The Site is Dead

[Hyde]

So in case you hadn't noticed the front page yet, the site has been canceled. If there is going to be any kind of site resurgence, it will be without me involved. I resign from site staff outright.

As for the forums, I don't run things around here, so if you have any further questions about anything, you can direct them to Blue or Joe(if you can get ahold of him).

From this point on, I am solely the webspace owner and forums webmaster.

Any questions? I honestly don't care.

[Ges]

How much do you want for the place?

[Hyde]

How much do you want for the place?

A million dollars.

I'm not selling the hosting or the site. You want to start the site over? Show me you're actually going to do it and you have the staff and commitment and such and I'll install what you need. But I'm not helping beyond that.

[Less Than Liz]

You know, if this is costing you money, we can just as easily make a free forum so you don't have to prop it up. It's not active enough to warrant anything fancy, especially without a main site. I'd rather you not feel compelled to spend money on this if it's nothing but a burden.

(Semi-related: did you ever get my donation via paypal?)

[Hyde]

Liz: yes I did.

It has nothing to do with the money. I don't so much mind it anymore, though the help during the maintenance cost from everyone was great. If people want to donate, then I'll be thankful for it.

I posted this message because I was pissed off about something last night, but it's passed and it's past. So...the site is still dead, though. It's too much work to do anymore and just not enough people to do it for free.

[Elon]

I understand. Its kinda sad, but it is what it is. Without a following there is no reason yeah?

[Atlas]

Stupid site. It's worse than a newborn!

[Devil King]

No, Atlas.

[Atlas]

No, Atlas.

Truly, though, what is with your obstinate dismissal? Rude, DK, just plain rude. Don't get all razed. I'll curb stomp your ass.
:p



I kid, I kid.

[Ges]

A million dollars.

I'm not selling the hosting or the site. You want to start the site over? Show me you're actually going to do it and you have the staff and commitment and such and I'll install what you need. But I'm not helping beyond that.

Sounds like a plan, my friend.

It'll have to wait until mid-May, though. I need to graduate first.

[CoolOtaku]

Am is misinterpreting this or do you actually want to try to get something going again, Ges?

[moogle]

Ges, I don't doubt your commitment but might it not be a better idea to start something new again? "AllRPG" is just a brand anyway; the community itself can live on elsewhere, like Liz said. I don't see another reboot really doing anything at this point.

[Ges]

I am, CoolOtaku. I want to put my shiny new Marketing degree to work, see if it's worth anything.

Pretend that AllRPG would be a new site, not the remains of a dying one.

New sites pop up all the time, and I don't see why AllRPG couldn't do that as well if we treated it like one. Every poster still here is pretty much the only people who knew of the old AllRPG site, so anyone who would notice a new site will be experiencing it for the first time anyway.

We can take advantage of that and differentiate accordingly. I may be in the minority, but I do not think AllRPG has faltered in the last 2-3 years because the site wasn't or couldn't be effective. For example, we had a good thing going with the news discussions forums a few years ago. I don't think we should have gotten rid of them despite them not seeing much in terms of posting activity. We need to be incorporating all parts of any new site together instead of cloistering the forums away as a sort of separate entity, which I believe caused the forums to continue while we've been through about 7 different iterations of a main site.

I remember back when we still had a site and the forums, a lot of posters simply said they hardly ever visited the main site. That shouldn't happen if we started a main site here. I don't know too many places that could sustain a forum that isn't by definition involved in discussing whatever it is the main site is disseminating. A site needs to be the main reason the place exists, not the forum. We (or rather the forums as a whole) weren't doing that. I have a couple other little ideas on what we could do to change that.

We see the forums losing membership and we blame the main site (or lack of it) for not infusing the boards with some fresh faces very regularly. That shouldn't be the angle we're starting from. We should be trying to make the site stand on it's own and not be using it as a tool to prop up the forums. We should be trying to become the Kotaku of RPG's or something, not the "main site of the AllRPG Forums". There shouldn't be a conceptual dividing line between "AllRPG" and any other part of whatever we do.

Start small, then work up. We don't need to be competing with 1up, Gamespot, RPGFan, Kotaku, or Joystiq this early on. That could potentially come later. We need to find some reader and informational needs that pertain to RPGs that are unfulfilled and fulfill them. Whatever we do, we need to stick to it.

So, basically, I'm wouldn't be doing this to save the forums. If that happens, then splendid, but it's not the angle I would take if I started a new site. Any main site that rationalizes itself on its existing and former readers/members is doomed from the get-go, most likely. I think having that angle - along with maybe trying to do too much - is what hurt the other main sites we've started up before.

[Atlas]

Ges, I don't doubt your commitment but might it not be a better idea to start something new again? "AllRPG" is just a brand anyway; the community itself can live on elsewhere, like Liz said. I don't see another reboot really doing anything at this point.

No, no, Moogle. AllRPG IS life.

[CoolOtaku]

Ges, if you still want to do this after you graduate and you think you'll have the time, let me know. Perhaps I'd be able to fit into your plan :)

[Ges]

Will do.

[vanishdoomdylan]

Years old.

[Xkavar]

As long as there's an open comment:

As a long-time member and a former moderator, I agree with Ges that AllRPG does not need to compete with any major news site. We've always been much too small to "compete" with anyone, and in this day and age some Twitter accounts get more attention than we do.

Start small. Concentrate on the quality of the website. I remember the arguments by King Zeal, Serge, Revolution and a lot of others that were simply unparalled in length and depth of the knowledge of video games. Hell, I used some of their points in a few papers of mine. Start with quality, and we'll get noticed later.

[Ges]

I saw the thread and thought we had quit this again.

Curse ye, Xkavar, for confusing me! Glad to see you back, though.

[King Zeal]

Heh. You're not the only one with a marketing degree. :p

Anyway, first thing you need is a mission statement. What do you want the site to do?

Second, we need our selling point. What can we offer that no one else can?


Also, I administrate my own crapbucket of an RPing forum (in my sig) run by a few dedicated staff. If we can mutually help each other, I'm on board.

[Electric Banana]

What can we offer that no one else can?I think that hit the nail on the head... If we have any real hope to revive this site, we need to do some major brainstorming on approaching game reviewing in a completely different way from anyone else.

[Ges]

We're going with an opinion-centric site. No news. Just revs/prevs/op-eds/features. We differentiate on the strength of our writing, at least that's the overall aim. We figure we need to have any visiting people enjoy the writers before they can take anything we can suggest with a grain of salt.

There's more, of course, but in the early goings we just want to be building up a store of material for launch sometime before the end of the year-ish.

KZ, if you'd want to help, that'd be gravy. Anything in particular you'd be interested in? I need someone who can do some serialized editorials, so if you have any ideas for a bi-weekly or monthly column I would be ecstatic. But really, anything from anyone at this point is both appreciated and pure awesomeness.

[Electric Banana]

A vlog (video blog) thing might be kind of fun if anyone is up for that. I'd be willing to do that if I had the funds to be able to buy new games (and game systems) more frequently.

[CoolOtaku]

Xkavar?! O_O Where have you been, man?! I haven't seen you in ages it seems like.

And yeah, I had the same reaction as Ges haha. Glad to know that's not the case :p

[King Zeal]

I've been thinking about what I could contribute.

I tried doing the article/editorial thing for AllRPG before, but it never worked out. I just didn't have enough to say about the RPG genre which wasn't my opinion. I'm what one would consider a devoted fan, but not hardcore in the slightest. I've never played a SMT game, never played Earthbound, never imported Japanese and relied upon fan translations, and I rarely play obscure titles. I play games in my favorite series, and I occasionally give a new title a try, but I don't do so enough to believe I have anything to contribute to the subject that no one else hasn't said before.

So, what can I do? Well, that depends on what your other needs are. I can certainly try playing old games and blogging about it, if we have some sort of blog system implemented. (On that note, I think it would be a good idea to look into a Let's Play series for some obscure games and/or more difficult titles.) Also, I'm a writer/artist, and I've always wanted to do an AllRPG webcomic (another idea that fell through in the past for different reasons). Also, I admin an RP forum (which, honestly, is not that impressive) and RPing used to be AllRPG's biggest draws. (I remember Serge once saying that the biggest mistake they ever made was ixnaying the RP section, and I agreed.) If you want to put a new RP section together, I've been doing this long enough that I could put an entire system together in no time flat.

Anyway, just thought I'd add that to the table. Let me know if anything I've said helps out at all.

[Raph]

Can I second the blog system idea? That's a great way to add content to this site.

[Ges]

We tried to redo the RP here back in '06, and it failed miserably. Then again, I wouldn't be against anyone trying it again. I would go to it and participate. I wouldn't want to run any of it, though.

I like the blog-a-game idea, and me and CO have been bantering about doing a couple things with that, so perhaps we could make re-playing old games something we do often (or at least enough to devote a feature or something to them). It would go well with some older reviews we put up, maybe we could have a replay blog and a classic review at the same time or something.

[CoolOtaku]

Yeah, I think what we discussed was somewhere along on the lines of an impressions blog split into a few entries, culminating in a formal review that could incorporate that blog material (but would not necessarily have to).

[King Zeal]

I definitely have experience running an RP, although mine is extremely small. If we can find a way to draw participants, I could handle it no problem.

[The Revolution]

Honestly, as any gamer, I look at a bunch of gaming sites. As to what we have to offer? Maybe something simple as ethnic diversity. The only one that comes close is like 1up or something.

We don't have media. The Escapist is really a substandard site with really bland reviews. However, they probably get all their bandwidth from Zero Puncutation and people trolling around to see if anything else is worth watching once they are done.

We have intelligence. And sorry, guys, that's not as much of a good thing as it used to be. Biting sarcasm, dismissive hate, and trolling the fanboys is the Soup Du Jour now.

Gaming reviews and updates have become like anything else now; People don't want in-depth, hard hitting journalism. The masses want soundbites, quotable insults they can wow their friends with, and opinions that already agree with their own. In short, they want their 'entertainment'.

Being indie might not be a bad thing. Think about it. Being the site that the staff at OTHER sites pay attention to because we give the journalism that they wish they could without pandering to the public.

[CoolOtaku]

I don't know if I could handle it if AllRPG ever turned into something like you just described, Rev. I might cry a little.

We're just gonna do what we know and do it the best we can :)

[The Revolution]

... my suggestion was sticking to indie.

Being indie might not be a bad thing. Think about it. Being the site that the staff at OTHER sites pay attention to because we give the journalism that they wish they could without pandering to the public.

[Devil King]

I definitely have experience running an RP, although mine is extremely small. If we can find a way to draw participants, I could handle it no problem.

That would be beyond swell.

[Void]

But really, anything from anyone at this point is both appreciated and pure awesomeness.

I'm pretty busy with school these days, however, I'm willing to do some sort of editorials once in awhile (perhaps, once every month... maybe more, if possible). I'd like to help out, but I don't really play games anymore. I still like talking about games though... so yeah, just throwing that out there.

[The Revolution]

AND MY AXE!!!

... no, seriously. I'll help. I do the writing things. Although this is similar to the last time we spoke of this, I think we never had a shortage of talent, but a shortage of direction. We'd all put in our two cents when called, but we don't know when to do so.

Point me to it, and I'll give you all I got.

[CoolOtaku]

Oh, I knew that's what you were saying, Rev. Guess I should've been more clear about acknowledging that. My bad.
You definitely have a point about the direction thing. Hopefully we'll be able to avoid that conundrum this time :)

[Void]

Yeah, I've always had a similar problem. I'd like to help, but no one ever replies to me outside of these threads. If I got a PM or something with some sort of direction it would be much easier then just writing something and sending it. I mean, in the latter case, how do I even know if my writing is going to get put up? I mean, it's certainly happened in the past where I have been told I have the green light for go (this was even during my most active time) and I'd submit something and it would never go up, and I'd never get a response. Yeah. I'm not really into spending lots of time doing things for someone else, and then not even getting acknowledged with even a reply.

I know that for everyone here, as we get older time is becoming more of a luxury. So I guess that's my ultimate feeling. If I'm sacrificing time that I won't get back, I should be getting at least SOME response.

[Ges]

Void, something like a monthly editorial would be great. Everyone who writes something will get it put up. For sures. To start I would just brainstorm a general theme for it. Have it be as narrow or as wide as you'd like.

I understand where you are coming from with the response thing. I'll make it a habit to jump into #allrpgsitediscussion whenever I'm online. We can use that as an all-hours reach-us-here line. Beyond that I will throw out my other info, just so you all can hit me up whenever you need to. I'm always on at least one of these, usually several, when I'm online.

AIM: RobbieGes
MSN: bobfromhere@hotmail.com
Skype: robhaskinsiii
email: roberthaskinsiii@gmail.com, or same MSN address above

[Ges]

I definitely have experience running an RP, although mine is extremely small. If we can find a way to draw participants, I could handle it no problem.

So me and Void have been talking about how that's a good idea. I'll talk to Hyde to see if we could, but if he gives it the green light, can I stencil you in?

[King Zeal]

Absolutely.

[Raph]

-by the way, is there any way to access threads from the previous incarnation of allrpg? aside from websites like thewaybackmachine.com

[Xkavar]

... my suggestion was sticking to indie.

Indie is never a bad thing. Penny Arcade was indie, and stuck to their guns. So much so that the mainsteam gaming media adapted to them than the other way around.

I say we stick with our quality. Do we need corporate ads? Do we need to provide YouTube links? I don't think so, not right now.

[Void]

I've always felt to some degree that the past content was always a drag keeping us from updating the site. Of course it does suck that people's hard work was lost. At the same time it's liberating that it's no longer a concern.

[Raph]

Yeah, I guess there comes a time to upgrade and move on, eh? But, some of the past threads/heated debates were fucking epic. You just don't see that much anymore. The passion here was unparalleled.