Where did everyone go?

[Hap2]

Been around for awhile myself, only posting when I felt I had something to contribute. Left during the whole Gamergate nonsense - had enough of the constant aggression, ignorance and obsession that swarmed the place at the time.

I work in the news industry and see and hear enough nasty stuff in my workday, and genuine discussion was pretty weak here then. Wasn't getting anything of value, and both Jim and Bob left, so, I moved on. Nowhere in particular. Most discussions I have are in-person these days.

 

[shrekfan246]

If I had to guess, I'd speculate that some of them didn't truly leave the site altogether, just the forum-- but remain active in usergroups exclusively, due to acquaintances they've made.

Yeah, me. Honestly, I'm not even really anywhere else; I don't like the structure/format of most other forum boards and I intensely despise most of their communities. I'm just spending most of my time actually playing games or doing university stuff.

 

[WolfThomas]

Is there another website that people flock to?

Probably Reddit. There's a subreddit for everything.

 

[Phasmal]

I haven't really gone anywhere else, I'm just coming here less.

I imagine other places where gamers gather would have the same problems, so... yeah.
I just play more games and hang out in real life more.

I feel like the gaming community is a lot more sucky than it used to be, online.
Most people who I know who play games are generally ok, but then you get online and it's an endless whinging about everything.
(Which I realise I'm now taking part in).

 

[Parasondox]

R&P. It's been hotting up there due to politics becoming sexy again and unpredictable.

 

[Saltyk]

R&P. It's been hotting up there due to politics becoming sexy again and unpredictable.

You may have a point. I've been more active in the R&P forum than ever before. Previously, I might have looked into the forum to see what topics were being discussed, and never posted. Partly because those threads always seemed so toxic and partly because I didn't want to get involved in fights that I saw as pointless.

Not sure why I've been more active there recently. Maybe I'm just caring less about what people think? Maybe I want to try to be one somewhat reasonable voice among the maelstrom of hate and bias? Maybe I subconsciously realize the place is dying so I figure "Fuck it"?

 

[Saelune]

R&P. It's been hotting up there due to politics becoming sexy again and unpredictable.

You may have a point. I've been more active in the R&P forum than ever before. Previously, I might have looked into the forum to see what topics were being discussed, and never posted. Partly because those threads always seemed so toxic and partly because I didn't want to get involved in fights that I saw as pointless.

Not sure why I've been more active there recently. Maybe I'm just caring less about what people think? Maybe I want to try to be one somewhat reasonable voice among the maelstrom of hate and bias? Maybe I subconsciously realize the place is dying so I figure "Fuck it"?

Im sure most everyone there thinks their voice is the "more reasonable one".

 

[Zombie_Fish]

Outside. I spend a lot more time doing exercise/socialising/checking stuff out these days.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Death by 1000 cuts.

1. Old style community forums like this have been dying out for a while, Reddit takes most of that traffic now.
2. Loss of revenue from the business model meant less content providers, meaning less traffic being driven to the site, meaning less revenue, etc.
3. Gaming had a couple of years of extreme toxicity, and a lot of the long time established posters who were here for a sense of community/fun left.
4. Some people left because their friends left, or because the forums seemed less active than before and therefore less fun.
5. All of the above meant less users joining all the time, so rather than replacing every departure with two new people, we got maybe one new person for every ten departures.

I'll linger around here until every face I recognize is gone, but I don't post much anymore. Not much point. There's very little activity here. Adding in additional forums like Wild West actually exacerbated the problems rather than attending to them, as it splinters the ever shrinking community even more. We're long past the point where this site was healthy enough to support multiple forums. There should be one forum, "General Discussion", and that should be the end of it. At least then it might have a passable amount of traffic, and the lights might stay on for another year or two.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

*Bolts and secures chain on basement trapdoor*

No idea what you're on about. It was like this when i got here. Honestly, i dunno. Just obliviously kinda came in as the alleged body-count was reaching critical levels. Tried to keep shoes clean, but was quite a mess apparently. Not sure where else to go, so have carved out a hubbyhole in the dark corner of this basement to mumble incoherently to myself and blurt profanities to any stranger getting too close to my food.

 

[DoPo]

I'll linger around here until every face I recognize is gone, but I don't post much anymore. Not much point.

I guess also part of the problem. I don't really post as much, either, yet I still visit. Since there isn't much to post about we end up with reduced activity, which in turn means that more people may leave because of the lack of hustle and bustle.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Went over to a pilot forum mostly, that and game specific stuff. I still visit here but post only occasionally.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

To the Winchester, to wait for this all to blow over.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Part of the problem, I think anyway, is the "Great Gender Debates(Screaming)". For at least a year it was something that always kept popping back up and each time it did it turned into yet another bitter and dragged out discussion that didn't make any new headway the other times it came up while grinding down the enthusiasm of everyone. It's taken me like, two years to finally get over my PTSD from that time and come back here.

 

[SmugFrog]

I love looking through some of these at all of the names / avatars I recognize. The survivors. What's really interesting is when you've been away for a while and look up a user you remember to find they've been banned for a long while now. This is one of the few gaming sites that haven't been banned at work yet, so... probably just a matter of time.

It's funny to me that Lufia Erim, the OP, has only been around since 2015. No offense intended there - it's just I've seen plenty of people come and go in my time here. Groups and notable people spring up then disappear. I doubt I've ever been one of those notable people as I don't post very often and tend to just stay out of the arguments. I've written up replies and then just deleted them because it's not worth the trouble. Quality over quantity - though I do enjoy watching new users post a dozen new topics, rack up 1000 posts within a month as well as a few mod warnings.

I think as most have said the Gamergate debacle saw a big exodus of users.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

I bounce between this forum and Flight Rising because dragons and there's some okay conversation about other things there.

With regard to dedicated game conversation though and people who are willing to put so much thought into respective geeky topics, I am finding myself at a loss and will miss this place once it's gone.

 

[iwinatlife]

I have been lurking forever been poking my head in more often as of late because I am bored at work.

 

[Fallow]

I went into the Wild Wild West. It's awesome there.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Reddit. If you can find a few smaller Subs that you're interested in, you can have some great discussions. For example, while I was reading the Malazan series, I went to that Sub quite a bit. Small community, but it was always great reading everyone's interpretations and impressions of what was happening.

I too spend way more time on Reddit now than I do here. Though, I stuck with it for quite a lot longer than others. I ultimately started spending more of my time elsewhere because there was simply less going on here (both community and content wise).

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

My job has changed so I spend a lot more time out and about doing stuff rather than sat in front of a computer for 12 hour shifts, often with very little to do.

With the content loss there's not really much here for me anyway, I'm more of a Warhammer/40K nerd than anything else but not hardcore enough for Dakkadakka, Bolter and Chainsword or the like. This place used to have enough people that you'd get a topic come up and stay open for a few pages at least, but these days you barely see replies in double figures, let alone pages.