Major Game releases should be on the Spring frontpage
Posted: 30 Jan 2009, 11:32
Basically what the thread topic says.
I realise in the switch to the new site we lost the community news area. While I'd like to see something like that return to the frontpage, I think until that happens, new releases, such as Spring:1944's recent release, should be featured on the frontpage.
Major releases like this are the lifeblood of the Spring engine, and I think apart from keeping people up to date about other things that are going on in Spring, it also helps to give the frontpage a bit more life and vitality above the 'spring2.3.4.5 bugfix released, now with less bugs', especially if we can get some (small thumbnailed) screenshots and pretty mod logos into the news
Consider how these two major engines include news as an element of their websites:
http://www.unrealtechnology.com/
http://www.havok.com/
Now, there is a bit of grey area with what should and shouldn't be posted. Something like S44's release totally belongs on the frontpage, but ObscureAnnihilationv123.23(bugfix) probably shouldn't be there. Determining whether something should go there is difficult, and it could be left up to mod discretion (for example, something like the way the screenshot uploads work at the moment - users post a thread, mod decides whether the thread is good enough, then moves the thread and the news appears).
Alternatively, you could go for some hard and fast rules;
- New games/mods always get their first release frontpaged
- games/mods receiving over <x> downloads or games receiving over <y>% total play time on the server get frontpaged when they make a release, except:
- A mod cannot be frontpaged twice in <x> amount of time (a month?)
I think those rules could form a nice balance between giving new games/mods a bit of exposure, ensuring people are in the know when a major mod (BA/CA) gets a big update, and giving other mods some attention.
I'd be tempted to go further and say it'd be nice to see new maps get posted up too, I always liked to read about new maps when I was reading the TAUniverse frontpage. But I'm not going to press that one, it's not the main thing I'm after here.
Also, it's pretty clear that my intentions aren't entirely altruistic - when it eventually happens I'd like to see our IW release up on the frontpage. But either way, I think such a move is important for the community and the Spring engine. I think it's a shame that S44 have made a really nice release that's been a long time in the making, and yet their big announcement is restricted to a reasonably out of the way thread in the mods/games section of the forums.
I realise in the switch to the new site we lost the community news area. While I'd like to see something like that return to the frontpage, I think until that happens, new releases, such as Spring:1944's recent release, should be featured on the frontpage.
Major releases like this are the lifeblood of the Spring engine, and I think apart from keeping people up to date about other things that are going on in Spring, it also helps to give the frontpage a bit more life and vitality above the 'spring2.3.4.5 bugfix released, now with less bugs', especially if we can get some (small thumbnailed) screenshots and pretty mod logos into the news
Consider how these two major engines include news as an element of their websites:
http://www.unrealtechnology.com/
http://www.havok.com/
Now, there is a bit of grey area with what should and shouldn't be posted. Something like S44's release totally belongs on the frontpage, but ObscureAnnihilationv123.23(bugfix) probably shouldn't be there. Determining whether something should go there is difficult, and it could be left up to mod discretion (for example, something like the way the screenshot uploads work at the moment - users post a thread, mod decides whether the thread is good enough, then moves the thread and the news appears).
Alternatively, you could go for some hard and fast rules;
- New games/mods always get their first release frontpaged
- games/mods receiving over <x> downloads or games receiving over <y>% total play time on the server get frontpaged when they make a release, except:
- A mod cannot be frontpaged twice in <x> amount of time (a month?)
I think those rules could form a nice balance between giving new games/mods a bit of exposure, ensuring people are in the know when a major mod (BA/CA) gets a big update, and giving other mods some attention.
I'd be tempted to go further and say it'd be nice to see new maps get posted up too, I always liked to read about new maps when I was reading the TAUniverse frontpage. But I'm not going to press that one, it's not the main thing I'm after here.
Also, it's pretty clear that my intentions aren't entirely altruistic - when it eventually happens I'd like to see our IW release up on the frontpage. But either way, I think such a move is important for the community and the Spring engine. I think it's a shame that S44 have made a really nice release that's been a long time in the making, and yet their big announcement is restricted to a reasonably out of the way thread in the mods/games section of the forums.
