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As I mentioned in an earlier post, we want to get away from the current look & feel that the site has. Right now, it feels like a "gaming" site (which it is not) and doesn't attract the type of people we want (writers).

The new look and feel should have the following qualities: writing, maturity, relaxing, enjoyment.

For this, I thought of a few new names:
DiveringPaths.com
DivergingStories.com

I'm totally open to other ideas. Stuff that includes the word "game" doesn't really give the image we're shooting for. So, think of that as we go forward ...

i see the ultimate goal that you are looking for. however, i still struggle to see how that will better the site. its almost like you are looking for professionalism and that would totally lose the relaxing and enjoyment part. for me, im looking at it like this... young adults or kids (10-20) are the ones that come here the most. granted im grampa here but still. if thats who we are getting then we need to stay tuned in to that.

now, i may be wrong in my assumptions here and im sorry if i am. however, i think we are already targeting the people we want. people who want to write and play text adventures. so what if billy bob comes here looking for a game. lol

anyway, i do like Divergingstories.com. DivergingPaths just sounds like a rejected Robert Frost poem. if creativity is what you are looking for....heres my best shot at brainstorming names......

Inkwellstories.com/Keyboardgames.com/Yourstoriesinaction.com/Writtendestinies.com/Writtenlegends.com/Writtenadventurestories.com(aka WAS).

nate

You identified what I see as a problem -- that we are attracting the YA/Kids audience. Don't get me wrong, some of the younger members here are great, but I really want to see a more mature membership. People our age, who know how to write and like to write.

On the same token, I don't want to discourage YA/Kids to join; I've personally seen the writing of a handful of people on here greatly improve over their tenure. That's awesome. But, they should join to write storygames, not in the hopes of making an action/adventure game.

What do you guys think? Are we all on the same page here? The site *is* all about text story/games, not the adv/action games ...

Is it possible to have 2 URLs?  One that Kids would be interested in and One that adults would be interested in.  I don't see making a text game in divegingpaths.com

I being the 1,927,360,425,702,610,605,726,451,849,602,842 year-old great-great-great-great-grandma of Adam and Eve (although i am a single fourteen year old boy), like the idea of kids coming to this site. If like, proffesional writers came here than we kids'd be screwed, how could Jung Hero's adventrue compete with: 1984, or how could Mattais the Knight compete with: The Lord of the Rings. I think this sight need the youthful/young adult perspective on life that we all like. I mean, we've got thousands of awesome games so far, and we're gaining members as we speak. I think that good ol' MAG will do for now.
(And if we do change the name, what will cysid think?)

Two new ideas ...

ChoseYourStory / ChooseYourStories

I like the WAS idea and the DiverginStories and Diverging Paths, now I see what your saying but I wrote Mattias and I'm 13.

Oh yes -- Mattias did turn out great. But, you do know what I'm talking about, as far as how bad most of the "kids" games are, right? I don't want to mention anything by name or anything .... but yeah.

Your work is one of the few exception.

agreed, we need to outreach to a new audience and a new name might be just the thing.  still i don't like your names so far.  how about chooseyourownadventureonline.com

or officialchooseyourownadventure.com or myadventurestories.com

all of these are available, i've checked.

march

We need to stay far away from "CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE". It is a trademark, and it's owner *is* enforcing it. That means that if we create something too close sounding, they can take it away.

ChooseYourOwnStory is too close -- but ChooseYourStory is far enough away I think.

I'm reluctant about using the word "Adventure" -- if you think about it, Adventure is a TYPE of a story. You could have a non-adventureous story, right? It would still be mucho-enjoyable.

Sorry March, your way off on this one - I hate to disagree (Contest is so close and all ,lol) but I think Alex has a point, we need to shorten it.  I can see where your coming from though.  Alex, I like your first couple Ideas.

And yes, I will mention some -

"Die Trying"

All games by Redeye, Packer, Metsrock (sorry) and Adam666 except his quiz, are some examples.

Shootingstarstories.com

no.

There is a place called WRITING.COM. Us changing this to a site about writers would kinda be stealing some THUNDER dontcha think?
I like our site. It's homely

We all love the site -- Choco and I are the biggest fans of Cysid, too.

However, we're just not getting the traffic we want. We want people who are into INTERACTIVE FICTION and GAMEBOOKS to come here, not peolple looking to make FIGHTING GAMES or FIRST PERSON SHOOTERS.

The name/look/feel implies the latter; a gaming site. I get a lot of emails from peolple who want to make games, and are frusterated b/c they can't.

It's very frusterating, because we have such a uniquely awesome product here: the ability to make (fairly complex) interactive fiction games. Sure, it's no Zork (or, other traditional IF), but the difference here is anyone can do it. No programming involved (traditional IF involves knowing how to write code).

We want to attract the IF crowd, especially those who want to make a game but can't figure out the incredibly difficult syntax for programming IF.

Think about it like this way...
Kids are more open-minded to games, we want both kids and adults, but a lot of writers, don't like the kids games, and are more 2-D than us kids. I think that we should aim for Badger's age.... (15-18)

It's not a Kid vs Adult thing really. I'm an Adult (apparantely), and there's lots of Kids stuff I like (Action Figures, Spongebob, Bill & Mandy, Kids Next Door, etc).

It's a GOOD versus BAD writing thing. Most yunger than than 16 cannot write well because they have not had the experience or the education.

I know it's just if we have the site based around adults, then they'll take over. If we have it 15-18, then kids, adults, and the general audience (15-18) will all share the site...

We're going to try for that 18-34 market. Ever see ADULT SWIM? That's their target audience (as is a whole crapload of other stuff). The attitude of the site is really up to us (the owners) and how we define it.

This does not exclude 16 yr old's at all -- however to like the site as is, you'd have to be a mature 16 yr old anyway. Make sense?

Of course i watch adult swim (what?)!
Anyhoo, i guess i can't argue with that, but i still like the site as is... but y'know it's your site (i'll miss the youthful idealism tho...)

I am one of the few 13 year olds that know enough to figure out why people do things.  I'm at a kid age but I know where adults come from.  It sure is nice to come here and write w/o knowing any progamming language except for a little math.