Proposed changes to Gaming (General) rules - PC vs Console

johnny_ultimate

Just to make it clear there are no plans to change the way this forum or the console platforums (I dig!) work. PC Gaming is the only forum where there is currently any discussion about changing its scope. I'd strongly oppose any suggestion for unnecessary change elsewhere, which I for one feel will undo a lot of hard work and positive change from over the last few years. Unless a majority believe otherwise (and I get no sense whatsoever that is the case), then things will stay as normal, aside from myself and retr0 maybe been a bit more active in moving and separating format specific talk here.

Obviously if there is need for a separate thread about a game in a format forum for, say, technical issues or multiplayer-specific discussion then that remains and always has been perfectly fine and encouraged. There's also some leeway allowed for older titles or re releases that might get lost in general gaming.

Dair76

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I think BizzyC is dead center. If you started moving exclusive title discussion to platform categories it would kill off a lot of traffic. Just because you don't own a Playstation/Xbox/PC doesn't mean you aren't interested in titles appearing on that platform, 'Gaming General' is a one-stop-shop for all things gaming. That's the way it should be.

The PC issue was easily and simply solved by just making a separate thread in the PC Gaming forum - issue solved, it doesn't require drastic levels of analytic over-thinking.

That's where I would disagree personally. The number of titles exclusive to the PC is genuinely so few, that moving their threads to the PC Gaming forum would really have no impact on the Gaming (General) forum's traffic. However, it would give the fledgling PC Gaming forum a nice shot in the arm.

As for the "inconvenience" of giving non-PC playing readers an extra forum to visit just so they can read up on subjects they're interested in, it's literally one extra mouse click away. One! No more an inconvenience than visiting the console specific forums, game specific forums or genre specific forums.

I genuinely understand the apprehension of fragmenting the community or diluting the gaming content, and I also acknowledge that those of us who play exclusively on PC are in the minority. But from my perspective, being in this minority means having to trawl through a lot of console related content to find stuff relevant to me. Take the irrelevance to you (not you personally, TerrorFirmer) of the PC technical chat in the Arkham Knight thread, and the annoyance of having to read that when none of that conversation applies to you. That is how the entire Gaming (General) forum is to me.

Myrddin

Ok, we've taken the feedback from this thread into our behind the scenes talk & have come to an agreement with where we're going with all of this. It's quite a simple set of solutions in the end really, & nothing that will negatively affect any avenue of the forums involved.

1) The whole 'pcmr v console peasants' thing is going to be actively moderated. For all of the reasons stated, it does nothing but get peoples hackles up - ultimately derailing threads, causing rifts, and generally creates a never ending cycle of arguing that we can all do without having to read through. So if you see examples of this going on, report the posts rather than engage them as Johnny_Ultimate and Retr0gamer have requested, they'll then happily handle it from there when they can.

2) Technical chat related to pc's and consoles alike, will now be actively moved to more relevant forums (PC Gaming, Xbox, PS & Nintendo). The PC Arkham Knight thread is a shining example of how this will all work. This serves to keep the threads in this Gaming (General) forum, purely about the games themselves. Technical chat is housed better elsewhere, so we're going to utilise such going forward.

3) PC Gaming will be formally allowed to have it's own games related threads, as it has done since last year. These threads will give a home to technical issues as detailed above, but will also allow general chat to foster too if required. Such general chat comes naturally anyway from forum regulars and the like, helps build and grow forums, sews seeds of community development, and as we've already seen, is a good thing that hasn't affected this forum in any way over the last few months anyway.

So that's essentially it, simple, but effective. Thank you all very much for your feedback, at the end of the day, the goal here is to make things better for you - the users, so hopefully these few little changes will do just that

Generic Dreadhead

Will blatant PCMR b**s**t/trolling be an infraction/cardable offence?

Myrddin

Cormac... wrote: »

Will blatant PCMR b**s**t/trolling be an infraction/cardable offence?

I'll let JU & Retr0 take it from here as it's their forum, I just wanted to update you on the slight policy change decided upon

Dair76

Cormac... wrote: »

Will blatant PCMR b**s**t/trolling be an infraction/cardable offence?

One would hope that all blatant b**s**t/trolling would be dealt with, no matter what format the offender plays on.

johnny_ultimate

The exact mechanisms are still being worked out, but suffice to say 'fanboy' nonsense of either a console or PC sort will not be welcome here anymore. When the exact rules are worked out we will let you know, but fair to say they'll be deleted at a bare minimum. If one must wage war against Xbox owners or use the phrase 'console peasants', it's not like there aren't many other parts of the Internet that will welcome you. It won't be this part though

Digital Solitude

Cards would be harsh for a first offence I think, it'd be a bit mad to throw out red and yellows immediately for it. Sure a yellow if someone says it twice and red for every occurrence after would be fair.

People are going to be making a conscious effort to stop using the term here, a no tolerance policy is probably not going to be necessary.

Robert ninja

People unironically using stuff like 'PS4/PC/XB masterrace' and people unironically getting upset about it. Is this for real?

Generic Dreadhead

I wasn't saying people should get carded, just asking if they would

johnny_ultimate

Let's not get into the wildly fluctuating levels of irony and lack thereof in play whenever PCMR is mentioned. Think most uses are ironic and totally sincere at the very same time :pac: That zero punctuation lad has a lot to answer for.

But yeah, we're not going to be handing out bans and infractions like its nobody's business. And there'll definitely be if not a grace period then at least a while when we'll make the new stance as clear as we can without cards flying everywhere. Above all, I think it's only going to be a small minority of users who'll ever find themselves falling afoul of whatever new rule is introduced anyway.

super_furry

Totally agree with the OP, I think any and all discussion of how PC games run on a technical level and PC level stuff like modding should be confined to the PC forum and I say this as someone who is a doing most of their gaming on PC these days.

Think that this PC Master Race thing should be knocked on the head. No matter what context it's used in, it always seems to derail threads and start up bull****.

Retr0gamer

I think similarly there should be in place something about talking unsubstantiated BS about PC gaming as well. A lot of the time the whole PC debate kicks off when someone has a misinformed opinion about PC gaming being stupidly expensive and when some one corrects them in gets out of hand. Repeat offenders there really need to be dealt with just as harshly.

moc moc a moc

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Cards would be harsh for a first offence I think, it'd be a bit mad to throw out red and yellows immediately for it. Sure a yellow if someone says it twice and red for every occurrence after would be fair.

They're just cards, they're not bans.

Digital Solitude

moc moc a moc wrote: »

They're just cards, they're not bans.

I'm aware, they stack up and in the case of a possible ban, it could be seen where you've 3 or 4 cards for using the term PCMR, which would stand against you.

Hypothetical and probably OTT from me but even still.

ShadowHearth

Like any part if yhe life, gaming has its ugly head too. Problem becomes when people take it to serious or get offended easily.

I got ps4, xbox one, ps3, pc, ps vita and I had wii, wii u, 3ds. I love then all in each own way, even of some of them I don't own anymore.
There are plenty Multiplatforms games and one or another platform issues will show it's ugly head. So far there is a luxury of having threads for same game, but in different platform sections. It's great and it can concentrate on issue had with one or another platform. In a way, I don't think that specific platform issues should be discussed in general games forum.

As for pc master race. I had dropped that joke more then I can remember, but a lot of people who get thick about it forget, that it was born as ironic joke and is used ( mostly, but as always, there will be dicks who do use it seriously ) as irony and tongue in a cheek way. If someone gets offended or upset by that joke and takes it word to word, then they should not be on Internet. There are more upsetting things out there.

Saying this, I really enjoyed my day off yesterday with Terraria and world of tanks on pc and then borderlands with bloodborne on ps4, to finishing it off a wee touch of forza on xbox one.

johnny_ultimate

So we've now implemented the changes mentioned in this thread. It took a little longer because we realised the existing charter was getting a bit outdated and unwieldy, so it was decided there was no better opportunity to go for a whole new updated charter to tidy things up (with all due respect to Sir Amp!)

Here's the wording for the whole format wars section:

‘Format war’ or ‘fanboy’ nonsense of any sort is not welcome here. That includes uses of phrases like ‘PC Master Race’, ‘console peasants’ or accusing people of being ‘fanboys’ / ‘fangirls’ / ‘fanpeople’ (just to be politically correct) of any particular hardware. The mods will take action against anybody trying to kick off a console flame war, and based on past experience we will lock any ‘PS4 vs Xbox One vs Wii U vs PC’ threads or any derivatives.

At the very least offending comments will be deleted. Clear attempts at trolling or repeat offenders will receive cards and potentially bans. ‘I was using it ironically’ is not an excuse - at the very least, it’s not a very good one.

I think that's as clear and fair as we can be on the issue!

The only other significant addition is having formalised the 'no list thread' rule, which had effectively been in place for years anyway. It will only effect threads that are basically just endless lists of titles or videos with no room for discussion. Stuff like Gaming Humour are exceptions of course!

As mentioned, we'll also be taking more efforts to move posts or threads that sway towards discussion of format-specific issue. Hopefully these changes will have addressed some of the concerns raised in this thread