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StarStuff
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I moved this post from its place earlier in this thread because it got lost in amongst all the "NWC management" posts. So, consider the thread back on-topic. 
I don't think we've ever tried to tackle things from this direction, so how's about this: What features of NWC do people LIKE (and why)?
Here's my (very wordy, naturally) take on a few things:
The thing I like the most about NWC is the potential for getting involved with a campaign (same players same time every week), as opposed to casual games. That is what drew me here in the first place.
The games schedule is the main thing that allows this to happen, I think: the ability to look at the games that have been planned for the coming week/month, and see which ones are at times that suit you, so that you can sign up for/apply/PM regarding getting into the game.
I am not so sure that the notify system (whereby it states what times people are available whent it's that time of day, and where people get a notify when an open or application game is scheduled during those times) is as useful. If you wanted to organise a game and then look for players for it, usually you'd want to see who would be available at the time you have planned well in advance of the game, not right when the game is due to start. Egpaul's idea of a player profile consisting of various checkboxes, along with a description (similar to the Bioware profile), would work much better I think, because if that included checkboxes for times that people could play (say 24 hours every day broken up into two hour chunks, with only the checked times showing on the profile) then an organiser could perform a search that would pull up all the people that have checked a particular time box, and then contact them to see if they would like to play. This would then allow for the flipside of matchmaking: hosts actively searching for players, rather than passively waiting for them to apply.
One thing that I never got the hang of as a newbie, and am still not convinced means the same thing to everyone, is the sliding scale for Roleplay vs HacknSlash preference. If it was clarified as meaning "What proportion of your time in a game would you like to spend on RP (interaction with NPCs/PCs) vs combat?" and the options were, say: 100% RP 0% H&S, 90% RP 10% H&S, 80% RP 20% H&S, ... 0% RP 100% H&S, then I think people would find it easier to place themselves on the scale, even when new. (Maybe 20% jumps if the 10% gives too many options. And maybe this is what it already means and I am just being dense, in which case a simple explanatory sentence above the present scale is all that's needed.  )
I do think that people's preferences regarding how much RP/combat takes place in a game is the main determining factor for whether they will enjoy gaming with each other or not. A review that included "Here is what the person says their RP vs H&S preference is: do you think that they played according to their stated preference? If not, did they seem to prefer more RP or more combat?" would be good, I reckon. Yes it's subjective, but that, plus reliability and teamwork and comments, are the main indicators of whether you think you'd want to game with someone - which is what *I* think the review system should be used for. For those that want a ranking/reward system, simply including the "BIG" option should be good enough.
While on the subject of reviews, I really like the idea of everyone in the game appearing together, on one page: that'd be sooooo much quicker and simpler than the present one-at-a-time system. Good one, LB!
The mentoring system got mentioned in one of the other threads by Festivus. Thing is, yes the highly publicised mentoring system was a definite crowd-puller, but it never delivered what it promised, for various reasons. From what I recall the remaining mentors saying about it at the time of the revamp, the majority of newbs were expecting their mentor to provide them with in-game help: getting them into their first game, and showing them hands-on what would be expected of them. The other problem was that there were hundreds of people applying for a mentor each week, and only a very small number (less than ten, I believe - maybe even less than five) of site members that were prepared to act as mentor, and so they were ridiculously overworked. It's all very well saying "Bring back the old mentoring system!" if no-one is prepared to get involved, and if it never was what people wanted anyway!
What most people don't seem to realise, probably because the required updates to the welcome email and to the front page never happened, is that there is a replacement mentoring system already in place, one that gives people that all-important first in-game contact, and offers private communication via PM: the MP101 classes that several of the site members are involved with! The number of people that are involved are more than enough to deal with the present numbers of new players, but when NWN2 comes around there is no way that we will be able to keep up with the demand if more people don't get involved. (Think of the DM101 waiting list when NWC was in its heyday...)
So, in preparation for NWN2, I'd like to see MP101 (or something similar) be advertised in the same way that the old mentoring system was, and see a LOT more people offering to help.
--StarStuff
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StarStuff
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There are too many different posts in too many different threads in too many different forums on too many different sites.  At some point, when everyone has had plenty of time in which to make a contribution to the discussion (if they want to) in one place or another, it would be nice to start a new thread on one site or the other that contains a summary of what has been said so far on *all* the other threads, and then lock or delete them! Until then, I'm sticking this here, because it's a general idea for the wishlist rather than a specific feature that already exists, which is what - I believe - the focus of the other current thread on this site is all about.
It's a minor point, but I'd really like to see list of avatars for players and their characters that you can use straight off by checking a box, in addition to the present option of uploading a custom image from your hard drive. It's a real pain trying to get hold of an image from the game or from a portrait pack and resize it to fit NWC's specifications, if you don't have the right tools for the job. I'd also like the default to be NO avatar, rather than that bald dude! 
--StarStuff
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Starbuck79
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I just wanted to drag up this old thread with some suggestions for Rizzen and the new team. There's sone good ideas here.
My thought is that we should start a simple as possible. SO we have to ask, What are the core Functions of NWC? In my mind...
1) Scheduling/joining games
2) Personal Messaging
3) Public Boards
4) Private/Campaign Boards
?) Review
I know everyone is not going to agree, but I think to start we should scrap the current review system and reimagine the whole concept from the ground up. What is the primary goal of the function? To help people find like minded players or to weed out "good" from "bad" whatever that means? I think that what we have now is intented to be the first, but has become the second.
The site should be as simple to use as possible. I think that starts with the front page. As has been said by many, it is WAY to busy. I think that many of the festures can be moved to other pages. I think that we should incorporate the "Create an X" functions all into a "Manage my Games" Page. All of the "Create an X" functions can be taken off the main page and put on a single back page as part of your account.
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| « Last Edit: on: Mar 17, 2006, 7:14PM » |
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J'Dai Voisin
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on Mar 17, 2006, 6:59 PM, Starbuck79 wrote:| I just wanted to drag up this old thread with some suggestions for Rizzen and the new team. There's sone good ideas here. |
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Well done, Starbuck! I think this is a more appropriate thread for some of the "nice to have" requests in the other locations. ~ JD
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Starbuck79
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on Mar 18, 2006, 2:05 AM, J'Dai Voisin wrote:on Mar 17, 2006, 6:59 PM, Starbuck79 wrote:| I just wanted to drag up this old thread with some suggestions for Rizzen and the new team. There's sone good ideas here. |
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Well done, Starbuck! I think this is a more appropriate thread for some of the "nice to have" requests in the other locations. ~ JD |
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Thanks, perhaps a mod could go back and delete any messages discussing current off topic matters. Focus this thread as a Wish List for the new design?
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J'Dai Voisin
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on Mar 17, 2006, 4:58 PM, Deusin wrote:on Mar 17, 2006, 7:25 AM, Dane Bramage wrote:
How 'about a site navigation bar on the left for the fourms. Then, we don't hage to go to the home page to get to my characters for example.
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Is this so that you can post a message as a particular character of yours?
In this line of thinking I'd like to borrow a bit of simplicity and functionality from the WoW forums and evertime you reply or post, you get a list of your available characters to post as. |
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J'Dai Voisin
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on Mar 17, 2006, 10:19 AM, Rizzen wrote:Thats a great idea.
I think he just means that he loses the normal site navigation. That will be remedied in the new site. |
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J'Dai Voisin
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on Mar 17, 2006, 1:40 PM, Rizzen wrote:| Yes, I planed on this. Hopefully I'll also allow creation of custom folders. So you can create campaign folders etc. But I'll have that basic functionality. |
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J'Dai Voisin
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on Mar 17, 2006, 2:13 PM, StarStuff wrote:Rather than a side navigation bar, how about amending/adding to the menu at the top instead? From the forums, the places I like to go to are "schedule new game" and "who's online". To get to either of those I have to first navigate to either "home" or "members only", which I find highly annoying. (I may have mentioned this once or twice before, but I have a low tolerance for inefficency. ) Something we were considering for NWNW was making the top navigation menu be an actual *menu* rather than just a series of links: a la Bioware, where you select one item from the menu and a list opens up. You might like to make use of that idea.
EDIT: A menu at the top would mean you could ditch the side navigation panel, thus widening up the front page etc and making it less cramped. Nice bonus, huh?  |
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J'Dai Voisin
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on Mar 17, 2006, 2:20 PM, Rizzen wrote:I'll just say we were planning a top menu similar in style to Gamespot.com.
Their site uses a two menu system... Thats what we have planned. "No" is working on that design now.
I can definitly replace what is currently at the top of this page... thats extremely easy. |
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J'Dai Voisin
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We interrupt this thread...
I think I've straightened out the "new ideas" from the "blog commentary" but feel free to PM me if I missed something!! ~ JD
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Rizzen
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Excellent thanks! We just read all of these... Very good information. Good job Starbuck79 and J'Dai.
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Starbuck79
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Oh also, I don't know if anyone got a look at the nwn2.com site but it looked pretty slick. I know we don't want to copy but hopefully something smooth like like.
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Rizzen
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I go there and its blank except a single button... Are you seeing something else?
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Starbuck79
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They pulled it. It was up for a day or so.
Basically it was a white/olive color with lots of smoothed angles. Hard to describe. Maybe someone can help me out.
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