Seperate but Equal: MW and OB segregation on nexus?

[ReverendKnots]

EDIT3: There has been a final statement on whether or not this will happen, so discussion is no longer necessary...

 

We are currently working on getting Morrowind support in to NMM, at which point we are going to separate TESNexus and have Morrowind Nexus and Oblivion Nexus. TESNexus will cease to exist, but will redirect to Oblivion Nexus. Until then, things will remain the same.

 

First, I apologize profusely if this has already been brought up and talked out in the past. A few quick searches didn't bring anything up for me.

 

Nexus started out as a TES modding site and has since expanded into several other titles. When Nexus started supporting other games and other communities, they could have followed closely to the "tesnexus" format; 1 site per game series. If that had happened, we'd have FalloutNexus that supported mods for all Fallout games, WitcherNexus, DragonAgeNexus, etc etc. Skyrim mods would get posted to tesnexus. That WOULD be the consistent approach based on the original "tesnexus" format.

 

In some cases, it appears this has happened; Witcher and Witcher 2 mods are all found under the same subdomain as it stands, for example. Nexus has been very inconsistent with its approach; some games in the same series have their own sites such as Fallout 3 vs New Vegas and Skyrim vs the other 2 modern ES games. Others are clumped together, like the aforementioned Witcher series. Nexus has not even been consistent in its approach on a per-series basis, since Skyrim gets its own subdomain but the other two ES games so far have not.

 

I believe the staff here made a good decision in giving Skyrim its own subdomain and I'd like to see that decision carried out to its logical conclusion. Every single game the nexus supports could benefit from its own subdomain, and no two games that currently live under the same roof make this case better than Oblivion and Morrowind. Separating these two games into their own subdomains would increase visibility of mods for both games dramatically and it's not hard to understand why. Both communities are active enough, I think, where you would still see active front pages.

 

Finally, I believe if nexus gave the two their own subdomains they might find that there are several modders on the MW side of things that might be more willing and interested to use Nexus for hosting as similar sites that have a larger MW focus have in recent times become disorganized and slow on approval.

 

This is of course only a suggestion, I do not wish to come off as if I feel entitled to anything; I don't. I also realize that Nexus may not have the resources to facilitate something like this presently, I just have no idea how difficult this could turn out being.

 

EDIT: This is not a suggestion that nexus staff do this immediately, it is a suggestion that it get done eventually / as soon as time and resources permit.

 

EDIT2: Here are my rebuttals to the most prominent arguments that have popped up. If you make these arguments again without addressing the points here you are going to look really silly

I believe you have your heart in the right place, Kingtitan, but what you are basically saying is "anyone who would want this is stupid and the MW modding scene is dead anyway". That's ridiculous.

 

Argument: "AVERAGE USERS ARE DUMB"

I'm not saying that the current site layout confuses me, but it obviously confuses a lot of people and if it confuses people it is the fault of the website and not the fault of the people using it. The current nexus layout is worlds better than how it used to be so props at the staff, I'm not trying to knock nexus or anything, but that doesn't stop OB and MW mods being on the same site from being confusing to the the average user.

 

I think anything average people are expected to use (average people being the vast majority of people who browse and download mods from nexus sites) should have as low a learning curve as possible. Making it necessary to use an out-of-the-way and down right busy advanced search function to effectively browse nexus for MW mods steepens the curve and that makes it suboptimal. It works perfectly fine for those of us that have been around a long time, but such a feature is probably just going to get overlooked by the average user. It doesn't make the average user stupid like you seem to be saying, it just means they don't spend anywhere near as much time doing this crap as we do.

 

Argument: "MORROWIND MODDING IS DEAD"

It's more alive than DA/2 modding from the looks of things and no one is saying DA/2 mods should get published to the same nexus site as Witcher or something like that. If you had read my entire original post and I surely hope you did, you'd notice I made the claim that only a fraction of MW modders right now use Nexus, and a huge reason for that is because of the perceived notion that TESnexus is an Oblivion site and not a site for MW mods.

 

Hell, a lot of MW modders don't even use PES; that site is broken so badly that most of us can't even log in to post mods in the first place and those of us that can have to wait a day or two for the mod to get approved. So if it looks like MW modding is dead, know that a big reason for that is that there is no good place to visibly post MW mods right now.

Edited April 6, 2012 by ReverendKnots

[Yamcakes]

It would definitely be a welcome addition. Too many times I've seen comment sections on Morrowind mods wasted with 'LOL I THUT THIS WAS 4 OBLIVION SORRY KEWL MOD THO', and categories for Morrowind mods are a bit lacking. It's a memorable game and deserves all of the love it can get.

[spiffyman777]

I would love if this were to happen. Certain functions such as 'mod of the month' don't discriminate between MW or OB so if I was hoping for the top MW mods, I'd also end up with OB mods I didn't want to see. Things like that make me think splitting the site would be nice. Like Knots said, it depends on how costly it would be to do such a thing though; if it's too much of a burden for Nexus, then the current way is still bearable.

[micalov]

It would mean staff would have to manually go through all the old mis-categorized files especially from the old days, also it would screw over a lot of links ppl have for old classic when the ID number in the URL of the file changes. To much effort required with it being so late IMO.

[ub3rman123]

I think having them in their own categories as they are now is sufficient. People people should be able to look and see A. that the page says 'Morrowind', and B. the differences between the appearance of Morrowind and Oblivion.

[ReverendKnots]

@micalov

If it was done right, no links would break. tes.nexusmods.com urls would just become redirects to the new subdomains the same way www.tesnexus.com and www.skyrimnexus.com is now.

 

I have no idea what you mean by 'so late'.

 

@ub3rman123

Maybe if all you want to do is search OB mods, but as it stands searching MW mods is a pain. There is no reason either game should get preferential treatment but ONE has to come first in the menus.

 

You'd be surprised how similar these games can look. I get several e-mails a week from people trying to use something I have released only to find out they are trying to use it with Oblivion. Call these people stupid if you like, but the truth of it is that having two games on one site is confusing. Just because it doesn't confuse you or I doesn't mean it's not; if anything it means we have too much spare time :P

 

Certainly what we have now is 'sufficient', it's not broken. I'm saying it could be better.

[micalov]

@micalov

I have no idea what you mean by 'so late'.

 

The game has been out for 10 or more years and the site has been dealing with mods for the game for most that time if not all, so that is a lot of files.

[trainwiz]

I'm for it. I'm sick of people asking me where to find the Tribunal and Bloodmoon mods for Oblivion.

[darkelfguy]

Completely agree, Morrowind should have it's own sub domain. It seems like almost all of the Morrowind mods I've uploaded to the Nexus here have inevitably been confused with Oblivion mods. And visibility for Morrowind mods here at the Nexus is atrocious, one of the many reasons why I prefer other mod hosting sites. A proper sub domain for Morrowind would certainly help to increase visibility and decrease confusion. I mean, look at some of these comments (that I've directly quoted here):

 

"It's seems to be a great quest. It's a shame that I got only Oblivion" - From the comments section of my mod Of Justice and Innocence.

 

"man i thought this was for oblivion and got exited as it sounds awesome. then i got to the end of the description and show the morrowwind part.

anyway sounds great good luck" - From the comments section of my other mod The Haunted Tavern of the West Gash.

 

The state of things right now really does seem a bit ridiculous.

[ReverendKnots]

@micalov

It all depends on how the mod database is kept and whether or not it'd be easy to separate the Morrowind mods from the Oblivion ones. How long the two games have been out is absolutely irrelevant.