Making A Suiko-Site (Split from "Suikofans are whiners")

[Himuro]

I planned on making a Suikoden fansite, but there aren't many Suikoden fans so I thought,"What's the point?" I am however, in the process of making an rpg fansite which will secretly be a Suikoden fansite (;) By constantly shoving down their throats) that way, the site gets more publicity and more are exposed to Suikoden.

I also make news threads at various forums to constantly inform fans and potential fans of the latest Suikoden news.

http://www.ga-forum.com/showthread.php?t=76282
http://www.squareamp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4330

Just a few places in fact.

I have been trying to expand the Suikoden fanbase for almost 3 years now this way and I've gotten a few people to be fans through the same process. I have offered a way to try to get Suikoden V more potential sales and fans but the thread was close. I guess it's not really important or I'm the only person who really wants the Suikoden fandom to grow, but looking at Sars, JBL's, and a few other peoples' thoughts I'm not alone.

I am really interested in your site JBL. Tell us when it launches.

[Vextor]

It would depend on what your site aims to achieve. If you plan to make a site focused on factual information that involves in-depth setting, then you will have difficulty in the case of Suikoden because a large portion of the material is only available in Japanese.

On the other hand, what I see lacking is a more game-play oriented site that has loads of data. Suikosource does have this, but there are holes here and there.

Another thing that is lacking is a more image-oriented site where fanart can be posted. I've personally been having a lot of trouble setting up a gallery at suikosource for their fanartists. There used to be a site called 27runes.org that hosted a bunch of images, but the site disappeared after it's maintainer disappeared.

It might also be necessary to create some sort of "web-ring" so each site can profit off of each other--that way members from a more popular site can flow into a newer site. We can also populate such a ring with sites that are in other languages; that could only be a good thing.

[Himuro]

That's exactly the type of site I'm going for SARS, completely gameplay oriented but with some nudges here and there for suikox and suikosource (so this place can get more regulars). I already know I can't compete with these two sites so I might as well lead more fans to them.

When I replay I and II I'm going to be making notes. I'm replaying III now and I'm making notes for the gameplay. I plan on making a Suikoden V guide as well.

[John Layfield]

See, these are problems. My own personal interest in the series is based entirely on information, as you probably know. My desire for factual information and detailed factual informaton at that, is what led to the idea for my site in the first place. Similarly, I doubt Suikosource was first founded as "Hey, I feel like making a cornerstone today but what kind of cornerstone...?".

Gameplay, mostly concerned with character stats and the like, is something I've been planning out for a while. However, it's tied into information seeing as it's based by character for now. Again, the difficulty reality of establishing sometime like that is dragged down not just by Suikosource, which, even with holes, has most everything one could need, but also by GameFAQs, the default site of choice for any and all game-related problems.

As for images, Their Star will have a gallery of rarer images. In fact, that's one of my mission briefs that I layed out for the staff. I refuse to use the official artwork that every Suikoden site has seemingly saved from the Suikosource biographies pages. Fan art is a trickier subject as other sites, such as Master Mathiu's SuikOnline, was plauged by people submitting fanart that wasn't their own.

The other problem with fanart is that often people don't rate their own artwork as highly as you would. That means that the webmaster has to ask directly, rather than ask for volunteers. This, again, gives larger sites the edge. I've submitted information to this site before and I know that if geocities.com/mysuikodensite asked for it, I'd most likely have told them to screw off.

Giving a shout out to other Suikoden sites, to encourage people to visit is also being implimented. I've already created a number of banners and buttons and the like for linking to various sites which I'll put up on the site when I contact those sites about permission and so on.

In the general "different ideas" scope, there's a bigger focus on articles, provided we get them submitted in time. There's also a page reflected on clearing up misconceptions, which was inspired by the Geographical Revelation Thread here. Comedy is also playing part with myself working on some form of badly drawn weekly strip.
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One day, I shall come back. Yes, we shall all come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.

[Himuro]

Interesting, JBL. I'm still kinda new to this whole Suikoden community thing. I didn't even get the chance to visit suikocastle, for instance.

[Vextor]

I can probably make a "Webring" application pretty easily. Suikosource is probably an ideal place to host such an application, considering where it is placed in google when you type "suikoden" (at the friggin top!).

All I need is an image that is not too big-- like 120 x 120 pixels or 100 x 200 with something like "Global Suikoden Fan Alliance" (or a better name).

Well, it seems something good is coming out of this discussion.

[Himuro]

Hmmm, playing Suikoden I-III I could cook up some story notes as well. I should do that for V too. As JBL said, if one wanted gameplay information they'd just hit up gamefaqs. However, if I added plot analysis' for all the games, I'm sure that'd increase more traffic. It's rare that you see plot analysis' for specific games, you always see them for the specific series. Also, I need a ps2 to computer converter so that when I replay the games I'll have high quality images at my disposal of practically all cutscenes or story elements. If you haven't noticed, when one wants high quality in game Suikoden images, you come up short. All the images seen on other gaming sites are practically the same.

Sars: how's United Nations of Suikoden?

[John Layfield]

[Himuro]

I made this a few seconds ago:

[John Layfield]

Works for me. Besides, I see no reason why various sites wouldn't make their own UNS banner to suit their own layouts anyway.

http://www.theirstar.com/images/suikonut1.jpg

Just thought I'd post that comic I was talking about. :P

If such a "webring" was to take off, it would have to be very specific, however. In other words, there'd almost nearly always need to be a passage or something similar praising some aspect of the site to encourage people to visit in the first place.
_________________
One day, I shall come back. Yes, we shall all come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.

[Himuro]

I thought Apple was the one who was going to be set on fire. :(

[John Layfield]

I like Apple and don't like Shu.

Um, Sars can you split the thread into two? This is very far removed from the original topic subject now and I'm sure Arcana and Maximillian aren't done with their discussion yet.
_________________
One day, I shall come back. Yes, we shall all come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.

[Vextor]

Oh I see, so the image doesn't have to be standard then, as long as it has the name of the ring. Hmm, I'll have to think of how exactly this would work. It can even be a Javascript application that randomly spews out info of a site with a small image, URL, and a description. That would be rediculously simple to make.

[John Layfield]

Of course, he's only using the term "Suiko" all of a sudden to try and break my brain....

Yes, that's what I was thinking about. Maybe I'm just lazy but I don't click on random link buttons unless I know that there's something worth looking at. So it'd be nice to see a webring that not only displays links to other sites but gives people an idea of why they should bother going there in the first place.

A point Arcana made in the original thread was that to a lot of people there is only Suikosource and Suikox. This is a big step towards fixing that attitude.

Zonder made a post in the original thread about IFF's or interactive fan fictions. These seem like a good idea and I'm considering implimenting one at Their Star after a while if popularity is at a good level but unless I'm mistaken Tabula Rasa was much the same idea.
_________________
One day, I shall come back. Yes, we shall all come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.

[Vextor]

The problem wih Tabula Rasa is that it takes a lot of time to manage... that is, unless I make a lot of the process automatic. This can be done if I get off my ass and make scripts to take care of it, but unfortunately my ass is already off to create other scripts, and I am left without an ass to take care of Tabula Rasa, sad but true.