He's banned.vallorn said:
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Anyone feel like forum activity really slowed down?
- Thread starter Erttheking
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I'm not active or anything and I still occasionally poke around but my interest took a nose dive when social issues in video games started becoming the hot topic. Started feeling less like an independent video game site and more a place for college-age gamers to rant on whatever social issues they thought were important, as college kids tend to do. Much of the content produced on the site as well seems to have shifted away from where it was 5 years ago to cater more to the above group.
Yeah. I notice I'm frequently bored with the site, which isn't a good sign. I don't come here that frequently anymore. In fact, my last post was suggesting to someone that they leave the site if they want a fruitful discussion. So I guess I'm partially to blame, but have little remorse.
Definitely less activity, but I do notice a bit higher quality compared to a few years ago on the following measures:
1.) Number of posts per topic. Back then, there were 4 or 5 threads a day about atheism or creationism. Now, I think that a tacit rule about requiring topics to be original or based on news is being enforced. There are still those hot-button issues (anything feminism-related or involving the hashtag of which we do not speak) but the discussions aren't the same things brought up over and over. But back then, it was thread after thread about atheism, the friendzone, fat acceptance, and bronies.
2.) Grammar, informative content, style of writing. There used to be a lot of much smaller responses, with basic legibility being the only standard. Now the expectation seems to be multiple paragraphs written with a style that would be expected of an intro composition course in college.
3.) Number of crazy people, especially in R&P. Remember Zeel? Danyal? EternalNothingness? The volume of insanity was far higher back then. Sure, we still get a few, the odd racist, redpiller, or person with...let's be delicate and say "unconventional" religious ideas, but back then when the crazy flared up it was over much more off-beat stuff like pedophilia, bestiality, and that singularity nonsense.
Sigh, those were the days. But my 22 years on this Earth have taken their toll on me. I'm an old man now, and I'm too tired for all that silliness.
1.) Number of posts per topic. Back then, there were 4 or 5 threads a day about atheism or creationism. Now, I think that a tacit rule about requiring topics to be original or based on news is being enforced. There are still those hot-button issues (anything feminism-related or involving the hashtag of which we do not speak) but the discussions aren't the same things brought up over and over. But back then, it was thread after thread about atheism, the friendzone, fat acceptance, and bronies.
2.) Grammar, informative content, style of writing. There used to be a lot of much smaller responses, with basic legibility being the only standard. Now the expectation seems to be multiple paragraphs written with a style that would be expected of an intro composition course in college.
3.) Number of crazy people, especially in R&P. Remember Zeel? Danyal? EternalNothingness? The volume of insanity was far higher back then. Sure, we still get a few, the odd racist, redpiller, or person with...let's be delicate and say "unconventional" religious ideas, but back then when the crazy flared up it was over much more off-beat stuff like pedophilia, bestiality, and that singularity nonsense.
Sigh, those were the days. But my 22 years on this Earth have taken their toll on me. I'm an old man now, and I'm too tired for all that silliness.
Yeah. There have been several player base fracturings since I've been here. I won't be naming any old issues, and there wasn't any big one that's solely responsible, but the site went from casual discourse to kind of a collection of feuding fiefdoms.
Also the content just isn't unique anymore. The Escapists filled the various holes left by producers, but it just doesn't feel all that special. Escapist articles read about the same as the clickbait articles that line the bottom. I'm sure much of the user base followed the content producers that left, the ones that stick around probably just log on for Yahtzee and maybe a webcomic here and there.
EDIT:
Also the content just isn't unique anymore. The Escapists filled the various holes left by producers, but it just doesn't feel all that special. Escapist articles read about the same as the clickbait articles that line the bottom. I'm sure much of the user base followed the content producers that left, the ones that stick around probably just log on for Yahtzee and maybe a webcomic here and there.
EDIT:
There's our miner's canary! If a forum can't retain that quality of... eccentricity, something's very wrong.renegade7 said:
I feel the same way, OP. I usually peruse the forums based on what the front page says is "hot" at the moment, but most of the time it's game industry wank that completely puts me off from even remotely feeling like contributing even a shitty joke. It's probably a combination of those "discussions" and the exodus of (above average) content, replaced by click-baity news and corporate fluff that has put a lot of people off.
Captcha: am I happy?
hah. hah. nope.
Captcha: am I happy?
hah. hah. nope.
/lurk mode off
Can't speak for others, but I simply stopped posting or even logging in pre-GG because things got very political and very one-sided well outside R&P.Propaganda Individual musings of a specific kind and, ahem, loaded questions would constantly pop up all over the forums and merely taking offense at them popping up could land you in trouble, and that's what happened to me. I don't like trouble.
To me, "GG" trouble was happening months before we had a name or label to slap on. It happened right here. It happened pretty much everywhere.
"GG" could have been a bit of a cleanse, and I guess it was, but even that cleanse was very one-sided. So, since I find myself on the side that gets shunned, blamed, blasted and piled on, I simply reduced the hassle for everyone involved and stopped coming here, investing my time and efforts in other, less infuriating ways.
I still like the site. I still miss the forum and people on here. But I prefer to dream of what was and what could have been to actually flinging myself under the freakin' two-ton Zweihaender of Damocles dangling above me and just lie there, waiting for the inevitable to happen. It wasn't fun. Life is short. There should be fun involved. I wasn't having fun feeling watched with someone letting me know that my days were numbered anyway, no matter what I did. Well, they are no longer here. And neither am I, I guess.
Things may have changed since then, but I have not.
The other side in this discussion (which won't end anytime soon, I take it, since it fails to actually be a discussion a good 90% of the time) has taken to blacklisting and shunning the site. A number of good contributors came from their side, but since theirpolitburo conscience told the comrades nice people to retreat and loathe, that's exactly what they did. They left. We left. Right.
So, from my high perch in a far, faraway country, that's what it looks like. "GG" happened, people took sides, and it didn't translate well for this well diverse community. "GG" was a mostly random title for the events unfolding a year ago. To me, it wasn't much of a gate, more of a great wall being erected. It tore people apart, it went straight through my cranium and gave me a headache that just won't stop. I am not having fun. I don't feel free or at ease. So I'm just not having it. I am fighting it any way I can, just not in forums.
I've been beaten, strangled, stabbed and shot at. That was more entertaining than constantly being judged and attacked and silenced in freakin' gaming forums. I don't need this shit. So I just... don't.
G'day.
/lurk mode on
Can't speak for others, but I simply stopped posting or even logging in pre-GG because things got very political and very one-sided well outside R&P.
To me, "GG" trouble was happening months before we had a name or label to slap on. It happened right here. It happened pretty much everywhere.
"GG" could have been a bit of a cleanse, and I guess it was, but even that cleanse was very one-sided. So, since I find myself on the side that gets shunned, blamed, blasted and piled on, I simply reduced the hassle for everyone involved and stopped coming here, investing my time and efforts in other, less infuriating ways.
I still like the site. I still miss the forum and people on here. But I prefer to dream of what was and what could have been to actually flinging myself under the freakin' two-ton Zweihaender of Damocles dangling above me and just lie there, waiting for the inevitable to happen. It wasn't fun. Life is short. There should be fun involved. I wasn't having fun feeling watched with someone letting me know that my days were numbered anyway, no matter what I did. Well, they are no longer here. And neither am I, I guess.
Things may have changed since then, but I have not.
The other side in this discussion (which won't end anytime soon, I take it, since it fails to actually be a discussion a good 90% of the time) has taken to blacklisting and shunning the site. A number of good contributors came from their side, but since their
So, from my high perch in a far, faraway country, that's what it looks like. "GG" happened, people took sides, and it didn't translate well for this well diverse community. "GG" was a mostly random title for the events unfolding a year ago. To me, it wasn't much of a gate, more of a great wall being erected. It tore people apart, it went straight through my cranium and gave me a headache that just won't stop. I am not having fun. I don't feel free or at ease. So I'm just not having it. I am fighting it any way I can, just not in forums.
I've been beaten, strangled, stabbed and shot at. That was more entertaining than constantly being judged and attacked and silenced in freakin' gaming forums. I don't need this shit. So I just... don't.
G'day.
/lurk mode on
Yes, yes I do. I gathered some numbers [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.875069-The-Escapist-is-dying-but-not-because-of-Gamergate-Statistics] a couple months ago. I found that:
EDIT: The high point of forum activity was in July 2011 and has been dropping ever since. This coincides with the date that the Escapist began uploading ZP to Youtube, which was July 21, 2011 judging by the Psychonauts review.
In my opinion the Escapist shot itself in the foot when it decided to go multi-platform with it's main breadwinner.
This is what I think the problem is: Zero punctuation is on Youtube now. The Godzilla episode of ZP has 56 comments on the Escapist Forums. On Youtube it has 608. Zero Punctuation was the main draw for the site, people used to come to the site for ZP and stay for the forums. Now they don't need to come here for ZP at all and thus ghost town.erttheking said:
EDIT: The high point of forum activity was in July 2011 and has been dropping ever since. This coincides with the date that the Escapist began uploading ZP to Youtube, which was July 21, 2011 judging by the Psychonauts review.
In my opinion the Escapist shot itself in the foot when it decided to go multi-platform with it's main breadwinner.
It's definitely slower than it used to be by far. I still post kinda regularly, but not nearly as much as I used. Not enough threads that interest me I guess. Though I am part of the problem, I haven't made a new thread in well over a year. I could make a bunch of niche threads about something like Pokemon for example, as I know there are many Pokemon fans on the site. However, you can only talk about one series so much.
I've stayed out of the political threads as well, and I'm happier for it. Though the negativity still spreads around in ways where people are clearly just looking for a fight. The forums have certainly lost a lot of their fun and charm. I feel like people have become more jaded in regards to game related stuff.
Even if things have gotten much slower, the important part is that I'm still here. Just know that if there are threads about Zelda, Pokemon, Splatoon since I'm madly in love with it right now, or apricot soup, I'll fly in an give my fun/cute/bizarre opinions.
I've stayed out of the political threads as well, and I'm happier for it. Though the negativity still spreads around in ways where people are clearly just looking for a fight. The forums have certainly lost a lot of their fun and charm. I feel like people have become more jaded in regards to game related stuff.
Even if things have gotten much slower, the important part is that I'm still here. Just know that if there are threads about Zelda, Pokemon, Splatoon since I'm madly in love with it right now, or apricot soup, I'll fly in an give my fun/cute/bizarre opinions.
It's probably not what you think. Has nothing to do with the film Fight Club. (except perhaps a vague concept)Objectable said:
What it was in fact, was a 'vs battle' card game.
What happens if you put the terminator up agaInst robocop?
Or Ash Williams Vs tank girl?
Or maybe hannibal lecter vs the villain from saw?
Problem is, the game managed just 3 expansions. And it wasn't doing so well, so it struggled to get any real popular licenses.
With just six characters in each set that means there were only 18 characters in the game when it died.
Mostly B movie horror stuff, or at least, some really old stuff.
Sure, hannibal lector, Rambo, terminator and robocop made it, but... then it died.
Pity.
It was fun, though as usual with a tcg, finding someone to play it with was a big challenge.
The lack of any decent content anymore might have something to do with that. Or the fact people keep repeating the same threads and topics every 5 minutes (seriously, what was with the 'I am a *insert position here *, ask me anything' threads?)
I still miss EN.lacktheknack said:
OT: I've all but stopped entering the forums.
Not that I'm not still active on the site, but just in user groups. Every time I open GD and OT I see the exact same threads that were there five days ago, and I just don't care. None of them interest me, so I have nothing to say.
Shame, really. A few years ago I was making upwards of 10+ posts per day in various threads, and those were exciting times.
I think you might be right.Drathnoxis said:
Fun fact: Not every piece of Escapist content was mirrored on youtube. Unskippable for instance was always kept Escapist-exclusive, and never posted to youtube. But now they're not doing Unskippable anymore.
eternalnothingness.gifvallorn said:
(And no I won't post the actual gif, because the mods don't like it...)
I feel it has slowed down a lot. I remember seeing new and interesting topics on the front page every five to ten minutes but now I see the same topic on the front page for five days straight. The biggest thing though is the lack of content. I remember when The Escapist used to do different themed contests every couple of months and different themed activities as well. How on Halloween they did that Kinect Haunted House thing for a couple of years. One of the things I loved the most was the puzzle quest they did back in December of 2010. That was extremely fun and I keep hoping they are going to do another one every December.
I still usually post in a few threads on a (almost) daily basis.
And I stay out from all the rage discussions, so only neutral or happy threads for me
Then I think people stay in their usergroups quite a lot these days.
But the forums "post count" decreased a lot a few years ago when usergroups got popular (I'm talking back in 2012).
There's always one trend that explodes in the forums a few times a year but otherwise I find it quite constant, no big changes as far as I noticed. The only thing that has dramatically decreased this year, as you mentioned, is the typing in videos/news comments. People have pretty much stopped with that unless there is something strange going on there.
I try to post something in the comment section of videos/news I like to support the one making it, even if it is just a small thought about what was my favorite part of the video.
And I stay out from all the rage discussions, so only neutral or happy threads for me
Then I think people stay in their usergroups quite a lot these days.
But the forums "post count" decreased a lot a few years ago when usergroups got popular (I'm talking back in 2012).
There's always one trend that explodes in the forums a few times a year but otherwise I find it quite constant, no big changes as far as I noticed. The only thing that has dramatically decreased this year, as you mentioned, is the typing in videos/news comments. People have pretty much stopped with that unless there is something strange going on there.
I try to post something in the comment section of videos/news I like to support the one making it, even if it is just a small thought about what was my favorite part of the video.
No, it's definitely not just you.
I've been noticing the "top threads" list barely crack 100 comments, and if it has it is almost always a thread about some new thing a prominent GG or aGG said or did and a link to it. I was listening to old ZP videos at work the other night, and I was astounded at seeing videos of his crack 500 or 600 comments. I remember that happening back then, and lived it here, but it was bizarre to really think and contrast the forum now to what it was then.
I think a lot of people are on the nose...people threatening to leave because of Jim and Bob weren't fucking around about it, GG caused a lot of bans and a lot of people to not want to "discuss" on the internet, and the new contributor material that I've seen either isn't compelling enough to bring in new blood/bring people back, and most people want to do all their video watching on Youtube if they can.
I've been enjoying a little game in my head where I go down a thread recognizing every name and avatar like it's a headcount; "here, here, there's him...there she is". If you recognize nearly an entire forum community you're either in a low traffic forum or you spend far too much of your time on it, and unfortunately my post count says I'm not the latter.
I've been noticing the "top threads" list barely crack 100 comments, and if it has it is almost always a thread about some new thing a prominent GG or aGG said or did and a link to it. I was listening to old ZP videos at work the other night, and I was astounded at seeing videos of his crack 500 or 600 comments. I remember that happening back then, and lived it here, but it was bizarre to really think and contrast the forum now to what it was then.
I think a lot of people are on the nose...people threatening to leave because of Jim and Bob weren't fucking around about it, GG caused a lot of bans and a lot of people to not want to "discuss" on the internet, and the new contributor material that I've seen either isn't compelling enough to bring in new blood/bring people back, and most people want to do all their video watching on Youtube if they can.
I've been enjoying a little game in my head where I go down a thread recognizing every name and avatar like it's a headcount; "here, here, there's him...there she is". If you recognize nearly an entire forum community you're either in a low traffic forum or you spend far too much of your time on it, and unfortunately my post count says I'm not the latter.
I've been a registered user on this site for quite some time, but only started posting in the forum very recently. I used to be active on Newgrounds, Age of Kings Heaven and /b/, but this place seems to be the only forum where people actually have thoughtful discussions rather than dribbling bullshit.
I'm kinda disheartened to see it struggling to stay relevant.
I'm kinda disheartened to see it struggling to stay relevant.