Shattered Kingdoms

I know this hasn't ever been particularly well received, but with the other carefully curated forums I am hoping it can be revisited.

What if there was a "battles and adventures" forum where people could submit posts containing logs for staff approval? The comments section could be likewise restricted.

Restrictions could include a cutoff time (ie only logs from 2 weeks or more RL time ago? Some amt of time to prevent ooc spillover), and a no revealing important information that isn't widely known.

I really strongly think that an active, positive logs section could draw people in to the forums and increase excitement about playing the game as well as providing a venue for newer players to act questions about tactics.

meh

don't see how it could hurt. but with the restrictions u described, i don't think it would see much more use than the area guides or character build guides forums. especially since there is already a fan site that hosts logs for sk.

I agree with this sentiment. It would be nice to have an area of the official forums where logs (both PK and RP) could be provided and new players would have the chance to "see" what playing SK is like without having to rely on skype, pastebin or a fan-made site.. That said, I think it would be really hard to have many logs of PK be scrubbed free of cabal skills/religious spells without completely gutting the log itself. Given that SK is meant to be a game of IC discovery and cabal skills, gear and areas are meant to be omitted from the forum, I can see it being really hard to draw the line in the sand appropriately.

I'd really like it though!

positive is not the word i'd use to describe this place - i'd go with sterile. that's also why this forum sees a fraction of the activity that the fan site does. i'm not against adding a log forum here, but given the rules that would be imposed - i also don't imagine it would be used any more frequently than the area guides or character build guides forums.

Yep. Could be worthless if it was entirely sterilized. But I think the character builds section where people are allowed to admit that cabals exist and discuss attributes needed for specific cabals was a step in the right direction, just not quite far enough. So I'm hoping there's some willingness to reassess what really does and does not need to be a "secret" from forum users.

If spoilers were just limited to non-OOCly-widely-known info it would likely be OK. So no spoiling cabal membership of little known character, but for example everyone knows Azoreth is MC based on his title so him casting a widely known area effect spell would be fair game.

I'm in favor of a logs forum. I would want to do the restrictions differently, at least in the beta phase. For PvP, each side would have to have at least one tribunal or hero character. These are public figures in the game world, and anyone going around with them knows they are public figures. Being one or going around with one implies consent to be present in a PvP log.

For PvE logs, I just wouldn't want to have to moderate 1,000 pages of people going all over creation and doing everything. So, I would say fights with boss NPCs/monsters or other things of that nature that are particularly interesting would be permissible. For instance, if you wanted to show your group beating every dragon for the dragon quest, that's appropriate, but we don't need to see all the schlepping around in between fights. You would also have to get the consent of everyone in your group to post the log. I don't want this to devolve into people complaining that they didn't want to be in a PvE log. It's not hard to check with everyone and ask so that sort of thing can be avoided.

For communication, I am fine with says, yells, group tells, and tribunal chat being present in logs. I think tells and other forms of communication would have to be disallowed. No who lists, because that risks giving away identities of characters who happen to be logged in but are uninvolved in the action. Other elements of bystander information may have to be limited on a case by case basis.

I don't think a time restriction is necessary if the above restrictions are in place. I imagine the initial log post would have to be moderated (so, moderated thread creation), but followups would just have to adhere to standard forum rules. Again, that would be to get this thing rolling. I am up for revisiting the restrictions later if they prove too lax or too restrictive. The idea is for all people involved to have fun and learn with the logs, so whatever accomplishes that.

All of the above is my opinion. I obviously do not have the final say about this, but that's where I stand presently.

so what ur saying is that the rules for posting a log here would be completely different and more restrictive than the rules for posting a log on the fan site...why is someone going to post a log here instead of there?

i'm not against the idea, but i'm still waiting for someone to explain to me how a log forum here would be used more frequently than the area guides forum...especially when there is already a fan site dedicated solely to logs of sk gameplay. i personally think that having an area guides forum that is a barren wasteland is not good for the forum or the game. a log forum would probably suffer the same fate, with the current restrictions ur suggesting.

Just quoting to direct my reply to the entire post.

I am in favor of an entirely unrestricted logs forum with comment sections moderated by the broader forum rules. I think logs are one of the best ways to help engage new and old players alike, and get them excited and educated about the mechanics of gameplay, as well as to stimulate creativity in new tactics. So that's my opinion for what it's worth.

Regarding your proposed restrictions, I understand some of your concerns, though I would personally not post in the forum you describe due to a need to over-sanitize my posts or over-exert myself obtaining consents. The time limit was an attempt to resolve those concerns by aging information leak to a point where it isn't relevant IC anymore.

Bump; still think any sanctioned log forum would be a big net positive for the game. Dulrik, is there any chance of this happening?