I hear you - I think a more involved event like you mentioned would be possible!
Personally I suspect that part of the difference comes from the compositions of the website founders. I don’t know enough about GaiaOnline or Neopets, but I know that the majority of the people who started FR were artists (Undel and Xhastol) and coders (including people who have now left the site). Not game designers. They’ve gotten more devs in since, but my read on them is that they’re primarily functional designers with a decent focus on UI design. To me, the result is that the team seems a little light on game devs - people with experience in story, level, and player interaction design. Heck, they’ve only recently hired a professional writer! And given that the ultimate draw of the website is “dress up the pretty pixel dragons”, I can understand how this developed.
Here’s hoping that as the website continues strongly the team gets to delve a bit deeper into some creative concepts. Especially if/when they finish the site refactor.
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Re: Anniversary Thread
(Anonymous) 2024-06-12 01:02 am (UTC)(link)I hear you - I think a more involved event like you mentioned would be possible!
Personally I suspect that part of the difference comes from the compositions of the website founders. I don’t know enough about GaiaOnline or Neopets, but I know that the majority of the people who started FR were artists (Undel and Xhastol) and coders (including people who have now left the site). Not game designers. They’ve gotten more devs in since, but my read on them is that they’re primarily functional designers with a decent focus on UI design. To me, the result is that the team seems a little light on game devs - people with experience in story, level, and player interaction design. Heck, they’ve only recently hired a professional writer! And given that the ultimate draw of the website is “dress up the pretty pixel dragons”, I can understand how this developed.
Here’s hoping that as the website continues strongly the team gets to delve a bit deeper into some creative concepts. Especially if/when they finish the site refactor.