New Mod Application

Me and Reliability have been discussing recently and he feels that since his activity lately has been less involved with some of the aspects of the project that it would be better if he concentrated more on writing the script over the summer. He's staying on as a mod but has suggested that it'd be better if we had another project leader to show more of their face around the other parts of Topaz. As such I'm opening a mod application since there's not a singular person who sticks out as being the best candidate for the job.

So, if you'd like to step up to the role of global mod and co-project leader, then answer a few of these questions and PM them to me!

1. What do you feel are the three biggest priorities for Topaz right now? (NOTE: "Getting out the demo" or variants thereof are not a valid option. If that's something big for you, think more of how we can get out the demo with regards to organizing programming and such)

2. What can you personally contribute to Topaz?

3. What is your solution towards generating activity on Topaz and fostering the Topaz community?

4. Looking below, what in your opinion is the direction we should be taking Topaz and what will you personally do to guide the community in that direction?

To be fair to those who do not have access to the Contributor forums, here's a relevant post I made in there as to the directions Topaz can go in, keep these in consideration as you write your application. Note that this was before Triumph started exploring Poccil's for us so keep that in mind too.

Quote:

The thing we really need is a hook. Something that gets people coming back over and over again. I mean, newcomers come and basically are told that they should contribute and otherwise they aren't really of use to us. People who are not confident in their spriting or mapping skills, or such and don't really want to sit around and do a bunch of menial work that no one will truly thank them for. They need to join us as a member of the community, not as an asset. That way they stick around, and eventually maybe will feel enough attachment to the place to get interested in learning skills or giving back in some way.

I've tried to push this in several ways, here are some of the directions we could go that I think have potential:

- We could focus extremely hard (like to the exclusion of all else) on the Topaz Text RPG. We have basically everything we need for it except for events. We could easily, easily get it out in a month if I knew you guys would commit with me. The reason I haven't been working on it, truly, are because it feels bad to work on a TRPG when I could be working on the game. When I could be working on spriting, or trying to garner help for pokemon.txt, or revamps, or anything. If we sideline these (not put it on hold but not emphasize them for the time being) and just get the TRPG out, no matter that it's in a completely different direction, I think we could revitalize a community, have something that brings people back and back and gets them thinking about what an actual game could look like, and possibly breathe life back into the project. But we need to commit to this! I want someone to be extremely excited about it and push for it in every way. Then I will respond in kind and do everything I can to help out. I can't commit without at least one other person to help lead this, and I mean lead like Quinn did for shinies, except for something much more important and involved.

- We could do as Renegade suggested and redirect our community towards learning Ruby as a community. Once again, I'll need people to commit. Like at least 4 people, which is the harder part with this one because we'll be starting completely from scratch, and we need more people to commit (not just 2). The advantage to this one though is that we'll be directly working towards the production of the game. Not only that, but then we'll have 4-5 potential leaders who all will know what's going on in terms of programming and can not only contribute in programming aspects but collaborate. It's also a very different focus but I think it is one worth pursuing if enough of you want to join in. This also requires fewer external factors such as newcomers coming in with potential.

- We could find something to centre our community around. The PO server, for instance, or mafia games. Mafia games on OI are extremely popular, but one of the things is that they run only 1 game at a time. If we had an entire section dedicated to mafia, we could build a community around it. This is one of the weaker options but it is also the most flexible and organic. We could let it grow, and then, say, build a TRPG, and then learn Ruby as a community. It requires less commitment, but is once again a strong focus shift away.

I don't think anyone can argue anymore that shifting our focus away from the game is a bad thing. Obviously it's not working, and we need to go around this roadblock, not just keep butting our heads into it. But a shift of focus does require focus, so commitment. So, ideas? Opinions?