After 6 months of moderating the forum, I''ve finally gotten around to updating the FAQ. Comments and suggestions welcome. Game Design Forum FAQ

it looks good. I like the addition of several links.

Scott Simontis
Game Programmer in Training
Have a nice day!
Current Project: Upgrade to .NET

quote: I"ve got a great original idea for MMORPG/MMORTS/MMO*. Most of these posts are made by beginners who have very little understanding of the complexity involved in designing and developing a massively multiplayer game, and therefore these sorts of post don"t tend to be taken very seriously. If you are interested in discussing the design of Massively Multiplayer games, please take care to make it clear exactly what you want to discuss, and bear in mind that whenever people see the "MMO" prefix they tend to think "clueless newbie". Misspelled, poorly focused threads on these subjects usually go down in flames very quickly.
[/qoute]

Might I suggest a game CONCEPT forum then. There are a few of us who like to post ideas out there and get constructive criticism on the idea. We might be NOOBS when it comes to design, but the foundation of any design is a concept. And Im sure when someone came up with the idea of EQ or UO that someone said no it can''t be done. But eventually someone got to the design phase and said lets make a go of it.

[edited by - robert4818 on June 6, 2003 7:52:35 PM]

ok double post was an accident (I am a noob)

quote: Original post by robert4818

Might I suggest a game CONCEPT forum then. There are a few of us who like to post ideas out there and get constructive criticism on the idea. We might be NOOBS when it comes to design, but the foundation of any design is a concept. And Im sure when someone came up with the idea of EQ or UO that someone said no it can''t be done. But eventually someone got to the design phase and said lets make a go of it.

Nah, you''re missing the point, I think. Discussing concepts is perfectly ok. But think before you post.

If you want to discuss your setting, or the names of places, or things the characters do (quests) then post in the Writing forum.

If you want to talk about the way it looks, consider posting in the Visual Arts forum (although interface is an important design topic too).

If you want to discuss a gameplay feature, put it in the design forum, but limit your post to discussions of a single feature at a time - it''s easier for folks to digest, and a whole game design is significantly larger than a single post. Don''t tkae this to mean flooding the forum with many posts at once is ok - it''s annoying.

Most of the time when someone posts with MMO in the title they only have a few scraps or fragments of an idea, and haven''t thought everything out, or even know what they want to discuss. It''s a phase that many folks here have gone through, much like the phase where you discuss writing your own programming language. You won''t get a lot of responses because folks will assume the person is just going through this phase and will wait until they have worked it out of their system before engaging in real discussion with them.

That said, there is a fundamental design problem if your game is "just like [popular title], only I''ve fixed a few things I didn''t like about it." Such a game is doomed to failure. Commercial failure anyways. If you want to talk about why, we can open up another thread.

JSwing

More to the topic, I like the FAQ. Short, clear, and to the point.

JSwing

FAQ seems fine.

I''d have put the bit about MMORPG''s right at the top though, above even the forum rules, in large, bold letters.
(actually, I thought what you wrote under it was just about spot on)

it´s "ad nauseam".

I second robert on that, altough before putting the concept forum you might want to fix the name of this forums a bit: "game features design".

By the way, I find the faq really nice

ps and robert, about:

quote: "And Im sure when someone came up with the idea of EQ or UO that someone said no it can''t be done"

well, altough those might be the first ones called MMORPG, I am pretty sure those arent the firsts ... I agree with what you meant to say, tough.