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NEOGAF - A Data-Driven View Pt. 2: Gaming Discussion Section

Grildon Tundy

Grildon Tundy

Member
Edit: The Off-Topic version can be found here: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/neogaf-a-data-driven-view.1640746/
And the Communities one here: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/neogaf-a-data-driven-view-pt-3-communities-section.1640829/

Original Post Below:

Here is the follow-up to a previous look at the GAF community from a data-driven perspective. A few people in that thread asked about a Gaming Discussion version, so here it is! Following up with a separate post for visibility.

The first thread, which focused on the Off-Topic section, can be found here: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/neogaf-a-data-driven-view.1640746/

Gaming Discussion, Overview & Highlights:
  1. In 2021, 1,050 new Gaming threads were created each month
    1. For comparison, this is about 4-5x the volume of Off-Topic
  2. In 2021, 1.4 MILLION comments were left on Gaming threads
  3. The Top 5% of threads account for one-third of all comments
  4. The typical Gaming thread has 30 comments and 2,000 views.
    1. In other words, there are 65 views for every comment. Lurkers, where you at?!
  5. Lifespan of a Gaming Thread
    1. One-third (33%) of threads die on the day they're posted :(
    2. The median thread life is...1 day :'(
    3. Only 25% of threads make it past one week
OPs Behind the Threads:
  1. 2022-to-date, Gaming threads have been created by 854 unique & still-active users
    1. Of those 854 OPs, they created two threads on average
  2. OPs with the most submitted threads
    1. IbizaPocholo IbizaPocholo has created the most threads this year, with 1,072 so far--That's 4.5 threads per day!
    2. Draugoth Draugoth , Bullet Club Bullet Club , Lunatic_Gamer Lunatic_Gamer , cormack12 cormack12 , adamsapple adamsapple , ManaByte ManaByte , R reksveks , and VGEsoterica VGEsoterica round out the Top 10
    3. The 20 people listed below have submitted about half (45%) of all Gaming threads this year. IbizaPocholo accounts for 15%!
ZII3j6G.png


Most Comment-Generating Members
  1. As for threads that generate comments, Jooxed Jooxed is at the top, with an average of 420 comments per posted thread
  2. DonJorginho DonJorginho , SlimySnake SlimySnake , 3liteDragon 3liteDragon , AlexxKidd AlexxKidd , Arioco Arioco , HeisenbergFX4 HeisenbergFX4 , Eddie-Griffin Eddie-Griffin , .Pennywise .Pennywise kyliethicc kyliethicc round out the Top 10
  3. Special shoutout to Draugoth Draugoth for being the sole poster with over 100 threads to crack the Top 20--and he did it with nearly 600-to-date
Scc9LPu.png


The Last Word: We've looked at the folks starting the threads, but what about the folks who close them out? Here are the users that have been the "Most Recent" Commenter on threads in 2022 and their frequency.

Lots of familiar names here!

eje8YYR.png


The Threads That Just Won't Die
  1. The oldest thread with a comment in 2022 was started in June of 2004--over 18 years ago: "Cheating in Online Games. Is there any hope?"
  2. Looks like someone did a run of June 2004 Necrobumps back in February of this year. Hm...
  3. "Videogame facts that blow your mind" may be the winner in terms of older threads keeping engagment at 15K comments-to-date
3KWYYba.png


Memory Lane: Most Popular Threads Since 2018
  1. The thread with far and away the most comments since 2018 was started in May 2019: "Next-Gen PS5 & XSX OT - Console Thread Tech" with an amazing 221,000 comments
  2. The #2 monthly thread has less than a tenth of #1's comments at 13,000 ("What game are you currently playing", Feb 2018)
  3. Surprising to see not many crack the 1,000 comment mark. If a thread DOES crack 1,000, congrats are in order, because it's joined the top 0.3% of all threads
jJ9UADs.png


That's it for now. Thanks all!

Maiden Voyage Maiden Voyage Con_Z_ǝdʇ Con_Z_ǝdʇ I InverseAgonist dr_octagon dr_octagon LegendOfKage LegendOfKage Chittagong Chittagong M mortal tagging you here since it sounded like you were interested in seeing Gaming back in the original thread

Edit: thanks to whoever moved the post to Gaming. I put it in Off-Topic, since it was more meta-related to the Gaming section, but this makes sense too
 
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Grildon Tundy

Grildon Tundy

Member
I collect VHS tapes said:
I must be reading this wrong. Some posters, on average, make hundreds of posts per thread? That can’t be right
Click to expand...
If you're referring to the part I think you are, it's not that--it's the average number of comments on a thread when they are the ones that submitted the thread originally.

For example, Jooxed submitted 10 threads. Those 10 threads each have 420 comments on average. Some of those comments may have been from him replying to his own thread, but the vast majority are going to be other GAF members.
 
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I collect VHS tapes

I collect VHS tapes

Member
Grildon Tundy said:
If you're referring to the part I think you are, it's not that--it's the average number of comments on a thread when they are the ones that submitted the thread originally.

For example, Jooxed submitted 10 threads. Those 10 threads each have 420 comments on average. Some of those comments may have been from him replying to his own thread, but the vast majority are going to be other GAF members.
Click to expand...
that makes way more sense
 
LegendOfKage

LegendOfKage

Member
Grildon Tundy said:
That's it for now. Thanks all!

Maiden Voyage Maiden Voyage Con_Z_ǝdʇ Con_Z_ǝdʇ I InverseAgonist dr_octagon dr_octagon LegendOfKage LegendOfKage Chittagong Chittagong M mortal tagging you here since it sounded like you were interested in seeing Gaming back in the original thread
Click to expand...

Thanks for tagging me! Now I'm wondering how official topic threads weigh into all that data, seeing as they get moved into communities. With the ability to hide threads, I almost wish communities was only for non-gaming topics. When they get moved, they often die, or at least not many people see them anymore. I guess there are pros and cons to doing it either way.

However, I do think there exceptions to that rule. A small but dedicated group has kept my Genshin Impact thread going for more than 20,000 posts, now. I've also been on the other side of that issue, though, where I've tried making a non-gaming thread in communities, only for it to get lost in a sea of older gaming official topics.
 
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Grildon Tundy

Grildon Tundy

Member
LegendOfKage said:
Now I'm wondering how official topic threads weigh into all that data, seeing as they get moved into communities.
Click to expand...
That's a really good callout. The Communities threads aren't going to be accounted for in this analysis. To be honest, I didn't even know that that's how the process worked. No wonder the comment counts were lower than I thought they'd be.
LegendOfKage said:
When they get moved, they often die, or at least not many people see them anymore.
Click to expand...
I'm one of those people. I thought they just disappeared into the backlog of the Gaming/Off-Topic threads.

Think I'll put together one on Communities next. Make it 3 for 3.
 
LegendOfKage

LegendOfKage

Member
Grildon Tundy said:
That's a really good callout. The Communities threads aren't going to be accounted for in this analysis. To be honest, I didn't even know that that's how the process worked. No wonder the comment counts were lower than I thought they'd be.

I'm one of those people. I thought they just disappeared into the backlog of the Gaming/Off-Topic threads.

Think I'll put together one on Communities next. Make it 3 for 3.
Click to expand...
Glad I could help clear that up. I think official topics are allowed to be in gaming for one month, and after that they're moved. This comes with a number of advantages and disadvantages, but I'm not sure there's a way of handling that situation that doesn't have at least some downsides.
 
Grildon Tundy

Grildon Tundy

Member
Happosai said:
Speaking of, could you do the Data for Communities too? That'd make a full trilogy.
Click to expand...
It's in the works! Also trying to pull user data to look at reaction scores / posts. Problems are: 1) people with accounts prior to reactions being a thing and 2) I have to pull users one-by-one. Even automated, its about 5 seconds apiece and I believe there are around 600,000 User pages.

If I had server-side data, that'd REALLY open up what we could look into. Could probably look at: "Trigger" words within individual comments. Best time to post to maximize comments and views. Word clouds for the most popular threads. Thread comment frequency over time. Reactions/posts for all users in a fair way. Most-frequently used gifs. ACTUALLY most frequent posters...the list goes on and on
 
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H4ze

H4ze

Banned
That's hardcore, do some of you even sleep or have a job lmao xD

Just kidding, love you guys, thanks for all the threads created.
 
Grildon Tundy

Grildon Tundy

Member
Hendrick's said:
Great analytics, but what about the data we all want, like who gave the most triggered emojis, aka Rivet Rivet or received the most empathy emojis. Also things like most thread bans or deleted posts. This is the juicy data we want!
Click to expand...
If someone can get me server-side data, I have a ton of ideas. Can't reasonably do user or comment level detail analysis with what I've got
 
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