| Khuutra said:
The long-suffering graphic conversation is a pissing contest about console abilities, not about the games in question, and as consequence is not a good conversation about games. I thought I had made a Castlevania thread, actually, though if I didn't it's based on prior experience; I made a big Mass Effect thread (as you have mentioned) wherein I put in a lot of effort, and there was a Fire Emblem thread in much the same vein, and perhap a few others All of them met their inevitable fates because I was, in the end, the only person positng in them; if you have to post three times in a row in a topic to keep it alive, it is time to let it die because the conversation is simply not there. So too happened with the "Zelda marathon" thread, and some others. I have been trying to get good conversations going in this forum ever since I noticed there was a problem in that respect (about three years ago, maybe a little less). They never last long, in spite of how hard I try. People here just aren't that interested in talking about games for the sake of games, they - or at least, many of them, it's not fair to characterize everyone this way - are in it for pissing contests, for oneupsmanship, and for spam. It's an altogether adversarial, non-constructive environment, and it stifles conversation wherever those seeds are desperately sewn. |
I remember the Zelda marathon thread. I had registered to join but that was still early in my time here as a poster and I never lived up to that promise, and oddest thing it was in the back of my mind lately. I've been getting better at making promises I can keep and keeping those I make personally. Once I saw people were ahead of me I had to abandon the thread because I had no progress to post. It's too bad because Zelda is one of my most beloved series and it would have been a stimulating experience, but oh well. Anyways, I'm upset that didn't turn out like you would have expected. Do you think it would have turned out better in the other forums you're in?
I noticed alot of participation in your ME3 thread, and almost all the posters respected your asking for spoiler markers where needed. I'd be surprised to hear that that didn't go well. The threads run out of steam, is that something that's unique to vgchartz or does it also happen on the other forums you're in? Could it be possible that in those cases, maybe on vgchartz, it would be good to post a new thread on the series without having to go through the official thread? Start a more specific topic on the series and see what people say. Give it a try I'd like to see how it turns out. For example, I made that thread on Mario's appeal. Remember how Rol said that I had made a previous one very similar to it? Well, the first one had run out of steam, much like your threads. A few months later I rehashed it and look how many new opinions came out of it. I find the second one was much more of a success. What's the crime in doing that, if people say anything about it, just tell the to buzz off.
About oneupsmanship, pissing contests and spam, I personally can only talk about what I know, and that's my own behavior, in that I am guilty of all of it in different degrees, and am always working on it. How to be meaningful, how to be relevant, and how to keep your interlocutor's interest and attention. I'm not sure, it's all a mistery to me. I've found that when I least worry about what I will say is when I get the best responses. When I'm actually interested, expecting answers and asking questions, that's when I get the best conversations. So I'm not sure how much others are working on it but I personally am.
There are certain games that I like, certain games that I want to talk about, and others that I'm less familiar with that I might not talk about. Maybe what you're proposing is that people should try to post only in topics that genuinely interest them and not post on an urge on something that tics them, and take a more observant approach for games they are less familiar or happy with? I'm not sure.
As for the first para, I was really referring to the stylistical debate. Does that change your answer?
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