Getting My Campaign to Featured Status Level

Hardhead

So, I have a goal. And that goal for my campaign, Crucible, to eventually become a Featured Campaign. Now, I know I'm a ways away from it. Specifically, my campaign just hasn't been around long enough to build up the depth that a Featured Campaign should have in terms of Adventure Logs and whatnot. So I know it's not going to happen next month or anything, but as a long term goal I'd like some input on what areas I should focus on to get my campaign up to Featured-level status. I'm not only looking for the general advice for any campaign (ie, get more fans, concentrate on a good record of Adventure Logs), but also specific advice for mine (your map needs improvement, you need longer entries for some geographical regions, etc).

"Here's the link.":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/world-of-crucible

So, thoughts? Don't pull any punches here. I need criticism to improve.

arsheesh

I'm finding it difficult to come up with constructive criticism for your campaign site Hardhead. That's because I'm just amazed at how much of your world you've been able to flesh out in such a short time. And I am outright green with envy at how involved your players are in this process as well. I've only seen a handful of campaigns on the Portal where nearly every player kept a campaign journal. There are still some areas that need fleshing out of course. The descriptions of regions surrounding Arandor is a bit thin, and there is a noticeable lack in NPC's in your campaign. However I'm sure you'll get to these as time allows. Besides, it looks like you have been concentrating your efforts on specific tasks, such as beautifying your Adventure Logs sections, which, might I add, is very well done. Thus I would say your campaign is very good and shows potential for becoming a featured site.

On the other hand, one thing to think about is that there are over 14,000 sites on the portal, and many of them are very good. I think what the OP admins are looking for is a site that somehow sets itself apart from other "good" sites on the portal. What's more, the admins don't exactly have the time to browse all 14,000+ sites to determine a featured site. In order for a site to even be in the running, the admins have to know that that site exists, meaning most likely that the site is a "visible" part of the scenery. Given this, if you want your campaign to be featured, I would suggest:

(1) Find a way to uniquely distinguish your site from others.
(2) Find a way to increase the visibility of your site.

As for the first suggestion, I cannot help you other than to suggest looking to the most popular sites (located on the first and second pages of the Campaign Tab) and to past featured campaigns for inspiration. As for the second suggestion, I would recommend becoming more actively involved in the OP community (though I think that being involved in the OP community is its own reward). You can do this by starting or participating in forum discussions, by welcoming new members, and by helping out others who've run into problems. Also, consider this. If you enjoy receiving feedback on your campaign site from others, it stands to reason that they do as well. There's sort of an unspoken rule of reciprocity which states that the more you treat others in the way you would prefer to be treated, the more likely they are to respond to you in kind. So I suggest that if you are looking for feedback, freely give feedback to others as well. Well, hope that helps.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

gaaran

I gotta say, I'm liking the look of your site, and from what I've read it sounds like a pretty interesting and involved campaign. You new adventure logs are looking pretty awesome too, but I have to say, maybe it's only on my screen, but your banners are coming up a little off. Here's a link to a screen shot: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4047/4667517225_a54724686d_b.jpg

Other than that, just keep up the good work, and keep writing. If you're not actively writing stuff for your current campaign, I say challenge yourself to write one piece of backstory, or information a day. It could take as little as 20 minutes, and after a while, it will feel even more like a living breathing world (I'm working on doing this myself, and I think my page has come a long way from when I first joined).

I'll be watching this thread for ideas too, as Hardhead and I share a goal, to one day grace the front page :).

gnunn

Hardhead,

Arsheesh hit the nail on the head for suggestions. Visibility and something that sets you off as unique are two big factors. The best way to increase visibility is to be active on the boards. That was a major reason I ended up featured in April, and I'm pretty sure it helped Arsheesh as well. So, stay active like you're doing, offer to help when you can, ask for advice when you need it.

One thing I try to do with my site is to ask, "Who do I want to use this?" Me? my players? other OP members? Not every page on your site has to be intended for just one or all of these groups, but when you make a page, it is good to have your audience in mind.

Based on my experience, players often go in for reference stuff and session recaps. I use lots of tables in my reference sections so my players can quickly scan for information and then read the full text if they want.

I use the wiki to keep things consistent. Remembering the what was on the unidentified scroll I gave my players four sessions ago, what character traits I assigned to my NPCs, what house rules I established.

Outside readers seem to like narrative passages like adventure logs or world histories, as well as any information they could use to make their own game better. This is why I set up a section on GM Techniques... If you want to get outside readers, post new stuff you add in the "show off" thread or other relevant boards.

As to the mods, who make the ultimate decision, I know they look for regular activity, type and amount of content, buy in from your players (I'm super jealous of your character journals btw), use of original artwork and just general effort put into your site.

I really think you are on the right track from what I've seen. Keep up the good work!

Hardhead

Gaaran, none of my players have that issue, nor do I. I tested it in Firefox, Chrome, and an (admittedly old version of) IE, so I'm not sure what's up there. I appreciate you bringing it to my attention. The code *IS* admittedly very kludgy, but since none of my players are having issues, it's a low-priority fix. It's on the list, though. :) What browser and OS do you use?

Everyone else: Thanks for the feedback. I *am* trying to be more involved here anyway, as Arsheeh said, doing so is it's own reward and the feedback I've gotten before has improved the site a hojillion times over already, so I'll certainly continue. :) Thanks again!

gaaran

That's really strange, I'm using firefox on windows 7 and that's still how it appears to me, but if you're not having that issue in any browser, I wouldn't worry about it then (I just checked in IE and that problem isn't there, weird...).

PS. Thanks for the favorite :).

Hardhead

Huh. Yeah, basically I'm just making a centered background image and then using centered headers to overlay the text over it... so like I said, I'm not surprised it's broken, but it is weird it's messing up in Firefox for you. I tested it on both XP and Ubuntu, so huh. I should probably just start doing a nice header where the text is part of the image, but this was easier to do and I'm lazy. :)

Morrinn

Very odd Gaaran, Looks fine in my browser.
(firefox 3.6.3, Winxp)

Maybe its windows 7, allthough thats still a bit odd.
And Hardhead, Looked at your campain, very cool.
I had fun reading the Adventure Log and looks like your players are enjoying themselves as well. That, to me, is a good enough leg up to be considered for a Feature ;)

gaaran

I think I figured out why it looks odd on mine. for whatever reason, even though I'm using 3.6.3 as well. the text appears larger than normal (the actual font, not my zoom settings) so that's causing a second tile of the background to appear below the first. Just a fluke then, don't worry about it :). I find making that actual banner graphics easier than attempting to line up text on a background image, but that's just personal preference.

From what I've read of crucible, it sounds like a pretty awesome story. Keep up the good work, and I agree, player involvement is key. I'm currently working on that, I have one player that loves to write, but I'm trying to get the other two more into it as well.

Hardhead

Thanks, Morrinn. Yeah, I'm super psyched about my player involvement. They're really exceeding my expectations. I think part of that is my "extra credit system":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/world-of-crucible/wikis/house-rules but, honestly, most of it is just a couple players getting really into it, and then them all trying to outdo each other, or at least keep up. :)

Making the banner would probably be easier, but I'm often typing up that stuff on a work computer, where I can't just fire up Photoshop, so this works for me... still, it's something I'm considering redoing. Mostly because I just like the look of a real graphic better (though I'm not going as far as Arsheeh with him picking out a new picture for each adventure log, no matter how nice it looks... gotta prioritize).

Oh, and gaaran, would you mind if I use your navigation menu? And if not, would you mind just pasting the code you use? It looks really nice!

gaaran

yeah, feel free to use my code, i made it with trial and error, putting together some of chainsaw's and gnunn's tutorial so the code is pretty messy, but it'll give you the basic outline. the main thing that made it easy was each of the links on my navigation is a .png file and the scroll is just a background image, so I didn't have to worry about mapping the buttons (since I couldn't get it to work). feel free to just link to my images rather than copy them all if you want to use the navigation menu. if you have an acknowledgements section, I wouldn't mind if you added my name to the list :)

gaaran

[[Main Page | !http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/12866/home.png(Home)!]]

!http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/12867/adventure_log.png(Adventure log)!:http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/melekar/adventure-log

[[Current Campaign | !http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/12868/current_campaign.png(Current campaign)!]]

[[History | !http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/12869/history.png(History)!]]

[[Geography | !http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/12870/geography.png(Geography)!]]

[[Denizens | !http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/12871/denizens.png(Denizens)!]]

[[House Rules | !http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/12872/house_rules.png(House rules)!]]

[[Miscellany | !http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/12873/miscellany.png(Miscellany)!]]











SITE CONTENT GOES HERE

munkybut

I must say! That's a beautiful setup. Also, very cool with your players being involved. I'd say you're already well on your way.

Duskreign

I just perused your campaign site for the first time and found myself adding it as a favorite and rating it 5 stars almost immediately. I believe Crucible is a world I would enjoy playing in. I can tell you're a devoted GM just by seeing the passion you've put into your campaign site.

I, too, would like my campaign Wyrmshadow to be featured someday. If campaigns the quality of yours beat me to it, though, I will smile and feel like I am joining worthy company.