CIEL'S PROFILE

author=Nightblade
Ciel already explained it well enough, actually. Flaccid user-base perpetuated by crap clogging up the front page while interesting things left to wallow below the radar. There's very little sense of community and a lot of hostility while the senior members care to do little else but sit in an IRC chat room and fellate on-another's games instead releasing updates of their quality games to promote more activity. I myself am / was guilty of this; but that's just the way I work. A community of veterans who diligently keep to themselves like I do doesn't promote activity and collaboration. During the short time I frequented the shmup IRC channel, I actually felt motivated because I wasn't alone. There were other people there who took game making seriously. I had not even realized these people were even making games.

Much of this makes me feel pretty glad, as I hoped that would be the result when I invited you there. It is a shame you weren't around long enough to see some of the really insightful discussions on game design and other stimulating topics, or even the 'secret' channel in which truly hardcore planning is done. Unfortunately not all of us can produce content as quickly as YDS, and even when we do have something prepared many of us feel it's self-defeating to post updates here when they will immediately be pushed into obscurity by trifling content, which is part of the reason we conceived of another, much less robust but functional site to put our stuff on. Strangeluv made a rather heroic effort to put Leo & Leah in the public's eyes here, but were it not featured it would now be completely absent from view while games like "New Disciples" rule the roost. I apologize if this genuine desire for meritocracy is considered "fractious shmup trolling", but that's the reality of the situation.

author=Versalia
(there is no reason to continue whipping the dead horse in this thread other than your own self-righteous aggression; "i told you so")

I don't understand what your issue is. There was no such sentiment. You are like a dog barking at the mailman. I was responding to WIP. After I raised these issues in the past he discussed implementing changes to RMN's system to improve the site, but the changes never happened. RMN is obviously an impressive infrastructure and superior to anything other RM sites have, but if there was a single discernible problem that caused the site to suffer it's as I have described. The utterly uncontrollable nature of human interaction cannot be put at fault as it is essentially a force of nature. One might just as readily blame God or the universe for RMN's unfulfilled potential. Feel free to PM me with various inane reprimands at your earliest convenience.

I feel the reason the site didn't become a beacon of passion and quality is mostly because the established system for content delivery failed to reward quality with visibility, instead allowing the dubious merit of sheer volume to reign supreme while effectively and intelligently constructed work admired by the user base lay obscure under a horrible, festering, and ever-increasing girth. The current visitors toiled in dissatisfaction while potential new members saw little cause for enthusiasm. Just my take, in a nutshell.

*applauds*

http://rpgmaker.net/games/1555/reviews/653/

hit a lil too close to home huh...