Yop set up a page with both streams and the chat window to #tls, and it was a lot of fun.
I set that up, Yop just uploaded it
It wasn't difficult, though it was a bit rough-and-ready. When the new site goes up it would be worth considering a dedicated stream page, with the TLS Twitch channel embedded, and maybe (if people can commit to it) a schedule of what is going to be streamed.
I guess we could get better at PR when it comes to those events, since the Front page isn't checked that regularly. Making a thread is good PR, except that it hasn't really worked that well for both the race or the playthrough
Yeah, I often make threads for the things I put on the front page, but that doesn't seem to help very much. I guess people just aren't interested - and I'll get onto that in a moment.
We might just need to be stricter on setting up a schedule for stuff - like for the drinking nights. Those are the last Friday of the month, no matter what else is happening, and. (And yes Flint, that does include printing "6 PM London time, 2 PM Toronto time" and not "5 UTC"
Also I'm not saying the scheduling of the Community Playthrough has been bad - on the contrary your scheduling and planning has been excellent, let me just get that straight.)
In my defence, I have always put the timezones in the drinking night posts, just not in the playthrough because there aren't so many people doing it. But I take your point
It's always good to have multiple people working on community projects so one can spot things like that which the other wouldn't even think about (ahem)
I hope as many as possible will join in with their critique then, it is very valiable and vital for the project to be successfull.
Seconded. I'm going to be working on the graphics for the new version, and I always work better when given some requirements and suggestions rather than just "do what you think looks good". I'm sure Shademp will be cracking the whip
I think the thing with FFVII is that while we all still love it, it's a 15-year old game and nothing's happened in the compilation for a few years except for SE saying they're not doing a remake. It could be that it discourages any enthusiasm for VII-related projects. A lot of us have discussed nearly everything there is to discuss about VII already. XD
That's true, but it shouldn't stop FFVII from being the main theme of this site. I've seen loads of thriving Beatles forums, despite the fact that the band split up over forty years ago and aren't exactly releasing a lot of new material
Personally, I was doing the VII LP Commentaries, and I plan to do more when the videos are ready. Just because people don't participate or find interest in EVERY project doesn't mean people don't care about the site and shit. And maybe there are people that don't want to do any projects at all, and that's fine.
As someone who has got involved in a lot of projects, let me just say that I agree with this. It is fine. Taking part in FFVII-related discussions (even the LTD!) is one way in which most members can, and do, contribute a lot without having to make commitments or put in too much effort, but it's very important for this site. Nobody should feel bad about not taking part in anything, though I understand Fangu's sentiment that it would be nice for a few more people to care, or show they care.
And I LOVE Celes' idea of doing live commentary on VII over skype while watching someone stream the game. And if at all possible, we can do that (or LP commentaries) with Dirge & Crisis Core as well.
Some of us are already doing just that! It's been mentioned before in this thread, but Yop streamed Crisis Core for a while not long ago, and four of us regularly get together to play/watch FFVII and Skype at the same time. We've advertised it in the playthrough thread and on IRC - for a while, I got into the habit of making the #TLS channel topic include "Live now: Cthulhu streams Crisis Core", or whatever happens to be the case. As Fangu has said, with the new version of the site, we'll be trying to give events like that more exposure so that more people can join in. Social networks should also be used to publicise that sort of stuff. We shouldn't worry too much about being made obsolete by Facebook or Twitter, as Akuto Sai mentioned, if we can embrace them; just look at how many other popular sites have presences on one or both of those services.
As far as attracting newcomers to the site, I still feel that marketing a 15-year old game is going to limit how many new people come in. Yeah, people are out there playing it for the first time, but probably not many. I had voiced in the past that we shouldn't be afraid to jump into the other FF games. (we do a little, but not really.) Lure in the newer crowd that's playing XIII (or future games), while still focusing on VII stuff. How? idk, I'm just the idea man
Tres had done a lot of Dissidia stuff, and Ryu is doing the FFU commentary. And I think that really makes a difference because it's giving people something new to look at. (FFU is old, but a lot of people never saw it.)
Just an example - I don't think there's been anything on the front page about Theatrhythm (unless I'm wrong?). And why not? It's a new game coming out, and even if you're not interested in non-VII things, Cloud, Sephiroth, & Aerith are in the game!
Although I think the focus of the site should remain FFVII - if only because there are already dozens of series-wide FF sites out there, while we're the number one VII site - I wouldn't be averse to seeing some other news from the series make it to the front page. New game releases, like Theatrhythm, are a good opportunity. Perhaps some members would like to review such games when they are released and make them available for publishing?
Serious question, does anyone here frequent any other FF based forums? Are they all as jaded as we are? I feel like somewhere out there there is still a pocket of fans who still have hope....maybe we should find them and kidnapp them?
I don't currently visit any other FF forums, but I used to. A place called AWFF (All World Final Fantasy) was my "home on the internet" for a very long time, probably six years or so. And it got very jaded. Like TLS, it was a forum that then developed a site, rather than an already-popular site which added a forum. That meant that it was always struggling to find uses for its main site, and as a consequence, it was struggling to attract new members. Even though the existing members said they would stick around to talk to each other, they gradually migrated elsewhere, either alone or in groups. That's not at all unusual for any forum, but without new members, it just led to a slow and unavoidable decline. TLS is different in that it already has a niche in which to live in. We just need to make the most of it
All I can do (as I have already done) is commend Flintlock on his determination to lead this community event. We are very lucky to have him on this site and I hope that if he ever considers to leave I can provide him with ample reason to stay. Same with Fangu really. She is a true godsend too.
I don't think I deserve that much commendation! But you know, at the danger of turning this into a mutual back-slapping festival, I really appreciate the work you put in for this site. Your findings and articles alone are enough reason for me to stay here, don't worry!
So in short, I don't think the task is to convince people that FFVII is still hip. That will never work because for most people FFVII is just a footnote in their gaming library and not a full-blown hobby.
The task is to find the devoted fans out there, spread across YouTube and FFVII fan sites, and get them to come HERE and contribute. The sub-task is to not spend hours complaining about the Compilation (because this will only serve to demotivate the entire community), but instead work on cataloguing it.
+1. Wait, no, +100. Though I'm not known to be a great fan of the compilation
someone should put together trivia games for the front page that people can play in their freetime
you can develop one for each game
I think that's an excellent idea. Another website I visit which uses Wordpress as its base, called F1 Fanatic, has regular
quizzes, and they are very popular. I think they might use custom code, though. If we find it too difficult to come up with questions which can't be easily Googled, we could adopt the style from the BBC News website's
weekly quizzes, the answers to which are all available on the very same site, but which is designed to just be a bit of fun and to test your memory rather than be anything competitive - so the scores aren't saved or anything.
I always wanted to try and contribute, but yeah, life and laziness gets in the way. I have a skeleton of an essay on why Barret deserves more respect than he gets sitting on my computer for over a year.
I'm just here to say that I really enjoy what effort people bring up with the projects, whether it is write ups or lp's. yeah. I wouldn't mind if there was regular podcast or video debate put up or something because the people on this forum are fascinating.
Firstly, post your essay on Barret! He's definitely one of my favourite characters from VII. I posted a little bit about that in the
playthrough (last couple of paragraphs of that post, if it seems too long). Secondly, I've thought about the merits of a podcast before. I'm not sure how many people would listen to it, but it could be fun and a good community event to make. The only thing is that we would need new things to talk about each week
