Ok, so I actually thought of an idea that could both work and bring new members to the forums. PLEASE - Keep this on topic.
Anyways, the only thing I can come up with that couldnt be just taken by greedy players. How about Most Post Contests?
Yes yes, I know this may seem easy for anyone to grab, but what if a certain Mod or Ray picks a random hour each day (or more than one, but random).
Whoever had the most posts that hour gets some sort of prize.
That way the hour can constantly change, and hopefully the same people wont be able to keep getting it. I know its not perfect, but its the best I can come up with so far.
Also, maybe if any new forum members signed up within that hour, or some other sort of stipulation, and they can win somethin too.
What say you?
What would the prize be?
The mod or Ray would also have to determine if they were relevant posts or just random spams trying to win the contest. Which could be difficult. Does Off Topic count?
Making the forums popular again is a difficult task and MC faces an even more difficult task than most forums. Why? Because forums for games generally hold help, that is something that is rarely forthcoming in MC.
People figure out tricks, numbers, etc and keep it to themselves and their friends. This is counterproductive to the forum process yet to some extent does make sense in a game that is sometimes closely contested.
In my opinion there are two things that will begin to make the forums more popular.
1. As Wraith suggested in the other thread (apologies for getting it closed btw) They need to be more prominent in game. A top page link maybe? I don't know, but I think a lot of players don't bother because they don't realize they're there.
2. The players of this game need to start sacrificing some of their tips and tricks. I know I've said this before but I'll say it again. In Topshift everything gets shared almost immediately. Go check out their help forums, peoples questions get answered truthfully and immediately. There is an extensive beginners guide giving away every trick there is to the game, outdated with ver 2.0 going live this month and even still the beta testers wrote another guide right away.
If you want the game and the forums to thrive then you need to give people a reason to come. The old school players are either gone or don't bother anymore and the new players have nothing to gain here. Hence a dead forum.
So that was a little off topic, if you want a forum contest get people to give tips and tricks, then have a panel, mods, Ray and Cres whatever, judge those tips and give a prize based on it's worth to everyone.
I think the original idea was to give away some sort of credits or membership.
Def have to have a way of controlling it to make sure the same people dont always win, and to make sure that people dont just post A B C D E and so on just to get it. I mean if you REALLY look into it, your going to find a way to exploit just about anything.
Thats why hopefully random hours would help. No one would know what hour would be chosen, it could be the hour right after you went to sleep. If someone is spamming the forums, not only should they NOT win the contest, they should be temporarily banned.
Like Calder said there needs to be something "ingame" that people will see. Like "NOOB FORUM" "or CONTEST FORUMS" etc. Just something so that people get on, work their accounts, and when they run out of credits they say "hmmm whats this?"
Last but not least. It was in the last thread that there should be a new forum specifically for noobs. Not even necessarily a noob forum, but a "ask a vet" or "help" forum. I think instead of just posting ALL the secrets for everyone to see, how about a forum where people can ask their specific ?s.
If this forum was made, you could reward people who answer the most questions respectfully in a "random hour" or day or whatever you choose. You could also reward people who ask the most ?s in a certain hour.
And yes technically this is still possible to "cheat" or "control" or whatever word you see fit, but if people are on the forums ALL day long answering ?s and not being a dick about it, thats exactly what we are looking for.
Small prize credit give aways would work as a reward to this idea.
Admin can use that in game note thing (up the top of the page) to promote anything happning in the forums.
the "ask a vet" or "help" thing would work ... anyone can post anything they need help with and then say one of us pops in awsners what they need to know.
How about maybe a 1k credit reward for signing up to the forums or something aswell ??
Also the mods (no offnce to any mods) need to stick to doing what they say ... and give us updates on how its comming along with ray or whatever ...half the posts have some great ideas ..and mods say they will speak to ray on the matter etc ...then is just fades away and no1 else ever hears about it ..there needs to be more comunication and action on ideas or MC will keep sliding downhill as is it now
trying to get the forums more active is going to be hard.
I like the 1k credz bonus for signing up, but the credit rewards in forums iam sorry to say iam still not a fan... I feel it would bring ppl to the forums for the wrong reasons(like having a bday party and having free alco, most ppl will turn up for the free alco and not the persons bday).
We do need a big link in the game which noobs can easily see. But why credit give aways for answering questions? i would be happy to answer any questions for nothing, and iam sure alot more vets would aswell.
If any1 remembers blackwidow forums randy had a money system where u could buy dif styles of font and colour for ur forum name and earnt icons if i can remember correct... i found that fun and a lil addictive, y not introduce somthing like this? maybe the person with the coolest looking name got 2k credz(which could be picked at the end of each game period, ready for the start of nxt so they start with 4k) not sure who it would be judged by...ray/modz?
just my 2 cents...take it or leave it
Wraith Wrote:I like the 1k credz bonus for signing up, but the credit rewards in forums iam sorry to say iam still not a fan... I feel it would bring ppl to the forums for the wrong reasons(like having a bday party and having free alco, most ppl will turn up for the free alco and not the persons bday).
We do need a big link in the game which noobs can easily see. But why credit give aways for answering questions? i would be happy to answer any questions for nothing, and iam sure alot more vets would aswell.
If any1 remembers blackwidow forums randy had a money system where u could buy dif styles of font and colour for ur forum name and earnt icons if i can remember correct... i found that fun and a lil addictive, y not introduce somthing like this? maybe the person with the coolest looking name got 2k credz(which could be picked at the end of each game period, ready for the start of nxt so they start with 4k) not sure who it would be judged by...ray/modz?
just my 2 cents...take it or leave it
def like the forum fonts, styles etc. Perhaps this is what we could work for in the forums to unlock.
Other than that I gotta agree, cept for the answering ?s and whatnot. Dont think of it as "you answer a ?, heres 1k credits." Its not a prize for EVERY person who answers a ?, the mods would choose a single hour and whoever had answerd the most ?s in that hour wins.
Its basically just a reward for helpin out
Randys forums ran on different software, not sure if VBulletin has those kind of mods or not.
One thing I mentioned to Ray quite a while back about the TS forums was reinstating the use of picture signatures. That also lends to the look and feel of a forum.
I think ive kinda held off on the forum talk so here goes nothing,
I think the credit prizes should be added into the game aspect not the forum,
the forum is active when the game is active.
So lets focus on the game itself rather than the forums
Just my 2
dnb_Fueld Wrote:I think ive kinda held off on the forum talk so here goes nothing,
I think the credit prizes should be added into the game aspect not the forum,
the forum is active when the game is active.
So lets focus on the game itself rather than the forums
Just my 2
Why not combine these and make the comp details only on the forums so you have so sign on and read the details on the forum but then the prize is for something in game?
dnb_Fueld Wrote:I think ive kinda held off on the forum talk so here goes nothing,
I think the credit prizes should be added into the game aspect not the forum,
the forum is active when the game is active.
So lets focus on the game itself rather than the forums
Just my 2
Only thing is, Ray already gave the go ahead for "forum" prize credits. He wanted forum activity, we suggested it, and he gave the ok.
I mean I would like to see more in game credits too, but honestly I dont think that will actually bring people to the forums.
The idea was to bring as much activity to the forums as possible.....Maybe like the person before me said we should have In game contests, but forum sign ups. The possibilities for in game contests could be endless, let alone broken down by level. As long as you HAD to sign up on the forums to be elidgable, I could see that bringing a lot of traffic