Combating Generic Platfromers

Furrhead-Productions

Generic platformers is a real epidemic on scratch. A lot of them are straight up copies, like this one https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1122103302/
The one I mentioned got deleted today, but most of them do not. They clog up the top loved section and drown out most other more talented scratchers. In the past this onslaught of generic platforms were repelled by a steady stream of curated projects. These projects were often unique and very fun to play. Scratch has gotten rid of this tab, and its unclear when it will return, so now there is no way to combat generic platformers. Below, I will propose five theoretical fixes to this issue. Anyone who reads this is welcome to posit there own suggestions as well.

1: Scratch can pivot to a upvote down vote system. That way people can dislike generic games instead of report them, and down votes (which can be hidden like how they are on youtube) then reduce its ranking in the algorithm. This will ensure that generic games are eliminated from the competition, meaning the more original games will rise to the top.

2: One way to solve this problem is this: We need to change the algorithm to stop favoring these projects so much. I suggest that the algorithm that decides who sees these projects be geared to projects that are more advanced; aka the system promotes projects that feature more code or asset sprites in them. While this will not 100 percent fix the problem, an algorithm that ranks projects based on complexity or size may result in better representation for animators and more advanced games or simulations.

3: Or a new section is opened up in scratch that is designed to promote projects like what I proposed for option 2 that people can go to search in, and it only registers projects shared within the last 7 days, so it is not overwhelmed.

4: Another thing that prevents original games from surfacing is the huge amount of animations that fill up the top loved section. So, scratch could separate the two. Projects that are tagged as animations appear in an animation top loved section, while games can appear in a top loved section reserved for games. This would free up more space for both OG games and OG animations, which would result in more project diversity.

4: Or even better, Scratch team should bring the curator tab back, as this will fix the problem to an extent.

Bonus solution: Or a combination of these fixes are implemented. Thanks for reading this, and feel free to share your thoughts below!

NotK3ndricAltAgain

1. Isn’t that rejected?

2. How would that be possible? Plus generic platformers are not like they’re gonna destroy the entire Scratch website.

3. Yeah but generic platformers could’ve been shared in the past 7 days.

4. That could actually sound like a good idea.

5. The front page curator tab doesn’t exist right now because it’s broken.

6. No, just no. Some people might want to play generic platformers, some might not. Just let people go on the projects they want to go on.

everwinner64

Combatting generic platformers is finally like block the creativity of users, point which is a part of Scratch, so I think this is obviously rejected

epicdude512

Furrhead-Productions wrote:
Generic platformers is a real epidemic on scratch. A lot of them are straight up copies, like this one https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1122103302/
The one I mentioned got deleted today, but most of them do not. They clog up the top loved section and drown out most other more talented scratchers. In the past this onslaught of generic platforms were repelled by a steady stream of curated projects. These projects were often unique and very fun to play. Scratch has gotten rid of this tab, and its unclear when it will return, so now there is no way to combat generic platformers. Below, I will propose five theoretical fixes to this issue. Anyone who reads this is welcome to posit there own suggestions as well.

Have you considered the fact that maybe the audiance of scratch likes generic platformers? Scratch is mainly children and children tend to like more simple things, it makes sense that the top loved is generic platformers as kids enjoy simplicity

Crow_Boy08

epicdude512 wrote:
Furrhead-Productions wrote:
Generic platformers is a real epidemic on scratch. A lot of them are straight up copies, like this one https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1122103302/
The one I mentioned got deleted today, but most of them do not. They clog up the top loved section and drown out most other more talented scratchers. In the past this onslaught of generic platforms were repelled by a steady stream of curated projects. These projects were often unique and very fun to play. Scratch has gotten rid of this tab, and its unclear when it will return, so now there is no way to combat generic platformers. Below, I will propose five theoretical fixes to this issue. Anyone who reads this is welcome to posit there own suggestions as well.

Have you considered the fact that maybe the audiance of scratch likes generic platformers? Scratch is mainly children and children tend to like more simple things, it makes sense that the top loved is generic platformers as kids enjoy simplicity

Oh so that's why projects with scratch sprites and no sound are getting on explore

kyoufu_gaaden

i also am not a big fan of platformers but if you want to see things other than them, follow people who make things you find interesting. follow who they follow. find a community that's interesting. you'll find good stuff eventually.

Zydrolic

Furrhead-Productions wrote:
1: Scratch can pivot to a upvote down vote system. That way people can dislike generic games instead of report them, and down votes (which can be hidden like how they are on youtube) then reduce its ranking in the algorithm. This will ensure that generic games are eliminated from the competition, meaning the more original games will rise to the top.

This is walking backwards - The reason this doesn't exist is so you are encouraged to constructively criticize (eg. “I didn't like (x), but i think you can improve it by doing (y)”.) rather than drop a downvote and move on with your day with nothing said, thus not helping the creator (hidden or not).

2: One way to solve this problem is this: We need to change the algorithm to stop favoring these projects so much. I suggest that the algorithm that decides who sees these projects be geared to projects that are more advanced; aka the system promotes projects that feature more code or asset sprites in them. While this will not 100 percent fix the problem, an algorithm that ranks projects based on complexity or size may result in better representation for animators and more advanced games or simulations.

There is “no” algorithm. “Trending” is just what's trending - It shows what project has gotten loads of social action on it in a short period of time. Adding more filters and making a real algorithm will just lead to people still complaining about the speed of the indexer or similar.

3: Or a new section is opened up in scratch that is designed to promote projects like what I proposed for option 2 that people can go to search in, and it only registers projects shared within the last 7 days, so it is not overwhelmed.

Endorsing community-hosted platform that does this brings a myriad of issues: If the hoster goes rogue and just features inappropriate stuff, then that's a slip-up people will complain about.
Official is probably off the table. This site has a large load already.

4: Another thing that prevents original games from surfacing is the huge amount of animations that fill up the top loved section. So, scratch could separate the two. Projects that are tagged as animations appear in an animation top loved section, while games can appear in a top loved section reserved for games. This would free up more space for both OG games and OG animations, which would result in more project diversity.

People can already just include both tags.

4: Or even better, Scratch team should bring the curator tab back, as this will fix the problem to an extent.

Sorry, what was the curator tab again?
(unrelated nitpick: you numbered it wrong, this should be 5. you can use a list for this by doing:

[list=1]
[*]sample text 1
[*]sample text 2
[/list]

replace sample text with whatever - [*] is a new item on the list.)

Crow_Boy08

Zydrolic wrote:
Furrhead-Productions wrote:
4: Or even better, Scratch team should bring the curator tab back, as this will fix the problem to an extent.
Sorry, what was the curator tab again?

It was this tab where certain community members chosen can pick projects to be front page.
Like featured but a different person chooses it and it doesn't stay

lovelythings

Generic platform ears are now not just a generic thought of a boring game created by one user but a whole stereotype of generic creators making absolute generic games to get popular for followers (I’ve also created generic games and got on trending with my accounts history once in 2023 and in 2021,

and I hated creating it and found it worthless) and this generic style is now dominating scratch and creating scratches “website reputation” and stereotype. Scratch should remove all generic playformers and make a new rule instead of those project dominating explore page tab.

Yeah

MrFluffyPenguins

generic platformers are ultra garbage, sure, but even outside of platformers the explore page isn't exactly known for quality
you can find cool people and follow them if you want to see good projects

philip0210

They aren't very harmful to scratch, but they are a real problem for original games.

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