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Forums - Website Topics - Should VGC Have User Submitted News Articles?

So I was thinking about this ever since my last website feedback thread. I was talking to a few of the users here about the Game DB believe it or not and how it used to work. I was never able to experience it during its hayday, but I love what I've heard about it from more experienced users. Specifically, it did a lot to convince me of the benefits of having such a strong focus on our community.

Not one to just leave something alone, I've been having this idea churning. Unlike most of mine, however, I'm not sure if this would work, or if it's a good idea, but I think it might be. I do advise anyone reading this to read it through to the end though, because I plan on addressing some of the more obvious concerns here.

So when learning about the Game DB, I discovered that it was a community driven database for cataloging games. Users would submit their edits and games to the GDB, the GDB admits would check to make sure everything was okay, and then the games or changes would be submitted. Because it awarded members with the equivalent of "points," members were motivated to keep the database up to date, and it's clear even years later that it was a much beloved feature of the site.

At the same time, I've been thinking about the site, and my proposition to focus more of the layout on the articles provided here. But I'm a realist, and I started thinking. We have outstanding writers here. I myself aspire to one day be apart of the writing team here, so trust me when I say that I hold them to high regard. But I have to be honest, the flow of articles isn't the most consistent. What I mean to say is that the rate by which articles are posted isn't frequent enough. Now I don't think it's anyone's fault. It just the reality of having to staff freelancers. It just isn't realistic or fair to expect them to compete with news gaming sites in how frequently they write content. And at this point, it also isn't realistic to expect VGC to be able to afford a team of writers dedicated to writing news on that kind of schedule. So VGC is sort of between a rock and a hard place. I want the site to give more of a spot light on the articles, but doing so at this stage would expose just how understaffed we are.

A user posted something a few months ago that stood out to me. It was honestly a little rude, but true - he mentioned how the forums here will oftentimes post news hours before they ever get an actual article here. And it's true. They do. And we all know that, but the two situation are obviously incomparable. One is posting the bare minimum for free to spark discussion, while another is a freelancer putting in the work to maintain a level of quality in their spare time. They aren't making a living off it. But still, that stood out to me.

And I thought about that this morning. And then I thought about the game DB. And then it hit me.

What if submitting news articles worked like submitting something in the old Game DB?

Now I want to specify. Not editorials. Not reviews. Not interviews. Not sales numbers. Just news. Just telling people that something happened. Now maybe I'm off on this, but news articles typically take the least skill in writing to make. All you're doing is delivering information in a consumable and legible way. Why not let the community do this? Why not allow the community to contribute to the articles in a less formal way? Like with the game DB. We'd still have writers for the bigger stuff, but it might be beneficial to allow users to submit news articles. Almost like a videogame equivalent to Buzzfeed.

Only curated.

Just like the way that the GDB had Admins, this program could have mod elected Editors. These editors would have to apply, just like any position, and it would be their job to select the user submitted articles that get posted. They'd make sure that the info was legit, that the article isn't plagiarized, that the news is well written, and that everything was properly sourced. They'd edit any minor thing that needed to be edited, and they'd post the news to the site. If you're article is selected, you get points for it, on top of credit obviously.

With this, the theory goes that VGC will always have news articles that posted as timely as possible in the highest quality possible. Then the writers can focus on writing articles that are more time consuming. It would take pressure off them to write about things like how Phil Spencer said something about someone.

What do you guys think, though? Could something like this work? Would it be fair? The people writing these news wouldn't be payed, and neither would the Editors. It would all be volunteer. I'm not necessarily set on this, but I can't really see a downside. I think it would be an excellent way to generate user activity and participation, it would be a great way to train potential writers here, and it would be a way to allow for more timely news articles. I want to here your thoughts though. If you can think of any reasons why this isn't a good idea, mouth off here. I might agree, and there might be something I haven't thought of, but I'm ready to debate if I disagree lol so be warned! I'm mostly trying to get a feel for if something like this could work. If VGC want a focus to be on our community, this would be an excellent way to do it.



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That would be cool, I know I would love to submit some if I had the chance.



                                                                                     

Rumors and leaks will automatically be cut, but even so, I can see this going bothways

If this functions sort of like My Nintendo News, I think this would work very well, where the community will help post news bits and have them published for everyone to see

As for me, I don't use VGC as a source of news and will look at Nintendo Life and My Nintendo News for news instead.. Also, would stick to forums to post news bits that I think it worth the attention, but I might use this feature if it was available..



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Reminds me a bit of Nintendomination, how we're encouraged to find any news related to Nintendo and help spread the word.

It'd be a very interesting concept to see implemented, and it could help benefit the site if done correctly.



"Just for comparison Uncharted 4 was 20x bigger than Splatoon 2. This shows the huge difference between Sony's first-party games and Nintendo's first-party games."

It would be great, but moderation would obviously be an issue. Suggested editors would probably solve it though.



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spurgeonryan said:
We used to have something like that as well. Just did not last long and did not take off. That was even older than myself. By the time I came along and became active it was already gone. You can still see evidence of it in the badges farther down the list.

Do you know how it worked or what you attribute to it not taking off?



we'll probably end up even worse then N4G...



 

Face the future.. Gamecenter ID: nikkom_nl (oh no he didn't!!) 

Zkuq said:
It would be great, but moderation would obviously be an issue. Suggested editors would probably solve it though.

Yeah, having a dedicated curators would be the most important part of making something like this work, or else the quality of the news would be all over the place. The first thing I thought of was myself. I wouldn't mind writing a news article under these circumstances, nor would I mind being an editor for them under these circumstances.

I enjoy writing threads, so  this would be a similar process to that. There would obviously need to be clear guidelines set on how to construct the articles, and ideally there would be a dedicated part of the site  for submitting these articles, in the same way there is a tab for "new thread."

Spurge is right, though. This would all be dependent on interest from the community. But my reasoning just came from the fact that whenever news comes to light, there is always someone passionate enough to make a thread about it. Just as many users are passionate about making well written threads, so I can see it working for articles. They wouldn't need to be page long affairs. Just enough to get all the major bullet points down. I might learn about a new feature for Pokken. Instead of posting a thread about it, something I already know someone else will do, I'd be willing to put in the extra time and submit a news article for review about a game I'm interested in. If enough people do this, you have a very up to date source for news. I might not personally care about final fantasy, but someone else will, so theyll obviously learn about  Final Fantasy 15 news before I do. They can make an article about that.

Trucks mentioned that one of the great things about the game db was that users would keep up-to-date games that they were passionate about. My idea is that this would work in the same sort of way. I'm going to be following Pokémon Sun/Moon news  aggressively, so I'll probably learn the news about it as soon as it comes out. Since I'm so passionate about Pokémon and want to talk about it anyway, it would be a pretty small step for me to write an article debriefing the news I've learned about it. Vivister was super passionate about Rocket League,  so someone like him could have written those news articles. Curl was super into Fatal Frame V,  so someone like him could've contributing to giving that less popular game some appropriate news with the vigor and respect of someone truly passionate about that franchise.

That's the hope, anyway.



NiKKoM said:
we'll probably end up even worse then N4G...

II have a little more faith in VGC than that



Platina said:
Rumors and leaks will automatically be cut, but even so, I can see this going bothways

If this functions sort of like My Nintendo News, I think this would work very well, where the community will help post news bits and have them published for everyone to see

As for me, I don't use VGC as a source of news and will look at Nintendo Life and My Nintendo News for news instead.. Also, would stick to forums to post news bits that I think it worth the attention, but I might use this feature if it was available..

I definitely agree there.  I do think there should be restrictions on the kinds of news articles being submitted. I definitely don't want to see three dozen "news" articles on he said-she said NX rumors.

 Yeah, the biggest thing is that the content would be curated and approved. We'd want the highest quality reports possible. I don't know how MNN does it, but I likened it more to a curated Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed has both user generated content, and content made by people who work there.  There is a clear delineation between which is which. Ideally, this would be the same way.

As for your last point, I really think that has a lot to do with the layout lol so I wouldn't expect a program like this to really get into the full spring of things until there was a layout change the put more emphasis and spotlight on the articles.