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Any gaming sites you used to be a regular at but no longer use?

jayj

jayj

Banned
For me IGN and Gamefaqs have to be at the top of that list. There's a few smaller more news oriented sites I would use, but those two used to be my go-to forums for discussing video games and whatever. Looking at them today, it's like a battlefield after a war, or an abandoned factory or mall or something. It's like I can see the shell and remains of what once was, but the people, life, and activity is mostly gone. What little can be found is mostly just the occasional bum or wild animal fighting over scraps. It's just a depressing atmosphere.

So that got me wondering, like if other people here can relate, having some gaming sites they once used to spend a lot of time at, that was maybe a go-to hangout at one point, that they simply stopped going to or can hardly recognize anymore.

I mean even this site isn't as popular as it once was, it feels like the entire concept of forums has been on it's way out, but I guess there's a reason why I am posting this here right now. It's almost like most gaming sites in general just aren't really that fun or useful anymore if I am honest. I will occasionally try to check on the latest releases, but it seems like very few of them are all that informative anymore. Most just come off as marketing machines or fanboy cesspools.
 
jayj

jayj

Banned
kanjobazooie said:
1Up.

Edit: Didn't read the OP when I posted. 1Up has been dead for a decade now. lmao
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1up, now there's an old name I haven't heard in forever. I remember when that was one of the biggest gaming sites.
SirKicksalot said:
Gamespot and their forums until like 2011-12. I barely visited any gaming site in the last decade.
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Gamespot is another name like IGN, pretty much their main competitor back in the day. Haven't been to that site in forever, I remember their forums used to be active back in the 00's but they really fell apart a long time ago.
 
AlteredForms

AlteredForms

Banned
You're in the wrong forum thread. On topic however, I would visit multiple gaming outlets and spent hours browsing the latest news and previews. The heavy-hitters to me were Gamespot, IGN, Neoseeker and GameTrailers. When IGN's parent company Ziff Davis made a move to consolidate gaming press, it essentially purchased UGO, 1UP, Gamespy and GameTrailers and then decided to pull the plug on all of them. That being said I can't be too mad as having so many outlets was cumbersome, though canning Gamespy affected many older online multiplayer games.

F For The Fallen:
Ugologo_2018.png
1UP.com_%28website%29_logo.png
GameSpy_-_Official_Logo.png
gametrailers.png
 
Thick Thighs Save Lives

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
resetera dot com 🤮 (I'm not banned though, just that a small but very vocal group on there are very annoying so I just don't want to deal with that kind of crap) and a few gaming subreddits. It's a bit funny to see some familiar faces on here that were previously banned on reee undeservedly imo. :p
 
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jayj

jayj

Banned
BossLackey said:
IGN boards. Was on there for YEEEEEAAAARS.

Really miss the old days of Teh Vesti :(
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Oh man, that used to be my spot! Such a fun community back in the day, when forums were full of easy going gamers who didn't take it too seriously. I still remember the good times I used to have there and some of the regulars I became friends with. So many people I haven't seen or talked to in forever. I remember running into an old familiar user from back in the day on Steam and us having a conversation reminiscing about the good old days of the vesti. It was a different era.

I went back there just to check it out like a few months ago and it's just sad today, the link to the forums is buried with the forums themselves not even displaying properly on my web browser. It's like an old forgotten dark corner of the internet that it's host site is trying to forget about.
 
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The Stig

The Stig

Member
gamefaqs.com

I still have an account and I used to post on there a lot. (Life the universe and Everything) but now visit it once a year to get guides for my old point n click games. Account is still active too
 
ShadowNate

ShadowNate

Member
- IGN, I think I lost interest in its content around the time I also lost/forgot my password and just never bothered to recover it.
- Rock Paper Shotgun, ever since the click-bait titles and the unhinged reviews designed to provoke the visitors into reacting/raging in the comments. That was years ago.
- somethingawful.com; that one is broader forum, but its moderation went fully retarded around 4 years ago, aligned with the modern mob mentalities, and apparently has not changed significantly since.

Never have been a member of recetera, but I've read some of their gaming threads. I don't regret staying away from that melting garbage bin.
 
jayj

jayj

Banned
The Stig said:
gamefaqs.com

I still have an account and I used to post on there a lot. (Life the universe and Everything) but now visit it once a year to get guides for my old point n click games. Account is still active too
Click to expand...

Yeah I think the guides is pretty much the only use I could still have for that site, as they have a lot of old ass games covered that nobody really cares about anymore in the sense where you won't be finding any youtube guides for them. That said there is only a handful of games I could ever need that for, as their format is so old, simple, and outdated. I guess you could say their list of games is also useful, like they have an easy to browse list of games for every platform.

That's the thing about them though, is how everything I could find them useful for doesn't require an active user account. About the only reason I would need an active account is to participate in their forums, which are dead outside of the most recent platforms and the most popular games among that community. I think the biggest problem with their forums, besides the low userbase, is easily the moderating which has always been extremely biased, unfair, and off-putting. It's like they keep trying to enforce the site like it's some popular site with tons of users coming and going when they can barely maintain enough activity to keep their most popular boards active, and what remains of their userbase is just a some old users who have been there forever.

That said I think Reddit and Steam discussions has completely replaced them. If I have a question about a game or want to discuss something specific about a game, I will just go to the Reddit or Steam forum for that game. They have active userbases where I might actually get answers from a variety of people in a reasonable timeframe.
 
nightmare-slain

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
Ones I don’t use at all anymore would be Gamefaqs and Resetera. Gamefaqs was just so dead and boring.

Resetera seemed like the place to be but it was quickly made clear you had to have the correct thoughts, say the right things, and fall in line or you’d be banned. I got banned many times and decided to quit because I knew I wasn’t welcome there. I’ve been banned a lot on here too lol so yeah I’ll admit I can go too far at times but I didn’t think I was saying shit that was controversial/offensive on there so I was getting banned and left wondering the reason.

I do still read gaming subs on Reddit but haven’t posted anything in years. It’s another place you gotta watch what you say. You say the wrong thing and you get downvoted so basically they like to hide stuff they don’t agree with and silence people. People are more aggressive and looking to start arguments.

GTA Forums I have posted on it the odd time over the last decade…I mean it’s been a decade since we had a new GTA game so not really much reason to go there. Well not until the leaks of VI last year. I posted for a while when that happened but probably won’t go back until we get some new info.
 
Shtef

Shtef

Member
The-magicbox.com was my primary news site. Also i was visiting vgmusic.com to download snes midi music.

I forgot zophar's domain for emulation.
 
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NeoIkaruGAF

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
GameFAQs was my daily bread for some years. I just loved delving into the treasure trove of guides for games from Gen 3 to 6. I also wrote a few guides myself. It was something anyone could do. But it was never that great for discussion.

I tried Resetera when it started because I had wanted to join GAF for a while but getting approved took a long time, and the community was deteriorating fast for the known reasons. So I joined Era fully knowing what I was getting into, but they took a lot of gamers along in the split so I could at least discuss and get some gaming info. But I quickly stopped posting, again for well-known reasons. And when GAF really started living again, I joined here.
 
T

touchfuzzy

Member
IGN was my home page for at least a decade and I would be on GameTrailers right after. Both those sites at their peak were excellent.

Forum-wise I was on one called Planet Gamecube, then latched on to Xengamers / Modojo for a long time. After that died off I took a long time off gaming forums, gave ResetEra a go eventually (and it was horrible, and I got banned) then ended up here.
 
SJRB

SJRB

Gold Member
Dr_Salt said:
Gametrailers and its forums. Lol good times.
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Peak Gametrailers was the golden age of videogame forums for me. So many good people, tight community. Great laughs, nice threads. In its final moments before death they even added privately controlled subforums. Amazing idea.

Tons of trolling and console warring as well, but that was the norm then.

Of course then Gametrailers was bought [or something, I don't even remember] and a new horde of mods cracked down on all the fun. People were permabanned left and right, early stage wokeism caused rot and turned users away. A lot of instances where power-tripping mods went way over the line, made the forums a dire place. It's amazing how fast something like a forum can collapse.

I kept connecting with some of them during every big videogame event to watch events together, but even that has passed as time goes on.

Godspeed to all former Gametrailers forum members.
 
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Dr_Salt

Dr_Salt

Banned
SJRB said:
Peak Gametrailers was the golden age of videogame forums for me. So many good people, tight community. Great laughs, nice threads. In its final moments before death they even added privately controlled subforums. Amazing idea.

Tons of trolling and console warring as well, but that was the norm then.

Of course then Gametrailers was bought [or something, I don't even remember] and a new horde of mods cracked down on all the fun. People were permabanned left and right, early stage wokeism caused rot and turned users away. A lot of instances where power-tripping mods went way over the line, made the forums a dire place. It's amazing how fast something like a forum can collapse.

I kept connecting with some of them during every big videogame event to watch events together, but even that has passed as time goes on.

Godspeed to all former Gametrailers forum members.
Click to expand...
The private subforums were great.
 
jayj

jayj

Banned
nightmare-slain said:
Ones I don’t use at all anymore would be Gamefaqs and Resetera. Gamefaqs was just so dead and boring.

Resetera seemed like the place to be but it was quickly made clear you had to have the correct thoughts, say the right things, and fall in line or you’d be banned. I got banned many times and decided to quit because I knew I wasn’t welcome there. I’ve been banned a lot on here too lol so yeah I’ll admit I can go too far at times but I didn’t think I was saying shit that was controversial/offensive on there so I was getting banned and left wondering the reason.

I do still read gaming subs on Reddit but haven’t posted anything in years. It’s another place you gotta watch what you say. You say the wrong thing and you get downvoted so basically they like to hide stuff they don’t agree with and silence people. People are more aggressive and looking to start arguments.

GTA Forums I have posted on it the odd time over the last decade…I mean it’s been a decade since we had a new GTA game so not really much reason to go there. Well not until the leaks of VI last year. I posted for a while when that happened but probably won’t go back until we get some new info.
Click to expand...
Yeah there is a lot of truth to that. Resetera never appealed to me because after spending so much time on other forums where awful controlling and biased moderators ruined any enjoyment or engagement to be had, I had zero interest in having anything to do with another site like that. Those sites are fine for the kind of cronies and yes-men that the moderators like and agree with, but it sucks for everyone else. No thanks.

As for Reddit, you are right in that it's not exactly a place for casual discussions outside of some small specific subs you might fall into. On all the popular subs popular consensus seems to rule and if you're the odd man out you have a target on your back for all the downvoting and negativity. That's why I just stick to specific topics, like I never really go there for a sense of community, I go there because I have a question about a specific topic or something. It's the only forum site where it's size and variety is what gives it value.
BigDeadFreak said:
I used to go on NTSC-uk a lot but it got a bit boring. It was the same old people posting the same old things over and over again. It also got a bit cliquey with some people just looking for arguments.
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That is honestly what I have against most smaller or dying forums after a while. The userbase gets really cliquish, with the same old users who all have problems with everyone else, and most attempts at a discussion simply result in petty arguments with very argumentative people. It's basically the final nail in the coffin that finally drives me away.
bender said:
IGN Boards before Insider, Insider-only boards, and the Vestibule ruined them.
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On man, you're a real old timer just like me! Heck you might even predate my peak era on that site, I had the best time there before the insider boards broke up community boards and everything got consolidated onto the vestibule, although the early years of the vesti were still pretty fun though, back in the Tal era, when it was stern but fair.
SJRB said:
Peak Gametrailers was the golden age of videogame forums for me. So many good people, tight community. Great laughs, nice threads. In its final moments before death they even added privately controlled subforums. Amazing idea.

Tons of trolling and console warring as well, but that was the norm then.

Of course then Gametrailers was bought [or something, I don't even remember] and a new horde of mods cracked down on all the fun. People were permabanned left and right, early stage wokeism caused rot and turned users away. A lot of instances where power-tripping mods went way over the line, made the forums a dire place. It's amazing how fast something like a forum can collapse.

I kept connecting with some of them during every big videogame event to watch events together, but even that has passed as time goes on.

Godspeed to all former Gametrailers forum members.
Click to expand...
What happened to Gametrailers sounds a lot like what happened to Gamefaqs and IGN boards. I guess most failed or failing forums seem to fall into same pattern. Abusive/authoritarian moderators driving everyone away, normal people being turned away by their biases, eventually causing the userbase to collapse, which has been the death of every forum I have seen come and go.
 
bender

bender

What time is it?
jayj said:
On man, you're a real old timer just like me! Heck you might even predate my peak era on that site, I had the best time there before the insider boards broke up community boards and everything got consolidated onto the vestibule, although the early years of the vesti were still pretty fun though, back in the Tal era, when it was stern but fair.
Click to expand...

My account was from 2000. The PS2GB is one of the better gaming boards. I moderated there for about 7 years or so but way after the heyday.
 
D

Derekloffin

Member
Gamespot. Still have them as my homepage, but honestly just because I don't really know who to replace them with. Don't think I've read anything there in ages.
Gamefaqs. Used to use them all the time, but of late, nope, completely out of use, and I'm not even sure exactly why. I guess, thinking on it, haven't been doing too many new games lately, and the few times I've needed help a youtube video or the like gets the job done, so guess it just lost its niche for me.
Gametrailers... well, they're dead so... did use them pretty much up to their demise though so they have that at least going for them, but yeah.
 
C

Corian33

Member
Gamefaqs just because it died. Used to vote in the poll every day and hit boards for games I liked.

Kotaku before it turned into a bunch of political nonsense.

Rock Paper Shotgun before it turned into a bunch of political nonsense.

Various other similar websites before they turned into mostly political nonsense.

Reddit before they sterilized all the gaming forums to the point that there are only two options: endless memes/hating whatever game the sub is for, or wastelands of boring corporate approved posts. How can you have “millions” of users and maybe one interesting discussion per day on r/Games?

I’m glad I found this website where people actually want to TALK about games. I don’t even care that much about the political stuff, I just want to have fun conversations about my hobby.
 
20cent

20cent

Banned
Gamekult.fr until they start to care too much about pixel-art indie games and became advocates for the 20 hours of work/week at gaming dev studios.

Kotaku until the gamergate I guess
 
N

nashman

Member
Lurked Gamespot Forum Wars back in the day. That shit wouldnt fly in 2023 LOL. Then lurked hard and posted a bit at TeamXbox forums. This was the best of times. Riotous and Marcelluis Wallace post here a bit still, but both had 25k+ posts there. TXB was peak internet for me for many years. It got hacked and the Xb1 blew so that killed that. Then came here. Then left here when "the news" broke, went to Reee, Lurked and posted a bit at Reeee. Until I commented in a CP2077 thread before it was banned, and got Perma'd for not much IMO. Now back here lurking and posting a bit.
 
ResilientBanana

ResilientBanana

Member
Teamxbox.com, wecravegames.com, wecravegamestoo.com. Sounds bias but I have no loyalty toward any brand. I just like the way they separated their forums. It kept the trolls at bay.
 
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Hudo

Hudo

Member
Gametrailers.com and their forums. Such a tragedy that they got shut down
Gamestar.de. I bought the magazine from when I was a kid to when I was a teenager. But the quality of the magazine itself dropped after Jörg Langer and then Gunnar Lott also went away (they were the best Editors-in-Chief). The website itself is now just SEO-ridden garbage.
Was at Resetera for a bit as well until it became clear that they are essentially the same thing as Kiwifarms but without the self-awareness.
Giga.de and its forums. Back when the show was still on at NBC Germany and later when they split and produced the show on their own. Sad what happened and that it happend so suddenly (literally in one day, the whole thing got shut down).

I do miss Gametrailers. Was my first international, English-speaking forum.
 
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March Climber

March Climber

Gold Member
nightmare-slain said:
Gamefaqs was just so dead and boring.
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The funny thing is, I think gamefaqs will outlast most gaming websites including Gamespot, Game Informer, and maybe even IGN. Every time I need a quick tip on any game(especially an old school one), gamefaqs is usually result number 1 or 2, with Reddit usually being the other top 2 number. GameRant shows up as a solid third place tip site.

The only part of gamefaqs I would agree is a little more dead, are the regular forums for discussion. I think the community just settled into a role of being a helper site, much like when you look up a windows issue for solutions and there are forums with people just giving different advice. Those websites have to exist, because someone is always going to search for these things.

For that reason my pick is Gametrailers. Their community’s trajectory could have made them a new and improved gamefaqs but the company didn’t do business correctly and also tried to compete with YouTube instead of utilizing YouTube’s bandwidth and embedding systems, once they started losing money.

I still think having a website to visit that is just game trailers, for new and interesting stuff, is an interesting idea and it would greatly help with discoverability.
 
CoreyFlawless

CoreyFlawless

Member
Almost all the internet gaming sites. Was always going IGN. But like idk, 5 years ago that all just stop. Now I just get my news here or Reddit and Twitter.
 
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