Author Topic: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site  (Read 10576 times)

DjinnAndTonic

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Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« on: January 12, 2010, 03:17:29 AM »
So, this goes alongside Hal's topic, but it's a bit separate from the ideas we're putting forth to keep the main tournament going.

The focus here is what else we can do with our main site. In Hal's topic, a few people (Idun and OK, maybe someone else too?) proposed the idea that we can use the main site to host some of our individual members' projects. After all, the DL is primarily a community site these days, why not feature all the work that our community does? We may not be able to feature -everything-, but certainly we have enough room to host all of our projects that are directly related to RPGs on the main site.

One of the biggest features that we've left off of the main site for some unknown reason (procrastination?) is the DL Wiki. We already have a large number of the Stat Topics ported to the wiki, and we're slowly getting everything duplicated on it. Additionally, it is an ideal place to upload some of the member-created content that our community has created.

So, after reading Idun's and OK's suggestions, I asked chat "Do we really have enough member-created content to feature on the main site? What have we made?" For the next 3 hours, we continued to make an extensive list of DL member-created projects.

Quick list:
Stat Topics
Niu's Corner
FE7 Stats Spreadsheet
Meeple Fantasy 6 patch
Laggy Fantasy Tactics patch
Sage's FF6 Eviltype patch
Tonfa Fantasy 7 patch (in progress)
Pyro's RPGmon program
Meeple's Abridged serials
Meeple's Bahamut Lagoon and Fire Emblem 4 (screenshot) Let's Plays
Nephrite's Suikoden 2 (screenshot) Let's Play
MagicFanatic's Illusion of Gaia (video) Let's Play
Kilgamyon's 10 or so (video) Let's Plays
Tide's speedrun videos
Talaysen's Raquel solo and other assorted playthroughs
Tonfa's FF7 challenge videos
TranceHime's assorted Japanese game videos
FFT rewritten dialog
Tonfa's Soul Nomad FAQ
AndrewRogue's DL short fiction
Djinn's RPGDL Tarot deck and various DL fanarts
Team DL's The Top 10 GFAQs writeup
Nyarlathotep's Dungeon History Museum
RPG REVIEWS!

As you can see, there's quite a few items on that list, and probably a few more that haven't been brought up yet.

These things are genuinely entertaining/useful projects for the gaming community as a whole, and we do our DL community a disservice by not featuring this stuff somewhere on the main site.

During our rant, we also discussed a few intuitive methods for integrating these projects. Looking at the site now, there's a few tab headers that aren't being utilized. Specifically, Not Ranked and Fiction.

One proposed idea was to reduce Not Ranked down to a link in the Records page, especially considering that the NR records are the only thing still active and useful on that part of the site. In its place, a header for the DL Wiki (or specifically, the Stat Topics part of the wiki even) could be added.

The Fiction header could then easily become an omnibus heading for all other member-created content like Niu's corner and Let's Plays. A rename to 'Features' was a prominent suggestion here, especially considering that the only thing under the heading at the moment is Niu's corner, a non-fictitious piece of writing.

The new 'Features' section could then be divided up into smaller pages for individual projects, or even just link to other sites or directly to the DL wiki.

For example, it could just feature a list of links, each with a short description of the project and creator(s). So... for like Andy's Fiction, I'd want there to be a brief writeup saying "A series of speculative fictional works that take a look at what life might be like in the Duelling Arena. AndrewRogue is one of our members who specializes in writing fiction and works as a copy editor." ... or something like that. And then a link to his page(s) on the wiki.

If the creator(s) doesn't want/need a bio, a short description of the project alone is enough. Niu's Corner is really the only one who needs a real intro, I feel. Perhaps explaining who the hell 'Niu' is and why his stuff is worth listening to.

Obviously, articles have headers with bylines, which link to the creators' forum profiles as well. The more exposure the forums get, the better.

To make updating the Features section easier, it might be best to integrate a BtS-like updating tool into it if Hal has the time.


Specifics:

RPGDL Wiki
"Integrate and actually link to the bloody wiki" needs to happen if people are serious about not forgetting about it, incidentally. The fact that it's utterly disconnected from the rest of the DL is the main reason I always dislike people saying "put stat topics (or anything else) on the wiki!!!" This could easily get its own header.


Stat Topics
They're on the boards mostly, but we've already got a significant portion of them on the DL Wiki, and a few of us are still slowly transferring them over. There's no reason we can't directly link to the main Stat Topic page -somewhere- on the main site. We don't need to integrate it with the main Tournament to integrate it with the site. If the Wiki doesn't get its own header, the Stat Topics certainly could use one.


Niu's Corner
Currently the only thing in the Fiction header, and it hasn't been updated since the first few were made. This feature could still be a main attraction, especially if we explained where all of this information comes from. I personally feel that these are important enough to warrant directly uploading to the site instead of just linking from the wiki, but either method would work, provided we give it a proper introduction.


FE7 Stats Spreadsheet
This thing is already uploaded on the site, but practically impossible to find from the main site. Why? Especially considering that it's one of the big draws for newcomers. It should definitely feature a link directly to the Stat topics forum and Stat topics wiki page as well.

Game patches: Meeple Fantasy 6 patch, Laggy Fantasy Tactics patch, ,Sage's FF6 Eviltype patch, Tonfa Fantasy 7 patch (in progress), Pyro's RPGmon program

We have 3 viable game patches created by our members. We really should be advertising these, if not outright uploading them to the main site. There is the possibility that some company may tell us to stop hosting them. In that case, we could stop hosting them. It doesn't stop us from advertising their existance. We can very easily provide screenshots and gameplay videos of each of the patches, and certainly Pyro's program is his to distribute, and the site could have some instructions on how to use the program for RPGmon (or even for rolling your own DL matches).

LFT and Eviltype would probably work best with comparison screenshots to show how stats/skills/monsters/maps have been changed. MF6 probably doesn't need comparisons due to the extremely different graphical nature of the patch. Personally, I'd like to writeup a quick plot summary and character bios (with pictures!) to use as an intro to this game patch.


Meeple's Abridged serials
Meeple is quite the prolific creator it seems. Abridged series have their own site already, but there's no reason we can't host Meeple's (or anyone else's if they exist) on our site or Wiki. At the very least, the SO4 one cracks me up every time and that's definitely thematically connected to what we do here.


Let's Plays!
Meeple's Bahamut Lagoon and Fire Emblem 4 (screenshot) Let's Plays
Nephrite's Suikoden 2 (screenshot) Let's Play
MagicFanatic's Illusion of Gaia (video) Let's Play
Kilgamyon's 10 or so (video) Let's Plays ( http://www.youtube.com/user/RabiEnRoll#p/p )
Tide's speedrun videos
Tonfa's, Trance's, Tal's assorted videos

Gamers doing what they do best - playing games! Let's Plays are a pretty big net phenomenon these days, and I discovered the DL had 4 of them and I didn't even realize it. Meeple and Neph have screenshot Let's Plays that may or may not be easy to upload to the main site, but if it's possible, having our own member-created LPs would certainly be another reason for people to come to the site. Magic, Kilga, Tide and the others' videos could be imbedded on the site directly from YouTube/GoogleVideo without much work at all. We could possibly upload these videos directly to the DL's servers, but I don't know what kind of space limitations we have there. Alternately, any of these things could be uploaded/linked from the wiki, as long as they get a proper introduction from the Features page.


Miscellaneous:
FFT rewritten dialog
AndrewRogue's DL short fiction (
http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php?topic=3086.0
http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php?topic=3163.0 )
Djinn's RPGDL Tarot deck and various DL fanarts
Team DL's The Top 10 GFAQs writeup
RPGDL IAQ project (?)
Tonfa's Soul Nomad FAQ

A few other quality projects floating around the Forums that could really use a spot on the main site. (Yes, I'm praising myself. Oh well, self-promotion is good!) The rewritten FFT dialog was just some random chat jokes that ended up being pretty funny. There's no reason that this can't be uploaded to the wiki at least. Andrew's fiction is a bit more serious, so I'd like to see it get uploaded to the main site, but the advantage of uploading it to the wiki is that Andy can add more any time he likes. Check out the links to them on the forums if you haven't seen them before.
My RPGDL Tarot and various artworks could add some more color to the site's features too. Super mentioned that one of the first things he looks for on a site is fanart, and I can at least contribute that much. Additionally, the Tarot deck is already uploaded to the wiki and just requires a link/intro.
Similarly, the Top 10 project that roughly seven DL writers worked on for GameFAQs (which was rejected) is already complete and ready to be published.
As for the IAQ, there's some talk about it now, it might be something else we can post in the future.
Tonfa's actual FAQ is already hosted on GameFAQs, but there's no reason we can't dedicate some space to it to feature more of our members' works.


Nyarlathotep's Dungeon History Museum
Something that was discussed briefly. Nyarlie's Dungeon is one of the DL's favored past times, but there's no easy way to integrate it to the main site. Instead of trying to recreate the experience on the site, why not just record it?
Specifically, why not host previous Dungeon Floor designs on-site? Each of the floors is practically a work of art in and of themselves as a challenging balancing act between 'too easy' or 'impossible'. It's one of our better examples of showing off our knowledge of good game design.
Readers might even find some fun/use for them on their own. If we also include a roster of Dungeon participants and explain the rules, readers can have fun trying to put together teams that they think would pass the Dungeon. Even without the voting aspect, this can be a fun mental exercise.
Luckily, I'm a big Nyarlie's nerd and I logged all of the old Nyarlie's topics from the old forums, so we can host the all the series and evolutions of the Dungeon.


RPG REVIEWS! (Known completed reviews by OK, Idun, Monkeyfinger. Possibly Meeple ranting applies?)
These are things that I always forget we have. A quick glance tells me that while we aren't rolling in reviews, we do have some completed ones, and there's no reason not to host completed work on the site as a side feature. This statement applies to pretty much everything here. It's done, it's ours, why aren't we using it?


Again, these ideas aren't meant to supplant the focus on what to do about the main Tournament. Even if nothing changes there, we really should add our own creative works to a site that claims to be about our community.
« Last Edit: January 12, 2010, 02:04:53 PM by DjinnAndTonic »

Talaysen

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2010, 03:51:33 AM »
Just want to ask.  How much of this stuff have you asked for permission to use?  That might be a little important.

DjinnAndTonic

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2010, 04:04:11 AM »
I have not heard from Tide, Nephrite, or Pyro on their specific projects.

Meeple already agreed to the MF6 stuff, but I haven't gotten a chance to ask him about his LPs or TAS.

Magic, Kilga, and Andrew already expressed their interest in supporting this idea. Niu, Laggy, and various group projects are already hosted on the DL, just not in an easy-to-find manner, and I don't imagine there would be any objections to their use.

Super suggested that I go ahead and post the topic, but I imagine it won't be long before Tide, Neph, Pyro, and Meeple add in their opinions on how they want to handle their projects.

Hunter Sopko

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2010, 04:44:43 AM »
Yeah. The simplest part of the whole thing is people giving the yea or nay on whether or not they want their stuff used. I... lean towards simple by-lines though. Not because I think that the DL shouldn't get their due, but extensive bios for that stuff looks tacky as hell.

The good part about it is that a lot of the list it is already done, so it's a matter of figuring out how we want to present it on the site and working accordingly. The biggest workload I can see on the list is how we implement the stat topics, which... I don't think would work on the main page in their current form. This idea has been brought up multiple times, but I've never seen a plan of how to implement it as a main site attraction. It's amazingly front-loaded and probably involves more work than anything else on the list combined. The wiki is a good base to work on, but it needs a serious format overhaul if it still looks like the last time I saw it.

Keeping it simple overall as far as the organization will make things easier. Combining Niu's Corner, Meeple's Abriged Series, Let's Plays, Andy's fiction and all the other type of user generated writing under a reworked "Fiction" subheading (changed to something more appropriate, of course) would work. Reviews... depends on if people want to stick it there as well or give it it's own heading. LFT and it's ilk can get their own "Games" section. The Stat Topics and FE7 stat sheet can be combined in their own as well. Nyarlie's can go into Records, and Not Ranked can move there as well. This basically makes two, possibly three new tabs to add to the main site banner, with Not Ranked getting the axe.

I agree with introducing new elements to the main site. Putting the stuff that the DL has produced by and by into greater prominence is something positive for the DL going forward.

Meeplelard

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2010, 04:03:45 PM »
FE4 might be hard to do considering its on Something Awful forums, as opposed to here, and I tried uploading it to the ARchives, but running into a few bumps along the way; going to need to talk to someone about that.

BL's is not finished and unless I get off my ass TO finish it (requires replaying up as far as I did; if I ever decide to replay BL, I might actually continue the LP), probably best to not put it up, especially since the first few chapters are kind of dead thanks to being on the other board.

The Abridged SEries I'm fine with you guys using, just so long as you only use my completed ones.  Basically, if its not in the "Meeple Abridged" topic, don't use it.
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> so Snow...
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> Sonic Chaos
[21:39] <+Hello-NewAgeHipsterDojimaDee> That's -brilliant-.

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Nephrite

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2010, 04:20:17 PM »
You have the President's permission to use whatever you'd like. I'll see if I can reupload all the videos for my LP that got taken down by Vimeo.

Meeplelard

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2010, 12:41:42 AM »
So apparently, what is wanted for screen shots is the following:
-Some Early game stuff, like up through say Miluda.
-Screen shots throughout to show off PC changes.
-A Pokemon Boss just cause there's so many of them.
-Some character introduction screens.

Anything else that should be added in?  I'm thinking maybe a new spell animation here or there (like Nibelung Valesti 3, for example)
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> so Snow...
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> Sonic Chaos
[21:39] <+Hello-NewAgeHipsterDojimaDee> That's -brilliant-.

[17:02] <+Tengu_Man> Raven is a better comic relief PC than A

DjinnAndTonic

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2010, 01:29:59 AM »
Sure, and maybe an Esper too, since I know you spent some time changing those.

VySaika

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2010, 07:01:27 PM »
A screenshot of something during the Defend Sheltar segment might be a good idea, since you've got almost all the PCs there and it could show alot of folks off at once, but it's still fairly early.
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Lezard Valeth

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #9 on: February 22, 2010, 05:12:09 AM »
Is there an RPGDL Wiki? I look it up butt  ??? ??? ???
« Last Edit: February 25, 2010, 03:13:24 AM by Lezard Valeth »
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DjinnAndTonic

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #10 on: February 22, 2010, 07:01:07 AM »
Yes, we have an RPGDL wiki, but it is not perfect yet. We will soon post a main link to it on the main site so that we can all use the wiki easily.

DjinnAndTonic

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #11 on: August 23, 2010, 05:20:58 AM »
It only took like a year, but there's finally a link to the Wiki on the Main Page.

Don't blink or you'll miss it, though...  ::)


Things I could use some help with:

FAQs.
I know there are others besides Tonfa who have published things on GameFAQs, it would be awesome if you could post about those things here so that I can archive them on the DLWiki for completion's sake.

Let's Plays.
Meeple and Nephrite... should I just link to these? Where did you upload the pictures/videos? The section on the Wiki is ready for you now.


Game Patches.
Screenshots, Screenshots, Screenshots. Laggy, Tonfa, Meeple, Sage, MC50... please send me some screenshots of your games ;_;

RPGmon Program.
Where the hell is this stored?

Uploading.
Where can we upload non-image/text things such as the Game Patches themselves? Super? Hal? MC?
I mean, I guess there's always MegaUpload~
It would be nice if there was a place where the original creators can easily re-upload their patches as they make changes.

Archives.
What would people be interested in seeing Archived? I have plans to Archive Nyarly's stuff (already collected, just needs to be formatted) and the stuff from the RPGmon topics (Not quite sure how I want to do that yet). Also, the Guess the RPG Character clues would be a cool thing to save for posterity too. We could even spoiler-text the answers so that people can go through the clues and try to guess themselves. Am I missing any big stuff there?


superaielman

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #12 on: August 23, 2010, 10:22:57 PM »
*Smack* You wanted it up on the fly, there it is! The intro can be rewritten/the entire site will be redone soonish, anyway
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Blademaster Dagon

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #13 on: October 31, 2010, 02:43:25 PM »
About the Let's Plays... I would be able to make some with classic RPGs. My question: Are we creating a new site for those or put them just somewhere in the forum? And what is much more important: How big is our member's interest in Let's Plays anyway?
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DjinnAndTonic

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #14 on: November 01, 2010, 12:00:24 AM »
I think there's a sizeable number of DL members who like LPs. I can think of 5 offhand, and there's probably at least a few more that I don't know/remember. Regardless of number of internal interest, LPs (especially of RPGs) are pretty closely related to our games/writing-focused site, and there hasn't been any dissent about including LPs in our list of user-created contents. So you're more than welcome to contribute if you're interested.

For now, I would say just go ahead and post it on the forums. Our head admin is still getting our new site put together, so we can't post it there yet.

I really appreciate your interest in the project. Hopefully we'll have our new site ready soon.

DjinnAndTonic

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #15 on: February 08, 2011, 01:23:17 AM »
Necroposting~

I was looking around the internet and I see that the RPGTL is having voting issues like we are:
http://www.foxkei.com/forums/showthread.php?p=84743#post84743

I also came across an area of ign where rpgs and statistics are still thriving (over 1000 voters? crazy!)
http://boards.ign.com/final_fantasy/b5026/80730081

Perhaps we could think about combining our userbase a bit and try to network with these sites?

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #16 on: February 19, 2011, 04:54:34 AM »
Didn't see this thread. As I repost:

I feel the subtitle should come indirectly from #5. If this should not be the case, something that epitomizes the DL's site history in few words.

Individuals' live streams should be part of the blogroll/link list. In this situation, I'm unsure if there's a possibility to show if it's currently active or not streaming at the moment.

I don't intend to participate in writing reviews or editing in general, but I feel like .. starting up a review section'll be a tad bit too retrospective. Is this supposed to be casual or professional similar to other review sites?

I like new updates about stat topics. Can you implement an RPGDL Wiki search bar on there?

Talaysen

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Re: Adding Member-Created Content to the RPGDL Main Site
« Reply #17 on: February 20, 2011, 07:49:22 PM »
I don't intend to participate in writing reviews or editing in general, but I feel like .. starting up a review section'll be a tad bit too retrospective. Is this supposed to be casual or professional similar to other review sites?

If we're going to do reviews, I suggest them to be more casual.  Professional reviews are a dime a dozen, so I think we're better off this way.

Of course professional reviews that /actually like RPGs/ aren't nearly as common but still.