Bring back the Fangame Discussion Forum

[King Piranha Plant]

Not sure if I'm remembering wrong, but I had really fond memories of there being a Fangame Discussion Forum, and it was my favorite forum on MFGG because people actually talked about fangames on the site, the levels, the difficulty, the bosses, making polls about their favorites.

Back then all the "Developer Discussion" mostly took place in the "Help!" forum, with other dev talk happening in GC or Fangame Discussion. Although I don't see why Dev Discussion and Fangame Talk couldn't both exist nowadays.

Though to be fair, our GC and PPP are currently working perfectly for fangame discussion - on the current page of the GC there are 5 threads about fangames, eg. "Yoshi vs. Windows speedrunning", "Any good Mario fangames?", my recent thread about Biebersoft, etc. But I wonder if that alone might be a good reason for such a forum to exist, or if such a forum would encourage more fangame discussion?

EDIT: Fangame Discussion did indeed exist, as seen on the old Invision boards archive -- https://archive.mfgg.net/ (thanks @GeneralGuy for sharing it). Turns out it was basically Developer Showcase but it also had a Sub-Forum for talking about fangames that aren't your own.

[Evil Yoshi Toes]

Well that's a fun idea. Those who want to use the forums still are those people who love the MFGG nostalgia, so discussing fan games could be a lot of fun.

[VinnyVideo]

Hmm... an interesting point!

I think the "Fangame Discussion" forum you're speaking of is the Miscellaneous Discussion subforum on the old IPB boards. Development Showcase is the modern version of Fangame Discussion - a place to share games you're working on. On the IPB boards, Miscellaneous Discussion was a subforum for discussing programming concepts and game design, similar to the modern Developer Discussion.

I'd love to see more topics analyzing other fangames - sometimes people aren't sure where those topics should live! I'd also love to see Developer Discussion be more active - that's where MFGG has some of its most productive and valuable discussions.

Course clear! You got a card.

[King Piranha Plant]

Hmm... an interesting point!

I think the "Fangame Discussion" forum you're speaking of is the Miscellaneous Discussion subforum on the old IPB boards. Development Showcase is the modern version of Fangame Discussion - a place to share games you're working on. On the IPB boards, Miscellaneous Discussion was a subforum for discussing programming concepts and game design, similar to the modern Developer Discussion.

I'd love to see more topics analyzing other fangames - sometimes people aren't sure where those topics should live! I'd also love to see Developer Discussion be more active - that's where MFGG has some of its most productive and valuable discussions.

Hm weird, I swear I remember it being called something that specifically encouraged discussion on fangames. Maybe I'm falsely remembering. But overall I think the point I'm making is more that "Developer Discussion" sounds a bit too technical to encourage talk about fangames. And the reason people don't talk about them in "Development Showcase" is kind of the same issue, but also that there's a sort of strict idea with how that forum works - as in there's only one thread per fangame and they're always made by the creator, mainly for the purpose of updates and sharing progress. Like you wouldn't make a thread "My Top 10 Fangames" in there, haha.

But to be fair with all this, our GC and PPP are currently working perfectly for fangame discussion - on the current page of the GC there are 5 threads about fangames, eg. "Yoshi vs. Windows speedrunning", "Any good Mario fangames?", my recent thread about Biebersoft, etc. (I'll add this point to the original post)

So it's not necessary by any means to add another. I just wonder if it would encourage more talk about fangames if we had a place like that. There are sooo many fangames on MFGG and, man, even on the Discord I'm always wishing people talked more about them, assuming a good deal of people are still even playing them.

[GeneralGuy]

Hm weird, I swear I remember it being called something that specifically encouraged discussion on fangames. Maybe I'm falsely remembering. But overall I think the point I'm making is more that "Developer Discussion" sounds a bit too technical to encourage talk about fangames. And the reason people don't talk about them in "Development Showcase" is kind of the same issue, but also that there's a sort of strict idea with how that forum works - as in there's only one thread per fangame and they're always made by the creator, mainly for the purpose of updates and sharing progress. Like you wouldn't make a thread "My Top 10 Fangames" in there, haha.

But to be fair with all this, our GC and PPP are currently working perfectly for fangame discussion - on the current page of the GC there are 5 threads about fangames, eg. "Yoshi vs. Windows speedrunning", "Any good Mario fangames?", my recent thread about Biebersoft, etc. (I'll add this point to the original post)

So it's not necessary by any means to add another. I just wonder if it would encourage more talk about fangames if we had a place like that. There are sooo many fangames on MFGG and, man, even on the Discord I'm always wishing people talked more about them, assuming a good deal of people are still even playing them.

No, you're right. There was a forum on the old Invision message boards called Fangame Discussion. https://archive.mfgg.net/

I think we should bring back Fangame Discussion. Sure, you can discuss fangames in the GC or PPP, but having a sub-forum made specifically to talk about fangames would not only encourage discussion about them more than having to post about it in the GC or PPP, but would also be strictly about fangames and thus easy to find fangame discussions.

[Vitiman]

I too support the resurrection of Fangame Discussion. May as well, right?

[Roo]

I've been playing and reviewing old fangames recently, and while I don't know how much I would have to say about them in forum form, I fully support the initiative too.

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