Lynk Former Posted November 4, 2015 Share Posted November 4, 2015 @ Zoomie: We're not going to just shaft the non-Star Wars forums, don't worry. The biggest changes are happening to the Star Wars forums in all this. The only disruption they'll feel is the upgrade and redesign while its the Star Wars forums that will be restructured. Mojo and the other side of the board won't be touched. @ Keyan Farlander : Yeah, I've been coming here for 16 years too, and it's sad to see that most of the places around here are empty. Anyway, I did anticipate the suggestion in the last part of your post for quite some time now and, unfortunately, I told myself that I wouldn't do something like that. I can't play favourites on this matter because the whole idea is to get everyone in the different Star Wars forums into the one community so that we can build this place back up to how it use to be... a place that was full of activity. I'll still allow your annual threads to be posted in the new general topic forums over at Star Wars Gamer, but we can't have people tucked away in a dark corner of the forums, sorry. Also, this isn't something that's happening right away just after I post it. It'll take a bit of time for us to get things going with the upgrade and archiving process. I'm here to let everyone know well beforehand so that there's no shock when it does happen. Also, has anyone in here actually clicked the banner lately? xwingalliance.net no longer exists... I mean, it DOES... it's just... well... go ahead and see for yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyan Farlander Posted November 4, 2015 Author Share Posted November 4, 2015 Anyway, I did anticipate the suggestion in the last part of your post for quite some time now and, unfortunately, I told myself that I wouldn't do something like that. I can't play favourites on this matter because the whole idea is to get everyone in the different Star Wars forums into the one community so that we can build this place back up to how it use to be... a place that was full of activity. I'll still allow your annual threads to be posted in the new general topic forums over at Star Wars Gamer, but we can't have people tucked away in a dark corner of the forums, sorry. The main reason people still come here is for the history and the relationships that have survived through the years. If you change that dynamic, you are risking losing the people who do come here in order to attract people who may not come. The Internet is a different place now than it was in the 90s. This isn't going to become the Internet hub for Star Wars gaming. You would have to compete with the official Disney sites, major and long-established Star Wars sites like TheForce.net, and major and long-established gaming sites like GameFaqs. If you disrupt the familiarity and social aspect of LucasForums too much, people will just take it to Facebook or whatever. Besides, you don't know what's coming in terms of Star Wars games that could even potentially attract new users. Gaming is different now than it was in the 90s too. Back then there was a series of substantial games that were worth discussing. I think it's a safe bet that there will be new Star Wars games coming out due to the new movies, but the trend today is for cheap mobile games that are soon forgotten. Sure, there will be a few triple A titles, but who knows how good they will be? And they will certainly be targeted to console gaming, which means a lot of the stuff that merited in-depth discussions, like modding, won't be there. I think trimming the fat and closing and archiving forums that are not in use anymore is a fine idea, but I think lumping all of the LucasArts Era games together in one forum is a risky idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoom Rabbit Posted November 4, 2015 Share Posted November 4, 2015 The fighter pilots would dogpile on the Lego wussies. (Glad to hear the Mojo forums will survive. I have friends there, too.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynk Former Posted November 4, 2015 Share Posted November 4, 2015 @ Keyan Farlander: Indeed, this is a risky move and I've been going through all the pro's and con's for quite some time now. However, I don't know if you're aware of what how dead the Star Wars forums on LucasForums actually are. Believe it or not, but aside from one or two posts on Ahto, this is the only other forum that has remained active due to this single thread. It's been that way for quite a few years now and it is declining. We've lost a lot of ground over the years and we haven't stopped losing ground. To put it in perspective, LucasForums and the LucasArts Fan Network in general have been running at a loss for many years now. We're lucky to have such generous benefactors that are willing to keep this place going even after all this time, but we can't continue at this pace. At some point, something will give and we'll more than just the xwingalliance.net domain name. We've lost other domains over the years too along with general populous of these forums and any knowledge of LucasForums or the LucasArts Fan Network as an entity. I am fully aware of how the Internet has changed and how difficult and risky this proposition is. That's why it's taken so long for me to get to this point, I've been trying to revive LFN for many years now and I've finally gotten a crew together and support from the owners (who also think there's time for a change due to the factors stated above) who think that it's now or never. I understand that you don't want things to change and that you want this place to last forever... however, that's not realistic. Seriously, you should actually take a look outside of the XWA forums some time and see just how empty all the other forums are. 99.9% of people are already gone. As for the future, yup, plenty of mobile Star Wars games coming out. There's also a new Battlefront coming out too, not to mention the new Star Wars games by BioWare and Visceral. We also have the sequel trilogy on the way as well as a host of other Star Wars movies such as Rogue One. Things are happening, we can either roll over and die or cease a risky opportunity. Disney wants the starwarsgamer.com domain and among other domains LFN owns. I don't intend to sit here doing nothing over all that's happening, despite the competition, despite the difficulty of our task. This place could sit here and rot until it's finally dead, or we can renew it and try to rebuild the community that we lost. I understand that you don't agree with doing this and that you see it as a pointless endeavor and want no part in it. And I fully expected this kind of reception from some people and hate seeing this kind of thing happen... but it's a necessary evil if we are to move forward. As for lumping everything together into one forum. If you have any suggestions for the restructured Star Wars Gamer forum, you are more than welcome to make your suggestions in the link I provided in my previous post. Of course, whether we lose the dynamic of the people who come here is really up to you. Is it really so important what colours are around you or the people you talk to? If the group of people here stick together, what more do you need? As I said before, you're more than welcome to continue the tradition of this thread in the Star Wars Gamer forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyan Farlander Posted November 5, 2015 Author Share Posted November 5, 2015 I understand that you don't want things to change and that you want this place to last forever... however, that's not realistic. Why isn't it realistic? A website that does not get a lot of traffic does not cost a lot. I could throw the entire thing up with my other vBulletin forum. Disney wants the starwarsgamer.com domain and among other domains LFN owns. I don't intend to sit here doing nothing over all that's happening, despite the competition, despite the difficulty of our task. What is your task? Do you want to keep the legacy of LucasArts going? Do you want a busy site that harnesses the new crop of fans that will be growing up with the new Star Wars movies? Why? To turn a nice profit? For fun? To coordinate fan projects? I understand that you don't agree with doing this and that you see it as a pointless endeavor and want no part in it. And I fully expected this kind of reception from some people and hate seeing this kind of thing happen... but it's a necessary evil if we are to move forward. I don't disagree with the idea of consolidating some forums and archiving inactive content. For example, each place in the network does not need its own subforums to discuss the movies. I think cleaning that up is a good idea and would be helpful in attracting new members, because it will be more organized and less confusing. I'm only suggesting that jettisoning the one thing this site already has going for it - familiarity, nostalgia - will be sad AND counterproductive. At the very least, I think the major LucasArts Star Wars game series - X-Wing, Jedi Knight, Rogue Squadron - deserve their own subforums. After all, new movies does not just mean new fans. It could mean old fans who remember a place they haven't been in a while. If they return and find nothing familiar, then they will have no reason to stick around. Is it really so important what colours are around you or the people you talk to? Surfing the web is a rather unconscious thing. A lot of times I wind up back here because those gray and blue colors or the banner graphic flashed across my mind for a second. And significant restructuring WOULD mean a shift in the people around. The people who still come here have in common that they played and remember the X-Wing games, and that matters to the group dynamic. If that's lost, we might as well just have a Facebook group or something. In other words, I'm suggesting that you can do some cleaning up and reorganization without jettisoning the connection existing and old users feel for the place. Otherwise, you will just be starting from scratch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cmdr. Cracken Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 So our little haven will disappear? Kinda liked being the only ones here. Kept it nice, quiet, familiar, and nuanced. I guess times change. At least keep the colour scheme. I've grown really fond of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoom Rabbit Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 We were the only ones here...in this one bright, busy little parlor in one corner of a big, empty hotel full of vacant rooms. No need to heat and light all those rooms. (Well, I guess the other rooms aren't empty if you count spam-bots.) This will bring all of the other squatters together so we can all see who's actually left. We might have a bigger community, this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattig89ch Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 I, for one, welcome the changes. In hopes that we get enough visitors to start wanting to use light and heat to those other rooms. We will need to learn the new layout, but I'm all kinds of game for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynk Former Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 @ Keyan Farlander: My task is to grow a community of people who enjoy Star Wars and enjoy Star Wars video games. We did have a thriving community in LucasForums for quite some time before the years of decline led us to this current state. Do I want to do that for profit? I don't get paid. Do I want I want to attract new fans of the movies and new games that will come in the future? Of course, as I said, my aim is to build a community of like-minded people and new fans as well as old are welcome. For fun? Well, that's part of building a community, not for my own enjoyment, but for the enjoyment of others. To coordinate fan projects? That aspect does come into it. We did have a thriving modding community that has trickled away. There are a lot of people who have moved on from LF because of our decline only because they felt that there wasn't anyone left here to work with to make such fan projects. We still have inroads with a lot of those people who would be interested to come back if we rebuilt this place and got the spark of life back into it. And since you're questioning my motivations on the matter, I'll lay it out flat and blunty. Yes, it's been a great 16 years for you and me and others who have stuck around for that long. We could very well sit in this place as it rots around us and we lose less and less traffic. I understand that your primary concern is XWA only and you don't really have a stake in what happens outside of this one particular area of LucasForums. However, I'd rather use this place to try to attract a large collection of new fans together who can find a large community of people who are interested in the same things as them. To me, they are more valuable, and not for any profit reasons or anything stupid like that. I'm doing this because, in 1999, I found a community at RogueSquadron.net that grew into LucasForums.com that became a hub of activity that had lots of great people talking about a variety of things to do with Star Wars games, past, present and future. This place gave me great memories, opened me up to the world by talking with people outside of Australia and allowed me to become friends with a lot of people I would normally have never met in my entire life. I'd rather that we tried to get LucasForums and the LucasArts Fan Network back to that state rather than to leave it in its current state, with only a handful of people who come in every so often to check if the lights still work. I'd rather that because I want others to have the experiences I had in finding being part of such a community on the Internet that talks about the same things they like. I'd like to give a new generation of fans the same things this place gave me over the last 16 years. As for having different sections. Indeed, if activity spikes again, we'd definitely add more sections inside our game forums: http://www.lucasforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=788 Currently, we have a Modern Era sections and LucasArts Era sections. If we have an influx of people who, for example, start a large number of threads about Rogue Squadron, then we'll create a Rogue Squadron section inside the LucasArts Era section for Rogue Squadron. Same with the new Battlefront game in the Modern Era section. Right now, things are at their proto-stage, we're setting up. We haven't even finished coming up with a temporary design for that forum to make it look nice until we do the full forum upgrade to vb5 and come up with a brand new modern design for the entire forum that is also mobile friendly. And yes, new movies doesn't just mean new fans, it could mean old fans of LucasForums will return... and I'm sure some of them will enjoy the fact that this place has been renewed with life even if it does look different... and some won't. I knew perfectly well going into this project, something I've been working toward for quite some time now, that there would be opposition. I perfectly understand that some people don't like change and would rather have things stay they way they are. Sorry, but that's just how it is. Nostalgia alone doesn't build communities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edlib Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 Meh. I'm really in the "Whatevs..." camp. I doubt it matters much if I check in every day on this thread at this URL, or a slightly different one. I'll probably miss our unique and exclusive "XWA-ness" for a hot second or two... but that was something I had to deal with and get over quick in the merging way back when. Speaking of Facebook Groups: https://www.facebook.com/groups/18468824200/ I have rounded up a bunch of the old-timers there. Feel free to make announcements there, Lynk, about all the updates. You might get a few to wander back in... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynk Former Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 Thanks, ed... though, I don't have a Facebook account sorry Of course, that said... I think these announcements would probably be better off coming from someone who is from XWA instead of someone like me who isn't. But if anyone has any questions about the specifics of this entire process. Ask away and I'll answer your questions. Everything from how, when and what new design we should be expecting. I'll try to answer as best I can so that you guys stay in the know about what's going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edlib Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 Wildstar is an admin of the group as well, he could also help keep folks up to date. Groovy was... but he seems to have disappeared. But I can cut-and-paste a few of the update announcements from here and post links to the new pages if you wish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edlib Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 Another thing I could do is change the name of the group at some point, to reflect the new reality. That way new folks coming to SWGamer will be able to find the group on FB as well. Or just start a new one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyan Farlander Posted November 5, 2015 Author Share Posted November 5, 2015 Well, it's your ship. I just think you're gambling the one unique thing this site has, a focus on classic Star Wars and LucasArts games, on the unlikely outcome of building a new community based on new content that doesn't even exist yet and may not even be worth building a community around. Why would anyone come here instead of GameFAQs to discuss new Star Wars games? Why would anyone come here instead of TheForce.net to discuss new Star Wars movies? What distinguishing feature are you offering? And I don't think running a site for profit is stupid. It's a legitimate goal for a site. I was just wondering if that was the objective. Also, I'm not against all change - I'm just offering specific feedback based on my experience of running another Internet community and forum (for about the same amount of time this place has been running) and in working in the business world where you have to analyze carefully who your potential users are and what your competition is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynk Former Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 I agree, it is a gamble and we've got a difficult task ahead of us. I've been weighing the pro's and con's for all this for a long time now and your concerns are legitimate... but I still have to make the attempt at least. Hell, if we do fail miserably, we'll still have these sections of the forums. We're not deleting them. So if everything does break down, we can restructure it back to how it was before, themes and all. As for your questions: Why would anyone come here instead of GameFAQs to discuss new Star Wars games? The fact that we aren't GameFAQs. While GameFAQs is popular, there are also plenty of people who don't like that place and don't want any part of it. Building a specialised Star Wars gaming community is a niche, but niche's can exist on the Internet successfully if handled well. Why would anyone come here instead of TheForce.net to discuss new Star Wars movies? We'll primarily focus on Star Wars games, but since it's Star Wars, it's not like we're going to discourage people from talking about the movies as well. And yes, there are more Star Wars games being released after Battlefront that aren't mobile games. What distinguishing feature are you offering? We are developing ideas right now. Our first step is to get starwarsgamer.com up and running and develop features for that web site that will draw attention. It'll be tough and require a lot of work, but if we can find some measure of success, we hope to redirect the traffic we get into the forum and encourage people to join in on discussions and such to grow our community. Right now, it's still early days and we're still getting our act together on many things. All we can do for now is start with the basics of news, reviews and articles and work our way from there to create unique content that will draw people in our direction. In terms of profit... I don't own this place, so I'm not the one spending money on it. My only real concern is building a community. Whether this is worth the effort or not is up to the people who have come together to spend their time trying to make something of this place. I've gathered a crew who have volunteered to put their time and effort into this project who believe that they can renew this community and make it grow once more. If we fail, we've set this entire process up in such a way that we can revert everything back to how it was before with only the memory of an unpleasant bump in the road for all those concerned in here. You'll have your forum back exactly how it was before and the only real loss will be the time and effort of those who believe in the project and are putting in all the work to try to make it happen. However, if we succeed... then we've done something good for this place and I've managed to give a new group of people a chance at having the same great experiences I had over my 16 years at LFN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edlib Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 Welp... I've posted your announcement to the both the FB XWA.net and LF group pages. Hopefully that inspires a few arthritic finger clicks and a few pairs of crusty old eyeballs to return to their spawning site to check out the visions of the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cmdr. Cracken Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 We were the only ones here...in this one bright, busy little parlor in one corner of a big, empty hotel full of vacant rooms. No need to heat and light all those rooms. But its my heat. I don't want to share it with anyone else.... *hugs the heater* But seriously, it will be weird having new people constantly come in to the annual threads. The community in this thread is really small and family like. I'll kinda miss that. Not that I post here a bunch anyway. Ah well. It'll be ok. We have Zommish here to scare away all the new kids who come into the annual thread. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattig89ch Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 Will the forum layout actually be changing? I'll have alot more free time after december. Any way a network tech can help with the site? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogue15 Posted November 6, 2015 Share Posted November 6, 2015 I think it will be for the better...there is nothing wrong with making more like-minded friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogue15 Posted November 6, 2015 Share Posted November 6, 2015 http://www.monkeysfightingrobots.com/international-star-wars-the-force-awakens-trailer/ anybody see the international trailer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edlib Posted November 6, 2015 Share Posted November 6, 2015 Saw it this morning. Then spent the rest of the morning watching videos off the new Rush concert DVD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattig89ch Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 today was an interesting day of troubleshooting. I had this nice machine in a stupidly tiny case. It had a bad power supply, but I had to hook up an external power supply to find that out. Took me a half hour to get the 20+4 pin connector off the mobo, damn near dislocated my finger in doing so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynk Former Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 Will the forum layout actually be changing? Yeah, we need to have a rebranding so that this place doesn't look like it came out of an older era of the Internet and to also make it mobile friendly, so a redesign is a must. I'll have alot more free time after december. Any way a network tech can help with the site? I'm not sure what we'll need in the future. We're taking things at a slow enough pace deliberately right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattig89ch Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 fair enough. let me know. Just finished rebuilding my desktop. Win 7 home installed, mcafee installed, office 2013, visio 2013, now to re-install my games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K_Kinnison Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 Since i really cannot change what is happening to the forums. I will just go limp and let the tide take me. Saw the international trailer. Kinda cool to see BB-8 in a socket for the new X-wings and i still think the lightsaber with the cross guard blades is stupid, and makes you prone to injuring yourself if you try anything fancy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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