How about a solid, unique game that brings everyone together? I mean a browser game that contains specific data from current events, games, etc and can be played by multiple people at once. Data can probably be inputed by specified members. I say this because we may need more than Pokemon.

Also, no to the news forum. No no no no no. I can deal with not seeing news on the front page at all, but so many people would post rumors, duplicates, etc rather than factual news.

Grawly... Meet The Mystical Journey
TMJ meet Grawly

http://dsipaint.com

Seriously, there's a working version where multiple users can chat with each other.

By news forum, I mean with news posters. If we encourage normal people to post news, it'd be in off the cuff, Wii, DS, and other games forums.

Looking at that, it looks pretty interesting. Though I meant like, maybe an exclusive game to OCW. Like, maybe an RPG style game that when you accomplish certain things, it connects to your account and adds points that could be spent on things. Doesn't have to be a traditional RPG or some crap like Mafia Wars. Maybe it could be a hub for, dare I say it, mini games? Tons of possibilities, though the issue remaining is that I don't think anyone wants to make it at all.
Hell, we could even have a OCW Riddlefest if all else fails.

Supe: Oh, if that's the case then I guess there's no problem. Does OCW have an RSS feed? We could have a giant RSS button inside of the news forum? :P

I'm developing Jeopardy DSi, which suits some points you just made.

^^So basically we'll be Neopets but with Nintendo characters?

...

I used to love Neopets when I was a little kid.

God I was dumb.

Neopets ftl.

I think the Connection Cards need way more support:

-Show them in every person's post like back in WTF.
-DS games could return to showing startup icons and Wii games could show their Disc Channel view or a custom-made icon on the card, instead of box-art.
-"Last Played"(last time they clicked on Play Now for that game)also shown along with their code when hovering over a game?

Also important is to put the calendar into the foreground.
It takes several clicks to access to it (also, I think Social is the wrong directory), and after you loaded it up, it's still hard to know when a event will take place.

We [I] have been discussing RSS feeds, following a revamp of activity (allowing groups, alerts, better challenge/caldendar stuff etc). More on that story later.

To be true, the news section seems a bit slow for RSS activity.
My source is Nintendo Life, and I for instance, I posted the announcement of Sonic 4 half an hour before Grawly did.
Adding other activity such as events or groups is a good idea though.

Ban all members who don't have at least one match per week.

Then we'll either have activity or we'll have no members...

Uh.

Crap.

I like Grawly's idea.
It would be good if we had an obvious reward system for NWC activity.
If it just blends in with the number of posts or blog entries, you don't have that replay value.

I should probably be the one with spine and say on behalf of the staff, no OCW MMOs.

This site is for connecting Nintendo WiFi gamers, not gamers of some game we just made up.

"I just thought of an amazing, well, not amazing, but good idea. What if... OCW made an achievement section for each game! They could think of achievements for each game and then we could just go to that tab and then "add" whichever achievements we obtained. We could be awarded more points for different achievements. Also, points should lead to "levels", "ranks", or whatever you want to call them. This is just a sketchy idea right now, but I like it!"

Really, I think we should think about adding this to OCW4. People are suckers for an achievement system, and so am I. OCW needs to start focusing on the gaming part of this site. Right now, it seems like nothing special, but if you put features right in a newcomers face, then they have to stay. Everything seems very... hidden right now. It needs to be in your face. I like the Play Now idea. Even if we do enhance OCW with a simplier, cleaner OCW with the gaming not tucked away in the closet, we still need new active members and that takes advertising. Where to advertise? I have no clue. I hope someone has some ideas on where to.

I like the new homepage, but it seems a little TOO simple. Simple is good, but don't strip the features just to make something simple. Personally, I think the site just needs a clean up. Like take away the game section. We don't need guides, screenshots, reviews and info on games. Just give me recent challenges, a leaderboard, achievements, and a play now button.