First off, thank you all for your valuable feedback on Source Media Arcade.
Although this is an early beta, I had hoped that it would be better accepted by the community. From the responses so far, I have noticed two areas that need to be improved for the next release (in addition to the planned features and fixes).
It seems like the "marketing" of the mod is the source of much confusion. Because the mod's use is so open ended, people are unable to see the simple usefulness of the concept. Promoting it as a "3d file browser/organizer" is putting the entirely wrong idea in people's heads, and many are assuming the mod is a REPLACEMENT for Windows or Windows File Explorer. This is completely untrue. The mod works TOGETHER with Windows, and keeping your folders and files organized in Windows Explorer makes it easier to place them in the 3D world (because you know where to find them and they are already grouped together in folders).
The idea of a Source engine mod that replaces Windows is utterly pointless and stupid, so more effort in accurately marketing the purpose of Source Media Arcade will be needed to make it not appear as such.
(What IS the purpose of the mod you ask? In short, it's a mix between productivity and entertainment; the details of which will be covered in future News posts.)
The second common cause of confusion is the concept of what a "Playlist" is inside of Source Media Arcade. Naturally people assumed them to be the same as the playlists in their favorite media player, and because of this are confused when all of their files don't launch in succession. In reality, an SM Arcade "Playlist" is more like a Windows Explorer folder, but with a few small differences.
(The differences being that SM Arcade "Playlists" do not care about sub-folders, AND they can have links to online documents that have no file representation in the Windows folder itself.)
To avoid this confusion in the next version, these differences will be adjusted so that the concept of an SM Arcade "Playlist" is the same as the familiar Windows folder. They also might be given a new name to better fit this functionality.
In addition to these two areas, a list of tweaks is being maintained to stomp out some of the other small annoyances that people complained about, such as the same game being automatically placed more than once, or seeing games that you do not own placed in the world. (The later is to be sensibly re-introduced when the project gets closer to its intended functionality.)
While this first phase of beta testing continues, I will be working on design documentation and diagrams in preparation for putting together a team to work along side myself and see this project to completion.
Community members are now able to post screenshots and videos in SM Arcade's ModDB profile, so if you've made something cool in SM Arcade, I'd sure like to see it. Head on over to the ModDB profile to upload your media.
Again, special thanks to all those who have downloaded and tried out Source Media Arcade. Also, thank you to the people who merely read the description and commented as to why they wouldn't try it; all feedback is valuable, and hopefully the next version's presentation will be more to your liking.
