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Bloated, PR paste-bin |OT|s are a plague on these boards

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pakkit

Banned
jim-jam bongs said:
Jokes aside though, I love Drinky because he's hilarious, but it's hard to enthusiastically argue in favour of threads like the "uncharted 3 is doooooooooooomed!" as much as I enjoy them personally.
Drinky is the exception to the rule, though. If that type of behavior was tolerated outside of the handful of people with immunity (Astrolad, Wario64, Amir0x), it'd be annoying. It's basically become an inside joke at this point.

NOLF is one of my favorite all-time games, therefore I feel a strong kinship between us, brother.
 
iNvidious01 said:
the max image size was 1100px, apart from a few low res netbooks, ancient monitors and phones it displays fine on everything

So it displays fine on everything except the things it doesn't display fine on.

Gotcha.

EDIT:

No true scotsman would have a problem with 1100 px wide pictures.
 
pakkit said:
Drinky is the exception to the rule, though. If that type of behavior was tolerated outside of the handful of people with immunity (Astrolad, Wario64, Amir0x), it'd be annoying. It's basically become an inside joke at this point.

Maybe the "inside" part should change? I dunno, I can't help but think that there are people who see the behaviour of Drinky, Wario and the Lad and think it's how they should act to get a name for themselves, rather than appreciating that it's a parody. Like I said, these are complex decisions!

pakkit said:
NOLF is one of my favorite all-time games, therefore I feel a strong kinship between us, brother.

And now you're thinking about replaying it right?

inception-dog-aka-the-best-gif-ever-made.gif
 

TommyT

Member
m0dus said:
A good example of an approach to an OT: banners and headers, with thumbnailed images as necessary. Otherwise, really, everything else should be text based and searchable.

Other people have mentioned this as I'm still reading through this topic but I finally got to the tipping point here. Go into the AC OT and search for "release date"...

Now, I know it's in the first wall-of-image-text but that's only after I took the oath of the Assassin's or whatever to venture into this massive OP. The only OTs that need to be more than one post are the ones where it's a funny play on something in the game like the Portal 2 OT.

edit: If you're going to complain about the limit of text that you an fit into a post and are thus putting it on an image, please still put the important (zomg what is important to you isn't important to others!!!11) information in text so it can be searched.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
I agree, completely. I've been preaching this for years but long since gave up.
 

Chinner

Banned
i always find it funny when gaf critises gaming journalists when we have OT threads that are basically pure PR and we attack journalists for negatively reviewing trendy game X. so yeah huge pr ops with shit loads of pointlessly huge images are definitely terrible and bad and rubbish and other negative adjectives.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
pakkit said:
(Astrolad, Wario64, Amir0x)
One of these names is not like the other ones
One of these names doesn't belong
 
Kintaro said:
BOOM done. Rules for OTs should be exactly this at maximum. Everything you need, nothing you don't. Perfection.

The Ultimate Marvel OT that just went up is like a PR booklet/website for Capcom.

Like I said, I was cool on the idea of a max length rule. It was a call for "less is more" around here, as I fear they're becoming pissing contests even more than information centers. Even further, I fear they're ratcheting upwards what an |OT| is in manys minds.
 
At the very least, remove text in images. If the majority of your content consists of images, you have already failed. I don't mind the length, just let me easily get to where I want.

The Deus EX: HR OT from somethingawful is even more bloated than that Assassin's Creed OT. The difference being is that most of content is in plain, searchable text and there are headers on the first post you can easily click on to get to where you want. Here's the first post of the Deus EX OT for you non-goons (I'd post the rest of the OT, but fireshot is not cooperating with me): http://i.imgur.com/3xQ0a.jpg
 

ShadiWulf

Member
Just got done reading through this thread, a lot of useful info and tips. Helped me get ideas for next time i do a OP.

I personally don't see anything wrong with huge threads as long as they are accessible. Agreed with the fact that bodies of text on images is bad, but at the same time I can see why someone would do it from a design point of view. I did this on the story section of the Generations thread, I was trying to achieve a certain effect but it didn't even work out that well, never again!

On the Sonic Generations OT i was trying to keep the images from extending past a certain width, but the zones image for the HD version broke that limit sadly, and i didn't want to make the zone pictures any smaller then they already were. I also agree that the formatting of the thread was messed up like someone mentioned earlier in this thread, but I didn't notice until I had all the pictures uploaded... and just basically said screw it. I spent a lot of time making the thread and fixing up the images would of took even more time. I could of completely re-did the OP and fixed the issues I was having with it.. but like I said, it was a time thing.

I see making OT's as a good practice opportunity. Making graphics / layout about a game your interested in for practice? I don't think it can get much better then that.

Sonic Generations OT was the first OT I made and I plan to improve on the next OT I make based on what I have read in this topic.
 

Irish

Member
pancakesandsex said:
If your post on a forum needs a table of fucking contents you are doing it wrong.

Well, he could have had it all in one post and then people would have complained because they couldn't jump straight to a certain section. Screwed both ways.
 

Aselith

Member
Irish said:
Well, he could have had it all in one post and then people would have complained because they couldn't jump straight to a certain section. Screwed both ways.

No because, had he put it in one post and used text not picture-words, the forum character limit would have prevented the ridiculous post from ever happening.
 
ShadiWulf said:
Just got done reading through this thread, a lot of useful info and tips. Helped me get ideas for next time i do a OP.

I personally don't see anything wrong with huge threads as long as they are accessible. Agreed with the fact that bodies of text on images is bad, but at the same time I can see why someone would do it from a design point of view. I did this on the story section of the Generations thread, I was trying to achieve a certain effect but it didn't even work out that well, never again!

On the Sonic Generations OT i was trying to keep the images from extending past a certain width, but the zones image for the HD version broke that limit sadly, and i didn't want to make the zone pictures any smaller then they already were. I also agree that the formatting of the thread was messed up like someone mentioned earlier in this thread, but I didn't notice until I had all the pictures uploaded... and just basically said screw it. I spent a lot of time making the thread and fixing up the images would of took even more time. I could of completely re-did the OP and fixed the issues I was having with it.. but like I said, it was a time thing.

I see making OT's as a good practice opportunity. Making graphics / layout about a game your interested in for practice? I don't think it can get much better then that.

Sonic Generations OT was the first OT I made and I plan to improve on the next OT I make based on what I have read in this topic.
FWIW I really like that OT. I think it uses the images in a tasteful way and you keep it nice and short.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Chinner said:
i always find it funny when gaf critises gaming journalists when we have OT threads that are basically pure PR and we attack journalists for negatively reviewing trendy game X. so yeah huge pr ops with shit loads of pointlessly huge images are definitely terrible and bad and rubbish and other negative adjectives.

GAF has always been a melting pot of hypocrisies.
 

Rufus

Member
Ookami-kun said:
GAF has always been a melting pot of hypocrisies.
Humanity is. I wish people would stop pointing this shit out like it was some kind of revelation.

Also, the GAF that complains about thing A and the GAF that nevertheless champions thing B are very likely different people. Groups have diverging opinions on things. Who knew?

Threads officially started eating its own asshole.
 
Chinner said:
i always find it funny when gaf critises gaming journalists when we have OT threads that are basically pure PR and we attack journalists for negatively reviewing trendy game X. so yeah huge pr ops with shit loads of pointlessly huge images are definitely terrible and bad and rubbish and other negative adjectives.
People are different. So...Yeah.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
Honestly, some, if not many, of the OTs seem like commercials on the games instead of a place where people can find useful information about the games. I always dislike OTs with this kind of 'commercial vibe'.
 

Irish

Member
You know, just about all information about a game is gathered from pre-release material from its marketing department...
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
But yeah, I still go by with having set standards. Like I said before, they're no rules, but at least it gives an idea as to what to expect to a decent OT looks like.
 

Victrix

*beard*
I was going to post to complain in that thread but I didn't want to shit it up

Seriously, do we need the entire gamefaqs archive of DMC gameplay advice covering 50 posts worth of screen space as the OT?

Jebus.
 
Its sad when a fan puts hours and hours to an OT only to be put down because it is extremely bloated :(...

Well honestly it could've been avoided with proper thread editing/creation. We only need 2 posts max. Also when you have story/plot posted that seems to not serve the purpose of the thread.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Its sad when a fan puts hours and hours to an OT only to be put down because it is extremely bloated :(...

It's hours and hours of putrid upchuck.

Look, I've put forth some serious time and effort on some OPs, some of them multi-post.

The mark of a good OT is not its size. It's about being informational without being bloated. You need lots of good quality meat, not pounds of fat.
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Its sad when a fan puts hours and hours to an OT only to be put down because it is extremely bloated :(...

It may be, but they need to remember that being concise is important and leave the giant shit to Wikia if people want to see everything like that.
 
Walls of texts that go in depth into gameplay, weapon, and enemy mechanics?

Why does a a OT need walls of text about that? How about people just play the game and find out on their own? The discussion will eventually talk about that stuff anyway. I mean did we really need boss profiles? OTs aren't guides.
 
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