Topic: Ideas for the site

@SportyMarioSonicMix for us it’s mainly pageviews but also if it helps us have well rounded content output. We don’t do long series of articles like you’re suggesting though, unless it was a full time staff member.

@antdickens How many pageviews do you need to get for sites like yours to pay for the series of articles?

I know you say you do not do that, but I am sure most sites have the same standards.

Also, someone here mentioned Time Extension and I saw you manage that site too.

Are you saying Time Extension would also not pay for my series of articles?

I only ask because there does not seem to be much content there generated at all!

@Jump: I feel the core differentiating angle for my series would be to show how you can enjoy your childhood games in a whole new way.

For example, I used to think the 2D Mario Platformers were too easy.

But I recently tried to speedrun them in every possible combination and was shocked to find how difficult/nuanced the expert level strategy is to try to get the best time possible.

For example, in 1 level, there is a vine and a warp pipe that take you to separate rooms. If you try to invert the order and do the warp pipe first, in order to obtain a near perfect time, you have to whack the Koopa from above AND bop the Goomba from below as a Mario pinball or you lose precious seconds.

Another interesting observation is that large Mario is actually a WORSE character than small Mario. I have built out a large sample size and large Mario actually runs at the same speed as small Mario, but takes up way more room on the screen!

There are levels where small Mario can duck under low overhangs, but large Mario has to go towards upper routes, which waste a lot of time with extra jumps and having to crack through more bricks. For areas where you need to bop a middle brick from below to spawn a vine, there is an extremely SMALL jump radius where you can actually bop the brick and reach the other platform without either missing the block or the other platform, whereas with small Mario, it is an easy move.

When you study levels in meticulous depth, it makes you understand how most of the enemy placements actually are not random at all. They are there to help you chain a combo together to save time or are located within a jump arc that you almost always have to go through without wasting a ton of time.

Instead of just playing a game once and being done with it, I spend 2-3 hours every day on a single level, keep detailed stats on how my pace is improving, and how, and then spend the rest of my idle time during the day thinking about how I could improve more.

People complain about the 2D Sonic games not having enough pace, but if you speedrun 2D Mario games, you get a great sense of what people want.

It really is a comprehensive way to experience a game you LOVED as a child in a whole new way that you can get thousands of hours of gameplay out of for $5-$10!

I think there are tons of readers out there who would appreciate reading my conclusions without putting all the work in on their own up front, but who could be motivated to play that way if they had a Player's Guide.

The Player's Guides you read online or in print NEVER help you speedrun or get PERFECT scores on every level, but I play that way normally, so it is a natural for me to put these guides together if I had a platform to share all my information.

@Rambler None of my stuff about the above post's plan is published yet.

It would take about 20-40 hours to put together a single level's Player's Guide to optimally speedrun the game and get a PERFECT score! (That is why I suggested 1 article per week frequency.)

I do not mind putting the work in, but want to know there is a real paid option available if I do put all the work in.

I love the gameplay regardless, but for example, getting photos of each level from Wii U Virtual Console is super tedious.

@SportyMarioSonicMix as the others have suggested I think we’re going off topic in this thread and would suggest you pitch anything via the contact form as originally discussed.

Time Extension isn’t accepting pitches really at the moment; it’s a brand new site and we’re very limited with the budget and therefore just working with existing freelancers for the time being, but thanks for the interest!

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika probably just use the spam option for now — I'll update the wording here to include 'bots' etc. Thanks!

I think the ignore/block feature could do with clearer explanation of what each does in the Ignored/Blocked Users section of "Your Account". I thought the terms were just used interchangeably until I saw a Push Square thread discussing there's a difference (ignored users can see your posts meanwhile blocked users can't see your posts).

I haven't used the feature but I still think it's important for the difference to be made clear.

My account was oftenly logged out by itself if there was no internet connection at the moment. 😕
Maybe some fixes to get rid the bugs.

The malicious ads problem is still present, just got redirected to a site trying to add AdBlock Pro.

@antdickens The ad redirects I've found are (put it in spoiler tags):

First one comes up with a robot which asks you to allow the site you use your location.

@Grumblevolcano thanks, the ads team are aware and actively trying to sort it!

Possibly a bug? The Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? articles have had polls recently but at least for me after I answered the poll on one week I never could again for future weeks. If it is supposed to be a new independent poll every week (which would make sense), it seems to be failing for at least some people. I've never seen issues with polls in any other articles.

@antdickens Yeah, the poll doesn't seem to have worked since the first week I did it as well.

@FishyS @TeaCatherine interesting, thanks for the report. I will look into it this week!

The WAYPTW poll didn't load again this week. (Just thought I'd mention it.)

@TeaCatherine thanks, I've just messaged the editorial guys on what they need to do differently, so hopefully will be fixed in the next hour or so.

@antdickens Thanks.

Random suggestion: I know the site won't have DMs, but it would still be nice if we could 'favorite' other users. Reading comments, some people have opinions which just sync well with my game styles, so I generally would trust these people's comments more in the future and it would be handy to have a list. Obviously not an important feature, but I think about it every time there is an actual constructive back-and-forth in the comments. Kind of the opposite of ban/mute.

In other news, thanks to antdickens for getting the polls fixed on the weekend play articles; I like that they have 3 options now also.

@FishyS this is actually something I've considered before... you could have a "following" list and then filter comments based on those people, it's certainly something I'll consider when we get around to redeveloping the comment system thanks for the suggestion!

Is there any chance of another eShop code discount for last-minute 3DS/Wii U purchases?