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[Discussion] Let's Play a Game
I'm proposing a Zooov community about gaming. Be it traditional, console, computer, or whatever else. There are many disparate groups who take games seriously in their own domains. Communities spawn around good games; European board games, collectable card games, pen and paper RPGs, MMORPGs, to name a few. This would be a place for articles about game design, discussion of your favorite MMO or CCG, timelines of videogames, etc. Not just another news site; a place where people who love games talk about games.
2 votes  by phane  on 2008-02-26  6 comments   
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wal    1 votes   Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 1:21 AM
Thanks for the suggestion. How do you see your proposal being different from other gaming news sites? Although I love computer games, I don't follow the gaming field too closely. But I've heard that there is many gaming news sites. If we want to start something, I'd prefer that it be unique in that it covers an area that's not covered well enough by other sites. Thanks.
[Reply]
phane    1 votes   Friday, February 29, 2008 at 1:29 AM
I didn't want there to be just another news site. There are plenty of places where people can read gaming news. Information about games is not hard to find, but I think discussion of games is something there aren't a lot of places for.
For instance, here's an article on the difference in game design philosophy between European and Japanese game studios:
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3155815
Here's an article comparing the "experience engineering" of game creation to that of Disney World:
http://www.sirlin.net/archive/
an-introduction-to-game-design-courtesy-of-walt-disney/
These are the kind of things I would like to see a centralized place for; people who are interested in games talking about games as a subject, not necessarily about individual games. (Although, talking about particular games wouldn't be against the rules: a discussion of how Team Fortress 2 improves on flaws in other multiplayer games would be interesting, for example)
[Reply]
wal    1 votes   Tuesday, March 04, 2008 at 8:42 PM
Sorry for the late reply. I see what you mean. It seems like a good niche subject that game programmers might be interested in. However, since building a community is really hard, and most of the effort is awareness and getting people to use it, I'll have to see if we receive more interest in this subject before we create it.

Coincidently, we're planning to launch a community for video game music. A good friend, who is passionate about the subject, promised to help maintain it and keep it alive, so we'll go ahead and release it in the next couple of weeks.
[Reply]
boco    1 votes   Wednesday, March 05, 2008 at 11:22 PM
I don't think it's fair to call it a "niche subject that game programmers might be interested in". While, sure, both example articles phane shared were about video games, the 'game design' hobby is much more prevailent, I think, in hobby gamers - people who play pen-and-paper RPGs, board games, card games, etc. Part of that is because it's part of the unspoken contract of most social games (which traditional and hobby games are, by neccessity if not design) that the rules to be followed are only the rules your group respects - which might be more rules or fewer than those in the rulebook. This is especially true for RPGs - I don't think there's a single RPG written with the expectation that it'll be played as-written straight out of the book with no changes or interpretations by the GM or the group. Also, rules variations are very common from group to group and from game to game, and there's a multitude of games all vying for attention or claiming innovation, all while making new games is as simple as explaining the rules halfway to someone else and just playing it. Because of all these things, nearly all hobby gamers end up talking about liking or not liking certain rules, system, design lements or choices, and talking about how to improve the games they play or why they play some games and not others. The same ideas apply to video and computer games, sure, especially social ones like fighting games or MMOs, but I think the bulk of game designers - and the bulk of game design hobbyists - are in the traditional & hobby games market.

That community on videogame music might be fun, but I'm not sure there's much to discuss. What will it offer that isn't on vgmix ( http://www.vgmix.com/ ), ocremix ( http://www.ocremix.org/ ), CocoeBiz ( http://www.cocoebiz.com/ ), 2A03.org ( http://2a03.org/ ), etc? Anyway, I'm a fan of that, too, so I'm certaintly interested.
[Reply]
wal    1 votes   Saturday, March 08, 2008 at 12:40 AM
Okay, fair enough. I admit that I'm not an expert in the field, and might not be the right person to judge it. That makes it much harder for me to build that community (not getting the site up, that's the easy part; but the real work of getting people to know about it). What would be the best way to announce such community to those interested in it? Are there mailing lists or forums we can announce it at (without being considered to be spamming)? The biggest challenge to get a community going is to get the people. And that's the reason I wait until I receive many requests about a community before I consider building it. If you guys know of sites I can partner with to get marketing for the new community, please let me know.
[Reply]
jeriaska    1 votes   Friday, March 21, 2008 at 11:12 PM
The beginning stages of the videogame music portal are underway at nobuooo.com. Support in getting it off the ground would be great if you find the subject of interest.
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