The current state of the Fantasy Grounds chat room - and a recruiting message!

[XpressO]

Dear Fantasy Grounds community, good day to you! Or good night depending on the location of your tavern on the map.

For a while now I've had this thought knocking on the back of my head on this topic - the current state of the Fantasy Grounds chat room. Over the last couple of years the amount of regulars has dropped to an all time low. There are only handful of us left anymore. This leads to the problem which occurs when new people drop by; they leave as soon as they see how few of us there are. Or they pop by and ask a question but leave before we have a chance to answer, mainly because there are so few of us and we might be idling.

So. I'm on a recruiting mission. The chat room consists of us community members, GMs and players alike. We are brought together through our love for role playing games and gaming in general. We generally discuss about Fantasy Grounds, different game systems, the games we're prepping, our latest adventures or just remember fun times - but any topic goes, we just love chatting with like minded individuals. Although we are not an Official support for Fantasy Grounds, we do try and help to solve whatever problem you might have if we are able to (or available).

So now this falls on you, the beloved Community Member. If this sounds like something you might enjoy, join us in our little corner of the Fantasy Grounds Community at https://fg2.rpg-vault.net/

We can't grow if no one'll show.

Thank you for your time.
-XpressO

[damned]

Hola XpressO!
I did visit the chat room a couple of times when I first started using. I did enjoy my visits there but alas I have not been back since...
No time... or time is already spent elsewhere :(
Good luck with the recruiting!

[CrimsonCrust]

I think their should be 12 hours a day of twitch streaming maybe even 24 if you can get the volunteers. I think that would be the best way to keep a chat room going and to build awareness. You could even make money off the donations and what not, so it could pay for itself while promoting and offering a place for people to chat. But what do I know :( lol. Just my two cents.

Also you could offer current DM/GM's the opportunity to show there games live on your channel. Would fill a lot of those time slots.

Also could have games going that allow the audience to jump in, like having just one open seat. That could be cool. But just as a part of a 24 hour stream not all the time.

[Thete]

I think their should be 12 hours a day of twitch streaming maybe even 24 if you can get the volunteers. I think that would be the best way to keep a chat room going and to build awareness. You could even make money off the donations and what not, so it could pay for itself while promoting and offering a place for people to chat. But what do I know :( lol. Just my two cents.

Also you could offer current DM/GM's the opportunity to show there games live on your channel. Would fill a lot of those time slots.

Also could have games going that allow the audience to jump in, like having just one open seat. That could be cool. But just as a part of a 24 hour stream not all the time.

Great ideas!

Can anyone suggest an iPhone app the will auto log me in when online?

[XpressO]

People are way too hasty. People still come to the chat, say "anyone here?" and leave within a minute. One person even lasted 10 minutes. Today, for example, on two separate occasions I missed a potential new chatter by a minute or two. We can't be online 24/7 to greet you. So please, if you want to chat, stay with us - you are a role player so you have the patience. Eventually we will answer. I, for example am from Finland (EET) so I'm not available most times when the Northern American people are awake. But we are international.

[CrimsonCrust]

People are way too hasty. People still come to the chat, say "anyone here?" and leave within a minute. One person even lasted 10 minutes. Today, for example, on two separate occasions I missed a potential new chatter by a minute or two. We can't be online 24/7 to greet you. So please, if you want to chat, stay with us - you are a role player so you have the patience. Eventually we will answer. I, for example am from Finland (EET) so I'm not available most times when the Northern American people are awake. But we are international.


Well I read this and what it made me think to myself is this: Is it a consumers job to change to the business or is it the businesses job to adapt to what a consumer wants. That is a broad statement. But I think it fits what you said. If the FG team wanted they could make it work some how some way. However I don't really think the chat is in anyway a big deal. I just don't think what you are saying makes much sense to me >.<

[ddavison]

The chat was put together at the request of a few folks in the community. Ultimately, we believe the best solution will be to host chat features directly within FG instead of off a link on the web page. It is probably doing more harm than good right now since it may give the impression to new customers that Fantasy Grounds is not active. Would people be terribly upset if we disabled it until we have something built in to FG?

[JohnD]

Built in to FG I think is the optimal way to go.

[damned]

The chat was put together at the request of a few folks in the community. Ultimately, we believe the best solution will be to host chat features directly within FG instead of off a link on the web page. It is probably doing more harm than good right now since it may give the impression to new customers that Fantasy Grounds is not active. Would people be terribly upset if we disabled it until we have something built in to FG?

That is the way many multiplayer games have gone. It is also used to facilitate pickup games etc. If that can be added as part of Unity port I think it would be beneficial. Forums are too slow to try to organise something really last minute.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Built in to FG I think is the optimal way to go.
Agreed

[Thete]

What about folks who want to be available to chat but are away from a PC with FG installed?

[Mistindantacles]

If I may be so bold ...

I like the idea of the chat. The idea definitely has potential. VOIP would be better of course. (VOIP integrated into FG would be bestest still.) But being that the text chat is where the community has gotten to, here are some ideas:

- See if Smiteworks would be willing to drop a forum message into everyone's Inbox, thereby informing the entire population that a) it exists, and 2) it be cool.

- Arrange "sessions" where the "FG Experts", or anyone with the know-how and time to volunteer, can answer questions, provide tutorials (such as some of the basics of the coding for Rule Sets), DM Guide sessions (for those who want to make the leap from players to DM, but have questions or just want advice), et cetera, et cetera ...

- For those sessions, use the forums or create a calendar so folks know when these awesomest events will be happening and then direct people to said thread or calendar.

umm ... and it's too early and I haven't had enough Dew to think of anything else. But if I do, I'll post more.

[XpressO]

Well I read this and what it made me think to myself is this: Is it a consumers job to change to the business or is it the businesses job to adapt to what a consumer wants. That is a broad statement. But I think it fits what you said. If the FG team wanted they could make it work some how some way. However I don't really think the chat is in anyway a big deal. I just don't think what you are saying makes much sense to me >.<

The chat has really nothing to do with the company itself. It's a chat from the community for the community, SmiteWorks just provides the link to it on the front page. But when you say the chat isn't a big deal I assume you are just stating your interests and opinions. There are a lot of people who might like the chat were it more active or if they actually even KNEW there was one. This was the reason for this thread - to make it known that a chat exists for those who are interested in one. It was in no way addressed to SmiteWorks.

I'm sorry, if I'm not making sense to you, but I'm not asking for anyone to adapt to anything - I'm just promoting a way for like-minded people to connect.

Simply put: I wanted to let people know that Hey there's a chat for the community if you're interested in it. And if you need help with FG, we'll help if we can. The most typical question from people popping by is "could someone explain the licenses?". To get instant feedback (unless we are away) is way more rewarding than having to first sign up to the forums to write a thread and wait for a response.

Dear Doug. I can see your point. In my opinion, you can take the link off of the front page if you think that's best for FG. But please, do not force to disable the chat altogether. The few of us who still frequent the chat have integrated it as a part of our life. I've made some very good friends through the chat and it's the only way currently for us to stay in touch. If you force Drahkar to shut the server down you'll essentially kill a part of our internet social life. As for me, I am a very awful forum user logging in like once or twice a year and a real time chat is how I roll. So please, do not force the irc server down but by all means take the link off the front page so that people do not associate it with SmiteWorks and get the wrong idea.

I hope this clears it up a bit for everyone :)

EDIT: Of course, if it comes to that we can set a channel up on for example ircnet or quakenet. In that light, it's not a biggie.

EDIT 2: Also, in hindsight, the thread should've been named "Hey, did you know there's a community chat?" :p

[XpressO]

I think their should be 12 hours a day of twitch streaming maybe even 24 if you can get the volunteers. I think that would be the best way to keep a chat room going and to build awareness. You could even make money off the donations and what not, so it could pay for itself while promoting and offering a place for people to chat. But what do I know :( lol. Just my two cents.

Also you could offer current DM/GM's the opportunity to show there games live on your channel. Would fill a lot of those time slots.

Also could have games going that allow the audience to jump in, like having just one open seat. That could be cool. But just as a part of a 24 hour stream not all the time.

What you have suggested here sounds great and I'd love to see it happen! But it is a completely different thing and audience than the chat. This feels like more promotional thing than a community thing :)

[Mellock]

I don't mind if the link on the frontpage goes down, but I like hanging out in the IRC chat after work. I'd be sad to see it go down, as it gives me a daily gaming fix beyond the forum. Just my two cents.

[damned]

Hi XpressO, Thete and Mellock!
Would you guys use a chat that was built in to the FG client? Do you use the chat when you are not at your main computer?
Just curious - Ive no idea what might or might not be planned for this...
I do think that a Chat client from the FG Client splash page - or even one that can work while the game is running - is a good solution in that it would help people get connected to available games, players, GMs right at that time. It might not however server the needs of what/how you use the IRC though?

Oh BTW - Mellock also provides the Community TeamSpeak server! Thanks again for that great resource Mellock!

[damned]

@Mistindantacles - at FG Con I ran 3 getting started sessions via Google Hangouts. @Mask_Of_Winter also ran a Savage Worlds one.

My sessions are here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNq4ebzYBHQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eaMZwBKZkg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nesj3tpggmQ

Im working towards a Pathfinder session where we deal mainly with the Combat Tracker and all its goodness with a subject matter expert (eg not me!) :)

[XpressO]

Hi XpressO, Thete and Mellock!
Would you guys use a chat that was built in to the FG client? Do you use the chat when you are not at your main computer?
Just curious - Ive no idea what might or might not be planned for this...
I do think that a Chat client from the FG Client splash page - or even one that can work while the game is running - is a good solution in that it would help people get connected to available games, players, GMs right at that time. It might not however server the needs of what/how you use the IRC though?

Oh BTW - Mellock also provides the Community TeamSpeak server! Thanks again for that great resource Mellock!

Let's say it this way:
If it would be possible to incorporate IRC into the program, that would be awesome. I could still be able to join with my IRC client whilst those who want to could use the program the way they can use the mibbit irc client in the browser via the link on the front page. IRC is also very flexible. Anyone can create a room of their own if they want to.

Think on this: #FG_General is the channel you connect to as a default via the link on the front page. But in IRC creating your own channel is as easy as writing /join #channelnamehere and voilá, you have a channel for your own gaming group. Think how nice it would be to have this ability in the FG client? You could be on the general channel with all those gamers but you could also make your private (and invite only too!) channels in the same place.

This is basic functionaly that already exists in IRC, so the only thing that would need coding is implementing a IRC client into the FG program. We could still use any IRC client we want to.

Having IRC inside a game/program is not unheard of. This Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat#Clients) lists some games that use IRC.

[Mellock]

I'd still hang out in an FG chatroom if it was built into the software. If I could reach it via my regular irc client, that would be a plus for me.

[Mistindantacles]

That's great, damned!

While I wasn't really referencing myself in my previous post, I was just attempting to highlight some posible ways to up the usage of the chat.

[CrimsonCrust]

The chat has really nothing to do with the company itself. It's a chat from the community for the community, SmiteWorks just provides the link to it on the front page. But when you say the chat isn't a big deal I assume you are just stating your interests and opinions. There are a lot of people who might like the chat were it more active or if they actually even KNEW there was one. This was the reason for this thread - to make it known that a chat exists for those who are interested in one. It was in no way addressed to SmiteWorks.

I'm sorry, if I'm not making sense to you, but I'm not asking for anyone to adapt to anything - I'm just promoting a way for like-minded people to connect.

Simply put: I wanted to let people know that Hey there's a chat for the community if you're interested in it. And if you need help with FG, we'll help if we can. The most typical question from people popping by is "could someone explain the licenses?". To get instant feedback (unless we are away) is way more rewarding than having to first sign up to the forums to write a thread and wait for a response.

Dear Doug. I can see your point. In my opinion, you can take the link off of the front page if you think that's best for FG. But please, do not force to disable the chat altogether. The few of us who still frequent the chat have integrated it as a part of our life. I've made some very good friends through the chat and it's the only way currently for us to stay in touch. If you force Drahkar to shut the server down you'll essentially kill a part of our internet social life. As for me, I am a very awful forum user logging in like once or twice a year and a real time chat is how I roll. So please, do not force the irc server down but by all means take the link off the front page so that people do not associate it with SmiteWorks and get the wrong idea.

I hope this clears it up a bit for everyone :)

EDIT: Of course, if it comes to that we can set a channel up on for example ircnet or quakenet. In that light, it's not a biggie.

EDIT 2: Also, in hindsight, the thread should've been named "Hey, did you know there's a community chat?" :p

You type to much, no way I am going to read all of this >.< At least for me, sorry.

[XpressO]

You type to much, no way I am going to read all of this >.< At least for me, sorry.

Well, that was constructive.

[Andraax]

You type to much, no way I am going to read all of this >.< At least for me, sorry.

Does he need to format his comments in 140 character chucks for the digital millennials who can't be bothered to read full passages?

[jhall6766]

HI ALL,
Just had a great visit to the chatroom with Xpresso... It was a great way to spend a few hours talking as well as listening and watching some great music videos... It was a fun and educational visit...Thank you Xpresso for your time and sharing some great music....