CONCERNING THE GAME FRONT-PAGE DOWNLOAD UPDATES

bahleted

Currently, there is no Latest Screenshots section. It has been replaced by random screenshots.

Even so, sometimes I actually kind of like that ALL of the latest screenshots show up on the frontpage. Sure a game might dominate it with 4 shots, but it increases the likelihood that one of them are interesting and worth checking out.

But I will take a look to see if what you suggest is even possible to do with the way we have the feeds set up.

"Everything is commentable" is one of WIP's central tenets, and one I agree with wholeheartedly. (I would also disagree that reviews generate nothing but terrible discussion, but that's a different argument for a different time).

Also, I enjoy getting notifications when people comment. It indicates that there is a discussion going on, and that usually means that something interesting is there worth checking out. If not, I just ignore the notices! But I know that Ankylo has been working on the notification system - he might have implemented greater control! I haven't paid that much attention, tbh!

author=kentona
Currently, there is no Latest Screenshots section. It has been replaced by random screenshots.

Even so, sometimes I actually kind of like that ALL of the latest screenshots show up on the frontpage. Sure a game might dominate it with 4 shots, but it increases the likelihood that one of them are interesting and worth checking out.

But I will take a look to see if what you suggest is even possible to do with the way we have the feeds set up.

"Everything is commentable" is one of WIP's central tenets, and one I agree with wholeheartedly. (I would also disagree that reviews generate nothing but terrible discussion, but that's a different argument for a different time).

Also, I enjoy getting notifications when people comment. It indicates that there is a discussion going on, and that usually means that something interesting is there worth checking out. If not, I just ignore the notices! But I know that Ankylo has been working on the notification system - he might have implemented greater control! I haven't paid that much attention, tbh!

I appreciate your response I have a better understanding of where you are coming from. I don't believe the 6 screenshots on the front page are random, though. They generally remain constant all day, and if they do change, they just get bumped down a bit to make room for one or two new shots. I don't know when those shots were uploaded, but the presentation implies that it is most recent shots.

I mean, there are games that just don't need that many screenshots. A lot of the puzzle games and such would only need one or two shots to really explain the entire concept of the game and give someone an idea of what it is about. Then you get visually centric games like Vacant Sky and Final Fantasy Essence that could potentially keep the screenshots rolling in and always have one visible if the developer were so inclined as always keep an eye on the screenshots.

Random would be better (if that is the case, it's not very random. It should randomize on every page load. Currently it looks like it just adds a single random image every couple of hours.)

I am FUTURE MAN

(yes, sorry, I meant "currently in the alpha build of RMN4". Derp.)

Okay, we don't keep view stats for anything except forum threads and gameprofiles. So, Most Viewed X Today kind of stuff is not possible. Sorry.

I am looking into making some sort of formula that can track a games "buzz" right now.

author=chana
"Quality of activity "buzz" cannot be automatically quantified." (Kentona) : I'm afraid that's it and that's that. It could be easier with something like "thumbs up or down" at the top or bottom of the comment window ?

That would mean its no longer "automatic" (as it would require an action from an end user) :)

I will give some thought as to what to do about reviews, narco.

okay, as for game's being on the frontpage for downloads I've coded in a quick hack fix.

the game's on the frontpage are there based on the game's main download's date_added.

When you update the game, it updates the date_updated field. date_added is untouched. Therefore, you can now only bump your game when you add a new main download in RMN4. New downloads are always subjected to the submission queue.

(The stuff we talked about like bumping after marked as completed/can only be on once/flag as significant were all 'urgh too much to code not enough time!')

I hope this is okay!

author=narcodis
I'd say make low-scoring reviews carry far less weight, possibly even negative weight. The idea and hope for this system is not to float all content back up to the surface, it's to sift through the content to bring forward the games that really shine. Maybe some formula like review = 1000 * (Score - 4) (are scores based on a 1-10 scale??). That means anything with less than two stars will actually lose "buzz".

And I don't know if it would be possible to make it so comments on reviews specifically carry no weight at all, but that might be a good idea for similar reasons. Reviews generate lots of discussion, regardless of the game entirely.

I totally DISAGREE with this post. If we are talking about "buzz", then we should be looking at how much talk a project is generating not some attempt to quantify the "quality" with "buzz".

Taking buzz away from a game for a bad review is a HORRIBLE idea. A review is someone talking about a game, so the buzz-o-meter or "how much this gam is being talked about" should not go down.

This reminds me of when that one game was reviewed by someone's friend who called it inception-like (lol) and everyone went batshit crazy. Even though a lot of people thought the game sucked, it still generated conversation and that is a good thing.

Buzz should be a measure of how much a game is generating discussion. If someone makes a game that has sex in it, poorly written vulgarity, a long intro, or whatever else your pet peeve is and that game creates a huge discussion about the merit of having sex in rpgs, whether rpgs should have swear words, starts a movement against long intros etc. then it has created a buzz!

notoriety is buzz too.

When it comes to measuring buzz the meter's motto should be there's "no such thing as bad publicity." If you got 50 people on one side praising the game and 50 on the other side hating on it, those 100 people fighting over the game should = a massive buzz score not a wash where the two sides cancel each other out.

pageview: 1
download: 25
comment: 225
subscriber: 1300
review: 2000 * score

There's just a couple things about this system: just because a review happens less often doesn't mean it should weigh so much. This system also favors completed games. Buzz should focus on games that are in production or freshly released completed games.

Once the game has been completed and released, it should only be promoted by buzz for another month or two at most. After that, you're not measuring buzz, you're measuring their fanbase or something. Leaving a game up after that would be like if gamefaqs kept pictures of final fantasy 7 on their main page just because they've been in top 20 wanted faqs for over 10 years. I'm looking at you Hero's Realm.

Another thing that should be taken care to prevent is that a few projects get some perma-spot being featured as the buzz-iest game. I mean, I don't know what gets the most attention here but despite looking totally rad a game shouldn't have some permanent position on the front page. Once a game has been featured as the buzz game of the week, it should be knocked off by something else...even if that something else has a lower score from pageviews, downloads, comments, subscribers, etc.

I don't know how that should be calculated but something tells me that a game's buzz should have a lifespan that looks like a bell curve with a build-up of hype, climax at release, and then fall or dénouement.

Maybe to prevent being buried by high-profile games, a game could be measured against itself. In other words, how did this person's game profile activity increase compared to the normal level of activity. That way a game that has a steady 50 x "cool gam" posts won't eclipse the guy who jumps from 1 msg a week to 10 when he releases his game.