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Focus on One-Stop Guide per Hero?
Admin here. And here is the thing.
There are lots of similar websites for MOBA games. Even such a new game as Paragon has already 3-4 websites moving in pretty similar directions and one more is going to pop up soon. I was making an overview of them and found one thing from the actual user standpoint. Mature guides-websites are pretty filled up with a ton of guides per each hero. I was constantly finding myself scrolling through 3-4 guides saying pretty similar things with little to none differences in actual meaning. That's frustrating.
I'm seeing this happening with Paragon as well. This is not bad probably since diversity is very good but... I feel that for each hero you have much more common in each guide than actual differences. E.g. look at our 3 guides for Muriel. They are not identical at all. Though I find them talking actually about pretty similar play-styles. All in all it's Muriel you can't play her as Dreaded "the Kallari" Death or Big "mr. Steel" Guy. Though every guide creator have to do the same thing each time - overview abilities, say all the same things about what are the pros and cons and about what to focus on during different phases of the game. I don't think it's needed for both reader and guide creator.
So how about switching the gears? As a user looking for a guide I'd rather see a wiki-like big page with a One-Stop guide for a Hero I'm looking for. It has different sections for different flavors of play-style for this Hero. It has different Decks and videos for that play-style but it has all that common part in one place so that I can read one (ONE!!) page and get it all. It can be organized for creation and contribution like wiki does. All contributors can be credited. And it will be a good summary view on how to play certain hero. Wouldn't it be much better than having contributors re-do same things? Wouldn't it be much better than having community read all the same things over again in yet-another-guide?
Thoughts?
Sounds like you know how it should be George, so go ahead and whip it up instead of just hoping it appears, gotta finish your thoughts with actions to make them real.
@Cody, well what's your personal opinion on that? Do you think it's gonna fly? I'm asking for thoughts, not for some words of support :) though it's also good to read them.
@George, I feel like this could work, but I feel like the way we are doing it will make it easier to sort the guides. Rather than having one guide from each guide maker, the guides would over lap more than they do now.
@SmokeyJay, well the whole thing is to get away from multiple guides for a certain hero. Let's say take your guide for Murry as a basis. Add to that some diversity in building for different goals (top CD, top Defence or whatever and maintain this one guide collectively). For sure it will need a more collaborative tool (e.g. google docs to keep the source of the guide) but these are the details. We can figure it out.
I just don't see any benefit from having multiple guides for one Hero. Or do we have such benefits?
I think the problem here is that this site groups 'decks' and 'guides' together. I agree that a wiki-like approach to guides would be much more beneficial to players seeking information, having it all stored in one place, but there should still be a place for people to submit decks and guides specific to that deck, since a different build may mean a different play style. I've compared this site and others with the same idea to hearthpwn.com and I will again, because it's something we're not really seeing on any of these sites, a place where people can quickly and easily find pre-made decks for their heroes, with the option to couple a deck-specific guide if the author so wishes.
There is a downside to the wiki-like approach though, and it may just be a temporary problem with the game being so new, but while there's a lot of similarities between the guides on the same heroes, there's going to be big disputes and edit wars regarding certain aspects of playing a hero. The only way to solve this is to have changes authorized by an admin, but that admin is going to have to have significant knowledge of Paragon, able to assess the merits of these additions/edits and maybe find a compromise that informs the reader of the pros and cons of each style in an un-biased and informed way. It would be a hard task, but if you can pull it off it would definitely be an improvement.
@PsYcHo962, good point. I didn't make it clear - this One-Stop Guide idea is not a replacement for current approach. So if one wishes to share a separate guide or a deck - they are free to do so.
As for the edit wars - yes it can be pretty expected. Though I don't expect this to be a big deal in the nearest future.
Thanks for your input folks. I think we are going to give it a shot.
This is a rough draft of how I see it. You shall be logged in to be able to edit, watch revisions and do diff b/w them.
You are welcome with your comments.
Deck and Abilities builds will come soon in a form of short-codes so that you can (1) add multiple of them in the guide and (2) diff them.
@George, I'm a little confused on what we're doing here. Are we combining guides? Or am I making a complete guide on Muriel rather than just support? So every possible way to play here? Thanks.
@SmokeyJay, I'd say making a tool to allow creating a single guide for a certain hero by multiple contributors. Like 'one guide to rule them all'.
It probably can end up as a combination of different guides from multiple contributors. Or be done by one person alone if he has enough time to make it cover every aspect.
Again this one-stop guide approach is not going to replace individual guides. But rather add another option for contribution and possibly a more convrnient way for those who is looking for a single document to look at per hero.
Did I answer to your confusion? Or you have a different concern?
@George, Nope, that summed it up pretty well for me. It's a good idea ill have to get together with some muriel players and see what we can come up with.
Added abilities build short-code. Feel free to add a revision and try it out.
So let's Murdock be the 1st one. http://paragon-game.com/murdock-guide
Again feel free to edit. I want to see how it gonna work.@SmokeyJay, I think you can add some words about synergy of Murry and mr. "Hit like a truck". And yeah I'm adding you permissions to publish revisions.