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Topic: Testomonials for New Community Site (Read 381 times) |
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Bigbluepaw
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This is a continuation of a diverging set of posts based on this original thread.
http://www.neverwinterconnections.com/forums/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewmessages/id/28356/page/20.htm
The idea is that, instead of listing out a string of unrelated enhancements to the site, we should think about the types of users that will be using the site and determine their needs.
Before we dive in, I thought a top down approach from a player perspective might be good. By this, I mean that we should think about the types of players that will be coming and participating in the website / community and then determine what they will want to see and how.
For example, the types of players could be the following.
New Player - First visit to our community.
Experienced Player - Has participated for some time.
New DM - Is just beginning to participate as a DM in games.
Experienced DM - Has been running campaigns for some time.
Mixture - A player that is both playing and DMing.
Based on this, we can determine what each of these types of players are interested in and then determine how to present it to them.
For example, a new player will want to get into as many games as possible to get up and going. An experience player is much more interested in tracking activity and games in the campaigns they belong to than anything else. |
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So as you can, please post what type of person you are here, new player, experienced DM, etc. and what information is most important to you.
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Starbuck79
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I'm an experienced played and DM here. I've been a member for a number of years and have participated in a number of games both as a player and a DM.
To me, the most important features are 1) The scheduling service itself, 2) The Message Boards, and 3) The built in message system.
As a long time Player/DM I have no use for the Rankings or Awards system.
To me, the most important features of any new site would be a fast and working scheduling/notification system along with message board/message.
Some features I think would be helpful would be the ability to create repeating games. As you create a campaign have the option to repeat that campaign every week at the same time.
As far as beinng a new player, I remember first coming to the site and being very confused as to what I needed to do. I think the main page needs to be as simple as possible. For new players there needs to be a large button that says "NEW PLAYERS CLICK HERE." It would start with the account creation system, and include a link to the new player guide.
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Festivus
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I say revive the old mentoring system.  I thought that was a great way to get folks involved more in the community, and gave me a comfortable, welcome feeling. Lots of work, yes, but also I think the day that stopped was the day things fell off a bit. Might be coincidence too, NWN popularity waned severely with WoW release.
I agree, repeating scheduled sessions would be great, as those of us with campaigns would fnd that very useful.
I too use the forums, although not nearly as much as I useed to. That will change with NWN2 no doubt, as I will gravitate to wherever I can get the best building information answers. Less useful to me, but might be to others is the ability for games and DMs to have their own message forums (as it is now). Having that tied to the scheduled game is great for one shots.
Stability of server... if we are to rely upon this for schedules, it needs to be there when the time comes for the game so folk scan find it. Not so important for campaigns where we connect to the same IP, with the same password, every week.
I have more, but I have to run... I'll post later.
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Gulfwulf
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on Feb 9, 2006, 11:19 PM, Starbuck79 wrote:I'm an experienced played and DM here. I've been a member for a number of years and have participated in a number of games both as a player and a DM.
To me, the most important features are 1) The scheduling service itself, 2) The Message Boards, and 3) The built in message system.
As a long time Player/DM I have no use for the Rankings or Awards system.
To me, the most important features of any new site would be a fast and working scheduling/notification system along with message board/message.
Some features I think would be helpful would be the ability to create repeating games. As you create a campaign have the option to repeat that campaign every week at the same time.
As far as beinng a new player, I remember first coming to the site and being very confused as to what I needed to do. I think the main page needs to be as simple as possible. For new players there needs to be a large button that says "NEW PLAYERS CLICK HERE." It would start with the account creation system, and include a link to the new player guide. |
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I agree with all of this, especially the repeatable campaign idea. Right now, we can save games as templates, but we have to reset the time each time one is used. I'd like it also there where I can invite the same DM(s) & players to each "template" without having to goto my campaign page to send out invites.
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Bigbluepaw
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*puts on DM hat*
Well, I ran a campaign here and DMed single shots for about a year or more I guess.
Early on, I was severely intimidated by the DM client. So learning that was a barrier I had to cross before I started to host and DM games.
Later on, I was much more interested in making sure the games in the campaign were scheduled, especially with updated text descriptions and updating the forums where we kept track of sessions and roleplay.
So I know I was in two very different modes there.
*takes off DM hat and puts on player hat*
Man, early on, I was terribly confused by many things. I didn't understand many of the fundamental concepts that were core to this community. Furthermore, I was a little concerned with finding like-minded players. That delayed my playing my first game for quite some time. Testimonials of good experiences by new players might have helped there. Obviously the good work Star has done with the new player guide might be applicable there too.
Later on and now, as an experienced player, I am interested in activity on our forums between sessions and certain topics in the forums... like this one.
*takes off player hat*
I'm done.
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Xiphias
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I never really had any trouble with the site, it seemed pretty straightforward to me and I don't think I ever message my 'mentor' with a question. From the comments above you should probably keep them but you should definitely imply that all the mentors/instructions/introduction games not be needed.
I havn't played many games through Neverwinter Connections because I have trouble finding games that look interesting in my time zone. Unfortunatly with the NWN2 toolset not being released ahead of time inviting everyone to make and host a different style of module at launch time might be a bit tricky.
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Slare
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I think one should roll the essential basics out initially, worry about adding features later. To this end, here is what I would suggest
**As a DM here at NWC for quite some time, I can say that the scheduling and messaging systems are probably Priority 1. Even if they looked/feel exactly as they are now, as long as they are reliable, that's key. Don't bother with reviews, rankings, etc at first. That can come later. Do keep in the color coded games, applications, and related items.
**Priority 2 would be UI issues. Cut the largely unused functions, combine the features you keep into logical groupings. Something like this would be adequate for the front page, you could probably streamline it even more:
USER TOOLS
-My Profile
-My Messages
-Forums
-Guides
PLAYER TOOLS
-My Characters
-My Games
DM TOOLS
-My Campaigns
-My Games
That takes care of approximately 20 links on the front page right there
**Modern forum software would be Priority 3. There are tons of good choices out there right off the shelf, this shouldn't be too tough at all. I found all the bugs we ran into back during the big forum changeover to be....unusual. Those sort of basic bugs should never have been put into a production environment.
**Low Priority Feature #4: One of the features I like that I never hear too many people mention is the game history feature. I tend to be really slow about formatting game logs and posting them to my web site, and I use the game history as a memory aid to see how I described a particular session back when I ran it. Also great for finding previous players/DMs you have forgotton about.
So there you have it. There are the Big Three, and then there is everything else. If the Big Three aren't done and done well, the rest don't matter, so try to stay focused. Features can always be added later.
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Starbuck79
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++ to everything above.
I think that this would be a dramatic step to cleaning up the front page. There doesn't need to so many links to forums. One link taking you to the main forum structure would be enough.
FOR NOW, until we have everything working 100% we should ditch the hall of fame sections on the main page. Some folks like it, and thats cool, but it's an extra once we have everything else working.
I do like the news section and comments as long as it can stay updated.
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Rofelli
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Alright, now that I'm resurfacing (because things are moving forward), I may as well put out my suggestions (I may not play NWN much at this time, but I will be getting NWN2 and intend to get back in the swing of things):
Good Stuff
1 - Scheduling. We must have a game scheduling system, or it's all for naught.
2 - Forums. To yell at each other publicly.
3 - PM system. To yell at each other privately.
4 - An anonymous post-game feedback form. This encourages honest feedback for both players and DMs.
5 - A clean front page. I never had a problem with it, but I understand other people did; let's fix that by preventing it.
6 - As this is supposed to be a community-owned site, we should all be able to see all of the revenue collected, expenses paid, and future expected expenses at any given time, updated frequently. Accountability is a better system than trust. Perhaps we could implement a system in which any money sent online could automatically appear on this page? Or we could have a system in which all money-related issues are somehow double checked?
Nice, but Not Necessary Stuff
1 - Game History Page.
2 - Campaign Forums.
3 - A "PW" box for game sign-ups, if we will still be advertising PWs (will we?)
4 - A clear and concise mission statement for the site, accessible (even by guests) from the front page, that describes the exact purpose and goals of the new site, and which will be referenced for future site alterations.
5 - Moderation of somebody's first post. To help prevent trolls, and to help control guild and PW spam, the first post from each member must pass by a forum moderator, who will then clear that person's account for future posts.
6 - An online store, to help cover costs of running the site.
Pointless Stuff
1 - Guilds. Not necessary. However, if people are really attached to the concept, and are going to host it somewhere else (Bioware or something, I suppose), perhaps we could allow a forum to advertise their guild, though? Just a thought.
2 - Fee waivers. If some people actively take time to help with the site, perhaps their fees could be waved? I don't mean moderating forums or something that can be put together/done is spare time. I mean, say, running DM 101 and MP 101 and things like that. And definitely waive the fee for those actually implementing the technical stuff. That's a huge time commitment to the site, and, for most of us working stiffs who could be puting in overtime, time is money. I'm not largely attached to this, but it's an idea that might help with continued involvement after the site's up and running. Perhaps this should be discussed later? *shrug*
Double Plus Ungoods
1 - Rating System. Either ditch the rating system, or have a checkbox to opt out of it. It's ridiculous, and its current form was heavily biased towards one-shots, which is not everyone's cup of tea. The site should not favor game types like that.
2 - The Mentoring System. This was an idea that looked great on paper. The problem, I believe, was that we didn't look close enough at reality when we implemented it. If something similar arose, I'd personally avoid it like a cliché.
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Von Stalhein
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As far as I am aware, any community run effort would NOT -require- any fees. It would be funded purely by those who -wished- to donate funds.
EDIT: Not that that should be interpreted as the new site won't need money in order to run obviously.
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| « Last Edit: on: Feb 10, 2006, 7:36PM » |
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Von Stalhein
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Copied from the seperate new site forum:
In my personal opinion (being, by the above system, a fairly "new" DM, but a fairly well-experienced "player" - I'm probably being cocky but who cares?), the only things a new site strictly needs apart from the core booking procedures (and a forum for discussion of course) are:
1. Rating/Review systems, so players can rate each other and leave comments (Personally, I think it should be more than just a comment, I think the statistics-based information is very useful to have, and is also a good route to self-improvement in-game).
2. The ability for DMs to create a "Campaign Forum" which only the players (selected by the DM) can access. Obviously, the top moderators and/or administrators of the site would also need access to all these forums, as per the current NWC.
3. Some sort of "Hall of Fame", or perhaps interviews with players, DMs etc. Not neccessarily those who are best rated. I'm not entirely sure of how I'd make this work, if we do do something along these lines of extra site-related content (and I think it -is- a good idea) then we need to be clear on -exactly- what it -does- go in and what -doesn't-. I get the feeling half of NWC's current problems stem from it doing stuff beyond its remit (607 guilds?)
I think that everything else (Guilds, PW Listings, "News" about NWN in general - which is handled better by NWVault) should be left out.
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Starbuck79
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on Feb 10, 2006, 8:02 PM, Von Stalhein wrote:
3. Some sort of "Hall of Fame", or perhaps interviews with players, DMs etc. Not neccessarily those who are best rated. I'm not entirely sure of how I'd make this work, if we do do something along these lines of extra site-related content (and I think it -is- a good idea) then we need to be clear on -exactly- what it -does- go in and what -doesn't-. I get the feeling half of NWC's current problems stem from it doing stuff beyond its remit (607 guilds?)
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I think maybe a DM/Player spotlight might be better than a Hall Of Fame. The staff would interview a DM or/and Player each month. The Hof seems to imply that someone is better in some subjective way, which is what some people seem to dislike.
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Bigbluepaw
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on Feb 10, 2006, 8:22 PM, Starbuck79 wrote:on Feb 10, 2006, 8:02 PM, Von Stalhein wrote:
3. Some sort of "Hall of Fame", or perhaps interviews with players, DMs etc. Not neccessarily those who are best rated. I'm not entirely sure of how I'd make this work, if we do do something along these lines of extra site-related content (and I think it -is- a good idea) then we need to be clear on -exactly- what it -does- go in and what -doesn't-. I get the feeling half of NWC's current problems stem from it doing stuff beyond its remit (607 guilds?)
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I think maybe a DM/Player spotlight might be better than a Hall Of Fame. The staff would interview a DM or/and Player each month. The Hof seems to imply that someone is better in some subjective way, which is what some people seem to dislike. |
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Very interesting. Cool idea.
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Digitalknightmare
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I agree with most of the points already made.
The one thing I would suggest is the ability to list each expansion needed for the paticular game. Also a form for linking to hakfiles store in remote locations such as nwvault.
I would also recommend doing anything to the site to make it more user friendly. I never had a problem using the site , but some of my friends who are a bit less technical have had some problems.
I also would love to see the ability to submit DMFI certified modules into a template system where the new dm , would select one of these modules and it would fill in the correct information.
I would also love for the site to grow with current web tech like RSS and podcasting. It would be great to have RSS access to the forums and game listings and it would be wonderfull for
new players to listen to a podcast of how to set things up and general information.
I also wanted to say that , even though the site has its rough edges , I still consider it to be extremely usefull.
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| « Last Edit: on: Feb 10, 2006, 11:35PM » |
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Lazybones
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For me having a Campaign Forum is an essential feature. Of course, I have >4000 posts in my current campaign forum, so I guess I have a pretty strong stake in that element of the status quo.
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