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[RagnarokIV]

Once upon a time if you were stuck in a game, you could search it online and get the answer. Here's a scenario:

I'm playing Silent Hill 8 or something and there's a red door that's locked, I don't know how to progress. You take to google "silent hill 8 red door"

Within seconds you'd go straight for one of the top 3 results and you'd have an answer, usually gamefaqs forum or something, in plain text

user1: im stuck on the red door in silent hill 8, anyone done this part?

user 2: dood u have to shoot the moon emblem above it and it unlocks lol

Now that games, the news and media surrounding games, and internet bullshit in general is big bux we have to deal with SEO - Search Engine Optimization - the magic internet tricks that will get your site to number 1!

This is where the goons come in and spray out a volcano of shit that can be summarized with buzzwords like CONTENT, ENGAGEMENT, BACKLINKS, KEYWORDZ.

Now when you take to google and search "silent hill 8 red door"

You'll get a shitty fake website, eurogamer, polygon or gamerant etc. with a whole page dedicated to that pesky red door.

How to UNLOCK the RED DOOR in Silent Hill 8

Says the search result leading to their site. Then you click and get a whole page of SEO word salad bullshit.



How to unlock the red door in Silent Hill 8

Silent Hill is a horror anthology media franchise centered on a series of survival horror games created by Konami. The first four video games in the series, Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill 4: The Room, were developed by Team Silent, development staff within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. The later six games, Origins, Homecoming, Shattered Memories, Downpour, Book of Memories and P.T. (a Silent Hills playable teaser), were developed by other, mostly Western developers. The Silent Hill franchise has expanded to include various print pieces, two feature films, and spin-off video games. As of 2013, the game series has sold over 8.4 million copies worldwide.

What is Silent Hill 8?
The latest made up game, Silent Hill 8, is a return to form for the series regardless of the number 8 being the first number I thought of. Fans are ecstatic at the return of this survival horror series developed by Konami called Silent Hill.

Where is the Red Door in Silent Hill 8?
The red door in Silent Hill 8 is a door that's located in a hallway. To accees the Red Door in Silent Hill 8 you must first pass the Green Door in Silent Hill 8. Once you pass both the blue and green doors in Silent Hill 8 for PS5, Xbox Series S|X and Steam you will finally arrive at the Red Door. If you're not sure of where the GREEN DOOR IN SILENT HILL 8 FOR PS5 is, you can try looking at our list of best SSDs for PS5.

<AUTOPLAYING VIDEO>

Unlocking Silent Hill 8's Red Door
To unlock the red door in Silent Hill 8 written and directed by Hideo Kojima starring Michael Biehn with a musical score by Akira Toriyama, you'll need to first make sure you have the 9mm pistol. You can listen to last week's podcast on how to unlock the 9mm pistol. Once you have the ah I fucken give up on this joke but you get the gist right? Some more padding and kickback links then I tell you to shoot the moon emblem.




Fuck off.

 

[Drizzlehell]

I spent 4 years of my life in my early twenties contributing to this state of things - you're welcome!

 

[Bry0]

Yeah I’ve noticed to. It’s making results unusable. Feels like it’s all chat gpt generated garbage. Just endless amounts of garbage results and garbage content and 10 minute long videos to explain things that could be written in 2 sentences.

 

[RoadHazard]

Yeah, I've been think more and more about this lately. Not just related to games, but pretty much whatever I search for the first page of results is always a bunch of garbage SEO "content" that goes on and on for fucking ever without ever getting to the fucking point. If there even is a point.

 

[RagnarokIV]

God I'm fucken angry now. Pissed me right off.

As for why the Dragon Ball creator and artist is composing a SH soundtrack? Because these shit fake websites always have dumbass errors like that. Like putting a FUCKING PHOTO OF SOLID SNAKE against an article on BIG BOSS or vice versa.

 

[Elitro]

Haha yes you are right. Try to use google bard for example, the new a.i. tools can greatly help with that problem.

 

[cireza]

Google results have become increasingly bad during the last decade or so. It will show you useless shit irrelevant to your search before showing more accurate results because these first sites probably have better references overall, but still none of what you are looking for.

Basically, it has become close to impossible to run elaborated searches with many words and get relevant results.

So I don't think it will make a huge difference. It will remain shitty.

 

[Punished Miku]

Anytime I search for any game hints I just type "game title" + "walkthrough."

 

[Drew1440]

I feel a lot of theseissues can be fixed by using a different search engine, either Ask/Bing/Brave/Qwant.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Google results have become increasingly bad during the last decade or so. It will show you useless shit irrelevant to your search before showing more accurate results because these first sites probably have better references overall, but still none of what you are looking for.

Basically, it has become close to impossible to run elaborated searches with many words and get relevant results.

So I don't think it will make a huge difference. It will remain shitty.

Doesn't help that the most relevant results are often on Reddit, but good luck asking a question there and not getting it deleted by landed gentry because you didn't take time to go through 10 sticky topics.

 

[Tarin02543]

i for one welcome our AI overlords

 

[Hudo]

I feel a lot of theseissues can be fixed by using a different search engine, either Ask/Bing/Brave/Qwant.

also Yandex for porn.

 

[Fbh]

Yup.
It's the same for everything.
Look up some issue with your PC or Phone or some specific sofware and you get to some random site with a long page dedicated to the issue that is all filler, and they just copy&paste the same "solutions" for everything (have you tried restarting? did you update the drivers? contact the developer/manufacturer)

I don't particularly like Reddit but the one good thing about it is that if you google pretty much anything + reddit at least you get actual people talking about the issue and not one of these fake SEO sites.

 

[BbMajor7th]

Try looking up a basic recipe for anything. All you need are the ingredients for fluffy, American-style pancakes and you get a three-thousand-word dissertation on the cultural underpinnings of pancakes, a series of anecdotal reminiscences from the author about their favourite time they ate them, and finally - after about seventeen banner ads and twelve pop-ups- you get a list of the four or five ingredients you wanted.

 

[Sleepwalker]

i for one welcome our AI overlords

Actually asking bing these things is not that bad since it will give you decent ish concise answers and link the source but you dont need to actually click on the sites

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Anyone know how long it takes to season a cast iron griddle?

 

[zephiross]

Usually I type whatever i'm looking for + reddit and 90% of the time I get what I want

 

[existensmaximum]

Weird, I've never encountered this and I Google stuff all the time. Especially game hints

Sounds extremely annoying!

 

[adamsapple]

Anytime I search for any game hints I just type "game title" + "walkthrough."

Same.

I usually search " (game name) guide walkthrough "

and it usually lands me on some good guides on neoseeker or some other website.

 

[Drew1440]

Try looking up a basic recipe for anything. All you need are the ingredients for fluffy, American-style pancakes and you get a three-thousand-word dissertation on the cultural underpinnings of pancakes, a series of anecdotal reminiscences from the author about their favourite time they ate them, and finally - after about seventeen banner ads and twelve pop-ups- you get a list of the four or five ingredients you wanted.

Based Cooking
Simple and to the point

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Lol well-observed OP RagnarokIV . So well-observed that when I started reading your mock-article, I thought it was real, and my instincts kicked in with me skipping to the last paragraph.

 

[Fbh]

Try looking up a basic recipe for anything. All you need are the ingredients for fluffy, American-style pancakes and you get a three-thousand-word dissertation on the cultural underpinnings of pancakes, a series of anecdotal reminiscences from the author about their favourite time they ate them, and finally - after about seventeen banner ads and twelve pop-ups- you get a list of the four or five ingredients you wanted.

Yeah don't get me started on cooking sites.
You'll be scrolling down for 2 and half hours and then it's like:

"At last they rode over the downs and took the East Road, and then Merry and Pippin rode on to Buckland; and already they were singing again as they went. But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor upon his lap. He drew a deep breath. ‘Well, I’m back,’ he said.

Anyway you'll need 2 cups of Flour...."

 

[Kataploom]

You're right, same for work too, I have to rely on Bing chat to avoid that much shit coming from large articles if I have a single question, it's great btw, I can dig more into the articles it used to generate the answers since it provide links but only if I want to

 

[King Dazzar]

You'll be pleased to know that when I search for "silent hill 8 red door" my first result is this thread!

Joking aside. For me over recent gaming years its more that I keep needing to search the internet at all, just to get through on many games.

 

[StereoVsn]

You're right, same for work too, I have to rely on Bing chat to avoid that much shit coming from large articles if I have a single question, it's great btw, I can dig more into the articles it used to generate the answers since it provide links but only if I want to

Yep, or go to ChatGPT for older information.

Alternatively need to specify a site like reddit or gamefaqs and so on. For work it's the same. The whole thing is annoying as fuck and makes searching a chore.

 

[sankt-Antonio]

Google search is absolutely unusable for a while now. Its not giving me the solution to a question, but tries to sell be shit. Duck Duck Goo Goo, which I always hated because it was shit compared to Google Search, is now my go to :'(

 

[X-Wing]

Just stop using Google.

 

[Mercador]

Now you have to add "reddit" to your search query to have a clear answer. Otherwise, you'll stumble on some generated website that will repeat 3-4 times the same paragraph and showing a load of ads before seeing a partial answer.

 

[ManaByte]

A 500 word salad article to say "NO"

 

[Hudo]

A 500 word salad article to say "NO"

I mean, Schreier manages to publish whole books about stuff that could've been a 500-word article.

 

[Ebele]

why don't you just directly go to gamefaqs then? they still around lol

 

[BlackTron]

This is why we just go to GAF now and ignore the rest of the Internet

 

[mopspear]

Sometimes ChatGPT tells me the correct answer for this stuff but I tried two examples of where to find the Hardedge in FF7 Remake and then where to find Bahamut in the OG and while I think both were close, both answers were wrong when I compared them to GameFAQs, just for this post. I do agree with your sentiments though. I try asking an AI my questions instead of bothering with the issues you mentioned.

(I know it's probably common knowledge but using CTRL+F to search for something on a page is really useful, especially for a text walkthrough)

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

I recently watched a video on YouTube addressing this specific issue.

The SEO bullshit artists have won and Google is now much less useful than it used to be.

 

[diffusionx]

Don’t forget too, now every time you click on one of those looking for the answer you get a pop up about cookies that makes navigating the web so much more annoying.

I spent 4 years of my life in my early twenties contributing to this state of things - you're welcome!

Thanks I hate you

 

[Mercador]

This is why we just go to GAF now and ignore the rest of the Internet

Pretty much, I take my gaming news here and on the other one. Websites are unreadable nowadays.

 

[Barakov]

I spent 4 years of my life in my early twenties contributing to this state of things - you're welcome!

 

[Fatnick]

On the subject of Chat GPT, up until recently Google would tell you there were no countries in Africa that begin with K because Chat GPT had ingested and failed to contextualise a "Deez Nuts" joke.

 

[Evil Calvin]

On a side note......while we are all complaining about the internet. I cannot even go to sites like Kotaku, IGN, Gamespot, as it's a barrage of ads, videos, movies, etc......even GameFaqs now has fucking ads. Not only is it annoying, it drains the shit out of my phone battery. I try to use 'reader view' but that isn't always an option. It's terrible.

 

[RagnarokIV]

On the subject of Chat GPT, up until recently Google would tell you there were no countries in Africa that begin with K because Chat GPT had ingested and failed to contextualise a "Deez Nuts" joke.

I'll get banned for this but on an old forum for a particular band from Manchester, England a user set his location as Niger and the town as Stinky.

 

[the_master]

Top 5 red doors in games

 

[Grildon Tundy]

On a side note......while we are all complaining about the internet. I cannot even go to sites like Kotaku, IGN, Gamespot, as it's a barrage of ads, videos, movies, etc......even GameFaqs now has fucking ads. Not only is it annoying, it drains the shit out of my phone battery. I try to use 'reader view' but that isn't always an option. It's terrible.

You gotta get an adblocker--except for on Neogaf, where you either whitelist it or get Gold, obviously. I can't imagine navigating the internet without one these days.

My work computer doesn't have an adblocker, and I feel like I'm in a cyberpunk dystopia when I browse the internet on it.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Once upon a time if you were stuck in a game, you could search it online and get the answer. Here's a scenario:

I'm playing Silent Hill 8 or something and there's a red door that's locked, I don't know how to progress. You take to google "silent hill 8 red door"

Within seconds you'd go straight for one of the top 3 results and you'd have an answer, usually gamefaqs forum or something, in plain text




Now that games, the news and media surrounding games, and internet bullshit in general is big bux we have to deal with SEO - Search Engine Optimization - the magic internet tricks that will get your site to number 1!

This is where the goons come in and spray out a volcano of shit that can be summarized with buzzwords like CONTENT, ENGAGEMENT, BACKLINKS, KEYWORDZ.

Now when you take to google and search "silent hill 8 red door"

You'll get a shitty fake website, eurogamer, polygon or gamerant etc. with a whole page dedicated to that pesky red door.


Says the search result leading to their site. Then you click and get a whole page of SEO word salad bullshit.



How to unlock the red door in Silent Hill 8

Silent Hill is a horror anthology media franchise centered on a series of survival horror games created by Konami. The first four video games in the series, Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill 4: The Room, were developed by Team Silent, development staff within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. The later six games, Origins, Homecoming, Shattered Memories, Downpour, Book of Memories and P.T. (a Silent Hills playable teaser), were developed by other, mostly Western developers. The Silent Hill franchise has expanded to include various print pieces, two feature films, and spin-off video games. As of 2013, the game series has sold over 8.4 million copies worldwide.

What is Silent Hill 8?
The latest made up game, Silent Hill 8, is a return to form for the series regardless of the number 8 being the first number I thought of. Fans are ecstatic at the return of this survival horror series developed by Konami called Silent Hill.

Where is the Red Door in Silent Hill 8?
The red door in Silent Hill 8 is a door that's located in a hallway. To accees the Red Door in Silent Hill 8 you must first pass the Green Door in Silent Hill 8. Once you pass both the blue and green doors in Silent Hill 8 for PS5, Xbox Series S|X and Steam you will finally arrive at the Red Door. If you're not sure of where the GREEN DOOR IN SILENT HILL 8 FOR PS5 is, you can try looking at our list of best SSDs for PS5.

<AUTOPLAYING VIDEO>

Unlocking Silent Hill 8's Red Door
To unlock the red door in Silent Hill 8 written and directed by Hideo Kojima starring Michael Biehn with a musical score by Akira Toriyama, you'll need to first make sure you have the 9mm pistol. You can listen to last week's podcast on how to unlock the 9mm pistol. Once you have the ah I fucken give up on this joke but you get the gist right? Some more padding and kickback links then I tell you to shoot the moon emblem.




Fuck off.

Easy fix: (to a problem they caused...on purpose?!?)

Open chrome, click on the little beaker icon next to your username/pic and enable these:

Then when you search for stuff Google Search Labs will summarize the findings for you.

(PS....this effectively kills web page traffic rev IMO)

 

[sono]

I spent 4 years of my life in my early twenties contributing to this state of things

Can you please un do what you have done. Thank you.

 

[YCoCg]

You think it's bad here? Try looking up cooking stuff! I swear people write a god damn book about how Armadillo Eggs helped them discover the joys of travelling and the journey they went through and how they met the love of their life, etc, before just saying "And now onto the recipe".

 

[Pejo]

I like that old theory that the quickest way to find something out is to confidently post the wrong answer and wait for someone to smugly correct you.

 

[-Minsc-]

Based Cooking
Simple and to the point

At first I was "Thank you!"

Then I tried searching for pancakes. I'm reminded of Tom Paris asking the computer to replicate some tomato soup.

 

[darth.shrimp]

And now, thanks to you...

 

[AV]

You're right, but at the same time, those of us who've been on the internet long enough know how to get around it.

There's probably a phrase for this situation I'm too stupid to know.

 

[Happosai]

Once upon a time if you were stuck in a game, you could search it online and get the answer. Here's a scenario:

I'm playing Silent Hill 8 or something and there's a red door that's locked, I don't know how to progress. You take to google "silent hill 8 red door"

Within seconds you'd go straight for one of the top 3 results and you'd have an answer, usually gamefaqs forum or something, in plain text




Now that games, the news and media surrounding games, and internet bullshit in general is big bux we have to deal with SEO - Search Engine Optimization - the magic internet tricks that will get your site to number 1!

This is where the goons come in and spray out a volcano of shit that can be summarized with buzzwords like CONTENT, ENGAGEMENT, BACKLINKS, KEYWORDZ.

Now when you take to google and search "silent hill 8 red door"

You'll get a shitty fake website, eurogamer, polygon or gamerant etc. with a whole page dedicated to that pesky red door.


Says the search result leading to their site. Then you click and get a whole page of SEO word salad bullshit.



How to unlock the red door in Silent Hill 8

Silent Hill is a horror anthology media franchise centered on a series of survival horror games created by Konami. The first four video games in the series, Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill 4: The Room, were developed by Team Silent, development staff within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. The later six games, Origins, Homecoming, Shattered Memories, Downpour, Book of Memories and P.T. (a Silent Hills playable teaser), were developed by other, mostly Western developers. The Silent Hill franchise has expanded to include various print pieces, two feature films, and spin-off video games. As of 2013, the game series has sold over 8.4 million copies worldwide.

What is Silent Hill 8?
The latest made up game, Silent Hill 8, is a return to form for the series regardless of the number 8 being the first number I thought of. Fans are ecstatic at the return of this survival horror series developed by Konami called Silent Hill.

Where is the Red Door in Silent Hill 8?
The red door in Silent Hill 8 is a door that's located in a hallway. To accees the Red Door in Silent Hill 8 you must first pass the Green Door in Silent Hill 8. Once you pass both the blue and green doors in Silent Hill 8 for PS5, Xbox Series S|X and Steam you will finally arrive at the Red Door. If you're not sure of where the GREEN DOOR IN SILENT HILL 8 FOR PS5 is, you can try looking at our list of best SSDs for PS5.

<AUTOPLAYING VIDEO>

Unlocking Silent Hill 8's Red Door
To unlock the red door in Silent Hill 8 written and directed by Hideo Kojima starring Michael Biehn with a musical score by Akira Toriyama, you'll need to first make sure you have the 9mm pistol. You can listen to last week's podcast on how to unlock the 9mm pistol. Once you have the ah I fucken give up on this joke but you get the gist right? Some more padding and kickback links then I tell you to shoot the moon emblem.




Fuck off.

The videos are awful and this new 'content' tends to talk circles around what you need. It's harder to find those old HTML GameFaqs walkthroughs. Not just SEO but those older sites are attempting to upgrade to the latter stated. I don't need fluff, sponsors, videos or photos. Just tell me what to do without having to skip to page 3 in search results.