We have pretty much all web stats logged, so it's a matter of knowing what to look for. At a glance, it doesn't look like our overall usage has changed much, but individual items (like original game plays & downloads) may have increased.

One problem is that we released this right at the time when our traffic always drops due to kids returning to school, which of course is going to skew the numbers somewhat.

The main thing I really don't like is that fan games only get a "fangame" tag and nothing else to define the actual genre. I don't really like that idea at all. "Fangame" isn't a genre. It's good to define fan-games with a tag like that, but at least give it the tags it would normally get too.

I'm not talking about Anime games. I couldn't care less if you got rid of Anime games altogether. It's the other fan-games that I'm talking about. Fan-games that aren't anime tend to be a little better.

I don't see a problem with adding the tags sidescroller, action, and platformer to a game like this. Actually, it makes the hub a whole lot more consistent.

Am I the only person getting my pager spammed with a chain message talking about BYOND's community being cut by 50% and whatnot because fan games are being, "removed altogether", as the message says.

It's humorous and annoying to have children who don't understand what they're speaking of try to run a stable protest.

goku goku goku goku

ps: vegeta

Would a game be pulled off the hub listing if it had a reference to a big console game? Just like how in The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time there was a picture of mario and other nintendo characters? Or someone having a mario hat in their game? Just wondering about this or does it have to be full 100% a fan game to be pulled?

edit: also I did /read/ the fangame section it's just not really clarified there.

This post is for people who are as intelligent as me - not very.

We've done a pretty Decent job with the new site keeping you in the know and planning to continue the hard work.

The Hub entires show a bit more detail now.
Depending on how many Byond members become fans of a game is the reason a game might make it to the front page.

Fangames are excluded from the default display.
A fangame is basically something based on a source outside of Byond such as an existing game or series film or show.
And if its a rip it will likely be removed/hidden before you have much time to say anything.

As there are far too many anime games with high player counts, this makes other people want to make similar games which have high player counts based on rippery and simply using fangame ideas which lead to other people doing the same, and will lead byond to being over run with these types of games like it has been.
And of course advertising so many fangames based on shows/games etc is not legally right.

Our current community is mainly attracted to fan games so we will do our best to only list the best of the best and most original.

Games which have a fangame feature Will be able to avoid being tagged as a fan game, such as an Rpg where one race can do the Kamehameha, or a killing game where at one point you can wear a Jason mask.

This isn't as big a change as you would think, fangames still exist and can be shown as long as they are original, of course some rips survived but we aren't perfect, but we'll negotiate to sort that in time.

But even if your game is an original Fangame it will not appear on the banners throughout the site, due to us wanting to display more than just fan games to new players.

Charliehorse wrote:

Would a game be pulled off the hub listing if it had a reference to a big console game? Just like how in The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time there was a picture of mario and other nintendo characters? Or someone having a mario hat in their game? Just wondering about this or does it have to be full 100% a fan game to be pulled?

If the hub uses posters or artwork from another established property, yeah, it's most likely a fangame. If there are some references to things in-game, like a mario hat, we might let that slide. We'll have to hash out these rules. Personally, I draw the line like I said, where if a game is basically being played because of another franchise, it's a fangame. Making an internal reference/joke to a franchise from within the game.. not the same thing.

Tom wrote:

Well, to be fair, this isn't exactly true. It depends on the usage. That's something we'll try to workout. When in doubt, why not be original though? You can still borrow elements from other games (every industry does this), but using their names and graphics is just inviting trouble.

But games like Sunday the 19th are safe right? They have a "Saw" like the movie mode, it's fan based but I would let it slip by seeing how its just a mode on it.