The Forum: Features/Futures

Post by **Midnight Synergy** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 6:00 pm

First of all, a happy new year to everyone! Thanks to all of you for making this a vibrant and fun-to-visit place. It is great to see how supportive and helpful everyone is. I am also amazed at the quality of the custom levels you are producing! I hope you are enjoying the forum and the editor so far, and that it extends the life of Wonderland and Return To Wonderland for some time to come.

I wanted to start the new year with a little feedback thread concerning a few issues for the forum. I'd be very interested in reading your thoughts about any or all of these. This place is for you, after all.

1. We currently have a front "Level Exchange" page that also has a place for custom levels. We will release some free level packs for RTW sometime later in 2004, but should we start including some of the levels from this forum at that page? The advantage is that users can easily download levels (they could even be zipped into packs of levels, e.g. the Monday-Sunday series). The disadvantage might be that new users don't need to register in the forum to download levels - which might cause fewer new forum registrations and hence fewer participants in the discussions.

2. Related to #1: if we do end up posting levels on that page, please let me know if you are not willing to have your levels posted there.

3. A small feature we could add to this forum are ranks... these are little titles under the username, based on how many posts someone has made. E.g. a person with 10 posts could have one title, a person with 100 posts or more another (maybe "Wonderlander"). Is this of interest to you at all, and if so, do you have any suggestions for names of such titles?

4. Finally, just a comment. In the Suggestion Box thread a request was made to include a link to the forum on the main site, so people can find it more easily. The links to the forum were only put into the registered version of the game to ensure that only those who are really interested in the game have access. I feel that a link on the main site (or in the demo, for that matter) might increase the traffic to this forum, but it will likely decrease the quality of the posts substantially. Hence our decision.

Cheers,
Patrick
Midnight Synergy

majic1 · Post by **majic1** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 8:46 pm

I like all these ideas! Although, it would be nice if people still had to register in the forum to download levels. As you said, there are advantages & disadvantages to this feature. Can't wait for the new level packs - these are a nice break from the Standard game, like the custom levels. When I get frustrated in the standard game, I go play some custom levels for awhile.

How about Gold Wonderlander, Platinum Wonderlander - personally, I'd like to be a Rainbow Wonderlander!

THANKS FOR THIS GAME! I LOVE IT!

eeyore31 · Post by **eeyore31** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 10:36 pm

Happy New Year!!!
Yes, I have to agree that you should have to register to download custom levels---and the forum link should be the way it is. I do believe that somthing needs tweeking about the new custom levels though. If I knew how to "group" them the way you grouped the playground folder, it would keep our custom level list neater and tidier. Maybe there is a way but I don't know how

I was hoping to buy Wonderland 3 soon, but some extra ones for now would be fine

majic1 · Post by **majic1** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 11:13 pm

Go into the explorer; go to the Custom Levels folder. Make a new folder in the Custom Levels folder & name it. Than move the levels you want to group into that folder. I tried this & it works great. Now I don't have a big, long list, and I have levels grouped.

Ramonda · Post by **Ramonda** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 11:42 pm

eeyore31 wrote:If I knew how to "group" them the way you grouped the playground folder, it would keep our custom level list neater and tidier. Maybe there is a way but I don't know how

I was hoping to buy Wonderland 3 soon, but some extra ones for now would be fine

I've done that and it is easier to keep track and the list inside the game isn't so long. I made a folder with each contributor's name and put their levels in there. All games that you already played in the regular custom window, will lose their score, you will have to play them over. No big deal, lots of fun

In your window's explorer, find the custom folder and highlight it as you would normally to drop a file in there. Under file up on top, click new folder and it will wait for you to name it. When you do, drag the files you want into that folder or cut and paste them. Make as many new folders as you want for your purposes, always making sure that you have custom highlighted when you do.

eeyore31 · Post by **eeyore31** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 11:28 am

Thanks guys!! DUH....that looks better!!

Ramonda · Post by **Ramonda** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 1:25 am

Midnight Synergy wrote:
1. We currently have a front "Level Exchange" page that also has a place for custom levels. We will release some free level packs for RTW sometime later in 2004, but should we start including some of the levels from this forum at that page? The advantage is that users can easily download levels (they could even be zipped into packs of levels, e.g. the Monday-Sunday series). The disadvantage might be that new users don't need to register in the forum to download levels - which might cause fewer new forum registrations and hence fewer participants in the discussions.

Whatever you decide, I suggest eventually zipping up the levels after every 25 or so. A year from now, let's say there are a hundred or more levels, new people aren't going to want to flip through a hundred or more posts to get each new level. You can place the zips somewhere within the forum if you decide you want registration.

Registering isn't going to make more participants IMO. Right now there are many more downloading than entering the discussions. My experience with forums is that there is usually a low percentage of regular discussers compared to the number of viewers. Some of us who are active now will fade away and others will step in. Since it is a new forum and I have time, I participate. If this forum was a year old, chances are I wouldn't be active, just a reader and a downloader.

Happy New Year to you also

Dianna · Post by **Dianna** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 5:11 pm

I like the forum just the way it is, but I wouldn't mind at all if you decided to allow people to download levels without registering. If you decide to post levels on the front page, you're welcome to post any that I contribute.

I don't see why it would be a problem to let people read and search the forum without registering, as long as they have to register to post. Only people interested in Wonderland would be looking at the forum anyway, and who knows where a quality post might come from? Just my opinion...but like I said, I'm happy the way it is.

bpurcell · Post by **bpurcell** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 7:08 pm

Patrick,

Thanks for updating us on future Wonderland plans. It's been great being part of such a positive forum

. I have yet to see negative talk here and I hope to not see any more in the future. I fully support your position of only having a link to this site on the registered version of the game.

As of this posting, there are 71 people on the memberlist (including Stinky and Loof). Of those, 32 have never posted anything on the board. In my opinion, having over half of the members posting on the forum is a very good percentage. It also looks like there are new members being added every day (with SharonM being a welcome addition to the post the last couple of days). It appears this is a healthy, growing forum and should be left as is, until there seems to be a staleness to the site.

I like your idea of bundling some of the better levels (Mon. - Sun. for example). I do have one suggestion for a possible upgrade to the level editor though. In the regular game, the levels are grouped up into 10 Worlds. It would be nice if we could do the same with our levels. For instance, the creator of the week levels could combine them into a world and release the whole series so you could move from level to level just like in the regular game. Than you could have a High Score for the whole world instead of just each level. It could also add to the creativity of the the editors as well.

Anyway, that's just my two cents. Keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing the future adventures of Stinky and Loof (maybe even their sister Tacky?)

jperleevt · Post by **jperleevt** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 6:06 pm

I like things the way there are but do agree about zipping up some of the custom levels. I get so confused as to which ones I've already downloaded since when someone posts a reply that message goes back to the top.
BTW - I am one of those downloaders and readers. When I do have time I try to make some posts but enjoy reading others. I think it is fine to make people register to download.
Thanks for making this game! I haven't played any game this much in years!!!!

Jen

dlbwasd · Post by **dlbwasd** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 12:15 am

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I think that some free levels should be offered on the front level exchange page.... this may spark an interest in a person to register so they may have access to more players custom levels.... once registered they may find something that they would like to voice in a forum. I like the idea of registering--- sort of to see the growing family!

As far as posting- i don't post alot because i have more to learn from others posts-- but by being registered i can reply if i wish..... SOOOO...I think ranking woiuld be fun but i hope the ranking would start with someone like me who "listens alot" but posts little

Post by **Midnight Synergy** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 4:42 am

Thanks for all the replies and ideas. I will keep the current registration process as is. Haven't decided yet what to do with the frontpage, but I might change it to simply point to the forum for now.

I've also added some ranks just for fun (and took magic1's suggestion for rank names).

About zipping up level collections - I've added a third forum section for this purpose. This is a read-only section and will contain groups of levels that follow a particular theme. There are no collections posted yet, but once you feel that you have a finalized level pack together just post a request and I'll zip them up and post them. (let's say minimum 5 levels per pack)

Cheers,
Patrick

majic1 · Post by **majic1** » Wed Jan 07, 2004 3:57 am

What about eeyore's Monday-Sunday series as a level pack? Or does the creator have to request that themselves???

Robbie · Post by **Robbie** » Wed Jan 07, 2004 12:15 pm

5 Levels per pack?... mine's going to be a while.

Jperleevt mentioned a concern about not knowing what levels he/she had downloaded - a problem which may increase as the user base & contributions increase.

One solution might be to add a page with a list of the levels showing the name, date added, downloads, creator, which could be sorted by any of the above. There could be links to the existing discussion page relating to each level (so you can easily find the page). Levels could be downloaded from here(?) Maybe also an extra column that show if a level is part of a pack(?)

Cheers from Australia for the new year!
Robbie

(been a warm Christmas 38-43C each day)

Post by **Midnight Synergy** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 1:30 am

I've added a first Level Pack - eeyore31's "A week in Wonderland" (hope that's ok!).

You can see the style used. A link to each individual level is provided, and since the posts are read only the order of the posts will not change.

Primarily this is a service for newer forumites of course - most of you on this board right now have probably downloaded the individual levels already.

If you do want a level pack added, just e-mail us the relevant info (which levels, description of the pack, etc).

eeyore31 · Post by **eeyore31** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 10:17 pm

ok Patrick,
I finally got 5 levels in a pack done. Now what do I do????

Post by **Midnight Synergy** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 11:10 pm

If you have 5 levels or more that you feel would make a nice pack (e.g. fit together thematically) then just e-mail us at our "infos" e-mail with the level names and a quick description and name for the pack. (If these are brand new levels then please post each level separately in the Levels forum first. This allows users to comment on them individually. )

[Edit: OR, if you rather not do that and all of them are new, just create one message in the Levels forum for discussion of any level in that pack, and e-mail me the levels as an attachement.]

I will then create the pack and link to the individual level pages, as I did with your "Week in Wonderland" page.

Best,
Patrick

The Forum: Features/Futures

The Forum: Features/Futures

Grouping Levels

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