So What's Next?

[Joker]

There's tons of LPs out there though, I mean... I don't think an LP is the best way to get visitors. You should try something unique. Something no other site has... dunno what that is but that'd what I'd do.

Amazing contribution, that.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

She sorta has a point, though. The best and most well known LPs are the ones that are really, really good, have a lot of personality to them, or have some magnetic gimmick to them. It's worth mentioning that there really ARE a lot of LPs where the guy is just like "Well, I'm going to use Thunder on this robot here...yeah...".

You're an interesting guy, though, so it's not something impossible for you to do!

beatbox the Zanarkand theme or some shit I dunno I mean damn

 

[Joker]

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough.

You should try something unique. Something no other site has... dunno what that is but that'd what I'd do.

As for personality, so far it looks like Alex and I will be working on it. I'll play the game, we edit out the level grinding, and hey presto! we have a LP. Although I think having other people in on it would be interesting as well - similar to how a podcast with hosts would have someone different every week to comment as well. And then we could do thematic conversation - be it the plot, discussion of fights, design, whatever.

I'm very passionate about this, and I'm going to make sure that it is amazing.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

For what little its worth, I have absolute faith in you, bro. Keep us in the loop, man!

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I second everything Mog has said, including that last post. I really look forward to whatever you're going to do, Megs.

 

[Alex]

I've seen quite a few Let's Play's now and they always get more interesting when it isn't just one guy narrating. Having two or three people involved and getting them debating, discussing and joking on together is the easiest and simplest way to make it better to watch for other people. Luckily there have been quite a few people interested in getting in on doing this, so I'm pretty confident.

 

[Joker]

I think what we've decided so far is that it will be Alex and I collaborating on the commentary, but I think it'd be kind of cool to have someone different for different parts of the experience; for example, if the game is broken into a number of 10-15 minute videos, have someone new join for three videos, then rotate.

Although we could certainly have more, ofc.

Thoughts?

 

[Joker]

Update: Shit.

Fraps sucks, because I refuse to pay to record in segments of more than 40 seconds. THe program I'm using instead doesn't record audio, barring what comes in from the mic. So I got another to pick up just the audio, and it absolutely sucks and gets nothing done.

Six hours of work, and an hour of gameplay, all wasted. why.

 

[Hisako]

I'd suggest doing something illegal, but I'm not that stupid, unfortunately.

I guess you might end up having to pay for it if worst comes to worst?

 

[Geostigma]

Yeah get to torrenting, do what you have to do to make this work this forum depends on it.

That said i read the first page, skimmed the second and skipped to this page (i do this for all important threads anyway )
So forgive me if i just repeat something someone already suggested.

How about covering General RPG's, they dont have to be new or anything but coming up with relevant and neat articles on classics would rock.
For instance discussion on the freudian concepts present in Xenogears, Helping readers make the connection between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross (its there damn it!), the transition of dominance from JRPG classics like FF to WRPG behemoths like ME and FO3.

Things like that would be really awesome and alot more entertaining then "Tetsuya thinks FF7 can be remade SOMEDAY", which imo would be alot more worthwhile , thought provoking and hopefully activity provoking on the front page then just a screen cap and a copy pasta from another site.

Other cool quirky ideas could be original content on the front page like, we make a thread here making out a list of why "X game is so neat" or what ever, then we choose the best reasons and make a top 10 list or something.

For instance (since im replaying xenogears right now and its fresh in my mind) TLS members top 10 reasnos why Xenogears is the best game evar.
1. A big ass pink dog that kicks ass!

And so on and so forth, ive always thought that user input is the first thing to lead to an active community that doesnt just post in a general disccusion forum. If we can all start working together we can make this happen. We have spunk and to much charisma to be waiting around on FF7 updates from SE to come down the road.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Eh. I feel like sticking to the original idea.

I don't want to give the impression that I'm shooting ideas down or anything, I just want to respectfully state that we're (or at least, I am) sticking to our original plan of covering the classic FF (we're writing our own content by the way) and first and foremost, the Compilation. I admire your idea and I thank you for it; we'll keep some of those ideas in mind, dude.

Update: Shit.

Fraps sucks, because I refuse to pay to record in segments of more than 40 seconds. THe program I'm using instead doesn't record audio, barring what comes in from the mic. So I got another to pick up just the audio, and it absolutely sucks and gets nothing done.

Six hours of work, and an hour of gameplay, all wasted. why.

Get Camstudio. I might be able to hook you up if you don't have it/can't get it.

 

[Joker]

Just downloaded. Time to go redo what I already did.

From the looks of things, I'm probably just going to record the gameplay itself with no audio, and then go back and do commentary and layer it in. I might try and find videos of the major/important cutscenes and edit those in over the gameplay, so that those have audio. Dunno.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Do that. That usually works best.

 

[Madame Mayor]

I think what we've decided so far is that it will be Alex and I collaborating on the commentary, but I think it'd be kind of cool to have someone different for different parts of the experience; for example, if the game is broken into a number of 10-15 minute videos, have someone new join for three videos, then rotate.

Although we could certainly have more, ofc.

Thoughts?

I'll volunteer. Actually, I was thinking about this the other day, I remember it being talked about back when the site first started. I think it's a great idea.

 

[Joker]

So I got the first recording done, from the loading of the game through to the save point in the underwater salvage section. I then paused the recording and saved what I had so far on CamStudio (the recording is just over 1GB and about an hour in length).

And now I can't play it back.

Grumble.


Brooke: Awesome =D


Edit: Okay, I got it open in the SWF Producer. Other than being in dire need of editing to improve the framerate issues of the emulator (there's some slight but noticeable lag that needs to be eliminated to make the video play smoothly), it looks okay.

Maybe I can actually do this after all

 

[Hisako]

We should try and expand to "stuff Square Enix has a hand in".

Because this means we get an excuse to cover completely different series and stuff.

 

[Geostigma]

Eh. I feel like sticking to the original idea.

I don't want to give the impression that I'm shooting ideas down or anything, I just want to respectfully state that we're (or at least, I am) sticking to our original plan of covering the classic FF (we're writing our own content by the way) and first and foremost, the Compilation. I admire your idea and I thank you for it; we'll keep some of those ideas in mind, dude.

I dont want to be a dick but FF is getting worse and worse and the compilation is going nowhere.
Everytime you guys say you need to figure out a way to achieve fresh new activity you just end up going back to square one without really adding anything thats very new to the site.

I get what your saying, and its admiral you want to stick to your guns. But no one every got anywhere sticking to there guns, in order for a site to continually rake in members and activity is to adapt with the times otherwise we are going to be doomed to be the next FFoF, FCF, FFF,ACF,FFE,FFR and so on and so forth. Every FF forum ive been on over the years has had this discussion and every single one decided that sticking to there guns would be best.

Theres 2 things all those sites had in common.
1.They stuck to there guns.
2. There all dead.

Nobody gives a damn about just another FF7 forum to be honest =/

 

[ForceStealer]

FFoF and FCF never really had anything to do with FF. ACF's collapse had nothing to do with FF, and FFF is still around. I'm not familiar with those other sites, but frankly I see much more frequently that the announcement that a site is shifting their focus is a death knell. It just looks desperate.

As for "just another FF7" forum, what other ones are there these days? There's ff7citadel I guess, if that's still around (and if it is that's actually impressive). Secondly, this was never supposed to be an FF7 forum but a content site. Yop didn't even want a forum here for awhile.

Everytime you guys say you need to figure out a way to achieve fresh new activity you just end up going back to square one without really adding anything thats very new to the site.

The bolded part is the problem, not the "going back to square one." We never move forward with suggestions that are made, and that's why it hasn't worked.

 

[Geostigma]

FFoF and FCF never really had anything to do with FF

Herp derp the point isnt whether it was about FF or not, it was about them not changing anything to bring in activity.

ACF's collapse had nothing to do with FF,

Its collapse came because we were all so damn bored due to no updates or new activity that we kept bitching till SY went even crazier and shut the place down. If anything ACF is the worst case scenario of what can happen when nothing is done.

and FFF is still around.

And its still a piece of shit site thats not doing so well either way.

As for "just another FF7" forum, what other ones are there these days?

Your points are counter intuitive. Theres a reason theres barely any other FF7 forums, its a dry subject pool that can not and will not bring in activity. Theres a reason why you cant find forums for xenogears, chrono trigger,ect , theres nothing left to talk about and in the case of FF7 what little is left to talk about is based around subpar installations(DoC, CC, bc and AC respectively).
Prouding ourselves on being one of the few FF7 sites around is ridiculous, like i said earlier we got to much going for us to wait on the sidelines for SE to announce the next piece of shit sequel for FF7 (or FF in general). If we expand to atleast General SE were doing more for ourselves then what SE could do for us.

The bolded part is the problem, not the "going back to square one." We never move forward with suggestions that are made, and that's why it hasn't worked.

Because any worthwhile suggestions are just thrown in the trashbin because it doesnt flow well with your ideas of what TLS should be. Which is fair and fine you guys pay for the site i dont. But then again if your all bitching in staff forum about how repetitive the sites getting then you need to do something different for a change.

How many times did we talk on FCF about change? Multiple times over the years iirc.
How many times did we actually even start the ideas presented?

Wheres FCF now? Oh its fools gold now

but frankly I see much more frequently that the announcement that a site is shifting their focus is a death knell. It just looks desperate.

Thats usually when they make completely dastric changes, the ideas posted so far havent been drafted at all.
I would not say these are desperate times, so i wont say we need desperate measures but its usually a good idea to make change long before it really needs to be done.

Im not saying something needs to be done, this site will be around for a long time. But if we want something more then just aarons news bits in GD then we should make alittle tweaking here and there. It wont hurt at all, and if it sucks then oh well its not like a changing our perspective back cant be done either.

 

[ForceStealer]

ACF collapsed because the staff and members were completely insane. I don't deny that FFF sucks, but that isn't necessarily because of its subject matter.

And ACF is the only other FF7 site that has ever had the stuff we have, and now we have more than that site did.

Because any worthwhile suggestions are just thrown in the trashbin because it doesnt flow well with your ideas of what TLS should be.

No, its because we have been lazy and not actually acted on ideas proposed. Alex's memorable moments was the last thing we tried and it didn't go all that well because again, people (staff included) were too lazy to do a simple writeup.
Commentaries, writing competitions, art competitions are all viable suggestions that have been made and have fallen apart. Translations and audiobooks are things that have not done so but are currently in-process.

This latest push (which, by the way, does include increasing our coverage area) seems to have people motivated for the moment at least. Change might be needed, but the far more important change is participation, because we change our focus to every video game in history and it wouldn't matter if we didn't have a flow of content - in fact it would be that much harder to keep up.

I, like Mog, am not trying to shoot down ideas, honest. But I kinda resent the sentiment that staff have some fairytale vision of the site, wantonly stamping down anything that contradicts it. The only thing we have flat-out denied is a Spam Section, which does not count as a "worthwhile suggestion."
Changing our focus has been resisted, but I think it should be resisted a bit, the site's name is The Lifestream after all. And when sites like Chrono Compendium can do it, why be so quick to give up?
But again, this latest push does have us changing a little, expanding more into FF and more important, hopefully, being motivated.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

All I'm sayin' is that we I want our next move to be the classic FFs (and of course, FFVII) and seeing where that goes from there. The classic FFs have a huge potential; half of you guys alone never even played them!

 

[Strangelove]

We should instead all work on this book for a completely-unrelated-to-Square game because it would make me happy

 

[Geostigma]

ACF collapsed because the staff and members were completely insane. I don't deny that FFF sucks, but that isn't necessarily because of its subject matter.

Maybe, but some of the top "insane" members are or were on tls staff i still say it only resulted in us being to damn bored with the site and that the only worth while activity for us came in the form of drama. Post counts were at an all time high for us when we had something new to moan about. Though its debatable due to the fact that also at that time there was absolutely nothing coming out of SE for the compilation.

No, its because we have been lazy and not actually acted on ideas proposed. Alex's memorable moments was the last thing we tried and it didn't go all that well because again, people (staff included) were too lazy to do a simple writeup.
Commentaries, writing competitions, art competitions are all viable suggestions that have been made and have fallen apart. Translations and audiobooks are things that have not done so but are currently in-process.

If the ideas fail to spark the interest of the very people who proposed the idea and were meant to write it. How could it spark the interest of the hypothetical future reader. Semantics i know, but if we cant even bring ourselves to do something then maybe its not worth doing in the first place. If an idea is good, then we immediatly do it because its just that awesome (see: omega and alex LP)

This latest push (which, by the way, does include increasing our coverage area) seems to have people motivated for the moment at least. Change might be needed, but the far more important change is participation, because we change our focus to every video game in history and it wouldn't matter if we didn't have a flow of content - in fact it would be that much harder to keep up.

Im not proposing every RPG in existance, just saying general SE is a good starting point, some of there classic PSx games are godly and really diamonds in the rough. Like vagrant story, xenogears, ect. There really awesome games, which imo could bring in alot of user activity here and i dont mean just new users but existing users here. But like said by mog, most of us probably havent played those either (which is a shame imo)

, like Mog, am not trying to shoot down ideas, honest. But I kinda resent the sentiment that staff have some fairytale vision of the site, wantonly stamping down anything that contradicts it. The only thing we have flat-out denied is a Spam Section, which does not count as a "worthwhile suggestion."

Im not saying spam was a worthwhile suggestion, im not really sure why your brining it up honestly i dont recall having brought it up myself o.O
And the sentiment comes from you guys shooting down anything that isnt FF, when there are much better games out there that are also classics.

Changing our focus has been resisted, but I think it should be resisted a bit, the site's name is The Lifestream after all. And when sites like Chrono Compendium can do it, why be so quick to give up?
But again, this latest push does have us changing a little, expanding more into FF and more important, hopefully, being motivated.

Chrono trigger is easily the best RPG ever made, fans yurn for a sequel to it all the time. IIRC its the number 1 voted series that fans want a sequel for (i believe gamespot had the poll? i dont really recall). When it comes to FF7 any fan with a brain cringes at the thought of Tetsuya touching this series again. Yeah, obviously i dont got a rebuttal here.
But the case is imo, Chrono compendium is a rarity, in that it didnt need to change its subject matter but atleast the staff and users there work there.

Im not disagreeing with you on that we are lazy, i kinda hinted at that when i mentioned how many times we talked over change at FCF and then never did it, then noted its outcome. I like this forum, despite my trolling ilike chatting with you guys. And i really dont want to have to join a new forum a few years down the road because we all got bored of this site too.

tl;dr your right, we need to stop being lazy, but maybe switchign to general SE coverage (especially of classics pleaaaase) would be really really neat.

 

[Alex]

Interjection: ACF died for good because Summoner Yuna couldn't pay for it anymore after spending all of her money on Cloverfield tickets and merchandise.

Carry on

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Like I said, our move should be something a little more baby stepish. That's why I suggested the older FFs as a good jumping off point; because if we can't handle that, we definitely can't handle all of SE. If we thrive at the one thing we actually set out to do, then we can branch out further.

I'm hip to your jive, gabe. Just give us some time. Baby steps, bro.