The forums are stagnating - what should be done about it?

[Smeags]

I thought this would be a good place to explain my absence over the past month and a half (as the community here is the reason I come, with the actual sales becoming less and less of a priority). It actually started with me going to the midnight premier of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. It was quite euphoric, and you could almost see the excitement in the air. Everyone was there because they loved Harry Potter, and wanted to celebrate over 10 years of books and films. It was quite the celebration.

Afterwards (the movie was excellent by the way), I actually started thinking about my time here at VGChartz and the experience I've had with the community. Are we here to celebrate this hobby of ours? I mean, despite our different "factions" of Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft/Mobile/Etc., we're all here because of our love for video games right? We have that in common, and that common thread should unite us in some way or another.

But when I looked back I just saw all of us warring against each other, fighting for every sales scrap (Oh look, ____ sold more than ____, my team wins!) and metacritic score (____ has a better score than ____ haha!). I just want our discussions to be about how fun that new game is, or how excited we are about the new game about to be released. It's why I took over the Most Wanted articles, and also the gamrConnect Celebrates articles (although these aren't doing to well, which got me frustrated :P). I want this place to be a celebration of our hobby that we love, and not so much teams trying so hard to beat the other guys. I admit that even I get caught up in the sales figures and all of the other factors outside of the actual game itself. When that happens, I need to step back and re-figure why I love this hobby, and that's what I did.

I have to admit that in my month long leave from this place... I really didn't miss it. I got to actually sit down and play some games during the time, and didn't miss talking about their sales figures or metacritic scores or whatever. I just sat down and enjoyed them. It allowed me to get my head screwed on right, to get my priorities on my stance on gaming right. I really enjoyed myself this past month, with 100% Lego Harry Potter (a lot harder than it sounds... but ultimately satisfying), replaying and 100% Galaxy 2 ("The Perfect Run", you are one tough cookie), finishing up Ocarina of Time 3D, and going back to WarCraft III (because I can never truly leave that game. :P).

But I'm back because I love you guys too much, and because I do feel that VGC can be a boon for me when it comes to this hobby of mine. So uh... good to be back I suppose. :P