So, I've been thinking for many years now that there should be a game design &modding hub, with the express purpose of supporting the smaller devs be they hobbyists or indie.

A centralized resource area, linking people from all over, who are skilled and motivated in a common area. Allowing & supporting their developments.

In addition to conducting research in the fields, such as what models of payment in games are effective & ethical.

The following are brief excerpts from my design documentation that I have so far:

"0. Overview:

This organization exists as a central moding & game design community hub, regardless of project/ site affiliation, genre, or time zone. This service can be thought of as an online talent agency, hybridized with the online dating format.

Purpose

-Connect game designers (all fields)& Communities together, (hobbyist or Indie) To each other on a global centralized scale.

-Foster a atmosphere of cooperation, rather than competition

-Conduct ongoing macro& micro cyber, social, organizational research.

-Apply & test above results ethically, honorably & respectfully.

-Educate individuals, teams, organizations, and communities of respective issues or processes.

-Promote and support the smaller hobbyist projects

-Retain respective team, project, site, organization sovereignty."

(I'm still working on a mission statement)

"1. Education & Research Department-Code name: The Archive

This department involves the logging of resources, educating in the respective field(s) , and further research & analysis of game design, respective individuals, communities, and model application effects.

Fields include, but not limited to: History of technology, Social psychology, Personality psychology, Organizational/ Industrial psychology, computer science, IT, Informatics, marketing"

"2. Logistics Department- Code name: The Gear Machine

This department will have the goal and provision of organizing individuals & projects into appropriate categories, and facilitate their connections.

Fields include, but not limited to: Management, I/O psychology, HR , Recruiting, Communications, Networking, Website hosting/ management/ creation, Business, Informatics, IT"

"3. News department- code name: The Spotlight

This department has the overall goal of assisting in promoting communities from an opt in basis. This specifically means creation of in game lore/ story content, such as first person perspective narratives done in audio, visual, and written formats in an effort to expand the reach of teams, mods & indie projects.

Fields include, but not limited to: Radio, TV, Youtube, Social networking, PR, Audio & Video editing, Streaming, Twitch, Creative writing, Narrative, FX, Wikis, Esports? "

I see this as a potential further progression of current gamedev.net services & a further extension of communication networking voip services, such as team speak:

http://forum.teamspeak.com/showthread.php/73846-The-Bridge-Channel-Bridging-the-gap-and-encouraging-collaboration?highlight=

I acknowledge the existence of services like gamedev.net, yet I can't help but dream bigger.

I've been told I need to gage the market for such a service, as well as develop a formal business model.

I'm in the process of fleshing out the documentation & initial feedback.

I'm here, to start the discussion, and see if yall think such a service and organization would be needed/ warranted (market demand)

It would be a massive undertaking, and If done, I want to make sure it's done right.

Other hybrid analogies include:

-Libraries

-Traffic directors

-counselors/ consultants

-bridges

I'd really appreciate any feedback & critical analysis on the proposal.

Thanks,

-Jist

I think you should start by identifying who all of your audience members are going to be, what their motivations are, and what incentives they have and what disincentives may exist. Put yourself into the shoes of everyone in that list and try to figure out where they're coming from. What do they want? What do they need? How do you plan to be the middle man for that?

For starters, I can't imagine many game developers being very interested in this. Chances are really good that they've already got a very solid game design they're working on. Or, the game design is being given to them through a publisher and they don't have a lot of creative control over it (ie, "make FIFA 2015 for us!").

If a game company does decide to use crowd sourced game design ideas and happens to make millions off of it as a result, does the company have to pay the originator of the idea? What if the idea isn't actually an original idea and is stolen from another game that the game company isn't aware of? What legal liabilities exist there? What if there are flaws in the idea which need to be resolved, or some aspects of it need to be clarified?

Speaking only for myself, I can say that ideas are a dime a dozen and most of them aren't very good, and design ideas which are implemented need to be refined and purified in the crucible of rigorous play testing to be any good.

I don't want to shoot this idea down, it sounds like it might be a valuable resource. But, it needs to be valuable and you need to really identify in detail where and how that value is gained and used.

Fair enough,

Well,

I'd say this is more of a service for Independent Artists (no matter what kind they are) the ones not fully in the industry yet.

It's always sad to see the artist who has the potential, but doesn't have the resources to quite make it happen all on their own, or with the support of a small group. Yes, I'm indeed walking a wierd line here, between if they can't make it on their own, they weren't good enough & the people that have made it, and are able to do it without such support.

And then there's everyone else in between, and the people that aren't really in there, but just watching and enjoying the created content.

I'd say, although weird & bad to say, especially me, I'm trying to cut out "watchers" aka the community.

Such a service is not really for those who just enjoy content (games in this context) but for us who are actively skilled motivated and interested to pursue our craft. Yes, I know, some of those viewers are inspired sometimes to create content, but do they continue?

I guess to put this in standard terms, I want to service and organize the content creators (the suppliers) And let the consumers do their thing.

Hopefully this will inspire initiative in some of them and they will become competent producers.

The way I see it, a lot of people are content to just be consumers, and never really consistently take the step to become content creators.

And content creators sometimes are so caught up in competing with each other for attention or compromise too much with the fans that now the original is an aberration or worse, and abomination

And yes, I know we're doing it for the consumers, but being a consumer is easy, and we'd all do it as cost permits, but hopefully we can do more.

In this day and age, so many of us are content creators, but how many can make their ideas a reality?

To quote my self, yes sorry, I've never done this before, but it fits,

• An artist's job is to quantify and share the human experience (me, 5-14-2014)

I'd like to facilitate that in an organized fassion.

Yes, ideas are dimes a dozen, but are those dimes being added up, counted and used? or are those dimes just at the bottom of a wishing well, each by itself nothing more than a wish and a prayer?

Most artists who want to get into the games industry get good at creating art and then create a demo reel and shop it around various studios to get hired.

I'm not sure how you're planning to help. Artists already have well established portals to post and collaborate on (such as devian art). And if they're going to post their assets online as downloadable content, I'm sure they'd want to put it on a market place where they can get paid for it... such as the unity market place or the UE4 market place, or whatever other portals are out there for selling content.

Maybe I'm just dumb and don't get it, but I'm still wondering where exactly you're trying to put yourself in the content creation pipeline in the production of video games. If I'm a game developer, what products / services / resources can I expect to get from your portal? What is expected from me in return? in other words, what's the business plan / business model?

sigh,

ya I know, the business model, it always comes down to the business model= How are we getting paid?

If I had that fully fleshed out, then ya, this be a different conversation.

But, a true artist persists in their craft, if they get paid or not. (yes it's always nice to get paid, but everyone, especially artists change when money comes directly into play, no pun intended)

Let's use Artist to mean all kinds of artists, & Dev to mean all kinds of technical& strategic thinkers.

Ya I know it's a drastic simplification & people often fall in both, but I'm trying to streamline the process here.

So, To answer some of your questions:

Q: "what can (the user ) expect from the (organization)?"

A: 1. A centralized organized nexus with direct portals to respective projects in development as well as the specific skills of the members & that of what they self identify to need.

2. A department matching system, that will be able to generate potential skilled individuals to fit what you're looking for.

3. comprehensive archive of moding & game design software, tools, tutorials irrespective of affiliation

4. consistent voice communication framework

5. Research based reports on effectiveness, function, and reach

Q: "Expected from (the user)?"

A: 1. self identify your skills and experience

2. Acknowledge any affiliations

3. your availability

4. time zone

5. option & willingness to take part in matching metrics & tools on assessments for interest, personality, demographics, etc. in research & matching efforts.

Another analogy I could use is think of a clan right, and instead of all those people mainly there just to play games, their mainly there to make them.

Maybe then the incompletion rate of mods and indie projects will be decreased significantly.

Q: "where do I want to put myself, (and by enlarge this organization) in the content creation pipeline of making games?"

A: In the place of assisting maintaining, supporting & potentially guiding & understanding the pipeline itself. As well as the same for the community around the developing project.

In one word: Logistics