They need content that people aren't going to get from anywhere else, that they want.
Forum stuff is nice, but that's just the people who are already here participating a bit more. The site needs more content, and probably more AV content. Video reviews are a good idea, and just reviews in general. I was checking the Fallout 4 review by the escapist, because I remember someone else suggesting video reviews, just in case they'd put them in. The escapist review didn't even come up in the top few search results for "Fallout 4 Escapist" or "Fallout 4 Escapist Review".
What brought me here was Yahtzee, and then I picked up Doomsday Arcade. I started watching Moviebob, Extra Credits when they came here, and the video reviews. I read the articles and think pieces. I learned the schedule of the site, and would check in for the new videos when they went up. I don't do that now, there's only really Yahtzee, and Judging by the Cover just isn't that good for a lapsed viewer like me.
The site used to have a niche in it's dedicated video player, and dedication to video content, including things like Doomsday Arcade, Doraeleous, numerous webcomics, and in depth think pieces about games, game design, play, and game culture. That's effectively gone now. What we have are articles about glitches which are more easily accessed in a format like Kotaku's, sales figures, cross-posted stuff, and summaries of articles from other sites, the most egregious of which is the Science and Tech section, which is most notable for the frequent errors and sensationalism.
Keeping their own video content on site is maybe a good idea, but the cat's out of the bag there, and you just have to look at YouTube Red, or Paid Mods to see how people respond to that sort of endeavour. They need to develop quality, on site content, that people want. I'd very much like to see more video competitions, though that day's largely past, and more stuff focussing on in depth discussion of games and gaming, like Garwulf, Critical Intel, or the old editorial content.
I don't think they're going to draw a lot more traffic. This format has peaked. Youtube has supplanted it, and sites like Kotaku have a better format for the minute to minute updates of pointless minutia. I think they should have stuck with being the intellectual gaming publication.
Forum wise, there's a lot of fighting, a lot of drama, a lot of nastiness. Don't read the mod chat, it's horrible. We can talk about getting people together all we like, but we're an international community, seperated by latency, and our own schedules, and that's just not feasible, and I doubt it would reduce emnity. Supposedly, most of us are adults or at least adolescents, so we should be capable of taking responsibility for our own actions. We can talk about the CoC till we're blue in the face, but the fact of the matter is the forums are made up of our posts. What exists here is the combined effort of everyone, for good and for bad. What we need is more interesting, worthwhile threads, but those aren't what keep people's attention (ALL OF US).
