149
Those are all valid points, but it all hinges on an assumption that I have trouble accepting (or believing):

post=132146
Because the focus of the site isn't developer-centric.

When was this decided?

I've been trying for ages for the ones running this site to take a stance on this question: developer- vs. player-centric. So far I've only ever heard non-committal rumblings of "its both".

I would contend that we do neither particularly well and would love to get direction and focus on this so that we may exploit our limited resources into achieving success in one area or the other.

Right now I believe we are tipped in the scales towards developer-centric in both site features, design and activity.

Back to the topic at hand, Mediaprofiles are most certainly a developer-centric initiative.

I don't think it's player-centric. I think developer-centric splits up into two categories: developer-presentation and developer-learning. The site is not developer-learning-centric but developer-presentation-centric, or, as you probably would call it, game-centric. The site is about presenting our games.

bahleted