StuBurns said:
Why doesn't the gaming side have a "Games you've played lately" thread like the OT does for films? Some games don't warrant an OT, most certainly don't warrant a LTTP thread. We have the whatyabeenplaying thing on the weekends, but it's not usually impressions, it's what people want from games they're about to play.
To be completely frank, and this is the only time I'm going to be this negative about anything on GAF, I think it's because the average quality of posting in gaming threads as a whole is often low.
Many threads that ask a question is answered mostly by single-word or single-image replies. There's epidemic use of "this", "qft", "/thread", and other non-discussion replies. When someone expresses a detailed and well-justified negative opinion of a game, people jump on them, often with "haters gonna hate" or facepalm images. In some question threads, the question itself is terrible. OPs often fail to answer their own questions or set tones for threads. People make duplicate threads about absolutely discussion free subjects (Is this month the best/worst month for games ever?)--or worse, absurdly specific banal topics like "Name games where the second last boss is harder than the last boss and you don't like the games but you think the soundtracks are overrated" without ever bothering to specify why that particular classification of game is interesting or worth listing out. I try my best to point these things out and be a counter-example to these negative behaviours in most of the threads I reply to.
Some people replying to most threads are just doing so to read their own words--they have no genuine interest in learning from others, sharing with others, or really having a conversation. Few people spend even 2-3 minutes putting together a post that provides something useful to others when they are replying to threads.
No one signs up to GAF for the average poster. They sign up for the best posters. People with interesting stories, who share detailed impressions, who have knowledge others don't about the subject they're talking about, who use technology to their advantage. I really do believe GAF is the best outlet for gaming on the internet because of a combination of how good the best posters are and how fast the news and information comes, but it would not be inaccurate to say that there are posters here who are as bad--or worse, as boring--as most of the posters on most forums everywhere.
Just today, I interacted with a poster who basically openly expressed that he doesn't give a shit what anyone else plays or thinks and thinks anyone who misses out on a game doesn't deserve to play it. I don't understand why you would participate in a message board if you don't want to share with others and learn things yourself.
I can't speak to why many comparable threads in the OT side end up with more effort or more engagement. Maybe people feel as though they have more in common with the other posters in the sub-communities in OT and so connect better personally and are encouraged to contribute more personally or more thoughtfully? I don't know. Threads in gaming that are specific to a genre or a topic tend to attract betters posters because they're a little more specialized, I guess. That's a pretty crappy hypothesis on my part. I don't pretend to have an answer as to why. I will say that I feel like there's more back and forth in the "What are you going to see in theatre this month?" threads than the "What are you playing right now?" threads.
So I guess my advice would be that people should make an effort, and if they can't make an effort, there's no problem with reading GAF and not posting. I'd rather every thread get half as many replies if the average reply was twice as thoughtful. I also think that the best way to choose moderators is to choose good posters, because the impact of a good poster setting the tone of a thread by making high-effort posts vastly exceeds the impact of someone banning a half-dozen people.
As was mentioned in the GAF fireside chat thread by Amir0x, moderators do nominate candidates to become moderators. I know the reason why Minsc and EatChildren in specific were nominated is because they largely make thoughtful, helpful posts.
None of what I'm saying here precludes continuing to have discussions about DRM, daily sales, what you're buying, etc. All of those topics are good. I did mention the impression thing to begin with because I thought it'd be a breath of fresh air, but this post is not related to that. There's more engagement in the Steam thread than a lot of others, and I'm not hating on anyone in here. Again, this post is more general.
I don't mean to derail this into a state-of-GAF post (if you have any questions, comments, compliments, or flames on moderation or anything like that, please PM instead of posting here--ditto for lengthy musings about GAF at large), so to circle back to the actual thread at hand, whether impressions go in the Steam thread or elsewhere, I'd love to hear more impressions from the other people in PC-GAF, especially on some of the smaller, unknown games they play. The GOG thread does a pretty good job of having input on most titles, big and little, being put on the service and I feel like there's a niche to be filled here as well.
