I'd like to suggest breaking the "Gamer Connection" forum into separate online and offline forums. Many subject lines aren't clear as to the format of the game, and I think this would help with that. It also seems to me that most gamers would be interested in only one or the other (and if they're interested in both, they could view just the parent).
I think this is a pretty good idea. There are so many pbp/ online games that if anyone actually tries to connect with people for offline groups they'll likely be drowned out within hours. That's certainly no fair to the people trying to find off-line gamers.
I thought the PBP solicitations were supposed to be in the already existing PBP forums, and people just abused the Gamer Connection forum...
Guess I'm wrong, so I support this seperation wholeheartedly.
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I thought the PBP solicitations were supposed to be in the already existing PBP forums, and people just abused the Gamer Connection forum...
Guess I'm wrong, so I support this seperation wholeheartedly.
The two PbP forums are for game threads and ooc thread chat between existing groups.
Gamer Connection is currently used for both PbP and local recruitment; although it would be nice to sub-forum it, its not really a big deal if people remember to make it clear they are advertising either locally or via pbp.
There are so many pbp/ online games that if anyone actually tries to connect with people for offline groups they'll likely be drowned out within hours.
I'd say this is the single best reason to split-out PbP Recruitment into a sub-forum.
I say split out the PbP (rather than splitting out live or making two at the same level) so that it can be collapsed without hiding local events that people might be interested in. Generally I would presume most folks would only check PbP Connections if they were looking or recruiting for one, but many folks might like to be able to direct others in their area to gaming resources.
Also, the folks who are going to play/run PbP games could safely be presumed to know more about the forums/culture here. Most visitors who have only played live games might not even know what a PbP is. Were PbP and Live at the same level they might not make the mental connection. Yet seeing PbP as something within the context of putting a group together might peak their interest.
However, were the reverse done (PbP being the main and Live being the sub-forum), newcomers who don't know what a PbP is might still post in the 'main' forum and either get flamed, lose track of their posts (when they get moved), or just never see hide nor hair of their topic ever again.
So yes, please split PbP Connections into a sub-forum.
The only problem with that is the PbP threads generate an order of magnitude more replies and do so much more quickly. That results in posts for local games getting aged out of sight before more than a few people see them. Sure the OP could RSS it, but that's not helpful if the thread isn't high enough on the forum for anyone to notice.
Now if the boards had a proximity function for local events that would pseudo-sticky them it would be a non-issue. By this I mean, if the OP could specify a physical map location, a computer could know where it was. Likewise, if forum members could also specify points of interest, the forums could highlight or sticky events on a per-user basis if a newly posted event fell within a certain radius.
Of course, there's probably a dozen other features I'd prefer ahead of such a complicated solution (i.e. private messaging, avatars from the 3 most recent APs, forum skins, etc). :)
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Also, if you just recommend [PBP] (or even use a soft requirement), it becomes even more confusing when people ignore that recommendation.
But this...
Of course, there's probably a dozen other features I'd prefer [...] (i.e. private messaging, avatars from the 3 most recent APs, forum skins, etc). :)
...is wholly true as well. Well, not Forum Skins for me at least, but yeah.
I'm always reluctant to add new forums—we have a LOT already. What if we recommended/required putting "[PBP]" or something in the thread title>
That would certainly help, but I can see two potential problems:
One, as others have mentioned, is that there are a lot more PBP games advertised in this forum than local games, and local games quickly get moved down the page.
Two, "other" style games are becoming more popular. VTT-based games are IMO more similar to PBP than local games (in that your physical location doesn't matter), so they wouldn't be tagged as PBP. I suggested online/offline so that it would be clear where those sorts of games fall.
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Side note - Gary, would it be not entirely out of the realm of possibility for community members to do the work on creating avatars from the last few APs'? I mean, if you said to the community, "Create avatars at such and such resolution/size/whatever and mail them to garyteterisawesome@paizo.com", you'd probably get all the avatars you could want within 3 days time. You could just upload, and voila!
Is this a stupid idea?
Jeremiziah: I suggested the same thing several months ago and the reply was in the negative. :(
If there was just a feature that allowed custom avatars but ONLY in the two PbP forums plus Gamer Connection (perhaps aliases that could only be used in those three), then that would solve so much...
Yay! Go, New Person! :)
And suddenly, the new person is tremendously popular. Huzzah!