Good Suggestion Guide

Mod Crow

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user

The Suggestions forums receive hundreds of new ideas every day, some good and some not so good. We really value your suggestions and want to ensure that we can locate as many great ideas as possible to pass on to our content team.

To help with this aim we thought it would be really useful to provide you with a guide on the how to get the most out of your suggestions and the best way to present them to us.

Step 1: Coming up with an idea

Here are a few key points to coming up with a perfect suggestion:

Think of a need, fill that need.
Try and think of something missing from the game. You should then look at thinking up a logical solution to fill that gap in the game.

It's also a good idea to think about whether it's really worth adding. There are many different types of food we do not have in RuneScape but is there any real need to include them?
Think about what impact such a suggestion could have
This is probably the most important point when it comes to making an idea. We've all dreamed about having our own personal resource vault in our POH to continuously spawn income, but think about how that could harm the game economy.

Balance is a major issue for ensuring a good suggestion. An idea might sound good because it makes something easier but if that has a major negative impact on other areas of the game, such as the economy or encouragement of rule breaking, then we won't be able to introduce it.

Ask yourself whether your suggestion justifies any major impact to the game. If it would only make things a tiny bit easier but could cause balancing issues then you may need to go back to the drawing board.
Think of the concept, not the stats
It can be tempting when creating a suggestion to focus on giving us the complete statistics of the item, creature or skill, rather than focus on the main idea. Our content team will decide what stats something will have so your suggestion will do much better if you focus on making the initial idea clearer.

Example:
Bad - There's a monster called Vlaard, he would have 50 attack, 75 magic, 300 HP an will drop 4k gold.

Good - There's a monster called Vlaard and he looks like a Black Demon but he has tendrils like Abyssal Whips, his skin has seams of fire running through it and his red eyes glow with each attack. He would be aimed at mid-level players with an average reward. However, he allows you to teleport to the Caves if you kill him.

You should also avoid falling into the trap of just trying to come up with the most powerful thing ever. Suggesting a spell which kills everything ever in a single hit, or an item which blows up towns isn't really something we're going to be able to use.
Don't focus on the end goal
When putting forward a suggestion make sure you are thinking of how the suggestion could benefit all players, not just those at the end goal (unless of course it's high level content). For example, if you want to suggest a new skill don't just focus on creating the skillcape for it, think about finer details of the skill itself.

Step 2: Presenting your idea on the forums

Presenting your idea well is a really good way of ensuring it gets noticed. Here are a few tips:

Use the 'Search Threads' option
Your first step should just be to see if an idea has already been suggested. If it has there is no real need to suggest it again unless you've thought of a completely new way of handling that suggestion.
Post it in the right suggestions forums.
It is important to consider in which forum your idea belongs. This way it will be easier for other forum users and us mods to find the type of ideas we're looking for.
Get straight to the point with the title
It's tempting to have titles like "Must have this" or "Ultimate Skill!" but those don't actually help in getting your ideas across. You can make it easier for your ideas to gain further notice by clearly stating what you are suggesting in the title. If you are suggesting Shoes of fire for example then make your title 'Shoes of Fire'. Simple!
Make yourself presentable
Use clear language when making your suggestion and avoid falling into the pitfalls of being overly negative about why you think certain things don't work or are left out. Remember that you have all the time in the world to create your thread so there is no need to rush it.
Hook your reader
When you make a suggestion, or any thread really, you need to make sure you grab your reader quickly. Having pages of text to find what you are proposing may put people off. We receive loads of suggestions every day so it really helps us if we can see what you are suggesting quickly.

A brief overview of your suggestion at the beginning is the best way to grab attention. Once you've given an introduction you can then give a longer description which really get's into the more detailed aspects of your idea.

Example:
Example:
Bad - "In a land long ago a magical pixie created a huge army of never creatures who's single goal was conquest of all magical treasures coloured blue who...(goes on for 3 pages)...and this is why I think firemaking should include lighters.

Good - "Brief Description: We should add lighters to the firemaking skill"

"Detailed Description: In a land long ago..."
Don't rely on Supporters lists
Making your suggestion as clear as possible should be your primary goal. Whilst it's nice to see a number of people are interested in an idea supporters lists aren't really very useful in determining whether a suggestion would be good for a game. For that reason your supporters list should be an addition at the end of your suggestion, not the focus.

Step 3: Feedback

Once you've posted your idea you'll soon find others giving their opinions on it. Here are a few guidelines for surviving the third stage of your suggestion:

Be prepared to accept negative responses
Not everyone will agree that your suggestion is suitable for the game. It can be disheartening to hear that some people disagree with you but don't be dismayed, all feedback can help you to shape an idea into something better. You should consider what others have to say and if you agree think about incorporating their ideas, or provide your own counter arguments if you disagree.
Non-Mods count too!
Sometimes it's tempting to dismiss comments from fellow players as only Jagex can actually add content to the game. However, we would really recommend not doing this as your fellow players can really help you to shape your idea into something which could be really awesome.
Don't be dismayed by a lack of gold posts
Just because a Jagex Mod hasn't posted on your thread doesn't mean we are ignoring your ideas. As mentioned before, we receive a huge number of suggestions every day and cannot possibly hope to answer all of them. We do however ensure that as many great suggestions as possible are noted down and made available to our content team.

Whilst we may not reply to your thread that doesn't mean your idea hasn't been sent on for further review.

The same applies if a Mod has replied and you are waiting for feedback from them. Our content team are always very busy and it can sometimes take a while for an idea to be reviewed and even longer to be added to the game. If we can add it to the game your feedback will be the shiny new piece of added content!
What to do with a Jagex Mods feedback
When it comes to suggestions we are ideally looking for the most original and creative ideas. This means that we may post on your thread to encourage you to look at new ways of handling your suggestion. We don't mean any harm when we suggest areas of improvement, we're literally just encouraging you to get the most from your idea.

One thing to remember is that we can never guarantee content. If we say we like something it means we have let our content team know but that doesn't mean it's something which will definitely make it into the game.

If you can follow these guidelines you should find your suggestions do much better.

- Mod Crow -

11-Nov-2009 13:57:06 - Last edited on 22-Dec-2011 15:03:09 by Mod Jon H

Forums

Mod Crow