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Improving the Forum
Ferrolio
Posts: 68Member Beginner
So how many people, when deciding on whether or not to download a game, go and check out the game's forum first? *raises hand*
I've done this before so many times now, I've lost count. The reasons being:
- That you can get some idea for what the game is like.
- More info on the features, or an FAQ section for common queries.
- Some perspective on how active the game is.
- Some thoughts on what the current player base feels about the game they're playing
- You can look up player-made guides and find resources that would make playing the game a smoother experience.
- You can introduce yourself to the community.
And so on...I've even done it after already deciding to download a game, and browsed the forum to pass the time as it completes the installation or whatever.
And yet here on our UWO forum we have a number of issues that hurt usability. Namely:
- Some sections of the forum seem under-used or abandoned.
- There is a lack of moderation.
- Due of the above reasons - there has been over-the-top posts, in terms of vitriol. As well as straight up spam. Both of which you can find on the forum right now as I type this.
- Plenty of posts that don't belong under UWO at all that haven't been moved or deleted.
- There is also no edit post feature, which leads to many double posts.
- No built-in way to quote other users.
- Only a fraction of the game's population ever go on the forums. And fewer still actively use it.
And I'm sure there are more things we can think of.
We've had some important and constructive discussions on here of late about some of the systems in game that we want modified. But there's so many other people out there who have yet to share their opinions, or have it represented.
What we need is a much more lively forum. One that is organized, easy to navigate, and overall user-friendly.
I sent in my remarks to Papaya, and they wanted me to survey all of you guys to see what you think about it i.e What issues you have with using the forum, and the ways you think it can be bettered.
Other than moderation, and integrating necessary features mentioned above - some other ideas I can think of are holding more forum-exclusive events, and contests, in order to get people to use them more. This could be something like monthly art contests, or create-a-guide contests.
I believe once upon a time, under previous publishers, there was a design-a-crest contest. The winner got their crest added to the game. Stuff like that would be fun, and draw upon the creativity that exists in our players.
We also had a similar thing happen with guides. And seeing that we lost many of the guides on the previous forums, as well as the fact that there has been newer content since - more guides, are therefore, most welcome. We already have a few awesome people in the community who make these, but more incentive and competition in doing so, can also be a positive thing.
Please share your thoughts, concerns and ideas and let's get this place buzzing!
Comments
Example: Let's say war breaks out. How are we going to organize death/frag counts?
Only way I see it working is if, at least, the thread/post owner has edit rights to keep the updated score in post number 1 (First thing people see).
UWO Headquarters (Fan Site)
uwo-hq.blogspot.com