Preface
Good day to you all. Welcome to a compilation of forum suggestions. Years ago, I would make threads just like this one where I would suggest improvements to the game or suggestions for the game moving forward; today, however, I will be detailing five personal suggestions for these forums as there is a noticeable lack of effort towards making them better and more engaging for those that wish to be involved with them.
So, sit back, relax, grab a snack, and enjoy the read.
A Compilation of Forum Suggestions
Better Help/Support System
For some players here, their first time visiting the forum may have been for help and support as they have either been scammed, their account has been hacked and lost, or their world has been griefed, or destroyed, by other players. While in-game, players have the ability to be linked to this forum by going to Settings > About > Help and Support, where they are then linked to just the latest threads... This is comparable to being dropped off with nothing in a deserted desert.
How can we fix this?
Instead of having a player that clicks that “View” button as they look for help or support take them to the home page of this forum, how about it takes them to a page with generally frequently asked questions and answers to them regarding the potential situation. On top of this, the support email can be available as a hyperlink within the thread if none of the available answers to questions fit the criterion of the player’s situation.
I have personally taken the liberty of creating this thread, and you can find the thread pinned in the Feedback and Suggestions category. This thread can also link a user to a forum guide, that way the flow of threads and replies to those threads is much smoother than what I see now.
More Forum Competitions
Long ago, there were plenty of competitions posted fairly frequently on the forum that allowed users throughout the game to participate. This was heavenly as there were points in time when the old forum would peak at over 100 concurrent viewers. For a small RPG MMO, these are the types of numbers you look for on a site that's just about the game.
There is a News section on the home screen of Pixel Worlds. Let’s utilize that moving forward and have the forum be the center for competitions and future events. To make this happen though, competitions have to happen, and that starts with you admins up there; I’m looking at you, @Siskea!
Better Forum Advertisement Across Other Platforms
This goes a bit hand in hand with suggestion number two, however a start could be in-game with either the help icon in the main menu or the news section. Right now, there are no visible links to the forums in-game. To get there, you have to either look it up yourself or navigate to the about section of the settings.
By putting some sort of button or even condensing the main menu to allow an area to see other platforms for Pixel Worlds, an influx in new members would immediately be seen. This seems like a more easy fix.
Furthermore, a platform like Discord provides an easily accessible place for players to go and converse with others all around the globe. While there is a hidden, yet accessible, link in the #server_info text channel, a new text channel of #forums could be added where players could be given the option to link the threads they have created here.
Another Forum Moderator (?)
This has been suggested before by myself and others and will likely be suggested again in the future by someone completely new, but there needs to be a strictly forum-only moderator. If they can handle their position for a period of time, then sure, allow them to handle other platforms, but my goodness, it’s like some of the once only forum moderators completely forget this platform exists sometimes.
For example, there has been a thread still up and kicking that not only breaks two rules of the forum but should also be an opportunity for a moderator to message that player and check in. A forum moderator would have had that done two days ago. I see no reason why it takes two days for something like this to be dealt with.
I know moderators are busy, but by appointing an already active forumer to a position of moderation, things would run fairly smooth. Since it’s a low amount of people right now, other potential revamps or forum ideas could be thought up of by an ambitious new forum moderator.
I don’t have anyone in mind for this position, but I hope this is thoroughly considered.
Engagement from Administrators
Engagement from administrators… This ties a bit into point two where I discussed forum competitions. Administrators were fairly involved on this platform and this was the typical place to get in touch with and see major points made by the ones that run the game. Why did this stop?
I absolutely loved the engagement by those once involved and would love to see this return.
To add to this further, you can always post things from the forum on other platforms. For example, LittleItaly’s recent FORUMS world where forumers collaborated on a world together would be a fantastic Instagram post that would help get some new faces on the site.
Conclusion
I do appreciate you taking the time to read my suggestions. I also hope that some of these points can be taken into true consideration and passed forward to help attempt to revitalize the forum that I grew to love over five years ago.
Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to private message me or reply below if it is appropriate.
Respectfully,
Logan / PaRappa