The Future of TWG Content

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

In case you haven't noticed (and you haven't probably because I've been bad about sticking to it) TWG is no longer an every weekday publication.  I'm officially shooting for a MWF schedule. Once I get back int he rhythm this shouldn't be too hard.

However, I'm wondering what people feel about content. 90% (or more) of what we've gotten lately have been books and movies. I like books. I like movies. However, TWG has historically been about games first and books and movies second. I have no problem with raising the prominance of movies and books, but we've almost completely dropped games from our line up.

Seriously, we ran a column in webcomics over two months ago (Oct 10th); Tower of Cheapness's last contribution was back in February (it's the same as the most recent article for Video Games); Tabletop had something May, but it was a very tiny review, the last real review was a week before it;  RPGs is a little better, we've had 3 of those since the beginning of October. The last CCG article was in April.

So, do you guys see this as a movie/book review site? if not, how do you suggest we get mroe material. My sources have dried up. Most of my regular contributors of review materials have stopped sending stuff and don't respond to my queries.  Are you interested in original content? If so, what would you like to see? What would it take to get more of you to contribute regularly and in different areas?

[Spriggan]

One of the problems is we've gone from actually getting review material to having to review our own stuff game wise.  Now Wizards and Palladium still send us stuff and so does NCsoft but the problem with getting review materials is that it requires a lot of work/time for Fell or you SE and that's something neither of you have.

Also the Google money hasn't been used much for buying review material, it's gone towards hosting costs, sending people to cons and buying magic cards for a few people.  I've tried to attach a requirement to that money that if you get any you have to write articles about whatever that money was used for and despite the cash spent we have yet to get a single review from it that I'm aware of.

There are currently about 5-6 D&D books floating around that we've gotten but haven't been reviewed, I have two, Micha has 2 I believe and Fell has the rest.  edit: oh, and 42 has one as well.

Now on my end I've been trying to work in ways to encourage people to support the main site via forum rewards, not sure if it's something that will catch on but hopefully it will.

[Skar]

I obviously can't speak for anyone else, but I have trouble reviewing even movies and books due to time constraints.  I just don't have time to play games anymore.  The only game I play is FEAR combat.

I suppose I could review that...  goes off to think about it.

Generally, games take way more time to get to the point where you could honestly review them than books and movies.  I think that's the main problem.  Our regulars all have fuller lives than they did when the site started or when they first started contributing. 

I think the answer is to start recruiting.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Also the Google money hasn't been used much for buying review material, it's gone towards hosting costs, sending people to cons and buying magic cards for a few people.  I've tried to attach a requirement to that money that if you get any you have to write articles about whatever that money was used for and despite the cash spent we have yet to get a single review from it that I'm aware of.

I've used my google money to buy Civil War comics, which I talked about in Page 33 before I cancelled it. We don't actually get that much after paying for expenses.

[Spriggan]

Good, glad to see some of that being used.  Ya I should have mentioned that a good chunk of the money went to hosting costs.

I pretty much stopped review Video Games because I feel they're a dime a dozen now-a-days and there's no real way that I know of to make mine, or TWG's for that point, to stand out against everyone else's.

I'd love to get back into the TWGventure stuff and some other original content but that is time consuming, and useally doesn't bring up much intrest in our members besides a few people.  The big problem right now, and this isn't meant as an insult to anyone so please don't take it that way, is the new members and people that have become active (or are the new forum regulars) aren't intrested in games.  Nessa, Shrain, and the others don't care that much about them, it's books, movies that intrest them.  Then you've got all the new people coming because of EUOL and you're adding even more books/movie fans and less of the others.

Right now the people I know that are intrested in games are SE, Fell, 42, Entropy and I then a few sub regulars like Eagle Prince and Jeffe (he's just not on as much as he use to be).  That's not a lot anymore.

[stacer]

Well, I think we all know I've never really been interested in the game side of things, and even if I was more interested, working for Wizards kind of disqualifies me as a game reviewer. I don't even want to write book reviews anymore because it feels like a conflict of interest to do it for a third-party site, so when I do reviews, I generally just post them on my LJ and use them to illustrate something about what it means to write well.

Now, TWG is welcome to pick up any reviews I do that might be of interest, but I'm thinking the way I do reviews now aren't as much of interest as when I was in grad school.

[Nessa]

Now on my end I've been trying to work in ways to encourage people to support the main site via forum rewards, not sure if it's something that will catch on but hopefully it will.

Yes, and it's a cool idea. The only thing? Are the Fell points being handed out regularly? That would affect feeling 'encouraged'. I know SE has posted 3 of my reviews since the update and I haven't gotten any points yet and I would really love to be able to buy an award or something, 'cause I'm greedy that way. (I really am trying to be patient as Fell and Sprig figure out how this all is going to work...)

Sprig's point about the 'new regulars' is a good one. Although SE balks at only posting movie/book reviews, it shouldn't surprise him that it's the kind of thing most of the new regulars are interested in. Case in point: the Writer's Group section has been pretty active for the last year or so, with many members coming and going. Most of those people would be more interested in books vs video games (not in every case, but you get my point).

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

i only balk because, frankly, that's why I am falling short as the content poster. Frankly, a site that does almost no games and is over 66% movies I'll never see and book reviews (whether i will read them or not) isn't a site that maintains my interest enough to run.

The site has changed a lot. a year and a half ago, not a single person would have flipped out about the april fool's day prank we ran. This year, 90% of the people who reacted to it were pissed at me.

[Nessa]

If SE has no interest in posting, I would be willing to, um, help with the job. That is, if he wants help.

The site has changed a lot. a year and a half ago, not a single person would have flipped out about the april fool's day prank we ran. This year, 90% of the people who reacted to it were pissed at me.

But you still thought it was hilarious.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

yes, but the everybody being pissed about it certainly was a downer.

[Spriggan]

Now on my end I've been trying to work in ways to encourage people to support the main site via forum rewards, not sure if it's something that will catch on but hopefully it will.

Yes, and it's a cool idea. The only thing? Are the Fell points being handed out regularly? That would affect feeling encouraged. I know SE has posted 3 of my reviews since the update and I haven't gotten any points yet and I would really love to be able to buy an award or something, 'cause I'm greedy that way. (I really am trying to be patient as Fell and Sprig figure out how this all is going to work...)

No, you probably won't see people getting FP for things aside from awards until next year same with being able to spend said FP.

People will be compensated for back FP to a certain period that we haven't determined yet, but I can say those three you've submitted will get you 9 points when we award them.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

It would seem that blogs are where its at. Maybe think about setting TWG's front page up like a blog or something. One for each section. Although, you'd need someone who would be dedicated to that page, plus maybe one or two others who would contribute every-so-often.

Just a thought, a suggestion. Something to consider. In sucha faster pacing world nowadays it would seem that review sites are floundering.

[MsFish]

I do intend to get back to Geek Girl eventually, if it's still wanted.  I've had a hellish six months, and this month is psycho busy, but I haven't abandoned the idea entirely.  Not that this probably affects decisions about the site; I just wanted to give a heads up.

[Nessa]

Maybe recruit new blood, like recent TLE or Quark graduates. Somehow.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

we love Geek Girl, Fish. Whenever you can do them, submit them and we'll run them.