HeavenGames: A New Identity
After considerable deliberation, the owners have decided that one major inhibiting factor for HeavenGames’ prosperity is the simple fact that it doesn’t have a clearly defined identity. It has always been a site about games, but that is far too vague for the development of any clear goals and the effective marketing of the site.
We have thus discussed the issue with our staff and decided that we should make HeavenGames a site entirely geared towards community. At its core, HeavenGames always has been about building the best communities possible, so it only makes sense that we devote all of our resources to that service.
Fully Developing HeavenGames’ Community
We plan to make HeavenGames the premiere gaming community network online by making all of HeavenGames - and not just its forums - a tool for developing community. This will be accomplished primarily by giving many of the tools that our staff members have had for years to every single visitor of the network. Under this new system, every visitor will be able to make news posts, add strategy articles, or host their own site events.
The community will be built from critiques and discourse through this system’s ratings and pageviews feature. Every contribution will be able to be rated by all visitors, which will be displayed with the total pageviews. Visitors will also be able to respond to any contribution with their specific thoughts on it. As a result, all contributors will be able to become a better community member by looking at the ratings and feedback and HeavenGames’ most valuable contributors will be rewarded through the prominent display of their ratings and pageviews.
The user profile will be what will link all of a user’s contributions across the network and will give a face to the HG devotee. It will display the user’s photo and basic information, but most importantly it will display an average ratings score and total pageviews figure for all of their contributions. Additionally, it will list all of the user’s recent contributions.
A Couple Questions
What will happen to the current HG staff under this new system? Absolutely nothing, our staff has been the backbone of the network since its birth and we have no plans of getting rid of our current staff members. They will be doing essentially the same jobs as what they’ve always been doing, only with a little more help from our visitors.
When will this transition be complete? Given that it is a considerable undertaking, I will not make any promises for an ETA that I can’t keep. The project will be our priority until it is done, so the only thing I can say is it will be done as soon as we can get it done.
That’s the basic idea of the direction we’d like to put HeavenGames in. At HeavenGames, it will be our goal that every visitor has the best possible experience as they exchange information on the site portals, engage in discourse on the forums, and enjoy the company of friends at site events. If you have any questions, critiques, or suggestions, don’t hesitate to contact me at socvazius@heavengames.com.
What’s coming next? A more thorough staff revamp, should be out in the next week or so.
September 21st, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Interesting. Have to wonder about some stuff like content moderation but for the most part, it seems like a great contribution system.
You’ve probably already considered this, but reviews should be part of the system. A little more recognition for reviews would be nice so perhaps add a number of total hg-wide download reviews in the forum profile?
September 21st, 2007 at 8:40 pm
More prominent recognition of reviews is definitely a great idea, and I’ll definitely keep in it mind for the system’s design.
September 22nd, 2007 at 2:46 am
I can see this will be our greatest years. You guys are really working hard to make HG the best! I support everything your doing so far!
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:09 am
I have a suggestion for the rating system that might help.
Maybe you could give reviewers scores or points or something with which they can be proud of or they get a new feature in there profile like use of picturtes and stuff etc. Something rewarding might do.
September 22nd, 2007 at 6:49 am
Interesting. It’s nice to see HG being so pro-active and making bold statements. Forummers being able to make news posts? Could be fun!
In the past, stuff like this would be thought out by HG, but not made public for months. It’s refreshing to be near the blunt end. I suppose that’s what this blog is for, and it is succeeding.
September 22nd, 2007 at 8:19 am
I was going to point out basically what Alex did. How are you going to moderate all this content visitors will be adding? I mean, there’s a reason (and a good one in my mind) that you have to be staff to newsie something. Staff can be trusted to do it well, and do it only once, whereas with confused new people you might have a problem in those areas.
I’m just wondering if staff will now be moderating content instead of writing content.
Still, all in all good work and lookin’ forward to the next update.
September 22nd, 2007 at 9:32 am
This seems like a positive step forward. Here’s hoping for the best.
September 22nd, 2007 at 1:15 pm
yay you guys are really placing your faith in the great community, and the community will prosper because of it. I support you guys all the way
September 22nd, 2007 at 7:23 pm
This is long overdue and happy to see Heaven get some community functionality.
Does this mean we can expect to see more client-side comforts like PM boxes, dedicated fora for organized play, extended profiles with game/mod links, and incentives to update the Wiki?
All the best to you guys in your Home Improvement efforts!
September 22nd, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Concerning moderation of the site, there will be a system in place that should take care of it effectively. It will include allowing the community to moderate the site to a degree, scripted moderation (such as post limits, swear filters, etc), and a number of other things. This system is very much undeveloped so I can’t describe it in detail, that will come later.
Concerning client-side comforts, it’s our hope to be able to do that, but the majority of our resources will be devoted to getting the system described in this article up and running. Despite that, if anyone has any specific requests they have with respect to community services, definitely let me know and I’ll certainly take it into consideration.
September 23rd, 2007 at 9:29 am
Sounds very promising! I’ll be looking forward to these changes, and I hope you folks will manage to have them improve our site ever more:D
September 23rd, 2007 at 5:14 pm
This seems like a nice idea, but seems like it could have some problems as well.
But I’m sure everything will be thought out fully before being released, so I guess I can say I’m looking forward to it.
September 23rd, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Good luck with this. I hope this doesn’t send HG into absolute chaos…
September 24th, 2007 at 5:45 am
This sounds great!
But, like many people have said before me, content moderating is going to be a major issue. Mods will have a lot more work to do, and many people will abuse these responsibilities. I personally think that you shouldn’t let anyone but mods be able to make news posts, etc. I am really looking forward to the new profile things you mentioned, that sounds great! 
September 24th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Another rather important question: by ‘visitors’, do you mean any old fellow, or do they have to be signed up?
September 25th, 2007 at 12:24 am
Excellent ideas! I have to say that it is refreshing to see an organization such as yours actually coming up with ideas that make sense. For several years the RTS game industry at large has shifted away from community building and geared towards selling as many copies of a game as they can before the gaming public realizes that it’s just another pile of rubbish game that just has a shiny new coat of improved-graphics splattered on it. There is definitely a hole in the marketplace that your company can fill. I hope you guys can pull this off successfully.
Best of luck!
September 25th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
HeavenGames 2.0? WikiGames? YouHG? Gaames?
September 26th, 2007 at 4:25 am
Looking great! Good luck with pulling this off correctly!
Dances
September 30th, 2007 at 7:57 am
This certainly sounds like a great idea and im very happy to have you at the helm Socvazius! Your doing a great job and it seems finally HG is heading into a new age!
My only concern, like others is the content moderation system. Wouldnt it be better just to hire new staff and create more moderators? This might avoid abuse of the system. I agree with the idea of having awards or “rewards” for playing an active role on the site like reviewing mods and scenarios, making stickies etc. part of the problem for people liek me who mod is that there is hardly any reward for completing a mod (which as many know is no easy feat). That is not to say that i want people to pay me when i finish a mod lol but it is nice to recieve recognition and a pat on the back as it encourages you to make more content.
I suggest a pm mailbox system, more competitions, more staff (especially in SWGBH Modpack Discussion) and an award system not based on the amount of posts made but insted on the amount of content submitted or reviewed eg for SWGBH the rank of Clone commander for 35 mods submitted or reviewed (a slight exageration)
Thats my two cents. Keep up the good work!
September 30th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Id first like to congratulate you on a job well done!
Secondly id like to express my concern with the idea of content moderation by all as this could be subject to major abuse by newbs and seniors alike.
I’d like to suggest a new award system in which forummers are given a rank depending on how many mods/maps are submitted or reviewed eg in SWGBH the rank of Clone Commander might be bestowed upon a forummer with 30 mods/maps submitted or reviewed. Also perhaps a feedback system much like that on ebay where you can leave feedback on a forummer for all to see and a feedback percentage be given. This would help to discourage flaming and bad behaviour as noone likes to look bad in the eyes of their peers
This new ranking system would give content submitters and reviewers an incentive to submit/review content. i personally find it hard to find the will to keep making mods when hardly if no feedback or support is given. As well as these i would also liek to see a new pm system and more competitions, chances to win custom titles and more staff and moderators in orginal fields and others like marketing, activities and events organisers etc to make HG a better and more well known community.
October 1st, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Callum, your ideas are basically the system that we’re looking at to help keep the system moderated, so things should hopefully turn out well enough :0)
October 1st, 2007 at 10:41 pm
woops i posted twice because of an error with the page i thought the first one didnt get posted sorry!
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:35 am
well then im happy! i really cant wait to see this done!
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Well, so long as forummers don’t flood the news pages with “OH GOD HOW DID I GET HERE I AM NOT GOOD WITH COMPUTER.“
October 8th, 2007 at 1:09 am
I would like to say that we have problems with the staff right now, cherub’s posting in flame wars and not taking any action even though its not where they moderate. But they still should take action or contact another mod!
October 8th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Well there really is a problem with the moderators. Most of them come here once in a while and do nothing. New moderators should be appointed. For this something like a test or something should bge made so that those people out there with skills can help out.
October 8th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
So how about we wait for this “staff revamp” and then voice our complaints eh guys?
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