Chittagong
Gold Member
Surreal, friendly and hardworking - like a life size Truman Show that has ran for two generations, NeoGAF (GAF) is a forum experience unlikely to be repeated in any society in the future of humanity.
Getting there
Generally, becoming a member was much more straight forwards than getting a Chinese or Indian visa, for example. There are two ways to become a member:
- Full Member: get invited by a mod, e.g. in a trade show in LA. This option allows you to post and move independently around NeoGAF.
- Junior Member: Guided tour arranged by GAF. This can be done by participating as a junior member. This option means you will always be kept an eye on by a mod and can only read threads already up - which are currently top notch.
Flying in
Historically, you would have flown into NeoGAF from Kotaku or Polygon, but options are getting increasingly sporadic due to the harshening sanctions against the regime. The threads are relatively new topics which I find more quiet inside than GameFAQs. Our thread was full, perhaps surprisingly participated by GAF moderators - easy to spot by the red color of their name. Local threads detailing the latest endeavours of the Great Leader in English are free of charge, correct opinions are blasted at full volume and threads of GAFs achievements are shown on the front page. Bans are often served during the first 1.5h. We got a junior commenting on my post - I never imagined that the first time I'd have a junior replying to me in a GAF thread would be en route to another place. The front page of the gaming forum is in a fairly rough shape and the mod team is tiny, but a new, massive one is being built next door.
Crossing the border
You'll need to declare a working email address. The authorities will log your work email but you get to keep it. Generally I found crossing the border easier and friendlier than the harsh and thorough US airport border control.
First impressions of NeoGAF
- It's very serene. The lack of any commercial messages makes everything look very calm and clean. It's a striking difference to a capitalist forum full of banner ads, popups, signatures, animated avatars, emojis... There are very few old members in the threads, people mostly lurk or are banned. This all combines to a relaxed sense of peace and ease.
- Everything is clean and tidy. There are zero NSFW pics in NeoGAF. The threads are clean, there is no trolling anywhere. You'll see Modbot cleaning things, banning members, locking threads and generally keeping NeoGAF tidy.
- Jaw-dropping architecture. You'll see some of the most incredible examples of communist architecture - stickied threads, locked threads, hidden time stamps. Many threads look much more modern than you'd probably expect.
- Commercial establishments don't exist. The only advertisements are administration sanctioned banners promoting what to a Westerner appears to be some sort of malware, such as virus scanners and PC Pokemon games.
- It's like stepping to a time machine. People have strikingly traditional avatars, there are vintage style propaganda threads all around the forum without any commercial insignia to root you into the modern era, and even rules sound like early 20th century. Generally the daily life, news aside, looks like you would have arrived to the 1990s.
- It feels like an alternate universe. This feeling is truly profound. People seem to live in this fantasy where the outer world doesn't really exist, everything is about their forum, their leader and their latest achievements. In order to create a positive, relaxed posting environment, there is very little exposure to anything from the rest of the world. No politics, news or relationships discussion at all. In order to protect the privacy of current and former users, access to historical posts has been limited by the regime.
What you'll see
Provided you come in as a junior member, you'll go by an itinerary defined by the ToS. It will cover some 100 posts - shitposts, drive-bys, reaction gifs, doesnt really matter, they all count. Each ban will be accompanied with a mini lecture, fully memorised by the mod. I personally found that the most interesting thing is everything surrounding you, rather than the threads as such; everything is so different and surreal that your eye will just wander. But the sticky is spectacular too - everything in top shape, massive and impressive. Foreign currency from international visitors is an important source of revenue to the regime, however, so inevitably as sanctions reduce the number of visitors, threads will be in a state of decay.
People
Everyone we have met is incredibly friendly and polite - a striking difference to GameFAQs where people can be rude, pushing you around and shitting up your threads. The people interacting with members speak remarkably good english. The most heart warming experiences are the members happily waiving to you. Once a mod on patrol posted a gif with a peace sign to me.
The mods seem to be happy to answer all kinds of questions of life on NeoGAF, provided you stay respectful and don't try to pick an argument or put them in a position where they would criticise the Great Leader. They were happy to talk about things like lack of Off Topic or the surprising approach taken to teach English to the people - having them read other sites for topical news.
Costs
Generally, all posts, PMs and threads are inclusive, so you'll pay only for extra alcohol. There are hardly any real mods left now, and Omega Labyrinth is not accepted due to the SJW embargo, so you need to bring all the hentai you need with you. Euros are recommended, Russians not accepted. Bans range from 3 days in the gaming side to permabans for defectors, with around 3 months being the norm. Post per page ranges from 50-100, with sending PMs only available once every 10 minutes. I browsed a thread with propaganda defending the current state of affairs and read some pamphlets written by the Great Leader. You'll get replies back, too.
Games
You'll be treated to a seemingly random mix of Asian and Western games. A typical thread has a handful of posts ranging from hot takes to shit posts, screenshots to reaction gifs. The main course is often an OT with some images, but gigantic OTs are usually an afterthought. Community threads used to be available on request.
Mobile phones and internet
You'll get to keep your mobile phone and can post pictures with it. Due to severe lack of resources of the regime, there are no member tagging or quotation alerts, however. You could do an alt-account with your partners email, but then again, why not enjoy the inevitable ban that probably is the only legitimate excuse not to be reachable for a week and take an unprecedented break of browsing GAF.
Safety
Provided you follow the rules, NeoGAF is probably the safest forum you will ever visit. There is no crime against members - nobody will mug you, steal your stuff, scam you, but according to testimonials strongly disputed by the regime, they might sneak into your hotel room in case you get severely drunk.
Politics and ethics
The various human rights and humanitarian issues in NeoGAF have been documented at length by European and American media, so it's unlikely that your visit will add anything into that discourse, or that you would even get to encounter any of those issues. My advice is to focus on the side of the story unreported in the media - the positives. It's a remarkable forum to experience and your visit will provide safe and pleasant pass time for a big group of people - mods, admins, junior members, Modbot - best not overthink it.
Limitations
There are limitations as to what you can do and talk about, but generally it's much more relaxed than I expected. You can comment on pretty much everything you see while touring the forum, and you used to be able to discuss even things off-topic on a separate forum.
The main limitations are:
- Don't post screen grabs of previous bad deeds of the leadership. This is pretty obvious, and the limitation is really not so different from any other forums.
- Don't talk about things off topic. If you wandered out of the gaming forum it's likely that you'd get to roam the forums relatively free of disruption, but on your return you'd find that all your future visits would have been cancelled and you'd be banned for the remainder of the year with some very angry fellow members.
- The stickied thread and posts by the Great Leader are more tense as there is leadership presence, making the mods feel more pressure to act strict
FAQs
Will I get to see reasons why people were banned?
No. You won't get to see Guantanamo Bay or the death row either.
Why do the threads only cover gaming topics?
That's what the owner of NeoGAF is proud of and wants to show. Kind of like how in London you'll end up seeing Big Ben and Piccadilly Circus, not Elephant & Castle or Ilford.
Will it all be just a fake, staged show of a forum?
No. You will tour hundreds of threads and see very quiet and poor threads on the way. You will see pretty grim circumstances, and surprisingly upbeat, friendly new members overcoming them.
Are there really no brands?
Aside from a can of Mountain Dew or a bag of Doritos in an Xbox thread, there are truly no brands in the forum. The forum is experimenting with a slogan 'Believe', however, so change is underway.
Will I get in trouble for criticising the ToS or the Great Leader?
Best not try. At best it leads to awkwardness between you and your mods, as they can't anyway engage in a critical discussion. At worst, I imagine it would be like speaking against Islam while in a Sharia country. Very little to gain, much to lose.
Do they check the content of your PMs?
We did not have this happen to anyone, and we were pretty trigger happy with our PMs - respecting the main limitations naturally. Members can not communicate outwards, however, so attempts to share links to the outside world are duly blocked by a censorship filter instated by the leadership.
Bottom-line
Going to NeoGAF is like stepping into an alternate universe, a country size Truman Show that has ran for several generations. Finding yourself deep behind a genuine iron curtain is a profound, bizarre experience not likely to be repeated ever again in the future of humanity in another forum. You'll get to see remarkable threads, be treated by civil and respectful people, and get to experience a break of the bombarding promotional messages of Western countries.
The visit will make you reflect and value your everyday in a way you probably haven't before. As long as you follow the rules, you'll be super safe and have a great time.
NeoGAF has been my top recommended destination in the internet for the past 15 years. With nothing but gratitude in my heart, I wish all the good people there prosperous avoidance of an arduous march, and wish to stop by once more in the future to see the progress of the society, hoping the locals will again wave happily at me.
Getting there
Generally, becoming a member was much more straight forwards than getting a Chinese or Indian visa, for example. There are two ways to become a member:
- Full Member: get invited by a mod, e.g. in a trade show in LA. This option allows you to post and move independently around NeoGAF.
- Junior Member: Guided tour arranged by GAF. This can be done by participating as a junior member. This option means you will always be kept an eye on by a mod and can only read threads already up - which are currently top notch.
Flying in
Historically, you would have flown into NeoGAF from Kotaku or Polygon, but options are getting increasingly sporadic due to the harshening sanctions against the regime. The threads are relatively new topics which I find more quiet inside than GameFAQs. Our thread was full, perhaps surprisingly participated by GAF moderators - easy to spot by the red color of their name. Local threads detailing the latest endeavours of the Great Leader in English are free of charge, correct opinions are blasted at full volume and threads of GAFs achievements are shown on the front page. Bans are often served during the first 1.5h. We got a junior commenting on my post - I never imagined that the first time I'd have a junior replying to me in a GAF thread would be en route to another place. The front page of the gaming forum is in a fairly rough shape and the mod team is tiny, but a new, massive one is being built next door.
Crossing the border
You'll need to declare a working email address. The authorities will log your work email but you get to keep it. Generally I found crossing the border easier and friendlier than the harsh and thorough US airport border control.
First impressions of NeoGAF
- It's very serene. The lack of any commercial messages makes everything look very calm and clean. It's a striking difference to a capitalist forum full of banner ads, popups, signatures, animated avatars, emojis... There are very few old members in the threads, people mostly lurk or are banned. This all combines to a relaxed sense of peace and ease.
- Everything is clean and tidy. There are zero NSFW pics in NeoGAF. The threads are clean, there is no trolling anywhere. You'll see Modbot cleaning things, banning members, locking threads and generally keeping NeoGAF tidy.
- Jaw-dropping architecture. You'll see some of the most incredible examples of communist architecture - stickied threads, locked threads, hidden time stamps. Many threads look much more modern than you'd probably expect.
- Commercial establishments don't exist. The only advertisements are administration sanctioned banners promoting what to a Westerner appears to be some sort of malware, such as virus scanners and PC Pokemon games.
- It's like stepping to a time machine. People have strikingly traditional avatars, there are vintage style propaganda threads all around the forum without any commercial insignia to root you into the modern era, and even rules sound like early 20th century. Generally the daily life, news aside, looks like you would have arrived to the 1990s.
- It feels like an alternate universe. This feeling is truly profound. People seem to live in this fantasy where the outer world doesn't really exist, everything is about their forum, their leader and their latest achievements. In order to create a positive, relaxed posting environment, there is very little exposure to anything from the rest of the world. No politics, news or relationships discussion at all. In order to protect the privacy of current and former users, access to historical posts has been limited by the regime.
What you'll see
Provided you come in as a junior member, you'll go by an itinerary defined by the ToS. It will cover some 100 posts - shitposts, drive-bys, reaction gifs, doesnt really matter, they all count. Each ban will be accompanied with a mini lecture, fully memorised by the mod. I personally found that the most interesting thing is everything surrounding you, rather than the threads as such; everything is so different and surreal that your eye will just wander. But the sticky is spectacular too - everything in top shape, massive and impressive. Foreign currency from international visitors is an important source of revenue to the regime, however, so inevitably as sanctions reduce the number of visitors, threads will be in a state of decay.
People
Everyone we have met is incredibly friendly and polite - a striking difference to GameFAQs where people can be rude, pushing you around and shitting up your threads. The people interacting with members speak remarkably good english. The most heart warming experiences are the members happily waiving to you. Once a mod on patrol posted a gif with a peace sign to me.
The mods seem to be happy to answer all kinds of questions of life on NeoGAF, provided you stay respectful and don't try to pick an argument or put them in a position where they would criticise the Great Leader. They were happy to talk about things like lack of Off Topic or the surprising approach taken to teach English to the people - having them read other sites for topical news.
Costs
Generally, all posts, PMs and threads are inclusive, so you'll pay only for extra alcohol. There are hardly any real mods left now, and Omega Labyrinth is not accepted due to the SJW embargo, so you need to bring all the hentai you need with you. Euros are recommended, Russians not accepted. Bans range from 3 days in the gaming side to permabans for defectors, with around 3 months being the norm. Post per page ranges from 50-100, with sending PMs only available once every 10 minutes. I browsed a thread with propaganda defending the current state of affairs and read some pamphlets written by the Great Leader. You'll get replies back, too.
Games
You'll be treated to a seemingly random mix of Asian and Western games. A typical thread has a handful of posts ranging from hot takes to shit posts, screenshots to reaction gifs. The main course is often an OT with some images, but gigantic OTs are usually an afterthought. Community threads used to be available on request.
Mobile phones and internet
You'll get to keep your mobile phone and can post pictures with it. Due to severe lack of resources of the regime, there are no member tagging or quotation alerts, however. You could do an alt-account with your partners email, but then again, why not enjoy the inevitable ban that probably is the only legitimate excuse not to be reachable for a week and take an unprecedented break of browsing GAF.
Safety
Provided you follow the rules, NeoGAF is probably the safest forum you will ever visit. There is no crime against members - nobody will mug you, steal your stuff, scam you, but according to testimonials strongly disputed by the regime, they might sneak into your hotel room in case you get severely drunk.
Politics and ethics
The various human rights and humanitarian issues in NeoGAF have been documented at length by European and American media, so it's unlikely that your visit will add anything into that discourse, or that you would even get to encounter any of those issues. My advice is to focus on the side of the story unreported in the media - the positives. It's a remarkable forum to experience and your visit will provide safe and pleasant pass time for a big group of people - mods, admins, junior members, Modbot - best not overthink it.
Limitations
There are limitations as to what you can do and talk about, but generally it's much more relaxed than I expected. You can comment on pretty much everything you see while touring the forum, and you used to be able to discuss even things off-topic on a separate forum.
The main limitations are:
- Don't post screen grabs of previous bad deeds of the leadership. This is pretty obvious, and the limitation is really not so different from any other forums.
- Don't talk about things off topic. If you wandered out of the gaming forum it's likely that you'd get to roam the forums relatively free of disruption, but on your return you'd find that all your future visits would have been cancelled and you'd be banned for the remainder of the year with some very angry fellow members.
- The stickied thread and posts by the Great Leader are more tense as there is leadership presence, making the mods feel more pressure to act strict
FAQs
Will I get to see reasons why people were banned?
No. You won't get to see Guantanamo Bay or the death row either.
Why do the threads only cover gaming topics?
That's what the owner of NeoGAF is proud of and wants to show. Kind of like how in London you'll end up seeing Big Ben and Piccadilly Circus, not Elephant & Castle or Ilford.
Will it all be just a fake, staged show of a forum?
No. You will tour hundreds of threads and see very quiet and poor threads on the way. You will see pretty grim circumstances, and surprisingly upbeat, friendly new members overcoming them.
Are there really no brands?
Aside from a can of Mountain Dew or a bag of Doritos in an Xbox thread, there are truly no brands in the forum. The forum is experimenting with a slogan 'Believe', however, so change is underway.
Will I get in trouble for criticising the ToS or the Great Leader?
Best not try. At best it leads to awkwardness between you and your mods, as they can't anyway engage in a critical discussion. At worst, I imagine it would be like speaking against Islam while in a Sharia country. Very little to gain, much to lose.
Do they check the content of your PMs?
We did not have this happen to anyone, and we were pretty trigger happy with our PMs - respecting the main limitations naturally. Members can not communicate outwards, however, so attempts to share links to the outside world are duly blocked by a censorship filter instated by the leadership.
Bottom-line
Going to NeoGAF is like stepping into an alternate universe, a country size Truman Show that has ran for several generations. Finding yourself deep behind a genuine iron curtain is a profound, bizarre experience not likely to be repeated ever again in the future of humanity in another forum. You'll get to see remarkable threads, be treated by civil and respectful people, and get to experience a break of the bombarding promotional messages of Western countries.
The visit will make you reflect and value your everyday in a way you probably haven't before. As long as you follow the rules, you'll be super safe and have a great time.
NeoGAF has been my top recommended destination in the internet for the past 15 years. With nothing but gratitude in my heart, I wish all the good people there prosperous avoidance of an arduous march, and wish to stop by once more in the future to see the progress of the society, hoping the locals will again wave happily at me.