What is the point of a gaming forum?
- Thread starter Errapel
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I ask myself that every day, and yet here I am...
Honestly? Boredom. I think if anyone had something better to do, they'd be doing it. I would be, and soon, thankfully, I will.
Not that I don't have fun on the forums. I do. I enjoy getting to write and having an excuse to overanalyze these ultimately inconsequential topics. But almost no one needs the other people on the forum as anything more than a sounding board for their own ideas. No one has ever changed their mind on the Internet about anything, or been able to change anyone else's. The forum as it is is the exact opposite of what it was back in the Roman days: a place to go to exchange ideas and influence the state. Now it's a place to steel yourself against outside influence, discourage differences of opinion in others, and keep the industry from evolving- or it would, if developers paid any mind to forums, and I don't think they do.
You can, of course, make the argument that its all due to the need to seek out like-minded people, but that's officially bopkess. This simply doesn't happen on the Internet. If you wanted to congregate with other fans for congregation's sake, you'd be doing it in real life, and if you're too stunted to do it in real life, you aren't going to start on the Internet. Period.
The Escapist forum is one-half hate cult and one half circle jerk. Figuring out which half you're here for is really the only service you can do for yourself by being here.
Honestly? Boredom. I think if anyone had something better to do, they'd be doing it. I would be, and soon, thankfully, I will.
Not that I don't have fun on the forums. I do. I enjoy getting to write and having an excuse to overanalyze these ultimately inconsequential topics. But almost no one needs the other people on the forum as anything more than a sounding board for their own ideas. No one has ever changed their mind on the Internet about anything, or been able to change anyone else's. The forum as it is is the exact opposite of what it was back in the Roman days: a place to go to exchange ideas and influence the state. Now it's a place to steel yourself against outside influence, discourage differences of opinion in others, and keep the industry from evolving- or it would, if developers paid any mind to forums, and I don't think they do.
You can, of course, make the argument that its all due to the need to seek out like-minded people, but that's officially bopkess. This simply doesn't happen on the Internet. If you wanted to congregate with other fans for congregation's sake, you'd be doing it in real life, and if you're too stunted to do it in real life, you aren't going to start on the Internet. Period.
The Escapist forum is one-half hate cult and one half circle jerk. Figuring out which half you're here for is really the only service you can do for yourself by being here.
Well, even the most hardcore of gamers get bored occasionally. Or need to rest due to problems like Carpal Tunnel.
And, as others have said, it's not all games, it's just nice to have a common interest. This is the best community I've ever seen on a forum, and I think it's because most of us have at least a small bit of respect for the rest that keeps us from being dicks.
EDIT:
Not that I come here for congregations sake. I come here to find out the average gamers opinion on matters, for the news, for Zero Punctuation and other features.
And, as others have said, it's not all games, it's just nice to have a common interest. This is the best community I've ever seen on a forum, and I think it's because most of us have at least a small bit of respect for the rest that keeps us from being dicks.
EDIT:
I have. More often on the internet, on this very forum, than off in "the real world." Not that it's happened often, but occasionally. I don't argue with someone unless I know what I'm talking about, in which case I've considered the matter in detail. Still, occasionally someone comes up with an argument to sway me.TheRocketeer said:
I do have a few gamers for friends. We play D&D together. I also know the guy who owns the computer store, occasionally him, me and my friends go to the store for an all night LAN party. But the fact is, there are more gamers on this website, and so a more varied opinion, than any one person could personally know.TheRocketeer said:
Not that I come here for congregations sake. I come here to find out the average gamers opinion on matters, for the news, for Zero Punctuation and other features.
Pretty much this.SimuLord said:
I'm not really a nerd, only a "video game nerd" in the sense that I like games and the little nuances of them and like talking about them... I do have a varied group of friends but none of them happen to be gamers, except my friend Jess who's kind of a casual gamer I think, and we never talk about games. I honestly don't really have much in common with most people here but it's cool to have a place to chat about one of my hobbies when I can't really do that anywhere else. The community is nice enough and intelligent enough too which I think is why I stick around here.
They are places where Bioware fanboys can get together and congratulate each other for being such enormous Bioware fans. Very occasionally people have something that is actually interesting to say about games. They are also a way of having a really expanded network of people to talk about games with. Like many of the people you meet in real life might have a limited experience of games such as only having played one Bioware game once and they waste a lot of time playing games like sports games or racing games. Those games have been scientifically proven by the Bioware fan committee to technically not exist and therefore are not worth talking about.
Replace Bioware with your company of choice.
Replace Bioware with your company of choice.
If I enjoy a game, I like to discuss it, just as much, if not more than actually playing it. That is, if you're discussing it with the right people...
Games aren't Art, but they are an evolving cultural medium. I find it interesting and enjoyable to muse on the future of that evolution and how the current "state of the art" is stagnating under a preponderance of pre-scripted narrative that is naturally at odds with player freedom, etc.
This, speaking of which, let's get a little theme music in here, shall we?aPod said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UINhE8L1yXg
I like this. So you're not sure why you're here?
Righto. Nice to have you here all the same. Just keep wandering about till you find something interesting to talk about, or go and play a game.
It's nice to know that you've posted that you don't know why you're here and what you're posting about!
EDIT: Let's balance that negativity - Much of gaming is a very antisocial thing. This is about as social as you can get without actually having to talk to people.
Righto. Nice to have you here all the same. Just keep wandering about till you find something interesting to talk about, or go and play a game.
It's nice to know that you've posted that you don't know why you're here and what you're posting about!
EDIT: Let's balance that negativity - Much of gaming is a very antisocial thing. This is about as social as you can get without actually having to talk to people.