What can we do to make Runouw the active forum it was?

[~MP3 Amplifier~]

Well IMO I've been wanting to do YT stuff for a while now. What harm could it do? There's always a chance it could attract more people, and if not, it would still be pretty fun.
The bullying bothered me a lot too, I think it was partly the reason why I started getting uncomfortable early last year, and then that gradually got worse so yeah. But still, I think that's sorted now. I've been trying to get myself back on chat because I'm happy and comfortable with the site again.

[Zunar]

I don't expect many views to come in from the videos, unless the lper is truly engaging, active talker, and funny. Not implying no one can be any of these 3 things on Runouw, but a lot of us are just not that kind of person.

Maybe not alone, but if we had a couple of people working together then we could pull it off. If you want proof compare my UHC videos with just me by myself to the ones where Harmless co-commentated and you should see the difference. Not saying my UHC videos are anything to brag about (they probably aren't), I'm just saying there's quite a difference between having only one commentator versus having multiple.

[Raz]

Oh god the settings in that video is too hard to watch for long at all.
In sm63, if this is discussion about the level, like the making of it or the awards it won, then maybe I'd like it. But really, each level doesn't have a life story behind it so I don't really expect the discussion to last long. Nor is it engaging for watcher to have to bear with the signs every few seconds in some of the levels.
But all of this is just my opinion, if you guys really want to do it, go ahead, it's not like I'm gonna be the only viewer and like my opinion matters anyways.

[~MP3 Amplifier~]

Well it would be a nice idea to get co-commentators anyway, but the WITBLO12 video idea was gonna be a lot more interesting than watching through levels with the odd bit of talking. I assume this is what we meant when we said we should make a youtube channel for SM63 stuff. And your opinion does count here Raz, in fact I want to thank you for the feedback because I probably would have overlooked things like engaging the viewer instead of just saying what you have to say.

I guess I'm seeing it like, I'm not expecting loads of people to suddenly join, but it's one of those little things that we can do for fun anyway. MoD did that great video about the level designer back in 2012, it only needed music to back it up, and it was really well done. We could probably use the alternate music for any of the levels anyway because that would make it a bit more interesting.

I wouldn't mind commentating, but you may have to ignore the fact I laugh randomly up to 10 times per sentence. But I mean, this idea isn't even for definite.

[Raz]

I'm not really against it or anything just making sure you guys know that youtube is hard to satisfy.


Also, I'm not really sure what needs to be done specifically to make Runouw more active. Is the new way of submitting levels too complicated? The old way was pretty easy. I'm sure if we get more level mods (or just the current ones work harder) we can get a better version of the old portal. I mean, most of us joined because of the level portal and we may have gotten curious of the forum during that time, it was completely possible to just not even look at the portal. Now you pretty much have to use the forum or else you can't post levels. Not sure if that makes sense, screw english grammar.

[nin10mode]

Yeah, you don't really get a youtube audience out of nowhere. It's usually better to do stuff like that for a site that's already set than do it to set your site up.

[Venexis]

In sm63, if this is discussion about the level, like the making of it or the awards it won, then maybe I'd like it. But really, each level doesn't have a life story behind it so I don't really expect the discussion to last long. Nor is it engaging for watcher to have to bear with the signs every few seconds in some of the levels.

The thing about this is that games like Minecraft don't have a great deal to them either. In fact, Minecraft has arguably less than a vast majority of SM63 levels we could voiceover, because MC has a very linear progression (punch tree, get wood, make tools, upgrade tools, build cabin, end episode) and it has been beaten to death by every single ♥♥♥♥ LPer who covers it.

And yet it's still popular. Granted, I don't particularly care about this kind of stuff, but there's often a massive difference between videos that do well, and ones that flop. Looking closer, there's a lot in common between videos in either group. I've only sat through a small sample of videos, but it's plain to see that the well-received videos tend to feature guys like Game Grumps or the Mindcrack team- for the most part, they're charismatic, relatable, and either do not make the game their primary focus, or do so in an engaging manor.

What does this mean for SM63 and LL videos? It means we have an automatic 1-up on anyone just starting an LP of a mainstream game everyone's heard of. They'd have all sorts of competition, and need to resort to increasingly desperate tactics in order to provide new content and attract viewers. They're marketing to a userbase in which most (if not all) members are familiar with the things they'd demonstrate. This makes about as much sense as trying to sell a raincoat to a man with an umbrella. The products are obviously different, but have more or less the same purpose, and the since the umbrella can be moved, stored, and positioned with much greater ease, it may ultimately be doing the job better. There's a few people who would be interested in both (people who happily play a game and enjoy watching other people play it the same way), but most would have only a minimal interest at best (and therefore be happy with either but probably not both- having the game spoiled in a video would ruin the game for them, or vice versa).

Contrast that with a relatively unknown game, especially SM63 (which features one of the most iconic gaming characters). It's recognizable as a distinctly Mario-styled game at a glance, and there's certainly a market for that. And then it deviates, because for the most part, our site is underground. We have a complex community, with a complex history, and very few people who aren't already members are aware of that. We could do anything we want with the game, and feel comforted by the knowledge that it would be new and interesting to a majority of the internet.

So we've already got the edge by nature of the subject matter we'd be presenting, now we'd just need those youtube personalities from our userbase to do their thing. None of those other LPers were born famous, and although it would be absurd to expect a flash game to compete with proper indie games and the like, we have as good a chance as any to get the word out.

EDIT: If we're really serious about this, I think LDC coverage (for both LL and SM63) would be a great place to start. Awards and maybe a brief showcase of the top placing entries would be cool, and maybe some behind-the-scenes looks at how an entry was made (obviously, this would be up to the individual user to record). Of course it means our judges would really have to step things up, like, get those results out within a week after the contest ends, and no later than two at most.

[nin10mode]

This post by nin10mode was thumbed up by:

Harmless (March 4th, 2014, 12:40 pm)

[Venexis]

I would agree too, except these things are not exactly progressing very quickly. The forum overhaul has been in the discussion phase for..... almost a year now, hasn't it? I mean, I'm definitely part of that holdup as much as anyone else because the entire thing has pretty much just been gathering dust in F23, but we should probably figure out a way to keep things like that at the top of our priorities before attempting to actually do anything.

And in the meantime, why wait? Anyone who's willing could put out footage of our levels and contests and other site attractions- it'll take time to get everything in motion after all.

[~MP3 Amplifier~]

I agree with Nin. It would be nice to prioritise the site's format and design, maybe we could do a vote on what design we want the forum to be in? E.g. exactly the same as now, the white version of the new layout or the darker version of the new layout (from Runouw's topic last year).

I think to start out with, we could do the videos specifically for award ceremonies like WITBLO or LDCs or anything else like that, like have a commentary announcing the results and a bit about each of the level that placed (only brief), and maybe do a small slideshow of screenshots from the level whilst you're announcing it, or show a small bit of footage of you playing a part of the level. And then people who want to do LP videos of SM63 levels or do a speedrun etc can if they like.