Rock Band Community: Deep Thoughts (your feedback please!)

[keiserfish]

Not just saying this but, HMX needs to start telling us when certain songs or albums will be released and to start reading the Ultimeate Setlist forum. You guys could get osme of these bands. You can definately get more Rolling Stones because if you got 1 you can get another. Just please also tell us when Who's NEXT will be available or if you guys aren't sure yet then just an estimate.

[Kyahx]

Bad timing I'm afraid. We had just made the decision to begin locking the other DLC threads (check the older ones, they've also been locked) so that more up-to-date announcements weren't getting bumped off.

Why not just make the most current thread a sticky, and then un-sticky it when you post the new week on Monday?? That would make sure the most recent was on page 1.

I also second the suggestion of copy-pasting the weekly DLC blog (with the backstory on all of the songs) into the week's thread...or atleast a direct link in the thread to the corrosponding post.

[crivit]

Maybe it would cut down on some of the mess in the Ultimate Setlist forum if there was a sticky listing the bands (just the bands, not the specific songs) you've come to a licensing agreement with. There wouldn't have to be 15 different threads begging for band xx if people knew they were coming someday. Of course have a generic disclaimer that things can change and nothing is set in stone untill it's released for download. Oh yeah, and any thread asking when band xx is going to be released should be immediatly locked.

[xbadx1233]

One thing I have always liked about online communities is the fact that they are, in a way, an actual community. I enjoy using forums like these to have a conversation with others in a thread. This definatly does not happen in these forums, instead, there are a million people just begging for all of their favorite songs, or applauding or complaining about the DLC. Reading tons and tons of posts like those is not what I see in other communities, I think it would be nice to see discussion: i.e...

Post 1: "I think Dragonforce should be on Rock Band!!"

2: "No, Dragonforce wouldn't work, there is too much double bass pedal"

3: "I actually agree with *Post 1*. Dragonforce would be fun!"

This is not the case for these forums. Like I mentioned before, all this forum is is a ton of people listing songs or critiquing the DLC. It's like everybody is talking to Harmonix, not each other.That's what I mean. COMMUNICATION. I always love the thrill of coming on and seeing how a discussion is playing out, and then contributing to it.

[darknessmoon]

Not just saying this but, HMX needs to start telling us when certain songs or albums will be released and to start reading the Ultimeate Setlist forum. You guys could get osme of these bands. You can definately get more Rolling Stones because if you got 1 you can get another. Just please also tell us when Who's NEXT will be available or if you guys aren't sure yet then just an estimate.

See the post above? That has already been addressed, and posts like that happen often. I think one of the bigger issues would be making a sticky or something to address certain that have already been addressed so that new threads don't continue to pop up over, and over, and OVER again.

These are some of the topics that I continuously see pop up with new threads, despite them having been addressed/discussed already:

1) March DLC
2) PS3 Guitar Compatibility
3) Rumored RHCP Song Pack
4) Release of "Who's Next?"
5) Release of "Grateful Dead?"
6) Release of "Nevermind"
7) BWT Online?
8) This week's DLC sucks!
9) "Harmonix, are you stupid?! Where's Led Zeppelin and The Beatles?!" Etc.
10) DLC Rumor Threads
11) Rockband UK Release
12) PS3 "Harmonix doesn't love us!" Threads (Voice chat, etc)
13) Etc, etc.

Let me give you a bit more details:

1) When the supposed March DLC was posted on the Rockband forum, there was 1 thread that expanded onto God only knows how many pages. HMXJohnlok responded in that thread, on page 25... Because people weren't able to find that (I did my best to direct everybody to that page, only to get flamed), countless threads regarding the "March DLC" kept popping up. Very annoying, especially when so many of them appear on the 1st page.

2) Sometimes, many of these threads pop out because some people are new to the forum and they don't know what's up. People will flame someone for bringing up something that has been beaten to death, simply because they are not sure where to find an answer.

3) Despite it being proved to be a hoax and rumor, there were still people who believed it to be true. Again, I directed people to the response of the rumor to clear things up. Again, no way of knowing where to find such an answer.

4) I think no matter what you do, people will still complain about "When is 'Who's Next?' going to come out?! Gawd!" until it's released.

5) Refer to #4

6) Refer to #4...

7) Refer to #2

8) Good idea to have the DLC announcement thread locked. This will lead to more of those threads popping out in the "Rockband" forum. Perhaps by providing the insight that you provided earlier and making it EASILY accessible, these threads will pop out less frequently.

9) Seriously, it's as if people think that the people working for Harmonix don't know who the "greatest of the great" bands are... Keeping people informed will stop this (e.g. process of making an RB track, waiting time, etc). We know that there are some things that you cannot tell us, but if you say at least SOMETHING, rather than to just ignore it and continuously allowing people to say that Harmonix is stupid for not having them in the game, they will continue to appear... Knowledge is power.

10) Though it has been stated before that unless we hear it from one of the HMX employees or Mods, consider it just a rumor, these continue to pop up, and they cause nothing but a flame war because people will say "OMG! Why did they choose this STUPID band?!" Followed by: "No, you're stupid! This band rocks!" Followed by: "Insert fuel to the flame here" simply because people are uninformed. Refer to #1

11) Don't know what you can do about that one...

12) Console wars galore! Bring on the the Banhammer and DON'T be afraid to use it. That is the equivalent of parents being afraid to spank their children for not obeying the rules. If you don't enforce the law, then people will continue to stomp all over you as they please. "Hell, if they haven't banned me yet, or locked this thread, then they won't be doing it anytime soon!"

As somebody else noted, the sticky's really don't stick out much. Something like "Have a question about so-and-so'? Read here!" and make it STAND OUT would help eliminate a lot of the countless threads relating to the topics above.

At any rate, those are my 2 cents and I'm making them count. Agree or disagree is up to all of you. Should I get flamed for any of this? I don't think so (though perhaps inevitable).

Should I get constructive arguments for and/or against my opinions? Sure! I'd love that (though perhaps it won't happen).

Happy Friday and Great Weekend to you all!

<a href="http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/Darknessmoon/?action=view&current=nbc_the_more_you_know.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/Darknessmoon/nbc_the_more_you_know.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[Julio_Strikes_Back]

I liked it better when it was a tight-knit community, but this place is still fun. There's great discussion here and not much needs to be changed.

They only thing I want is animated avatars.

[NO FEAR]

One way to help build a good community is to be part of it. I'm not saying you arn't involved. What I am saying is don't wait for something "official" to post. The mods on the Playstation forums have a motto that I stand by. Members first, moderators second.

We have a pretty good community over there. I don't want to take anything away from your site, but it wouldn't hurt to take a stroll over and chime in.

You can't have a community of just fanboys and fangirls, that's not a community, that's a fan site. Fan sites eventually become exclusive to the members who will shun away any casual visitors. Let the community vent if done in a respectfull way. The world isn't all sunshine and roses, locking threads about issues doesn't resolve the communities problems.

I could post more but I'm not giving away all my secrates

[Quyrean]

I think a forum OTHER then Tech Support for hardware, where people can talk about the hardware, vent, and talk about mods to hardware.

A forum for DLC, a place to discuss it, wine about it, whatever.

This would keep discussion of the game itself in the main thread managable I think

[Quyrean]

12) Console wars galore! Bring on the the Banhammer and DON'T be afraid to use it. That is the equivalent of parents being afraid to spank their children for not obeying the rules. If you don't enforce the law, then people will continue to stomp all over you as they please. "Hell, if they haven't banned me yet, or locked this thread, then they won't be doing it anytime soon!"

Also, I havnt seen alot of console wars. Its mostly PS3 owners *****ing about our own console. So you are saying I should not be allowed to ***** that my version has less features then another version?


How about posting a link to the blog in the DLC announcements? I see alot of people asking in this thread for info about why the song was chosen, and alot of that IS in the blog.

It would also be good to lock RUMOR threads, or at least make a thread with a topic saying the rumer is false, discuss. For example, recient announcements from various gaming mags/blogs/websites stating different release dates for standalone guitars, but on offical word on the RB forums, even to say they are incorrect, or TBD.

[Runa216]

honestly....the only thing I don't like is that it's TOO BIG of a forum. too many people. I can make a post, then go to the bathroom, and by the time I get back, it's nowhere to be found.

makes it hard to have any sort of significant discussion.