Meta BrikWars Topic

[Keldoclock]

What the hell is happening?

This happens every summer dude, the board naturally becomes less about lego because people buy most of their legos in the holiday season.

Also questionable new policies by The Administrators.

[Natalya]

What the hell is happening?

This happens every summer dude, the board naturally becomes less about lego because people buy most of their legos in the holiday season.

Also questionable new policies by The Administrators.

[mgb519]

Yay! I coined a repeatable phrase which will never be attributed to me again!

[Natalya]

That's a real ▲ job. Good work.

[IVhorseman]

▲ job

BFenix, you missed this bullshit, but it is but an example of the stupid internet things that happened here beforehand. They always were - they always will be.

[Predator]

That's a real ▲ job. Good work.

  ▲
▲ ▲

[Tzan]

go fuck yourself.

Triangle Job! BFenix.

[Predator]

I've read this thread and...



Recently I've witnessed much bullshit...go fuck yourself.

I agree, but some internet jokes are kinda funny, and are part of this forum.
Like
  ▲
▲ ▲ should stay
should stay.
And all of the inside jokes should stay.

[morganm]

Another thing: How important is it to us that Rayhawk finish the rulebook, fix the homepage, or do that sweet forum battle? There's a bunch of crap we just shovel on top of him expecting it to be awesome, but we can't get everything we want right away. But we ARE the fans, and this might be the place to say it: which of these three things do we want to see happen the most? Do we want him to focus on the rules? Do we need the homepage up ASAP? Or do we just want to have a sweet fucking forum battle? My vote's on the latter - helps playtest 2010, and because fuck you i want to play games. Of course, all this is subject to The Rules.

1) Website! The only presence BrikWars has is online. You won't find it at Wal-Mart, Barns & Noble, or even your FLGS. If we have no website we are completely invisible to anyone discovering BrikWars.

2) New Rules! With out them there is no BrikWars. Why is it not more important than the website? How the is anyone supposed to get these new rules if there's no website?

we do not need a influx of people thst would bring way too many new people way to fast. IMO at least a gradual growth is preferred.

Brikwars has huge potential. It could be massive. We're a bunch of people on the internet who know that first hand. But do we really want to pursue making Brikwars a "thing"?

I think the people who run the show here need to make some key decisions to really decide where we are going.

1) Are we going to be a depraved bunch of louts shunned by an already small, niche, community of table top gamers and AFOL? Thus further obscuring us and never really expanding? Don't get me wrong... if that's what the creators and owners of BrikWars want to do then I'm not here to say otherwise and it's certainly an option. - OR - Shall we try to climb out of this shit-hole, clean up our act a bit, and try to draw in more people?

2) Do the creators of BrikWars want this to be the next BIG thing? Do they want to make any money off this? Are they trying to get to the next level? Do they want this to stay a free indie game?

3) Why do we want more people playing BrikWars? Nobody is making money off this... what are the motivations here? What's the benefit of more players? I'm not making a judgement call here... I'm asking for clarification.

4) Why do we want more people on the forums? What is the benefit of having tons more people on the forums? Again; not a judgement here... I'm trying to get us to really think about why we are doing here and why we are doing it.


It's hard to say what to do next when we don't know where the real decision makers want to go with this...

===========================================================================

OK so onto why I think this community remains small!
TL;DR - Because we push people away both directly and indirectly...

1. I feel that this forum isn't the most friendly forum ever. It's a blur between rules and anarchy which might drive some people away. That isn't a bad thing, just something to keep in mind. And it being pretty assholey at times might drive some people off.


2. This forum also isn't friendly to newbies. There should be some sort of post explaining the most basic of injokes, but maybe not all of them. Just so new people can enjoy them too. And, if possible, a page that details the AN-TA war and the Immortal Alliance whatever nonsense. It still confuses me at times and maybe a timeline of events and links to the forum battles or something. Its kind of a hard thing to jump into and you feel like you need to have been here for years just to understand the events of ago or see your own faction in someone else's forum battle. Not complaining about that because I haven't been a part of this forum long enough, but its that type of atmosphere that one must have been here for years to understand and really participate.

and i agree full heartedly with stormblessed. I joined at a time most of this history was being made but i can see the opacity of it all that is inherent in the way we run this board.

Yeah it does seem like some people here are in the kool kids klub and they know all about the other kool factions, who are allies, who are enemies, blah blah blah.... Then there's the rest of us. I shouldn't HAVE to read some long explanation of the history if the Brikverse to be involved.

We certainly shouldn’t give off the impression of being a degenerate cesspool.

I am kindof annoyed with how dirty people are on the forums sometimes. You can't take away cursing or (obviously) violence, but do people have to make dirty sex
jokes, and post goatese pictures?

I'll just post this here. It's from the Mobile Frame Zero forums.

One of the things that puts me off from hanging out on the BrikWars forums more regularly is the bald-faced glee they take in using wildly inappropriate language. I like the BrikWars game, love the creativity that is on display... but I really dislike the vibe. I would be seriously disappointed to see that same culture develop here. I'm certainly not the type to tell people how to behave, but I whole-heartedly support the sentiment expressed by the OP.

(there were several other posts in that thread saying pretty much the same thing)

My friends don't want to join the forums though because they think that we'll just curse at their work and call it stupid which is not helping us, but they are willing to help.

I think that if the general depravity of the forum is driving people away from BrikWars, then we ought to put BrikWars first. I again am not going to ban cursing or whatever, but messed up threads have their place and belong there. From now on, anything that is totally screwed up and not in Thunderdumb will either be deleted or moved there. Other mods are free to enforce this rule in their own boards as they see fit. Right now I will just enforce this rule in forums, such as this one, which do not have active mods, and in The Armoury.

THANKYOU Natalya !

Whoah I instantly recognized that as a weebl video, after like the first 3 seconds.


@Ross_Varn:
Maybe you are on to something. I guess like we don't have to lose our soul or whatever to grow as a website and for BrikWars to appeal to more people, but sometimes people on here go too far and for no reason. We are definitely a community, but we want to be one that will get bigger as time goes on. It might sound like I'm advocating selling out in order for us to get a more mainstream appeal, but I don't want to go that far. The in-jokes and sarcastic humour that make BrikWars what it is don't need to go away, rather we need more of that because it is witty and funny. What we need less of is the crude and unrefined troll attempts that have until recently been allowed to flow unchecked onto the boards. That stuff is probably what drives away people we would probably want to play BrikWars with.

I guess I'm saying I probably wouldn't play BrikWars with someone who couldn't handle a little cursing because other aspects of their personality might suck too. Anoraks. See fuck on the wiki for example. Those people we can do without, but it is not unreasonable to assume that unnecessarily crude and/or vulgar content that doesn't really have a point to it other than to be used as shock imagery or dumb troll posts designed to piss people off, that crap would turn people away too and we don't really want or need that stuff anyway.

I totally agree! This forum has gotten so bad I can only view the Bricks and Armory sub-forums at work... if I dare venture anywhere else and someone saw my screen I'd be FIRED because some image of goatse or a thumb replaced by a huge cock will show up. Do we really want THAT kind of forum? Sounds like "no".

And yes, we absolutely MUST be this crude. It kinda helps shoot down the whole "brikwars is for kids" thing.

I reject the notion that vulgarity projects maturity. Looking at other Lego sites which are obviously geared towards adults they DO project the idea that what they do isn't for kids yet you won't find the obscene vulgarity. The quality of what they do puts them out of the little league. Kids look at what they do and say "Holy fuck how did the do that?!" because they can't even comprehend how it's possible. I think that would be a much better goal to strive for rather than scaring the kids off with goatse.

I've read this thread and...



Recently I've witnessed much bullshit going on around here, which saddens me.

Two years ago, you wouldn't imagine the magical joy it gave me to come out of my Dark Age, open my dusty old storing boxes, discover Brikwars, register on the forum, log in and explore this fantastic universe a bunch of people made out of Legos and common interest. As soon as I started to learn a thing or two, I tried to contribute as much as possible to Brikwars, but unfortunately, even back then, I already started to feel that I had missed its "Golden Age", if it can be put that way, which should have never ended. More and more I see that this is becoming a internet forum instead of a Brikwars forum, you know? Sure, once in a while, when possible, cool new members show up and stay, older ones return, great forum battles, reports and MOCs are made, but yet, I still feel that the ratio between what we should be doing and stupid dumb internet shit fests is low. What the hell is happening? I think I've said it before but I'll say it again, goofing around is fine, but with maturity and limits.

We are all here to share our bloody tales and creations with the world. To spread the word, share the moments and have fun. We are all here for one simple thing, to Brikwar.

And if you're here for anything else besides that, than you can go fuck yourself.

It seems to me the forums are less about BrikWars and more about ... other stuff. People don't NEED the forums to play BrikWars so why join? To partake in this insanity that is the forums? Well as we've all seen that's not exactly a lot of people.

[Natalya]

Answering 3 and 4 here... I want the community to grow because it is very fun to play BrikWars, especially against other players who are enthusiastic about it. More board members --> greater chances of someone living near you --> greater chance of actually playing some BrikWars. Also, looking at peoples armies or creations is also fun and good for developing ones' own building skill.

[Whiteagle]

I reject the notion that vulgarity projects maturity. Looking at other Lego sites which are obviously geared towards adults they DO project the idea that what they do isn't for kids yet you won't find the obscene vulgarity. The quality of what they do puts them out of the little league. Kids look at what they do and say "Holy fuck how did the do that?!" because they can't even comprehend how it's possible. I think that would be a much better goal to strive for rather than scaring the kids off with goatse.

While it is true that vulgarity doesn't project maturity (more often that not it proves the opposite), it IS part of the humor used in Brikwars and I'd rather not censor that JUST to appease some AFOL's (I hate that fucking acronym by the way...) delicate sensibilities.

That said, it would be nice to keep images safe for work, or at least spoilered so they could be clicked at ones' own risk.

Answering 3 and 4 here... I want the community to grow because it is very fun to play BrikWars, especially against other players who are enthusiastic about it. More board members --> greater chances of someone living near you --> greater chance of actually playing some BrikWars. Also, looking at peoples armies or creations is also fun and good for developing ones' own building skill.

Indeed!

I live in the middle of nowhere, and one of the draws of Brikwars is that you don't need the support of a table-top gaming community to play it.
It'd be nice for someone to come on only to find out we could get together for a Brikwar at the local Drive-In Movie theatre show.

[stubby]

Hi everybody!

Another thing: How important is it to us that Rayhawk finish the rulebook, fix the homepage, or do that sweet forum battle? There's a bunch of crap we just shovel on top of him expecting it to be awesome, but we can't get everything we want right away. But we ARE the fans, and this might be the place to say it: which of these three things do we want to see happen the most? Do we want him to focus on the rules? Do we need the homepage up ASAP? Or do we just want to have a sweet fucking forum battle? My vote's on the latter - helps playtest 2010, and because fuck you i want to play games. Of course, all this is subject to The Rules.

IV's been around long enough to hear my piece on this subject a couple of times before - but for those who are new, the story behind this is that I work all the time, because I'm a workaholic and that's what I enjoy. Between BrikWars and my day job I put in a reliable 100 hours a week, every week, and often quite a bit more. I sleep an average of 4 hours a night. I can't put any more hours in because there aren't any more hours to put in.

Writing, editing, formatting, and testing rules, moderating and posting to the forums, building, illustrating, and shooting photos for the rulebook, any one of these things could be a full time job by itself. I'm not complaining of course, since if I didn't enjoy it I would just shrug and stop doing it, and either someone else would be motivated enough to take up the helm, or not. But that's why things go more slowly than if I was leading a dedicated team of developers or something.

Installing the forum mods and setting up Natalya as an admin have made a HUGE difference. The benefits have mostly been in the form of more frequent illustrations more than anything else, but it also gave me time to kick off the restructuring project that's currently fucking up the homepage. (Sorry that's taking longer than expected btw, but hopefully once I get all the parts working together it'll be a much better and more unified experience overall.) I've been thinking about drafting a second round of mods to back up the existing crew, but I haven't decided yet which direction I want them to guide things in, and I need to figure that out before I decide who'd be best to do the guiding.

I think the people who run the show here need to make some key decisions to really decide where we are going.

1) Are we going to be a depraved bunch of louts shunned by an already small, niche, community of table top gamers and AFOL? Thus further obscuring us and never really expanding? Don't get me wrong... if that's what the creators and owners of BrikWars want to do then I'm not here to say otherwise and it's certainly an option. - OR - Shall we try to climb out of this shit-hole, clean up our act a bit, and try to draw in more people?

2) Do the creators of BrikWars want this to be the next BIG thing? Do they want to make any money off this? Are they trying to get to the next level? Do they want this to stay a free indie game?

3) Why do we want more people playing BrikWars? Nobody is making money off this... what are the motivations here? What's the benefit of more players? I'm not making a judgement call here... I'm asking for clarification.

4) Why do we want more people on the forums? What is the benefit of having tons more people on the forums? Again; not a judgement here... I'm trying to get us to really think about why we are doing here and why we are doing it.

These are good questions and I'm curious to hear more people's reaction to them, since you guys share in being "creators" of the game in a certain sense. I'm going to spoiler #2 though: turning BrikWars into a for-profit game would probably mean walking away from my for-profit day job, and the new income from BrikWars would not match the lost income from my job by any stretch of imagination. (Unless I kickstarted for a million bucks or something.) There are a lot of other ways of "going big" that don't involve turning it into an overtly commercial venture though - making a print edition for POD, generating a convention presence, doing some podcast coverage, that kind of stuff, so the question is still an interesting one.

Yeah it does seem like some people here are in the kool kids klub and they know all about the other kool factions, who are allies, who are enemies, blah blah blah.... Then there's the rest of us. I shouldn't HAVE to read some long explanation of the history if the Brikverse to be involved.

The kool kids klub is a different set of people every summer though - first year it was folks like Benny and Dr. X, last year it was more Natalya, the year before that Warhead was king... some people show up and worry about how they're going to integrate themselves into the existing history, some people explode onto the scene with their own stories and universes and it's everyone else who has to adapt to them. It's that second group of people who seem to become the cool kids for the next year.

I guess like we don't have to lose our soul or whatever to grow as a website and for BrikWars to appeal to more people, but sometimes people on here go too far and for no reason. We are definitely a community, but we want to be one that will get bigger as time goes on. It might sound like I'm advocating selling out in order for us to get a more mainstream appeal, but I don't want to go that far. The in-jokes and sarcastic humour that make BrikWars what it is don't need to go away, rather we need more of that because it is witty and funny. What we need less of is the crude and unrefined troll attempts that have until recently been allowed to flow unchecked onto the boards. That stuff is probably what drives away people we would probably want to play BrikWars with.

I guess I'm saying I probably wouldn't play BrikWars with someone who couldn't handle a little cursing because other aspects of their personality might suck too. Anoraks. See fuck on the wiki for example. Those people we can do without, but it is not unreasonable to assume that unnecessarily crude and/or vulgar content that doesn't really have a point to it other than to be used as shock imagery or dumb troll posts designed to piss people off, that crap would turn people away too and we don't really want or need that stuff anyway.

I don't come down too hard on the shock stuff because it often inspires the best in-jokes and sarcastic humor in response. I think trash-talking and one-upmanship in the real world turn into fertile sources of new ideas in the game world, especially in the context of a BrikVerse in which conflict is the highest ideal. The balance gets thrown off sometimes when the trolls are trolling faster than the witty folks' ability to wit back at them, but trying to moderate that at exactly the right amount to maintain that balance is more of an art than a science.

I reject the notion that vulgarity projects maturity. Looking at other Lego sites which are obviously geared towards adults they DO project the idea that what they do isn't for kids yet you won't find the obscene vulgarity. The quality of what they do puts them out of the little league. Kids look at what they do and say "Holy fuck how did the do that?!" because they can't even comprehend how it's possible. I think that would be a much better goal to strive for rather than scaring the kids off with goatse.

Maturity isn't what I worry about. I worry about the fact that people will play this game and think that what they're doing is anything other than horrible and morally reprehensible. We're extracting joy from the simulated agony and mutilation of hundreds of innocent minifigs. What we do here isn't "mature" at all, it's damaged and barbaric and monstrous. We're crude because what we do is completely inappropriate for children or adults of any age, and the faster we can communicate that, the better. We are horrible people who are celebrating being horrible people.

The "fuck" entry is really a pretty good read, I'll link it again: http://brikwars.wikispaces.com/fuck

Two years ago, you wouldn't imagine the magical joy it gave me to come out of my Dark Age, open my dusty old storing boxes, discover Brikwars, register on the forum, log in and explore this fantastic universe a bunch of people made out of Legos and common interest. As soon as I started to learn a thing or two, I tried to contribute as much as possible to Brikwars, but unfortunately, even back then, I already started to feel that I had missed its "Golden Age", if it can be put that way, which should have never ended. More and more I see that this is becoming a internet forum instead of a Brikwars forum, you know? Sure, once in a while, when possible, cool new members show up and stay, older ones return, great forum battles, reports and MOCs are made, but yet, I still feel that the ratio between what we should be doing and stupid dumb internet shit fests is low. What the hell is happening? I think I've said it before but I'll say it again, goofing around is fine, but with maturity and limits.

We are all here to share our bloody tales and creations with the world. To spread the word, share the moments and have fun. We are all here for one simple thing, to Brikwar.

To tell the truth I see the wiki as being better for this role - all the amazing battles and MOCs and everything else get distilled and collected and curated and moderated there, minus all the nonsense that happens here.

booty bothered clued me in to something that happened on one of her other forums, where one group of forumers had a different vision for what they wanted out of their forum experience, and went off and set up a parallel forum of their own, which turned into a thriving symbiotic satellite community in its own right. So there are some possible alternatives as well.

[Butthurt]

That was a you and me thing!!!!

[stubby]

Everyone needs to witness the glory of the Just Justin Board

[Zupponn]

http://jjb.yuku.com/topic/711688/My-guy ... A8PaqNfTtE
Ahahahhahahahahhaha!