RPG Lounge
Full Review by Kaynil
Scoring:
First Impressions & Appearance – (11 out of 20)
The first impression I have of the forum is a positive one. Not sure if the fact that I knew this board before is a handicap, since the place hasn't completely changed but it helps me notice a bit more the modified graphics such as the buttons and logo. Speaking of the logo, I really like it's medieval emblem. It is simple, unique and grabs the attention really quickly. I am happy to see it used with the rules and other information threads. The font is also catchy, although I feel it could do with some effect to make it pop a bit more. For example, you could make it look like the letters have been carved into the background.
The announcement strip under the navigation I feel breaks a bit the flow, because it is wider than the rest.
I'd love if you could merge it with the notification box with the shield icon and preserved the shape of the latter.
Basically the upper half gives a great first impression with its original emblem, customised buttons and neatly shaped advice box. The letdown for me came when I scrolled down and felt the strong unique presence you've made slipping away.
You want that even if visitors do recognise the base of your skin from hitskin, the overall feeling is of a community that looks different from what they've seen before. I am not suggesting you go overboard changing every graphic, after all, there is a reason you went for this particular skin in the first place, but slight changes in key icons or areas can make a big difference.
In my opinion, the new/no new/locked images appear in every section a forum has. They are, in my opinion, one of the most important visuals of a forum. The Top navigation buttons you guys got blend even better than the original buttons, I am sure you guys can come up with different versions for these area-status buttons and that in doing so your forum will stand out better as a serious project to the potential members.
Last, the Who is online icon looks a bit awkward:
I think it is mainly because of the square button shape. Probably a transparent image without a bordered shape would look better. Another approach is to make an image that will fill the whole 110*285 px area, it can be wider than 110, but the height is the one to keep, so for example a 200*285 image could give you enough room to throw a text in the same font as the header and come up with an image related to your emblem elements. Quick idea, it could depict the sword edge up crossing with the staff in a X shape, that way is not exactly your emblem but it is still related.
Site Layout – (17 out of 20)
There really is little I could ask for the layout to be modified. I feel the current organization of the areas and the overall length of the community works well.
The only change I could think of, consist in moving RPG Gaming Corner after RPG Improvement. I suggest this because I am under the impression RPG Lounge is primarily focussed in Forum-RPG so it would be convenient to have the Roleplaying as the first non-forum-matters area. I feel
Improvement Lounge should definitely stay after
Roleplay and
Extras should stay the very last. I think that in doing so, the Improvement area would pop up more with your visitors and that could be a nice card that speaks of your openness to include those people curious about RPGing but with no experience.
I also feel your RPG Hub zone is taking a bit more space than it should, after all that's just mainly the forum related issues and not a main dish. Perhaps turning one or two of those zones into sub forums could help reduce the area size to bring more Roleplay discussion into view
In general I feel you are in the right size, specially considering the shoutbox takes some space. I really wouldn't recommend creating any more first level areas without first rearranging the existing ones to take less space.
Statistics and Activity – (12 out of 20)
I'm quite surprised about the activity in your community. Everyday I visited there were several areas with the "new icon" on, furthermore, the activity is spread in different areas and Forum games, which constantly used, is not the clear majority of them. It is a good balance.
I also noticed that you have a shoutbox which is being put to use by your members, even though it is a the top it doesn't seem to be deterring your members from actually collaborating with the forums which is great.
I'd usually suggest placing the shoutbox at the bottom as much as possible, not only because of the risk of activity decrease with it, but because this way your visitors would be able to focus on the forums. With Forumotion though, the shoutbox wouldn't even appear to guests so I guess it is all good.
Content – (17 out of 20)
There is a lot of relevant content in your community. There is a help area for the forum and even an improvement area for the players. There are threads giving out tips to newcomers, explaining the basics and overall there is enough amount of RPs generated inside the different classifications to get anyone going.
The community is encouraging people to make game reviews and keep generating useful content.
I think the community will benefit with more articles for improvement, maybe as a subforum for "Room for Improvement" you could slowly make topics explaining in a lot more detail how to become quality RPers. Going in details for example to make a great background story.
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – (14 out of 20)
Overall I think the spelling is alright, nothing big that jumps straight away to me. I do see at times some odd choices with caps in some words, like having the acronym MMORPG explained in brackets but only the word "Massive" capitalised, as opposed to having each word of the acronym starting with a capital letter.
In general threads by the staff have nice grammar, spelling and punctuation, however they often end up derailed by the members and by the time they reach a second or third page the comments are not longer related to the thread itself. Perhaps cleaning out some of these informational threads could help to give a more professional image to the community.
I'm not suggesting to become very strict or to punish the people, simply to discreetly remove old conversations in there that won't help. To not affect the members count meter you could simply pass them into another area, like the Graveyard.
Total Score - (71 out of 100)
Final Remarks:
I like RPG Lounge. It really provides what it offers. Veterans and newcomers to RPGs will feel at ease here. There are a lot of areas and topics covered. The people are friendly and welcoming. Different Roleplays are taking place at the same time. I think it needs some polishing but it is definitely heading into the right direction.
Strengths:
- - Easy to navigate.
- Friendly environment.
Weaknesses:
- - Pre-made skin.
- Informative threads get often derailed by idle chitchat.
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