C-R celebrated its tenth anniversary this past year. While there's still a lot of work to do on the site, and plenty of Ace Attorney to cover, it's also about time we started looking at a (slightly!) wider scope.

Recently we covered the announcement of Lady Layton, the newest entry in a series that has its own connections to AA. The coverage seemed pretty popular on- and off-site. Now, the simple fact of the matter is that AA isn't a 24/7 enterprise - especially for English-speaking fans, sad as it is to say. So perhaps it's not really surprising that the site's slowed down in discussion considerably.

While there are many steps we can take to improve (I can hear Henke glaring at me about the beta from here), one area we've talked over is expanding news and discussion coverage beyond Ace Attorney. There's been some quiet history of this - the What A? subsite covered Hotel Dusk years ago, and we still have subforums for it, Ghost Trick, and Layton as well. So we pose the question to all of you: would you like to see Court-Records expand in its news and discussion coverage beyond simply Ace Attorney?

You'll notice the wording there. Truth be told, we're behind on content coverage for Ace Attorney as it is (hi, everything from AAI2 onward), which means we're not in a position to try and categorize every Layton puzzle in the book, or otherwise set up main-site pages for other series. But news and a good place to chat are two things we still aim to do well at. (Of course, we might need some helping hands on both fronts...)

Feel free to use the poll above for a quick vote, or sound off in more detail below!

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I picked the fourth option, it'd be great to have a site for mystery games in the future

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When I read the post I was like "NOOOO Court Records has to be just Ace Attorney!"

But, then I thought, well if it's just the little news posts, then yeah that would be cool if it was like, other Takumi games and what not. I mean, I love Layton games personally, but there are probably a good number of people here who don't, and that's fine! And I could understand them getting upset if they were constantly barraged on here with Layton ect stuff, when they came here for just Ace Attorney. I find because the AA series and fanbase is so small, that's why a site like this should be all AA because it's a rarity to find.

So yeah, long story short: if there's a good balance to keep the site news updates a little more lively, and so long as the other series don't overshadow the Ace Attorney news content, I'm all for it.

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Guys, that thing I didn't want to happen? It's happening.

Why do I only foresee a huge surge in weeaboo games being discussed.

Edit: it won't let me vote, you guys KNEEEEW I would hate your weeaboo gamessss
THIS IS AN OUTRAGE

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When I want to vote I get "The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again."

Anyways, +1 for the fourth option. Imho most AA fans also like to play mystery games in general, so you usually find AA fans among people who play the Zero Escape series or Danganronpa. Danganronpa currently has an Anime running in Japan and a third game is announced, so there should be plenty of news.

Also there is no fansite for DR (but a great wiki), so why not covering it on court-records?

AA fanbase overlaps with fanbases of VNs, adventure and mystery games. Expanding the site to mystery games is a good step to make it bigger. I don't think that anybody will mind such a change.

I don't think you'd need to document everything in the non-AA games (you didn't for Ghost Trick, for example, so there's no precedent) but you can just post something in the Trial Minutes whenever major mystery games get new info. I think that'd bring more people over!

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My glares are not audible. I mean, I don't glare. I mean, do your job!

In all seriousness, I don't mind some news about other series. Just don't overdo it to the point of needing to rent a new domain name.

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Some coverage for Layton would be preferable, but I'm always up for a Takumi game. Even if it's just limited to news.

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Long time site lurker. Didnt really post on forums but i find the need to say this. My first mystery game was 2005 another code and loved it. Like a year or 2 later heard of phoenix wright and found this site. Loved it. Because of this site i loved hotel dusk ghost trick last window layton etc so pls go for wider variety of mystery Visual Novel games.

Wholly agreed.
More news on mystery games is great. I've learnt of many great games through this site and would love to learn even more in the future.

The focus on Ace Attorney will remain evident even if other things are covered.

Edit: Incidentally, how would one go about voting? I can't seem to figure out how to actually vote.

So long as Ace Attorney remains the main focus, and we don't need to be reminded of that, it's all good imo.

As most people who are fans of one series are often fans of the other in terms of Layton, that series feels very natural to see reported on as there is a common interest. Same thing with Ghost Trick and Hotel Dusk, as they have a very similar vibe/connections that make them of interest to most people browsing the site.

However, I feel like Zero Escape and Dangan could be a bit of a stretch, as much as I love both series. Not every mystery visual novel type game really have that feel that Ace Attorney and Layton bring, so I personally would rather keep it close to home.

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FYI: if you aren't using one of the newer board themes, the vote will fail to go through. Go to your board preferences in your control panel, change the theme to one that's closer to what the forums look when logged out (2010 GS5 worked for me), and you can vote. Then you can change back afterwards.

I use the Musical theme, and voting fails when using that. There are a few other minor quirks to using this theme, but personally I prefer the less busy (and I guess more boring) theme.

I see now. There are some themes in which one cannot vote.

Danganronpa features trials where you need to find contradictions in cross-examinations. How is that "a bit of a stretch"? I've got interested in DR as somebody described it as "Ace Attorney meets Battle Royale" and imho this series is as close to AA as it gets.

Danganronpa is borrowing heavily from Ace Attorney. The tone is different, yes, but the gameplay is very similar at points.

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I almost voted Takumi games + Layton but had to pick more mystery games in general because I feel even when browing GameFAQs or Reddit that this is what Ace Attorney discussions often include. It's a series that draws in an audience that then if they don't already start feeling the need to seek out other VN-type or mystery games and discussions often involve the Zero Escape titles, Hotel Dusk, Danganronpa and sometimes that Steins:Gate series. The counterargument I'd have for the above stating that Danganronpa and ZE are not AA-like enough is that I don't think Hotel Dusk necessarily was either and I don't think it needs to be games that feel like it was Shu Takumi that wrote them. Granted, I personally don't hold ZE or Danganronpa in high regard as a series, but I think if there was a dedicated site to discuss them all interchangably, it would be here and I would like doing it more than I like posting on Reddit where memes and character contests dominate or GameFAQs where you have every game in the world to discuss.

I always have a hope that the future, and hopefully with the upcoming NX entails more adventure games from Nintendo and their supporters, so I think that's the ideal direction to go in while still having Ace Attorney as the banner, unless the fandom dies out in some point in the future (honestly, it seems to me some people just outright gave up after Dual Destinies since I haven't seen them in years now)

Of course if "Court Records" wishes to shift from that into "Mystery Heaven" or something like that that's a valid option too, but I like having a really dedicated place as this where Ace Attorney discussion is the agenda and that there's always knowledgeable japanese users who are in the know of the latest japanese AA news stick around as well, so I wouldn't want to lose that.

But I would say, I often wish the "What A?" section was more active, so I'd love to see it grow bigger somehow and expand to other series too. I think the important thing for me is that this forum will always attract people wanting to discuss story and presentational aspects more than gameplay and mechanics. For example, even if they don't tell good stories you could include sections for Fire Emblem or other games that have characters that have lots of fans but then the discussions for that series would rather be about characters and story than about tactics or systems or builds etc.

Also, the idea of Takumi making other games in the OP just made me think of how much I actually wish that was happening instead of DGS even if that series might have potential. Ghost Trick was so good and you can tell Takumi was just full of creative energy creating that game, where he had the experience from AA but was free to shape a new IP in any way with all those skills, and dear lord what an outstanding game that became. I really hope some day before he grows old and starts losing his touch he'll get to do an entirely different IP again. He's one of the most creative people in the industry that I can think of and I don't wanna see all that go down the drain with "More Ace Attorney" if it turns out they aren't as good as the first 3 games from Takumi being too exhausted trying to avoid retreading old ideas.

Food for thought.

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I would only be OK with C-R covering other games along the same vein as AA if they had teams dedicated to just those games/fandoms--something AA itself has lacked from the beginning. Not 1-3 people working with the admin but a dedicated team for each fandom of around 5-8.

I have been here from C-R's early years. Life has kept me away from C-R for much of the last 4 and a half years but I have dropped in from time to time. Even during the news droughts, I made it a point to drop in and say hi to a few folks I know are still around. Many of us have become friends over the years. Many people left C-R during both big crashes--the second of which left the site without an admin until Wooster stepped in. That second crash was a pretty dark time for C-R: Only those who knew about it could even access the backup forums and get updates form Wooster when he took over running the site. Those were som tough times but as a community, we survived.

The number of websites where I know I can give my opinion without having to keep up appearances I can count on one hand and C-R is one of them. I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't want the sense of community and belonging many of us have felt since we came here isn't lost should the site start covering other game.

...Having said all that, yes I agree there is way too much AA material that needs to be added to the site before we can even CONSIDER thinking about other games.

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I have no preference either way, but I do think that if it was decided to do wider coverage, there should be some way to seperate the news. When I come here, I know I can expect AA-related news, and in rare occassions other related news (i.e. Lady Layton), but for example: I like the Danganronpa series, but I am also *actively* avoiding reading news, or even headlines about the series, because I simply want to go in fresh. I think there are also quite some people who felt that way about the Zero Escape series. There are certainly merits to doing wider news coverage, but doing focused coverage on one topic is not a dismerit and that shouldn't be lost in the process.

I admit that the (Japanese) AA marketing is a bit weird in this regard, as it spoils a lot (too much), but suppose Chibi Maruko-chan were to make a guest appearance in Chapter 4 of New Danganronpa V3, I wouldn't want to know that in advance, especially not if I was actually browsing for AA news.

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I think it's a good idea to expand, at least in news coverage and discussion. I really liked the Hotel Dusk sub site, and wouldn't be averse to the same for Layton or other similar type games, though that might entail bringing in more folks to work solely on those sections to keep them up to date (or even just get them off the ground). It all depends on how big you want to go, but if you can keep up on updates and content, it could be an excellent way to grow the site and user base. And in the end, that makes everyone happy.

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I don't have time at the moment to respond to each post thus far, but let me lay out a little bit more of the rationale for why I've made this poll...

I alluded to it above, but AA is a fandom that - especially for English-speaking players - ebbs and surges quite a bit. Though it's not like there's no fan interaction between releases (that's what art and fic and cosplay and everything else is for!), it certainly quiets down. And each time it does, we lose people.

I'm not blind. It's 2016; people don't search for "X forum" anymore. There's social media, and Reddit, and Discord channels, and etc. etc. etc. I don't expect this place to ever reach the heights of the late 2000s again, and that's life.

But without a community - and for the most part that means these forums - C-R becomes pretty much just the news/content staff yelling into the void. I'm glad we've been a resource over the years, and I know that's part of what drove the site's growth in the first place. But I have to admit the thought of reporting AA news until the end of time while the forums barely stir is kind of... unappealing, to say the least.

If you want to see what that might look like, you need only check our Twitter and Tumblr pages. Look, we ran this poll on Twitter and got a thousand responses. Big news tweets or posts get to the tens of thousands of reblogs/likes/retweets/what have you. But the nature of these platforms is that C-R basically becomes a news feed and little more; something to be passed around, but any community is being generated separate from the site.

Again, I get how that works. That's just how a lot of people prefer to make their communities these days. And that's life! But I want to see people come here not just to get a new bit of Ace Attorney news and then walk away. I'd like people to feel like this is a place where they can talk, and get to know each other.

And by expanding our focus a bit, I'd hope that that'd help new blood come in, and for people continue to find common ground and do just that.

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Oh of course, I even describe Dangan as Ace Attorney meets Zero Escape. But it still feels wildly different to playing an Ace Attorney or Layton game, even with it's similar elements and reaches a rather different fanbase. But that's just my take on it, I'm sure a lot of people feel that they are a lot more similar than I do.

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I've always liked how down to earth the admins have been here, and how you guys are willing to admit the truth no matter how difficult it may be. This shows that.

Forum usage in general has gone down, I agree, but I do believe they provide something social media and reddit and stuff can't. Twitter and such is best for getting to know people, but not so much meeting new people. Reddit feels more like a comments section than anything. Forums has this balance of getting a feel for people, and interacting with those you wouldn't otherwise.

It's commendable how the CR staff made the site the center for AA news, and there must be a good reason for that. However, as I stated before, I'm okay with the occasional focus on other things, so long as AA is still clearly the main stage. After all, why would the best place for AA news updates start tweeting a lot of Layton news? imo, I'd just start tuning the CR twitter out if it updated about all these franchises I don't care about.

Just to be clear, if I chose option 4, would that include any Takumi games that aren't mystery games? I know it's unlikely he would ever go that way but I wouldn't want a Takumi game that was an RPG, just for example, to be unmentionable because "it's not a mystery game".

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Just because he is so much of this series' DNA I would say yes. Even if it wouldn't be a mystery/adventure game because inevitay it will carry a lot of the same vibes just as Ghost Trick did.

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Mystery on its own is not a game genre, an RPG is. So you can have RPGs that are mystery games. Sigma Harmonics is one, for example. Okay, Sigma Harmonics wasn't that much fun (though it had interesting ideas, like making the bosses super weak if you managed to solve the case correctly), so if Takumi were to make a game like that, I hope he at least makes it more enjoyable...

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Mystery is a perfectly fine movie genre. But not a game genre. Games are strange.

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I definitely want AA to be the main focus, but I'm thinking that we already have the Hotel Dusk and Ghost trick-subforums, and the PLvsPW subforum so it's already kinda there and it's neat to have a place to discuss games that may not have a board of their own, and I do get the feeling that a lot of members like the same games, that are obscure enough not to have an obvious place for discussion outside of tumblr and reddit and places like that that I don't go to. I'm not entireley sure excactly what kind of games count as "mystery games", but if this forum would have places to talk about Layton or the Zero escape series or even Trauma center, I'd be up for that. I like hanging out in forums. I like that this is a fairly small community, as long as it's an active community. If expanding the topics can get more activity and more people finding the place, that's good. And if it can make more people find the AA series, even better.

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