How about game suboforum in the One Piece section?

Ivotas

I was actually wondering for a long time why we just have an Anime, Manga and Other section and not a game section. I know that in size and audience game is not quite as big as anime or manga but gaming itself is big enough to warrent it's own thread. I can also understand the point that in the anime we have the main story but let's face it, outside of the respective episode's own thread, there's really no story discussion such as theories and speculations for anime fans only going on. If anything, news about a new opening, a new movie are get their own threads. So it's not like there's that much more going on than in a possible gaming subforum.

Btw, I'm aware that the many OP game related threads we have in the other section are pretty much dormant threads for old games so it's not like I'm saying that there'd be a big discussion going on suddenly. But still I just think it might be worth doing it looking forward because we know that in the future more installments will come.

starlalilymoon

That be nice to have one for specifically One Piece games in the One Piece General Section! I think it is a good idea and keep things even more organized! :happy:

Foolio

My personal (and kinda default) take is that more forum segmentation is not the best idea at this point, with the amount of post traffic we have, unless there is a specific reason. There aren't going to be enough OP games to fill a section, and I don't think it's distracting or inappropriate to discuss them either in the Other section or the Video Games forum.

Don Quichotte De Flamingo

We could open up some of the less used subforums to unclutter this unnecessary segmentation.
But imo giving this suggestion a try wouldn´t hurt, especially seeing what other subforums made it in here, without even having a OP connection.

PS: On that note it may be wise to add an live action series subforum, once it hits netflix, because that might bring new faces in here.

Robby

The live action show is going to be around for 8 weeks (or one week if Netflix drops it all at once) and it'll probably get all its discussion done pretty quick.

It really doesn't warrant its own sub-section unless it turns out well and is vastly different from the source in a way that warrants speculating in new threads and becomes a long running hit that we'll be discussing for years and each individual episode demands a separate discussion.

But Netflix will probably drop it all at once as they do, we'll all binge it over a weekend, argue it's qualities, and then that'll be that.

If they release it weekly and there's a ton of discussion? Maybe it'll warrant something short term. . But I expect the one thread already there will suffice. Maybe we'll make a new one to be fresh "actually talk about the show" rather than "speculate about the thing coming in 5 years" but I doubt it's going to call for more than that.

As for games? Only the very most current or upcoming OP games get talked about, 2 or 3 a year, it also doesn't warrant its own section, there's just not enough quantity for it. World Seeker, which released in 2018, is still on the front page of the other section! The second page has threads from 2014! The Musou game is the only one that has a lot of posts and that's almost entirely because it had DLC to talk about.

There's just not enough of them or activity to warrant a subsection.

Ivotas

@Foolio:

My personal (and kinda default) take is that more forum segmentation is not the best idea at this point, with the amount of post traffic we have, unless there is a specific reason. There aren't going to be enough OP games to fill a section, and I don't think it's distracting or inappropriate to discuss them either in the Other section or the Video Games forum.

I get what you're saying but I don't really agree with the "not enough games" part if we take the Anime subforum as a reference in terms of traffic. While over many years it has amassed quite a number of threads, unlike the Manga forums there's really only a handful of topics/threads that are actually alive.

Of course one could say that on Video Game subforum many threads would be dead too because many games are old. But the upside would be that we have a place where all OP games new AND old are collected for people who may want to discuss ir ask questions. I can even give you a practical example for why this could be good.

Outside of APF the only other forum I am a member of is Playstationtrophies.org. It has plenty of sections, huge one for PS consoles that have trophy support and only minor for trophies, that don't have trophy support like early PS3 titles as well as PS1 and PS2. Yet as gamers it's not a rare occurance to play retro games and discuss them. And if someone who plays and old game for the first time, then that's the place to go to ask questions if you are stuck because gaming guides and helpful feedback changed a lot with the emergance of achievements and trophies. It's still hard to find as constructive and on point help on old/lesser popular games.

On top of that, if it's One Piece we're talking about then there's not even much traffic there because the general gaming community doesn't play those games. So if anyone would wsnt to ask a question on an old game there, you can forget to find a reply. However one would expect that on a One Piece discussion forum you could find a place to ask this.

I'm aware that this scenario, while definitely plausible, is most likely gonna happen rarely if at all. But still, as a OP forum I think we of all places should have a section dedicated to this. Because in the end, if we consider all existing games then we already have enough to fill a forum. And gaming is huge, which means even if now there's still not many new OP games are coming out, an IP like this WILL keep releasing new games. Especially the closer we come to the end of the series. Better organise it now while it's still very much easy to overview, no?

@Robby:

As for games? Only the very most current or upcoming OP games get talked about, 2 or 3 a year, it also doesn't warrant its own section, there's just not enough quantity for it. World Seeker, which released in 2018, is still on the front page of the other section! The second page has threads from 2014! The Musou game is the only one that has a lot of posts and that's almost entirely because it had DLC to talk about.

Think of them what you will but mobile games are also games. And they are being discussed with Treasure Cruise actually being the most active thread in the other section for years now. Other mobile games might not be as popular or big yet but they do exist and have threads.

There's just not enough of them or activity to warrant a subsection.

If that's an argument why are we keeping the archive around then? Don't get me wrong, I don't want it to go because it's nice to look up some hilarious moments of the past. But if actual activity is a factor, then it doesn't warrant to exist. And asking even one question about a current, upcoming or even retro game would be more activity than the archive has.

Also on that matter I repeat the referrence to the anime subforum. Have you actually seen the activity there? It's just a few active threads. I know there's anime only watchers but not much of an discussion about theories and speculations by anime only followers as we have it in the manga section. Yet the anime rightfully has it's own subsection. I don't think that activity should be the main metric to gauge wether it deserves it's own subsection. Sometimes having a go to place that's like some sort of encyclopedia for older topics is also a valid reason. Especially with a media like gaming, where questions about older games are not a thing out of the ordinary. It shouldn't be judged by the same metric as manga and anime, which are story driven and thus lead to talkbacks about plot. Games on the other hand are interactivity driven and while plot can also be discussed a "where do I find X?" or "how can I beat Y?" request for feedback is more the kind of activity which is different from the other two.

And also just recently a member has posted a "your ideal cast in an OP fighting game" thread. It's not about a specific game but about a dream game. That's pretty much a topic you can create in a Video Game subforum without having to talk about a specific existing game. Just like you can have all kinds of threads in the manga section that discuss things outside of one specific chapter. Who's to say that not more of such free video game topics wouldn't be created if we didn't have a dedicated Video Game subforum? I find the thought of a video game subforum being restricted to having only threads about existing games rather a narrow take on the matter.

Foolio

The Anime subforum was a lot more active back in the day, and I imagine it was warranted at the time it was created (though you'd probably know better than I would). Right now you're absolutely right; If I were redesigning the sections and sub-sections from scratch, I probably wouldn't bother segmenting that either, based on current post and user traffic. Though, there is a strong case to be made there concerning spoilers, if there are anime viewers who don't read and don't want to accidentally click a thread that spoils the show for them. That aside it would, of course, be more effort than it's worth to redo all that now.

Anyway I personally don't see any convincing arguments about why what we have is insufficient or impractical, and I do honestly think it's quite detrimental to create tons of small boxes that can indirectly end up hiding content from users, or confusing them ("where do I post this?").

Ivotas

No offense mate but I think that's a weak case to make against a Video Game section of the main forum. You know me by now, I'm not personally attacking you, but when I see a an argument being presented that I feel just isn't right, I'm being pretty blunt about how I don't think it accurately covers the subject at hand. And right now it strikes me more as a "Us mods/admins don't see any value in it, thus it objectively has no value for anyone else" kind of stance, rather than there objectively being no reason to have one.

Make no mistake. I'm not saying that a video game subforum is this magical place where suddenly a lot of traffic will occur. Far from it. I'm very aware that there would be little traffic, with Treasure Cruise being the only one that's guaranteed to stay active. But what I'm saying is that the size of traffic should not be the main metric we measure the value this. I believe that organizing sections by categories that are big enough aspects of the One Piece IP should have their own section in a One Piece fan forum. Yes One Piece is mainly a manga. But the big four segments in terms of market you can sepperate the IP into is manga, anime, video games and merchandise. As a matter of fact we have a merchandise section within the collectibles subforum (which also can and should be it's own main section).

That being said, the point about video games is, that there already is quite a number of video game related threads collected over the years. Yes, it's mostly dormant threads but if you are a One Piece fan and a gamer and you come across a retro game you might need actual help with , you will not find it on a general gaming forum. You will not find it on Youtube because even if there is videos of old OP games, nobody actually will be there to answer your questions if you have any. I'm not saying that new members will suddenly coming in huge numbers to us because of a video game forum. But imagine if you are a lurker who looks on info on older OP games. You would definitely go to a One Piece forum in hope to find something. Yet, our One Piece forum doesn't have such a section which would invite fans like that. As a lurker searching for old threads on that topic you're forced to search the "Other" section or you will not bother with it, once you realize that if it is there, you'll have to skim through quite a number of pages in hope that what you are looking for is somewhere to be found in this section.

Let's face it, no matter how big the manga is, that shouldn't matter in this discussion. Video games are too big a media to be relegated to an "Other" section. An "Other" section literally is for things that don't fit in any categorized mold and mostly can and will be discussed within one thread exclusively. Video Games and Merchandise (the more I think about it to more I think it should be an actual main forum) definitely don't belong in such section. "Other" literally is the "anything else that's lesser important" section of any forum. Video Games and Merchandise not that insignificant. This is a One Piece forum. So it should look like a One Piece forum. Not like a "the things us few consider to be One Piece and everything else we don't we relegate to the useless section Forum".

I honestly don't see the harm in having the forum be more organized by creating these logically categorized sections. I mean if there's literally any harm here, I would understand your guys take better. But all I hear now is "not much traffic" which IMO is a weak point. Also it works under the premise that a gaming section would not invite discussion, based on no evidence but rather on the own lack of vision. Who's to say that having such a section will not invite members to create more topics dedicated to One Piece gaming? I myself can think of several threads I could post in such a section right now and I'm definitely not being creative here. I repeat, I'm not saying, such a section will create huge traffic. But at least it's a place that could invite such discussion, rather than having people go to the other section, which by default is always is the least appealing section on any website.

I think I'm done with rambling on about a video games (and merchandise) forum. But before I leave I would like to make one more suggestion since we're on the topic of logically organizing things. I do believe that the anime section could have a movie subforum. Yes, most movies are a thing of the past but still, having a collected place were to find the movies that have been discussed in dedicated threads would be more user friendly to anyone, who cares about these things.

Foolio

Ah yes. When I say “I personally…” that totally means “I am stating something objective.” Nothing more to be said really; more walls of text don’t change basic organizational principles, and we have in fact discussed various iterations of “should X be a subforum” in recent times with the consensus almost always being more or less what I outlined.

Ivotas

Ah yes. When I say "us mods/admins…" that totally means I'm talking only to you and no one else. If you guys don't want to make such a change, then that's an absolutely ok decision. If such a change would create too big of an additional workload, that you guys really don't want to deal with it, it would be a totally understandable reason to say no. But don't hide behind cryptic buzzwords like "basic organizational principles" as if what I suggest would somehow overthrow them and turn this forum on it's head. No reason to be dishonest is all I'm saying.

Robby

It made perfect sense to make a One Piece Podcast subsection. That's weekly and its hosted by several mainstays. It's had two posts total in the last seven years. Same with the AMV and Cosplay and Music subthreads. Compelling cases were made for them, they were made, they got a little attention for a while and made sense at the time, then died.

Just because you CAN make a bonus box to put things into doesn't always mean its a good idea.

But since you've brought it up and I'm staring right at those things now, maybe we'll condense down some of the old stuff that's effectively dead and do some long needed cleanup there.

If that's an argument why are we keeping the archive around then

Because the archive condenses old content.

It has over 20 old subsections within it, and dozens of other things worth putting in a special spot. Literally thousands of individual threads, hundreds of thousands of posts, including the old tournaments which were once upon a time their own subsections for the duration of the event. They don't have activity now because the event is over, but they had plenty at the time and are worth preserving.

The reason the archive is there is self evident. It is the ARCHIVE. Same reason there' an introduction box and announcements. Those are about serving critical site functions that have an ongoing need and making less clutter.

Ivotas

@Robby:

It made perfect sense to make a One Piece Podcast subsection. That's weekly and its hosted by several mainstays. It's had two posts total in the last seven years. Same with the AMV and Cosplay and Music subthreads. Compelling cases were made for them, they were made, they got a little attention for a while and made sense at the time, then died.

Just because you CAN make a bonus box to put things into doesn't always mean its a good idea.

But since you've brought it up and I'm staring right at those things now, maybe we'll condense down some of the old stuff that's effectively dead and do some long needed cleanup there.

That's a fair enough point. But at the same time making a bonus box is not a bad idea. Especially if it would condense future threads. I was not kidding when I said, I could and actually would start OP gaming topics that have nothing to do with a specific or even existing game. Would it generate as much traffic as you the subsections above? No, I definitely am not claiming that. But it could keeps things better organised than having it in other section, which is just lesser appealing.

Because the archive condenses old content.

It has over 20 old subsections within it, and dozens of other things worth putting in a special spot. Literally thousands of individual threads, hundreds of thousands of posts, including the old tournaments which were once upon a time their own subsections for the duration of the event. They don't have activity now because the event is over, but they had plenty at the time and are worth preserving.

The reason the archive is there is self evident. It is the ARCHIVE. Same reason there' an introduction box and announcements. Those are about serving critical site functions that have an ongoing need and making less clutter.

Exactly. So a game section would also work as an archive for long dead threads were one could look up info on older games that lays somewhere on those ancient threads. Yes, it most likely would happen rarely if at all, but I'm not making things up when I say that there are people playing a lot of retro games and if ever a OP retro gamer comes a long that person will have a heard time finding info somewhere. Anime games are a niche in the gaming community. And if we're talking about old anime games then good luck on actually finding info or feedback on those games.

I understand that you guys are not going to make such a change and I definitely won't be writing yet another wall of text on that matter. But since this is a suggestion forum I had made a suggestion on a change I think would make things a bit more organized. Not on a huge forum changing scale but still a small change for better organisation.