What happened, GB?

endboss · Post by **endboss** » Mon Nov 29, 2010 10:24 pm

Hey Buck, I have a few thoughts!

User reviews - It could be something similar to gamefaqs. Say, under Game Resources there could be a link for User Reviews. There could also be a nice big link on the main page advertising the feature. Maybe people who write a number of good reviews could get a little icon in their profile, or a link to their reviews, you know, as encouragement.

News Forum Posts - It could be set up similar to RPGWatch or RPGCodex, where a mod posts a link, a quote, and a quick thought or summary of a news item to invite some lively discussion. Those sites have a dedicated News Comments forum for this. It wouldn't take away from the news commenting area on the main site, but maybe it would generate more discussion being in a more familiar forum atmosphere, ya know?

Also, let's go back to the user information on the left like every other forum out there, or at least add an option please!

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Tue Nov 30, 2010 5:29 am

I agree with both suggestions endboss made.

First of, the user reviews. While we can post our reviews in blogs, those suffer from the same length rules as normal posts. So if the review is a bit deeper than just few thoughts we are forced to make two or even more posts to make one review, which then confuses discussion and linking. Also, as the blogs won't be linked to the subsite of the specific game (nor the subforum of that game), only those who actually follow the blogs here and bothers to read them notices them.

For the news, it could also make it easier to follow which ones you have not read if there were small thread for every made from each news to own sub forum. Currently you have to go to the news section, then try to remember which ones you have read last visit as the list doesn't make a difference between read and unread posts, like the forums do.

Finally, I don't know if it's feature of the current board software, but the forums tend to mark all new posts as read too quickly, even though I have not read the post(s). Other forums I frequent leaves the unread mark to the thread until I have actually clicked the thread (either "New Post" icon or the name of the thread). Turning to read too quickly makes it easier to miss new posts, especially since the main forum listing shows only the latest update on the right side of the category list. Missed several posts because of this. This is not a big problem, just a small irritation especially when having the forums open all the time.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Tue Nov 30, 2010 6:21 am

Worry about user reviews after we (you) write some. It'll be easy for Buck to copy/paste the reviews from forums, so let's see if the idea works at all. When i'm back home i'll paste ToEE, Morrowind and few others.

Post by **BuckGB** » Tue Nov 30, 2010 9:26 am

Thanks for the continued suggestions, everyone. They've just led to the creation of an "RPG User Reviews" forum! I've added a few guidelines for the sake of usability, but feel free to suggest any tweaks that you think should be made. This forum takes the place of our Alpha Protocol forum, which has been consolidated into "RPG General Discussion" due to inactivity. If you stumble across any reviews that have been posted around the forums in the past, please send me a link and I'll move them to the new forum.

endboss wrote:There could also be a nice big link on the main page advertising the feature.

I'll happily add a "User Reviews" link to our left navigation bar, but only when there's enough content to keep people interested (15-20 reviews, maybe?). How's that for an incentive to get things rolling?

I'm also not opposed to reposting the best-written reviews on the main GameBanshee site and adding a custom title or providing some type of reward to users who have contributed some great critiques.

endboss wrote:It could be set up similar to RPGWatch or RPGCodex, where a mod posts a link, a quote, and a quick thought or summary of a news item to invite some lively discussion. Those sites have a dedicated News Comments forum for this.

We had a news forum for a few years, too, but all news comments were moved to the main homepage for reasons I explained in my last post here in this thread. It's also worth mentioning that news posted in the forum didn't see as much traffic - threads in the old forum would typically see a few hundred views over several days, whereas news on our homepage can generate over a thousand views in a single day. Keep in mind that your vBulletin user ID still allows you to post comments in any of our newsbits, and all comments are added to your post count just as if you had posted them here in the forums. If more people commented on our news there, the discussions could be even livelier. There are many people who come here for our news without ever stepping foot in the forums.

endboss wrote:Also, let's go back to the user information on the left like every other forum out there, or at least add an option please!

Hmm, this is the first time anyone's ever made this suggestion. The user information is on the right for the sake of the layout - moving it to the left side would add to the height of each forum post's header, which just leads to more scrolling. If this is something that bothers others, though, I could look into changing it.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Tue Nov 30, 2010 9:45 am

I wrote

Before you post a review of your own, please remember that some of the games that we're still discussing here have been released quite a while ago, and their graphics should therefore be judged with less criticism, if at all. If you wish to comment on other reviews, do it via PM or in a differend thread.
Please start seperate threads for all sequels, prequels and expansions

(please copy/paste the above aswell as this sentence, if you're starting a new user review thread)

this before you made the rule thread on your own Buck

should i remove it?

And a 10 point rating will be more accurate, but you're the boss, so i shall change my DA rating asap!

Post by **BuckGB** » Tue Nov 30, 2010 11:01 am

Yeah, you can go ahead and remove it. I've expanded the guidelines thread to cover your points.

I'm thinking it might be best to always put the release year in brackets behind the thread title (such as "Dragon Age: Origins [2009]"), even if there are no other games with the same title. This would ensure that there would never be any confusion about which title was being reviewed. Thoughts?

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Tue Nov 30, 2010 11:31 am

Thank you Buck.

One question though, should comments of user review go to the review thread or should there be another thread for each reviewed game where the comments go?

For second thread I mean something in line like "Mass Effect 2 [2010]" for reviews and "Mass Effect 2 [2010], comments" for commenting. Comments inside the actual review thread may make the thread too cluttery and thus few reviews may go unnoticed. This of course requires that there is enough comments posted.

I think I'm going to move my Fallout 3 -review to that thread from blogs. Could post it to the RPG database as well. Then it's time for Mass Effect 2 and Fallout: New Vegas... going to be busy man for next day or two...

Post by **BuckGB** » Tue Nov 30, 2010 1:54 pm

I agree that it's not ideal that comments will be scattered within a thread that can contain multiple reviews, but creating a separate comments thread would require reciprocal links between the two (ie. "Click here to comment!" and "Click here to read the review!"). It might be asking a bit much for anyone who wants to post a review to create two separate threads with specific names and then link each one to each other.

It may be easier to allow each reviewer to create a new thread, but then we'd have to add the username ("Dragon Age: Origins [2009] stworca") or a number ("Dragon Age: Origins [2009] #1") or something to the title of each thread to differentiate each one.

Thoughts?

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Tue Nov 30, 2010 2:18 pm

Yes, it's true that linking the comments and review can be a pain when using two separated threads.

From your suggestions the first one would be the best one in my opinion, as numbering the reviews wouldn't make that much sense. Using the name of the author would also ease up finding other reviews from certain author. Let's say that I have noticed that I have similar taste for games with stworca. If I see that review has "stworca" included in the name I can immediately see that that specific review would be worth of checking out. With numbers it's not so easy.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Tue Nov 30, 2010 2:40 pm

One more thing that i think should be added to guidelines is a point about price. Except for extreme cases they shouldn't affect the note either. (examples of extreme cases : game beign for free - see Wolfenstein : Enemy Territory, which i'd STILL give a 10/10, or a small, 1 hour DLC costing 11 euro.. *cough* dragon age DLC's *cough*.. two extreme case examples)

As for the above discussion.. You can make a post search by author's name, and narrow the search to RPG User reviews only. While it may seem a bit difficult for some, it's quite easy to figure out

Search: Posts Made By: Stworca ; Forum: RPG User Reviews and child forums

did it just now.

Making each user make a new thread would quickly cause an overflow of threads. It's better to have to search for a specific post, than for reviews about a specific game. Thus in my opinion splitting would only cause harm.

Next thing.. Commenting on reviews should be done via PM to the reviewer (if you like it or not) OR to the moderator (if you think it has to be reported). But it's just my opinion

edit : Well , or in a SYM thread "Comments on reviews.. "

edit 2 : I just thought about it.. Wouldn't it be better if (after we get the threads started!) the forum "sort by" for game review forum alone will be set to "Thread name" by default? It would ofcourse make finding new reviews harder, but would keep the forum clean and easy to navigate through. Alphabetical sorting wins! (but this isn't an issue for right now, as there is just one thread so far

)

endboss · Post by **endboss** » Tue Nov 30, 2010 3:11 pm

Cool review forum. Hopefully I'll have the time to contribute something after finals.

BuckGB wrote:We had a news forum for a few years, too, but all news comments were moved to the main homepage for reasons I explained in my last post here in this thread. It's also worth mentioning that news posted in the forum didn't see as much traffic - threads in the old forum would typically see a few hundred views over several days, whereas news on our homepage can generate over a thousand views in a single day. Keep in mind that your vBulletin user ID still allows you to post comments in any of our newsbits, and all comments are added to your post count just as if you had posted them here in the forums. If more people commented on our news there, the discussions could be even livelier. There are many people who come here for our news without ever stepping foot in the forums.

Yea, I understand your reasoning. I probably misstated what I meant to say. Actually, I wasn't suggesting in any way that a news forum would replace the main news section, or even be highlighted, like those other sites I mentioned do it. It would just be a separate forum thing. There wouldn't be as many newsposts, and the most popular ones with lively discussion would be at the top - like regular threads. It was just a little suggestion to help increase discussion in the forums.

Hmm, this is the first time anyone's ever made this suggestion. The user information is on the right for the sake of the layout - moving it to the left side would add to the height of each forum post's header, which just leads to more scrolling. If this is something that bothers others, though, I could look into changing it.

It might be just me then! :laugh:

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Tue Nov 30, 2010 4:20 pm

Stworca wrote: As for the above discussion.. You can make a post search by author's name, and narrow the search to RPG User reviews only. While it may seem a bit difficult for some, it's quite easy to figure out

Yes, im quoting myself..

Because i would like to add something to what i wrote there : While it's still possible to make a "by user" search, you have to go to advanced search options to select it. My suggestion (i don't know how everyone else feels) would be adding "By user" to quick search options.

edit : I cannot find Temple of Elemental Evil in RPG database.. Hmm!
edit 2 : nevermind, its THE Temple of Elemental Evil

Fljotsdale · Post by **Fljotsdale** » Wed Dec 01, 2010 8:51 am

BuckGB wrote:I agree that it's not ideal that comments will be scattered within a thread that can contain multiple reviews, but creating a separate comments thread would require reciprocal links between the two (ie. "Click here to comment!" and "Click here to read the review!"). It might be asking a bit much for anyone who wants to post a review to create two separate threads with specific names and then link each one to each other.

It may be easier to allow each reviewer to create a new thread, but then we'd have to add the username ("Dragon Age: Origins [2009] stworca") or a number ("Dragon Age: Origins [2009] #1") or something to the title of each thread to differentiate each one.

Thoughts?

No no! Definitely no links! It might be a bit of a pain to trawl though a thread, but it's infinitely better than trawling links.

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:22 am

Stworca wrote: Next thing.. Commenting on reviews should be done via PM to the reviewer (if you like it or not) OR to the moderator (if you think it has to be reported). But it's just my opinion

edit : Well , or in a SYM thread "Comments on reviews.. "

Both options are good, though SYM thread would probably require sticky status so that it can be found easier. And in case of thread, it's commenter's responsibility to link to the correct review, if such linking is even required in the first hand.

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Mon Dec 06, 2010 7:03 am

Buck, I just had an idea.

Forums being what they are in the face of today's social networking sites, from time to time we do really write some interesting things in them. Why not make it so that we can tweet or 'facebook-link' to individual posts and/or threads? It gives us users an additional ego boost on those sites and gives non-users another way to stumble upon the GameBanshees.

I envisioned this as one of those miniature blue [F] Facebook and orange [T] Tweet icons you see so often on blogs and news sites, to the right or left of the Quote and Multi+ buttons..

I think it could really be helpful.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Mon Dec 06, 2010 8:49 am

I've temporary stopped reviews due to my ME2 playthrough. I'll continue with them for sure once i beat the game, but it's not going as well as planned seeign as only me and Galraen wrote anything so far.

endboss · Post by **endboss** » Thu Dec 09, 2010 12:30 am

Hey what about like really old or really obscure games? I'd like to do one on Battlespire, for example.

Anyhoo once finals are over I can probably do one on Icewind Dale or Fallout. I'd like to do Fallout though because I actually don't think that game is too great and it would be something unique.

@Tricky
Does GB even have a facebook page?

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Thu Dec 09, 2010 12:41 am

Although this question was directed at Tricky, I will confirm that GB does indeed have a facebook page, under the name of "[url="http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/GameBanshee/236275006345?v=info"]GameBanshee[/url]".

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 12:45 pm

I can log in again woopeee!! So bad news guys, I'M BACK!!!

Haven't been able to login since the beginning of December, so a belated Merry Yuletide and a Happy New Year to all!

endboss · Post by **endboss** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 9:13 am

Damn... I never did get those reviews up. Life got in the way :-/