James

[color=#606060]I wouldn't worry too much about the name, guys. I might just use the name we had planned for OB Evolution (or something similar). What will change is the forum description - it will include audio, screen-based media and live performance. I think the forum description will make the difference, moreso than the forum name itself (although we'll definitely have a more general forum name).[/color]

[color=#606060]Sorry this wasn't clearer, Saya. I'd like to put in a self-change feature in the future, I just want to do it without it being too difficult to track who you are (i.e. if you change your name lots, your friends and other members might become confused as to who you are - it can cause some issues).[/color]

[color=#606060]I think we can start looking at implementing some new elements for security on the current version of OB and part of that might tie into creating an introduction forum. I think we can probably give it a try at some point soon. It will need more of a structure than we had before though. It'll also need a couple of very hands-on Moderators.[/color]

[color=#606060]I think it would be fun to cover live performance but I just don't know how many people are interested in theater here on OB. It's honestly never really come up at all. Having said that, I think Movies, Music & TV would probably be a good place for this type of content. Plays and live music performances would go well together afterall. At this stage I don't know if it warrants its own forum, but we could probably expand the Music, Movies & TV forum to cover this form of entertainment. This may need to involve a name change for the forum. We did have a new name in mind, but I don't know if it encompasses live performance very well. So I definitely welcome suggestions on that.[/color]

[center][img]http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/965/ladiesoflondonfl7.jpg[/img] [size=1][i]Logo and main character, Raven McCoy.[/i][/size][/center] [font=franklin gothic medium] So I’ve had a couple of RPG ideas lately, the most-complete of which would be [b]Ladies of London[/b]. I posted a thread in Art by Request about this not long ago and I thought it was time to put together a proper Anthology thread for it. At this stage I have a pretty clear outline of what I want to do with this RPG. I’ve got a basic foundation set in place and hopefully the players can build on that with their own characters and story ideas. I thought it would be good to use this thread to brainstorm and develop something a bit more substantial. But before we get to that, I’ll try to briefly describe what this is all about. [b]Concept/Story[/b] In terms of the content, I suppose the best thing to compare this to would be Charlie’s Angels. The “Ladies of London” are a group of women who basically work for the British government (MI6, for example) – this includes assassination, spying, etc. Each member of the group would have a speciality and that would be something the players would determine. One of the key twists is that “Ladies of London” is not only the name of the group in question; it’s also a British television show. Think of Cops and you’ll have a good idea of what I’m talking about. As the government is eager to stamp out crime in the future (and to embarrass criminals in the process), it has not only given free license to the ladies, but it has turned them into a public information/entertainment service. Small hovering cameras would follow the ladies around as they go on their relevant missions. The ladies have to do their job, of course…but they are also required to play to the camera somewhat. It’s sort of a strange mixture of justice and perverse entertainment. The RPG would be set in a surreal future version of London. So we could be somewhat flexible in inventing certain technology or gadgets. On the other hand, the fashion would be a kind of modern interpretation of 19th century design. [b]Format/Structure[/b] At this stage I’m thinking that the RPG will play out in television seasons. Each season would contain only a handful of episodes (say, five or six episodes). Each episode would be a chapter in the RPG and each season would have its own thread. Every individual season would feature a single primary villain and maybe several of their supporters (we could also have “cameo” roles in different episodes too). There are a few advantages to this system. First, it will be relatively easy to finish a season. So if you’ve signed up as a villain, you don’t have to get involved in a massive RPG that takes forever to finish. Each season would have an ending and would wrap up relatively neatly. This way if interest totally dies after Season One, well…that’s okay, because we’ve got one finished season. There would be no limit to how many (or how few) seasons we could have. The second advantage is that while the primary cast would be the same (i.e. there would be permanent characters), each season would feature a totally different villain to defeat. This means that different players could constantly be involved, meaning that lots of people can have a shot at this RPG (rather than having a big sign up and only five or six overall players). But this way it won’t be too confusing for anyone. Much like a real-life TV show, however, if the player for a main character wanted to quit…we could have another player take over that character and make it their own. This format could really offer a lot of freshness and variety to the story and help it to develop a lot over time. The first villain might be cold and serious, the next one might be utterly ridiculous – think of it as being set in a serious yet hyper-real environment (like Kill Bill or Pulp Fiction). I still have to finalize a design for the RPG and I have to work out how I want the sign-ups to look…but I won’t be encouraging massive sign-ups this time. Simple and to-the-point will be all that’s needed. Anyway, what do you guys think? Is there much interest for this type of concept[/font]

[quote name='Semjaza']This is probably because the person didn't bother to vote you as negative. Your penalties and such are in the hands of the people you play with essentially... and while you'll likely find jerks that give you poor marks for seemingly no reason, I've found that it balances itself out fine if you're a decent person on it. I don't think Live itself makes any decisions to that effect.[/QUOTE] [color=#606060]Yeah, I figure that the other user got the same message as me - that there were connection issues. Under such circumstances I suppose it would make no sense to vote against anyone. So far I've mostly been playing C&C online - been really enjoying that. I haven't tried anything else. I did go to try Perfect Dark Zero in co-op but there was only one other person available at the time and they seemed inactive...they weren't responding or doing anything. *shrug* I'll have to try my other games this weekend.[/color]

[color=#606060]Wow, this is amazing. I can't believe I didn't notice this earlier. You guys have put in so much work...we've really never had anything this elaborate on OtakuBoards before in terms of a newspaper. Well done! The Panopticon definitely seems quite incredible. I'd heard of it but I haven't followed it - your article really brings me up to speed. I really think it's great that we still have so much highly creative and innovative RPGs going on out there - I'm so proud of all the contributors. I am definitely eagerly awaiting your next issue, guys. This thread is fantastic. Perhaps in future I should make an announcement as each new issue is launched - I think this newspaper really deserves the promotion. If you'd like me to do that you only have to PM me when each new issue goes up. :catgirl: [/color]

[color=#606060]All gorgeous, Alterna. I think I agree that the oldest one is my favourite too...although I do like all of them. I quite like the font you've used on your second favourite one. Does the font just come like that or did you do more to it?[/color]

[quote name='KingEarthEater']I think that would change something about the boards because there will be a lot of new members who would be spamming just to see when they're finally a member. I think it would also depend a bit on - if the mods are up for the job. Because I know other sites that have the post titles and I see too much spamming. I've been here since... I think about 2005 and I think I like it the way it is. I've changed username once (so no one will ever know :p).[/QUOTE] [color=#606060]Oh yeah, I understand that if we decide to go down this route we might be encouraging spamming. Having said that though, I suppose the beauty of it all is that nothing is set in stone - we can change to and fro as much as we like. If something doesn't work we can change it...and by the same token, we can always trial new ideas without making them permanent. I think because the site is much more quality-focused than it was years ago, it may now be the time to try ideas that just couldn't have worked back then. But again, it does come down to what the members want with that stuff. Maybe we can hold a vote on something like this and make it a real community thing.[/color]

[color=#606060]Ah, vector graphics. I have a love/hate relationship with vectors. Yes, vector images can look truly gorgeous...but they take so long to produce! As you said, it took you an hour to do an initial outline. I'm a bit faster than that, but it still takes hours to do a "finalized" image. In any case I think you're off to a good start. Depending on the program you use I suppose my only advice would be to be very careful about your layer use - my vector images end up with millions of layers (although this is probably unique to the way I do my own pieces - those who are more skilled with vectors probably only have one overall layer). It can be a bit hard to manage at times. I think you're definitely going about it the right way though. A lot of people try to start with the complex details...and that stuff has to come last. It's most important to get shape and form set down first. Looks like you've grasped that well. My only other advice - as it relates to OB - would be that you should consider including thumbnails of your work rather than doing a full link (either that or doing a text link to the OB attachment). I say this just because full images tend to stretch our layout and that can make things a bit harder to read. It might make your thread a bit more presentable for viewers. But yeah, having being that longwinded...the short answer is, looking good so far! I'd like to see this image as it becomes more complete. ^_^[/color]

[color=#606060]I believe the final title on previous versions could only be attained once a member hit 10,000 posts. I think it was sort of something Adam and I were curious about...to see if anyone would ever hit that mark. As for post titles, we'll see. If the community really wants them back, we can look at reintroducing them (although I agree new titles would be better than the old ones we had).[/color]

[color=#606060]That sounds great to me. And I guess you could just have a poll thread or something which would be very easy (especially since you can make it that people can't vote twice). So we'd actually get pretty accurate results. It does sound like it's coming together well. I'm happy for you to go ahead with it.[/color]

[color=#606060]They now haven't validated my second gamercard thing yet, so I'll just post my name here. I'm registered under [b]Moloko Live[/b] and my email is [email][email protected][/email] If anyone wants to add me feel free to do so. :catgirl: I've so far only played one online session (where my connection decided to be slow enough to stop the game), but it seems I wasn't penalized for that...which is good. Xbox Live seems to know if it's a legitimate connection/lag issue where the game itself has stopped the match, versus someone actually quitting. So that was a relief.[/color]

[color=#606060]As long as it's clear that this is an RPG/member event, that's okay. I just wouldn't want a newer member to sign up thinking that if they win they'd get OB handed over to them, lol. It would also be good if we could keep the threads in one or two locations for convenience - so you would be welcome to use The Arena (even if this isn't a typical RPG) or we could consider using Otaku Lounge. That aspect is really up to you. I personally think that this idea would push the boundaries of RPG concepts, so it might provide great inspiration to others if it were in Adventure Arena.[/color]

[quote name='Boo'][size=1] Something like that right? James, please tell the world once and for all what came after that so we can finally stop spamming posts in the hope that the title system might come back.[/size][/QUOTE] [color=#606060]I thought I answered this a while ago didn't I? And now it's been so long that I don't even remember. I don't think it was anything remarkable though, haha. I'll have to ask Adam, he might remember (although he's away for nearly a month as of today). [/color]

[quote]Theres also absolutely no reason to replay it either since it loses it's charm after you complete it.[/quote] [color=#606060]Actually I think Jungle Beat has plenty of replayability - by virtue of the game's shields/emblems/whatever they're called. Not to mention that getting more points unlocks more worlds. I honestly think the game is worth the price as it is now - I paid AUD$99 for it and I felt that was worthwhile. Granted, I may get more out of it because I don't play games frequently (so I'm still not finished it despite having had it for three weeks), so perhaps this makes it more worthwhile to me.[/color]

[quote name='Gavin'][SIZE="1"]I was just thinking, if we were to confine the title of Otaku to just OtakuBoards, then it wasn't all that long ago people were trying to post their way up to one and two thousand posts to get it and Extreme Otaku as their user titles. Funny really, we say now it doesn't matter what you're called, back then it mattered immensely. Only ever got to Member myself before they changed it. Be a No Lifer now. [/SIZE][/QUOTE] [color=#606060]Which begs the question: what would happen if we ever re-introduced titles/ranks based on post count? I wonder if people would care as much as they used to, or if it would be such a novelty (since we haven't had it for ages) that it would spur people to post. :smirk: Ahh, the mysteries of life.[/color]

[quote name='jigglyness']YOSH. After trying to kill myself by attempting to follow James' piece, I have finally managed to do it. =.= My god, I have never been this stressed about the graphicowrm before. haha. phew. well glad it's done and over with. NEXT PERSON!! [b][url=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v513/sesshofreako/forums/omg.jpg]OMG[/url][/b][/QUOTE] [color=#606060]Eek, sorry about that! I realized when I finished that it was going to be a bit of a nightmare...and I found it difficult enough following on from the image before mine (which was comparitively simple on the edge). :animeswea Next time if I do an image I promise I will make the edge much easier to follow. :catgirl: You did a brilliant job by the way - I doubt I could have followed on from my own image, haha. Excellent work! [/color]

[quote name='Semjaza']Assuming you have Silver right now and not gold it's probably the best thing to do.[/QUOTE] [color=#606060]Cool. I have that one month free Gold thing (I doubt that'll apply again will it?) but I haven't paid for Gold yet. So I'm probably better off doing it this way before I start paying for a subscription. Thanks much for the advice anyone - you might as well ignore the friend requests, haha. Also - this question may be obvious - when you choose a name are you tied to it? Or is it like MSN when you are tied to an email address and you can change your name whenever? I figure it's probably the former but I thought I'd ask if there was anyway to change names on an existing account (but keep the email the same).[/color]

[quote name='Jeebs']Unfortunately, no. If you had signed into your "James" profile, you could have made that into an Xbox Live account instead (you would probably have had to change the name, though), but I guess it's a bit too late for that now. [/QUOTE] [color=#606060]Oh, in that case I wonder...if I delete my Moloko Lite account I could presumably sign up with "James" and just change the name back? Since I have no gamerscore on Moloko Lite I might as well try that option.[/color]

[color=#606060]I just got Xbox Live finally (managed to wrestle my 360 online after all this time) and my ID is [b]Moloko Lite[/b]. I still have to get one of those fancy gamercard things online...they didn't PM my registration details. But for the time being, feel free to use that name. [b]Edit:[/b] Here it is: [url=http://profile.mygamercard.net/Moloko+Lite][img]http://card.mygamercard.net/Moloko+Lite.png[/img][/url] Looks very sad as a totally new profile. All my finished games are gone! >_>; Also, quick question. Is there any way to move achievements from one profile to another in any way? I had my old profile as just "James"...but I had to create a new one on Xbox Live. Now I have to start all my games over again! It reset everything to zero. Not sure what to do about that.[/color]

[quote name='IHZ']I am, however, used to the real 'stupid' fans who called themselves otakus without knowing it's meaning but when I used to tell them they would enter in all CAPS LOCK mode to tell me how I suck that I know nothing of Anime and that I'm just a dip***. I'm happy to see that I finally stumbled on a good forum with peoples who actually think smoothly.[/QUOTE] [color=#606060]I do think it's a legitimate discussion, but we've had quite a few threads like this on OB over the years. I agree that there are probably a lot of people out there who really don't know what the word means and don't apply it properly. On the other hand we have to be careful not to apply it too rigidly either - some anime fans refuse to accept that a word can have slightly different connotations in the west, particularly among anime/gaming enthusiasts.[/color] [quote]Well in all and all I'm glad to see I can have smart conversations with fans here. I know I'm new and I've been searching over the different forums to see where I can make a biref introduction...is there a place on this board?[/quote] [color=#606060]Not as such, but I think you've just made your introduction. And it was a very positive one. We're happy to have you. ^_^[/color]

[color=#606060]Thanks for all of your suggestions, everyone. I'm really impressed with what you guys have come up with. At this stage I'm actually quite partial to Who Am I's third submission, although I feel that the "Ladies of" portion may need to change somewhat. But we'll see. Currently I've got two RPG ideas floating around in my mind, this being one of them. I'm not quite sure which one I'm going to go with - maybe I will make a thread in Anthology about it and see what people think.[/color]

[color=#606060]What Charles said. And for the sake of clarity, it's worth pointing one thing out - we aren't being asked which Zelda is "better", we are being asked which GameCube games to recommend (at least in this part of the thread). In that sense, both TWW and TP are unmissable games by any measure. I suppose the only thing with TP is that you have to play for more than ten minutes to appreciate it - I'd say you really have to get two or three hours in to really start appreciating its many layers. It is unquestionably a great game - whether or not it's the best Zelda (or better than any other Zelda in particular) is totally irrelevant to this discussion. I mean if you could afford both and you had a GameCube, I'd definitely recommend getting both.[/color] [quote]At any rate, I'm really surprised with how awesome the game looks and how fun it is to control. I have to admit that it is somewhat tiring to play through more than a few levels in one sitting, but the combo system is fantastic and makes an otherwise simple game a lot of fun. And challenging to boot.[/quote] [color=#606060]How far are you in the game? Just wait 'till you see some of the later levels! DK Jungle Beat is one of the few platformers I've seen in recent years that has completely wowed me - it really is quite amazing. Some of the level designs are really incredible. It's a shame that so many people missed out on this game.[/color]

[color=#606060]I don't know, Premonition...I've been thinking about changing our name to FanBoards for quite a while. Then we'd have a [i]truly[/i] fun site! :blulaugh:[/color]