Topic: pokemon live connection

[sans the skeleton]

yo are there any plans for this forum or people modding it still?

if no, i'd like to volunteer to aid w/ any outstanding applications and help with characters and such.

[sans the skeleton]

le bump.
honestly it sounds a little presumptuous and all, id just like to offer my help in any way possible really. ive been here since 2006 (albeit on different accounts) so giving back to a sit eive been with for half of my life feels right

[Joeno]

This is going to sound like a cop out, but here goes...

PLC an dthe ideas behind it were set up by Iceduck and he's had a vision of what it should be. I have a basic idea, but never got as invested in it. For that reason I feel awkward just handing it over.

Is anyone who was active in PLC still around? I'd be oaky handing over to at least one person who has been in there (and then give others access from there), but it'd be good to know the basics are still there.

[sans the skeleton]

yeah i can understand that - itd be nice to know from people who have been in it so a revival could be set in order, if its something people want. since it hasnt been used in a long time

[SirBlaziken]

I mean back in the day when it was still a little bit active I looked at maybe joining, but I never could quite figure out how it worked with my small preteen mind. So I would probably be interested.

[Liam]

Hi all! I currently have some of the PLC permissions for approving characters and board access. I've been rather negligent with some of these responsibilities (I've had a look and realised you've had an application waiting since 2012, really sorry Poison2007 aha ) but I have a bit of free time so wouldn't mind helping out with some reorganisation.

PLC needs a rather large overhaul if it's going to be successfully revived. We've tried it in the past, but there wasn't enough interest or commitment in order to keep it alive for very long at all. If you want PLC to work it's gonna need a lot of effort, in terms of active members, new members, new ideas, etc. PLC was very fun in the past so I do encourage it being revived, but I stress that a lot of work will need to be done or we will see a repeat of a surge in activity for a few months before it fading into obscurity for a few years.

There's a few problems that come to mind when considering PLC:

The first thing you see when you look at the board is a bunch of inactive topics, especially the stickied topics which are on the worse half of 10 years old in terms of content and posts. I think this might be one of the most offputting factors for members who are thinking of joining PLC but don't. I think if we push a content drive to make the PLC more up to date, and more inviting as a consequence, then it may help pull numbers up. If anyone has ideas for new sticky topics/removing or updating old ones I think I have permissions to help sort them out (in the short term).

Another problem that might be preventing activity from picking up is that (at the moment) it doesn't really offer many alternatives or unique selling points that a traditional role play would have as well. I think that incentive driven roleplaying might allow PLC to not only to become more active but also distinguish itself from traditional roleplays. What I mean by this is hitting certain targets with your character/s in the PLC board, for example amount of posts in PLC, amount of gym badges, etc. These would have an influence on what sort of Pokémon you could catch or evolve, or what items you could find and would therefore encourage more posting, character development and improving your writing style. Everyone wins! Out of PLC incentives could include winning shinies, good IV Pokémon, awards.

[SirBlaziken]

I like how that sounds and it makes it like the games where you have to keep going if you want to get more stuff. So if a system is put in place where that could be done I would be on board. that's funny, I was about to ask where Liam was because I knew he used to help with that

[sans the skeleton]

hi liam! honestly its alright i've completely forgot about it anyway because 2012 ended up being awful anyway hahaha. college has just ended for me as well so i should have a bit more time to help provide help as needed.

as for the inactive posts, perhaps they could be archived? and once someone has 'cashed in' any legacy rewards or something (youll see what i mean later) they could be deleted to save some space for the forum, or something. the stickied topics could really use some redoing to reflect the revamp, possibly with the deleting of the old ones if they end up being no longer relevant at all. i think leaving too much baggage can be a bad thing at the same time, though - not just on the forum space but because there may be expectations that it may be the exact same thing too. which, of course, may lead to inactivity again.

as for the stickied topics, i'd be willing to redo those in order to revamp the forums, though i'd like to discuss specifics before i do so so that we can get ourselves a solid game plan. in the long term, this could get members more active and then everyone can have themselves some fun with this.

a system of rewards, you say? aight, well to pull in my own experience of similar systems... i was a part of this harry potter site that rewarded people for having active topics, keeping their bios updated, and doing all of that sorta stuff. you could reclaim points and then eventually apply for the next 'rank'. so you'd start as a beginner, then novice, go to intermediate, advanced, etc. the top rank would have been elite. now, the benefits of this? you'd get more freedom to do certain things - you could have special abilities, make more characters in more roles, post in more places and there were more on that too. so if we bring that into a PLC environment - there could be reward of certain pokemon, maybe? like maybe you have to be a certain rank for shiny pokemon, one for variations (eg different markings or something), maybe one for egg moves OR learning something outside of the pokemon's usual moveset (within reason). or unlocking abilities, all of that fun stuff. alternatively, it could be used to get a national dex or something similar to that.

now, that would add some workload onto admin stuff. you're no longer just accepting people on this front, but also possibly ranking them up based on certain factors. i'd be more than happy to help as needed for this, even if it's just offering my (way too vocal) opinion. these factors

legacy cash ins would basically work like the 'grandfather rule'. they were accepted before the revamp (which is why old profiles should be saved at the very least) and so they get a certain amount of points automatically in order to help them on their way. this is intended to help returning players, but not put them at such a huge advantage that the new players wont be able to catch up. (thus opening the door for people who are getting into stuff like this for the first time, meaning more players).

in terms of activity: we can stage events. what kind of events? i haven't thought that far ahead yet, something those in charge of the forums could have a hand in. perhaps contests that award the player points towards ranking up, a rare pokemon or evolution stone, etc. it doesn't even have to be exclusively battling - coordinating, breeding, torterra tree measuring, whatever. like sirblaziken says, if there are things to keep working for and a kind of 'goal' to loom up to, then this can urge players to then continue.

and the best part of this being a reboot? everyone starts again. everyone gets one pokemon and kicked off into a journey. as i dont have much experience with the actual PLC, im not sure how much of this has already been applied. maybe the admins can take temporary roles as wild pokemon a trainer is hunting or some such... or alternatively, 'volunteers' who sign up to take the place as the wild pokemon. the volunteer and the pokemon catcher get points towards ranking up, etc, which then helps the two of them to become more active.

this can feed into gym badges and the like too - though it gets a bit more complicated for pokemon coordinators. maybe those would do good like events on the site, a bit like it is in the anime.

actually, i'll start working on a draft of what I mean in order to shed a bit more light on it. i'll PM it though just so i don't ruin the surprise :')