WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT

author=Feldschlacht IV
Thanks Ciel, I really appreciate that sentiment.

I mean, I think at the end of the day, what speaks the most is production. What do you have to show for your self, you know? Even if you don't have a completed game (like me), pave the way for content with stuff like well written blogs (I stress well written blogs), interesting screenshots that generate discussion, an interesting game page, videos, and idea brainstorming. Even if a game is far down the pipeline or not even on the table, things like reviews, tutorials, articles, and even game design topics are a good way to get things going.

Are gems going to be overlooked? Unfortunately, yes. Will some people refuse to listen to wisdom? Yes. But you have to keep going. I totally encourage talking to the Staff and patching good ideas through, but at the end of the day you can really only control what you do. So do well.

Great wisdom, as always. Idea brainstorming is a great point to raise - it can be done effectively through forums and blogs (if possible). What better way to weed out bad ideas then to do so before they're even implemented? Of course, some ideas can only be tested in the actual game.

The follow things are too true, Ciel.

author=Ciel
Unfortunately Craze already has a pretty good stranglehold on the design aspect here, so most everyone is interested in making slot machine simulators in RPG form, wherein random chance is present to such an extent that correlation between success/failure and the player's input is heavily marginalized.

I didn't make any such post here because it would instantly be pushed into oblivion by 'updated charset today' blogs, a design issue several staff members and the site creator agreed was problematic and discouraging to those wishing to contribute thoughtful content, but 1+year later is still mysteriously unresolved.

Absolutely yes on the random chance versus player input. The Craze-style design takes the interactivity away from making, then seeing the results of, meaningful decisions. This is the kind of high order thinking that you could help people with.

On the "updated charset today" crap, another huge yes. Legionwood got it's 8 billionth update today. It's the Brett Favre of RPGmaker games. I agree that this is a design flaw.

Helping everyone from the top down is next to impossible from an effectiveness standpoint, and helping from the bottom up is a lot of work. I think the happy medium is to lead by example. People don't really care about reading long musings, though accurate and insightful they may be.

One more thing; I think you guys in general should be happier. I mean that. I mean, think about why you're here.

Anyone who's been here long enough know I've always had a certain enthusiasm for this place and our hobby, and it's never really been more apparent to me than now; I recently joined the military, am working on a officer training and a degree, I work a fucking lot as it is, I've picked up a wealth of other hobbies and meeting new people, fuck, I don't even have any aspirations to go into game design, and I could have easily had every reason in the world to go "You know what guys? I'm too busy for this place. Good luck, everyone" and mean it.

But, I stick around, not because of habit or out of pity for the community, but really, because I fucking like it. Seeing what our community can become (and is becoming) and what we can produce, and what I can produce is inspiring. Gaining new ideas and insight and discussing them with others drives me to this place. I have fun here, and I have fun making my game and watching others.

Is this place perfect? No, and Holb for example knows I can be quite vocal about things I think need attention. But the fact that I'm here right now means something. Honestly I think some of you forgot why you're here. Let game making and our community be something you enjoy. If you forgot why you're here, reassess it. Crack open a project and get some real work done, and if you haven't made a gamepage, do so. If you don't want to do that, latch on to someone elses and help them with theirs.

Grasp why you're here and be fucking happier, god damn. Let it bring a smile to your face once in a while.

Compelling insight as always.

what i took from mog's posts: dogs sniff balls and lions lick their balls. there are important zoological conclusions we can draw from this

i heard dogs enjoy a rapport with butts. must investigate further *sniffs the air*

author=tardis
i took the heart of mog's post to heart and evaluated my heart to see what it had to say about my experience of 'here'

the evaluation of my heart told me that my heart came to the conclusion that being 'here' just straight-up no longer makes me feel inspired to mak gam. so i have decided to go find someplace that makes me feel inspired to mak gam.

because we all love mak gam, and can all benefit from an increased amount of mak gam.

~mak gam~

I know my last post comes off as intangible feel good nonsense bullshit, but I think it really cuts down to the basics; if you're not happy being here and you feel as if you being here is a lost cause, then why spend your time here? It sounds like a nice way of saying 'if you don't like it get out', but I mean, really.

author=Ciel
btw nicob is smart. he continuously uploaded new 'bugfix' versions of forever's end for a week or so following the initial release, making it a constant presence on the front page. high fucking five dude, you gamed the system. (whether they were real bugfixes or not doesn't matter you won intentionally or unintentionally)

I have this same problem with making backups when I get into a Rpgmaking groove and I wish a change was coming that would solve this problem outside of "just don't backup your data", because I'd hate for my game to constantly be thrown out onto the front page, making myself look more like a class-A douchebag than normal.

EDIT: To avoid conflict in future updates, I've decided to just go ahead and remove any backup files of my games from the site. Now you won't have to worry about Tales_from_Zilmurik_23.zip rearing its ugly head and bumping the game back onto the front page.

author=harmonic
On the "updated charset today" crap, another huge yes. Legionwood got it's 8 billionth update today. It's the Brett Favre of RPGmaker games. I agree that this is a design flaw.

I don't really have the time to work on whole new projects these days. Occasionally, I add little bits of new content to Legionwood, which is an already completed game. Sometimes I get in the RM* mood and I know I won't do anything with a brand new project so I say "yeah, whatever, let's add a dungeon/boss fight to Legionwood." I agree that posting a blog about it does contribute to knocking more "notable" blog posts off the front page, ones that have a lot more information in them, but when I post a new update, I figure it's important that people know exactly what is in it so they can judge whether it's worth their time or not. A blog is the only real way to do this. The point is that I don't want people blindly downloading an update to see what is new; I have to let people know somehow what is different in the game. I don't post stuff to the effect of "hi guys, updated a charset today" - I post changelogs; bugs that have been fixed, new content etc.

Perhaps the problem here is that blogs are perhaps the wrong medium for updates. Maybe staff should introduce a new "Updates" feature so that people like me can post their (relatively) meaningless update information in a format seperate from true Blogs that are reserved for really in depth discussion on the game. This way, the front page could have something like "Latest Blogs" and "Latest Update Posts" so that the "updated charset" stuff doesn't interfere with the in depth blogs that, I agree, should be generating the attention they deserve. This is what I think RMN has over other communities; if, say on RRR or something, I was to post an important update or important information about the game in a normal project thread, it would most likely be buried 8 pages in and hardly visible to anyone. On RMN, I love how when I post something, it is immediately there for those who are interested to see. People who actually follow Legionwood can see on the front page that there is some news for them to read. This immediate visibility should not be removed, though perhaps it should be tweaked.

EDIT: I just realised that updates can be posted in the comments part of the Game Page, but something crucial to players like an Update Log should be more visible, without interfering with Blogs.

ask yourselves whether you want to be part of a community where pics of a lion licking its own balls and dog sniffing the crotch of a pair of jeans are offensive images