What happened, GB?

[Stworca]

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be happy to listen.

User game reviews. Would help both in reviving forums and increasing site popularity (as it would help people decide whether or not pick up the game)

[dragon wench]

I guess we all just moved on to other things. Otherwise we could always blame Facebook and Twitter for killing SYM

I think this is exactly it.
And the grand irony is that I have quite a few contacts from GB on my facebook page... and often "threads" arise there instead. Some of the people who participate in them have even been known to ask why GB has become so quiet.

[Loki[D.d.G]]

I don't think anyone can blame GameBanshee's entire slow down on twitter and Facebook which are not so much direct competitors for the activity but complements for services which might detract from more general sites.

Bear in mind Xandax and myself were referring to SYM specifically and not the rest of the forums in general. Especially considering that social networking sites generate responses faster in relative to a forum post, the fall of SYM was only natural

[Kaer]

I'm very interested in hearing what you have to say about this. If it's something I can correct, I'd certainly make an attempt to do so.

Actually, one of the big things is related to why I noticed Fable missing. As was previously mentioned, the man played a big part in posting new threads and trying to get discussion going, even though out of all the folks here he probably had the largest set of alternatives out there. On most sites I've moderated, supered or admin'd on, usually we end up involving moderators a ton in the community building process and Fable sort of encapsulated that drive the best. Dragon Wench is likewise someone who put in a lot of effort to responding in the community when she could. Even Maharlika's odd foray into the forum with birthday threads is a good commendable example.

I'm not saying this as a negative rib to the moderators, a lot of sites out there simply have folks moderate and leave it at that. At times I feel like that potential aspect of moderator-ship is kind of left out, even in the case of quiet game forums aside from Speak Your Mind. If a forum is quiet and lacking questions, discussion should be encouraged, in my opinion.

I think it's a good thing that GameBanshee's forums have been simplified down into a smaller amount of more active forums. I think this is a great move. At the same time, I've ended up reading back a bit (and I was hoping to avoid this topic since I'm betting it's a raw nerve) and I'm kind of concerned with the fact that steps were taken which severely reduced present activity but nothing was really driven to take it's place. While, sure, numbers aren't everything for forums, they work as great indicators, and when a forum stops getting thousands of thousands of posts each month I think it's worth more concern from the moderators and members who remain and supported this change to step up to the task of trying to make that change work. Most of us get friends from these sites and I would hope those demanding these changes would be more willing to step up to the task and pay back for these demands by making the result work. It's, hence, why I'd like to see more moderator and member encouragement of activity in SYM, even if it's just dedicated to dropping by the pub once or twice a day to drop a post or making a point to drop a thread on GameBanshee as well as on Facebook. In my own experience, activity has a great way of snowballing on it's own as long as it's got some support. If people are on Facebook more than GameBanshee, even though they are connected because of or through this site, than I really do feel that says something, since all I see really different is Facebook has nicer notification features (which a lot of forums are beginning to emulate successfully).

It bugs me that the atmosphere has been a more cut and run thing after troubling events like these from all involved, especially since I sort of feel roles like moderators or members who are very dedicated to the site should play a larger role in helping this site along. I have some well defined opinions of forums I could ramble about for hours, so I'll just cut myself off here.

GameBanshee's forums also have this history, seemingly, of being treated more like a library than a forum. Potential discussion and question threads are too quickly shut down, in my view. While this may potentially be because of server load, if a thread exists, it's better to answer it and then, if it must be closed to cover server load, close it, then leave an oblique reference to the search tool. Instead, I find it far too easy to find threads where a moderator closed it with "use the search tool" rather than using the search tool themselves to answer the question before closing it. Not only is this more friendly and useful for the person who has made an account to post, but it's also better for people coming to the forums off of search engines or links to the forum to get help and overall provides a more useful, user oriented atmosphere to the forum which I feel would at the very least improve it's atmosphere, if not even base usability for any guest or member who wishes to make use of the massive knowledge base available on the forum.

As a forum, user interaction is what makes it different from a library. Sure, the information might be available in another thread, but even linking to that thread or answering the question again is not negative. If a thread exists on the topic, it's going to exist unless it's deleted -- it might as well be answered and left as is so other people can reply later if they register and have more questions on that topic. It's more discouraging for users to be redirected endlessly to an ancient post from way back when, especially if the search takes you to a dozen closed threads.

Another sort of squirming point in my gut is that a lot of the more community oriented aspects in the forum have sort of been reduced, and I think this is more of an administrative choice (and I think it's more down to your opinion if it succeeded than mine, GB). I noticed when I first lurked on this site for BGII stuff way back when (where threads seem less likely to be shut straight down in my opinion than in other sections of the site, and I think it kinda shows that if you can drive discussion in old forums, those old forums retain activity) that there were polls and news and everything running through the forums. Even if these were moved to another part of the site, having them mirrored in some way in the forums, such as having comments sent to a forum thread or some such on the topic while also having those same comments shown currently in whatever media you are using to display news, might do some good for the forum. This is a bit abstract (to be honest I'm actually debating this point on another site I'm on the admin team of for our news since it's very seperate from the forum community, and I don't like not having that constant reminder that the site has news for the regulars to check) so it's not something I'm as solid on, since I don't have personal experience with successful forum paradigms involving this yet.

Those are my three major points, hope I didn't ramble too much. I have to admit that some minor tone issues I've noticed run through the site but all in all those can be expected on a lot of sites, so I don't really think touching on it is worth it when it's otherwise fairly overshadowed and a minor thing at best.

Push comes shove, this is more about forum activity than it is about site traffic for me, so I can definitely see that you likely have different priorities than me. I'm writing this fairly late, so apologies if it doesn't make sense. GameBanshee is a great site and I think it shows (tons of content, smart/experienced members, dedicated posters, beautiful site-forum interactivity, all big bonuses already in my book, this is my one touching point), and I don't think that there is any one thing which can be blamed for portions of the forum slowing down. Many positive changes can clearly be seen on the site, and to be honest, I think those positive aspects are in many cases worth the slightly slower forum. A few things I would have criticized GameBanshee for two or three years ago have changed, and for the better (forum setup issues, for example, I no longer see a way to criticize, beautiful work). I cannot emphasize enough that while I see these as issues I think they are more the few dead trees in a fairly scenic forest. These are just my opinions as they first came to my mind, and I have to admit I haven't exactly looked at GameBanshee with a super critical eye either, so these might just sound like really generalized comments.

Thanks for the response!

[galraen]

If I read Kaer's post correctly, the point that he made about news and polls etc. are very pertinent IMO. Removing news from the forum was a major mistake in my opinion, that used to provoke discussion by itself, and it was also a source of information for myself, which I now go elsewhere for; and if you 'shop' elsewhere for one thing, you're more likely to 'shop' elsewhere for other things too.

Of course losing one of the main contributors to a forum doesn't exactly help either. Also I guess if the site is taking a change in direction, as GB has, we shouldn't be too surprised if those that joined because we liked the original direction go elsewhere and are replaced by those who like the new direction. Game Banshee seems to have moved on, and I guess many have moved elsewhere as a result.

[Fljotsdale]

Haven't seen the place buzzing since Ravager et al. got booted lord knows how long ago. Fable has gone walkabout too now

In fairness, it's mainly SYM that has quietened down. The game forums are still fairly active.

I knew about Ravager, but Fable gone? :speech: I loved those guys...

And it IS dead in here. Why do all my favourite forums collapse...?

[Fljotsdale]

Come on, now. The whole forum can't rest on the participation of a single person...

Why not? Other forums have. Some damn good ones, too.

[Fljotsdale]

If I read Kaer's post correctly, the point that he made about news and polls etc. are very pertinent IMO. Removing news from the forum was a major mistake in my opinion, that used to provoke discussion by itself, and it was also a source of information for myself, which I now go elsewhere for; and if you 'shop' elsewhere for one thing, you're more likely to 'shop' elsewhere for other things too.

Of course losing one of the main contributors to a forum doesn't exactly help either. Also I guess if the site is taking a change in direction, as GB has, we shouldn't be too surprised if those that joined because we liked the original direction go elsewhere and are replaced by those who like the new direction. Game Banshee seems to have moved on, and I guess many have moved elsewhere as a result.

Another depressant to the forums was the way Mods used 'off-topic' to shut off discussion (both in here and in game forums). Most discussions between people in RL move 'off-topic' all the time, and make the discussion more interesting and lively as a result. The same applies in forum discussion. Mods rarely need to interrupt; a thread will revert to topic, or stop, of it's own accord, and only needs moderating if it becomes abusive. I've moderated on only one site, myself, so lack the experience of many people here, but I've rarely found it necessary to stop debate because it was 'off-topic'.

[endboss]

I miss the forum newsposts. Those often became interesting discussions.

[Stworca]

Well everyone who feels a bit let down can from here on now work a little harder. Even i wrote a post in SYM just today, in Galraen's thread. (I don't care about Sparta! This is MADNESS!)

The change begins with YOU (person reading my poorly written sentence )
less lurking more contributing, ahoy!

[BuckGB]

User game reviews.

I'm all for this sort of thing, but do you think there should be a dedicated forum for it? I think something like this should be a sticky thread in the General RPG Discussion area. What might work even better is to have a thread dedicated to each game that doesn't have its own forum ("The Arcania: Gothic 4 Thread" or whatever), and everyone could post their impressions, build suggestions, or whatever else underneath it.

Actually, one of the big things is related to why I noticed Fable missing. As was previously mentioned, the man played a big part in posting new threads and trying to get discussion going.

I was disappointed to see Fable go, but ultimately I think his departure was inevitable. He had taken a couple of breaks from the site previously and wasn't entirely satisfied with some of the changes I had made to the site and forums over the years. It would be great to see him make a return, but I'm not sure that he will given his lengthy absence.

I've ended up reading back a bit (and I was hoping to avoid this topic since I'm betting it's a raw nerve) and I'm kind of concerned with the fact that steps were taken which severely reduced present activity but nothing was really driven to take its place.

Can you give me some examples of changes that were made (other than the removal of the news forum) that you feel are to blame for reduced forum activity? I certainly don't disagree that some changes may have instigated some departures, but I've always had pretty good reasons for implementing them. If there's anything I can do to reverse negative changes, I would, but first I'd like to hear which ones in particular are a sore spot with members.

It's, hence, why I'd like to see more moderator and member encouragement of activity in SYM, even if it's just dedicated to dropping by the pub once or twice a day to drop a post or making a point to drop a thread on GameBanshee as well as on Facebook.

I definitely agree with you here, but I consistently find myself unable to contribute on a regular basis given my commitments to the rest of the site. If any of our current members are interested in joining the moderating team in order to help drum up forum interest (including you, Kaer), feel free to PM me and we can discuss it in detail.

GameBanshee's forums also have this history, seemingly, of being treated more like a library than a forum. Potential discussion and question threads are too quickly shut down, in my view. While this may potentially be because of server load, if a thread exists, it's better to answer it and then, if it must be closed to cover server load, close it, then leave an oblique reference to the search tool.

Server load isn't the issue, it's primarily due to the fact that some of our busier game forums have had many of the same questions asked dozens if not hundreds of times over the years. I do agree that a duplicate thread shouldn't be closed without linking to the "primary" thread where the question is actually answered, though. Perhaps we could start doing this moving forward.

Another sort of squirming point in my gut is that a lot of the more community oriented aspects in the forum have sort of been reduced, and I think this is more of an administrative choice (and I think it's more down to your opinion if it succeeded than mine, GB). I noticed when I first lurked on this site for BGII stuff way back when (where threads seem less likely to be shut straight down in my opinion than in other sections of the site, and I think it kinda shows that if you can drive discussion in old forums, those old forums retain activity) that there were polls and news and everything running through the forums. Even if these were moved to another part of the site, having them mirrored in some way in the forums, such as having comments sent to a forum thread or some such on the topic while also having those same comments shown currently in whatever media you are using to display news, might do some good for the forum.

Moving news and polls to the site's homepage was not a decision that was made lightly, and you'd really have to understand the behind-the-scenes mechanics of the site to understand why the decision was made. When I first started working on GameBanshee in early 2000, I used an archaic content management system called NewsPro that I was familiar with from my work at GameZNet during the late 90's. NewsPro was eventually renamed to Coranto, and one of the addons that was created soon after this name change was a vBulletin commenting system. Coranto was a great CMS when news only had to be displayed in a few different places. However, it became very cumbersome as the number of games we covered started to grow. Every single subsite needed its own layout and each group of games had to have its own layout, too. For example, posting general news about BioWare required that I created a layout that syndicated the news across BG, BG2, NWN, KotOR, etc. However, if a newsbit only applied to BG1 and BG2, I'd have to create a separate layout for that. Some news items only applied to KotOR and KotOR II, some only applied to Ultima Online and EverQuest, and so on. By the time I retired Coranto, I had create an obscene number of different layouts.

In addition to that problem, Coranto stored all of its news in a flat file that became corrupted on a regular basis and caused me all sorts of headaches. It was time to move onto something bigger and better, so I hired a couple of programmers to help me bring over all of the news to Joomla. Part of this project also required the implementation of an RPG database, which then allowed us to assign each news item to any game within the database. Overnight, it suddenly became WAY more user-friendly for us to syndicate a single news item to any games we wanted to. No more layouts!

Coranto never supported comments out of the box, and the vBulletin addon that I was using was no longer supported by the person who originally created it. New versions of vBulletin would sometimes break it. If the addon was broken, I'd have to scour the Coranto forums for someone who had coded in a fix, or I'd have to pay someone to update the code so it worked properly. It was a nightmare, to say the least. On top of these issues, we ended up using three different pages for the same news item - the news list on a game's homepage, the static news page, and then the thread that was created in the forums. As some of you probably know, replicating the same content in three different places is undesirable if you're looking for good search engine results.

Anyway, when I migrated to Joomla, I had to make a decision that would be best for the site's future. If I integrated some sort of vBulletin bridge that would allow Joomla newsbits to be associated with comments in the forums, then I'd once again have to deal with any issues that crept up as vBulletin upgrades were released and news would once again be replicated in multiple places. On the flip side, if I used Joomla's most popular comments addon, updates and compatibility wouldn't be an issue, vBulletin upgrades would have no bearing on the comments system, and each newsbit would only have to appear on a single static page. I chose the latter.

Trust me, if there was a way to completely integrate our Joomla installation and a solid forum system like vBulletin without any upgrade issues or other side effects, I'd make the change tomorrow. Joomla is constantly evolving, so it's possible that I'll be able to interconnect the forum community with our newsfeed (in an even better way) once again. For example, version 1.6 is due out any day now, and that comes complete with its own comments system (therefore allowing me to ditch the comments addon). Perhaps a fully functional Joomla forum will be added in the future, too, and we'll be able to move on from vBulletin completely.

Also I guess if the site is taking a change in direction, as GB has, we shouldn't be too surprised if those that joined because we liked the original direction go elsewhere and are replaced by those who like the new direction. Game Banshee seems to have moved on, and I guess many have moved elsewhere as a result.

I wouldn't say the site has moved in "a new direction", as we've been providing news, articles, and walkthroughs for RPGs, MMORPGs, and RPG hybrids since day one. If anything, I'd say that we've retained our original direction for too long while the rest of the Internet has evolved into extensive user-driven efforts. The increasing popularity of social networking and investment-heavy wiki sites has made it very difficult for us to bring in as much traffic as we used to (even if I feel that some of our content is superior when it's eventually finished), which obviously has taken a toll on bringing in new forum users as well. I have a few plans on my "to do" list that will hopefully help this, but I'm just one guy trying to juggle a whole lot of projects at once, so major changes like these don't happen at a very quick pace.

In any event, thanks for all the comments, everyone. In particular, I appreciate it when specific changes and advancements are suggested rather than pointing out problems without offering a proposed solution. It makes it much easier to come up with a game plan .

[Stworca]

I'm all for this sort of thing, but do you think there should be a dedicated forum for it? I think something like this should be a sticky thread in the General RPG Discussion area. What might work even better is to have a thread dedicated to each game that doesn't have its own forum ("The Arcania: Gothic 4 Thread" or whatever), and everyone could post their impressions, build suggestions, or whatever else underneath it.

For games that have their own forums, a sticky thread in its forum.
For ones that do not.. Well.. There are countless RPG's that don't have their own forums, so creating a subforum within general RPG discussion (if its possible) would be better.

But since its much easier to first review the more popular ones, better wait and see how many of us (slackers) will actualy write anything It would be rather pointless to waste your time making the sub-forum if it turns out there will be only 2 reviewers (although i'm counting on most of the veterans to be VERY active!)

The way i see it, the graphics subject should be treated somewhat differendly. Since many of the most discussed games are as old as it gets, the visual properties should only affect the note if they're superior / inferior to the norm of its time. While everyone should find his own criteria of reviewing a game, let's not forget that these are RPG forums, and RPG games we're talking about. Replayability, character building, ability interface, dialogue choices, storyline etc. Things that you wont find in doom 3! (well, except storyline)

Other than that, the thing that i fear are somewhat ridiculous notes ("1/10, because i don't like it ") or worse yet, very small amount of reviews at all! All in all, someone should be assigned to moderate this particular area (thankfully we have many, many moderators )

I have a few reviews written already, since i've spoken to Dragon Wench waay back about user game reviews (and i was supposed to start them WAAAY back). I'll start / join the threads tomorrow. For now, off i go!

Edit : If the reaction will be realy wide, and the sub-forum for games without their own forums will be flooded, a good idea (for not-too-near future) would be dividing the sub-forums alphabeticaly. But that'd only be needed if we'll be talking about over 50 games reviewed (will make navigation easier)
Unless ofcourse someone REALY dedicates him/herself to managing it.

And last, but not least, a few chosen reviews from forum could be added to the site. But that's just my 0,02$

Ahoy!

[Fljotsdale]

Well everyone who feels a bit let down can from here on now work a little harder. Even i wrote a post in SYM just today, in Galraen's thread. (I don't care about Sparta! This is MADNESS!)

The change begins with YOU (person reading my poorly written sentence )
less lurking more contributing, ahoy!

True. I am myself guilty of only popping in from time to time, mainly in the games sections. I haven't been in sym for ages.... :speech:

"Could do better if she tried..."

[Kaer]

I was disappointed to see Fable go, but ultimately I think his departure was inevitable.

I just wish I knew he was alright, because he's really disappeared from the entire genre's forums, PC and RPGs altogether, which I knew he used to visit.

Can you give me some examples of changes that were made (other than the removal of the news forum) that you feel are to blame for reduced forum activity? I certainly don't disagree that some changes may have instigated some departures, but I've always had pretty good reasons for implementing them. If there's anything I can do to reverse negative changes, I would, but first I'd like to hear which ones in particular are a sore spot with members.

Well, there we some references, and I kind of didn't want to discuss what might still be a live wire, but since others have brought it up, one thing would be the Ravager and friends thing. While I think that the change in thread size was certainly acceptable, I think the mindset that the site would somehow improve without these members around which I've sort of inferred was largely misguided.

Previous threads here have remarked about a lack of dissenting opinion, and the sudden quiet of the forums. I have a feeling nostalgia played a far too prominent role in that move. It seemed like the proponents of the situation which lead to those bans appeared, posted for a while, there was a short resurgence of old faces, and then the forum died. Oops!

Likewise, I've found that there's a bit of a stifling going on with some discussion. Flojtsdale likely noticed the same thing as I did with his (her?) reference to off topic posts, to some degree. One of my first posts here was on Mass Effect 2, asking if there was seriously news out yet or if it was just a thread for discussion. Fable closed it saying that the forum doesn't appreciate rumours. The forum remained quiet for some time. Oops! I am sure I could find similar examples elsewhere of exactly the same thing. I think a new forum should be more open in what is allowed to get discussion flowing.

Of course, we also see that there is a real drive to close down threads and shove them into one, large one. This doesn't make it easy to navigate the ideas, doesn't encourage discussion, and it shockingly contradictory to the thread limit theories prompted in that discussion. Want to make a suggestion for a new gaming system for KotOR which could move on to other topics? That's a bad thing -- quick, shove it into page 30 of an inactive thread! One of those odd library kinks which GB seems to enjoy. Suddenly, the poster doesn't come around, discouraged by the posting, and nothing pops up to take it's place, and the forum dies out again. Oops! :laugh:

There seems to be a very big drive for "let's stifle discussion" rather than "well, it's not like the forum is being used otherwise." Unless there is an explicit reason to close it, like a few other identical threads on the same page, then I feel it's not necessary to close it. One only has to go through a few of the quieter forums, like The Old Republic forum, to find a lot of locked threads which didn't end up getting replaced with anything and could have had some interesting conversation if they hadn't been locked.

I definitely agree with you here, but I consistently find myself unable to contribute on a regular basis given my commitments to the rest of the site. If any of our current members are interested in joining the moderating team in order to help drum up forum interest (including you, Kaer), feel free to PM me and we can discuss it in detail.

I think this is more than understandable. I've handled communities for other folks before, and even though those owners or programmers love their site they simply have to dedicate their time elsewhere. The community understands this, and I don't think it's any different with you.

You have an absolutely fantastic series of subsites, and it's just you making them. No one is going to blame you for doing what has made GameBanshee a great site -- making it a great center for news, information and content on PC/Console RPG gaming.

I think moderators, on the other hand, should be interested in what they are moderating. While it's difficult to handle quiet forums other than to let people talk much more openly than normal (Vampire: TM for example) newer forums with mods tossing out one or two extra threads or responding to posts is all on it's own a great contribution to a site and can, at times, do more for a forum than people think!

Server load isn't the issue, it's primarily due to the fact that some of our busier game forums have had many of the same questions asked dozens if not hundreds of times over the years. I do agree that a duplicate thread shouldn't be closed without linking to the "primary" thread where the question is actually answered, though. Perhaps we could start doing this moving forward.

I'd love to see this. On another site, we had one forum which was surpassing 2000 posts a day in it's prime. The moderators then simply let threads go because the search feature simply couldn't keep up, it kept the discussion rolling and honestly people preferred it.

However, we also disabled our search feature until last year because it was a pain to program and keep running with our rate of postage, so we basically had to change the paradigm to focus on not searching as much. To be honest, I think it did more good for the forum than it otherwise would have, even the quieter ones we had.

Even just linking would be a massive boon over the answer "Use the search function. Closed." Moderators know the forum more than guests and know how to find this stuff. If it's always the same answers, even just making an index for those threads so the mod themselves can quickly find them would be good, in my opinion. I would wholeheartedly support the alternative you describe.

Coranto and Joomla discussion.

Thanks for the response on this! I don't know too much about non-custom CMS with modern vBulletin, since I've not been involved in the vB scene for a while. News has always been important for me on forums, since it's ongoing, current and creates interest all on it's own. I admit to much squirming when I saw it disappear, but I can definitely understand why.

I've been on another site with custom news submissions for games, and they've had to redo their system a few times, so I can understand your pain.

Thanks a TON for taking time out of your day to reply, BuckGB!

[Tower_Master]

Are you implying that we are lacking good ol' fashioned spammers?

"If you build it, they will come?"

Childish Kevin Costner references aside, as someone who's bounced in / out of SYM over the past few years, I've got to say it's truly refreshing to see not only the active involvement in this discussion on Buck's part, but also the awareness / concern about the forum's shift in flavor (Quick aside: Kaer, my wrists hurt just considering your response's length! Dear god, man, your poor keyboard! ). Though the characters lurking about may change as the days shift to months, as long as some modicum of courtesy can be found in these hallowed halls, SYM will never truly fall.

...Copious consumption of bourbon doesn't exactly hurt, either.

[ralary]

This place doesn't seem that active anymore. We need some gimmick to bring people in!

how about add more sub-forum,it is so limited topics here

[Xandax]

I just wish I knew he was alright, because he's really disappeared from the entire genre's forums, PC and RPGs altogether, which I knew he used to visit.
<snip>

He's alright.

<snip>
I think moderators, on the other hand, should be interested in what they are moderating. While it's difficult to handle quiet forums other than to let people talk much more openly than normal (Vampire: TM for example) newer forums with mods tossing out one or two extra threads or responding to posts is all on it's own a great contribution to a site and can, at times, do more for a forum than people think!
<snip>

That was the way it was in the "beginning" when there were a limited number of sub-forums and games to cover. We covered sub-forums where we had a deeper insight into the games.
I became a moderator due to a heavy interest in Neverwinter Nights for example and therefore could answer most of the questions arising at that time throughout its development phase and launch etc; and it was the same with some of the other games.
But as the game list grew ever larger, you either need to have a very long moderator list (to the point where there's more moderators then actual posters) or give up on some of the knowledge and simply have moderators moderating more then being a possible oracle for answers.

Back some years ago ... well a handful or so - I had practically played 3/4 of the games with subforums on this site. Now, not as much
And therefore I spend most time actually moderating because there are many more knowing more about (some of) the games than me. And not liking many of the newer ones coming out; that's likely not going to change soon.

But in the beginning there was also a huge community of people willing to share their information and not just pick up new one and move out. That's also a thing that has change much more in the later years. People use sites mostly for information gathering as they socialize on facebook or similar. That leads to a faster hit n' run where fewer stick around.

[Snoop Dogg]

For those people that sound sad, don't be. The site and general Internet activity evolves as it always will. Maybe SYM will become popular again, maybe not. The good thing is discussion still continues on different areas of the site which is a good thing.

[Tricky]

And not liking many of the newer ones coming out; that's likely not going to change soon.

But in the beginning there was also a huge community of people willing to share their information and not just pick up new one and move out. That's also a thing that has change much more in the later years. People use sites mostly for information gathering as they socialize on facebook or similar. That leads to a faster hit n' run where fewer stick around.

If you think about it like that, it makes sense that the forums are quieting down. Not only has that huge community moved on, it is not giving new games the same level of attention as before. From the perspective of the younger of subscribers, we're a forum of librarians, taking care of old games mostly.


Here's something else I have been thinking about since I first read this thread. The Internet as we know it is only 12 or so years old. GameBanshee has been a part of that period for the most time. I asked my girlfriend, who has a degree in cultural history, how long it takes for anything to settle down as an established, formalized rule of conduct, and to be considered a cultural value. She couldn't really give me an exact answer as there are too many factors involved, but the amount of people in it factors in heavily.

So is twelve years enough for countless communities to decide to what use the Internet as a whole has to be put in their lives? It is an interesting question. I don't believe that 'something has happened' to GameBanshee recently. It has been subject to change since AND especially because it has been around for so long in a new era that we haven't yet fully assimilated into our culture.

Ten or so years ago, my parents thought it was 'a bit too much' that I spend one or so hours per day on the Internet.

[Stworca]

First review pasted. I know that it may be poor, but i know that you people will write better ones! Right now!

..And i know that everyone expected me to write a baldurs gate 2 one.. But here it is nonetheless. Dragon Age