In this post I'm responding to Mors, since I promised a proper response to his original post. I'll try my best to respond to other people's concerns when I get a chance (meaning "not now because I need to go to bed soon"). Staff IssuesFirst of all, I'm going to take some of the responsibility here. Over the past year, I was in an accelerated grad school program (which means earning a master's degree in just one calendar year, which also means I was back to having way too many team projects). I was working two different jobs, too! I was pretty busy, and thinking about how to make MFGG more active was often the last thing on my mind, and often I didn't want to spend my free time trying to smooth over interpersonal conflict occurring in unofficial chat groups. This isn't a humblebrag about how amazing I was last year, though. While I was indeed busy, I still could've been more proactive about MFGG things. "Busy" is always a relative term, and you can always find a little more gas in the tank if you look for it. Quite a few other staff members were busy with "real life" stuff as well, and sometimes we didn't respond as quickly or communicate as much as we should've. Over the past few months, we've taken several steps to give members a bigger voice in determining the long-term direction of our site, as well as an avenue for discussing any concerns about the day-to-day operations of the site. Not every decision can be made by popular vote, but we try our best to listen to members' ideas and use this feedback to make better decisions. If it ever feels like we're not listening, be patient and rest assured that we are doing our best to listen to our community. And if I'm ever sidetracked by Real Life stuff, you can always shoot me a PM or a Skype/Discord message and talk one-on-one. I totally agree that mods should leave a message explaining why a topic was locked. Super Mario WTL mentioned how there should be some formal guidelines for staff members - and believe it or not, there actually are. Every once in a while we've deviated from the best practices for staff members, but I'd like to mention that there are some formal standards, and I'll make a few updates to them once the MyBB forums launch (since that's a great time to update all the stickies, including those in the staff forum). In the case of Nite, we made him an admin so he could hand out badges. Nite's an awesome guy most of the time, but he can be a bit sensitive about certain things, which is why I didn't want him to do too much forum moderation aside from handing out badges and slaying spambots with his mighty crowbar. The good news is MyBB has much more granular permissions, so it'll be easier to give badge mod powers to people who aren't full admins. The other staff members do a more detailed job of explaining how the selection process works for new staff members, so I won't say much about that. I'd be lying if we said we didn't have a tendency to pick people we know well, but I'd also like to note that being able to submit an application (which is the process we've used for most of the promotion decisions made in the past four years) helps us consider cool people who fly under the radar. For example, Gameboy was someone we promoted that I hadn't talked to very much. I once made a list of 17 criteria we're looking for in staff members, but basically we're looking for people with good communication skills, an even temper, and the time and commitment to making MFGG a better place. And yes, we do have a bit of a preference for "nice" people - especially since staff members are often the first people that new members interact with (whether it's rejection notices for mainsite submissions, questions about the community, or requests to affiliate with their site). Quality ControlYeah, there have been some times when we've accepted iffy-quality stuff, but we've also been criticized for declining certain borderline submissions. It's a difficult tightrope to walk. I think the mainsite is due for a cleanup of low-quality or redundant submissions - it's been a while since we've done that. DMCAsFear of takedowns may be a contributing factor to the recent decline in fangame output, although I don't think it's the biggest factor. MFGG's activity level has been declining for a while, a decline that began many years before a handful of high-profile fangames were taken down about a year ago. I can't speak for everyone at Nintendo (or whatever law firm Nintendo hired), although I agree that most of the takedowns can be attributed to a handful of factors (monetization, or being a close remake of a game that Nintendo is still selling). When the new forums launch, I was planning to include an updated version of the Fangaming FAQ that addresses this and other common questions. I've seen an increase in anti-fangame sentiment on Twitter, which is worrisome. There's not too much we can do about changing other people's attitudes, but social media still gives us an opportunity to tell our side of the story (that we're Nintendo fans making nonprofit fangames for fun, and that evidence suggests that we do best when Nintendo games are popular). The Difficulty of Fangame CreationI agree that there's been a trend toward really big, ambitious projects getting more attention than small-scale minigames. I still think there's an audience for simple minigames that are done well, though. For example, The Purple Coin was basically a minigame (albeit a minigame with a bunch of different levels), yet it dominated MFGG Awards not that long ago. Also, games can be wacky and popular at the same time - the Charisma Bros. games are offbeat games with relatively simple gameplay, but they've been well-received. I don't see any reason why we can't have minigames and big, ambitious projects coexisting. As for engines, I think MFGG's attitude towards premade engines has shifted quite a bit in the past five years or so. Many of us have realized that premade engines aren't such a bad thing as long as you change some of the base elements (and use them to make good games). However, I suspect that the release of Mario Maker has quenched many MFGGers' thirst for using engines as a level editor. It's been ages since I've seen a Hello Engine game (in fact, I've seen more "games" made with his level editor than with the actual Hello Engine), and Gatete Engine games aren't as common as they used to be, either. It would be cool if MFGG had a really good engine for teaching people how to do things in GM. Dazzle's engine is the best-annotated one I've seen, although his fell by the wayside for some reason (maybe because it's not on the mainsite or Wiki). Shifting the FocusAs for specific features, it's not feasible to add anything new to the mainsite until lumaSMS launches. I'm not too keen on removing updates, since those are also a great way to post a summary of MFGG news. Broadening our scope beyond Mario fangames is an option, but I'd be more willing to consider it if there was some evidence that MFGG was interested in making fangames and resources for Zelda, Metroid, Fire Emblem, or whatnot. If you want MFGG to move in that direction, you can always start making them yourself - or invite people who are interested in such things. The forums already allow non-Mario fangames, and we don't see those much. As for ROM hacks, SMW Central has already established itself as the leading resource for Mario-related ROM hacking, and I'm not sure what we would gain from trying to beat them at ROM hacking (unless we're just trying to attract "SMWC dissidents" who are dissatisfied with the community for one reason or another). It would be cool to have more ROM hacks on the boards, though, and embracing ROM hacks on the mainsite may still be worth considering. It would be cool to have more events and initiatives encouraging people to play fangames. Better promotion for Streams/LPs, more use of the online high scores system (which does indeed work!), a "Random Cool Game of the Day", and collections of fangames you've played/beaten could all facilitate that goal. Oh, and we could get better at posting GOTM awards. Q-Nova and I (mostly Q-Nova) have been working on that. Scaring Away Fangame DevelopersYeah, it's a bummer when game development topics get ignored - and it hurts even more when promising games don't attract the attention they deserve. If you're a new member who's just made your first game, you'd probably appreciate knowing that people saw your game and took the time to play it - and maybe even offered to help you become better at what you love to do. I haven't found a way to do a thorough analysis of what causes new members to leave or stick around, but I believe that encouraging new members is one of the most important things to do to improve member retention. Evil Yoshi Toes touched on an important point, in that yucky mainsite comments probably play a role in making the environment less inviting to new mainsite users. In the mainsite's current state, it's impossible to monitor the latest comments (except by going into the database and running your own queries, which is as cumbersome as it sounds), so we have to rely on the users to report bad comments. When lumaSMS launches, comment mods will have a much easier time monitoring topics and taking action as appropriate. In the case of Nick, I understand it's important to support people who contribute to the fangaming scene, although it's also true that people were taking up torches and pitchforks against Yoshin - and Yoshin makes games, too. Being accused of stealing someone else's work is not a small criticism, and it's totally understandable if Yoshin wasn't happy with being accused of such. I'm not a fan of giving special privileges to prolific contributors, but I do agree that better recognition of contributors would be nice. It might be cool to make better use of the other "Super Submitter" badges that we have but have never used. Leaving?If you want to take a break from MFGG, I totally understand. I hope you'll consider sticking around, though. You're making a very cool fangame, and you're always a contender for Best MFGG Username! We're working hard to make MFGG a better place, and we think the MyBB rollout will make life more enjoyable for everyone on MFGG.
In this post I'm responding to Mors, since I promised a proper response to his original post. I'll try my best to respond to other people's concerns when I get a chance (meaning "not now because I need to go to bed soon").
[b]Staff Issues[/b]
First of all, I'm going to take some of the responsibility here. Over the past year, I was in an accelerated grad school program (which means earning a master's degree in just one calendar year, which also means I was back to having way too many team projects). I was working two different jobs, too! I was pretty busy, and thinking about how to make MFGG more active was often the last thing on my mind, and often I didn't want to spend my free time trying to smooth over interpersonal conflict occurring in unofficial chat groups. This isn't a humblebrag about how amazing I was last year, though. While I was indeed busy, I still could've been more proactive about MFGG things. "Busy" is always a relative term, and you can always find a little more gas in the tank if you look for it. Quite a few other staff members were busy with "real life" stuff as well, and sometimes we didn't respond as quickly or communicate as much as we should've.
Over the past few months, we've taken several steps to give members a bigger voice in determining the long-term direction of our site, as well as an avenue for discussing any concerns about the day-to-day operations of the site. Not every decision can be made by popular vote, but we try our best to listen to members' ideas and use this feedback to make better decisions. If it ever feels like we're not listening, be patient and rest assured that we are doing our best to listen to our community. And if I'm ever sidetracked by Real Life stuff, you can always shoot me a PM or a Skype/Discord message and talk one-on-one.
I totally agree that mods should leave a message explaining why a topic was locked. Super Mario WTL mentioned how there should be some formal guidelines for staff members - and believe it or not, there actually are. Every once in a while we've deviated from the best practices for staff members, but I'd like to mention that there are some formal standards, and I'll make a few updates to them once the MyBB forums launch (since that's a great time to update all the stickies, including those in the staff forum).
In the case of Nite, we made him an admin so he could hand out badges. Nite's an awesome guy most of the time, but he can be a bit sensitive about certain things, which is why I didn't want him to do too much forum moderation aside from handing out badges and slaying spambots with his mighty crowbar. The good news is MyBB has much more granular permissions, so it'll be easier to give badge mod powers to people who aren't full admins.
The other staff members do a more detailed job of explaining how the selection process works for new staff members, so I won't say much about that. I'd be lying if we said we didn't have a tendency to pick people we know well, but I'd also like to note that being able to submit an application (which is the process we've used for most of the promotion decisions made in the past four years) helps us consider cool people who fly under the radar. For example, Gameboy was someone we promoted that I hadn't talked to very much.
I once made a list of 17 criteria we're looking for in staff members, but basically we're looking for people with good communication skills, an even temper, and the time and commitment to making MFGG a better place. And yes, we do have a bit of a preference for "nice" people - especially since staff members are often the first people that new members interact with (whether it's rejection notices for mainsite submissions, questions about the community, or requests to affiliate with their site).
[b]Quality Control[/b]
Yeah, there have been some times when we've accepted iffy-quality stuff, but we've also been criticized for declining certain borderline submissions. It's a difficult tightrope to walk. I think the mainsite is due for a cleanup of low-quality or redundant submissions - it's been a while since we've done that.
[b]DMCAs[/b]
Fear of takedowns may be a contributing factor to the recent decline in fangame output, although I don't think it's the biggest factor. MFGG's activity level has been declining for a while, a decline that began many years before a handful of high-profile fangames were taken down about a year ago.
I can't speak for everyone at Nintendo (or whatever law firm Nintendo hired), although I agree that most of the takedowns can be attributed to a handful of factors (monetization, or being a close remake of a game that Nintendo is still selling). When the new forums launch, I was planning to include an updated version of the [url=http://phpbb.mfgg.net/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=12056]Fangaming FAQ[/url] that addresses this and other common questions.
I've seen an increase in anti-fangame sentiment on Twitter, which is worrisome. There's not too much we can do about changing other people's attitudes, but social media still gives us an opportunity to tell our side of the story (that we're Nintendo fans making nonprofit fangames for fun, and that evidence suggests that we do best when Nintendo games are popular).
[b]The Difficulty of Fangame Creation[/b]
I agree that there's been a trend toward really big, ambitious projects getting more attention than small-scale minigames. I still think there's an audience for simple minigames that are done well, though. For example, The Purple Coin was basically a minigame (albeit a minigame with a bunch of different levels), yet it dominated MFGG Awards not that long ago. Also, games can be wacky and popular at the same time - the Charisma Bros. games are offbeat games with relatively simple gameplay, but they've been well-received. I don't see any reason why we can't have minigames and big, ambitious projects coexisting.
As for engines, I think MFGG's attitude towards premade engines has shifted quite a bit in the past five years or so. Many of us have realized that premade engines aren't such a bad thing as long as you change some of the base elements (and use them to make good games). However, I suspect that the release of Mario Maker has quenched many MFGGers' thirst for using engines as a level editor. It's been ages since I've seen a Hello Engine game (in fact, I've seen more "games" made with his level editor than with the actual Hello Engine), and Gatete Engine games aren't as common as they used to be, either.
It would be cool if MFGG had a really good engine for teaching people how to do things in GM. Dazzle's engine is the best-annotated one I've seen, although his fell by the wayside for some reason (maybe because it's not on the mainsite or Wiki).
[b]Shifting the Focus[/b]
As for specific features, it's not feasible to add anything new to the mainsite until lumaSMS launches. I'm not too keen on removing updates, since those are also a great way to post a summary of MFGG news. Broadening our scope beyond Mario fangames is an option, but I'd be more willing to consider it if there was some evidence that MFGG was interested in making fangames and resources for Zelda, Metroid, Fire Emblem, or whatnot. If you want MFGG to move in that direction, you can always start making them yourself - or invite people who are interested in such things. The forums already allow non-Mario fangames, and we don't see those much. As for ROM hacks, SMW Central has already established itself as the leading resource for Mario-related ROM hacking, and I'm not sure what we would gain from trying to beat them at ROM hacking (unless we're just trying to attract "SMWC dissidents" who are dissatisfied with the community for one reason or another). It would be cool to have more ROM hacks on the boards, though, and embracing ROM hacks on the mainsite may still be worth considering.
It would be cool to have more events and initiatives encouraging people to play fangames. Better promotion for Streams/LPs, more use of the online high scores system (which does indeed work!), a "Random Cool Game of the Day", and collections of fangames you've played/beaten could all facilitate that goal. Oh, and we could get better at posting GOTM awards. Q-Nova and I (mostly Q-Nova) have been working on that.
[b]Scaring Away Fangame Developers[/b]
Yeah, it's a bummer when game development topics get ignored - and it hurts even more when promising games don't attract the attention they deserve. If you're a new member who's just made your first game, you'd probably appreciate knowing that people saw your game and took the time to play it - and maybe even offered to help you become better at what you love to do. I haven't found a way to do a thorough analysis of what causes new members to leave or stick around, but I believe that encouraging new members is one of the most important things to do to improve member retention.
Evil Yoshi Toes touched on an important point, in that yucky mainsite comments probably play a role in making the environment less inviting to new mainsite users. In the mainsite's current state, it's impossible to monitor the latest comments (except by going into the database and running your own queries, which is as cumbersome as it sounds), so we have to rely on the users to report bad comments. When lumaSMS launches, comment mods will have a much easier time monitoring topics and taking action as appropriate.
In the case of Nick, I understand it's important to support people who contribute to the fangaming scene, although it's also true that people were taking up torches and pitchforks against Yoshin - and Yoshin makes games, too. Being accused of stealing someone else's work is not a small criticism, and it's totally understandable if Yoshin wasn't happy with being accused of such.
I'm not a fan of giving special privileges to prolific contributors, but I do agree that better recognition of contributors would be nice. It might be cool to make better use of the other "Super Submitter" badges that we have but have never used.
[b]Leaving?[/b]
If you want to take a break from MFGG, I totally understand. I hope you'll consider sticking around, though. You're making a very cool fangame, and you're always a contender for Best MFGG Username! We're working hard to make MFGG a better place, and we think the MyBB rollout will make life more enjoyable for everyone on MFGG.
_________________
Course clear! You got a card.
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