Forum:Future of the Map Games

Hi to everyone who participates in the Map Games. Right now there are seven games in Category:Games, and six appear to be active. Clearly, this pastime has grown into a major part of our community activity. In my opinion, the Games have become too big for their current configuration. Online communities tend to have a life cycle in which they start out somewhat free-flowing and a tad anarchistic, but as they grow steps are taken to bring some kind of order. Right now, there's a lot of chaos.

I have three simple suggestions for ways to organize the Map Games:
 * 1) Rename the games. "The New Map Game", "The Newer Map Game", "The New & Improved map game", and "The Map Game (Improved)" are certainly confusing, and are not named with the future in mind.  What will we do for the next one?  "The Newest"... "The Newest-er"... "The Very Very Very Newest"...?  I think they ought to be renamed "Map Game 2", "Map Game 3", etc.  New map games would then simply get another number.
 * 2) Categorize the images. The nature of the games means that a large amount of images are uploaded.  When the games are abandoned, the maps become so much e-flotsam unless they are categorized.  I suggest creating "Category:Map Game 1" for all maps from the original Game, and so on.
 * 3) Create a Map Game Guidelines page to list these two policies, and others that may be created. That's what we had to do when 1983: Doomsday became a big project.  It's more than appropriate for the Map Games.

Just for transparency's sake, I'll add that this began as an off-site discussion among a few of us admins. We felt it was important to preserve the spirit of WikiCommunication and involve everyone in this discussion. In the end, the Map Gamers themselves ought to be responsible for creating and enforcing their own policies (as the editors of 1983:Doomsday are). I just started the process because that has not happened yet, and the size of the game makes its smooth operation a priority for our entire community.

Benkarnell 14:30, May 6, 2010 (UTC)