A forum for Upcoming Games and Current Game News

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WinterBlues

New member
I would really like to see a specialised forum for SIMs and Virtual Pet games if that is possible?

So a game would post the title of their game and have one thread which they just update with the news of their site e.g events, new content, bug fixes, etc. I would also love to see an Upcoming Game forum where we can see announcements for new games that are in development?

I don't see any forums which really cover this, or if they do it's too broad, hence why I think a specialised forum would be great? Perhaps the forum could be 'Game Trackers' and have a sub-forum of 'Coming Soon' or something like that?

Sorry if it's already been done and I'm just majorly overlooking things!

 
I would like this too.

Like a seperate section for VPs and SIMs. With both existing and upcoming sites!

And should upcoming sites get released into the open, the topic on upcming could be closed and given a redirect to the new topic in Existing?

 
@jakdacrowe  I don't know really. I would love to see a board where people bounce ideas for their own games but also the ability to reply to official site threads should be allowed I think? Are you talking about discussions ABOUT sites? Like debates? 

 
@WinterBlues

More like... Responding to the site updates and discussing about it in the thread itself.

It'll keep the topic up for a long time if people do that. Which could have good or bad sides to it, especially for Existing sites. Like, maybe someone's here for actual site news only?

Mmm. Of course this would be great for Upcoming sites. Ideas for features, suggestions, questions to think about, input on what we have so far.

 
So, although I love this idea, I wonder how active it would be. VPL struggled to bring in actual news or updates to games.

It has been my experience that most game developers tend to keep their projects under tight lock and key until they are just about to release, then go all out. Few keep an ongoing log of news. Some sites do have news once released, but getting that information on the boards is hit and miss, as they post for their players on their sites. VPL only did this for IcePets and MisticPets because they imported their RSS feeds. Not all sites have RSS feeds (few do actually).

Open to hearing more feedback though on this, if the community still is all for it, then it happens (my opinion does not trump anyone else)

 
I don't mind combining VP sites and SIM sites, I'm happy to just consider them all browser-based games and kind of be done there but I do like the idea of an area for upcoming games where people can 'leak' artwork and and such. I think that was a huge factor in Flight Rising being SO popular straight from launch. 

 
I think part of VPL's problem was that the site news wasn't presented in an interesting format anymore. It felt kinda spammy and not very engaging for conversation. The RSS didn't help to give interesting titles (it would just be like Petsite News instead of Petsite Adds New Questline!), and then there would be unimportant/unrelavant to an outside forum updates like game trophies, staff notes, etc. Eventually, these would all have to be merged into an unfriendly "super topic."

But whenever there were legitimate posts that were given a little care to make sure the formatting translated over well and there was enough context to what site it was from (link backs, banners, etc), it seemed to get a bit more engagement from the community and far more views.

Personally, I think it might be best to just start out with one development forum, and as TGL grows and there's a need for subsections, then add those.

I know updates can be few with games in development, but maybe if there's something to help set it apart from others? If there was a blog-like format/profile to follow games in development or a different thread tag (just two of the many possibilities)? Mostly I think new games just want to do the initial advertisement, and maaaybe a few updates in between. I'm not sure if adding this forum might even help pull in other Indie games too. If it's given the focus and push to become an important feature here, then I'm sure it would be used by forum owners and social media staff.

Also, I think VPL or VPU (way back when) used to reward a badge or something to users who were pretty consistent with posting over news , so maybe an adoptable or something could be incorporated for incentive if there is a need for help getting content posted.

Just a few more ideas :P

 
Hmm, maybe I can look at adding a blog feature to the game list to allow updates there? As well as a way to showcase it.

 
I agree with pepper (and most of the other people who posted!) Better to keep it small and active than bloated and empty. It could be done, though! It would just need to be maybe a simple, single thread with these all sitting within? That should keep it clean enough and easy to follow. 

 
So, since this just kinda died, how about this:

  • Game news being community powered. Meaning members who play games may post news.
  • A few members may be Community Leaders and actually have a task to try and post some as a volunteer gig.
  • Thread per game, with news basically just being new posts.
These are rough ideas. What does the community think?

 
I used to keep a thread on VPL with updates once or twice a month showing off new features and whatenot for my game, which is still in closed beta (about 2 years in the making). Not sure if what TGL has in mind will be the same or really similar. If there was a place for me to do these posts, I would make use of it, but either way is all good =) 

 
Digital said:
So, since this just kinda died, how about this:

  • Game news being community powered. Meaning members who play games may post news.
  • A few members may be Community Leaders and actually have a task to try and post some as a volunteer gig.
  • Thread per game, with news basically just being new posts.
These are rough ideas. What does the community think?
Click to expand...
Would it be possible to perhaps integrate something into the games list, so that perhaps the creator could update a consistent stream of updates there instead?

Perhaps there could be a forum category where we aren't able to create new topics, however any content added to the above idea would auto link into a new thread for replies etc. 

Perhaps a game creator could also give others (i.e., "staff" from their game) permission to update their game with news?

Im just throwing random ideas out there. I think keeping all updates for a game within 1 thread could have the potential to have new updates lost once a few people have relied?

 
I used to update my games on VPL as well. Wasn't necessarily a set amount of time, just when I had something new that I felt was worth a new post or update. I liked doing that and felt like it had some benefit and would do that on here too.

A news option connected to the show case would be okay, but it's not really the same. I don't know if I would use it or not, especially if this news was only shown when you were browsing the showcase. Posting a new thread with updates or adding to a old post would put it back to unread posts for people when browsing. This to me is important as it lets people who aren't necessarily seeking out your game get a catch to see it and know about it. And I know I did browse and check out the updates myself except skipping a lot of the over populated RSS feed sites. 

And speaking of the RSS feeds I did feel it ended up making the boards cluttered sometimes with the same small handful that used it with news that wasn't necessarily worth reading to someone who isn't actively playing

 
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