quote:Original post by Kylotan
I still don't see what there is to offer, except a pay-per-view version of the Business forum... if you had some more concrete ideas I might agree with you.

Well, my intention with this is not to convince you to agree with me, only to bring up a suggestion to the GDnet staff as to how to grow the site.

But since you would like some specific suggestions...

One idea I had is that gamedev could post an "Image of the Day" or "Image of the week" much like the way flipcode does. The catch would be that this image would be of a game in development by one of paying GDnet members, or it could be a completed game which they are trying to sell. GDnet has a huge viewer base that typically represents the target market for these games, I think it would be an invaluable service if members of the paying community could have their games shown to the greater community that frequents GDnet.

If I had to sum it up in one sentence. GDnet could offer some marketing services to it's paying members in the form of an IOTD with a short description written by the developer.

The member only section could also feature articles that cater to those who are developing and finishing their games, like on how to run a good public beta. Or methods for making your game run on any video card. etc. It could also feature postmortems written by other members of the member area as they finish their projects.

There would also be member only forums. Thes forums would be free from the ignoramus annyonmous posters that post flames across multiple forums and generally waste everyones time.

I've noticed that member only forums tend to be a little more tight nit then forums that are free to post on. I can only attribute this to the fact that each member of a member only forum has paid a certian amout of money to be there, and they value the privilage of taking part in the community.

These forums could disucss anything from contract work needing to be done, what market sizes are for certian types of games, different publishing methods, dicsuccing different publishers (free from annoying AP's)

If GDNet offered me an indie developer a chance to get my game in front of all their users, some exclusive content targeted at topics surrounding finishing and selling a game, and member only forums where I could shmoozze with other developers who were in the same situation I was (finishing games and selling them) I would definatly cough up a yearly fee for that. One of the key aspects of achieving your goals as an independant game developer is to associate yourself with people who are doing it, or have done it successfully. These member forums would supply just that.

I would love to see testimonials like this comming from the members only area of the GDNet forums.

Edited by - ironside on March 10, 2002 7:31:33 PM