Stiltzkinator
Evard's Tentacles of Forced Intrusion
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2010
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Re: Can we get better topic categories or prefixes? (MODS AND ADMINS GET IN ERE)
For the record, I'm not doing this to be smug or boastful, as I don't enjoy having my point proven quite like this.
One of the biggest issues we have is the size of our user base now. There's a lot of threads being posted, a lot of people coming and going to and form the forum, and just in general a lot of people involved. Lurkers are used to fishing for free links, while developers are wary of us for that exact same reason.
Maybe it would help if we could take a more consistent stance on what exactly this forum is for (and what it is not). I know a primary function of the Hentai Games forum here is for discussing games, but it's when we go beyond just discussing them that things get weird. Most games are posted with the implication that there is, or will be, if possible, a link to acquire the game provided. A number of people will come here from various parts of the internet/world looking for particular games, and if they don't find it, they may post a topic on it in hopes that a link will show up. Sometimes these threads begin as a fair discussion despite this intent, but other are clearly nothing more than a desperate request. We also enter some strange territories when it comes to game translations, particularly when done by members of this community, as it's difficult to provide an amateur translation without also including the original full game.
I don't point all of this out to condone or condemn it, but to critique it. What kind of forum should this ultimately be, and what kinds of people would we like to have posting, and what kinds of threads should they post?
*Personal Opinion Follows*
For my part, I would say the more informative and organized/standardized, the better. Since this is primarily an English language board, I think that any game which has an official English title, should be posted using that (English) title. Similarly, games that have Katakana titles which are meant to be English words or names, should use those intended English words as their title (e.g. "Iris Action", and NOT "アイリス☆アクション"). For those who discover a game and don't know how to read any Japanese, posting a Japanese title for a thread should be allowed, but the original poster should be willing to change the title later if someone is able to tell them what it translates to (though realistically speaking, anyone who has an interest in Japanese H-games should at LEAST learn katakana, it makes for a much better experience and isn't that difficult). Games named in full Japanese become harder to standardize, of course, but I personally think that if there is a fairly concise and accurate translate, we should use it. That said, if a thread has a an English title for a Japanese game, including the original Japanese name in the thread will help a competent poster find it with a search, and help avoid a small amount of duplicates (incompetent posters are beyond our help anyway). As for what else goes in a game's thread, I think the bare minimum of a game's description should include platform (PC disc, Flash, RPGMaker, Web/browser, Wolf, exe, etc) and gameplay type (action, RPG, puzzle, text+cgi), and when appropriate, any special interest the game caters to (vore, NTR, guro, loli; basically, anything that might turn away potential interest AND/OR anything restricted by the forum rules). Controls and walkthroughs are always handy, but this forum does a pretty good job of having those pop up pretty quickly if they are really required for a particular game.
All of the last paragraph is, as stated, just my personal opinion on a standardized approach to posting new games. However, I'm not in charge of this forum, so feel free to ignore it, condemn it, or even make some changes and use it yourself.
Going back to the original, slightly simpler issue at hand here, as hinted just above, I wonder if we have too many way of categorizing games to implement a new, single set of tag/categories. Discussing the problem is always easier than actually finding the solution.
http://www.ulmf.org/bbs/showthread.php?t=23656
For the record, I'm not doing this to be smug or boastful, as I don't enjoy having my point proven quite like this.
One of the biggest issues we have is the size of our user base now. There's a lot of threads being posted, a lot of people coming and going to and form the forum, and just in general a lot of people involved. Lurkers are used to fishing for free links, while developers are wary of us for that exact same reason.
Maybe it would help if we could take a more consistent stance on what exactly this forum is for (and what it is not). I know a primary function of the Hentai Games forum here is for discussing games, but it's when we go beyond just discussing them that things get weird. Most games are posted with the implication that there is, or will be, if possible, a link to acquire the game provided. A number of people will come here from various parts of the internet/world looking for particular games, and if they don't find it, they may post a topic on it in hopes that a link will show up. Sometimes these threads begin as a fair discussion despite this intent, but other are clearly nothing more than a desperate request. We also enter some strange territories when it comes to game translations, particularly when done by members of this community, as it's difficult to provide an amateur translation without also including the original full game.
I don't point all of this out to condone or condemn it, but to critique it. What kind of forum should this ultimately be, and what kinds of people would we like to have posting, and what kinds of threads should they post?
*Personal Opinion Follows*
For my part, I would say the more informative and organized/standardized, the better. Since this is primarily an English language board, I think that any game which has an official English title, should be posted using that (English) title. Similarly, games that have Katakana titles which are meant to be English words or names, should use those intended English words as their title (e.g. "Iris Action", and NOT "アイリス☆アクション"). For those who discover a game and don't know how to read any Japanese, posting a Japanese title for a thread should be allowed, but the original poster should be willing to change the title later if someone is able to tell them what it translates to (though realistically speaking, anyone who has an interest in Japanese H-games should at LEAST learn katakana, it makes for a much better experience and isn't that difficult). Games named in full Japanese become harder to standardize, of course, but I personally think that if there is a fairly concise and accurate translate, we should use it. That said, if a thread has a an English title for a Japanese game, including the original Japanese name in the thread will help a competent poster find it with a search, and help avoid a small amount of duplicates (incompetent posters are beyond our help anyway). As for what else goes in a game's thread, I think the bare minimum of a game's description should include platform (PC disc, Flash, RPGMaker, Web/browser, Wolf, exe, etc) and gameplay type (action, RPG, puzzle, text+cgi), and when appropriate, any special interest the game caters to (vore, NTR, guro, loli; basically, anything that might turn away potential interest AND/OR anything restricted by the forum rules). Controls and walkthroughs are always handy, but this forum does a pretty good job of having those pop up pretty quickly if they are really required for a particular game.
All of the last paragraph is, as stated, just my personal opinion on a standardized approach to posting new games. However, I'm not in charge of this forum, so feel free to ignore it, condemn it, or even make some changes and use it yourself.
Going back to the original, slightly simpler issue at hand here, as hinted just above, I wonder if we have too many way of categorizing games to implement a new, single set of tag/categories. Discussing the problem is always easier than actually finding the solution.
