Branching Out?

[Kriven]

I know the VG Resource is just that, a video game resource, but it--because of its community--has done great things and made waves in the efforts of cultural archival. Well, I sprite a little here and there when I'm bored, and I've ripped a couple of things, but what I really do in a similar vein to VGR is transcriptions of old articles or short stories. There are all kinds of resources and projects available online for this particular hobby, y'know stuff like Gutenberg and Archive.org, but those are really disorganized and difficult to navigate. Their systems aren't as user friendly as VGR's.

I'm just wondering if it's something that could be considered to reach out beyond video games. To maybe handle a Writer's/Reader's Resource (Reader's Resource I like better) or an Artist's Resource or a Comics Resource.

Really just something I think would be pretty neat. I have ideas as far as organization as well, so I mean, if it's something (I guess this is really a post more meant for Dazz though, huh?) the community would be open to, I'd be happy to really get into it.

[puggsoy]

Seems like an interesting idea. Of course it probably depends on a lot of things whether it's possible or practical, but it would be cool to see something like this happen.

[Ton]

Hmm, having a hub for writers seems like a horse of a different color for TSR. Having sprites and models and sounds available for people are just ways of making the tools accessible. If someone is using a computer, chances are they already have all the tools they need to write. What more could we offer them?

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at. Like a Deviant Art kind of site? If that's what you mean, I feel like we'd be a bit late to that show. DA is not nearly as active or influential as they were in the past, so I don't know what could be gained from emulating them.

I guess I'm a little confused by what you mean. Could you explain what kind of site it would be?

[Dazz]

I'm in the same boat as Ton here... I'm not really too sure what your thinking.

[Kriven]

Tools to write are accessible, you're right, but the tools to read/publish are not as readily available. Particularly with the proliferation of eBooks, it's difficult to find material in certain formats. I guess what I'm thinking of is more of a library which would (or could) offer the material in a variety of formats (.txt, .pdf, .mobi, etc.) for easy reading or translating or republishing. There are a lot of old stories trapped in physical pages that don't exist in a very usable digital format, and it would be neat to make them usable.

[Magma MK-II]

Since we're kind on the subject, there are two things that we could probably have a resource site: manuals and official art. Those are always a headache to find around the net, and the ony specialized site I know of similar things is TAFA (The Arcade Flyer Archive). Especially with manuals and official art, which are always all over the place.

[Kriven]

Replacement Docs has tons of game manuals scanned into high-res PDFs, they're a lot more organized than most other projects.

http://www.replacementdocs.com/

But yeah, I don't see how a Manuals Resource could hurt (or even a covers/disc art/cartridge art resource, despite the similar efforts which exist).

[Dazz]

I would love to make a cover/disc art/cartridge art resource. The issue is, however, that in doing so we have to find those resources. Which is an incredibly major project. One which I can't easily assist in.
If somebody were to show me that they have a decent collection already, that would be great.

[Kriven]

The Cover Project: http://www.thecoverproject.net/

And Game TDB: http://www.gametdb.com/

would be two places to start. I have some games they don't which I intend on scanning once I get a good scanner (hopefully at the end of next month). I also make and edit inserts, but I'm really not very good and mainly do it just to keep my shelves looking spiffy.

[Jermungandr]

I don't think TSR is about to start taking content from other sites; not so much that it's stealing, but also because this site has always been about user submitted content. I think what Dazz was saying was that he wants someone to show that they have a large collection of their own ready to submit.

Those custom inserts are pretty neat though.

[Kriven]

I think what Dazz was saying was that he wants someone to show that they have a large collection of their own ready to submit.

Oh, my bad.

Edit: I think some guidelines should be set on PPI and pixel dimensions before it could be expected for anybody to have anything actually prepared.

[Dazz]

The point I'm more trying to make is that, tSR grew from an already established database of people with a common interest, including the website's creator. It continued to have this progress as the creator took every step imaginable to keep the content flowing, be it from submitters, or from their own rips.
The reason it was handed on to myself is because this stopped happening.

I have no particular interest in scanning my games, of which I actually own very few of, in order to create a database. However, I would love a resource which provided these scans. So don't get me wrong, this sounds like a good idea... But it's also one with flaws. I feel it's a system that would need to be tailored from the system currently in place, and can't follow it strictly code-for-code...

This is a tough situation, and I need some convincing that it will launch well before I invest time (and resources) into it. But believe me, it's something that, as I've found from running VG Facts, would be greatly helpful, while at the same time... Covers can be found on Wikipedia.

[Sengir]

I still think a Texts Resource (for in-game text sorted by character (or event) and game or w/e) would be neat as h*ck

[Dazz]

The Scripts Resource/The Quotes Resource?

[SuperFlomm]

hmm. Seem like we are looking for a name aren't we?

The Word Resource
The Talking Resource
The Lyric Resource