Building a Game Community - Blog #1
by Javier Canon · 06/01/2009 (10:51 am) · 7 comments
¿What you need in a game oriented website community?
For the users:
- PM (private messages)
- Forums
- Groups, in games terminology: Clan or Tribes
- Blogs
- Social network: friends, photos - galleries, videos, public and private permissions; maybe apply for
Clans or tribes too. (remember facebook?)
- Enhanced Member profile
For the bussines:
- CMS (content management system)
- Shop
- Support or Helpdesk
- Project Management: tasks, maybe bugtraking
- maybe membership (for games like MMOGs)
OPTIONS
--------
JOOMLA (1.5):
-------
PROS:
- Easy to setup.
- Many templates.
- Many commercial and free modules or components (addons), good shop like Virtuemart.
CONS:
- Not scalable, more for small bussines.
- more slowly that other options.
- Permissions system only based in groups of users.
CONCLUSIONS:
Good for small bussines and if you find that works out the box.
Good for small budget.
EXAMPLES:
www.joomlapolis.com
www.joomunity.org
www.jomsocial.com
www.templateplazza.com/news/comuna3-create-your-own-joomla-social-network.html
__________________________________________________________________________
XOOPS:
------
PROS:
- Many free good modules (addons).
- Good permissions system, based in user groups, modules, pages and actions.
- Good cache system.
CONS:
- The original development team, leave the group and now is XOOPSCUBE
- Very slow updates.
EXAMPLES:
www.impresscms.org
Ok, i worked first with Xoops for my site www.softcannon.com, but i find that not
have a good shop option. I dont like that when you are updating a page and save, you see a page "saved,
wait a moment, redirecting...", so i am planning to migrate to Drupal.
__________________________________________________________________________
DRUPAL:
-------
PROS:
- Native multilanguage.
- Very scalable, use for Nasa, Ibm and others corporations.
- Native Taxonomy.
- The better user permissions system based in nodes.
- The better cache system.
CONS:
- a few commercial or free templates (maybe is because is a more new project).
- not very friendly for make templates.
- more work and maybe you spend more money if are paying for the job.
EXAMPLES:
www.drupal.org
__________________________________________________________________________
You can test all these CMS in php.opensourcecms.com
So, stay tunned for the next blog.
For the users:
- PM (private messages)
- Forums
- Groups, in games terminology: Clan or Tribes
- Blogs
- Social network: friends, photos - galleries, videos, public and private permissions; maybe apply for
Clans or tribes too. (remember facebook?)
- Enhanced Member profile
For the bussines:
- CMS (content management system)
- Shop
- Support or Helpdesk
- Project Management: tasks, maybe bugtraking
- maybe membership (for games like MMOGs)
OPTIONS
--------
JOOMLA (1.5):
-------
PROS:
- Easy to setup.
- Many templates.
- Many commercial and free modules or components (addons), good shop like Virtuemart.
CONS:
- Not scalable, more for small bussines.
- more slowly that other options.
- Permissions system only based in groups of users.
CONCLUSIONS:
Good for small bussines and if you find that works out the box.
Good for small budget.
EXAMPLES:
www.joomlapolis.com
www.joomunity.org
www.jomsocial.com
www.templateplazza.com/news/comuna3-create-your-own-joomla-social-network.html
__________________________________________________________________________
XOOPS:
------
PROS:
- Many free good modules (addons).
- Good permissions system, based in user groups, modules, pages and actions.
- Good cache system.
CONS:
- The original development team, leave the group and now is XOOPSCUBE
- Very slow updates.
EXAMPLES:
www.impresscms.org
Ok, i worked first with Xoops for my site www.softcannon.com, but i find that not
have a good shop option. I dont like that when you are updating a page and save, you see a page "saved,
wait a moment, redirecting...", so i am planning to migrate to Drupal.
__________________________________________________________________________
DRUPAL:
-------
PROS:
- Native multilanguage.
- Very scalable, use for Nasa, Ibm and others corporations.
- Native Taxonomy.
- The better user permissions system based in nodes.
- The better cache system.
CONS:
- a few commercial or free templates (maybe is because is a more new project).
- not very friendly for make templates.
- more work and maybe you spend more money if are paying for the job.
EXAMPLES:
www.drupal.org
__________________________________________________________________________
You can test all these CMS in php.opensourcecms.com
So, stay tunned for the next blog.
About the author
God blessed me with a brilliant mind... so im a genius...
#2
There are CMSs of pretty much any kind you may like or want. The same for forums, blogs, IM networks...
The real points now are the content, and the people, not the tools. The guys from Wolfire are a really cool reference on that.
06/01/2009 (5:22 pm)
There are really no limits this days, you can have anything you want, even at cero costs. Tools like ning give you your own facebook style community.There are CMSs of pretty much any kind you may like or want. The same for forums, blogs, IM networks...
The real points now are the content, and the people, not the tools. The guys from Wolfire are a really cool reference on that.
#3
@Novack, its true: exist many tools like Ning, but in my case i want the total control, and i want that i can integrate the website with any thing that i can imagine...
the content or game is the the most important thing, but having only a forum and blog, or having a website like garagegames or facebook can make the diference.
06/01/2009 (9:02 pm)
@Fiammybe, thanks for the impressCMS info, ill check it.@Novack, its true: exist many tools like Ning, but in my case i want the total control, and i want that i can integrate the website with any thing that i can imagine...
the content or game is the the most important thing, but having only a forum and blog, or having a website like garagegames or facebook can make the diference.
#4
Besides simply not agreeing with Joomla, I also find that many base templates there are a convoluted mess. Even the worst of Drupal templates don't feel as dreadful :)
Core Drupal is fine combined with Simple Machines Forum. There is an authentication system which lets SMF use Drupal's user database, but if your users are only going to add content to the actual forum, this isn't even necessary.
SMF also has a lot of templates and modules (actual plugins, not the handhack-based mess of phpBB!), but I'm using the latest beta, which limits my choice of free themes to...uh, maybe six ;)
I've also got DocuWiki authenticating with Drupal. That's an even more stable solution than the current one for SMF (which is a bit hackish, and the author doesn't speak English very well). DW supports a configuration file which tells you what DB, table and fields to get userinfo from, in what format. That's it to share authentication with Drupal or any other system.
For shops, I'd look at integrating a payment solution (not just one gateway, but a system using gateways). I lean towards Plex Billing, previously known as ModernBilling.
VirtueMart is a storefront I've had terrible experience with - lost the entire product database with the Joomla-integrated version several times for a client. Not so hot.
ZenCart is fairly popular around here as a standalone storefront. I haven't looked at integration options with any CMS, but if the CMS doesn't have a terribly convoluted authentication system, it can be done in a day.
If you are shopping around for free CMSes, also take a look at EZ. It's backed by a large company, and is fairly feature-complete. Used by a lot of businesses, too.
Xoops I have used in the past, and it's nice with lots of plugins, but felt a little simpler than Drupal. On the other hand, you can very well treat Xoops like a CMS API and drop some of the stuff it does, use just some parts and roll your own Xoops-derived CMS.
You should try them all, in any case, and evaluate how tight you want the integration between various systems to be. Some are happy with just Wordpress+a forum.
06/01/2009 (9:21 pm)
I use Drupal when I'm using a CMS, and it's not really that hard to make a template. This is true for ALL CMSes, if, and only if, the base templates you base your work on are actually fairly clean and well thought out.Besides simply not agreeing with Joomla, I also find that many base templates there are a convoluted mess. Even the worst of Drupal templates don't feel as dreadful :)
Core Drupal is fine combined with Simple Machines Forum. There is an authentication system which lets SMF use Drupal's user database, but if your users are only going to add content to the actual forum, this isn't even necessary.
SMF also has a lot of templates and modules (actual plugins, not the handhack-based mess of phpBB!), but I'm using the latest beta, which limits my choice of free themes to...uh, maybe six ;)
I've also got DocuWiki authenticating with Drupal. That's an even more stable solution than the current one for SMF (which is a bit hackish, and the author doesn't speak English very well). DW supports a configuration file which tells you what DB, table and fields to get userinfo from, in what format. That's it to share authentication with Drupal or any other system.
For shops, I'd look at integrating a payment solution (not just one gateway, but a system using gateways). I lean towards Plex Billing, previously known as ModernBilling.
VirtueMart is a storefront I've had terrible experience with - lost the entire product database with the Joomla-integrated version several times for a client. Not so hot.
ZenCart is fairly popular around here as a standalone storefront. I haven't looked at integration options with any CMS, but if the CMS doesn't have a terribly convoluted authentication system, it can be done in a day.
If you are shopping around for free CMSes, also take a look at EZ. It's backed by a large company, and is fairly feature-complete. Used by a lot of businesses, too.
Xoops I have used in the past, and it's nice with lots of plugins, but felt a little simpler than Drupal. On the other hand, you can very well treat Xoops like a CMS API and drop some of the stuff it does, use just some parts and roll your own Xoops-derived CMS.
You should try them all, in any case, and evaluate how tight you want the integration between various systems to be. Some are happy with just Wordpress+a forum.
#5
One CON is that is can be a little slower than some sites, but it does look good.
06/01/2009 (9:26 pm)
I have built several communities with Joomla 1.0. Right now I am building a new one for my games using a new template and Joomla 1.5. The plugins, and knowledge base that is posted on the net makes it a good choice.One CON is that is can be a little slower than some sites, but it does look good.
#6
In the other hand you have used ecommerce or Ubercart modules for Drupal?
www.ubercart.org/
06/02/2009 (10:43 am)
@Ronny, i am currently setup joomla+virtuemart for a client, you make me feel fear...In the other hand you have used ecommerce or Ubercart modules for Drupal?
www.ubercart.org/
#7
One Joomla-Virtuemart site I've been involved in is here:
loplabbet.no/
I said "pass" after the second crash (Joomla 1.5.x+latest VM; first was porting from 1.0.x) ;)
For such a pure storefront site, I'd simply go with Zen or similar. If you need a CMS for other things, Drupal+<any good cart> is my personal recommendation. My blood pressure went down going from Joomla to Drupal :)
06/05/2009 (6:09 pm)
I've only used eCommerce and Übercart for test-setups, not in production. eCommerce was tricky to shape into what I wanted, while Übercart was pretty flexible. Seeing how many sites use the latter, I think it has to be pretty stable. eCommerce felt at the time (late 2007, early 2008) like it was made by people who wanted to make a cart, but hadn't done so before.One Joomla-Virtuemart site I've been involved in is here:
loplabbet.no/
I said "pass" after the second crash (Joomla 1.5.x+latest VM; first was porting from 1.0.x) ;)
For such a pure storefront site, I'd simply go with Zen or similar. If you need a CMS for other things, Drupal+<any good cart> is my personal recommendation. My blood pressure went down going from Joomla to Drupal :)
Torque 3D Owner David Janssens
Nebulagame.com
as is shown now in the ImpressCMS 1.2 alpha release, the redirect page is not necessary any more. The new theme only shows a Ajax window to show the message, but you stay on the same page. There are discussions among the developers to eliminate even that, and to make he user experience more fluid.
ImpressCMS is starting from the Xoops line, but has been adding many useful community functionalities to the core. you might want to check out the differences.
Regards,
David