LLD101

[Mimes]

I think it should still remain LLD101.

BUT i think we should have another section for each game. It should be like what we have now, but there is another "Alternative Gaming Section" You click on the game you play, and it takes you to a forum for that game (Trading[if you can in that game], strategy, general, and a list of users).

This might be a lot more complicated and hard to do then im thinking it is tho.

Also i think we should have a vote for which games to include.

Some games to consider might be:
Halo 1-3
Super Smash Bros
Hellgate London
WoW
Starcraft
Counter Strike

anyways. just what i think :/ im for expansion to a certain extent...dont want to become huge and have a ton more users. Just to increase the site traffic a bit, and maybe spark peoples interest in other games. D2 should still be the big one tho

[Dao Jones]

Interesting feedback so far. Keep it comin', folks.

[ThatGuy]

I think the problem of expansion is that the forum will become too diverse. LLD101 was basically the best -if not the only- forum Diablo 2 players could go to if they wanted to learn about or get into LLDing. Forums do well because they have a solid community to back them up, all sharing (at one time or another) a similar interest, and this interest is what the forum's theme is.

LLD101 was successful because it dealt with something special. Level 9-30's killing level 70-90's was unheard of for a typical Diablo 2 player. It was something new, something refreshing. With more people finding out about this 'new' way of dueling, LLD101 became basically the #1 resource for LLD because no one else knew or cared about it.

What also made LLD101 special was the fact that it was a community, not a clan. It was a community that catered to anyone who wanted to join, that cared about this aspect of dueling. It gave the sense of community (an identity, if you will) to each member who browsed these forums. "I am an LLD101er." This is also a risker approach because if this was a 'clan' forum, you essentially have guaranteed forumers, but the opportunity for more members becomes smaller. LLD101 lucked out.

It will not work if you 'expand' this forum into more games. Why? There's nothing special about it. There are countless Counter Strike forums, WoW forums...hell, http://www.smashboards.com/ is all anyone needs for Smash Bros because you won't find anything better. What you would need to do, if you wanted to expand, is find a game with a large community. Find something special you can do in that game, because a 'general' forum for that game will not work. Hard to explain this, so I'll give an example: 'Speed run strategies for Half-Life 2.' While this will no doubt fail, it's something unique (http://speeddemosarchive.com/ would cover such a subject like that, but you know what I mean...). It has to also be something that hasn't been done before, or that plenty of people are doing but there's no actual community or regulation behind it.

You could try something like "Hellgate London Low Level Dueling" after testing the game out and seeing if it's actually possible. It would be up to these members, or new people out there, to actually make a statement that Low Level Dueling is possible...and effective. (I know nothing about Hellgate London so don't hold that against me -_-).

Also, don't bother trying a Starcraft forum. http://gosugamers.net http://teamliquid.net http://proxiteam.net and tons of asian sites have that covered. You'll need to do a lot of research before actually trying such a stunt.

[Dao Jones]

Good points. I had thought to focus on PvP across platforms and games, but perhaps that would be too vague a concept, and it is true that niche market websites likely already exist for those games. However, I also think trying to shoehorn the "low-level dueling" concept into other games may end up limiting us to the point where it isn't useful to expand at all.

Maybe, as someone else mentioned, it would be better to look at what games our current player base play and see if we can expand there a little. If there were enough interest in Hellgate: London or Halo, we could add subforums for those things. This addresses one of the problems I see with LLD101: as people quit D2 some of them say "well, I no longer play D2, so I don't need to come here anymore." To my business sense, that means we can and should try to offer them something to keep them here, and that translates into expanding our offerings.

But people are saying "keep the site about D2 and LLD", so if we decided to expand down the road we'd do so with this in mind. Maybe a possibility would be to offer more stuff to do on the site? I know several sites I've visited have odd little games you play right in the web-browser, and they're usually pretty popular.

[ThatGuy]

I also have another idea, and this is attributed to forum silver:

Have sports draws! Looking at GosuGamers.net, they have a cool "gosubet" system where you get 50 'minerals'. You can 'bet' these 50 minerals on pro Starcraft games, and depending on the odds, you win an amount of minerals accordingly. If your minerals dip below 50, you can simply reset them back up and try again. They have the ladder up for every season (actual seasons ) so there is a winner of each season, and I'm not sure but I think the winner gets a prize.

For here, you can have it Diablo 2 related (Gold pieces? High runes? SoJs?). You cannot allow exchange of any silver for obvious reasons (yes, that means no trading with it). You can relate it to an ongoing sport (NFL Season, NHL Season), event, or hell, you can try to rev up the Arena by having people bet on Arena (or Ladder) matches.

Basically I'm ripping this idea off of GosuGamers.net. Have a ladder system with points, where everyone who is a member here can earn ladder points based on victories of "official" scheduled matches. By the same token, you can also establish a 'betting' system, where people can place bets on scheduled matches, and become the best "Diablo 2 better." It's nearly a fool proof situation because it can avoid conspiracy such as purposely losing matches to gain minerals (if the person loses, they go down on the ladder...), multi-accounting, etc.

This is a lot of work, and it requires a lot of effort. You would need to recruit more people to manage the site. You would need to change the layout of the site. Expanding a site is no easy task...

Also, I highly suggest you speak with Zharous before you even hypothesize making changes to the site

[Meegz ?]

I would definitely like to use fs (if i had some more) to do betting on sports games, etc...maybe toss in fantasy league links and see how we all do? Winners get fs and we can increase the use of it in the trade forums.

Also, lld in WoW (llpvp is what i see most ppl call it) is entirely viable and possibly adding in a section for WoW would be the easiest I know of to implement other games into the site. I havent got HGL yet, but I definitely want to pick it up soon, especially to see if lld is possible in it.

Just my 2 cents

[Dao Jones]

Good suggestions. I've spoken with Zharous on the subject, and when he has some time we're going to to look into what else we can bring to the site. Right now, I think we're going to shy away from expanding too far beyond Diablo 2, but ThatGuy's betting league idea is a solid one. Adding built-in games is also a possibility we may pursue.

Thanks for the feedback, those who commented. I hope in the near future we can bring you more cool stuff to do while you're here, and keep y'all entertained when you're not playing D2.

[Torrent]

wow would be a peachy idea if it wasnt a disease.

[Meegz ?]

WoW is crack in its pixellated form, I can't lie its probably more addicting than d2. Problem being I'm cheap and paying to play irks me.

I would definitely participate in the sports betting though

[MortisNostre]

[Grim04]

[Kody]

i like the idea but i think we should start off like BB did with just sub forums for now and until anything actually gets going dont expand on it

Easiest one to start that i can think of right off the back as many others is WoW and if you do decide to keep it lld only its totally viable in WoW there just called twinks (got a few myself)

now HGL....i havent played the actual game yet (did do the beta) and afaik you couldnt pvp in the beta and you cant pvp in the real game unless you get the subcription (reading off the back of manual)
it says for those who cant read the back "upgrade your standard account to subcription to get.....blah blah blah new modes including HC/PvP/RP"
idk if that means a total pvp mode or what

[mastercraft]

quantcast.com is the site that lld101 should be registered to in order to monitor site traffic/demographics/change in traffic patterns over time

its kindof creepy and invasive imo but sure is interesting to know who and what kind of people attend sites certain sites.

just a suggestion

[Virtuous]

I'd just like to say that I agree with expanded LLD101 to other games such as WoW (even though I would never play that). It'd probably be best for traffic; and traffic is like money on the internet; without it, you're screwed and living on the streets and no one, not even your mother cares about you, and your brother keeps trying to get a hold of you for that loan you took from him 6 months ago to buy that creepy rapist van you are still making payments on.

Hello everyone!

[mastercraft]

*mastercraft/542316
first come first serve