pouët.net

I think Pouet's design currently encourages users to form their opinion about each prod in terms of good/bad/pig, and registering that on the site. Why is that necessary? What good does that try to achieve, or what bad does it try to avoid?

While you guys are arguing about this literally dozens of new groups are getting their motivation utterly crushed after having their first attempt at a demo mercilessly slammed with hundreds of thumb downs.

The sad reality is that nobody actually gives a shit about beginners prods compared to "big prods".
And they have hardly more than 20 comments, white this thread have 75 replies and counting...

End sentence.

That WAS sortof my original point. But it doesn't have to be beginners only, try releasing a prod at a <200 person party.

Well that's great :) I think a few I gave out a very very small number that were subpar, and unfortunately that might person got one, but I think anything I can do to toughen them up a bit without ruining the look/feel would be good.

Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled on topic discussion already in progress ...

Ow. Grammar.

"I think a very small number I gave out were subpar, and unfortunately that might person got one [...]"

Totally with Groepaz. If you're willing to express yourself entirely with a low fidelity, primitive thumbs up / thumbs down system then maybe you shouldn't even be expressing anything, since obviously you're closer to a robot than a human.

It worked for Ebert & Siskel. Although yeah, I guess they had two of each.

this is where I mention that everyone is welcome to submit their work at TRSAC (we accept remotes). Everyone ATTENDING (stay tuned for more info) will get a free drink. Actually, probably more than one. And a warm handshake by me. And if you arrive on friday, I can introduce you to a student bar full of young student females.

http://www.trsac.dk - REGARDEZ MON CUL

This.

Learn to not give a fuck about pouet. At all. Releasing at a party and getting opinions there is so much better than some random troll comparing you to Fairlight/ASD/whatever, who have years of experience and tons of demos under their belt. Apples != oranges.

I'm still utterly unconvinced the voting needs changing (unless somebody can point to an actual example where it's caused an issue instead of a theoretical example?)

But what could be useful: A beginner's guide to releasing a demo. Not making it, releasing it.

There's a lot of things that are useful to know but not really obvious unless you've followed the scene for a while. Like releasing on pouet on a quiet month will get you much more views and better feedback than releasing just before revision or ASM. And releasing at a smaller party instead of a big one is more likely to get you good party vibes instead of a booing or disqualification if you're not good enough ;)

and smaller parties also help with getting to know ppl and get decent opinions on your work

Party in my pants!

IMO, just do what you want. Don't care about the votes. If the only reason for you to make demos is to be liked or to feel awesome, you're in the wrong business.

This thread needs more ponies.

trc: agreed, but still releasing a prod just when all the big releases from a big party hit, and getting zero votes and comments.. I think most people would get some solid "crushing disappointment" vibes from that :) Even criticism is better than feeling utterly ignored.

so either plan your "rogue" releases better, or actively promote your stuff via the oneliner for instance.

But promoting on teh oneline ... well ... dead deer.

it shouldn't be necessary to promote/spam stuff on the one-liner. And if you released your prod right before the releases from a big party go live, your one-liner comments will be buried and forgotten as fast as the prod anyway.

So we're back at the root of the problem - who else is going to watch your demo apart from the people at the party? Word of mouth only works for the renowned blockbusters.

Conclusion: beginners should release blockbusters.

There's still the problem of "renowned".

I don't think so - standards go down a whole lot in the quiet periods between parties. Not just of the demos, but the standard people find acceptable to watch.

Which is a good thing - right after revision or asm there's a ton of amazing prods from the big groups to watch, but at other times there's nothing amazing that's new, so you pick up on some of the smaller groups, new people and so on.

So, if you're a new group, release in a quiet patch, ideally at a smaller party. Unless you're fucking good already of course :)

psonice: youre semi right - if you release your first demo at revision or assembly you might end up getting lost in the rankings and on pouet afterwards compared to releasing at a small party in a quiet period. to counter that, a lot of sceners watch the compos at big parties and more people watch the scene in general around "busy periods" (easter / early aug). pouet is pretty dead in the slow party months.