Community Playthroughs

S

SingSong

Writer
My idea for this is that every 2 weeks or maybe every month for longer games (because I know a lot of people don't have that much free time), the forum chooses a game to play through together. I know of quite a few online sites of games and retro games on individual websites that can be played for free. A lot of these are shorter, so members won't have to invest a tremendous amount of time. Some are not even made with full stories or levels involved but with just a few short things to accomplish. In this way, there's a variety to experience without needing to spend weeks on each one.

In the future, we can expand this to the more popular games (such as the latest ones on consoles or acclaimed indie games on steam) that would need to be paid for.

The purpose would be to have a set limit of time to experience the game and then discuss it with everyone else in the community. What was the most fun part about it? What was the biggest design flaw?

We could even have a specific page on this site dedicated to our "community reviews". So each person that participates in the playthrough can respond with:

Time Spent:

Played to Completion: (Yes | No | N/A)

Rating: (Between 1-5 Stars)

Comments:

The page on this site where community reviews are stored would show the game's name, a screenshot of it (or a few), and a description below it.

Then it would includes these stats.

Average Rating:

Reviews: (The total amount here)

Lastly, the most recent review would be shown with the link to view all community reviews for the game.

To make this more interesting, maybe some exclusive adoptables could be provided specifically for members that take part in these playthroughs? I suppose I wouldn't mind drawing some.

Maybe there could be an attribute underneath user avatars titled "Reviews" and the amount that person has left on this site (for both playthrough games and otherwise).

If this community had something like this (essentially a book club but geared toward games), I would be more inclined to stick around, because then members would have a common goal and all get to discuss one game they're playing at the same time.

Every so often (if requested or desired), a playthrough may be opened up a subsequent time, allowing new members to have the "game club" experience with that same game. Their reviews would be taken into account on the game's page.

Who would partake in this?

 
I really like this idea, I think it will be amazingly useful to those here who have games to see what other game makers are up to, and also for aspiring game makers to be able to get a feel for mechanics that they might not have encountered before.

 
Those are exactly the same reasons I thought something like this would be beneficial.

Anyone else have an opinion on this? This would be better if at least 5 or more people were involved in the discussion of each game.

 
I might be able to participate if it was kept monthly, otherwise I might only be able to join in every other competition and I wouldn't wanna miss out! Sounds like a great way to collect multiple reviews in a friendly and fun environment though :)

What if each round there was a common goal players could work towards? It might help to give some motivation if people are having a hard time finding what to work towards in a game, and could be a good way to judge how far everyone got.

Ah also, I'm inclined to want to stay away from game challenges that need to be purchased to participate if it rewards an exclusive adopt. Not sure if I 100% understand the forum adoptable thing yet though, and it sounds like that would be a future thing anyway - but just throwing some discussion in there about it!

 
Pepper-Head said:
Not sure if I 100% understand the forum adoptable thing yet though, and it sounds like that would be a future thing anyway - but just throwing some discussion in there about it!
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Forum Adoptables for this would be as a unique pet award for participating. I would agree that the games that we put up for this would be free, or we would have to procure keys to allow those participating gain access for free. I would not want any member to pay for a game to play it to just review it here.

 
I like the Community Playthrough idea too - it could also be integrated with the Pet Evolution theory by where your pet gets X amount of Power for participating each month? This little suggestion could really prove fundamental to smaller, newer games getting some players and traffic through on their site with a bit of reviewing too.

 
Digital said:
@SingSong any ideas for a good free game to try out?
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Let me know what kind of things you're looking for:

Retro or relatively recent?

Browser-based? Requires download?

Story-driven adventure? Played with others online? Puzzle game or simple action game?

The majority of the free games I know are small indie ones (like ones made from RPG MAKER) or games that are free now but outdated (though this is not necessarily a bad thing, because newer games just rehash features from old games with few changes). Personally, I think any game would be worth analyzing, But let me know what direction you want to go with this.

 
I think the age of the game doesn't matter as a first run. I'd say the main choice of game would be one that could be played through (at least main story) relatively quickly or at least let us get a sense of the game relatively early on.

Heck, even if there was a pet game out to play that actually work well.

 
:love:  it's a book club but for games! A game club!! I am in LOVE with this idea. Being a fully employed game enthusiast I have an extremely large gaming library, and always looking to expand so I'd be up for buying steam/console games too. But I'm not a picky game played and it does make sense to start free or maybe do paid games few and far between.

 
Syntax said:
:love:  it's a book club but for games! A game club!! I am in LOVE with this idea. Being a fully employed game enthusiast I have an extremely large gaming library, and always looking to expand so I'd be up for buying steam/console games too. But I'm not a picky game played and it does make sense to start free or maybe do paid games few and far between.
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Awesome, we started out last week with the critique one for Flight Rising, and this week with the venerable Neopets. We are always looking for ideas or suggestions.

We could even do a game of the week type of thing where we choose a game for the week to encourage people to play them. Less critique more general fun?

 
So as some may have noticed that our "Let's Critiques" took a hiatus recently. Although I feel they are great, and although the most popular thing, I wanted to give the community time to re-assess them with me, and offer their input on what they thought?

 
Oh man. oh man oh man oh man

Sign me up! I have plenty of games I can suggest, free or not. Mostly browser, but majority are free.

Or maybe we could do multiple games in a week/month? At least one paid game maybe? Following a theme maybe? (i see october as a month for spooky games hehehh)

As far as I'm concerned, it gives you a choice to pick what to play and you'd be awarded for attending/reviewing at least one of the games?

EDIT: I can offer to draw a few adoptables if you guys like!

 
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Only thing I would suggest to add, would be perhaps how about having 2 streams of this active at any one time?

So each (example) Monday a new review thread starts, however it stays open for the current 2 weeks. 

 
Say would this include old games like starcontrol, wing commander privateer, dynamix stellar 7, the lost rainforest and others?

 
Boltgreywing said:
Say would this include old games like starcontrol, wing commander privateer, dynamix stellar 7, the lost rainforest and others?
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Probably nothing terribly old, it depends on accessibility and ability to play on relatively modern hardware.

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I am looking for any forum member who would be interested over and running these type of events for the forums.

 
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