WIP
Originally posted by FieryIce
Now, this might just be me being weird, as I know I have quite a few quirks when it comes to posting on forums, but I do have this feeling that somehow it's "wrong" to post something specific like I mentioned in a general forum like Gaming. I'm not saying it's because of any rule anyone has written, the feeling simply comes from what's on the forum itself. Most of the threads are "[Insert Game Here] Discussion" threads. It gives off the impression (and this might just be me being quirky) that I can only post about games that already have a generic discussion thread, or if I want to talk about one that doesn't then I need to create a generic discussion thread for it.
And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, either. Just saying that it might be worth considering whether a situation like this results in less activity or not.
We could do an experiment. Maybe we can hold some kind of poll among the community to see what kind of really specific topic (for which we have a generic forum like Entertainment or Gaming) has a lot of interest among the active users, and we create a forum for that. We see whether the forum works out and grows with discussion that we hadn't seen in the generic equivalent, and if it does, whether it's something we could replicate with more specific forums that interest the community. It might be fun 
I agree
I feel my project threads about hacking/researching game-making tools don't fit in game hacking.
And stuff to do with ripping, is an iffy one, for while VERY relevant to the overall concept of 'hacking' ... game hacking USUALLY refers to the code (cuz, stereotypes/nitpicking).
In fact, I'm an expert at finding a category that considering what's ACTUALLY available for me, doesn't really 'fit' in anything. I almost ALWAYS have this issue with my artwork on Deviantart. Hundreds of categories, and none EXACTLY fits what I have made.
However, be careful HOW specific you go.
vg-resource's forum structure is an example (no offense to them, but...)
there are four sections for actual RIPPING, after the four resource sub-sites they provide:
spriters-resource
models-resource
textures-resource
sounds.resource
now, these all have sub forums
-ripping help
-project organization
-feedback/showreel
Here's the problem, though:
scenario A : models /textures / sprites are very intertwined as-is. so, someone who is going after ALL graphics in the game has quite the dilemma, already.
scenario B : some people (myself included) want to rip/dump something BESIDES models, like text/maps(the data part, these massive screenshots really annoy me when looking for TILES)/configs/animation stuff (proper spritesheets aren't as common these days, texture atlases and 2d skeletal animation are becoming pretty popular, also)/etc...
There's also this guy, where it's rather the name of the thread should change to suit the use:
game development > This thread has been accepted as the general dump-heap for programming projects of all kinds
In the case of A, the question is:
"do I pollute the resource threads by creating a thread in each category for the assets I'm ripping?"
OR
"do I post something that might be related to textures and/or sprites and/or sounds to models-resource?"
In the case of B, it's
"CRAP, WHERE THE HELL DO I POST THIS, PERIOD?"
gamedev: re-name programming/hacking
Now, on that same note, there's the opposite problem of over-generalization that creates ambiguities. let's take game sorting into account here
genres/types:
FPS
RPG
OPEN WORLD
PLATFORMER
PUZZLE
SIM
etc...
graphics:
3D
2D
2.5D
platform:
NES
SNES
N64
GAMECUBE
PC
XBOX
PLAYSTATION
MOBILE
etc...
series and or fairly obvious bootleg of series:
LOZ
Epic Battle Fantasy
Pokemon
Diablo
GTA
developers:
Nintendo
Microsoft
EA
Blizzard
game locations:
let's not...
Let's pretend someone doesn't know the name of the game in all cases (and this happens even with something that's EXTREMELY popular at the time)
Candy Crush Saga:
genre: puzzle (extremely generic! this is why we have sub-genres)
platform: mobile
developer: KING
series: let's just say saga
ocarina of time:
genre: ARPG
other modifiers: open world (apparently... the term is ambiguous)
series: LOZ
Developer: Nintendo
platform: n64, gamecube
locations: deku tree, gannon's castle, lost woods
HOLD ON...
OoT 2D
developer: fan-made, various
platform: PC
side notes: tried (and failed) many times, so this one in itself... the current results would be the one using aLTTP style, what if you want an older attempt?
OoT 3D
developer: nintendo
platform: 3DS
Epic Battle Fantasy 5:
developer: Matt Roszak/Kupogames
status: unreleased/indev
platform: presumably PC-WEB-FLASH, but I don't think it's yet set in stone
series: Epic Battle Fantasy
genre: [turn-based] RPG
modifiers: open world (as far as RPGs with rigid main quests go...) , has overworld
Alright, so here's where all these various terms become ambiguous.
legend of zelda ocarina of time:
i played it once as a kid, and was then banned from playing my brother-in-law's games due to a dumb-ass miss-understanding at school. (ironically, was allowed to watch)
at the time, only knew it as "legend of zelda" , and that my brother-in-law (actually, at the time just my sister's boyfriend) played it on the gamecube. things I remember most: sucking at playing, the deku tree
More 'recently' was doing LOZ research and learn:
platform: Nintendo 64! (CRAPPY COMPUTERS CAN EMULATE THIS!)
size: 32 MB (small download)
title: Ocarina of Time
realizations: just how MUCH of this I had seen my brother-in-law play when I was younger, and not realize IT WAS ALL THE SAME GAME. just how easy it is to clear that first dungeon, my problem was not understanding controls well. honestly, i definitely should've been a legend of zelda fan all along.
my keywords: '[inside the] deku tree'
any other search terms, I most likely wouldn't have found it.
Candy Crush Saga: who cares? but it'd be lost among the mess of puzzle and mobile games if it weren't so overrated/popular. One might find it if they recalled the developer, King... (IDK how many games they have, though...again I just don't care)
Epic Battle Fantasy 2 (you thought I was going to talk about 5, huh?):
I played this at some point after discovering Newgrounds
I sucked at it and ragequit, but did want to re-start at some point.
However, less tech-savvy/aware me didn't save links or remember name, nor really kept track of developers. all that stuck in my brain, standing the ultimate test of time "fantasy" (yeah, that narrows it down, huh?)
Sometime later, found EBF3 on Arcade Pre-hacks and THEN I remembered what game I had played and utterly FAILED at It was the art that gave it away, though. I now follow Matt Roszak on Deviantart! I even got two of my friends at school so damn addicted to it their talking about strategies and accomplishments for it was kind of annoying to me... lol But, hey, we all get that way about our favorite things...
Now, that MASSIVE textwall now out of the way, even very specific things can become too generic.
If someone is looking for a certain game, it might take several pieces of information, or a very specific piece of information unique to that exact game, to re-discover it.
Sorry for my lifestory, but I really believed that was the best way to explain this, as someone who is constantly challenged by the very ral problems of "how do i sort this shit?" "how do i find this shit i thought was cool?" "in what ways does this shit fall into a certain category?" , I know a thing or two about optimal ways to organize/categorize stuff, because I've dealt with the nightmare of what happens when you have too much or too little organization/labeling.
Now, Xkeeper, if you're talking about tags as in
#RPG,#ZELDA,#NINTENDO,etc...
I'd strongly advise having this kind of system, combined with a search bar.
The problem with tagging systems, though, is similar to what breaks other categories, anything from too few to too many.
One MAJOR gripe I have about this place is it's not streamlined for actually FINDING something if it's buried behind 1000 other things in the same general category.
When designing or setting-up a forum/wiki (or, ok, ANYTHING), you need to carefully craft your overall layout/organization according to a combination of general-purpose and nitpicky-specific categories, and then add additional meta-data and a search function to most optimally allow someone to actually FIND what they're seeking. You might not have a lot of activity, but you have a cumulative build-up of THOUSANDS of threads, and no one really likes manually sifting through a forum to see if something tickles their fancy. I help moderate a wiki that's not very much dead/quiet. The problem isn't just that there's an awful organization strategy for NEW content, but our OLD content, some of which is significant, has been completely BURIED by having pages in bad categories, and information on bad pages, and THOUSANDS of completely not-sorted threads/photos. There are actually things that try as we might, WE CAN'T FIND... (even WITH a search function)
That's my...
screw it...
$2.00
(lol)
If you'd like a more detailed and optimized to this site (well, in my opinion, as it's based on my unique experiences) , I'd love to shed some light on that.
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