How does the community feel about an OHR blog?

HamsterSpeak got more monthly traffic from places other than Slime Salad and Castle Paradox than it got from them. It brought in hundreds of views a month from people searching for game making advice, free sprites, art, etc. Known games (Missing, Vikings of Midgard, etc) brought in a lot of search engine traffic on a very regular basis. We have people in this very thread saying it got them into the OHR. In conclusion, you're Charbile and this is what you do, you're boring, obnoxious, and a waste of time and precisely the kind of person that makes this community suck.

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Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition

...wut?

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dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

Charbile is a troll. He comes here to bitch about things and make bad jokes. That's his role here.

I'm sure he'll repost this in IRC and have a good laugh but seriously, just get out Char, you're helping nothing ever. Find a new hobby.

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Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition

Oh, I didn't really bother reading what he had to say, it was too wordy.

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dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

Heck yes. I know there's a category on the wiki for scripts, but it was underused last time I looked (a year ago or so). I was always trolling through the wiki for scripts and couldn't find any, so this makes me super happy.

Thanks for your insights, charbile, and I think I know exactly what you're talking about. I think that's important to state my goals upfront. My goal is not to elevate the users, really, but to provide a place for insightful commentary on a specific subject. HamsterSpeak was the best place for long-form insightful commentary, so I think we need a replacement. I don't want to go into the territory that I feel TIGsource has, a mixture of self-congratulation and bile. I want a place to help dig the gems out of the vast and overwhelming field that is the OHR community.

I also want to be able to help burgeoning writers find their voice about something that they're passionate. Video games are important stuff, and the OHR is one of the few places that hasn't had a million people digging through it already. It's relatively new territory for many people, and I'd like to have a good way of introducing it to fresh eyes.

Plus it will be a heck of a lot of fun even if it ends up being just the same as all other attempts.

(I wrote all of this before the other comments were posted. I think charbile has a good point but I dunno what the dynamics are here sometimes... :-\)

Yeah, I can't decide on this yet. I think that I'll spell out my standards of quality very early on and just bounce back anything egregiously horrible. If it's something that could just use a little bit of polish, I'll send it back with remarks.

So, all that said, I might be able to get this started today, but I agree that blOHRg is sort of a silly name. Maybe we can come up with some other ideas? I am leaning towards the Hamster Burrow, but I'm up for suggestions.

Meow: I'll set up a submissions page once I have the blog set up.

I'm sorry for being a jerk here but once you've had someone sit around telling you how much you and everything you do sucks for 14 years it gets very, very, very old.

I think Hamster Burrow.

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Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition

Yeah, understood. I didn't take it as a criticism of HamsterSpeak, but that might be because I loved it so much. I get a bit doe-eyed sometimes haha.

i am down with this.

my only question is how will submissions/releases be handled? hamsterspeak had deadlines and gave contributors a goal to work for; there was a window and if you missed it you had to wait for the next issue. i'm afraid that having an open window for submissions will create a surge of content that will quickly fade out.

will there be a set amount of submissions allowed per day/week to space content out?

As far as surges of content, yeah, that's a possibility. i'm entertaining the idea of having monthly themes or something of that nature to get people inspired to write some articles. And monthly features, like a new games list, should help too.

I think scheduling posts is a good idea. I'll probably space it out to a max of maybe 3 or 4 a week just so we don't burn through all of our content right away. I would like to get 5 or so articles up before the official "unveiling" so that there's some content for people to read, though.

I'm getting a bit antsy to get this up before Thanksgiving (which will totally ruin the next two days for me), so I'm gonna go with The Hamster Burrow for right now. I can always change it before the official launch.

So long as you have fun with it, it's all good.

The dynamic here is that some people have trouble dealing with real criticism. Kind of schoolyard ish. I used to have the same trouble, but critical thought is too helpful and fun to shy away from.

About TIGsource, I believe a lot of its reputation here is misguided. If it was only self back-patting and bile, you'd think the ohr with all its supposed drama, clicks, and char-bile would be just as big and popular. There's a lot more to it, worth recognizing and emulating.

Interesting trivia, one of the editors there got his gig through writing very insightful game design articles in his own ohr mag, so who knows--you could be the next TIG guy! XD

There's criticism and then there's trolling. I've been very receptive to game, magazine, and writing criticism. Stop playing innocent, it's boring, you got old so many years ago. Just move on.

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Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition

Surlaw, I hope to one day understand the source of your angst and I'm sorry if I've upset you in the past. It is indeed old. I've already moved on, and I hope you'll join me.

I'm glad that we as a community recognize the importance of continuing the legacy of having an all-purpose resource for gaming, articles, theory, and so on. Everything I'm reading about sounds good to me.



I think this is a great idea for drawing in monthly content. But, I'd limit it to a section called "Design Theme of the Month" or something to that effect, in case you pick a theme one month that no one wants to write about. You still want to have general articles or content coming in each month.



I know that we want to keep any and all publications related to hamsters and the OHR, but if you want to draw in a large indie gaming crowd to the community and the publication (as opposed to people looking for hamsters and the OHR), I'd consider subheading it with specific keywords designed to attract a wider audience.

Maybe something like Hamster Burrow: Your Next Great Indie Game Source for Design and Play. Probably too clunky and should be pared down to a few words, but if you just keep it titled Hamster and Burrow, your relevant traffic may take longer to find you.

As for content, one of the things I wish HamsterSpeak was more open to publish was fiction, whether it would support known OHR characters or themes, or poetry, or even original songs. Many community members enjoy writing as much as they do game design, and I think it would be nice to have an outlet for some of their works that might not get published elsewhere. It also opens the door to more content and more unique voices.

If you're going with the blog approach, I'd also suggest opening up a comments section for each article, or a general one for the magazine. The problem with posting comments in the forums alone is that only active community members will post. Allowing comments right there in the blog will probably generate a few extra responses than we're used to getting. Just a thought.

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Place Obligatory Signature Here

I like "Hamster Burrow" as a title. It evokes a warm and comfy mindset, like an invitation to visit one of the lesser-known independent gaming communities and partake of its unique flavors of games. We don't have a whole lot, and there's a significant amount of dirt in this burrow that may or may not be worth digging through, but there's a few special games that we'd like to share with everyone that would definitely be worth their time. Come into the Hamster Burrow, relax, play a few spiffy games, and have a cup of Bob's delicious cocoa.

I guess blOHRg doesn't get a place to stay anymore...

But yeah, I can send you my article whenever you want. Want it in a pm?

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dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x