Building a Community

[Sigma]

Fraps?  Whazzat?

Video recording software.

[JarlWolf]

Well lets get their support. There is bound to be people who will teach us it. Also, I am willing to help narrate, I don't mind commentary its just the technical side of things I am garbage at. Kilk already has a youtube channel, we just need to figure out how to record AC. Maybe even stop motion... who knows?

[Green1]

Fraps?  Whazzat?

Fraps is the standard for recording video games. I have a registered copy on my machine. Almost all the kids on Youtube use it. Works great for most games, but Alpha Centauri does not like it.

I will PM GrimithR on Youtube. Hopefully he will get his head out of awful ASCII 1990s PC games to answer.

[Sigma]

I noticed that at a given time there are usually between 5 and 8 Guests logged on here, which means there's a good chunk of people that are reading out stuff here but haven't joined.

We may be able to encourage them to contribute, and here is how: turn AC2 into the new Network Node. We can set-up an email for people to send their faction txts and graphics to, and make weekly/biweekly/monthly faction design contests for all comers. That way in addition to bringing in more activity we would expand AC2's stock of faction options.

[Geo]

I noticed that at a given time there are usually between 5 and 8 Guests logged on here,...

spambots trying to get in? 

[Sigma]

I noticed that at a given time there are usually between 5 and 8 Guests logged on here,...

spambots trying to get in? 

That would suck, but if even a few of them are actual humans then it would help build up the forum.

[JarlWolf]

I know for a fact that only 1 or so of them is a spambot most of the time, the rest are actual people looking at topics. Because sometimes I direct people here, and I did an experiment to look at specific subjects at one point and they matched correctly. (I only did it once mind) so I am guessing we have a fair number of lurkers.

[Green1]

There are some communities I go to where it is an unstated fact YOU DO NOT POST UNLESS YOU KNOW YOUR STUFF.
One is NASAspaceflight, which even has paywalls that enforce this where if you are not an industry insider, no posting read only. Fortunately, this is not one of them. we get lurkers because we are a 4x site, and most 4x players are lurkers by nature.

Of those Lurkers:

A) Many do not care to be on a forum. They like patches, factions, etc and just are entertained reading our banter and AARs. Because, let's face it, we are an intelligent and entertaining bunch. They would feel that they would have nothing to offer. (like I thought at one time)

B) Folks from previous forum boards that for some reason, be it historical or whatever, will not post here but like to see what's up.

C) Traffic from GOG. GOG does have a forum to AC, too. But, while GOG's forum is more casual, we tend to get more.... fanatical It is always cool as a casual to check up on the obsessed nuts. We have cooler toys.

D) Folks searching for "Alpha Centauri' or "Alpha Centauri 2" remembering that crazy game they played years ago and bump into us.

I think, as Jarl said, we only get a few spam bots. You have an active admin and an active mod that updates captchas/ whatever. Forums like that, spammers are invisible to the users.

[Green1]

Oh yes, on the subject of youtube.

Alpha Centauri LPs tend to generate only about 1k views with the folks that do them. You monetize that, it is not a lot, but it is a beer. If I was to do one, I am not being selfish but I want that cold brew in my hand. Most of the money on youtube is from established folks that got into this early that have good equipment and software. I will say older games would not need all that. There are still folks that do older games and a small market for it if you are entertaining and have a decent voice/ okay editing skills and windows movie maker. If I can coax World of Warcraft (2004) and fraps at 30 FPS on a dual core Celeron B and 8GB laptop with crappy Intel HD internal graphics, AC would be a breeze.

However, I would unlike most plug AC2. It is just the cool thing to do.

[Sigma]

The thing about an Alpha Centauri video LP is that it won't work if it's just one person talking over turn based action unless that person is absurdly interesting. More likely you would need at least two people, maybe three talking together discussing strategy, mechanics, modding, what they ate for breakfast, etc to make it compelling.

It seems difficult but I've seen a semi-successful LP on Something Awful that was just people talking over ASCII Nethack, which is even less visually compelling than SMACX.

[JarlWolf]

Well SMACX isn't abhorrid to the eyes: Its not like Dwarf Fortress or some other pukish looking game, it actually has some aesthetic appeal.

But I agree on the multiple commentator bit: and also if we get a rotation of people commentating it makes it interesting. I'd be willing to volunteer for such a thing personally.

[Buster's Uncle]

Displaying our international nature would be a good thing...

[JarlWolf]

Displaying our international nature would be a good thing...

Hell, maybe we could even have commentaries in Russian!

On second thought I'd be the only participant then :C

[Buster's Uncle]

I like the idea of a version in Russian alongside the usual English.  It's one of the languages AC was released in, and Russians are very SF-oriented, I hear.

[JarlWolf]

Maybe enable Russian subtitles? I could do some translation work.