Games forum re-merge

ShaneU

quarryman wrote: »

But you have general & multiplatform gaming AND nintendo, playstation, xbox and PC forums. This is exactly what we have now.

We have a PC forum?

Retr0gamer

So add a PC forum to segregate things further and makeit worse?

quarryman

ShaneU wrote: »

We have a PC forum?

scratch that, nintendo, xbox and playstation.

But its interesting that you thought there might be a forum you didn't know about in the bloated web of sub-categories, I discover new ones every day!

ShaneU

Retr0gamer wrote: »

So add a PC forum to segregate things further and makeit worse?

How is it segregating? it's 7 forums instead of the 30+ there is now. You could keep PC gaming in the general gaming forum, but I think it would be best to keep that for games that aren't platform specific and general gaming news.

marco_polo

How about something like a general games discussion forum, and two or three additional forums with prefixed threads: online multiplayer, a (console?) hardware discussion forum and a technical support forum.

The structure and traffic of game specific forums are all but irrelevant to the main issues at hand IMO .

D4RK ONION

ShaneU wrote: »

How is it segregating? it's 7 forums instead of the 30+ there is now. You could keep PC gaming in the general gaming forum, but I think it would be best to keep that for games that aren't platform specific and general gaming news.

No mention of Fighting Games, the biggest forum in the Category. Have you read this whole thread, out of interest?

Retr0gamer

There's nothing really all that wrong with the small sub forums, they have their own niche communities and don't take traffic away from the main games forums. The problem is seperating the general gaming discussion into platform specific forums. That's what this thread is really about and it's the main problem and adding yet another platform specific forum is making it worse.

TheFairy

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

I personally simply want a forum I can goto in which the only topics are for the console I own or am interested in.....

Dont know where the consensus is going but what Rev said above is exactly what I think. Horses for Courses! If its XBOX then put it in an XBOX forum, etc etc.

oceanclub

Retr0gamer wrote: »

So add a PC forum to segregate things further and makeit worse?

I'm honestly trying to get my head around this. If segregation is bad, it shouldn't be done. If it's good, it should be done properly. But doing it half-arsed, as it's done now, is the worst option of all.

P.

BlitzKrieg

I said it elsewhere but I feel a good number of subforums can be done away with and replaced with some sort of tag system instead.

so for example in strategy instead of a starcraft forum, someone posting about starcraft can tag their thread being created as starcraft so it will look like this:

COLOR="Blue"]starcraft[/COLOR Why do I suck with zerg?


and any new games getting popular can be added via a new tag rather then a forum that will go dead during a dry season.

Penn

Would that really be necessary though? I mean, if they're posting in a Games forum rather than a Starcraft forum, chances are they'd say "Why do I suck with Zerg in Starcraft?"

Jazzy

tags can fuk themselves. they look awful

TheFairy

Jazzy wrote: »

tags can fuk themselves. they look awful

Totally agree with the tags looking bad!

quarryman

TheFairy wrote: »

Dont know where the consensus is going but what Rev said above is exactly what I think. Horses for Courses! If its XBOX then put it in an XBOX forum, etc etc.

From reading the posts so far I actually think the consensus is the other way, ie. against console forums.

Though, at this point I'm wondering will anything actually be done. The issue was raised before, result? More new forums....

I

Penn

quarryman wrote: »

Though, at this point I'm wondering will anything actually be done. The issue was raised before, result? More new forums....

I

That's a bit unfair. Firstly, the CMods have already said that they're reading this thread and discussing the best course of action.

Secondly, I don't think it's always up to the mods and CMods if a new forum is created. There is a Forum Request forum, and with enough support, the forums are added.

Forums are created if a) the demand is there and b) it is felt that these forums are necessary. It might not always be the right choice, but only time can be the real judge of that. As we're seeing now, the console forums have diluted discussion too much, so it was either a bad choice, or poor execution. But the CMods have said they're discussing it, so give them a chance

UberPrinny_Baal

Just out of curiousity, would there be any big disadvantage to merging the "Games" forum with all the console subforums to make something like "General and console gaming".

I think areas like fighting games and anything that has a "Scene" with regular events and tournaments need their own forums; but there's never a ton of notable console releases week-on-week.

TheDoc

I actually like the TAG functions, it quickly allows me to determine if a thread is worth me reading.

I think the lack of pc gaming forum is absolutely scandelous :O

But there definitly needs to be a little cullo f the inactive outdated forums.

Burning Eclipse

Ok... Here it is... I've given this a lot of thought.

Games
- Fighting Games

And there you have it!!


In seriousness, this seems like it's going round in circles. How about this... are there any forums that everybody can agree we can live without? I'll propose Wolfenstein.

Tallon

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

are there any forums that everybody can agree we can live without? I'll propose Wolfenstein.

No, thats the point

Someone will always want the forums. A slight merger of some of them would probably suit everyone

Burning Eclipse

Tallon wrote: »

No, thats the point

Someone will always want the forums. A slight merger of some of them would probably suit everyone

I know, but I'm trying to find the right angle to approach this problem. (As an aside, are you sure someone would fight for Wolfenstein? )

Do we first establish the existing forums we can't do without, then see what forums need to be created to cover the rest?

Rev Hellfire

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

Do we first establish the existing forums we can't do without, then see what forums need to be created to cover the rest?

Yes, good idea. I can't do without an xbox games+hardware forum.

Burning Eclipse

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

Yes, good idea. I can't do without an xbox games+hardware forum.

I meant 'we' as a community, as opposed as to the individuals that make up the community, but I take your point. :cool:

quarryman

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

Yes, good idea. I can't do without an xbox games+hardware forum.

You'd prefer separate console threads on every game talking about the exact same thing? Crazy.

Out of curiosity I had a quick look at this wonderful Xbox forum.

We have 20 threads.

4 on Halo
1 on F1 2010
1 on FIFA
1 on Battlefield

All with their own forums.

The current system doesn't work.

Rev Hellfire

quarryman wrote: »

You'd prefer separate console threads on every game talking about the exact same thing? Crazy.

Out of curiosity I had a quick look at this wonderful Xbox forum.

We have 20 threads.

4 on Halo
1 on F1 2010
1 on FIFA
1 on Battlefield

All with their own forums.

The current system doesn't work.

I personally would simply drop the sub-forums, but keep the xbox forum as is.
I'm in agreement with the idea that we have too many sub-forums, but think the idea of just mashing everything together to create mass is a mistake.

marco_polo

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

I personally would simply drop the sub-forums, but keep the xbox forum as is.
I'm in agreement with the idea that we have too many sub-forums, but think the idea of just mashing everything together to create mass is a mistake.

I must admit ort of coming around to this viewpoint to a degree actually (Such a flip flopper ), I been scanning through the various console forums and there are alot of thread that would probably would be just plain wrong on a main games forum and wouldn't really fit in a 'Tech Support' type forum either.

'Xbox slim touch sensitive buttons! '
'Disable Xbox Live Gold automatic renewal via Xbox.com - Finaly! '
'360 "Content not available in your current area" '
'The Playstation 3 has been "jailbroken" '
'When Did You Get Your PS1/2/3 Thread'

I still think at the very least there ought to be a redefination of what the console specific forums are for and employ a more stringent merge/moving policy for general gaming threads such as 'Great upcoming games' into the main forum for everyone benefit

Fnz

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

Yes, good idea. I can't do without an xbox games+hardware forum.

I meant 'we' as a community, as opposed as to the individuals that make up the community, but I take your point. :cool:

Also, a voice raised against the community must be silenced...

Orim

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

Fighting Games
- Games

FYP

I keep checking this thread but I havn't been able to come up with an idea that really suits.

I would think more genre forums would cut back on the number of forums. However that still has the issue of cross purpose forums. But this isn't the main issue for me. It's numbers. Too many forums mean people only check a couple. At least if we could use genres then we could get the numbers down to a point where checking them all wouldn't be such a killer.

I would think that something along the lines of :
Games General Discussion
XBOX
PS
Nintendo (For discussion of the consoles and gamertag threads. No game talk)
PC (Same as the console threads. Discussion of PC specific stuff and setting up multiplayer. No game talk.)
Fighting Games
MMOs
Shooters
JRPG
RPG (Maybe make JRPG a sub forum of this)
Strategy
Arcade & Retro

The simulation forums are little bit iffyer but I would say most of them could be gotten rid of.

It won't fix the issues but I reckon it would alleviate the situation and would give a good base to push for further improvements if needed.

NeoKubrick

Here's a bare-bones structure to the main page of computer games:

→ Games - Discussion for every game that doesn't have a specific forum
└─→ Editing - Recording - Awards

→ Platforms - All platform PC, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo discussion related to tech and support with four prefixes, [PC], [Microsoft] etc.
└─→ Modding

→ Massively Multiplayer Online
└─→ World of Warcarft

→ Fighting Games

→ Arcade & Retro

→ Events - All gaming events listed here to publicize them more

→ Sub-Directory (Sub-communities?)
└─→ RPG - Starcraft - Quake - Call of Duty - Battlefield - Halo - Football (amalgamation of FIFA, PES and management sims) - Competitive Gaming

→ Archive - all dormant forums

I think this is the best solution, and it has a hierarchy. If a game or community becomes sufficiently large that it's burdening a forum, it can be promoted to be a forum of its own under the sub-directory. If a sub-directory forum becomes large enough, it can be promoted to the main page directory. Demotion applies for the opposite; the Halo forum is busy now, but it won't be half a year from now. So, for forums which should be removed from the sub-directory, they can be simply placed in the read-only Archive. This is beneficial for a continuing series like Halo, because it can be moved to the sub-directory on a new release and moved to archive when/if the activity dies down after the release. The archive basically houses dead and ad-hoc forums (yeah, I always wanted to use 'ad-hoc' in a sentence and yeah, it's because I watch Deadwood).

Game Recording - removed from the main page and now a sub-forum of 'Games'

Arcade & Retro - unchanged

Fighting Gaming - unchanged

Games - Reviews removed and maybe put a [Review] prefix in that forum.

MMO - EVE online removed

Miniature Gaming - removed and put elsewhere as it has no relation to computer gaming

Poker - removed and put elsewhere as it has no relation to computer gaming

Role-playing - parts of this forum have a relation to computer gaming and others don't. Move all none-computer-gaming talk elsewhere and is now placed as a sub-directory

Strategy - removed along with Command & Conquer. Chess and Tradable Card games moved elsewhere out of the computer game section. Starcraft moved to sub-directory.

Toys & Boardgames - removed and put elsewhere as it has no relation to computer gaming

Web-games - removed

Consoles sub-directory - removed with modding now as a sub-forum of Platform.

Events & Tournaments sub-directory - removed

Shooter sub-directory - removed except for Battlefield, Call of Duty, Halo and Quake which are placed in Sub-directory.

Simulation sub-directory - removed and FIFA, PES and Management sims absorbed into one football forum in the sub-directory.

Rev Hellfire

NeoKubrick wrote: »

Here's a bare-bones structure to the main page of computer games:




I think this is the best solution, and it has a hierarchy. If a game or community becomes sufficiently large that it's burdening a forum, it can be promoted to be a forum of its own under the sub-directory. If a sub-directory forum becomes large enough, it can be promoted to the main page directory. Demotion applies for the opposite; the Halo forum is busy now, but it won't be half a year from now. So, for forums which should be removed from the sub-directory, they can be simply placed in the read-only Archive. This is beneficial for a continuing series like Halo, because it can be moved to the sub-directory on a new release and moved to archive when/if the activity dies down after the release. The archive basically houses dead and ad-hoc forums (yeah, I always wanted to use 'ad-hoc' in a sentence and yeah, it's because I watch Deadwood).

Game Recording - removed from the main page and now a sub-forum of 'Games'

Arcade & Retro - unchanged

Fighting Gaming - unchanged

Games - Reviews removed and maybe put a [Review] prefix in that forum.

MMO - EVE online removed

Miniature Gaming - removed and put elsewhere as it has no relation to computer gaming

Poker - removed and put elsewhere as it has no relation to computer gaming

Role-playing - parts of this forum have a relation to computer gaming and others don't. Move all none-computer-gaming talk elsewhere and is now placed as a sub-directory

Strategy - removed along with Command & Conquer. Chess and Tradable Card games moved elsewhere out of the computer game section. Starcraft moved to sub-directory.

Toys & Boardgames - removed and put elsewhere as it has no relation to computer gaming

Web-games - removed

Consoles sub-directory - removed with modding now as a sub-forum of Platform.

Events & Tournaments sub-directory - removed

Shooter sub-directory - removed except for Battlefield, Call of Duty, Halo and Quake which are placed in Sub-directory.

Simulation sub-directory - removed and FIFA, PES and Management sims absorbed into one football forum in the sub-directory.

Remove the strategy forum at your peril... those folks have tactics... and tanks !

TheChrisD

NeoKubrick wrote: »

Miniature Gaming - removed and put elsewhere as it has no relation to computer gaming

Poker - removed and put elsewhere as it has no relation to computer gaming

Role-playing - parts of this forum have a relation to computer gaming and others don't. Move all none-computer-gaming talk elsewhere and is now placed as a sub-directory

Strategy - removed along with Command & Conquer. Chess and Tradable Card games moved elsewhere out of the computer game section. Starcraft moved to sub-directory.

Toys & Boardgames - removed and put elsewhere as it has no relation to computer gaming

Idea is alright, except define this "elsewhere" you mean in relation to the afore-mentioned forums. Remember that just because the category is "Games", does not mean that it's all entirely about "computer games". Although if the hierarchy you mentioned above is all contained in a video gaming forum that is part of the games category with all those above also in that category, then that seems a lot better.