Bassik said:
My posts are usually a shining beacon of reason and wisdom among the crude scribbles of the unwashed masses. *monocole*
*monocle.
*double monocle*
Anyway, you (as in, the general 'you') may think your posts on a forum are insignificant because nobody directly responds to them, which would lead you to think they're not being read. This might also be true, especially for zero-content threads ("post your top ten games!" = 1,000 people posting a list of ten games, no-one reads anyone else's list, but wants the world to know their own) but remember, a good deal of browsers/users/lurkers/readers of The Escapist are in the gaming industry themselves. The Escapist is a gaming hub, just like other gaming sites, and various games designers and such are as much a part of them as your average gnerk* who spends his entire life online belittling other peoples' efforts. It's not like Hollywood, as many designers are just working Joes who love games. Whilst Tom Cruise might never have set foot on the imdb forums, or Peter Molyneux trawl through $gaming_site's forum, there's a good chance that Bob the unit manager for
Vanilla Sky did, or Sarah the Games Mechanics Designer for
Fallout: New Vegas is browsing right now. These people, the ones who make the industry tick, reads these threads (not necessarily *this* one) and your opinion has the power to influence these kinds of people, which helps to create future products that do not have the flaws you see as important enough to post in a forum about.
They're just a bunch of guys with opinions, and when someone says "ugh, there are too many dragons in GenericRPG", there's a good chance that someone related to the creation of the game will read this comment, come to an informed decision, and ensure that, on balance, the next game (or next patch) will have fewer dragons, and more of whatever else someone suggested they like.
Such as dragons.
In a nutshell, people who change the direction of the industry read forums. Sometimes they're paid to. They are just normal people (on the whole), and if your posts are content-worthy, and you have something productive to say... and you're generally grammatically correct... then maybe your post will help influence these people and alter the future of gaming.
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*gnerk = nerd asshole. Non-contributive to his culture in any positive way, this predominantly male phenomenon is more vocal than your average geek, and feels that criticism is his only weapon. Rarely sleeps, physically introverted, although extrovert when shielded by anonymity, lavish upper-middle-class lifestyle funded entirely by parent(s). Sides with a game until it becomes too popular for his liking, often prominently posts on gaming and tech forums voicing his disgust at franchises to which he once allied himself to.