Nope.

We need to draw in more people without getting more retarded.

Throw some ideas out there people.

>>314180
More people will always mean more retarded. If we have good content, people will eventually show up. I don't think that anything has died of straight-up inactivity here.
We don't have a problem.

I'm with you there, SDF. It gets boring when you have to wait forever for any reply at all.

It was a kinda bad idea, posting early American morning on a weekend. You also need to attention-whore on IRC to get people posting.
Dunno, what kind of people like Quests? /tg/ seems to hate tgchan and apparently they don't even bother to visit for some trolling. Some people brought their own fans, not sure if that helps.

o wat we are a sedated snail 4 srs

Anonymous 2009/10/10(Sat)18:59 No. 4401 ID: 76e04d
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I recently came here (the past week) when I discovered Weaver was doing more quests (someone posted a pic of Mustachio on /tg/ and I recognized the style)...

I also enjoy some Reaver as well (damn has Reaver's art been getting good!)

Romanticar doesn't seem to really appeal to me, so I dont follow it, yet anyhow.

My only problem with Mudy is some of the incest (but I suppose in a way its almost traditional for deities/heros, in the Greek tradition anyhow.) Also I am the fellow who spontaneously started gushing blood from the nose while reading though the Ch 12-16 archives... seriously what the hell.

I am sorry to say I never really got into Joan or her quest.

I am enjoying Journey Quest.

I have been reading up on Aberration, Nan and Panzermench.

I eagerly await more Mustachio.. and I guess that's about it.

I suppose if I bug one of my fellows to read the RubyQuest archive (all you have to do is get them to the weird parts) I could get them addicted to questing as happened to me.

I think I really came here because all of the quests on /tg/ these days think they can get away with no pictures or visual aides of any kind. Art and style is very important to this media in my opinion so I guess wanted more.

I think there's an awful lot of people who are like "Eh, nothing is going wrong, I don't need to post any suggestions."

Working on it sir!

We will kill the communists!

I think another issue is that we have IRC for most of our back-and-forth. So the only updates that actually happen are quest updates and suggestions, and usually few to no repetitions there.

Look at that 5quest thing. Their discussion thread was going 120 posts per hour, and then we introduced them to IRC, and it turned into 0 posts per day.

We stepped on the gas.

I think something we should focus on is getting more of the people here to post, rather than simply getting more people. According to the site statistics, if I read them properly, we had over 7000 unique visitors during September. I can't really figure out the statistics enough to tell how many actually frequently visit, but there's sure to be a damn lot. Currently, /quest/ has posts from about 1100 unique IPs, /questarch/ has 1538, and /questdis/ ~620.
SueQuest has 21 different suggestors. Only 7 of those have suggested more than twice. SueQuest has run from aarly Thursday to late Saturday, about 60 hours.
Wake Up Dreaming, a quest by Gnome, has 20 suggestors, 8 suggesting more than twice. It's run since late Friday, for about 30 hours.
Gnoll's pokemon choice, only, got 29 posts from 21 users within the span of 20 minutes.

I recant my earlier statement. We have a problem. It's not a lack of people. It's a lack of posting.
First off, should people be posting things that basically amount to "This,"? It seems a lot of times, especially for me, people will not post, because what they want to say has already been said. Saying "Yeah, this guy is right, do what he said," doesn't really add to the thread unless it's breaking a tie between conflicting courses of action.
Secondly, should we be posting things like "I can't think of anything to do," or "Wait for something to happen, this doesn't seem like a time where there's a decision to be made," or even just the MSPA "==>"? Sometimes it seems like there is no reason for us to do anything, or at least anything in particular.

I think I'm supposed to have a conclusion here, but I'm not sure what it is I'm concluding. So, I'm just going to end it here. Anyone have opinions on it?

You raise an interesting point.

I think we should remove the ban on 'this' posts. I don't really see it being a problem.

>>314214
PROTIP: It's not banned.

I am okay with allowing "This" posts. I have always been okay with "This" posts. They help the quester decide which actions are popular, and which are not.

To see "This" in action, check out Journey. It regularly gets people seconding and thirding posts. It doesn't detract from the thread that I can tell.

The only thing that really detracts from a thread are random other images. They call attention to the post, and the Quester's posts are the important ones.

>>314205

Yeah... we like IRC. It's fun.

Am I the only one who thinks the "lurkers" on the site are only waiting for updates on certain quests?

I'm not being jealous or anything about this thing, but I thought I should bring this up.

>>314222
Eh, I dunno. Even the Romanticars aren't getting significantly more or faster suggestions than others, from what I've seen. Journey was pretty berserk, though, so I may be wrong.

>>314224
Well honestly the thing is godawful boring..

Journey also happens to be the hands-down best quest on the boards, so there is that to consider.

Besides being one of the best quests, Journey got some Epic End Battle deal going on right now. There were enough times when it also got only very few suggestions.
Suggestions always explode when there's either something exciting going on or important decisions are to be made.
Whenever the possibilities boil down to "go left or right" and "proceed or not", most don't bother to even write something.

/puts on his managers hat

There are 4 quests that i know of operating on ol 4chans /tg/

they even update faster than /quest/

there is something wrong with this.

>>314230
You need to subtract the troll posts.

>>314231
Still beats /quest/
even with trollposts

sad truth

>>314230
>they even update faster than /quest/
It helps when you don't draw anything.

>>314233
True that! The most they do is maybe post a picture they found somewhere on the web as a starting pic and roll on. The damn suggestions post more art there than the Quest manager.

>>314230
Many of us who strive to improve our quests are already updating as quickly as possible. There is a limit on how fast one can draw in a certain style at a certain level of detail without resorting to copy and paste.

We've just recently had a pretty decent discussion on what makes a quest good or bad and a lot of revelations were had there. I don't think there's been enough time for that advice to germinate just yet. The comparison to /tg/ is a little frustrating, given they're a more populous board, and that all of their discussion occurs on-board. The other anons' points about the IRC shouldn't be taken lightly - a lot of discussion occurs in #rq where it could have occurred on the board.

So I guess thinking on it, moving discussion from #rq onto the board proper would probably improve traffic (and include non-IRC anons, but good luck getting anyone to stop chatting in the IRC when there are no downsides on their part). Barring that, quest quality would almost certainly attract and retain attention - art quality particularly. It's sort of the shiny pacakaging for your quest. To that I say, "We are working on it."

Test Pattern 2009/10/11(Sun)12:45 No. 4437 ID: 7eda8b
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>>314234
I haven't read much of the image-less 4chan quests, but they seem to come down to
"You're a hat."
"Uhhh, invade a star system."
"You conquer a star system and crush all of the indigenous people living there."
"Oh man this is so cool."

I've been places where collaborative writing games rack up thousands of words of prose a day, much of it by better writers than I. Even that gets boring after awhile. (And practically impossible to read)

>>314237
Essentially... yes.

>>314237

We need more inquisitive people.

And those who are willing to read. I don't think my quest is going to turn out well at the rate it's spiraling down the board.

EDIT: Upon further reading of the thread, I'm curious. As someone who has no artistic (Drawing wise) skills what-so-ever, I'm starting to wonder whether or not I should continue to post anything other than suggestions. From the sound of it, everything from quest starting to quest suggestions are done over IRC, a strange and unfamiliar place to me, and from what test said, I'm finding myself a little worried. I want to run a quest and focus on a story, but at the same time, I need to be detailed in order to give the poster a general idea of what things look like and where things are.

So I hate to hijack a little here, but I'm now curious: Is there any preference of textual quests over ones that have pictures to coincide with them, or (More likely) vice versa?

>>314297

>everything from quest starting to quest suggestions are done over IRC
This isn't true, suggestions are always taken from the board, or at least I can't think of any instance otherwise. On IRC we just have general discussion most of the time and notifications from quest authors when they update. You aren't missing out on a whole lot by not going to IRC and ultimately nothing important gets said there that isn't also said on /quest/ or /questdis/.

Quests don't have to be image-based. Ant Quest, for example, is almost entirely textual and is a long-runner. It's all a matter of taste. Chances are, if you aren't an awful writer, people will be interested enough to follow your quest.

You'd be surprised how intimidating a few paragraphs can be. After I write a post, (unless I'm being lazy or stupid) I go back and try to remove whatever words and sentences aren't necessary.

"Perfection is not when there is nothing more to add, but when no more can be taken away."

>>314300
Elements of Style:

"Omit Needless Words."

ugh god elements of style

>>314299

So the mentality is "Wait and see", then?

Or are people just not into Fantasy based Murder Mysteries?

>>314300

I guess that's also part of the problem. I tend to be wordy for the sake of trying to illustrate as much as possible. Not having an image to back up what people are looking at makes me feel as though I should overcompensate.

I suppose I'll wait a bit longer. Perhaps I'll give it a bump later to see if I can't get someone to notice it. Or should I just let it fall off the board and retry at a later date? I'm terribly new at this, and the original /tg/ might not be the best place to go for aid.

Too much of a good thing comes to mind

There's just an over saturation of quests. If one quest isn't updating, there's 2 or 3 that are. Or were. RubyQuest was something that only happened once a week. there was time to analyze everything to death between updates. now with a quest having a new chapter every day or two, there just isn't time to have everything sink in.

There's also a lot of quests that start, but don't go anywhere.

Hey SDF!

Proove that you are better than /meep/

>>314342
I beg to differ. There may be a large volume of quests, but that doesn't mean they are all interesting to the same person. At the moment, for instance, there's only one quest that I really follow. Additonal ones would be lovely, given that they take so long to update.

2 or 3 quests updating doesn't really help when you don't care for those quests at all.

>>314318
Threads are set to fall off the board after page 9999 or something crazy like that, so if you want something gone you're going to need to delete it yourself.

This hate for words is a little frustrating. You want fast updates, you want high art quality, and you want a strong tone/atmosphere. Well if you want atmosphere you either need some narrative or you need well-rendered frames. The latter takes a lot of time, so good luck getting fast updates. Of course you can argue that a simplistic art style will speed you up dramatically, but don't we have enough of that already?

I'm mostly just venting here, though. Obviously there's a balance to be struck, and different posters want different things so taking it all at once sounds like asking for the impossible. Let's just not paint questing in general with such broad strokes - there's something to be said for style and individuality.

SDF, are you banned from /tg/, or did it just become boring.
-Not really Ted.

>>314352

My original idea was to do every Sunday/Monday. As for art, I'll reiterate that my artistic skills are absolute shite. As for narrative, I could probably improve my writing enough to a more story based quest instead of one that relies on actions.

I get what you're trying to say, as well. Most want Everything, Right now, with no need to for an explanation.

Damnit, I hope I break that. At least for a little bit. I've got this idea in my head, and I've got my mind set on it, and I want people to at least give it a shot.

Thanks, though.

Is there any dominant opinion one way or the other about making the pictures for a quest in the form of screenshots within a computer game? Say you have terrible drawing skills, but spend hours tinkering around in the editors for Neverwinter Nights and Age of Wonders. That allows for fairly detailed scenes to be produced, but limits the sort of images you can make.

I am considering producing a quest sometime in the next few months, but I don't have Photoshop right now and I can't consistently produce satisfactory images in MSPaint. However, once I get a gaming PC capable of running the previously mentioned games, I could make and edit screenshots to produce quest images without too much difficulty.

>>314366
A couple of us have entertained the notion of such quests before. As far as I know, it's not actually been done before. There was talk at one point about maybe doing a quest in Garry's Mod, though it was mostly facetious. I say go for it - the worst you can do is be boring. Just don't think using the screenshots is an excuse to be lazy, and bear in mind that many will hold you in only slightly higher regard than a sprite comic artist.

>>314366
Do it. I loved WeaveReaveQuest - http://www2.tgchan.org/kusaba/questarch/res/22764.html, and that was just paper dolls pasted onto random screenshots.

>>314371
Yeah, but he drew the paper dolls, among other things.

>>314366
I had an idea of turning a sandbox game that I loved into a Quest, but I realized that due to the fact that I was simply taking a game and making it semi-multiplayer, it was more of a Let's Play than a real Quest. Suffice it to say, I'm running it elsewhere since it's not what we come here for, though I would have liked to run it here.
On the subject of a lack of people posting, I've tried to take the time to read most every quest that updates, but when it comes to suggesting what to do next my idea is either already taken, or I don't know how to proceed. Quite rare is it that I get to seriously make a suggestion. Another of my friends who also browses here has the same problem. If rampant "this"ing is fully allowed then we'll certainly post more, as will others once they catch on, I'm sure.

The problem is most of the quests are boring as fuck and shitty drawing and the interesting quests hardly update

I don't believe "This,"ing is discouraged, as agreeing with the other poster(s) shows the quester that there are many people who want to do something. A lot of times the people running the game are waiting to break a tie, or for more input.

>>314406
It was banned at one point, so people generally tend not to do it. There's been more of them lately, though, so hopefully that taboo is wearing off.

>>314403
One does not improve without practice.

>>314394
I'm curious, which game?

>>314410

Oh. I apologize. Now I feel silly despite being a moderator. I guess it was to save space, but I personally don't see any harm in people collaborating in agreement over an idea. It would really help ME when I am trying to decide which (stupid) action to pick.

>>314413

I think it comes from RubyQuest and the times of old /tg/ when there was a Bump limit of 200 posts and the thread could get filled up with jus 20 images, most of the posts being just "What that guy says". That's not a problem anymore in thes board, so yeah, the taboo is slowly wearing off.


Another thing that I noticed is that most people don't like to be the first ones posting a suggestion after the author updates a quest.

I guess people don't like to feel the "responsibility" of deciding the next move on their shoulders. Once someones breaks the ice, most of the times you see people quickly posting more suggestions, supporting or arguing about the previous ones.

>>314410
Space Rangers 2.

>>314406
I'll tell those I know to step up and voice their opinions more often. Am I correct in presuming that there is no autosage limit on /quest/?

>>314426
The autosage limit of quest is reached at over 29 million posts.

So yes, there is pretty much no autosage point.

>>314403
>The problem is most of the quests are boring as fuck and shitty drawing and the interesting quests hardly update
These issues are related. Making good drawings and good prose takes time and effort.

I dislike posting multiple times in a row, even with updates in between.
Also, I try not to 'this' without adding more to the discussion.

>>314451

I would also agree with that. Making things exciting without any visual aid is also tough.

As is trying to write in a format I'm not entirely familiar with yet. I'm starting to think that I should just update sporadically when I can to keep things moving instead of leaving it for a set day or days.

Oh, hey, here's an idea:
RSS FEEDS. One for each thread. Then people know when there's activity in one of their quests without having to F5 for it.

Any disagreements?

If there's space, it might be a good idea to have #rq readable as an archive on the main site, split across pages every however-many-messages. It would avoid the problem where unless you were in IRC you might miss out on quest discussion without infringing on the freedom of topic IRC has.
If it was implemented as a closed text board it would tie nicely into standard cross-board linking. If I remember right, kusaba-style text boards support linking to ranges of posts, so it would be possible to reference only relevant segments of discussion as well.

>>320858
Would it not be easier to just, you know, hang out in IRC?

>>320858
Terrible idea, #tgchan is the main IRC channel for the site, not #rubyquest, and #rubyquest only ever talks about two or three quests rather than all of the ones on the site.

This site has more to it than just the reaver/weaver hugbox.

Not everybody enjoys spending quality time discussing dicks over IRC. I like the RSS feed idea. Lets go with that.

I don't really see the point of cloging the site with logs from a non-official tgchan irc channel.

>>320862

I didn't see the point in running and hiding in a different IRC channel when #Rubyquest was already linked as the official channel and was perfectly serviceable as one. But people did it anyway.

>running and hiding in a different IRC channel
Ha ha, your literally insane.

>>320863
Man it must've happened while I was gone or something, 'cause when I left #tgchan was mostly a really quiet place for "official use only" or whatever. I dunno what the deal is at all.

Then again I guess I did disappear basically prior to like even Mudy or Dive Quest starting so I dunno I probably missed a lot. :V

>>320863
I guess my point is basically that sure as hell isn't why I'm in #tgchan. (I am also in #rq. :V)

Also RSS feeds or something could be cool I guess, to get back to the point of discussion before this somehow turned into IRC channel wars?

>>314201

>only problem with Mudy is some of the incest

...We are talking about Reaver, right?

Test Pattern 2010/02/22(Mon)18:02 No. 11085 ID: cfad4e
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>>314237

>>320878
Yes. Thoug I though Mudy Quest's incest was reasonably well done.

As much as "interest" goes with how popular/well-visited a quest goes, I honestly think the contents themselves play a partial role in trying to get someone's attention. I mean, if you look around at certain quests, you'll notice how some certain scenes inside them quickly generate some activities (things that usually make people go "THAT'S AWESOME" or "HOLY CRAP, I WASN'T EXPECTING THAT"). Of course, I'm excluding quests that run on "quirky" goals, but you see what I mean.

Meh. I'm not here to berate people on their interests. I'm just trying to report what I've gotten through experience.

>>320901
I'm not sure what you're getting at.

>>320901
Yeah, I'm not clear on what your saying at all. You don't have to name names to be more specific and present a coherent point of some kind.