Why is NeoGAF so important to the online game community, and why do so many developers use it?

[EstrogenicMuscle]

One might say it's the fact that it's an "exclusive" club, unlike places like GameFAQs or even the Escapist. But that's lots of sites, really. Being exclusive doesn't mean people like a site. It means that people will put up with that in order to join or stay.

NeoGAF has been around for a while. Is it just as popular as it is because it has been around for a long time, like other sites such as 4chan and SomethingAwful? That's personally my best theory, because some of the most important and influential sites on the internet are early adopters, so to speak. Being launched in 1999 makes it older than 4chan. And around the same age as SomethingAwful. Back around that time, I guess there weren't many alternative places to talk about video games. So probably a lot of people flocked to NeoGAF, and why the 'cult' like status arose.

I'm still amazed, however, at how many people who are developers or in the industry have decided to join this little haven. By the way, "gaming age forum", it sounds very 90s gamer. It reminds me of the kind of name a lot of fansites would make for things. "Mega Man Nation", "Super Mario Ultimate", "Final Fantasy Era", things like that.

And if you're wondering about the exclusivity, it usually takes several months to get a user approved nowadays. And very easy to get banned. Though I'm much to approve of some of the things they ban over. Racism and stuff like that is a quickly bannable offense. And I think that's a good thing, given how much of the internet has become a hotbed for that sort of nastiness, it's nice to see some sites take a stand against that kind of behavior. You also need a ISP specific email address, which many people don't have. Which is definitely I would call, the hardest part of getting in NeoGAF.

And no, I'm not advertising other sites. I'm legitimately curious.

 

[WeepingAngels]

The site has thousands and thousands of users, I would guess that's why developers post there. Major Nelson just got approved a few days ago.

Yes, it's easy to get banned there, I got banned twice in the last 2 months, both for 14 days. One was for calling out the GAF hive mind, that's bannable apparently. Not all bans are permanent obviously.

I don't why it is hard to come up with an ISP email address, everyone has an ISP.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

A lot of us ignored our ISP provided email when we got it and just went on to making a gmail.

It was only recently that I went back and tried getting mine to work. I had to call my ISP and do several hours of setup in order to get it done. Of course, it wasn't exactly "hard", but it was pretty time consuming. Several hours out of my day I could have been doing something else.

I can see why many people wouldn't bother with it due to inconvenience.

 

[TrevHead]

It's a big forum with alot of members who are either in the industry or in niche fan forums that often have the ear of their respective developers. This means that the forum often has it's finger on new information and makes a good source for gaming sites, it's quite often to read a Dtoid news article with NeoGaf hotlinked as the source.

They are ban happy which considering how large it is, it's quite understandable. Lax modding at a site that big would only lead to one hell of a clusterfuck.

They run a probation period where junior members can be banned for the slightest of things, full members have alot more leeway so it's best to become one as soon as you can.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Since there are so many members there now, pretty much any news that can be discussed, breaks there first. Also, much like here in a way, but obviously on a wider scale, the discussion is well-moderated.

There's also a pretty good community supporting the newest games. When a game comes out, you can be pretty sure that someone on NeoGAF will create an OT to generate discussion about it, share experiences, etc. I've thought about trying to get some OTs going here on the Escapist to try and get a similar community thing going, but given that all my recent experiences with new games have been Wii U games, I doubt that would exactly go down well. Besides, when it's not constantly going on about Mass Effect 3, the Escapist community seems to prefer talking about generalities and trends in gaming, rather than extended discussions about specific games.

That's one of my few problems with the forum here is that there tends not to be a place to talk about specific games. I'm not sure how exactly it could happen without the gaming forum then just being clogged up with discussion threads, but I'd love to have some way to just chat about specific games, no matter how big or small, new or old.

 

[Church185]

I think the Escapist needs to do like other forums, and have a section for General Gaming Discussion, and a section for Specific Games or something. Even the DTOID forums have that. It would be a good way to get Escapists to perhaps look at games they otherwise might not be interested in, by getting the community to discuss and share these gaming experiences with each other. Given how most of the forum seems to be PC-centric, it could be a good way to bring their attention to Nintendo games console games that might otherwise fly under the radar.

Also, we'd be able to have a W101 OT and pimp it mercilessly.

Couldn't you create a User Group for a specific game and pimp that mercilessly? That's what we did for FFXIV anyways, and it seems to work out alright. Good way to keep trolls from disrupting discussion too, because you'll have User Group admins that can give them the boot if they start trouble.

 

[Church185]

You could do, but the problem I have with User Groups is that they're purely for the converted. That's not a bad thing in itself, but the only people involved in User Groups for a specific game are those who have chosen to seek out that game. A general board for specific games has the advantage that if a discussion gets going and elicits many replies, it has the chance to grab the attention of gamers who otherwise may not have paid the game any mind. You actually see this happen a lot on GAF. When an OT really takes off, you see users who otherwise would have passed a game by get interested, and oftentimes even pick the game up.

It's just nice where you have a board which can inspire users to try games they may not have done before. That for me is what gaming forums should be about, and it would be nice to see more of that on the Escapist.

*Shrugs* I guess I'm not entirely sure how it works, I've never been to NeoGAF. Would game specific threads pop in some kind of popular threads tracker if they were seeing enough attention? If that's the case then I could see how that could drive traffic to a specific game. If not, then I'm not sure how it would be much different than user groups here, because you would still have to seek the thread out.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Since there are so many members there now, pretty much any news that can be discussed, breaks there first. Also, much like here in a way, but obviously on a wider scale, the discussion is well-moderated.

There's also a pretty good community supporting the newest games. When a game comes out, you can be pretty sure that someone on NeoGAF will create an OT to generate discussion about it, share experiences, etc. I've thought about trying to get some OTs going here on the Escapist to try and get a similar community thing going, but given that all my recent experiences with new games have been Wii U games, I doubt that would exactly go down well. Besides, when it's not constantly going on about Mass Effect 3, the Escapist community seems to prefer talking about generalities and trends in gaming, rather than extended discussions about specific games.

That's one of my few problems with the forum here is that there tends not to be a place to talk about specific games. I'm not sure how exactly it could happen without the gaming forum then just being clogged up with discussion threads, but I'd love to have some way to just chat about specific games, no matter how big or small, new or old.

I think the Escapist needs to do like other forums, and have a section for General Gaming Discussion, and a section for Specific Games or something. Even the DTOID forums have that. It would be a good way to get Escapists to perhaps look at games they otherwise might not be interested in, by getting the community to discuss and share these gaming experiences with each other. Given how most of the forum seems to be PC-centric, it could be a good way to bring their attention to Nintendo games console games that might otherwise fly under the radar.

Also, we'd be able to have a W101 OT and pimp it mercilessly.

The biggest issue with fragmenting the board like that is that The Escapist isn't that big compared to NeoGafor even Destructoid. Mods and staff stated this was one of the primary reasons for not breaking up Gaming Discussion when someone else asked about it awhile back.

 

[UnnDunn]

Right now, NeoGAF is one giant PS4 circlejerk, if you ask me. They aren't interested in discussion or dissent; they're only interested in praising PS4 and attacking Xbox One every chance they get.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

There's also a pretty good community supporting the newest games. When a game comes out, you can be pretty sure that someone on NeoGAF will create an OT to generate discussion about it, share experiences, etc. I've thought about trying to get some OTs going here on the Escapist to try and get a similar community thing going, but given that all my recent experiences with new games have been Wii U games, I doubt that would exactly go down well. Besides, when it's not constantly going on about Mass Effect 3, the Escapist community seems to prefer talking about generalities and trends in gaming, rather than extended discussions about specific games.

To be honest, I think that is one of the strengths of NeoGAF. Video game generals like that are great and actual big, well organized discussions of games pop up that seem to would never here on the Escapist.

I certainly wouldn't be against you starting a trend like that.