Sunday, March 13, 2005

OtakuBoards Wish List

I really didn't know what to write on myO, but then an idea struck me. Someone was asking about OtakuBoards and that led me to thinking about some of the ideas I've had for the site over the last few months and years; ideas that are pretty much impossible to implement or that haven't really been on the agenda for one reason or another. So I thought I'd take an opportunity to talk about some of these ideas - stuff that isn't being actively planned but that I would love to do, if I could wave a magic wand and do anything within reason. One of the things that I like about OtakuBoards is that it's sort of become a niche community within this network. It's not the "nicheness" that I like so much as the fact that we've somehow managed to mould a very high-quality message board, within a broader community that is generally populated by fairly young people. myOtaku.com absolutely dwarfs OtakuBoards, but at the same time it doesn't contain the kind of quality requirements. So I really view the two as complementing each other. If this network were a neighbourhood, OtakuBoards would be the Town Center -- a place where people get together and have fun in a variety of ways. myOtaku would be the outer suburbs, where each person owns their own plot of land, where they can build whatever house they like. Their house can be all pink and have a pretty garden, or it can be brown and purple and have a messy garden; the choice is up to the occupant. Within reason, people can create their own personal home that is unique. But within OtakuBoards, they're having a shared experience that is all about communication and creativity. One of the cool things about OtakuBoards - and something I have actively been trying to foster - is that it isn't like many traditional message boards. Just look at our RPGs. I can't think of another location on the Internet where RPGs are as unique and finely-tuned. Look at our Anthology forum and the trends therein. You can jump from an RPG to a community-wide event, revolving around awards or art competitions. A message board is really a basic idea if you think about it. On its most basic level, it's all about entering messages and reading conversations. But I like to think that OtakuBoards has transcended that basic concept for the most part. Whether it's an RPG, an event, or something like 55 Fiction, there are quite a few different ways of interpreting this most basic aspect of a message board. Our updated Version 7 will continue to push OtakuBoards, in terms of incorporating elements that go beyond the simple concept of typing messages. But how far can that go? What other things can we do? I am never short on ideas. You may have seen an art thread (I think Lady Asphyxia posted it), which included a Flash-based tool that allows you to paint a picture with your mouse. The cool thing is that this tool tracks your movements and it records all of your mouse-movements. So it can play back the entire painting process and others can watch exactly how you did it. The latest version of MSN includes something similar, where you can paint images and text inside the actual chat window. This is something I would like to do on OtakuBoards. It would be cool if you could bring up a panel, where you could draw a picture or a message by hand and then immediately insert it into the post. Unfortunately, drawing with a mouse isn't the most intuitive thing in the world, but I think it would be a fun complement to what we have now. One of the biggest features that I want to implement on OtakuBoards in the future (if technology and cost is ever in our favour with such a thing), is OB Radio. If you are aware of current Internet broadcasting, you know that generally speaking, it's a one-way affair. Radio.Blog and other services allow you to basically stream your music and sound to visitors in an easy manner. They can change tracks and so on. However, I would like to set up a true radio broadcast service at OtakuBoards. By that I mean, a real-time, dynamic system whereby two or more members can hold a conversation that other members can tune in to. Of course, it wouldn't be open to everyone; that would be a bit difficult. We'd have people hijacking it and probably making bad use of it. But what if we had actual radio shows? For instance, what if Panda had her own show, to provide us with live anime news? What if Dagger provided impressions of upcoming anime that people could listen to while they post or draw artwork? But that's only the start of it. What if we had debate programs, or programs where multiple people discuss a topic (ie: anime becoming mainstream, or fansubbing, etc). That could be interesting. You can keep going with the concept. What if OB Radio linked to community events? Maybe we could have an amateur singing contest, or a "who would be the best anime voice over" contest. The possibilities are endless. Such a system would require so many things. Apart from all of the server-side elements (and the ability for both staff and guests to physically participate), we'd need to significantly alter OtakuBoards itself -- perhaps by providing a special pop-up window with data and options for listeners. Another thought I've had, which I actually discussed with Justin recently, was the concept of Otaku IM. Or, Otaku Instant Messenger. The exciting thing about this is that it's actually possible for Justin and I to make. Don't take that as an announcement though; most likely, we might just experiment with it if we get the time. If something cool comes out of that experimentation, it may get used. Who knows. But the idea itself is an interesting one. And there are a variety of ways to exploit such a system. For example, it may not be like a traditional instant messenger, such as AIM or MSN. It might be a bit more like ICQ. In its default mode, ICQ doesn't use a two-panel chat window. Instead, it's a little more like SMS/text messaging via your mobile phone -- you type a message out (with a character limit) and send it, where it is immediately received by the other user. So you have the same kind of back-and-forth communication as AIM/MSN users, but with a slightly different visual format. Such a system on OB would be interesting, I think. It would be particularly interesting if your myO/OB account directly linked to your Otaku IM service. The system could be directly attached to OtakuBoards, or it could sit on your desktop and you could use it while away from OB. Perhaps it could even be used on a cell phone. At the same time, developing a totally stand-alone instant messenger would be a unique challenge. I don't know about you, but for me, there isn't a perfect IM system out there. AIM is nice on a base functional level, but it looks awful, has a lot of totally unnecessary features and has highly obnoxious ads. MSN is nice, but lacks some of the ease of AIM. And it's not customizable enough (as with AIM too). It would be great to develop an IM service as someone who really has a lot of problems with current IM software. An Otaku IM could be stylish, extremely customisable, functional and devoid of ads altogether. Some of that relates directly to OB, some of it doesn't. But it's just another way that we could expand the reach and communication aspects of theOtaku.com's network. To go back to OtakuBoards specifically, there is one big feature that some of you have already seen at other places. And it's something that we are going to introduce with our next version update. It also happens to be one of my favourite message board inventions ever. We are simply calling our version "OB Arcade". OB Arcade blends some of these philosophies together (some of the things I've been talking about in this post). It does not involve typing messages, but it does involve a type of interactivity that complements what we have now. The cool part about OB Arcade is that you will be able to challenge other members to turn-based battles, in a broad variety of games, from different genres. So you won't just be playing for a high score as such - you'll also be tallying up a win/loss record in different games. Of course, being a potential challenger will be entirely optional; you won't receive dozens of challenge requests if you don't want to use the feature. But for those who do, it will be another way to enjoy OtakuBoards. We are also talking about incorporating arcade results into myOtaku, so that your win/loss record and your other game data can be stored on a special page at your myOtaku site. Right now this is possible, but it may be reserved for Premium members (when that service launches in the future - and believe me, it'll be the biggest thing we've ever done before...but that's another post). This only scratches the surface though. In reality, there are so many other ideas for OtakuBoards. For instance, it would be cool to introduce mouse gestures to OB in the future, provided that we have the right software (ie: something totally different to traditional message board software). All-in-all, you can bet that we'll be taking the technology we have and pushing it as far as we can. We have already done a great deal with the very basic idea of typing messages, so I think we can do some interesting things with Flash-based games and other technologies. Version 7 itself may be a landmark for OtakuBoards, but I don't view it as the end of the site's journey. Not by a long shot.

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