Insentives For Forum Use

[SSM_GOD]

For a while now I've been trying to think of ways to get more people active on the forums. I've tried sharing links in game chat and on discord, but there are still not as many active members as I'd expect, or like.

I was thinking that maybe it would be cool if at certain forum statuses, that you get a title in game, or a role on discord.
Maybe like, link the forum ranks (new member, active member, well known, master) to the game? Perhaps not all get a title, but just forum master?
Or maybe you get additional rewards like a version of /gary. Or potentially a better tier vote crate? (Seperatly, I've also thought about vote streak rewards)

What do you guys think?
Also, if you have any suggestions let me know! Soon I'll be making a suggestions page post with the ideas that I like.

 

[Sonic_Raptor]

I'd love it if there was a way to incentive forum usage. However the idea of a forum title or integration into the server has been suggested many times. I personally think there is some merit behind this and more website hits/usage can never be a bad thing for Manalabs as a company, doubt it is something that will happen though. I think its a nice idea even though thats coming from someone hugely biased as I would most likely qualify for anything forums related as a reward/obtainable something. I think you do raise an interesting point though @SSM_GOD, what I would love to see is something similar to Parkour Map submissions in some of the other sub-forums as it is undeniably the furthest reaching part of the forums due to the fact it is directly linked to making maps on parkour. Some of the suggestions I have seen with this is creating a similar process for Creative Plot submissions albeit this would require a fairly extensive change in how the system currently works. So I think rather then a forum title (still very cool ;) ) a way to integrate the forums into gameplay would be the best way to "incentives forum usage"

Can't wait to see what you come up with SSM

 

[Quinny]

I've thought about this a lot. I love forums as a platform in general (I've said it before I know). A lot of the ManaCube community is very social among each other! Discord is heavily used for players to communicate with each other, and do things that you CAN'T do here, more instantaneously. I think because Discord exists, it kinda replaces the need to use the forums for fast, effective communication. So what are things that could be implemented to the forums that could separate it from Discord, make it a unique experience, and most importantly, draw people here?
I think everyone is onto something as far as your forums rank/title having something to do with how you are seen in-game. Be it a title or icon, even maybe having an exclusive Forums Master Hat/Cosmetic option would be cool. But I do have an idea that's more...out there:

What if, with a revamp to the ManaLevel system that has before only been seen in hub, an entire /gstats or /manastats system could be integrated into ManaCube?
You could earn points that contribute to your ManaLevel through voting and playtime like usual, but ManaXP could be earned through some achievements on the forums, server specific achievements, and other things too :)
Reaching certain level milestones could provide unlockable cosmetics or titles, additional keys, or other rewards.
Something REALLY ambitious would be linking your forums stats and profile as a part of some sort of ManaProfile global system that players could look at any time in game. But...I would have no clue how to begin any sort of execution for that!

I feel like integrating the forums into a more comprehensive, mutliplatform experience would be the greatest thing for the forums. It would help bring people here so that they could have incentives in game, that aren't purely cosmetic.

 

[SSM_GOD]

Possible idea:
/frank (copyright for name pending)
Frank is the forum version of Gary. Where Gary allows you to get extra loot from linking with discord, being linked to forums will allow you to use all his nifty features! With the linking of your account, Frank will allow you to receive extra rewards and cosmetics such as hats, items, titles, and more!

Frank is based on work and activity on the forums but results with ingame rewards.

Typing /frank will open a gui where it displays pages of levels you have unlocked. It auto opens to the level you're on.
Each page will have 2 rows. The top one will display 9 squares assigned to each sub-level on your main level. The bottom row has multiple options, a back page button to see past levels, a milestones page where you can see the big rewards you get at different levels, leaderboard page, instructions page, maybe a server overview page, a page to explain a command to create a marketplace ad on forums, and potentially more.
You start off as "new member" level 0.0 (that's not a face, that's zero point zero)
You level up by gaining points. Points are gained by posting, commenting, reacting, and having a daily streak of activity on the forums.
Each level progressively requires more and more points to level up.
Your sub-level goes from 0.0 -> 0.1 -> 0.2 ... 0.8 -> 0.9 -> 1.0
Each level that is a multiple of 10, is a milestone level, where you earn larger rewards.
At each sub-level up, you gain small rewards of Exp, mana, money, or an item. (compared to Gary these would be even smaller rewards)
At each level up, you gain larger rewards, (compared to Gary these would be a little larger, except for cubit rewards)
At each milestone level up, you earn large rewards, sell wands (in applicable game modes), cubits, larger amounts of Exp, mana, money etc.
At large milestone levels, 50, 100, 200 etc. there is a sort of announcement to the server "[player] has reached Frank level 50!"
At these large milestone levels, you earn even bigger rewards. A free ancient key, free legendary key, a [Forums] title, a [ForumsMaster] title.
(specific rewards for each level are to be determined with more support and ideas from people)

I know that a system like this would require a lot more moderation. Spamming and abusing abilities will result in not only regular forum punishments but will also result in a lowering of your level, not receiving rewards when regaining those levels, and multipliers to make it more difficult to level up. Players would still be able to report others, and maybe they can even receive extra points for reports that result in punishments.

In order to reduce a large increase in the rewards on the server at the release of this idea, maybe open it up to the donor ranks at different times, and also reduce leveling by having the leveling system be slower at the release, but slowly made easier.

If you had any feedback or ideas to add to this, please let me know!
This idea was inspired by my own thoughts and ideas from @Sonic_Raptor @Quinny and multiple other people who has sparked my curiosity over time.

This is just one potential way to incorporate forums usage into ManaCube. I will try to post other ideas and system I have here. And I encourage you to do the same!
Maybe eventually one will be good enough and added to the game!

I know for sure doing a system like this will be very unique to ManaCube. I've visited multiple other servers in my time, but none of them have anything close to this.

 

[Sonic_Raptor]

Possible idea:
/frank (copyright for name pending)
Frank is the forum version of Gary. Where Gary allows you to get extra loot from linking with discord, being linked to forums will allow you to use all his nifty features! With the linking of your account, Frank will allow you to receive extra rewards and cosmetics such as hats, items, titles, and more!

Frank is based on work and activity on the forums but results with ingame rewards.

Typing /frank will open a gui where it displays pages of levels you have unlocked. It auto opens to the level you're on.
Each page will have 2 rows. The top one will display 9 squares assigned to each sub-level on your main level. The bottom row has multiple options, a back page button to see past levels, a milestones page where you can see the big rewards you get at different levels, leaderboard page, instructions page, maybe a server overview page, a page to explain a command to create a marketplace ad on forums, and potentially more.
You start off as "new member" level 0.0 (that's not a face, that's zero point zero)
You level up by gaining points. Points are gained by posting, commenting, reacting, and having a daily streak of activity on the forums.
Each level progressively requires more and more points to level up.
Your sub-level goes from 0.0 -> 0.1 -> 0.2 ... 0.8 -> 0.9 -> 1.0
Each level that is a multiple of 10, is a milestone level, where you earn larger rewards.
At each sub-level up, you gain small rewards of Exp, mana, money, or an item. (compared to Gary these would be even smaller rewards)
At each level up, you gain larger rewards, (compared to Gary these would be a little larger, except for cubit rewards)
At each milestone level up, you earn large rewards, sell wands (in applicable game modes), cubits, larger amounts of Exp, mana, money etc.
At large milestone levels, 50, 100, 200 etc. there is a sort of announcement to the server "[player] has reached Frank level 50!"
At these large milestone levels, you earn even bigger rewards. A free ancient key, free legendary key, a [Forums] title, a [ForumsMaster] title.
(specific rewards for each level are to be determined with more support and ideas from people)

I know that a system like this would require a lot more moderation. Spamming and abusing abilities will result in not only regular forum punishments but will also result in a lowering of your level, not receiving rewards when regaining those levels, and multipliers to make it more difficult to level up. Players would still be able to report others, and maybe they can even receive extra points for reports that result in punishments.

In order to reduce a large increase in the rewards on the server at the release of this idea, maybe open it up to the donor ranks at different times, and also reduce leveling by having the leveling system be slower at the release, but slowly made easier.

If you had any feedback or ideas to add to this, please let me know!
This idea was inspired by my own thoughts and ideas from @Sonic_Raptor @Quinny and multiple other people who has sparked my curiosity over time.

This is just one potential way to incorporate forums usage into ManaCube. I will try to post other ideas and system I have here. And I encourage you to do the same!
Maybe eventually one will be good enough and added to the game!

I know for sure doing a system like this will be very unique to ManaCube. I've visited multiple other servers in my time, but none of them have anything close to this.

This has to be the most concrete ideas regarding the forums and a forums link bot I’ve ever seen. This would be super cool and you’ve put together a really cool idea!

 

[curtis]

Possible idea:
/frank (copyright for name pending)
Frank is the forum version of Gary. Where Gary allows you to get extra loot from linking with discord, being linked to forums will allow you to use all his nifty features! With the linking of your account, Frank will allow you to receive extra rewards and cosmetics such as hats, items, titles, and more!

Frank is based on work and activity on the forums but results with ingame rewards.

Typing /frank will open a gui where it displays pages of levels you have unlocked. It auto opens to the level you're on.
Each page will have 2 rows. The top one will display 9 squares assigned to each sub-level on your main level. The bottom row has multiple options, a back page button to see past levels, a milestones page where you can see the big rewards you get at different levels, leaderboard page, instructions page, maybe a server overview page, a page to explain a command to create a marketplace ad on forums, and potentially more.
You start off as "new member" level 0.0 (that's not a face, that's zero point zero)
You level up by gaining points. Points are gained by posting, commenting, reacting, and having a daily streak of activity on the forums.
Each level progressively requires more and more points to level up.
Your sub-level goes from 0.0 -> 0.1 -> 0.2 ... 0.8 -> 0.9 -> 1.0
Each level that is a multiple of 10, is a milestone level, where you earn larger rewards.
At each sub-level up, you gain small rewards of Exp, mana, money, or an item. (compared to Gary these would be even smaller rewards)
At each level up, you gain larger rewards, (compared to Gary these would be a little larger, except for cubit rewards)
At each milestone level up, you earn large rewards, sell wands (in applicable game modes), cubits, larger amounts of Exp, mana, money etc.
At large milestone levels, 50, 100, 200 etc. there is a sort of announcement to the server "[player] has reached Frank level 50!"
At these large milestone levels, you earn even bigger rewards. A free ancient key, free legendary key, a [Forums] title, a [ForumsMaster] title.
(specific rewards for each level are to be determined with more support and ideas from people)

I know that a system like this would require a lot more moderation. Spamming and abusing abilities will result in not only regular forum punishments but will also result in a lowering of your level, not receiving rewards when regaining those levels, and multipliers to make it more difficult to level up. Players would still be able to report others, and maybe they can even receive extra points for reports that result in punishments.

In order to reduce a large increase in the rewards on the server at the release of this idea, maybe open it up to the donor ranks at different times, and also reduce leveling by having the leveling system be slower at the release, but slowly made easier.

If you had any feedback or ideas to add to this, please let me know!
This idea was inspired by my own thoughts and ideas from @Sonic_Raptor @Quinny and multiple other people who has sparked my curiosity over time.

This is just one potential way to incorporate forums usage into ManaCube. I will try to post other ideas and system I have here. And I encourage you to do the same!
Maybe eventually one will be good enough and added to the game!

I know for sure doing a system like this will be very unique to ManaCube. I've visited multiple other servers in my time, but none of them have anything close to this.

I feel like even if spam is moderated perfectly, there are going to be a whole lot of posts that will still add barely anything to the discussion, but enough so that the user can't be punished for making the post. The forum games would become a place to farm posts too. I'd like to see this feature become a thing, but only as an experimental feature at first in case it doesn't help bring legitimate conversation to the forums.

 

[SSM_GOD]

I feel like even if spam is moderated perfectly, there are going to be a whole lot of posts that will still add barely anything to the discussion, but enough so that the user can't be punished for making the post. The forum games would become a place to farm posts too. I'd like to see this feature become a thing, but only as an experimental feature at first in case it doesn't help bring legitimate conversation to the forums.

I like your idea. That was kind of my thinking for it being released to each donor rank, elite do it as beta, then slowly released to the rest.
Or perhaps there can be a daily points cap, or the rules on spam post can become much more strictly enforced.

 

[curtis]

I like your idea. That was kind of my thinking for it being released to each donor rank, elite do it as beta, then slowly released to the rest.
Or perhaps there can be a daily points cap, or the rules on spam post can become much more strictly enforced.

A better idea with the leveling would not be basing it off of forum posts. Basing it off ratings from other people would encourage good discussion, but can be abused too easily as is. I'm thinking of a system similar to the one on the housing gamemode of another server, where everyone gets x amount of "cookies" each week that they can distribute to others, and leveling is based on how many cookies a person has received. Donator cookies can be worth more as well.

 

[Tas]

Actually, I disagree with a lot of the ideas discussed here. The forums is its own platform, as much as Discord and Minecraft are. I don't think there should be overlap between platforms. Should we get Well-Known and Popular titles in-game too, from Discord? I don't know that there are enough pros to these ideas that wouldn't create their own problems to make them worth it.

The people who frequent the forums are free to do so, and those who prefer to chat more casually are more likely to use Discord or in-game chat. Personally, I like the forums to share larger, thought-out ideas with the community, but I am uncomfortable when expected to maintain a banter of quotes with another user. If I want to have a normal conversation, I'll use the platforms that are designed for that. The forums are meant to share a general idea, and then to receive and respond to feedback. Again - the people who like to use the forums are of course more than welcome to (obviously I have my fair share of posts ...) but pressure on other platforms to "branch out" would not be positive.

Not to be a grumpy old coot, but let's keep the forums as the forums and let the platforms stay separate.

 

[SSM_GOD]

@Tasses
You'd still be able to continue using the forums the same way you are now. I agree the vibe and ideas shared here are more elegant but what's wrong with adding more people to these conversations? If someone was to do the spammy, annoying "good idea" post, that would be still against the rules, and with negatives, like a slower level up with this system, there is a greater deterrent to make those kinds of posts.
I think it would be pretty cool if high discord level players got an in-game tag, it would invite more people to become active on all platforms of ManaCube. But my idea is focused on forums, for now at least, as there are fewer people but it also has a great potential to become a larger part of the game with things like 'marketplace' posts.
I do understand that there could be a lot of negatives with this type of thing, but that's why I'm the ideas so if there is a potential fix, it can be added.
I do think that it is important to value your perspective though, so I'm going to try to think of more ways that a system like this can leave the same classic feel.

 

[Sonic_Raptor]

Another although more restrictive to the forums is that Member, Well known Member and Forum Master have different colours on the actual forums themselves. Kind of like Active, Well known and Popular do. It's a small thing but it is why activity is sometime encouraged on discord.