The Video Games Forum as well as the other forums.

Now I will be the first to admit that the forums don't mean too much to Newgrounds. The General Forum, Clubs & Crews Forum, Politics Forum, and Video Games Forum, could all go away and it wouldn't hurt Newgrounds at all. The content would still be there. People would actually read reviews and make friendships through the PM system.

What is the purpose of this forum though. Well to talk about Video Games of course. However I didn't see anything wrong with video game related threads in General, seeing as how there were also movie threads and television threads. However this new forum was introduced.

I love video games and have been playing and studying them for nearly 20 years now. So I enjoy having fun and engaging discussions about video games. I thought that this forum would break away from the normal nonsense seen in the day to day life of the General Forum. However I was wrong.

Sure there have been some engaging conversations about video games here. However the majority of threads you couldn't tell the difference between them and threads discussing a TV show or movie in the General Forum. In the Politics Forum, threads are more thought out and engage in a better discussion. Here... not so much.

I mean why do we have to have threads like this, this, this, and this?

Forum Moderators aren't cracking down like they used to. I know it might seem petty to bring this up, but a forum offers discussion among different people in different parts of the world. I have talked to Dean about video games and was amazed at what he had to import if he wanted to play certain games and how much it costs.

I'm no snob, I'll have fun discussing things like "who would win in a fight" or "which video game series is better"? If we're gonna state that video games are an art form and that gamers should be taken seriously, we actually have to take ourselves seriously and what we discuss. I doubt that the passion is there.

We have sacrificed quality here in the Video Game Forums. It doesn't really matter much though, because let's face it. Barely anyone ever visits this forum anyways. It makes me wonder why this forum even truly exists.

Video games are both my favorite form of entertainment and my favorite art form. I just hate to see discussion of it be degraded to that of outside sources that this forum seems to get off on making fun of constantly. You can't really mock something degrading, that you've already degraded yourself to.

I just wanted to say all of that. Can we turn this forum around? No. It's past that... think of this as a eulogy.

At this point I honestly feel the Newgrounds forum is a lost cause.

This is where you want to be.

Although it can occasionally get fucky there too. That's what you get with anything on the internet really.

That wasn't passive aggressive at all, Great-one. I'm calling your bluff.

holding a forum to a high standard is like polishing a turd.

I know I'm not the only person who moderates the video game forum but there are a few reasons that some of the "lower quality" threads have slipped through the net recently. For one thing, I've been busier than usual. I've not been spending as much time on the forums as I usually would. That's just the result of me being in my final stage of university so I've been trying (and sort of failing) to focus more on that right now.

Another reason is that, as people are well aware, forum activity is starting to dwindle. Because of that, I don't want to go around locking up all the threads that don't meet a high level of quality. If people are posting and enjoying themselves without causing trouble, I don't really want to piss on their parade. It's only going to turn even more people away from the forum, in my opinion, if I were to really crack down on threads. As long as people aren't spamming, causing huge arguments or advertising, I'm generally happy to just let them get on with it.

Also, despite me saying that I'm not as active just now as I usually would be, I do briefly glance at the forums every now and then. If you guys see a thread that you think needs dealt with or encounter a user that's causing problems, feel free to PM me or add me on Skype (username is in my sig). Worst case scenario is that I wont agree about a thread needing locked or a user needing dealt with. But don't let that deter you. It's not like I'm going to suddenly hate you because you asked me to lock a thread and I disagreed. I'm sure most people who've gotten to know me over the years will vouch for me when I say that I'm pretty easy to get on with.

But I agree with most of what you said. It's a shame that this community is starting to dwindle away. The video game forum sort of feels like my internet home. This is where I've spent a good chunk of my internet activity over the past 5 years. I'd even like to think I've become friends with some of you guys who speak to me now and again. Even got the chance to meet some of you lot at the Manchester meets I attended.

Personally I think we just need to be laid back and have a laugh here. If we start taking ourselves too seriously it's probably going to get pretty boring and push even more users away. However, I'm just one person and this isn't my forum. If you guys want things done differently, I'm open to suggestions. I think forum activity all across the internet is generally on the decline though, and a lot of the people that I thought of as the regular users in this forum no longer seem to be all that active, which is a great shame.

Yeah newgrounds is lame now, I'm gonna switch to deviantart.

I enjoy thought out discussions on games. A lot of my friends aren't as into games as me so it's hard to have deeper conversations about them offline. I like voicing my opinions on here when I can, but as you've said, a lot of threads aren't exactly centered on things like that. I don't mind those threads though cause they can be fun in a stupid way sometimes. I'd say if you want to try and have a good chat with thought out responses you should make a thread yourself and you'll probably get some good responses.

I don't really post as much as I used to here, probably because the forum community is generally less than busy most of the time, and when it is, it's mostly these noobs who think they know more than the rest of us, and it gets annoying trying to correct them.

Another problem is that sometimes they talk something specfic and we get into proper debates, but most times it seems to end up either as a COD flame war, or bitching about something that they don't like and use strawman arguments which results in different type of flame war. {i.e consoles, new vs. existing IPs/concepts, and so on.} It's just so stupid how much they don't know about video games or the industry as a whole, and yet people agree with them for whatever reason.

Finally, on specific forums that deal entirely, {or at least much more} with video games or whatever else, they generally go into much better detail and know what they are talking about, which generally makes it more approchable than to go to than the forums here, which is a potential grab bag. It doesn't help that there isn't as many knowledgeable people to discuss about games or anything else for that matter.

At 4/7/13 04:09 PM, fawnret wrote: I'd say if you want to try and have a good chat with thought out responses you should make a thread yourself and you'll probably get some good responses.

I have made said threads and gotten some good responses. I was later told to move it to my News Posts instead of the forums.

At 4/7/13 03:38 PM, Magical-Zorse wrote: Yeah newgrounds is lame now, I'm gonna switch to deviantart.

I am not talking about Newgrounds as a whole. The forums are certainly not the back bone of this site. The creations are the best parts of Newgrounds. Which why aren't we talking about the multiple games here on Newgrounds?

At 4/7/13 03:38 PM, Magical-Zorse wrote: Yeah newgrounds is lame now, I'm gonna switch to deviantart.

*facepalm*

At 4/7/13 08:20 PM, Crink wrote: if you actually want to discuss games in a relatively mature environment, i'd suggest /vg/ or /vr/ (not /v/ lmaoooooooo). the boards both feature general niche topics that people who actually give shit will talk about in depth. the main reason why i'd recommend those two over anything else is that almost everyone will be anonymous so the actual merit and the weight of your argument/discussion is what will matter

/vr/ has come along surprisingly well. It's pretty much the only board I go on at the moment. Really happy with the way the community is going over there.

I like this forum. The people who I liked before still are nice, and I doubt that will change. Some people leave, other come, and that is either bad or good for both.

I don't post as nearly as often as I used to, but I still like to post discussion threads sometimes.

What about choosing a random game element and asking "yay or nay" to the forum? People can bring up their reasons why or why not for that element, and it isn't the regular X>Y? stuff.

At 4/7/13 01:50 AM, Makeshift wrote: This is where you want to be.

At 4/8/13 03:37 AM, Shade wrote: ITT: Everyone takes Newgrounds way too goddamn seriously.

C'mon guys, it's a forum, on Newgrounds no less. And you expect serious discussions? This is the site that brought us B for crying out loud, what were you guys expecting? Serious discussions? Having such high expectations of a forum is like wanting shit to be gold, no way in hell it's going to pan out for you. Seriously, just deal with it.

You're absolutely right Shade. What was I thinking? I'll just follow the trend! So expect some AWESOME THREADS from me then! I'll adapt to the quality!

Or you guys can continue to ignore the awesome new people when they join, as to keep club 'exclusive'. I think, and I could be wrong, that you want a shitty site?

At 4/8/13 11:30 AM, IGreenI wrote: Or you guys can continue to ignore the awesome new people when they join, as to keep club 'exclusive'. I think, and I could be wrong, that you want a shitty site?

I think you have a point to some extent. I do sometimes feel like newer users aren't always included in conversations to the extent that regular users are, or their posts appear to get ignored. There seem to have been a few people pop up recently who make a few posts and then disappear. Either that or I just fail to notice them again. I encourage new users to stick at it. If you stick around long enough, people will take notice of you. I don't think it would take much effort to be considered a "regular user" of this forum now.

I also sometimes wonder how many people lurk these forums but don't have accounts. If such a person is reading this post, all I can say is that you should make an account and get involved!

Hey, at least we're doing better than Network News, right?

Guys?

At 4/7/13 01:41 AM, The-Great-One wrote: The Video Games Forum as well as the other forums.

Now I will be the first to admit that the forums don't mean too much to Newgrounds. The General Forum, Clubs & Crews Forum, Politics Forum, and Video Games Forum, could all go away and it wouldn't hurt Newgrounds at all. The content would still be there. People would actually read reviews and make friendships through the PM system.

I fundamentally disagree with what was said in this paragraph, take away the forums and I promise you that website traffic will grind to a halt. This isn't youtube where you can vlog with other users and carry on discussions over animation, the user interactive portion of the site is very important to it. I still write reviews and PM people, but take away the forums and I'm probably not staying as active as I do, and I think it's safe to say that the premise I just gave holds for the majority.

maybe you should take this thread and shove it up HERE!

At 4/7/13 10:00 PM, HikarutheHedgehog wrote:

At 4/7/13 05:21 PM, orangebomb wrote:

I honestly haven't seen a CoD flame-war on here in a while. Usually that should be a good sign that the forums are improving, but since the VG forum is actually worse than ever, it doesn't really mean anything now.

Maybe not a flame war per se, but it seems like every time a game like COD and some other game is compared, the thread simply derails into pointless strawman arguments, especially if the latter is Valve or any indie company. Another point that Dean mentioned is that there are a good number of people who don't post very much, if at all on the forums, which is hard to have a discussion if they say only have a few posts and not come back for whatever reason. I got to imagine though that a good number of them are trolls, and I think we all know by now what they do on a thread.

Finally, this may be me, but there isn't much that is worth talking about in great detail, and the few that are aren't really on my radar in terms of games. Never mind the potential of a bitch-a-thon when 2 games/companies are compared to each other, but I've covered that part already.

Eulogy my ass. It may not have lived up to your expectations, but its not just gonna go away. I'd much rather see a forum dedicated to video games than just have the threads be in the general section where they'll get buried under the rest of the bullshit that goes on there. The VG forum may not be the best, but it sure as hell beats the General forum in every way possible.
Stop complaining and just be thankful that there is a VG forum

Been going on this website time to time, mostly to see what kind of musical amateurs have made. I go on r/truegaming or whatever /r/ I really like so I can have some better discussions about the games I'm currently playing. Plus, I'm not gaming as much due to school, working out (P90X again BOY), picking up the piano, a job, etc. I visit this forum to see if there's any worth while discussion on any games coming out and I might make a little post here and there.

At 4/7/13 09:46 AM, Dean wrote: Another reason is that, as people are well aware, forum activity is starting to dwindle. Because of that, I don't want to go around locking up all the threads that don't meet a high level of quality. If people are posting and enjoying themselves without causing trouble, I don't really want to piss on their parade. It's only going to turn even more people away from the forum, in my opinion, if I were to really crack down on threads. As long as people aren't spamming, causing huge arguments or advertising, I'm generally happy to just let them get on with it.

Yeah, I think the thing about lower forum numbers is that things can be a lot more personal, so lower numbers arent necessarily bad. I think as the numbers get lower the mods need to get a bit less strict, but still ban all the trolls and annoying shits of course.

Ive noticed that NG really has started to get a lot better lately as well, so im assuming that this is actually true for now. If I want to go on a big impersonal forum I guess I can go to some of cool boards on 4chan.

Maybe it's just me but I like the mentally retarded spew of people making dumbass threads. It gives me an opportunity to make dumbass comments. Quality is down, but what else is there to do anymore? I'm not active. No one is active anymore. But it's still pretty fun to read some of the shit people are posting up.

At 4/9/13 05:29 PM, Lionelion wrote: Stop complaining and just be thankful that there is a VG forum

I am happy we have a video game forum. However it can be better.

Well, the way I see it is that there is a lack of interest. In the older times, people would actually be interested in games enough to know how they were made, and be able to appreciate the effort that went into making them. Now, the people that play video games typically only play them for a cheap form of entertainment every now and then. This, combined with the fact that most of the people that actually play video games regularly are little kids, means less people are coming to this forum with interesting and thought-provoking topics.

At 4/10/13 05:36 PM, The-Great-One wrote:

At 4/9/13 05:29 PM, Lionelion wrote: Stop complaining and just be thankful that there is a VG forum

I am happy we have a video game forum. However it can be better.

I wasnt disagreeing with you that it could be better, what im saying is complaining about it wont do shit. None of the staff can be arsed to do anything for the forums(at least right now anyway)because they have much better things to be tending to on other areas of the site, plus the staff cant control how people act on here, at least without it turning into some kind of communistic website or whatever, you get what i mean.
Its fine that you brought attention to this fact, hell some people might actually try to do better because you did this, which would be awesome, but hell if i know. All im saying is you couldve presented it in a much less whiny way

At 4/11/13 01:50 AM, Lionelion wrote: I wasnt disagreeing with you that it could be better, what im saying is complaining about it wont do shit. None of the staff can be arsed to do anything for the forums(at least right now anyway)because they have much better things to be tending to on other areas of the site, plus the staff cant control how people act on here, at least without it turning into some kind of communistic website or whatever, you get what i mean.
Its fine that you brought attention to this fact, hell some people might actually try to do better because you did this, which would be awesome, but hell if i know. All im saying is you couldve presented it in a much less whiny way

I don't recall asking the staff to do anything about this. I also don't recall Forum Moderators as being part of the staff. The only way that this forum can become better is if we all try to make it better. I am sorry if I came off as whiny, I just wanted to bring this to attention since this forum is dying. I love Newgrounds, it has the best forums I have seen. They're organized and neat unlike the slop of other forums.

At 4/7/13 01:50 AM, Makeshift wrote: At this point I honestly feel the Newgrounds forum is a lost cause.

This is where you want to be.

Although it can occasionally get fucky there too. That's what you get with anything on the internet really.

For a moment I was about to have a heartattack because I thought you linked to /r/gaming

/r/games is okay

If there's anything that paints this forum with a distinct color it's the fact that in the general scheme of things the NG bbs's have been the most tolerant to every sexuality, race, gender and facet of opinion (mostly) than most other forums I've been to; you could call it diversity but for now we'll just label it general tolerance.

I guess this forum does amount to more than just a cataclysm of words and pages for me because I mostly started out on the NG BBS here then later diversified to the General and Politics forum, and I really can't act like I own any comprehensive document of the history of this forum in particular outside of general memory but I can state that the position we're in is similar to the state Russia was in after the collapse of the soviet union.
The collapse of corruptive authority, read bad BBS mods in 2009 that needed a full thread to be dealt with; with a cataclysm of new users coming in to fill the void left by them, with a lot of the more prolific BBS users leaving or slowing down to the point where they could no longer be considered regulars here anymore.

The General forums turned into a gigantic cum aggregate station with every single user on a mission to jerk the cock to the top-right of them in a counterclockwise motion with the Politics forum filling the vacuum of what the General forum was from 2005. With all that said I can't really say this forum has been touched too much by the onslaught of stupidity, it just seems like a general shift of new users replacing old users like new skin.
As usual that new layer might be built with a different structure than it's predecessor, evolution taking it's course as new users like RookieODST try and find there place here.

I wouldn't worry, people will eventually get tired of the same contentless threads and even new users will demand a higher quality from their own user-base.