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Forums - Gaming Discussion - My question to VGChartz semi-lurkers.....

Alfred909 said:
Aloha,

I guess I am a lurker as well. I am an anthropologist who studies videogame culture. I am sure you have noticed how threads get killed. Specific people who want to be right more than have a discussion begin to post, more and more, to the point that they drown out anyone enjoying the discussion. As the discussion begins to break away, anyone still wanting to discuss ends up getting shriller, and shriller. If someone decides to quit posting the negative posters consider it a win. In the end, it is just them on the thread, congratulating each other. This thread arc tends to last 20 to 30 pages. There are exceptions like the John Lucas thread, with nearly 300 pages, but that is because some of the discussers are willing to write out 30 page retorts to each other. Most of the other commentors have left or gone shrill.

This is really sad since the use of numbers could have an interesting discussion. PSX sold 100 million systems, but its top selling game was 4 million. PS2 was the same with 160 million systems, but the top selling game was 18 million. Thats a ton to parse through, and open up a discussion about what is going on. Heck, looking at the sales numbers vs how we think it happened for the SNES vs Genesis discussion would be amazing. I'm not about to start those discussions though because of the problems you have.

Are you sure your assessment of the psx software sales is correct? Last I heard, FFVII for one sold almost 10 mil and none of the FFs on that console fell below 7 mil.



"Dr. Tenma, according to you, lives are equal. That's why I live today. But you must have realised it by now...the only thing people are equal in is death"---Johann Liebert (MONSTER)

"WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives"---Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler

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I never feel like it's worth it anymore to express my opinion in a thread. Most threads that I find that I would like to participate in usually end on the first or second page while threads like "COD Ghosts rumored to be 720p on xbox one" get to a fucking 100 pages for god knows what reason. That's mostly the reason that I just lurk nowadays.



"Defeating a sandwich, only makes it tastier." - Virginia

Thread breakdown:

30% HEY SONY IS SO AWESOME PS4 IS SO GREAT THE LAST OF US GAVE ME MULTIPLE ORGASMS!
25% Just your friendly hourly reminder that the Wii U is not doing well, particularly in the UK. LEST WE FORGET!
10% PS No Game Will Ever Make The Wii U Sell.
10% Nintendo announced something mildly interesting. Lets get really excited about it to overcompensate.
15% Lets complain about all of the negative topics which will just get into an argument about which system is more doomed.
10% Microsoft Fans Say Something So People Know You Exist! Ummmmm... TITANFALL YAY!!!

Just an estimate, but seriously, with almost all of the topics revolving around the same things, it's hard to find anything meaningful to post. Most people are just going to check the front page, which unfortunately is repeatedly flooded by the same topics worded slightly differently by the same people who get off on engaging in fanboyish debates. How many topics do we need to explain that the PS4 is doing well? How many do we need to explain the Wii U is doing poorly? And don't think I'm singling out Sony fans, because Nintendo fans were just as big of asses when the Vita flopped. Ok, well maybe not as bad, but about 75% as bad.

Take a look and see how many topics end in the exact same argument the exact same time. Honestly, there are some users who are downright cancerous to any sort of productive conversation, and they feel the need to spread to each and every topic to say the exact same things.



Mirson said:

I took about a year break (maybe more) from VGChartz, and joined other forums like Neogaf and GameSpot. At Neogaf, you can actually have a good discussion about anything, as well as GameSpot (before the redesign). The GameSpot redesign is mainly the reason why I'm back here. This site has definitely lost its charm, and it gets repetitive & boring very fast - not to mention the amount of fanboy/doom threads filling up the front page. I avoid them altogether, but it doesn't send a good message to potential newcomers. Also even when a decent discussion is going on, it ultimately gets derailed.

One of the big things I disliked about VGChartz was the removal of the database; improving the game's pages gave me something to do while browsing the forum. Without it, I got bored of the forums incredibly fast. Separating gamrreview and removing gamrfeed are also a few things I disliked as they would also keep me occupied while I waited for more forum posts. The site feels very stripped back now since there's less content. Also those redundant nation threads take away some of the forum activity since most of the video game news get posted there. Why have a PlayStation only thread when we have a Sony forum? Same with Nintendo & MS. They're cramming one entire subforum into a single thread.

Anyways with that said, I would post a little bit more if there was a mobile version; posting via a smartphone sucks, so I have to wait until I get home and turn on my computer.

Neogaf?  Really?  I completely lurk there if I visit at all.  I went through a lot to be a part of that community and I was treated far worse there than I ever was here.  A mod or admin altered my tagline to something insulting to me and I had never seen that before.  When I brought it up to get it changed, basically I was told to justify why it should be.  I hadn't posted since and that was probably over six months ago.  It's one of the best examples of a mob bullying mentality that can be found on the internet lately and it's beyond fixing now.  

In some ways I feel like there are some that wish this was more like Neogaf, and that's a big part of the problem ...



vivster said:
Brought to you from the guy who only posts 6 times a day :P

 Heh..  Funny thing is that around half of my posts ( ~600) are from  the 22nd of December up until now.. I was very inactive in August ( vacation in another country) and October- mid December ( school). My post count per day would have been much higher if  I was more active in those months..



                
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I am no lurker or spammer. I have had my off and active periods during the six years I've been on this site. I mainly just post on things that I find interesting, which grossly averages to one post per day, one interesting subject per day. Not too bad.



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It's the userbase. Some of you may know me from long ago, some more recent as i tried to come back.....but there just to large amount of stupidity floating about. Most arguments are the typical "playing chess with a pidgeon" on here nowadays.

 

Everyone has too big of an Ego to listen to reason or admit they were wrong about something....than they typically get there panties in a bunch and get offended over something they shouldn't.

 



CURRENTLY PLAYING:  Warframe, Witcher 2

Also i seem to make quick response threads magically end....



CURRENTLY PLAYING:  Warframe, Witcher 2

soulsamurai said:

It's the userbase. Some of you may know me from long ago, some more recent as i tried to come back.....but there just to large amount of stupidity floating about. Most arguments are the typical "playing chess with a pidgeon" on here nowadays.

 

Everyone has too big of an Ego to listen to reason or admit they were wrong about something....than they typically get there panties in a bunch and get offended over something they shouldn't.

 

Genius!



 "I think people should define the word crap" - Kirby007

Join the Prediction League http://www.vgchartz.com/predictions

Instead of seeking to convince others, we can be open to changing our own minds, and seek out information that contradicts our own steadfast point of view. Maybe it’ll turn out that those who disagree with you actually have a solid grasp of the facts. There’s a slight possibility that, after all, you’re the one who’s wrong.

soulsamurai said:
Also i seem to make quick response threads magically end....


I don't think we can say much more about this, it's clear where the problem lies and it's very hard to change it without a more pro-active anti-bullshit moderation policy. You can see one guy loling at this thread who is a clear example of the problem. When people like him are the ones who dominate the forum, you know it's a black hole where nothing good can come from it.