Charas, what has happened...?

[Razor]

Come for the Charas, stay for the Razor.
It's how we've worked for the past 8 years.

Frankly I don't know how this place survived in 2002/2003.

[Alex]

Even if it's all truth, Alex's reply makes me sad. I don't want to move on, darn it

I'd just like to underline it was an observation, but natural evolutions aren't to be considered bad.
This place was built around the original RPGMaker, initially we even forbid anything about rpgm2003... Isn't incredible, after that, we're still here?
We are a 10 years old community, internet talking it's an incredible result!
This entire thread looks to be about looking forward, and that's great!

It's not about "old users fighting not to die" (this would actually be the saddeest option), but "users discussing about the future of THEIR OWN COMMUNITY".
Ben spotted out this really well. Let's not confuse changes with death. Cool stuffs are happening, we had hardest times in past.

Moreover I recently renewed the hosting contract... so, no matter what, Charas will stay online

[Prpl_Mage]

We were a great community back when RPGM2k was new, it was pretty much a "one of a kind" software back in an age where parents didn't know what internet was. And we still have the awesome generators that made all types of people come here as well as the complete resources. Charas is the dream for any person who wants to make a 2k/3 game. Doubt any other site can say the same.

Since then a lot of user friendly materials have been created, XP, VX, gamemaker and hell - even map editors for most games offer the possibilities. It's only natural that you visit the places where you can share the kind of game you are making. For a site aimed for a maker developed 11 and 8 years ago - we've done good. Lots of great games, projects, resources and systems.

And after starting and ending a lot of projects I kinda don't post a thread everytime I come up with a new idea. I bet we all have a project, wherever or not it have even started. But posting it every time would make us like teh noobz we like to giggle at. Writing a long post about what the game will be and have and then quit a month later.
Gamemaking gets harder the older we get since we want to put ambition into stuff. At least for me. Just making a game with the CBS wouldn't do for me, I want something different. And making that happen takes time.


We got lives now, when we joined we were kids(lucas) or at least teenagers. Nowdays we're old, getting jobs and or a higher education. There is little time to just lay back and enjoy what you like to do. I still have time for programming and writing replies, but spending an afternoon just spriting is a luxury I can't find anymore.

The new generations seem to get sucked up in MMOs and drinking their decency away, I hope that some of the future will still hold love for sprites and games that didn't have HD graphics.
But the people who are still here have been around for quite some time, like Zerl said - we don't really spend as much time on our hobbies, but that's not a reason to spend less time with our friends.

@Zuhane. I read that 10 page summary and watched the youtube clip. It was 10 pages. What can you say about it that don't just sounds like empty cheering such as "Awesome", too much information. praise and thoughts while reading and it just goes on.  You should already know by now that all rpg interested members are looking forward to that game of yours. Tease us more and we will probably explode.

[HackersTotalMassLaser]

So Charasians; do we embrace change... or embrace the otherwise inevitable?

[zuhane]

I appreciate the boost, Purps! It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside Maybe we should have some kind of 'Serious Game Reviews'
thing going on where the reviewer only does 20 mins of the game. I understand how it's hard for people to feel incentive to update their threads
now and again.

[Dragonium]

To me, three (and only three) things are clear.

1. Charas is an established game-making community. It's not the biggest, but it's one of the longest-lived that I know of.

2. We need to modernise. RM2k is great but not really relevant any more.

3. There is a whole load of cool stuff out there, like Stencyl, Blender and of course all kinds of programming languages and such that we should be looking into.

We have a great community spirit here. We should be putting it to good use and getting with the times.

Okay, four things.

[Zerlina]

Just because we're changing doesn't mean we're dying. We still all love each other. Right? RIGHT!?

[Natako]

Maybe we should have some kind of 'Serious Game Reviews'
thing going on where the reviewer only does 20 mins of the game. I understand how it's hard for people to feel incentive to update their threads
now and again.

I'd be up for it. This actually sounds like a good idea.

[drenrin2120]

Oh! Me too! We could create a charas youtube account.

[zuhane]

That's an absolutely fantastic idea, drenrin! Is it possible to have a Charas page with separate Youtube
accounts on or something? All I'm worried about is Drak's scenario with his channel, where someone thought
it'd be funny to delete everything.

Getting back to the serious review competition, this new system could involve someone giving a game 20 minutes
of their time and recording it and commenting on it appropriately. The sender has 20 minutes to completely "wow"
the reviewer. This would bring publicity to the game itself. It's almost like releasing a really impressive tech demo
for a new game engine or something!

[Natako]

As for creating a separate page for different accounts to post videos on, I'm not sure that's really a possibility. Maybe someone who's more familiar with the more advanced features of Youtube will correct me, but I haven't seen anyplace in the settings where you're able to create a page like that.

I do have a few ideas as to how we could manage this, though. If we're going to be having multiple people doing reviews, perhaps we could have someone create a separate Youtube account solely for those serious game reviews. We could either have the reviewers upload the videos separately onto their own accounts and then have the Serious Review account make them into a playlist, or we could have the reviewers submit their videos to the person who manages that account and just upload them regularly. Otherwise, I think the only other option might be to use a separate website (such as wordpress, or, better yet, a custom website) as a means of clumping all of the video reviews together in the same place.

Anyway, share your thoughts! I think this is a terrific idea.

[drenrin2120]

Youtube is good because people will likely visit the video without having to have followed a link from charas, which in itself could attract new members. I also like the manager thing, one account where all videos are uploaded too.

As for the review style, how about we just let the person reviewing each game decide how they want to go about it? You can use a simple program like windows movie maker to make a collage of video clips and such highlighting the good and bad of each game.

[Archem]

Come for the Charas, stay for the Archem.

There you go. I can't believe how atrocious your spelling has become, Razor.

[Razor]

So Charasians; do we embrace change... or embrace the otherwise inevitable?

I thought you were already embracing the inevitable.

[SaiKar]

Well another thread had revealed that a faction of the Charas populations hates hugs, so they won't be embracing either.