Breathing new life into Planet Virtual Boy

Jul 01, 2009 • 18:37

So, I’m going to start off and say that I really like this site. For a virtual boy site, it does much more than any other that exists. Everything you could possibly know about the failed system is organized neatly on this website. The development section could need a few sections completed but it’s done well also. You did a great job and it’s always being added to, I hopefully see a day when completed home brew outnumbers official games (which may not be too difficult to achieve).

While I love the site, it just seems like it’s not as active as it could be. 1-4 posts a day is only the effect of a forum being held back. Why not expand? Why not bring in something new to attract more activity?
The coding competition was a great idea, I really liked the concept. I think that’s great to see an addition to the homebrew scene in such numbers at one time. You should plan more, but know you don’t always have to have physical prizes. You could easily set up some sort of badge system.

More boards would help also, how about a 64DD board or a serious discussion board. If you went far enough to have some newer console boards (DS/GBA/Wii) you could have coding competitions for those also. The collection area could span other rare systems and the marketplace would flourish. The site would still be entirely Virtual Boy centric, just having places for some other discussion when we are tired of red and black 😛

I just think that it’s pretty easy to have more activity, you just have to have more to do for the average site-goer. I would like to see Planet Virtual Boy become a site for much more homebrew and have some sort of point or badge system.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

6 Replies

Jul 01, 2009 • 21:06

jojobean

there already are badges. there is already an off topic forum. there is already a 64DD website. everything you’ve suggested already exists. the only way to further expand on these things would cause the site to lose its focus.

Jul 01, 2009 • 22:40

diisco

Agreed. I have only been visting this site since May this year and this was from the advice from the commercial mag Retro Gamer which branded it as the best Virtual Boy site on the web.Considering it is a site dedicated to a 14 year old “portable” console that was branded a “failure”, it is extemely well supported. I regulary read past posts and threads from way before I was a member and there are some very dedicated and talented people that support this site that I have learned from that still regulary post and are working on projects. If the site included what you kindly suggested, it would certainly lose its identity.

Jul 01, 2009 • 23:49

DogP

Yeah… if there’s no news to report, I’m glad there’s no news reported. Most of the time, the news they report is actually worth reading, and I take a few minutes to read it… and the few forum posts are usually worthwhile to at least look at.

I appreciate the PVB guys keeping dedicated to the VB… of course it’d be better for them to expand to millions of members and throw ads all over the pages, but since they don’t, I feel like I can call this home, and actually pay attention to anything that does get posted. When I have to sift through tons of junk to get the good stuff, I lose interest. How it is now, I can drop by, get my VB fix, and move on. If I want to talk about video games in general, I can go to one of the many other general VG related sites.

DogP

Jul 02, 2009 • 18:35

Nessie

@ jojobean, yes there is an off topic forum. I suggested a serious discussion board, somewhere where people have a specific area to talk about sensitive subjects such as politics, religion, etcetera. We do have badges, but more could be created and rewarded for specific events. If we had more systems to catalog in your collection area, more could be rewarded in that area also. I know there is a 64DD website, it’s an affiliate of this one. One board would only be fitting as it is another failed nintendo system. The site would still be planet virtual boy, the main page would be the same. It would just have more to discuss or more information in one place about one specific topic. As well as added development tutorials for other systems, old and new. The site would not loose focus, everything virtual boy would still exist.

@ diisco, I would still love it to be the slow board that it is today. I could never imagine a purely virtual boy forum being any faster than it is. As someone who has been working on a project for the last 1 and a 1/2 years, I like seeing the intelligent regulars. If I ever need help regarding anything, all the people who would know are situated here.

@ DogP, The slowness of this forum is pretty nice. I enjoy not having many meaningless posts, stilll, if PVB did have more to offer board wise. I’m sure the VB boards would stay the same way they are. While I wouldn’t want this site to be like many of the other VG related sites. I just feel like more could be going on community-wise, even if no other boards are added. Why not have more competitions and less expensive prizes? Maybe even special forum badges, or privileges.

Jul 03, 2009 • 09:55

Hedgetrimmer

Nessie, i admire your enthusiasm but this site is top as it is, one topic only, the VB and for me thats all i want.
The last thing i need or want is to hear political or religious discussions, rants etc, each to thier own and log into some other site for a hit of that if you so desire but we all love VB here so lets just keep it that way.
BTW whats the project you been on for 18 months?

Jul 03, 2009 • 11:45

KR155E

First of all, welcome Nessie and thanks for the kind words (To you other guys as well! :-D)! Also thanks for your ideas. Here’s some thought about them:

I agree to the guys that there’s no point in expanding the site to other topics. We would lose focus. This site is about everything VB related, nothing else.

Competitions definitely are a good thing to breathe some more life into the scene and also get some attention from outside of it, attract new people and so on.

A while ago I had the idea to replace the Coding Competition with a yearly awarded “Homebrew of the year“. Since then I was wondering whether I should do it like that or just have another Coding Compo later this year.

We could also have Highscore competitions, but I am not sure how to do it. This would help fill the highscore lists, bring some activity, but we’d need a way to find a winner.

Any other ideas for competitions?

New batches can be added easily. Ideas for new types of batches are always welcome!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

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Breathing new life into Planet Virtual Boy