We’re currently working on the design of our HG 2.0 system as described in an earlier post on this blog. You guys are going to be the ones using this system, so we’d like feedback from you guys as far as what features you’d like to see on it. Drop by the Outside Discussions thread to let us know, anything would be very much appreciated!
Hey all, I just wanted to wish everyone happy holidays. Of course, the date of this posting is prompted by the holiday that I celebrate, Christmas…but HeavenGames has people from all over the world from many backgrounds that have holiday celebrations at this time, so happy holidays!
And now, my Holiday gift to everyone:
It’s been a while since things started rolling with changes at HG, so I thought it’d be good to let you all know of some of the things that have been going on.
First of all, we’ve filled all of the Department Head positions except Art, as follows:What have those guys been up to? Well, all kinds of stuff! Brad4321 at Business Development is busy working with the Seraphs to figure out what kinds of things their respective sites need with respect to asset/event support from developers. He’s also working on our pitches to various companies concerning content bundling and beta testing. Elpea has been work giving our dedicated Seraphs feedback about their sites and is working on redesigning HG Main into a page that covers gaming in general rather than just serving as an HG news feed. More details on that will come when the plan has been hammered out. Avidwriter has set up our Myspace page, definitely add it on our friends list! He’s also setting up a list of contacts for various news outlets (such as PC Gamer, Wired, etc) we can send news about HeavenGames happenings to.
These happenings are just a slice of what’s been going on at HeavenGames, and hopefully things will pick up even more when all of our department head positions are filled and everyone’s totally settled in (and finals are over, woo!).
As far as the design for HeavenGames’ content automated system, we’re still busy hammering out the details. Expect a post in the forums soon about getting feedback from you guys, since you’ll be the ones using it! In the meantime, if you have any suggestion, definitely send them to me via email.
Is that it? Well…almost. I need to tell everyone one more thing: 
About a week ago, HG staffers Elpea & Atzy, along with show guest Cheesewiz (HG Seraph from WICH), recorded the first HG podcast. This was intended to be a test of our capabilities and logistics (how to record from Skype, how to do it when your guests span two hemispheres, etc.), and was never intended to be released. However, after getting a lot of positive feedback and learning a lot of lessons, we were encouraged to release the very first episode.
We’re working on future episodes (in fact we finished recording the second one today, but there’s still a lot of editing to do), and we would like to hear from you on what you like and don’t like, as well as ideas and suggestions for upcoming podcasts. Comments welcome 
So, with no further ado, here’s HG Podcast #1: The Pilot Episode (MP3, 19MB):
Show Outline:Halloween. Black cats, pumpkins, candy, and dressing up. While I dressed up as a Naughty Nurse on the 31st of October, some of the Heavens here at HG got gussied up themselves.
First, Age of Empires III Heaven. The disgustingly saccharine-sweet Sailor Moon team cutesied the forums up with moons, hearts, and pink. So adorable that my head just might explode with kittens and happiness.
I’m a college student, it’s kind of a predestined thing. I’m always freakin talking about this, but to help get HG’s name out to everyone:
Join the HeavenGames Facebook group!
and
It’ll be a grand olde tyme, and the latter will get you access to photos like this:
I really have no idea.
So now that things have been settled with HG’s identity, it’s time to go on to the fun stuff: the staff system! Woo!
It’s been discussed in a previous blog post that HeavenGames doesn’t operate as efficiently as it could from a staff perspective. A lot of issues have already been dealt with in the past several months, but there are two substantial problems that must be taken care of. First, there is no effective way to ensure quality and consistency of work across all of our sites. Second, we do not have dedicated jobs in a number of support capacities, including marketing, sales, and the like.
Revamped Staff System
The owners have thus discussed the issue with the HeavenGames staff and have come up with the following system:
Next, the Support Departments. Support Departments will take care of a number of jobs that need to be handled for HG to be successful. These will be headed by a Department Head, which will need to ensure that their department - through their plan and staff - takes care of the following responsibilities:
Monday morning, September 24th. A hand reaches up and claws at a radio alarm that just continues wailing Fergie’s introspective, deeply philosophical song: Fergilicious. I force myself awake, and by force myself awake I mean I swear in multiple languages because I have to go to a professor’s office hours at the ungodly hour of 7:30 am. I don’t even know Romanian. Eventually, I stumble out of my residential house and head on up to the science center, passing through Harvard Yard. I look around and see the same things that have been around: the Freshman dorms, University Hall, Romance Languages department, the statue of the Master Chief…wait, what?
Brilliant.
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.
One of our most veteran staff members, Francis “Draco” Cermak, has decided to step down from his position as a HeavenGames owner due to offline responsibilities. He still will remain a staff member as he has been a valued member of HeavenGames for many years and still will provide HG with assistance whenever possible. I’d like to thank Draco for all of his work on the network and wish him the best of luck in is offline pursuits.
