Can we have a feature where download pages can link to other related games? For example, I want to recommend Hatman and Zan-Zan to people who have played Falafel.
You can already filter the Downloads page by genre (and then sort by rating or downloads), and that's fine but it's very automated. I suggested this idea because it lets users recommend games without needing to write a review.
Originally Posted by Dr. James Have it so that anyone can suggest a game, but the Mr. Game maker chap has to moderate which ones are shown.
A good idea. I think I'd rather prefer having something of "opt-out" functionality, too. People can suggest games, but games are also automatically recommended based on genre, leaving the game author to moderate both suggestions and recommendations.
Or implement a tagging system, and have related games be based on that. The authors can add tags to their games, and the system recommends other games based on those tags, a la last.fm or the like. On top of that, users can suggest tags to add to the game, and the author moderates. If enough users suggest the same tag(s), then they get automatically added to the pool (later subject to author moderation, of course).
The first approach would remove the hassle of older games (with authors no longer visiting TDC) not having related games, but also allow spammy games to become unrelated. Bad genre classification could easily result in games being related very, very poorly.
The second approach would allow for a greater degree of accuracy for related games, but the automatic tagging would be subject to the trolls who would abuse it. Authors could control how much they want to be tag-trolled, though!
I can't really think on how to implement it without using more valuable bandwidth searching other games or tracking down what people are downloading. The reviews are good for doing that - heck, there's a page for it. I want to see more reviews :/
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
Originally Posted by M I can't really think on how to implement it without using more valuable bandwidth searching other games or tracking down what people are downloading. The reviews are good for doing that - heck, there's a page for it. I want to see more reviews :/
Easy - have it all done manually.
Inbetween the download link and the comments have a link to a page where you submit the recommended game (that just asks for the other games download URL, and maybe a rating of how similar the games are). The dev of the game then green lights the games which will then show up in that space. It would mean 2 new pages (the similar games submission page and the moderation page) is all.
Good idea but we'll also need a feature that lets people give a star rating to your recommendation to make sure you're not recommending games that shouldn't be recommended. Then we will have to upgrade that so that we can give a thumbs up or down to the star rating that the recommendation reviewer gave. Finally a section for essay submissions on the merits of the thumbs up or thumbs down and why it should be accepted