The Future of DDC

[SilverRomance]

Hey guys, Silver here. (Aka Durgon and aka Mystic. x3)

It's come to my attention that, well, lets face it, DDC has kinda died.

DDC started as a group on a digital pet site called DNAdopts, originally made to combat another Digimon group similar that existed at the time but was run rather unfairly. It ran for awhile but then faded away when another version of the site came out and the forums refreshed. When a Guild function appeared on the site it appeared again, stronger than ever, and from there when it got massive we moved it to here, Proboards. We gave it it's own forum to have it's own glory.

But the glory days seem to be gone now. I myself drifted away from the site, and we have lost some friends along the way whom I miss dearly.

Thinking back perhaps the biggest problem is how complex it became. It started out super simple, bare bones RNG stuff, and then grew into something of a full fledged RPG. But running an RPG manually has proven to take a lot of time, even with our calculators to help it still took a lot of time and I think for me that was the turning point of me drifting away.

So now is the choice we must make, and as of late I've thought of a few options, first the simpler ones.

A) We let the game stay open and run as it is.
B) We close the game but least it up as a testament to what we had.
C) We close the game and put it out of its misery by deleting it.

And then the ones that might take the time and effort of the ones who have such time they are willing to give if they wish to help keep the game alive.

D) We scrap the current systems and revert it to it's original, bare bones RNG style.
F) We keep the system as it is but reward more EXP for battles so it doesn't take forever to level up.
G) We get rid of the board entirely, simplify the game and convert it to some kind of chat group like Skype.

And maybe there are some other options to, if you have any I'd love to hear them.

If you are in contact with any of the games players please link them this announcement, I want the opinion of players young and old.

[Syn]

I like options B and G but that is my opinion

[Razanak7]

Complicated systems are certainly the biggest problem. I lost interest because keeping up with how everything worked and all the options made actually playing the game overwhelming. If it's going to stick around, it has to be simplified. Option D seems like the place to start for now, pending whatever permanent decision ends up being made.

[bluebomb]

Personaly I like option F but if it is too hard for admins I say don't overwork yourselves I'd like to prepose allowing all current threads to be finished for example the battles and then either reverting to D or sadly even C if this does end it had a great run and i enjoyed it

[Vallsamon]

hmm F&G are my favorite so far, personally i stopped coming here when the rp and game tapered off from the last event i was in

[Wild Rose]

I like option G the best.

[IcestarRiver]

B or D sound fine. Keeping up with all the super complicated things that took forever and addressing battles, that was what ended up eating up a lot of time and energy that people didn't always have. If it's simple RNG, updating battles would go much more quickly and smoothly.

[MGarurumon]

D or B;; if ddc runs anywhere i'll follow though.

I think everything would run much smoother and faster if the systems were less complex, even though it's very cool. More updates, more active members, more activity. I'm really against deleting the board itself though, there's so much sentimental value across the threads, design, and profiles. Even if we're not active here, I really hope this place isn't deleted because of the nostalgia and memories.

[Zander]

Option D and F would be cool. You wouldn't want to make the game too easy though, either.

The reason I left was because the game got too time consuming. At the time I was getting ready for college and I didn't have much time to visit this site and play. There are no quick play-throughs of a section. Then when I came back the game was very different and I couldn't quite understand all of what was going on. And when we first started the game was rather boring, the admin and you had to create the adventure. I wasn't really sure on how to do that at the time, so it mostly was my own fault. But sometimes the admin's response was bleak and generic too. It is a lot of work to basically come up with a new story each time someone wants to battle and I don't think you can change that because part of the fun, well most of the fun is that story.

I would like to see more contests though, not just for fighting with digimon, but like writing and artwork. Maybe with some contests we (the members) could help write some of the story of this fantasy world. I'm trying to conjure all I can from memory and it has been a couple years since I've been here, so I'm trying to bring up relevant input.

Maybe make up tutorials that players can go through and complete and unlock new things, like tutorials about writing. Writing like when you go into a battle. Or creating sprites. Writing and sprite making seems to be the biggest points of this game because you can either create fanmon or go into a battle.

With a forum game though, there is only so much you can do. You can't add flash games, and everything has to be done manually (currency, having the shops sell items, restocking said shops). So you really have to get creative with what you can do.

I hope that helped.

[SilverRomance]

Thanks for all of the input so far guys! <3

Due to some recent offiste (and now onsite) events I feel the need to address something here. I made this post because I felt, as the Founder of this site, and in the absence of the Admins the site at the time, that the members themselves needed to bring in some input on this matter because ultimately, this site is for you, DDC is nothing without its users. <3 From what I see in an admin board there were at least two attempts to try and come up with something to bring the site back up, both of which seem to have failed. That is why I brought it to you guys. In the end, I do not regret my decision to bring it to you guys and I stand by it, no matter what flack I may get for doing so. I am the Founder of this group, from all those many years ago when it first started on DNAdopts, and so I do not appreciate being put down or belittled just because I made the simple decision to post an announcement about DDCs future, I think I'm allowed to do that much.

I did not post these six things to condition anyones answers or opinions, in fact I openly encouraged you all to give more ideas to help save this place. These six things were what I felt was a good starting point, a good way to start a conversation going to fix what is going wrong here, despite it being an option closing the site is the last thing I want to do. This is my brain child, even though I may have grown away from it, it was still a huge part of my life for years and took up a huge amount of time for not only me but those who have played and helped here. I have received flack for not telling the Admins before I posted this announcement, and though I apologized for not doing do I continued to and by the looks of it am still receiving flack for doing so. I never once did this out of mistrust, I never once did this to step on anyones toes, and it sure as heck was never some kind of personal attack, I did this because it needed to be said, this conversation needed to be started as soon as possible if the site is to ever survive. This is a conversation for all of us, not just Admins, everyone, because the site is for everyone and everyone needs to be a part of this. I would have appreciated receiving a reply with the true thoughts on the matters of this post from Admins rather than waking up to find a whole new post which seems to be an attempt to eclipse my post, and though maybe I will regret saying this but the new announcement itself seems rather selfish and unneeded in my opinion, but it seems Raz did a good job there in saying what needed to be said on that regard.

I don't want to fight, and it seems very silly to when this is such a simple matter, this is just an announcement post to get your guys opinion on this, you deserve a voice. I don't feel like I should be attacked or put down by someone I trusted because I did this and yet I feel like I have been and am extremely hurt because of it. I hope to see more input from others soon, as people receive the mass emails in their inbox. Thanks guys for the support you have given so far.

[Aveyasha]

G is by far the best option in my opinion.

[Shiroki]

Options D and F seem to speak to me more than the others, I'd rather see this site get back on its feet and to do that will take a lot of work and dedication but we really shouldn't be arguing or attacking each other over it, we're all part of this family and honestly if the admins / mods are having so much trouble with complicated systems then something more simplified would be in order, it's a start to see this place grab more attention and activity. I mean I fairly enjoy the Role-playing aspect of this site, rather then having to do just battles alone, Events were fun and to give others a chance to interact with each other through a means of reaching a goal. King has some interesting ideas but the events came much too quickly one after another and it left unfinished events and then the tournament that went unfinished also.

[IcestarRiver]

Though I'd like to suggest, if it /does/ end up moving to a chat format, that Discord is used as opposed to Skype. Skype is one-channel, glitchy, slow, and frankly getting worse with every update. Discord at its current stage is a multi-channel chat format that allows one to add bots that can do things like RNG, create an RPG, post images when prompted, etc. It may be helpful in reducing workload if a bot can take on such jobs itself.

[Tehrag]

So I just got on my email and figured out that all this was happening. Frankly to me, the site in and of itself is amazing where it is. True, it took a great deal of time for battles, but it was fun. I think where we went wrong was when there were events that lasted forever and because of either the creator running out of time or members not participating, it never went anywhere. Now for some of these, I see myself as part of the problem, but I think that if the staff had worked together better this would have never happened.

I want the site to return to its former glory, that would be amazing to me and I would do quite a bit to get it back there. To me, as a helper who spent a bit of time with battles, the system for battles needs to be updated. I'm not sure how, but if we could make it slightly easier on those making the battles happen, I think it would go better without much else changing.

If we revert and go back to the way things where before, I will gladly follow, but I would rather not cut ties with the site in any way. For these reasons, I say A or F and if I need to step it up in order for things to return, then I will do just that.

[DarkCat]

I was a little late in discovering the emails sitting in my inbox, so I clearly missed all that had happened earlier. But for the sake of giving this conversation a little extra needed nudge, I'm not going to talk about that here.


For those of you that mentioned something about how complicated the system has gotten. Is there anything specific that you believe has become too complicated, or is it just more of a general thing, and that everything is way too complicated at this point? I'm really curious about this.

I admit, there are things that did make it harder on myself. That I managed to collapse under the large workload. Which made it my fault that I didn't seek out help for it all until it was already too late. There was so much to do, that no single person could reasonably do it all on their own. There's even still a couple of things hiding away in the admin area that I never even got to finish, because of all that other work that needed to be done.

But since I know full well how exhausting it can be, with the large amount that needed to be done. That experience alone makes me open to the idea of making some stuff simpler.

Not to the point of scrapping everything, mind you. Because personally I much like the game better where it is right now, with the variety and options available, even if that means there's still going to be lots of work to be done. (This also means that I can't agree with moving it over to somewhere like Skype, or deleting the forum. The many memories I have of DDC is all right here on the forum, so it would break my heart to ever see this place vanish.) But that doesn't mean we couldn't have tweaking/removing some stuff as other options, so that things could become funner for everyone involved.

But to even go about doing any simplification of the system, it would be good to find out where to even begin. If that's something anyone even wanted to go for?

[Nero]

I think D and A.

It is true battles take a lot of time. The problem is not so much the system as it is the staff ability to keep up with demand. There are a lot of people battling and I know when I was doing battles the moment i got one done another one was ready. It was a tiring and painful experience for my hands. If we could somehow expand staff with the site it would great.

I'd have no problem with a 1/3 or 1/4 ratio but as it stands it is more a 1/6 or 8.


I agree with DC the place holds many memories. It just needs to liven up a bit and maybe take a step back and evaluate how well the system works. Do a PPH(post per hour) sort of ratio to determine how much work is done.

[Yaku]

Coming in quite late (sorry guys) I think perhaps if there was a way to make handling battles less... well, tiring or time demanding, we could get this show on the ride once again as it was before.
I used to love doing all kind of stuff in this forum and being a helper was one of the best experiences I've had in a forum in my entire life. Those Golden Days were really great.
Yet as soon as I entered college and my career began demanding a ton of time I found myself avoiding coming to the site since I knew at least an hour would be poured in the forum to keep things going. I found this site years ago and it would be a shame that it disappears just like some of the other members, just like I did.
I'd go for option D).
But if you were to ask me I'd like some restructuring in the system as a whole, when I left there was a ton of stuff you could do. If i had replies I was able to stay all day here just posting and posting. Keeping that sense of adventure, role-play and battles it's cool. But perhaps some limits could be placed in order to avoid having the helpers feel overwhelmed.

I hereby propose some stuff:

• Changing the calculator into a whole new program that makes it easier for the helpers to use. I don't remember exactly what was the last version I used in the times when I was a helper (I think just plain RNG?), but it'd be nice if you just insert place, max level of partner digimon and the program by itself gives you the data without having to resort so much to the rng. I'm still on the basics of programming (due to my change in career) but I think I can do a basic python for it to run with cmd, it wouldn't take me that much time... I think. In my mind I picture two separate programs, 1 for deciding attacks, stats and digimon to battle and 1 for the damage, probabilities of status ailment, etc. Or HTML if its easier. I don't know how the calculator o calculators used now work but the point is updating them for a better use.
• Put a time of "rest" between battles so that when a helper ends a battle the player can't start another one immediately. It also makes sense with the RP style because Digimon would get exhausted of constant battling. Therefore if the player has to wait let's say 2-5 hours between each fight the helper won't feel anxious of ending a battle knowing there will be a new one waiting for them. It also makes the player not so centered in just battles but also on some rp or game stuff in the forum.
• More helpers. If we want the forum to run as it used to run in its golden days (considering the amount of people that began joining at those times) we need more helpers. A ratio of 1 every 10-20 sounds okay depending on the amount of active users we see present. An Admin for every 100-200 active users also sounds like a reasonal number. But if the site gets as active as I left we can't expect just 10 people to run the whole deal without feeling stressed or something.
• More organization for events. I think most of us know the periods of time in which school/work just it's too much to handle and we can't be as much as we want in the internet. Planning the events at least 2 months before its start would give more time for the helpers and admins to organize their calendar, to say if they will be able to be present or not, and in general to prepare things in order to avoid interrupting events or leaving them on-hold.

I know that probably it sounds tiring or unfair coming from my part since I wasn't present when I was needed, but I refuse to just let this site die when it has so much potential. That sums the things I have in mind right now, I could probably come up with other stuff later but that's it for now. Thanks if you read the whole part.