The Forgotten Establishments

 

Authors Note: This post was made during a time of distraught between two forums and when many designers began to walk away from Northern Skies among the download controversy. This is my opinion about the " download community " and older forums that stressed less of the entire " download " nature of the community.

This blog post was made back in April of 2012 on Northern Skies and Zoo Tycoon Volcano

In this day and age in the so called " community " ,many forums have been forgotten. Forums that modern community members don't even know about or would disregard as outdated. Even forums that poured the concrete for the foundation of the community and the designing breakthroughs. It is an unfortunate truth that goes by everyday.

With today's forums, only a few stand alive, Northern Skies being the most active. But the question is, how did they get to that status? They could not have done it by themselves without the ideas and people branching off of several forums that were once popular themselves, including ones that bear on.

What is saddening, is that these former forums are not talked about or even brought up to the table, as partners, friends or even a given a thank you! But instead people just migrate to what appeals to them the most, and that is what is of stressed high demand: Downloads.

But was this community founded on the ideas of " Downloads " ?, clearly if it was we would be called the " Download Community " (which we could say that is the case today) rather then the " Zoo Tycoon Community ". And the truth is, it's not. But why?

Forums in the past found it unappealing that the main focus of the community revolved around " Downloads " and the game itself because they knew it would become boring and repetitive after a while, so they experimented with other methods to socialize and expand cultural and educative awareness due to the high rate of international members joining into the community. But it wasn't because of the " Downloads ", it was because they wanted to have fun!

I usually like to use Zoo Tek Phoenix as a prime example of originality of the community. Not only did they supplied downloads and great designing tutorials to help inspire curious newcomer designers but they also knew that in order to continue to be popular and diverse, they needed more diverse sections for everybody to enjoy.

Zoo Tek Phoenix was one of the first forums to host a arcade for gaming, the first site to have a special forum where staff from other forums can come to discuss inter site issues and to have an Ambassador Program themselves and for staff to discuss forum news going on in the community. They also wanted to expand the knowledge of animals and there habits to a younger audience that may not even get to learn at a first hand
by having there own zoologist Professor Paul and his Nature Encyclopedia!. They also encourage creativity and culture diversity by having special seasonal events based on different cultures, the list can go on on how superior there system of fun is compared to ours.

But sadly, they are not the most popular forum (activity wise), but they are a pure legend and a prime example of a real element of the community, along with many of the forums you see listed on the top of each page you go to on ZTV that have given there time and effort to make this community what it was.* Unfortunately that spirit is diminishing with the inflation of downloads and lack of community spirit coming from some forums. We should reflect on these legends.

Crookedjaw

Jun 22 2013, 05:11 PM

And sadly, a lot of people don't see that place. I mean, a lot of people just lurk for downloads now. Most of us first came for downloads, I included. But improvement can always be done. What saddens me at this time, is all the drama going on. NO, TRT does not seek to Gaia's destruction. NO, we do not hate Gaia and Gaia does not hate stuff. NO, there is no fight going on between us. But luckily, we can still get on. I think we should promote the "hangout" sections and let the download section for only people who have 100+ posts.

UmbreonShadow

Jun 22 2013, 03:50 PM

I will admit Y2J that those attempts were silly and unnecessary and a good example of immaturity. However, I wouldn't say I was the one making the shots on that one. I just got tied into the whole ordeal. Most people in the higher ranks on both sides had a good chunk of the fault and it was something that came and gone.

The people back then that would engage in those activities of spamming and such are mostly long gone now, moved on in life and or grew out of it and realized how immature they were. It is why we don't see any of it happening anymore. Now we're just in a lot of drama that is also unnecessary. But its slowly straining out.

There is always a place for improvement.

Download Economy Revisited

 

For years now the community has built itself a reputation with Zoo Tycoon players for its well known production of downloads to supply the demand for those who come to the forums and take what they need to satisfy their imaginative in-game needs. Many designers have taken advantage of the market and found a way to make their own winnings, which of course do not have any monetary value (Even though it was suggested at one time that some design teams should sell their downloads for a pretty penny) but are made to enjoy their hobby and perhaps to train themselves to become better at it so that they may find themselves making the next new game for the world to enjoy.

However, when there is a market for downloads, there is also competition. For a long time now many design teams have found themselves in an arena of fun competition with each other to see who can come out with the top of the line animal or game mechanic. Of course, there is no harm in this if they are having fun but it may become a problem in the long run as designers grow older and drama consumes the community.

There was once a time in history where a forum was created for the intention of bringing everyone together, including the designers themselves. This was an effort to de-polarize the community and help build a foundation so that it could be the hub for Zoo Tycoon players and designers alike to be together. However, some design teams and designers found it in their best interest to make sure they kept up with the demand for downloads, as the community grew and demand increased, inspiring more people to start designing. While this cycle continued its course there were triggers that caused rifts in this economy: 1) Conflicts between designers and their own teams; issues that make designers leave their teams and switch to another team or try to host their downloads with another site are examples of this phenomenon. 2) Conflicts between design teams and each other; for example, let us say that one team uses a preexisting model from another' teams and modify it to make it their own and rightfully own it as their own property, causing the other team to get angry and stall their work but in the process the other teams work as well in trying to resolve the issue. 3) Conflicts between design teams and the community as a whole; this includes the leaking of unfinished work, which in our terms is" Download Leaking," when someone inside a designing operation leaks unfinished work to the public which causes the finished product to be stalled and sometimes trashed. It can also be buggy and sometimes dangerous to some computers because it may contain a virus. (The most notable leakings of community history are of Cretaceous Calamity and Radical Remake). This also includes criticism. Many designers feel that they are mistreated by people who tend to critique as an attempt to give advice. Some decide to bluntly be rude, causing the designer to lose motivation and hope in what he or she does in the community. However, criticism by itself does not constitute aggressive behavior.

However, there is one unique form of conflict that is above all others in severity: the involvement of any board's staff administration in the downloads market, henceforth known as interventionism. It was once held as gospel in the unwritten rules of community life that the only real crime in terms of downloads was distribution of work that was classified and unfinished. Other then that, designers and the consumer were pretty much untouched. But after years of tarnish by some of these issues, with the rise of interventionism, the administrators of many forums decided it was best to get heavily involved with what designers and the consumer did. It first became an issue when big design teams started to disconnect from the central body of the community as an attempt to seek their own base, and with that, forums co-opted design teams and officialized them as their own. This is the essence of interventionism; the co-mingling of the staff administration of a forum and their own favored design team. This is what today is most responsible for many problems in the download economy.

Once a forum officializes a design team as their own, certain effects on the download economy can be observed. Firstly, when there are two forums with their own official design team that inevitably compete, problems that were formerly for the design team only now extend to the rest of the forum as a consequence. Forums become the design team and vice versa. Therefore, when one design team begins to lose out in the marketplace as the consumer decides that another team's downloads are better, the consumers will tend to stay on the forum where they have their preferred downloads. Naturally, the consumer may also visit many forums at a time, but he has a clear incentive to more often visit the forum that supplies him with his preference of downloads. This can cause a decline of activity in forums where interventionism is the policy and whose design teams lose on the market. Under interventionism, if a forum and their designers fail to continue to supply the demanded product then they bear the consequences and lose activity while the other forums succeed. Secondly, when download products of a forum are the work of the official team, this can cause an undue preference on the part of the consumer. For example, in a free market in downloads where interventionism is not the policy, many design teams are under one or many forums, while none are made officialized. The design teams that supply the better downloads will succeed and become more popular, while the ones who fail to serve the consumer eventually wither away. In this way the community exercises its vote on who is the most productive and whose products are most interesting. This is all well and good, but once we allow interventionism into the mix, we begin to see problems. Consider that one forum decides to officialize a design team that is the 3rd most popular due to close friendships between the designers and the staff administrators. The incentives upon the community are now to more favor that design team not because they make the best products but because they are the "official team". This is a clear disadvantage to the 1st and 2nd most popular design teams, because otherwise their products would have been more popular on the free download economy, but now they are neglected to their rightful places not because they did not make as good products but simply because they were out of favor with the staff establishment. Under interventionism, power and cronyism have more influence over the success of design teams than public opinion.

The way to resolve this issue, is for forums to cut ties with design teams and to go back to a fair and open game, a free download economy, where everyone can enjoy what they do and succeed on their own merits rather than be propped up by the staff administration. This is the only way to ensure that the genuine suppliers of the best download products will succeed in the long run. Only in a free download economy can the true best downloads make their way into the public and give the people what they want. Let us have one.

The Debate Experiment

 

Debates. I'm sure many people in this community remember them. They offended many, but was fun to a lot.

It all starts down with the person. It could have been something on someones mind while doing the usual designing, download hunting, communicating with others and such, and wanted to wonder or challenge other peoples ideas or opinions about reality.

Usually, older teenagers to adults would start these topics and engage in them, seeing that they have a sense of maturity sometimes to handle hard ball opinions and observations, but because Zoo Tycoon was a family friendly game, many children were involved as well and many of them did not care for it one bit. Now, this whole debate scene was new to the community when it first was happening, there were no bad ideas about it at the time. But one type of debate is what caused such huge controversy. Because the designing portion of Zoo Tycoon included the love for animals and their study (Zoology, Biology, etc.) this attracted many people with more evolutionary, natural ideas. But because of the nature of the game being a children's based game, it was also appealing to people that may be from simple religious family's that have no problem having their children come to the forums and socializing with others, but they held onto the ideas of creationism mostly. It was these two groups of people that came together and collided when that one debate came up, Evolution Vs. Creation.

Now, not too many other debates really caused much trouble, topics like environmentalism and animal related issue topics were no problem to most because it was something agreeable, but Evolution Vs. Creation took the cake. Many religious people were offended by some remarks and proposals made in debates by the Evolutionists, it caused fights and complete chaos that it caused people to dislike each other and sometimes, leave the forum. To the board administrators, they saw this as something damaging their forums reputation and activity, it causes people to leave and make their own forums where such debates would not be allowed. This then called for heavy intervention with the issue. Forums that wanted to continue with debates implemented restrictions and heavy monitoring and sometimes, passwords for those who wanted to debate. This effort for controlling the situation got worse as some staff who were avid supporters for debate were strongly against the censorship and restrictions on debates. To them, it ruined the whole idea of speech and that people needed to just stop taking things so offensive when it was just simple questions and propositions to the debate. But some family-friendly orientated staff tried to stop that from happening, but most of them were outnumbered. Because of this, debates resumed back to normal and more conflict happened. This, was one of the reasons why ZTV came to be know as the forum of controversy, keeping away from it's family-friendly ideas and becoming a more mature friendly environment. This then caused those concerned to create other forums to implement family-friendly policy and to bar debate topics, this attracted many people trying to get away from the debate scene and find a more civil environment. But this then caused a revolt of intellectualism.

Some people on those forums saw too it that people who were against debates were too uptight and controlling and should just steer away from such discussions if they choose not too get involved with them.

The debate for debates still exist today, and forums like ZTV have an un-tamed debate forum (unless your flaming). While some other forums have banned controversial topics (Northern Skies).

There still is no way to solve the issue, many attempts have been made, but it only leads to some conflict. Perhaps sometime in the future there will be.

The Fluffy Raptor

Jul 1 2013, 08:17 PM

I was wondering if you could get a rating of the community right now.

MiBound

Jul 2 2013, 07:58 AM

I have a question for you... for certain forums, there is no "official" design team, but in effect... there is. What can they/we do to avoid this or at least lessen the effects? Is it up to staff to remain aware and conscious of NOT showing preference to a team that shows their projects and updates on a site? Is it important to keep staff and design team members separate (i.e. if you're on a design team, you shouldn't also be a staff member?)

I think the idea you're talking about is interesting, I'm just not sure how you (or the community) could implement it...