Starting "clubs", a bad or good idea?

[laggy]

Hi all,

Thanks once again for a solid and great web site, what would life be without OFPEC... worth less, that's for sure.

I have been thinking lately (yes, actually thinking  )

The community of OFPEC (BIS forum and Armaholic as well for that matter) has a great age/taste span among its members, ranging from 12 years old to 40+. This is great, but it also kind of divides the sense of taste in gaming.

I don't really have clear idea of what I'm looking for, but I often find that the community's strength is often its weakness. Too many critical opinions about a single thing, which might be perfect in the minds of others, that share the same view/taste.

30 to 40+ players will often not like the missions that the 12+ players seek and vice versa. It seems like players either like action, scripting or story/atmosphere.

Like I said I don't have a clear concept here, I just wanted to plant an idea. But, it might be good to bookmark content (missions, addons, scripts etc.) and try to aim for the right audience.

i.e Realism/Atmosphere/Story/Action/Respawn etc.

I don't see this happening on BIS forums or Armaholic, maybe this could be a good future profile for OFPEC, which is still #1.

Again, just sharing ideas...

Laggy

[bedges]

Thanks for bringing this up, it's always helpful to get feedback like this. 

I see what you're saying, and to an extent it's true that in places like the Missions Depot at OFPEC where missions are reviewed, there's an unavoidable degree of subjectivity on the part of reviewers who will have a certain taste, a certain point of view when it comes to their enjoyment of a mission.

Despite our repeatedly reminding folks that the review score given to a mission is only ever a rough guide based on a broad selection of criteria, it's almost impossible to look at that big 7/10 on the page without it creating a preconception in a player's mind, even before they hit the Download button.

Then they play the mission and think "Shit what a waste of time! 7/10? Rubbish! So many cutscenes! Just gimme something to shoot at!"

That's the main reason why reviews are not just about the score: players can read the review and get a much better sense of what the mission's like. But even with that, it still comes down to them playing it themselves, and naturally they may have a very different opinion of the mission.

In order to tag missions for audience-type, we would have to start second-guessing what kind of mission suits what kind of audience, and to my mind that would get us even deeper into subjective territory: "You guys tagged this with Action, but all I did was sit in a tank the whole time!"

This is why there's the possibility of members commenting on everything at OFPEC, either in beta threads on the forum or in the comments section of resources in the Depots. Resources can also be star-rated by members. The OFPEC staff go only so far in preparing the submitted content for download. It's then up to the members to make of it what they will, whether they're under 12 or over 50.

[laggy]

Hmmm... 

I guess you are right and it is actually quite easy for a mission designer/resource author to explain what can be expected from their makings. I might start branding my own stuff somehow, like: realism/story/atmosphere/action etc. Something you can read in 5 seconds, rather than having to go through the whole readMe file, which many people don't seem to do anyway.

Thanks again,

Cheerio!

Laggy

[savedbygrace]

Maybe you could put that at the top of your readme because some still take the time to read through them.