New childboard structure

[BinnZ]

Guys, I think we need a bit more structure here. We don't have games any more that are simultaneously being played by a great number of players, especially since sometimes console and PC releases are quite separate. But we can speak of a number of big publishers that keep launching games that keep us busy. So what about we make some childboards based on publishers?
Personally, I think it's a good idea. But I'm not alone here, so please let me know what's your thoughts on the subject

[Art Blade]

interesting, thanks for bringing this up

Before I can vote, I need to think about some things. Maybe you can help me:

What are "popular" games? Like, popular with whom? With our members or in the media..? Or, popular as in the game topics receive lots of views and are actively posted in? Or perhaps popular as in "now being played?" And what do we do with "unpopular" games?

Let's assume we created new child boards like UBI*bleep*, what parent board would you choose? Like, "general game talk" or "now being played" or something else?

And that is what would lead to the next question, what if games of the same publisher are spread across those two parent boards? Move them all to "now being played" even if they're old? Move games that are now being played to the general game talk?

And that leads to the question, if we created new publisher boards, what would we do with those two old parent boards?

Apart from that, what about smaller indie games without major publishers, or in other words, what about little-known publishers, where would you put those? Like, games might get "lost" in boards of unknown publishers, you wouldn't find them if you didn't know the publisher. It could result in boards with just one game in them.

Also, which would be the board for, say, Hitman which was developed and published by IO Interactive but was also published by Square Enix and recently merged with and published by Warner Brothers, would you file Hitman under S.E. or WB or perhaps IOI?

Hitman would also be an example of a new problem. If we had filed it under Square Enix we would have had to take it out of it and file it under IOI when they turned independent. We would have had to put them anew into a different board, WB, once they merged with them. Would we have to keep track and follow those company backgrounds in order to file the games properly?

Thanks for any help

[LowPolyOWG]

I think we could keep the board structure as it is. While publisher sorting sounds nice, it can be a problem as Art has pointed out.

[BinnZ]

My first idea was to get back to childboards for popular games. Popular of course amongst members. But I scratched that off, since it would end up in the same messy structure we had on the old forum. However, making some publisher / developer boards would be more attractive to me, since it groups a bunch of games of the same nature and leaves the rest to, basically the structure we already have.
Doing this makes it possible to have multiple topics of the same game without getting messy. It would also solve the issue of 60% of the topics in the 'now being played' section that aren't being played any more.

Plus, I kind of like the idea of having mayor boards for publishers for two reasons; first is that most games developed by the same brand are somewhat similar and attracted to the same members, and, because it's something new. Something challenging forum-wise. Even the moderator role could get refurbished that way.

However, it's just another wild idea of mine and if you feel like it's inappropriate, too complicated or too much w0#k, just vote no. 

[Art Blade]

OK, your criticism was useful. You're absolutely right about the amount of games in "now being played" that aren't being played anymore. I cleaned up that mess.

+1 for you, Binn.

Why don't you take a quick look at the "now being played" board.. What you can't find there is now under "general game talk."

Do you still think we need changes?

[BinnZ]

Do you still think we need changes?

I don't think we need changes. I think we could change, I would like it. But I'm not the only one here, that's why I started a poll.

But thanx for the kudo and the w0#k you did in the 'now being played' section

[Art Blade]

welcome

Now I can vote.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah I think we could have some kind of board for a game in general if it's popular among several members, like GTA, so we don't all keep dumping in the same thread in NBP. Actually the whole concept of "now being played" is a bit flawed as eventually most everything in there is going to be inactive and no longer played, lol.

[Art Blade]

as long as we.. or I, remember to move the old stuff, the NBP is quite good. A lot less w0#k to manage two boards and you can quickly find stuff with the search function. The old forum was extremely fragmented and clustered with a vast amount of boards and child boards. When we moved to this new forum, the strategy was to keep things simple.

[BinnZ]

Only 8 replies (9 now) and over 2000 views... that's weird isn't it??!
I just hope the word childboard didn't cause this 

[Art Blade]

PZ and I have been.. no, actually it's over, so, we fought some kind of an attack wave. Look at the "most online" boards stats: 523. Before, it was at 194. So no, it wasn't your word, it was in a way a "brute-force viewing campaign" for a couple of days before we identified, adapted to and eliminated the problem.

[Art Blade]

actually, apparently we're still working on it.

[Dweller_Benthos]

What the heck could that sort of thing even accomplish? I can see a DDoS attack on a game server or something if just for spite, but here? What could they hope to get from this?

[BinnZ]

Indeed... if they at least had filled in the poll

[Art Blade]