Remember when....

[thefallen]

I remember when this forum was alive and thriving. New people were coming everyday to post their ideas and creations. It was part of what got me to buy fantasy grounds.

Now it appears to be quite dead. No one has posted anything in quite a while. Things that have been posted have been removed. The only thing that seems to be posted now is just links to stuff that you can buy.

What gives? Is no one making stuff for FG anymore? Is user created content now against the rules?

Don't get me wrong, I know you can't share converted adventures that you have bought, but come on, there is so much more. Right? Or am I wrong here?

[richvalle]

Hmmm, I check the site a couple times a day and there is always new messages, questions, ect. More now then ever I think.

Maybe everyone is holding their breath waiting for the next patch to come out.



rv

[Ram Tyr]

Or am I wrong here?

I don't think you are wrong.

rv, while there are still posts here, the ones that are relevant to thefallen's post are minimal. (User created content being shared as opposed to the LFG posts, or technical problems, etc.) Lately, it has been just the Visual FAQs from Adventuresome Dreams. Again, this is discounting the pinned posts about commercial products...which started at about the same time....hmmm...

The one possibility that I can see is that the recent technical problems have slowed people down.

Lets hope the forum picks up again.

Later.
Ramza

[Bumamgar]

Well, in my case, at least, I'm doing an Age of Worms FG conversion for my online campaign. Since it's copyrighted material, I cannot share it.

I've created some monster tokens and so on, but since I'm not an artist, they use images I find on the net, which are also copyrighted material, and therefore not available for sharing.

So although I am spending hours tweaking images, entering encounters and building content for FG, I'm not "creating" anything, merely converting the excellent creations of others, so at the end of the day, I've got nothing I can share publicly.

True artists and authors are relatively rare, so I'm not surprised that there aren't that many new tokens, maps, and modules popping up. Remember, this is a niche of a niche of a niche we're talking about here. Your talking about "RPG players" (niche one), "Online RPG players" (niche two), and "artists" (niche three). Heck, you might have trouble filling a high-school gym with people who fit all three categories

Not to mention, it takes time to create a module or token set. So although we are lucky enough to have some folks here who meet the above criteria, they can only crank out content at their pace, which will never be fast enough to meet the demand of us hordes of hungry gamers

I think the community here is thriving. The amount of free content available is quite large, and growing all the time.

[gurney9999]

I agree. Over the last few months the rise of questions about copyrights and how it could affect SW has lessened many of the user created add-ons posted on this site. While on the one hand it is a shame, on the other hand I completely understand how and why things have to be that way.

Now I know there are several efforts going on at Adventuresome Dreams that fall under what you are looking for. Snikle continues to post awesome maps that people are encouraged to download and use in their own campaigns. Snikle and other users have participated in a mapping challenge that I'm sure will result in a free collection. Several of us are working on what we are calling AD Scenes, which are short specific encounters that should be able to easily fit into any campaign setting, complete with maps, tokens, images, etc.

I'm continuing to work on the Visual FAQ series, which will hopefully help new users understand some of the functionality in FG, in the hopes that users will be encouraged to work on their own custom content that we can all benefit from.

I think also that many of the users here are heavily involved in running/playing games, so maybe that's why they haven't worked on free user content quite so much (not me though. I never get to actually play the game ).

[Ilwan]

I agree with Bumamgar.

At the moment the forum might be a little quiet, but I guess it is the autumn holidays. Most of the communities I see myself part of are quiet these days.

It is natural that the amount of free content drops a little. Most of the free content in this community has always been tokens and now most people got what they need. There is still produced alot of free content (follow developments at Adventuresome Dreams), mostly by the same personnel.

Personally I think the free stuff is little appreciated. If we take "The Wizards Amulet" adventure, we hardly got any comments or feedback. People downloaded it and that was it. That is OK, but for people spending many hours on creating it, it can be a little frustrating when less than a handful users give any feedback on it.

I dont think that the commercial ventures take away the free stuff, cuz I believe they were not created at all, if they were planned as free stuff. It is alot of work doing them and they will never pay off financially ever. I am not so interested in creating a Wizards Amulet II-like free adventure, again getting almost no credit for it.

I started the commercial way, more of that reason. I know I will never make any money worth mentioning on it. But I feel affirmed for all the work I´ve done, when a gamer spends a little money to get, what I have created in hundreds of work hours.

Back on topic, I think the user stuff will always be created and there is alot still being done and will be, especially with new features. We have in one year of FG already had five patches, alot of free stuff and forming of communties around it. That is still very good. People are just having a little break or holidays at the moment.

[wavecutter]

Also check over at Dundjinni for alot of user created maps.

[thefallen]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not just talking about user created adventures. I haven't had a chance to grab or run the Wizards Amulet adventure, but thank you for doing that one Ilwan.

It just seems like things like, modified character sheets, programs to help convert data, to add stuff into FG easier, modified rules, ect. It just seems like all of this stuff has been stopped. I'm sorry, that's just the impression I get when I read back over the forums these past few days. Heck, nix4 used to be adding something every other day, but I read over several of his posts where he was told to take stuff down, stuff that is already freely accessable to the public. He hasn't posted here since.

It just makes me sad. I love the program, but after reading through all the posts, I don't think I'll post anything either.

[gurney9999]

I love the program, but after reading through all the posts, I don't think I'll post anything either.

I hope you change your mind. If everyone begins feeling that way, this will become a dead forum.

One thing that gets more activity going is the discussion of that activity. Ilwan touched on something above when he talked about recognition. On the flip side when users post questions, requests, discussions, etc. it gets the creative juices flowing. The people that post on the AD site with suggestions for topics of future Visual FAQs get me excited to do them just as much as the people that tell me they appreciate them after the fact.

I wish I knew .xml as well as my wife (the web designer). I'm certainly learning, and one day I hope to know enough to work on tools to help FG users. Until that time I have to rely on other creators, and if there is something I want I will certainly request it or weigh in on it if others have requested it.

[Snikle]

It just seems like things like, modified character sheets, programs to help convert data, to add stuff into FG easier, modified rules, ect. It just seems like all of this stuff has been stopped.

Another reason, and the reason I give, is that the next big step for FG is the scripting being added. I am holding off working on anything that could be affected or made easier through the scripting. Why spend hours on something that will just be replaced here in a few weeks (hopefully!)

And heck, I have been pumping out maps faster than people can download them! While it is true that I haunt the AD forums more than these (just a matter of taste), the link to my site is floating around here somewhere. There are tokens, maps, some mods that sandman did, and even a tutorial on how I make some of my maps.