Posts from How can we save the "Heroes" theme?

Let me warn you right away, most of my post is copied from an instant messaging conversation, so it might sound a bit awkward.

I think it's impossible to constantly talk about Heroes. There's nothing new coming out (I'm not talking about Heroes 5, I'll explain why later), and everything old has already been discussed many times... so the topics about Heroes themselves are dying out... Tournaments help with this. But I don't see the point in creating a separate forum. There won't be anyone there. The most popular topic in terms of views is "Heroes 5 campaign Walkthrough," which says a lot, and the fact that it's already been completely covered means that if you leave it as is, nothing new will happen. Many people have said that they came here through a search engine looking for Walkthroughs, and then they stayed on the forum.
After all, many "veterans" left, largely because they were the ones who flamed the most. They weren't even interested in the Heroes game itself, but in their own opinions.
Yes, you're right, more and more opinions are turning into flame (in my opinion, the name of the section is wrong, it should be something like "chat room," "off-topic," etc., so that there are no complaints like "why was my topic deleted from the flame section, everything is allowed there" (sorry if I offended anyone, not everything is allowed there)), but this process is happening on all forums. And the flame itself didn't start developing just now... remember the same "Counter"... now there are at least more reasonable topics...
This forum is, in a way, unique because it covers an entire series of games... and as a result, the old stuff has already been discussed many times, and the new stuff isn't as clearly defined, and people prefer to go and discuss Heroes 5 on more specialized forums (for example, Nival, I've seen people I've met here there many times, and they're much more active there). Where there are no arguments about which part is better, but rather a discussion of a specific game (strategy, tactics, etc.).

Now, what solution are we looking for? To have less flame or more Heroes content?

If we want more Heroes content, we need to gain popularity, but not so much for Heroes as a game, but for Tournaments related to it (prizes, trophies, etc.). More topics with tactics for specific situations, etc., will appear.

And to have less flame, we need to rename the section, systematize the sub-sections. Take a deep breath and clean up everything that has accumulated there in a week. After that, clearly state the concept of this section and then monitor it to prevent obvious flame.

I'm not saying that I haven't thought about this, but I still don't see any acceptable solutions. The portal itself has undergone many significant changes since its creation (Clans, Tournaments, RPG, etc.). Some things have survived, and some haven't... Clans were created with enthusiasm, bordering on "everyone is doing it, and I want to too." And, as practice has shown, about half of them survived, BUT they did survive. Perhaps it's worth completely redesigning the forum, but I'm not ready to take the risk and bet on black when everything could be lost. Right now, it's a unique forum where very different people communicate on very different topics... but it could easily turn into just another forum about Heroes...

P.S. If anyone has read to the end, thank you for your patience.

P.P.S. Alexei, as you requested, the answer is provided in the topic ;-)

the administration won't create an off-topic section for Heroes. You can discuss it in this thread, but no one will take any action, and everything will remain as it is.

We need to help, but not in this way. Without some casual discussion, the forum will become boring. If, after such a day, I come (crawl) home from training, go to the forum, and see what's new (I don't look for anything specific, I just want to relax), then with the proposed arrangement, I'll have to wander back and forth looking for something interesting. Given the current disagreements in resolving this issue, I suggest creating a poll for the general public with a duration of one month. During this time, everyone can vote for the option that is acceptable to them, and in this way, we will learn the collective opinion.

The poll has already been created. However, the general public simply doesn't care about it. (Apologies for the language). Alan's suggestion about a global cleanup is one of the options that should also be discussed. We don't want to become like HeroSports, but we also don't want to become just another "forum." Therefore, we need to argue and debate. Perhaps concrete proposals for the development of Heroes will emerge. In particular, I suggest opening a mapmaking school so that we don't have to search for maps on other resources.

Specifically, I suggest opening a school for mapmakers so that we don't have to search for maps on other resources.

On the Heroes Portal, this is solved by awarding arrows, but how do you plan to attract people to your school?

what if we tried to preserve both, BUT since the main idea of the forum is Heroes, we could slightly hide the off-topic discussions – place a link to all the topics and navigate from there... and leave only the Heroes-related sections on the main page; those who want to chat and engage in off-topic discussions will simply have to click on the link, i.e., consciously enter the off-topic section, because when off-topic discussions are on the main page, and you see them, you realize that the topics there are less serious and diverse, and people stay there... another thought is to strictly control the off-topic discussions... for example, a topic about Mavrodi, Yeltsin... these are significant figures, but very little good comes from discussing them... so what's the point? I'm not suggesting limiting freedom of speech in any way; I'm suggesting narrowing the range of off-topic topics, and some of them have been abandoned for a long time, so maybe we should clean up the off-topic section? we could also hold a creative contest on the Heroes theme, or an avatar contest (a real one, not the imitation that exists)... Tournaments are tournaments, but they will also get boring eventually... we need to look further ahead and develop the forum in several directions...

Added 1 minute ago

on HeroeSportal, this is solved by awarding arrows, but how are you going to attract people to your school?

and once this school is opened, people will come on their own, and prizes are something that can be acquired... we could give some kind of portal currency or something similar to Rep.

Added 2 minutes ago
it would also be good to reorganize the moderators... there are many of them, but in reality, only a few are working... so what's the point of such a large management team?

Regarding the lack of interest in Heroes, the issue is that there's not much to discuss in the official Heroes games, and few people seem interested in unofficial Heroes content (the "Wog" section exists, but it doesn't get much attention). I think we should create separate sections for unofficial expansions like Rekvizit or Ecvilibris and promote various tournaments and contests for the best avatar (although it's unclear if that's necessary, as few people participated in the Hel contest).
The "flood" section needs to be more clearly divided into sub-sections: general chat, politics, literature, movies, other games, etc.

To revive interest in the Heroes series, I suggest focusing on creating walkthroughs for other installments besides the third one. For example, I haven't seen a single decent manual for the fourth game, and the same goes for other parts of the series. This could also bring people together, even if just for a while, among the most active fans of Heroes.

You could also hold a creative contest on the Heroes theme, or an avatar contest (a real one, not the poor imitation that exists)... Tournaments are tournaments, but they will also get boring eventually. You need to look further ahead and develop the forum in several directions...

In my opinion, if everyone gets tired of the tournaments and they are no longer held, then there will be nothing to do here at all :)

but if you open this school, people will come on their own, and the prizes are something that can be acquired... you could give some kind of portal currency or something similar to Rep...

And why have different schools and contests if there are no tournaments? In my opinion, things are not bad with the tournaments now, so I don't understand and don't see any tragedy in the fact that the Heroes theme is being overshadowed. Personally, I don't mind the off-topic discussions; add another 1000 off-topic threads and put them on the main page. If I don't need it, I won't go there. The main thing is that a person can EASILY find the page where the tournaments are held :)

Added after 13 minutes

To revive interest in Heroes, I would like to suggest working on creating FAQs for other parts of Heroes, besides the third one. For example, I haven't seen a single good manual for the fourth one, and for other parts either. This could also bring people together, at least for a while, but for the most active fans of Heroes.

The main problem in Heroes 4 (it's interesting what will be in the FAQ-4 :) is the long and tedious battles. Many people give up on Heroes 4 because of this. It's not very interesting to manually fight such battles, and besides, it takes a lot of time, which is spent on simply moving pieces around the field back and forth and does not require any intellectual effort, and nwcAres has been officially banned since the battle loop :)
Example: a battle between a hero with a summoned fairy against Walking Plants. After all the plants' arrows are spent on the fairy, you summon another batch of fairies and the battle is won NO MATTER WHAT. Is it worth manually fighting with 7 fairies against a hundred plants to finish the battle???

Therefore, on the one hand, you want to somehow revive the Heroes theme, and on the other hand, you don't want to deviate from the standards adopted on other portals, which, with their bans, raise mindless followers who just mindlessly press keys - this applies to Heroes 4, which is in a deplorable state on this resource.

Are we talking about saving? Saving what?
I can say with absolute certainty that the level of Tournaments for Heroes 2 has changed qualitatively over the last year. It is not just a different level of play; it is a fundamentally different level of play, often bordering on the level of the top twenty players of the Russian-speaking internet.
While I am not a specialist in Heroes 3, I will nevertheless venture to express the opinion that the level of Tournaments for Heroes 3 has also increased tenfold.
In this regard, I see the problem only in the relatively small number of tournaments, which in turn is linked to the relatively small number of map "adapters" (forgive the neologism).
Generally speaking, at the current moment, I personally consider the level of players on the portal to be quite high. Moreover, this has been achieved not only by attracting masters, but also through the rapid progression of their own talents.
PS. For those who understand: this is no longer a sandbox.

Are we talking about saving something? Saving what?
...
P.S. For those who understand: this is no longer a sandbox.

I absolutely agree. Since this is no longer a sandbox, we need to try to introduce more professional tournament rules, without looking at other portals.

The main problem in the 4th game (it's interesting what they will do about it in Might and Magic IV :) is the long and tedious battles. Many people stop playing the 4th game because of this. It's not very interesting to fight these battles manually, and besides, it's very time-consuming, spending time on simply moving units back and forth on the map, which doesn't require any intellectual effort, and nwcAres has been officially banned since the battle loop.
Example: a battle with a hero and a summoned fairy against Walking Plants. After all the plants' arrows are spent on the fairy, you summon another batch of fairies, and the battle is won NO MATTER WHAT. Is it worth manually controlling 7 fairies against a hundred plants to finish the battle???

This issue is better discussed in another topic... this is off-topic in this topic.

But in essence:
No matter how you look at it, you can't avoid off-topic conversations, because we are all people and we can't always talk (and enjoy it) about the same topic. Therefore, off-topic conversations are necessary.
The problem is that it shouldn't turn into discussions about the Heroes games... which is what's happening with us. In my opinion, half of the messages in the Heroes 3 section are just off-topic.
To keep interest in the Heroes theme, you need to engage people, which can be done (and is already being done) by holding Tournaments.
But, as has already been noted, just Tournaments can quickly become boring, so you need to keep interest in the Tournaments themselves.
This needs to be done in a comprehensive way, namely:
1) Tournaments should have prizes, so you need to introduce virtual currency (Grails).
2) Grails should be freely available on the portal.
3) You need to revitalize the Clans, i.e., organize prize Tournaments for the Clans.
4) You need to make players interested in getting these Grails.
What I have listed now is not a discovery, and many people on our portal have already thought about it.
And I hope that we will be able to organize all these points on the portal in the near future.

P.S. and also, you can't make people interested in something by introducing bans! This policy will not yield results.

Sincerely.

The skill level of players on our portal (I'm referring to Heroes of Might and Magic III) is quite good. There's plenty of evidence to support this. There's no reason to worry. I think that with regular tournaments, by the end of the year, a couple more skilled players will emerge. I'm already taking some steps in that direction. The only question is the quality and regularity of the tournaments themselves (for all parts of the game), which is a complex issue. And work is being done to resolve this issue, so we're moving forward with hope for a bright future. As for me, I don't mind the "blunders" because I enjoy the game itself.

This issue is better discussed in another thread... in this thread it is off-topic..

I am not discussing this issue here — everything is already clear. You simply pulled part of the message out of context. The battle example was provided solely FOR THE PURPOSE of showing you — how will you attract people to Heroes 4 if you force them to grind such battles manually until the end, when a battle takes at least 2-3 hours or even more, but after just 20 minutes it's already clear how it will end and all that's left is to stupidly fly fairies back and forth and run the hero in circles away from plants?
Once again — I am not discussing the battle here, but how to attract people to the Heroes theme, more specifically — to Heroes 4. Or are you saying that everything is fine with 4 here?

Heresy.:smile42: I'm talking about the younger generation.

And as for splitting the forum... yes, that's a possible option, but it will just result in fewer people. Only true Heroes fans will remain. Well, that might be for the better. Although, we could just leave everything as it is and simply participate more in Heroes-related topics.
Sooner or later, this will all be resolved.
Perhaps, even on its own.

I'm in favor of splitting the forum into TWO LARGE SECTIONS: "Heroes and topics not related to the Heroes theme..." The female paladin is right on this issue (about the split): a complete division of the forum will only lead to its slow death... 95% of people (and probably in school too) HATE STRATEGY GAMES!!!! But this way, there are still some chances of survival... This is not just a generational problem, but also a language problem: if we create "HeroesWorld.net" and make this forum the "Russian-speaking part of the community," the chances of development will increase sharply + we need to start cooperating with other websites on similar topics: put "site buttons" on this site, and our buttons on that site... If we can't stop the flow of users away from us, then we need to create additional "channels" for users to access, and besides, users who have been banned from us, like Tigra, are openly engaging in NEGATIVE ADVERTISING and "spreading mud" on other sites with Heroes and other themes... This is more of a local issue than a global one... It would be quite rational to create a "sub-forum for games similar to Heroes." This strategy is very effective because not all "strategy gamers" like Heroes in their "pure" form... In our situation, it is important to start transforming and cooperating with other sites as soon as possible, because there is decent respect for our site, but the popularity is "at rock bottom"... We need to take action... And as soon as possible...

P.S.: The first thing that needs to be done on the site is to install an ANTI-SPAM bot program... Moderators and Coordinators need to be relieved of the "witch hunt," which will free up those important resources (moderators' time and energy) for the transformation and development of the site.
P.P.S.: I ask all highly respected moderators, coordinators, and ordinary users NOT TO GO OFF-TOPIC HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is what is ruining our "site on the theme of "Heroes of Might and Magic"!"