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

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.

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.

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.

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:

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...

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

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.

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.