Games forum re-merge

quarryman

A couple of years ago the games forum was split into Nintendo/Xbox/Playstation.

Following this idiotic decision it seemed any minor release was awarded a forum to itself. Most died but were not removed.

The result now is that multi-platform releases can have 4/5 threads. One for each console, one in games, one in the forum dedicated to that game, etc etc...... Ridiculous.

We now have sections for Guitar Hero, The Sims even bloody Wolfenstein with ONE thread.

The games split was stupid and reeked of a message board expanding in the belief that it was bigger than it actually was.

Time for a cull. There'll be the usual moaners (probably moderators of that forum) crying out that we NEED a Metal Gear Solid forum. No we don't, it should get one thread.

The games section is the most bloated stretched section on Boards. Please change it back to something closer to how it was.

(Keep Quake though, for obvious reasons.)

Tallon

quarryman wrote: »

(Keep Quake though, for obvious reasons.)

Why?

quarryman

Tallon wrote: »

Why?

http://wiki.boards.ie/wiki/Pre-History

Jazzy

Tallon wrote: »

Why?

BECAUSE QUAKE IS BETTER THEN YOU AND THE GAMES YOU PLAY

Tallon

quarryman wrote: »

http://wiki.boards.ie/wiki/Pre-History

Yeah but it's pretty inactive compared to some of the other split forums

Kersmash

Loads of the smaller subforums are very active. Yeah some of them are pretty empty but a good few of em have some pretty good discussion.

gizmo

I agree with part of your post anyway, there is quite often one thread in each platform forum for the same game. This can lead to fractured discussion and people missing some info if they only peruse a particular forum.

Imo, if a game is multi-platform then there should be one main thread in the Games section for it, if it is an exclusive title then it can stay in platform forum. The exception to this could be specific platform related threads for these games such as the BC2 clan thread.

Retr0gamer

Before this split happened it was suggested a few times but each time was shot down by every regular poster. Anyway the split occurred when the adins implemented it without consulting any forum regulars of creating any discussion about it. I've noticed the level of discussion has nose dived particularly in the PS and Xbox forums (especially the xbox forum) were they are full of mostly technical questions which are frankly boring as all hell. People will say that there's too many games released that one forum can't handle it but it was doing fine before the split occurred with the same amount of hardware released. I'd like to see any games discussion left to the games forum and technical questions left in the platform forums but when I suggested this there was a good bit of disagreement from some newbie posters and regulars. Some said they didn't need to know what someone with a different console thought of the same release on their console which is frankly stupid and some said that they didn't want to hear from arrogant PC gamers. I'd like to see this happen but since it's been left the way it is for so long it's turned into something like the situation up the north.

Some of the single game forum ideas were frankly stupid including 2 I moderate. I don't see the point of a resident evil forum and I got the Final Fantasy forum renamed to JRPGs because the conversation nose dived and was sick looking at necro threads of someone saying how FFVII is the best game ever.

quarryman

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Anyway the split occurred when the adins implemented it without consulting any forum regulars of creating any discussion about it.

This bugged me too. NOTHING was said beforehand. No feedback was requested after it.

For a site where the content is driven by its users the arrogance to change it without consulting the regulars is baffling.

K.O.Kiki

I just ignore the Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft forums.

And why the hell is it called "Xbox" forum, anyway? That's not the company's name!

RobertFoster

It'd be great if the console forums at least merged back together. I remember one of the reasons given for splitting them in the first place was flame wars over which platform was superior. Currently, any topic like that is fairly quickly doused by the regulars and mods. Whether this is a result of the segregation, or the fact that the regulars have matured is unknown.

tman

quarryman wrote: »

This bugged me too. NOTHING was said beforehand. No feedback was requested after it.

For a site where the content is driven by its users the arrogance to change it without consulting the regulars is baffling.

And they didn't even make a Nintendo forum! I can remember the nerd rage I felt like it was only yesterday!!

It kind of works the way it is, but can be a pain in the arse trawling through 3-4 forums to find an active thread for a game that you've started playing

RobertFoster

tman wrote: »

It kind of works the way it is, but can be a pain in the arse trawling through 3-4 forums to find an active thread for a game that you've started playing

Unless it's a popular multi-platform game, in which case you can find 2-3 topics on it across various forums

KilOit

keep consoles to one forum though and have pc on another, i'd rather not mix with console people.

SeantheMan

It's an extra 2 mouse clicks. I am not overly bothered.

Works fine as is I think. I like the Consoles -> Categories -> Major Franchises format

I would prob stop using the games forum if I had to go through 100 threads of "What is your best kit in COD" ..."How many kills did you get in COD" etc etc

ShaneU

I think having separate forums for different games/genres is a bit silly, I do however think it would be useful to keep the playstation/xbox forums for technical questions related to those consoles.

Penn

Its not like there's a new sub-forum created for every game series. The way I see it, sub-forums are created for games series' which tend to generate a lot more threads than others so as not to clog up the forums. While the two forums I moderate (GTA and MGS) are pretty slow at the moment, I've been part of those forums when a new game in the series has been released and obviously, they can get very busy very quickly. And in particular when it comes to the Christmas Games rush, the amount of those threads would clog up the Games forum too much in my opinion.

With regards to the Playstation/XBox/Nintendo forums, they come in very handy with regards to exclusives, as they can help reduce the risk of arguments between 360/PS3 owners etc. With a lot of multi-format games and less exclusives, this may be where the problem lies. However, with the release of PS:Move and Kinect, I'd say we'll be seeing more exclusives by next year

quarryman

paddyirishman85 wrote: »

While the two forums I moderate (GTA and MGS) are pretty slow at the moment,

2 perfect examples of forums that should get the chop. There's been, what, 15 posts in the last 2 months in MGS? This thread has more posts than that.

Also, "moderate" is a bit generous when it comes to those two

IMO, everything in Shooter should be merged into Games. Same with Simulation and Strategy. There's no need for them. Cull the mods, lose the zombie forums. Who cares if they have some life during the few weeks of the "Christmas Rush".

Xbox/Nintendo/Playstation could probably stay for specific technical questions but all game related threads should go into the Games section.

Retr0gamer

You see the games forum would never get clogged up with threads about one game or series, or if a multiplayer series came out that was big it would lead to it's seperate forum. I don't see how a GTA or MGS forum needs to exist, the games forum never got clogged with threads when a new game in the series came out. Also console wars were kept to a minimum and handled well by the moderators. I atually saw an increase in fanboy behaviour when the seperate forums were created.

Retr0gamer

quarryman wrote: »

IMO, everything in Shooter should be merged into Games. Same with Simulation and Strategy. There's no need for them. Cull the mods, lose the zombie forums. Who cares if they have some life during the few weeks of the "Christmas Rush".

I don't believe in this, there's a few series there that are still very active and need their own forums and nobody wants the CS forum muppetry spilling into the games forum. MMO's as well need their own forum as well.

Overheal

after a long feedback thread about this a couple years ago, nothing has been done.

just do as i try to do: boycott all but the main games forum.

quarryman

Overheal wrote: »

after a long feedback thread about this a couple years ago, nothing has been done.

And guess who started it....

I've just noticed things have got worse if anything, more and more pointless forums popping up.

There must be some aspect of trying to make the site look larger than it is. More page hits, ads revenue, etc.

Wolfe Tone

Threads will descend into Xbox fanboys vs PS fanboys with PC gamers saying "STFU Noobs"

Retr0gamer

MUSSOLINI wrote: »

Threads will descend into Xbox fanboys vs PS fanboys with PC gamers saying "STFU Noobs"

Again, was never a problem before.

Wolfe Tone

You cannot envsion:

Screenshot of game x on PS3 vs Xbox


Followed by pages of sh!t?

super_furry

Overheal wrote: »

after a long feedback thread about this a couple years ago, nothing has been done.

just do as i try to do: boycott all but the main games forum.

I've done that before but when you make a post on say, the new Halo game, you'll have two or three people telling you to post it in the Xbox/Shooter/Halo forum before it's moved.

I doubt anything will change though. The orignal split was done on the whim of an admin who took it upon himself to change things and there's pretty much no arguing with that.

super_furry

MUSSOLINI wrote: »

You cannot envsion:

Screenshot of game x on PS3 vs Xbox


Followed by pages of sh!t?

Thing is, that never happened. And if someone did want to start some daft console war, they were always shouted down and ignored before the mods even had to step in.

Coriolanus

The way I'd do it is have Games as the parent forum with technical forums for the consoles (ie: RROD qs etc) and then just play it by ear. If a genre needs a sub-forum, so be it, but make it a child forum of Games, so they remain connected.
The main list at the moment is a mess, computer games alonside miniature games etc etc.

Jazzy

stay on the course Ned! You're doing super!

johnny_ultimate

Actually I wanted to bring up the problems of multi-threads recently. There are plenty of times when I'm frustrated as hell trying to figure out where a particular game is being discussed. It always seems kind of random whether the main thread is in a console-specific forum or the main one. Alan Wake is the one most recently that had two very active threads going: no reason why we shouldn't just keep that discussion in one place and one place only. It will allow everyone to participate and not get lost.

At the same time, a lot of specific forums do have very active 'subcommunities', if we can call it that. Call of Duty and Arcade & Retro are two that constantly seem busy, with some posters I rarely if ever see outside that domain. I'm obviously most familiar with Playstation, which definitely caters to many PS-centric issues, specifically technical, format specific (say the ongoing Battlefield Bad Company thread where PS players discuss the PS version amongst themselves, organising games etc...) and busy PS exclusive threads (Demon's Souls: the thread that never dies). The latter two points have other places they could fit, though.

That said, I do agree that splitting a specific game discussion between multiple forums is ultimately detrimental to a sense of community. While format specific ones often naturally end up in the format specific forums (say Metroid: Other M was primarily discussed in the usually quiet Nintendo forum), perhaps the key is to help identify where main game discussion should take place. I want to talk about The Last Guardian, for example. Where is that posted? PS forum (probably popular there)? General games forum (probably popular there too)? Clearer labelling to sort that kind of stuff out is probably the key. And I'm sure many people want to be directed closer to their topic of choice, rather than one central cluster**** of a games forum. Perhaps the game specific ones should have this main 'games' forum as the place to post: say, an Alan Wake megathread.

I don't think a full-on mega-merge is the ideal solution, and that's honestly not just me speaking is a Playstation mod, as I'd love to see more integration. I just think tidying up the place to make it clear what belongs where is key. Personally, on a basic level I'd like to see the 'broader' area topics kept, but to tidy up the redundant single game ones with little activity. Perhaps a forum by forum basis is the fairest way: no point cutting an active forum like CoD or WoW, but no point retaining slow, almost redundant forums. Communities that are constantly ongoing are far more necessary than ones that get active when a new franchise entry is released for a month or so, only to die again after.

So in summary: messy at moment, spring cleaning very necessary, but don't destroy the active communities in the process.

thewheel2.0

Nevore wrote: »

The way I'd do it is have Games as the parent forum with technical forums for the consoles (ie: RROD qs etc) and then just play it by ear. If a genre needs a sub-forum, so be it, but make it a child forum of Games, so they remain connected.
The main list at the moment is a mess, computer games alonside miniature games etc etc.

^ This needs to happen.


@Retro why don't you just do it and see what happens? Do you have the power to do it?