I don’t understand the reason behind this decision. The old forum was perfectly fine. It had a simple, comfortable, and easy-to-use interface. With this one, it feels like I have to do gymnastics just to see a comment. Plus, the UI looks AI-generated. I get that AI makes work easier, but damn, this looks like it was made with ChatGPT version 1. If I even managed to post this correctly (because I struggled so much trying to figure it out, I was completely lost), please tell me if it’s still possible to save the old forum. It makes no sense to post my project on this forum where there are barely 20 active people
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I think it’s corporate shit, they used to be linked to this other org that managed the other forum, but things have changed, so it’s getting cut off, etc. It sucks.
I did create a script you can use to scrape the old site to get the old plugins off the old site, you can also modify the root link to get the MV and MZ plugins respectively.
Scrape-RPG-Maker-Forums.zip (7.3 KB)
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The old forum was run by overseas publishers. And this forum is run by the Japanese devs (of RPG Maker engine) themselves.
Can you understand how sometimes… publishers don’t reflect the will the devs? And so the dev has to cut the publisher off, and do it themselves?
The old forum was perfectly fine. It had a simple, comfortable, and easy-to-use interface. With this one, it feels like I have to do gymnastics just to see a comment.
This has been pretty intuitive for me. This is the kind of website… modern websites look like.
Humans are adaptable, they figure things out and get used to it.
Humans are also forgetful, they forget about the old, eventually.
Patience solves & resolves.
please tell me if it’s still possible to save the old forum
As in, keep it open? Unlikely. But if you go ask the people who own the old forum (the publisher people) to give away their rights to the forum, and remove their involvement, perhaps it could be saved to some degree.
It makes no sense to post my project on this forum where there are barely 20 active people
You shouldn’t post your game here even if it were 200,000 people here. You shouldn’t have been posting your project on that forum either. These are game dev communities, of people who don’t play games.
You want to be posting somewhere where purely gamers would see your game, not other game devs.
Game devs care more about ‘how you did it’, where as gamers care about ‘what you did’.
Keep impressing game devs, and you’ll end up stopping game dev, and just be making tutorials for them. (A fate of near majority at the forum, and in the RPG Maker community.)
Impress gamers, and you’ll continue making & releasing more & more games.
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While you’re not wrong about both the old RPGMakerWeb forums and the new Guild forums being focused more on game development than playing games, a game developer who doesn’t even play games probably isn’t a very good game dev.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s probably possible to get good without ever playing a game, but I think most people get good at game dev by trying other games and thinking about what they liked and disliked about the systems.
I’m confused… is there any serious game dev, who decided to make & release games, without having played a few hundred games (if not thousands) beforehand? (That we would assume, gave them the passion to want to make games in the first place.)
I’m assuming there probably isn’t, but I can’t be 100% certain.
Anyway, you were the one who suggested that game devs don’t play games.
…because they’ve moved on from playing games, to making them. Not because, they never ever played them. (Hence they already possess the knowledge & experience, from all the games they’ve played prior to starting game dev.)
Perhaps I ought to have added the word ‘anymore’. That game devs tend not to play games ‘anymore’.
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Yes, I think that would have helped. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
That said, I would expect that most game devs still play games, just not as much as they used to. But considering that I myself don’t play many games lately, maybe I’m not one to talk…
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I may be developing my own game, but I’m still playing a lot of them. That’s also a reason why my game development is not the fastest existing.
Still, playing new games often gives me ideas for my own game.
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I want to play but I also want to make. I also not only want to play games but also watch series, films, and if I had a better habit I would also read more.
A game developer that doesn’t play is like a writer that doesn’t read. You miss on learning vocabulary, and also learning of other’s technique.
But also you can’t be playing most of the day, else your game will be done in 60 years (still less than Drekirokr, which is still unfinished).
Sorry for not engaging with the main topic of this thread I just don’t think I have anymore to say. But tl;dr I get your sentiment, and I think most of us agree, to the average user it makes zero sense. It’s not a decision made based on what the user needs.
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Look, it may be “modern,” but it looks like ass. There’s a big announcement in RPG Maker Web’s forums asking members to migrate here, so if the members are finding the aesthetics of this site lacking, that’s one more bump in the road.
RPG Maker Web forums are cozy and these ones feel sterile.
Main problem with the old forums was the community. Super toxic and “gate-keepey” at every turn, banning AI, etc.
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Do you have any particular example to point out, besides banning AI?
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There’s many examples, I was banned from the forums 8 years ago for “frankenspriting”, whatever that means. At least here I’m allowed to post.
I’ve seen a lot of people call it toxic, but I’ve personally seen nothing to actually back that up… the most toxic people I’ve seen were those complaining that it’s toxic.
It might’ve been different before I joined, I suppose, but still.
Also, banning AI isn’t really a bad thing in my book.
That sounds outright impossible, since most of the big artists (and probably many small ones too) on there were also doing frankenspriting. So, I think you must be omitting some crucial detail… for example, maybe you were frankenspriting based on resources whose authors had said you’re not allowed to post remixes of.
(For what it’s worth, “frankenspriting” refers to taking one or more sprites and cut-and-pasting parts of them to make a new sprite.)
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I agree with you, that the homepage is sterile. Beyond that, when you’re actually browsing the posts & are commenting, it’s perfectly appealing & sleek.
And since GGG has various pages/websites that have looked very pleasant & decorated, they are clearly capable. And ought to bring that capability here & work on the homepage & decorate it.
so if the members are finding the aesthetics of this site lacking, that’s one more bump in the road.
It’s not why people aren’t joining. This is not a big deal. Because these things can improve with time and community feedback.
The same people complaining about this place and its visuals, have joined a Discord server instead, en masse (as a place of refuge & a place to re-connect other than the forums). Which, being Discord, has the same or worse aesthetics.
The reason (I believe) people aren’t joining from the old forum. Is because the moderators there, who have their tentacles also in many other RPG Maker communities (aside from the forum) have spread & harbored venom against GGG (the Japanese dev company of RPG Maker who run this forum) for years.
And this is something to be expected. They are part of & friends of the long-time publisher, who GGG has been getting rid of slowly, and so they feel personally slighted. They knew this was coming from years ago, and instead of showing respect for the devs of the tool they use, they profusely made fun of them at every step, showed them no grace for being a new company trying to self-publish, and credited themselves as the reason for the success of RPG Maker. (Unaware of the fact, this is the very toxicity, displayed in other matters, that may have contributed to GGG’s decision to separate from them.)
And now we have a dissonant section of the community that hates & dislikes the very people who made the tool they love & use.
Do you have any particular example to point out, besides banning AI?
Leave it be. I advise the same to you, Psychronic. While many of us can say many things. We also understand that, given they are toxic & friends with one another, (and don’t actually make games or care about finishing games), they can spend ample time to coordinate through discord & DMs to come and overwhelm us & gaslight us in response. Create drama & distract everyone from game dev. And they have.
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This move was being prepared for years, ever since GGG started cutting ties with Degica due to rampant corruption that favored one modder circle who monetized and obfuscated modding.
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Yeah I felt it was minor transgression, but was taken aback at the extreme response without even like a discussion or anything. It’s just really controlling/weird and not a good vibe honestly.
I just want things to get better.
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We lack and will continue lacking enough information about what happened. Regardless, those are issues at the other forum. Whatever happened then, especially if it was “just” frankenspriting, sounds like it was more an issue caused by nuance than from the transgression i.e. either of the parts didn’t treat it well and made the problem bigger.
I learned to do pixel art by splicing sprites in Photoshop, recoloring those parts and sometimes drawing over them. Mostly with RTP sprites. Sometimes rips from games I liked. Things like rips that are completely frowned upon in official sites (but also any sprites with terms that don’t allow for edits), so baby me would have probably been banned to oblivion if rmweb existed back then! Hahaha.
Yeah I was learning too back in the day, and was sharing what I was doing, and it was instant shutdown or whatever, I’m over it, just saying there was kind of a corrupt/overly controlling situation on that old forum. I don’t agree with the information from the old forum being gone at all, that does suck.
But I do think it wasn’t the best community and kind of toxic, but yeah it doesn’t matter, what’s done is done at this point.