Well, there is a link to "About Verge" in the link bar at the top of every page. But if you didn't noticed it, I guess it could be more visible.

Well, since people read left-to-right, maybe move the "about verge" link before the forums tab. Maybe capitalizing the acronymn VERGE would also be a good idea.

It also seems like the about page could give a little more info to those who are new to this site, and game creation engine. Just my opinion.

Actually, to a degree I enjoy the exclusivity that VERGE's vagueness offers.

VERGE itself is an excellent platform for making games on but only if you're willing to put the time and effort in. By requiring users to investigate a little before understanding what VERGE *is* allows the community to stay at a manageable size and stops the constant bickering of newbies who ask a whole lot of questions and don't do a whole lot in return for the answers.

...Just sayin'.

As a Newbie I tried purposefully to ask as few questions as possible. I think that should newbies become a regular occurance they - as you suggest - should have some sort of database to access that gives them all they need with the minimum of bugging-other-people-with-stupid-questions-ness.

It's just I was a little worried that if VERGE were to be suddenly put under the spotlight we might get a vast quantity of stupidity landing on everybody's doorstep, turning what initially started as a small group of productive and thoughtful individuals into a squabbling mass of people who are either busy hating people or too tired with a large quantity of the community to bother making an effort any more. It happened before with MegaZeux and I'd just hate to see something similar happen anywhere else ever again. Argh!

I suppse the best way to go about introducing the right sort of newbies, for a start, would be to throw some of VERGE's great games their way (preferrably with source code). Indeed reviews, screenshots, tips on general games design, ways to avoid pissing people off etc. would also be highly welcome. Just something that lets newcomers know exactly what VERGE is about, welcoming the enthusiastic and dissuading those who just like to annoy.

As a newbie I want MOAR DOCS!!

Wait... That's my responsibilty now...

Ragecage's idea for a newbie theme is a very good one - as long as we have lots of good newbie content to poke them towards.

Zip

I've taken 31 screenshots of 6 games :

Duskbane
Diver Down
Snowscape
Parallel 7
Beyond Babel
Funky Fight


But I've no idea where to upload them.. Whoever's going to do this page and needs MOAR SHOTS please tell me.

I'll help make verge cooler!

I'll make a long game. A complete rpg! It'll be really cool and take a loong time to make, but it'll be worth it.

Wait, I already did that.

Honestly the main thing this site needs is content. There are some good files hosted -maybe not enough. But many of the links in the top menu don't even work.

How about keep the Files section what it is now, a complete archive of everything verge. But the Games section should trim the fat. Put the cream of the crop in there. Put complete verge games that the community wants to show off. Make it newbie/ gamer friendly - put min requirements for each game so people can dl and enjoy what they want without getting too bogged down in verge version or whatever. I guess we would want to make it obvious which games are old tho. Anyway, the Games section should be what legitimizes verge. It's what interested people will go to first. I first found verge cause I wanted to play a Phantasy Star game. I saw Revelation and a couple other cool ones and I was hooked.

I don't know what the Teams link is for and it should prolly be taken out. Umm, no FAQ doesn't help the newbie friendliness issue. The links section needs to contain some links to verge games in development (remember the old verge ring?). Diver Down should be there. The Curse for Dragmoria should be there. It's probably the longest playable game for v3 at the moment (assuming it's fully converted, that is). I mean, simple stuff like this will keep people interested.

The Articles section is pretty lame right now. If anyone wants to help revitalize the site and can't find the time or think of anything, make an article. Don't contribute if there's no real substance tho. And don't write one of those stupid joke articles. And we should probably remove aen's v2 article cause we want v3 to be the only dev platform for newbies.

Don't keep the website incomplete. If you can't make a page for a link, then remove the link.

Spiff up the main page. Take out that sidebar text that is useless. Put a sentence or two in the sidebar that explains what verge is. Maybe put a paragraph in the sidebar that explains what verge is if there is no logged in user, so newbie's will see it but it'll be more streamlined for registered members. Put a screenshot of the week or whatever on the main page, maybe with a link to whatever game it's a shot from. It doesn't even need to change at a set increment, it'll just be something newcomers notice when they first get here.


Anyway, you'll notice that a lot of the things I mentioned don't really take all that much webwork or time. I'm not talking about adding a cool review system or project system (like RPGDX.net has), just finishing a couple simple pages and cleaning up the site.

And there'll always be stupid people. The more people that come around does mean the more stupid ones, but that's not a reason to not wanna attract people to the site. more will mean more better people making games too.

The first thing that I notice when coming to the site, after the verge-rpg.com in big black text, is the first big green news header. Maybe there is some way to make the very top news update actually be a "New to Verge?" thingy, and make it "sticky" the way that lots of message boards keep important messages on top. That way, you have the important information right where they will look first. It would just need to have a link to another page, so it wouldn't be so large as to scroll off the real news.

Adding a "New to VERGE?" option in the sidebar seems the right thing to do for me. Like I said, a sort of database intended exclusively for learning VERGE would help enormously.

Sections would include a basic introduction into coding, how to do artwork for V3, limitations of V3 and general guidelines and articles on how to manage various aspects of making games. Something on managing a team of VERGEers cohesively in order to make a team game would also be great.

Also, with talk of reviews, can we at some point get a *proper* reviews database, allowing you to submit a review for a game in some sort of standardised format with a screenshot submit feature too for illustrating the review and a final mark out of 10. The review would also require the user to submit a link for downloading the game in question and possibly the source code too. A talkback feature integrated into this in the same way the manual works would also be higly welcome. This would help make all VERGE games more accesible for everyone.

I'm quite happy to review games excessively until I curl up and die from malnutrition so if this feature gets implemented I am more than happy to get the ball rolling at excessive speed from the offset.

I'll take this thread as an opportunity to post for the month.


VERGE is small. It should probably be bigger. This requires effort, however. Someone has to be willing to campaign it. It should probably not be one of the people working on it.

vecna's an alcoholic. i'm an alcoholic. zeromus is a schizophrenic. is that PR material? i dont know