Game Information Section

[Doctor Oak]

An aim I've taken with Pokecharms is to try and make the place as absolutely unique as possible - with as much unique content as possible. This is where my greatest contention with the Game Information section comes into play.

Put simply, if you were looking specific information on game features, the chances are you'd look first to Bulbapedia or Serebii or Gamefags. And the most I could do with the game information section is to simply ape what everyone else already has in abundance elsewhere -albeit, presented in a different style and fashion.

I'm considering simply giving up on the area of the site and removing it to focus on other, more unique, features.

To this end:

A) Are you for or against the removal of the Game Info section, and why.

B) What would you like to see as a feature in place of the Game Information section - basically, what new features would you like to see on Pokecharms? The sky's the limit as far as concepts go, but we'd have to see what could physically be done. But for coming up with ideas; go nuts.

 

[Brendan Savem]

I'm against the removal as sometimes Serebii or the other sites can't give the information gamers need. I would suggest the addition of something that the other sites don't have. One thing you could try would be a capture guide. Pokemon sites like Serebii would tell you where the pokemon is, what level it would probably be at (if it's legendary), and what type it is. What you can do that they didn't do yet would be to say what moves they might have and tips on capturing them. It does seem a little far off, but I can almost guarantee that it would be worth it.

 

[Luigi777]

Well, no offense, but this section did seem not incredibly needed, so more stuff on what you had would be good.
I seem to think pokecharms is known for it's trainer cards, so you could work more on that, but also add perhaps more artsy stuff, like stuff the pokeplushies has, although more... computerized.
Just some ideas.

 

[Linkachu]

A) Personally, I think my thoughts mostly match yours for this, because no matter what Charms puts up Game Information-wise it'll simply be mimicking what another big site has already done. It's rather a waste of time and energy that could be put towards something more unique. That said, I wouldn't mind Charms having a Game Mechanics section put up, because those are the sorts of base details that are handy for quick reference (like the PokeDex) and don't need to be constantly updated. Plapti, Ruko, and baratron have already done a lot of that information on the forums, so it might not be worth putting them up on the site as well, but I'm sure there must be some viewers who aren't part of the boards that could find it useful/easier to locate the info.

B) I think a good step is finishing up some of the other Staff Showcases, even if their page is simply a blurb about themselves (although, for that, the staff members themselves need to get working ). From there... I want to say a submission-like section put back up, but in a more automated manner if at all possible. We tried the Gallery idea once but the bugs it was filled with basically killed it for everyone... Could a wiki maybe help in that area? Other than that, I know some of the ideas you've had in the past and one in particular really stands out to me, but I'll leave discussion of that for off the forums.

 

[Teapot]

Personally, this site is the only Pokemon-related site I go to, so I can't compare the quality of information here to places elsewhere. If you were to remove it, I think it would be a good idea if you made sure to inform members that weren't quite as familiar with the Pokemon community about other sites that perhaps do the job better.

As for new features, I can't really say. Personally, I come here for the forums - mostly to RP. If I were to suggest any ideas, they would be as follows:

1) For the main site, perhaps a showcase of the best RPs we've had - perhaps those that are finished? This would provide an opportunity for people who want to read an RP that is finished, but don't want to have to scout through the whole forum to find them.

2) Secondly, and I'm pretty sure this would be incredibly hard to do on SMF, but eh - is to scrap the postcounts altogether on the forum, and use a point-based system - where you get different numbers of posts, based on the quality of the posts you make and where you post. For example, if you posted a page-long RP post, you'd get, say, 5 points, but you'd only get 1 if you posted a one-liner in Misc Chat. This also provides the ability to provide detriments for people who break the rules.