Game Packs

[Blood-Pigggy]

I didn't know where to put this so...

I had an idea, could we somehow make submissions of something I call gamepacks?

The idea is to provide a zip file or such filled with a few related games or such, the Horror Pack, or Fantasy Pack, something like that.

The point is to attract people who aren't sure what they're looking for but certainly want something in a certain theme, or people who're just bored and want a few games to past the time. People that're looking for a bunch of games to play indiscrimantly can also take advantage of this. It's not about adding more games to the site but giving people compiliations of all the different games.

We can make our own graphics for the different packs (i.e. when you're browsing through the game lists you see the images of their titles and such) The description of the packs will include something like the games within and small reviews for each placed in order by the submitter, screenshots of each game's title screen (or just shots of action within the game) will be provided along the side, and scoring the quality of the pack will be about the overall repetoire of games offered. Information about the publishers and developer/multiplayer and genre information will be provided in somewhat of a list format, the game's name, then it's respective information. As for the compatibility, the same could be done.

The extras will be devoted to the ENTIRE pack, not individual games, this will include user documentation, etc.

Just an idea, I'll be giving an example.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Horror Pack

Theme - Horror

Producer ---
Darkseed - (insert producer)
Veil Of Darkness - (insert producer)
Alone In The Dark - (insert producer)
Legacy - The Realms of Terror - (insert producer)
Dark Half - (insert producer)

Publisher ---
Game - (insert publisher) (same as above)

Year ---
1990 - 1997

Genre ---
Game - (insert genre) (same as other lists)

Multiplayer ---
Game - (insert options) (same as above)

Your Rating ---
Overall pack rating

Editor Rating ---
Overall pack rating

Size ---
48,246 (size of whole pack)

Compatability ---
Game - (insert compatability) (same as other lists)

Extras ---
l Intro Doc
l Walkthroughs
l Music
l___________

Review ----

This pack is based around horror, blah, blah, blah blah, blabbity, blah, bladiby blah blabla, blah, you are a blah, I hate my blah, blah, blah your anus, blah.

Darkseed: Blah, blah...
Veil Of Darkness: Blaaaaah, blah, heeehaw!
Alone In The Dark: Blah, blah blabbity blah
Legacy - The Realms of Terror: Omg!!!111!one is t3h blah!
Dark Half: Oh no! Novel turned media! BLAAAAH!

If you liked this pack, try these:
Fantasy pack, Sci Fi pack

[Tom Henrik]

Could be done, yes.

I think we should have a vote. Because if you want a bunch of games, that's what the "If you liked this game, please try:" comes into the spotlight. And most packs would be fairly huge (as we would try to use the best games available, and those are big). So the packs would be a pain for modem users.

[Sebatianos]

I don't really like the idea. I've seen packs that were made out of games that had nothing in common (Riddle of Master Lu, Allied General, 3D Pinball, Al Unser Racing, Druids...). And also there are much bigger chances that we wouldn't be allowed to host them.
If only one game in the pack is ESA protected or still sold - the pack can't be hosted, but some individual games might be hosted.

[A. J. Raffles]

I think he meant that we might compile the packs from the games we've already got on the site (non-ESA ones, obviously). The only problem I can see with it is that the archives for such packs would have to be rather large - not to mention the fact that the games contained in those packs would in effect take up more bandwidth than before. And the packs would have the same disadvantage as any large compilation of games that you buy: you're never going to like all of them. I think the "If you liked this game you might also like the following games" line is more helpful, because it allows you to choose which games you're going to give a try and doesn't take up additional bandwidth, as packs certainly would.

[vipin]

What about those games which are given at the bottom of download page under the category:- "If you liked this game, you may also like" type? doesn't they serve the same purpose? :crazy:

[The Fifth Horseman]

Just have the "packs" be separate pages for each "pack", with links to the games that compose the "pack". This would be easy & not include too much work.

[Tom Henrik]

Originally posted by the_fifth_horseman@Jul 29 2005, 10:27 AM
Just have the "packs" be separate pages for each "pack", with links to the games that compose the "pack". This would be easy & not include too much work.
Yes, but we already have that. (sort of)

Example:

Little Tom is browsing the net for some Strategy games. He stumbles over a site called Abandonia.com and is thrilled to see that they offer something called a Strategy Pack. "Yay", thinks Tom and clicks on it. This brings him to a page listing some Strategy games with a Title shot and links to their appropriate review and download page. Tom is happy, but he would like to get his hands on more games. (Tom is a game-o-holic.) "Lo and behold, and halleluja!", he says as he notice a link on the main site called "Strategy". Upon clicking it he is transported to... wait a second... He's seen this before... Tom is confused. Why would they create something called a Strategy Pack, as it is just a minimized version of the Strategy link? Tom demands answers.... Ooooh lookie! A forum...

[A. J. Raffles]

Little Tom has managed to confuse me even more. :wacko:

[Tom Henrik]

Well, Little Tom is a weird fellah.

Thing is... if a "game pack" would only be a list of games with links, then it would just be a smaller genre listing.

In other words, take up unnessecary space, and also demand an unnessecary link somewhere to take you to the pack.

[A. J. Raffles]

Yes, but you might argue that if game packs were actual zip archives they'd still take up unnecessary space, unless we got rid of the individual downloads in favour of packs, which would be a disaster for modem users.

[Tom Henrik]

Originally posted by A. J. Raffles@Jul 29 2005, 01:24 PM
Yes, but you might argue that if game packs were actual zip archives they'd still take up unnecessary space, unless we got rid of the individual downloads in favour of packs, which would be a disaster for modem users.
Read my first post in this topic :bleh:

[A. J. Raffles]

Right, obviously we agree on that point.:)
*stops arguing*

But to be quite honest, I still fail to see the benefit in game packs...:unsure:

[Blood-Pigggy]

There are several benefits in game packs.

If a user doesn't want to download one itty bitty game at a time, he can take a whole pack, see if there's anything he likes, and download it.

If not he can commence to the ordinary downloads.

We can maintain the size of the pack by getting a larger compiliation of smaller games.
Example, the Pyschological pack might include gems such as Five Days a Stranger, Seven Days a Skeptic, Jack The Ripper, or Bloodnet. they all fit one theme.

The website admins and overlords can regulate whether or not the game have anything to do with eachother, so it's not just a confusing jumble, if a pack is organized and clean, it passes and is uploaded to the site, if not, the user has to make changes.
As I've said before, there are many first time Abandoneers, most of them younger people, who don't really have a clue what most of these old games are, so a pack to introduce them would suit them better than fending for themselves and finding a game.

Of course they could use the forums, but that would be even more of a hassle.

Packs are friendlier and easier to understand when well managed, if we don't get out of hand there won't be any size problems.

We don't neccessarily have to contain games from this site, although it is a better idea. Games that're not yet uploaded can be brought along with the pack. After a few days (or hours) if the pack receives good results (good votes, lots of downloads) the game can be added to the site, or maybe if it's just something really popular, famous, and well demanded, it can be added immediatly.
Remember that there're large games on this site, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is pretty old now, but it's freakin' huge, if we include packs, it won't deter from such games but make them more friendly.

Modem users won't suffer, if the packs are well managed we can keep different packs to smaller sizes. Maybe even offer smaller, faster download packs, with less games, but just as much filling.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Remember that there can be more specific cathegorizing for a pack, not by genre but by theme. Like Vampires, Giant Mecha, Kid Games, Chess and so on, so that a user can find a title that suits his tastes without having to scour the entire site looking for one.

[plague]

We already have "If you liked this game, you should also try:" -system. So I think that game packs would be pretty useless.

[The Fifth Horseman]

They can be an expansion of that system. Remember that currently it displays about 3 - 5 titles per game, the new one could show much more at the same time.

[A. J. Raffles]

Hmm, fair enough, but in that case, might it not make more sense to have thematic lists similar to the ones at HOTU? That would still involve a lot of work, obviously, but at least we wouldn't have to duplicate downloads (which would simply be a waste of space in my opinion).

[Reup]

A better approach (imho) would be to add a (couple of) genre tags to each game (like they do on moby-games). So if it's a game with sci-fi settings, it get's tagged that way. This would require an extra field in the database (or an extra table) and someone that wants to classify the 500 odd games. I guess the classifying is most of the work, but it would add the option to browse the games by genre.

Edit: oh, and if someone gave me the result of a 'select * from games' query, I'd even be willing to do some of the work :P

[bruno]

i think it is betterto mantain , because that proposal can make some problems to the people that try to download same game.