Gen5 Action Plan

[MikkelDemey]

With news of Generation 5 on our doorstep I began to think about how we handled Generation 4. In retrospect, the reporting and broadcasting went superb, but we could have done a bit more as a whole.

I remember there being plans, or talk of, for a Generation 4 walkthrough. But it failed.

This time I want us to tackle Gen5 with all our might, so I decided to start GAP now.

Suggestions for GAP:
- youtube : same old and I don't think they'd need any planning

- livestream : I don't think there will be much planning needed for this

- walkthrough : I imagine a few people (2-4) could be writing parts of this together and throw together a walkthrough pretty quickly. Due to the means we'd be playing this on right after release, high quality pictures could be available for our onsite illustrated walkthrough

- wallpapers : funny and cool imagery on the side is never a waste of time nor resources

- analysis of new monsters and attacks : I'm not talking a full-on pokemon-by-pokemon analysis like the big koffing has, but rather about the impact new mons have on the old metagame or the new one that might be created

- twitter incorporated into the site : we need some interactivity between twitter and our site. From twitter to our site by linking to new videos and pages. From our site to twitter by incorporating a tweet in our page template (it pulls the most recent tweet(s) from twitter and puts it on our pages)

Ideas, suggestions and critiques are welcome and of much use.

[DarkAngel_Reid]

Well, as far as that stuff goes, I think the only real use I could be of is in a walkthru, since I've kinda gotten rusty on the metagame level (Though I'm sure I'd have time to catch back up.)

[Ze Colonel]

The plan is whenever the hell the old geezer nonsense is over and done with, that the Youtube's main focus is news after an english SoulSilver run.

Of course, due to the fact the games are to be released for the DS, we can even play these games for the Youtube, which is fantastic. While doing this, we'll be able to directly record information through our Youtube run. This means, easy ways to build information on trainers, moves information, new Pokemon, the story, etc, etc.

Wallpapers and other graphics would be a nice thing to have.

[nza]

But who would make said wallpapers and such?

As well, who would take on the Walkthrough? Failed attempts, such as Tensa's, are really just annoying.

And yea, YT/LS are certainly covered and at this point pretty much well oiled machines that don't need any serious planning/attention/etc. It'll run as usual :D

Twitter? Twitter is and has been incorporated, more or less, since May.

We had it setup in May to where it showed our recent tweets on the News page. This had to be removed because Twitter forces a request cap every day and once you hit it, the requesting IP is blocked for something like 24 hours. At the time traffic was ridiculously high what with HGSS news so the script was empty most of the time and it just made the homepage look stupid.

Let's not forget LiVE
http://pldh.net/live#tweets

I had setup a CRON job which would just write to an HTML file every 6 hours (4 requests a day to Twitter) and then I could include the HTML file in whatever page we wanted it on and not have to deal with Twitter request caps. But the CRON job was ignored by the server and I've been too lazy to contact the system admin to enable it... I guess I could get that taken care of though.

Don't forget the Site Manager, there's a Tweet tool in there which let's you tweet from PLDH.net without needing to worry about logging in at their site. I'd suggested using it for more than automated news postings but that ability hasn't been taken advantage of yet.

As for pages and shit, I could automate that but it doesn't exactly seem all too necessary. We usually have a News article when worthwhile new stuff is added (like videos and pages). So to have that automated means you can't control when you don't want something Tweeted that you have added and writing checkfirsts to verify an automated process is just way too much of a pain in the ass when the News really takes care of it on its own.

Besides, we don't want to be crazy tweeting like Bulbapedia. That shit is just annoying.

We should consider using LiVE again actually, and just kinda updating it.

LiVE as a replacement, or alternative to the current news engine, is something I'd considered as well.

The Site Manager will come in very useful for anyone that wants to help with the process. From PokeDex data entry to images to pages... If you can use BBCode on the forums to make pretty posts then making pages is no different. The tag buttons are the same in position, appearance and mechanics (description of what tag does) in the manager as on the forums. With a popup preview function to boot.

At any rate, some fun things like wallpapers would be cool.

Save any major changes to the data (doubtful) the Dex is ready to be speedily updated and yea... All we really need is volunteers to bring everything together.

[J.Kudo]

If Ze / Teej can supply me with literally footage of every single moment they play Gen5 on their ROM when they do it for Youtube i can take charge of the walkthrough as long as i can get at least 1 or 2 more people to help.

[MikkelDemey]

Well, as far as that stuff goes, I think the only real use I could be of is in a walkthru, since I've kinda gotten rusty on the metagame level (Though I'm sure I'd have time to catch back up.)

That'd be awesome.

But who would make said wallpapers and such?

As well, who would take on the Walkthrough? Failed attempts, such as Tensa's, are really just annoying.

The problem Tensa had, was that he was not prepared for that job. Writing a walkthrough requires a few things and I believe preparation is a part of that.

And yea, YT/LS are certainly covered and at this point pretty much well oiled machines that don't need any serious planning/attention/etc. It'll run as usual

Yeah, they don't need any planning or such right now. I did forget about LiVE.

Besides, we don't want to be crazy tweeting like Bulbapedia. That shit is just annoying.

Obviously. I was thinking more along the lines of a tweet or two a day per media aspect. We'd have the tubers tweet about where they are or about videos, the dexers tweet their progress, etc.

[Ze Colonel]

So I talked with Teej and we agreed that we should record everything. For multiple reasons. For one thing, it's what people want to see since it's a new Generation. Then taking out information becomes quite easy, and even easier since it makes it possible for others to pitch in. And lastly, we don't even know what things happen when, so we'll need to be recording to be prepared.

Major videos (story events, rival battles, I'm sure you know what I mean) will be cut out of the recording packages and uploaded separately. Each recording will be 8-9 minutes, not 10 since that brings up Youtube troubles with video length restrictions.

It'll be nice to use the Map of Contents concept again to organize our videos. If we make a playlist or not I'm not sure. Possibly. I imagine a map will be found early in the game if one is not put up on a promo site before we get the game.

Tensa's "walkthrough" was more "OH MY GOD THIS GAME LOOKS SO PRETTY" with a little large dose of nostalgia.

[nza]

I'm skeptical of some things.

So I was actually just hinting at the "incomplete & empty promise" problem we've faced here. Not at anyone in-particular but in general - just to be clear.

[DarkAngel_Reid]

Well, on an unusually optimistic note, I don't see why - with enough effort - we can't get this stuff done.

Oh, and on the topic of me writing a walkthru, I'd probably do something more speciallized than a full, basic one, since I've got no bleedin' idea how much time I'll have to work on one. I'm thinkin' a capture guide of sorts (but who knows, I may be able to belt out a full one ^-^)

[Ze Colonel]

The talent is no doubt there, it's a matter of putting it to use instead of being lazy. We could really use some help here, everyone, we're slowly becoming dependant on these things.

I've global'd this topic (lol how convenient that Blaine would not know I have mod powers via... nvm <_<), and I have a simple request- if there's absolutely no way for you to help (down right impossible*), you can throw in your opinions and suggestions on what we should do. Criticize what's said, agree with what's said, don't be afraid of this topic. You could come here and call us all fucktards and I could careless, at least you must've read SOMETHING.

[jayeljay]

[I'm making no promises, but I can make some graphics. I'm not as good as Super, in my opinion at least, but I'm decent.]

[Thing is, IF I did something, you'd need to request exactly what you wanted. Leaving up to me to decide simply won't work.]

[Thunder_man6]

I'll take the job up with Kudo for the walk through. I'm serious this time about actually getting the guide out. I feel like I haven't been productive here since I was demodded all those years back.

[TopHat]

The fact that some people want to participate is GREAT, but can I please remind everyone to think before they volunteer. I say this from personal experience (Not a jab at Ze btw, because he gets stuff done, but just in general practice): Don't sign up for something you don't think you can finish yourself. You can and probably WILL get a partner/ partners that will eventually just slack off or abandon the entire project entirely. I'm not saying don't ask for help- teamwork will get things done quick and efficiently, I'm saying make sure you WON'T HAVE TO rely on team mates for the task you're volunteering for.

[Ze Colonel]

Continuing from my last post.

So you cannot afford to pour in countless hours, we get that, but I'll look at you something stupid since that's never what we're asking. Even a small bit a day. I'll try to keep this short and simple since everyone likes reading that more. SO, what's a small bit?

NEWS: Be on the look out.

News can be sent to...

• Teej
• nza
• Mikkel (if he does not mind)
• Ze Colonel

Reliable Sources:

• Kotaku
• Official Series Hub Site
  -> Official Black & White Promotional Site
• Filb.de (Dutch)
• GoNintendo
• Bulbanews
• Pokebeach
• GameFAQs (Pokemon Black Board)

It won't kill ya to check these sites occasionally. It helps PLDH stay on top of it's game. You don't want to squished by rolling off the top, do you? Because when you fall off, the ball will go back down our direction since this is an uphill battle. We've achieved a lot of things recently, but we could be so much better it's not even funny.

Now I'm sure you blanked out at GameFAQs, but you never know when someone stumbles onto something. It's actually where HeartGold and SoulSilver was first found to be confirmed. I'm sure if you just sent us the PM we'll handle the rest of the research when it comes to determining how legit something is. GoNintendo makes mistakes too, so be wary of those news posts as well, but again, yes, just PM us if you really want to do nothing- we, or at least I don't care. So, in the PM, I think all that we really need is the URL, some info about how you found it/anything we should know about how this news was found, things that aren't covered in the article... you know, you know.

YOUTUBE: I'd just click here and go to the Youtube topic.

ADVERTISE: Self-explanatory. Have any questions, just ask...

And other than that just, just post, criticize, compliment, suggest, etc, you know, you know..

If you're bored and want to draw or create something, we'll at least look at it, since like the others said, having wallpapers and other things would be nice, but who's going to do it?

AND if anyone knows anyone that speaks Japanese, we could seriously use some help in that department. >__>

As far as walkthrough goes the language barrier is going to be difficult to deal with when converting everything to text, but it's good since it's Pokemon, which is easy/easier. How do you plan to organize the work if working with a team, Jeff?

[DarkAngel_Reid]

I'll take the job up with Kudo for the walk through. I'm serious this time about actually getting the guide out. I feel like I haven't been productive here since I was demodded all those years back.

I hear ya on the whole none-preductive thing. But hey, at least you contributed useful things... all I've got to my name is an rp that never even finished, so far as I'm aware...