i've mentioned it in a few other threads when the topic's been brought up, but i'd rather segregate discussion into its own thread. should we shift to being a mario fan general site over a strictly fan gaming site? the primary focus above all other aspects would still be fangames and development, but we could use the added scope to our advantage to pull in new members. this would mean active reports on current gaming news going on the main site either amongst or parallel to standard site submission updates, and a greater focus on the fan community rather than the fan games community. this would give the previously proposed fanart section a home and purpose, as it's just another way to attract general mario fans and potentially get them into some aspect of fangame development. fanmade music tracks should also get their own section separate from sounds (similarly, ripped music should get its own section but that's besides the point) so they can be easily showcased. the idea here is to rebuild the community by emphasizing the common interest (being mario) and pulling from a farther reach OF mario fans to create a catch-all mario fan site, which in turn eventually funnels into mario fangame and/or game development. in-house expos could also be done to garner interest, similar to the NCFC only it's essentially primarily mario fangames, and "best of show" awards could be easily applied to respective games should the time come. this is a pretty big shift and i'm sure not everyone will be on board with it but it's undeniable that interest in mario fangame development seems to have been dwindling these past few years and i think this is the best way to handle getting things back on track.

Nah

No.

I have mixed feelings about this idea. However, instead of dismissing it immediately, I would encourage y'all to elaborate on why you don't think this would work. This proposal sounds a little like what TheMushroomKingdom.net does, but then again, TMK doesn't look to be very active these days.

No way.

I'd much rather keep the current focus to be honest

Yes. People frequently bring up the issue of Nintendo becoming aware of the site and taking action. If MFGG broadened its domain, we'd have something else to fall back on if that were to become the case. Also, I agree that Mario fangame development has been dwindling a bit. If this community stopped stubbornly holding on to this single franchise, I feel a lot of people would flock to it. Just look at people like Physix who came to MFGG from the Metroid forums. Being more inclusive would make that a more common occurrence.

It would be nice if I could potentially give another franchise some love and still be a part of the MFGG mainsite experience.

No.

Well... To be honest, I would be completely okay if MFGG turned into a Nintendo (or just general) fangaming site. But a bigger focus shift like being a general Mario fan site would end up with those who are here for fangames leaving. SFGHQ just did that, they merged with an old and dead Sonic fan site just to turn the community into a less fangame focused one. It's kind of dead now and the main SFGHQ community decided to split back. You may blame the name change but I'm 100% sure that's not the main reason behind the site's death. It died because people there were interested in fangames more, and I think that's also the case for a large number of people here too. And I know most of you don't care, but if the focus shift happened I'd just leave MFGG.

seems all the people i expected to come in and provide thoughtful one word answers arrived on-cue and provided just that, so i'll continue to elaborate my point since so far only roughly two people have elaborated on the contrary. ultimately shifting focus is more just expanding focus. we'd be showing a greater focus on mario himself (main page updates with new trailers embedded and links to nintendo directs other general nintendo "big news" would be provided as well) while still putting fangames on the forefront. most of the basis i'm providing for my argument here is it's what i did as a kid to find MFGG in the first place. i jumped from fan site to fan site eventually leading me to sites that hosted some really old mario fangames and eventually that led to MFGG. the goal should be to make MFGG the mario fan site "superpower" much in the way sonic retro is. hosting the fangaming expos and competitions retains the old focus and in some ways emphasizes it because it would, naturally, get main page focus when the time comes. the additions of fan galleries and other general fan-focused aspects (not necessarily fangame ones) give people who otherwise serve little to no purpose in the community some spotlight to do what they want and feel like they're involved. honestly a fan gallery could even help fangame devs find artists for their games, that part of it seems like a win/win no matter how you throw it. you literally cannot deny, no matter who you are and how far down in the sand your head is, that MFGG activity is dwindling harshly. i know a lot of people ask "do we really need this?" or something similar when a big, gamechanging proposal is made, but the current forum system MFGG uses is outdated thanks to the likes of social media and other general websites that can be used to find applicable people just as well if not better than the alternative. we need to make MFGG relevant again by doing whatever we need to do to keep the spirit of the board alive while making it new and accessible to more waves of newbies in the future. broadening the scope of MFGG is broadening the demographic- which is something we need extremely badly right now. i simply do not see as many people here who are as interested in fangames as there were not even two years ago. sure roughly EVERYONE is but we still have some people who serve otherwise no purpose in ultimately progressing fangame development and are just here for the community, so if we can find them a place while also ringing in many new users, then mission accomplished.

Smh you dorks can't give a better answer than just a flat 'no'. Get your debate game together. [b]I'll do it for you:[/b] I think that the idea that activity is dwindling is absolutely the reason why now would not be a good time to go forward with this. Large scale changes to MFGG would require a lot of time and effort and at this point, there might not be enough of a payoff. Right now MFGG is struggling even to do what it already does well enough to keep members engaged. I feel that the priority should be to work to reengage current/past members to bring more activity to the mainsite and board before stepping into unfamiliar territory. Once MFGG can adapt and suit newer mario fans, we could potentially move on to bigger, better things. That being said, I do still think subtly opening submissions for fangames/resources that do not include Mario without 'rebranding' so to speak, would be a great small step in the right direction.

No

Quality posts from Thatgamerguy in this thread I agree with both you (Mit) and Syx in different areas, while I agree that it would be beneficial to broaden the scope of what we host here to "Mario general" instead of "Mario fangames", I don't think it would be best to do it right now. Both of you have very valid points regarding activity, and I think a rebranding at this time could go either way with activity, but I'm leaning further toward Syx's argument in that I think we need to get the current (active) userbase re-engaged. Depending on when MFGG3 launches, maybe we could do the rebranding then; hopefully with a more active userbase in tow.

i don't think we would need to rebrand, but yea i also agree with syx's ideas. personally i wouldn't even think of putting it into focus until MFGG3 since it'd be mostly a part of the website and it'd be awkward to shoehorn it into the site as it is now

I probably should have clarified that when I said "rebranding" I was talking about the shift to a general Mario fan site; otherwise, it seems most of us are on the same page.

There's enough Mario fan sites out there, ours is a unique niche, the one and only, and expanding to other areas will just make MFGG a drop in a very large bucket. I understand the desire to increase traffic, but simply pandering to all areas of fandom isn't going to do that. People come here for Mario Fangames, you'll be hard pressed to drag members here for the promise of quality fanart or things like that. A general Nintendo / Fan Gaming website is another story that has a whole unique set of issues, not the least of which would be increased exposure which isn't always a good thing.

[quote="Mit"]you literally cannot deny, no matter who you are and how far down in the sand your head is, that MFGG activity is dwindling harshly. i know a lot of people ask "do we really need this?" or something similar when a big, gamechanging proposal is made, but the current forum system MFGG uses is outdated thanks to the likes of social media and other general websites that can be used to find applicable people just as well if not better than the alternative. we need to make MFGG relevant again by doing whatever we need to do to keep the spirit of the board alive while making it new and accessible to more waves of newbies in the future. broadening the scope of MFGG is broadening the demographic- which is something we need extremely badly right now.[/quote]i think most of us are already aware that mfgg is going downhill, especially in last 2 years. heck i would even call these years "the dark age of mfgg". but i just don't think giving up on fangames would solve anything and i dont think it's our only choice. i would rather just fix the issues of the site and focus on the "fan games galaxy" part of mfgg, not just "mario". and to do that i would try to understand what mfgg did wrong instead of trying to ignore them and shift the focus to get more newbies who are barely interested in mario fangames

Also as a side note, part of the issue with MFGG is that the site simply isn't user friendly anymore, something that'll hopefully be addressed with MFGG3.0 People are far more likely to head somewhere like TSR for sprites and more likely to stay for the community.

[quote="Mors"][quote="Mit"]you literally cannot deny, no matter who you are and how far down in the sand your head is, that MFGG activity is dwindling harshly. i know a lot of people ask "do we really need this?" or something similar when a big, gamechanging proposal is made, but the current forum system MFGG uses is outdated thanks to the likes of social media and other general websites that can be used to find applicable people just as well if not better than the alternative. we need to make MFGG relevant again by doing whatever we need to do to keep the spirit of the board alive while making it new and accessible to more waves of newbies in the future. broadening the scope of MFGG is broadening the demographic- which is something we need extremely badly right now.[/quote]i think most of us are already aware that mfgg is going downhill, especially in last 2 years. heck i would even call these years "the dark age of mfgg". but i just don't think giving up on fangames would solve anything and i dont think it's our only choice. i would rather just fix the issues of the site and focus on the "fan games galaxy" part of mfgg, not just "mario". and to do that i would try to understand what mfgg did wrong instead of trying to ignore them and shift the focus to get more newbies who are barely interested in mario fangames[/quote] i think you're missing my point here. i never said to get rid of the fangaming aspect, or even bury it under other fan media. i'm saying to expand our roots to get more people to join, and eventually get them to become interested in fangaming through osmosis. like i've said before, regular "big" fangame competitions would be an incredibly easy way to garner interest and show that "this is important to the website" and most of the fan media aspect is mostly through simply hosting things. i think regardless what direction we go in we absolutely should post news on official mario games and new nintendo consoles purely because without them i can't imagine updates being very interesting. it's building on the foundation to make sure every aspect of the website is interesting and engaging. fanart leads to game assets. fan music leads to... well, it leads to composing. both of these assets are HUGE in creating games and i dunno about anyone else, but i think the average quality of assets being submitted has lowered. educating on how to make fangames is its own beast that would be tackled on top of this. the idea here is to pin down ways to get people into fangame development by demonstrating how general fanworks can be used to creating better fangames. it also promotes the community by giving everyone a place. [quote="[url=http://phpbb.mfgg.net/viewtopic.php?p=506196#p506196]Kritter[/url]"]Also as a side note, part of the issue with MFGG is that the site simply isn't user friendly anymore, something that'll hopefully be addressed with MFGG3.0 People are far more likely to head somewhere like TSR for sprites and more likely to stay for the community.[/quote] TSR is also a community dedicated to ripping assets from all games official or otherwise, so their scope is basically already as wide as it needs to be. they also have ties to huge places like the cutting room floor and of course did you know gaming, so they have nothing to worry about. i am positive that user friendliness and honestly even community are not huge reasons for their success. i understand that fangaming is a niche but the people that fit into this niche basically consist of everyone currently on this forum. as we've expressed before there's not enough tutorials and resources that can be easily found and accessed that are also easily understood for those looking to get into it, and it's definitely not easy to learn on your own. we've flushed out the likes of hello engine SMB3 clones almost wholly, but we didn't replace it with some kind of useful alternative so the only fangames that get finished and released are the ones made by veterans that have already been doing this for years. newbies rarely release fangames, of any quality, because i can only assume they don't know how. there's steps we need to take in order to get everything to work as fluidly and efficiently, and i genuinely think that expanding scope is a step we'll have to take at some point. being a bit more lax in terms of what gets submitted is also a good step, but we would need to make sure it's easily understood. an update on the main site would be a good idea since currently the main site and the boards are effectively two different communities.