RPG Maker Magazine Appreciation Retrospective
It's not often that RPGMM takes the time out to look back at itself
in lieu of trying to help developers, but now's a good a time as
any, right?
Interesting RPGMM Facts (no, not the Magonian)
RPGMM has pushed over 1,000,000 files out over the 5 years it's
been on the net.
RPGMM has had a total of 38 people on staff over the years.
RPGMM got its first 1 million hits month in September 2005 when
RPG Maker 3 debuted.
The most popular day of the week for people to visit the Mag is
Tuesday, followed by Monday, Saturday, Wednesday, Sunday, Friday,
and then Thursday.
Every issue of RPGMM has received at least 1000 views. Thanks!
The RPG Maker 3 Weapon Trick video recorded by Feros/Oblivion has
notched 3,500 downloads since September 2005.
No game in RPGMM history has scored a perfect 10, though a few
hold near it with a 9.75. Exactly 5 (at print) hold this honor.
The most popular game of all time on RPGMM is doyleman's "The
Farm Life", with 780 downloads. Following is Oblivion's "Second-to-Last
Fantasy" with 560 downloads.
Something random!
In Pictures (click to enlarge)
Ixzion's original avatar
Oblivion's original avatar
Amy Rose weilding the Spam Hammer!
A sketch of the Magscots in action, done by Fayorei. Clockwise from
top: Headstrong Fighter, Cute L'il White Mage, Mischievous Thief, and
Sexy Black Mage.
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This will mark the first time
that RPG Maker Magazine, the site itself, will be featured
as an RPGMM cover story. As if it needed to be said, RPGMM
rarely self-references itself in its own media (except for
something like Off-the-Wall). It wasn't even a thought when
it came time to come up with an idea for this issue. In
fact, it took a suggestion by a reader in order to convince
us to make it about us.
So, with a solid theme in mind, it was time for us to get
to work. But what would we write about? Everything RPGMM,
that's what! Throughout this article, you will travel back
in time with us, see prototypes, read commentary from the
staff that brought you over 5 years of articles, and hear
from the Magonians which form the lifeblood of the RPGMM
community.
You're only a step away. Keep reading!
Heading back in time
What many of you know as RPG Maker Magazine didn't start out
this way. In actuality, RPGMM started out very small:
Quoted from RPGMMWiki:
RPG Maker Magazine started off as a small RPG Maker
site hosted on ezBoard that focused primarily on the
reviews of games. It was also the testing ground for
Ixzion's (then known as RPG22) early coding skills (something that has carried
on to this day).
The RPG Maker Magazine started off with a staff of 5 people
on an ezBoard. Within a week, all of the staff that had
signed up left the site, leaving Ixzion alone. However,
that did not stop Ixzion from continuing to create new
content for his site. Review on top of review was created,
and even a complete strategy guide for Fu-Fu the Acid Trip
Bunny was created for Dave Carter (Ixzion was even thanked
by Carter, which was a high-point in his early efforts,
as Carter was currently very hot, having just created the
first platformer in RPGM history).
Eventually, the need for a website was realized, so Ixzion
decided to go with Freeservers.com to create the first RPG
Maker Magazine website, hxxp://www.rpgmmag.8m.com (the link
has been voluntarily disabled, since the site was taken by
a hacker and has pornographic material on it), which is
RPG Maker Magazine Version 1.
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The Mag at the time was a very primative RPG Maker site,
and was treated accordingly. However, that didn't take the
fire away from Ixzion, who continued to improve as much
as he could. Over time, he steadily kept building more versions,
eventually getting to v2, v3, and the most current v4.
Along the way, many came for the ride and many left. However,
it all started with Altoecko, who holds distinction as the
very first person to hold the rank of Head Reviewer (though
it wasn't called that at the time) and was the first permanent
Magonian (besides Ixzion, of course). Yes, he still hangs around
the Mag, poor schmuck.
To anyone who's worked for the Mag, read the Mag, praised
the Mag, hell, even damned the Mag, thank you! Keep moving
for sketches and stuff of the older version of the Mag!
Stories from the People
The people of the Mag, called Magonians, have experienced
a whole lot. Watch now as some of them share some of their favorite
Mag stories and happenin's.
Quoted from Draygone:
I discovered two glitches here. I won't tell you how I
accomplished them, but I will say what happened. The first
was in our chat. I wound up typing in something that
skrewed up the emotes, making them appear a line or two
under where they were supposed to be. It was really funny,
because we had a couple Mods in there using their Mod
icon by their message names, and these icons appeared a
post late, resulting in people like DuelPro holding the
Mod icon if they were quick enough to make the next
post. It stopped being funny when one of the higher-ups
did it, and it glitched Facts/Myoky and I from Mod status
to Admin status. Permanently, at that. Seriously,
Feros/Oblivion Wolf tried to put us back to Mod status,
but we reverted.
I also figured out a way to create a sticky topic in the
forums without being one of the moderators. But I won't
get into that.
It was only natural of me to find these glitches. I am one
of the bigger rulebreakers of RPG Maker 1. :)
(PS: Yes, I purposely spell it "skrew". One of my random quirks. Don't fix it.)
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Quoted from ShadowFox1001:
Well, I've been with these band of idiots for quite some time.
I took part in the resurrection of the site when it was destroyed
(I forget why). I stumbled upon this waste basket of a site and was
like, "How am I supposed to get RPG Maker help here?" So, thinking
that, I didn't really decide to join until I talked to the
chocolate man who ran this crap shoot. I decided I would
join after hearing about this apparent crash and burn. I
started creating a freakin' boat load polls and spam posts
to try and attract attention and get the board back in
order. Of course, it wasn't about my posts or effort, it
was about my looks and my penis. Of course, being the
only straight guy on the boards at the time, it didn't
really attract the fems. Too much gay moshing here, I suppose.
Anyway, after a while and gaining some influence and power
inside the RPG Maker community (excluding the Pav, because
they hate me), I became a mod, then not long after, an
admin, just because I'm a bad ass. Well, we than had some
sort of war going on between some people (two different
sites). Quite frankly, I think it was because they were
jealous of the raw power, finesse and good looks the men
of the Mag. There was much tension and bloodlust between
the two sites, and I acted irrationally and attacked the
big admin guy by editing his post. Oops. That led to the
people hating me and threats and blah blah blah. But
enough of a crappy war story.
I've never played a huge, integral role on this site,
nor do I plan to, except pose as entertainment or the
rules man. I'm the hard ass, and I make people do what
I say, even Negrozion and Furros (ObsidianMulch). For a
while, i was going through difficult times with personal
issues and some people here were setting me off, so it just
amplified my anger. So I decided to rule with an iron
fist. I crushed the opposition with my giant peen and
doused the flames of rebellion with my water works. Of
course, this made some angry because I was "over stepping
my bounds." No one tells me what to do! So, I left. Then
the site fell into a decline and a place full of pansies.
Everyone was NICE and AGREEING with each other! Who does
that?! So, I came back onto the scene, but did not get a
grand welcome, but oh well, I'd show these miscreants.
Yeah, that's my story during my life here at the Mag. It's
sad, but true. I have plans for this site, but I'm not telling.
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Quoted from Lantis:
Believe it or not, the Mag was my first forum I delved in really. So outside of random IRC chatrooms, I never really got to know anyone online that I didn't know in person... Not that I didn't like the idea, per se but I just didn't think that you could really build much of a relationship based on such seemingly flagrant means of knowing someone.
But throughout the first year of my stay at the Mag, I learned differently. I've gotten to know the people here at the mag and I have grown close enough to be able to call them a 'friend'. It still seems a bit strange that you can know someone so well without knowing them beyond my monitors. I've since added a good number to IM, and even had the privilege to web cam with a few.
Originally, I came to the mag because I was new to RM1 and wanted to get the first game I made out on the net... which I'm sure is how most people got here. But by then, I already started re-making it with SK. But I got alot more out of the mag than that. I becamed involved enough to ask for a spot on staff. And since I was able to do a bit for the mag such as buying ad space, write articles and reviews, doing a little photoshop work from time to time, and help out the members with RM1 if ever the occasion arised.
Basically, the mag has become rather important to me... not as a website, but as a community. Not to say it's always been this picture perfect place. There are times when the mag has no activity for while, or members leave, or a flood of noobs comes and just puts a good few in a bad mood... but it's always came around. And I'm glad to say that I've been there through the good times and the bad. I've since been on other forums, but none of them have given me such a homely feeling like the mag. So I end this little sappy scrap of text with a big thanks to everyone or something. ^_^
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More stories from our group of Magonians are in this topic:
Stories of RPGMM
A PICTURE'S WORTH
You people never get to see the plans and sketches that
the bigshots make for the site designs. A lot of you
may not have even seen those sites! So here's a glimpse
into the past and behind the scenes!
A rather poor drawing of how Ixzion wanted a RPG Maker 2 graphic done.
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A banner from v2. Moving away from ultra-basic graphics and stuff.
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Shot of RPGMMv2. Looked pretty good, if you ask...uh...yeah.
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The first shot of RPGMMv3. It was a working design at the time, and Ixzion was proud of it.
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Behind-the-scenes of the very first RPGMM issue! Very crude humor.
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The design document for RPGMMv4! Check out how much it looks like the design today. You can feel the influence.
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THE END
Sorry, but we don't really have a good way to end this,
so ROCK ON RPGMM!
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