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is Gaf really an enthusiast gaming forum?

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It’s a hardcore alt right forum where games are fought about but seldom played.

Am I doing it right? Or is it true?

Donald Trump GIF
 

xrnzaaas

Member
Sadly I feel like Era actually has a little more focus on low profile and indie games, while it’s all about AAA titles here.
I feel like some valuable posters left GAF when people switched to ERA. Hopefully they'll get banned sooner or later so they'll return here and start talking about more niche games. ;)

There are definitely some good gaming related conversations on GAF which aren't about politics or social issues, but about actual games. And people aren't getting banned left and right for having "unpopular" opinions.
 

Kagey K

Banned
I feel like some valuable posters left GAF when people switched to ERA. Hopefully they'll get banned sooner or later so they'll return here and start talking about more niche games. ;)

There are definitely some good gaming related conversations on GAF which aren't about politics or social issues, but about actual games. And people aren't getting banned left and right for having "unpopular" opinions.
Some of the best GAF posters that stayed behind got banned very recently, leaving it as as basically an open hole between the two with very little posters of substance in either.

Instead we have hardcore fanboys and console wars filling the void, and it isn’t healthy.
 
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TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
Sadly I feel like Era actually has a little more focus on low profile and indie games, while it’s all about AAA titles here.
The biggest problem is the structure of this forum.

We have only one Gaming forum, that's it.
Of course more popular games will have more people talk about it.
Which in turn pushes these topics to the top of the list more often.
Which in turn pushes any topics about lesser-talked-about games to the bottom.
Which in turn makes nobody see these topics.
Which in turn makes even less people post in them...
Vicious cycle.

What this forum really needs is more sub-forums. It doesn't have to be overly detailed with every genre and sub-genre.
But at least splitting indie and AAA would do a lot of good, especially for people more interested in indie than AAA games.
 
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Onironauta

Member
It used to be an enthusiast gaming forum when it was filled with interesting LTTP threads and people actually talked about games.
Nowadays it's more of an armchair graphics engineer forum.
For every post discussing about the actual content of a game, there are 10 more about fps, resolution and so on.
 

Kagey K

Banned
The biggest problem is the structure of this forum.

We have only one Gaming forum, that's it.
Of course more popular games will have more people talk about it.
Which in turn pushes these topics to the top of the list more often.
Which in turn pushes any topics about lesser-talked-about games to the bottom.
Which in turn makes nobody see these topics.
Which in turn makes even less people post in them...
Vicious cycle.

What this forum really needs is more sub-forums. It doesn't have to be overly detailed with every genre and sub-genre.
But at least splitting indie and AAA would do a lot of good, especially for people more interested in indie than AAA games.
They had once talked about splitting PS forums into one, Nintendo and Xbox into others, but it never happened.

So instead great console wars threads stat up top, and game discussion gets drowned out.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
Some of the best GAF posters that stayed behind got banned very recently, leaving it as as basically an open hole between the two with very little posters of substance in either.

Instead we have hardcore fanboys and console wars filling the void, and it isn’t healthy.
I don't follow the ban thread, but I think you have to actively try to get banned here. On ERA you can wake up one day and find out you've been banned, because some crazy mod decided you went offtopic, were [something]phobic or were "trolling".
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
They had once talked about splitting PS forums into one, Nintendo and Xbox into others, but it never happened.
That kind of split doesn't make too much sense anyway, IMO.
Lots of games are cross-platform - so then they get different threads in different forums? Sounds horrible. Unless the forum software supports thread duplication (so a thread could appear in multiple forums).

But I'll gladly say that any kind of split would be better than the current one-forum-fits-all. Because one forum does definitely not fit all.
 

bender

What time is it?
That kind of split doesn't make too much sense anyway, IMO.
Lots of games are cross-platform - so then they get different threads in different forums? Sounds horrible. Unless the forum software supports thread duplication (so a thread could appear in multiple forums).

But I'll gladly say that any kind of split would be better than the current one-forum-fits-all. Because one forum does definitely not fit all.

Some of the greatest forums ever had this structure.
 

Kagey K

Banned
I don't follow the ban thread, but I think you have to actively try to get banned here. On ERA you can wake up one day and find out you've been banned, because some crazy mod decided you went offtopic, were [something]phobic or were "trolling".
I’m not sure that’s how those bans went down, seems ot was some offsite discord shit that caused most of them, but I have no evidence so I’m going to leave it at that.

Again why I say discord is no good for forums.
That kind of split doesn't make too much sense anyway, IMO.
Lots of games are cross-platform - so then they get different threads in different forums? Sounds horrible. Unless the forum software supports thread duplication (so a thread could appear in multiple forums).

But I'll gladly say that any kind of split would be better than the current one-forum-fits-all. Because one forum does definitely not fit all.
I think the idea was GamePass threads could all be in the Xbox sub, PS+ threads could all be in the PS sub, but general threads could be in the general gaming.

That way all FFX coming to Gamepass threads wouldn’t be shit up with why Gamepass is bad.
 
Sadly I feel like Era actually has a little more focus on low profile and indie games, while it’s all about AAA titles here.
Maybe because most "indie" games are straight RIP offs of much older much more popular games? Maybe because most have horrid art style and level design, basic gameplay and music? Maybe because most are uninteresting garbage?

The ones that actually stick out are the ones that try something new and have actual interesting gameplay, a visually pleasing art style and music and those ARE disscussed, things like Hollow Knight, Bloodstained games, Divinity Original Sin, Odallus The Dark Call, Oniken and Blazing Chrome.

There are literal thousands of "indie" games that flood Steam and other console online store fronts that should never have seen the Light of day!
 
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Con-Z-epT

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
Yes, of course.

Only here i can have well thought out discussions about the games i love.

It is not easy to always present my arguments in meaningfull ways to others.

Sometimes i can be obstinate.

But i also learned to appreciate the opinions of others, even if there are not my own.


With the term enthusiast you just not define whether people are good or bad, intelligent or stupid, kind to one another or just dicks.
 

Murdoch

Member
I feel like some valuable posters left GAF when people switched to ERA. Hopefully they'll get banned sooner or later so they'll return here and start talking about more niche games. ;)

There are definitely some good gaming related conversations on GAF which aren't about politics or social issues, but about actual games. And people aren't getting banned left and right for having "unpopular" opinions.

I'll be posting here full time after receiving a permanent ban the other day. I know my posts are sought after, so you are all; most welcome.
 

Kagey K

Banned
that side is more politic gaming forum lmao
I know of one person that got banned, who I don’t think really posted in Politics and got banned for questioning some of the bans.

I don’t really want to get into it for fear of getting banned myself, but it seems they got caught in the crossfire, and it probably shouldn’t have happened.
 
It's just slow right now because there are no true bangers. Cyberpunk was the chosen one but... I'm waiting for next gen patch. Halo Infinite was supposed to be here but it was sent back for upgrades. By the end of this year there will be a lot more next gen consoles in gamers hands and more fun games to play. I'm holding out hope for Battlefield 6 and Final Fantasy XVI as well.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
Absolutely.
GAF enthusiastically loves Sony anything and enthusiastically hates MS anything.

jk.

Id say we still are an enthusiast forum because gaming enthusiast usually are out of touch with the real world and dislike change.
 
Here's the thing, Era is clearly a radical political forum disguising as a gaming forum, but they're still a pretty fucking good gaming forum. The OTs are way better there, discussions even about niche stuff are much more active, and the console warring is being kept to fairly low levels.

They kinda ruin it with the political slant (like every single Nintendo thread says "troon rights are yuman rights") and the virtue signalling from some of the peak morons is quite cringe inducing, but overall it's still somewhat enjoyable.

GAF on the other hand focuses more on console warring and being politically incorrect, which is quite entertaining but not very deep tbh.

Oh and if a REEEtard is reading is, you'll never find out my account there, sweaty :messenger_winking:
 
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The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Absolutely.
GAF enthusiastically loves Sony anything and enthusiastically hates MS anything.

jk.

Id say we still are an enthusiast forum because gaming enthusiast usually are out of touch with the real world and dislike change.
You don't have to put jk into your post to avoid getting banned unlike on other forums.
 

Murdoch

Member
I know of one person that got banned, who I don’t think really posted in Politics and got banned for questioning some of the bans.

I don’t really want to get into it for fear of getting banned myself, but it seems they got caught in the crossfire, and it probably shouldn’t have happened.

I fell foul of this. I was pleading for a bit more sanity around NX Gamers ban when he had a differing opinion and was asking 'should a person have been shot and killed' and was permanently banned for it..

I'm not angry or upset with Resetera. I just find the whole site the most hypocritical of any place, person or thing I've ever encountered and its probably not a healthy thing to be a part of when you want to debate something. I will sometimes argue against something I'm passionate for in order to understand responses and views from the other side. It's clear that not everyone is able to objectively discuss things and thus should probably not be on the internet, for fear of creating echo chambers and at worst really, really dangerous radicalisation (i.e a post on that forum garnered support for shooting neo Nazis on sight... Absolutely abhorrent and hypocritical)
 
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Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
You don't have to put jk into your post to avoid getting banned unlike on other forums.
Nah.
There are more than enough MS fanboys here for me to know that aint true.
I just gotta point out that I dont actually believe it.

But i do believe a good amount of poster are outta touch with reality and really dislike change.
Thus the heavy aversion to Gamepass, PS games on PC, pretty much anything that counts as a drastic change is generally disliked on GAF.
 

Erebus

Member
Well, at least here you can still air your opinion more freely.

Era is just a circle jerk at this point. You either go with their flow or get banned. Politics are sipping into every thread.

On another note, I think forums are slowly but steadily dying in general. Most (younger) people choose Discord and social media to discuss about games and whatnot these days.
 
The fascination with financial reports and sales figures by some on here is beyond embarrassing. "I can't come back with a proper answer but my favourite company was up 2.9% in Q4 which shows consistent growth....blah blah blah..."
 

BigLee74

Member
Nope. It’s absolutely chock-full of fanboy nerds, hell-bent not on bigging up their favourite manufacturer, but belittling the others.

Best thing they could do here is split it into PS/Xbox/Nintendo etc sections, and come down like a hammer on folk that try to entice console wars.

As it stands, this forum can just be depressing to wade through.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
I can’t help it that valheim is a crazy good game dude.

also in 2 days mega content update for COD cold war zombies. We will get a huge firestrike map!
can’t bloody wait!
 
wouldn’t be shit up with why Gamepass is bad.
Console warring (or more accuratly platform warring cause you PC guys are insufferable as well) is a plauge on this forum, who gives a shit if you play a game on Switch/PlayStation/Xbox/Steam/EGS/Pirate copy etc, at 720p/1080p/4K/30-60-120FPS Whatever the fuck P, talk about the meat and potatos of the games not it's platform or whatever else.

Who gives a shit if "Gamepass" is "bad" for games in the long run? It's not like you have any influence on the market at large my dear keyboard warriors, what's improtant is the here and now and to many people it's great value and a no brainer if you've got no interest in PlayStation/Switch exclusives and just want to play Minecraft/Fortnite/PUBG/CoD/Sports games and maybe try some of those free monthly games.
 
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