henke on 13/11/2015 at 11:31
I know what you mean. I post a bit on the RPS forums as well. They also have a "What are you playing?" megathread and I've looked in it maybe once. It ain't my scene.
icemann on 13/11/2015 at 12:25
Quote Posted by Thirith
I'm a proponent of mega threads, but I do think their purpose differs from topic-specific threads, and for discussing the development or release of an interesting new game I'd always go for an individual thread.
For me, the "Now what are you playing?" thread is the equivalent of ongoing chat about a general topic. It's broad but not deep, but as a result it's also much more dynamic and associative. Like conversations over a beer or glass of wine, ideally such threads are not permanent repositories of deep thought, but they are part of the social grease that keeps a place talking. Frankly, without the more general threads I'd probably be lurking here at best, because few specific threads feel like actual living conversations - but once I'm here, I'm also more likely to join both specific and general conversations.
Second this.
Also, I see threads like this one as the chance for people to discuss things they'd see as something only worth of a few posts and unworthy of threads of their own. I certainly wouldn't be posting a new thread every time I played a new game. Who would care? Especially with some of the games I play which are quite niche (eg JRPGs for the snes, ps1 and ps2) when I'm not playing more current releases.
I just like the environment that this provides for all of us, to discuss what we want about the games we are currently playing and allowing conversation to continue on (at times) from there.
That's how I've always seen it.
If someone feels more towards starting a new thread about a game though, then feel free.
And I would not call Gen Gaming as the last active spot on these forums. Yes this place is not AS active as it was, but comm chat gets new posts, and the System Shock forum is doing better than it has in a VERY LONG time. Not getting heaps of new threads, but there's far more popping up now than earlier on where all we'd see is posts from ironixdark and that's it.
I for one have no plans to leave this place. This and Systemshock.org are the two main forums I check on every day.
Thirith on 13/11/2015 at 20:03
Quote Posted by Shadowcat
I don't know whether megathread proponents presume that everyone is reading it, but it's certainly not the case.
This strikes me as an odd statement. I don't know if others read this thread. I don't much care. If they do, great, if they don't, no problem. I don't care with any thread whether everyone reads them, as long as some people do and are active in them.
On a less meta note: Away in the UK this week for some holidays, which also means that's all my gaming will be mobile. Getting a kick out of
Sorcery, which translates those Choose Your Own Adventure games into a different medium very effectively.
Shadowcat on 14/11/2015 at 04:13
Quote Posted by Thirith
This strikes me as an odd statement. I don't know if others read this thread. I don't much care. If they do, great, if they don't, no problem.
Understood; I'll try to elaborate...
The motivation for that statement was my sense that perhaps some of the people who like the megathread don't realise that it actually
hides discussions of games (from users who would otherwise be keen to read and partake in the discussion of some of those games); and consequently maybe those people don't understand why anyone would have a problem with it? (i.e. If the assumption -- whether conscious or subconscious -- is that everyone is reading the megathread, then you might expect that no one is missing out on anything, because everyone can see what is being discussed.)
(I realise it's ostensibly obvious to all that not everyone will be reading any given thread... I'm just not sure whether the ramifications of that fact for the forum are taken into account when people are weighing up the pros and cons of this
particular thread.)
I'm just trying to raise awareness of some detrimental aspects to the megathread; this one being that it more or less necessitates that people read *all* of its content if they wish to ensure that they know when something they're interested in is being discussed -- as opposed to being able to judge from the thread titles whether something is (or isn't, or might be) of interest to them, with the forum then able to make them aware when a specific discussion they are interested in is updated. With the megathread you have no idea whether the discussion is going to be something you want to read -- or indeed something which you wish to
actively avoid (whether on account of spoilers, or for any other reason). Consequently some people simply won't read the megathread at all, and that stifles discussion which could otherwise have taken place if the topics were more visible.
icemann on 14/11/2015 at 04:18
You do realize that most forums these days have a "What are you playing?" thread? And they do totally fine even with them. This place is just the same.
When it's something that people feel deserves greater discussion they go and create proper threads for the topics.
You could go and say the same about the "What are you watching?" thread over in comm chat, or the "What are you making?" thread.
I get what your saying, but I don't agree with it at all.
Shadowcat on 14/11/2015 at 04:53
Yeah, I fully expected to agree to disagree about it. All good.
Quote Posted by icemann
You do realize that most forums these days have a "What are you playing?" thread?
FWIW that makes sense to me for forums that don't have "general gaming discussion" as their stated purpose, but very little in one which does.
Quote:
And they do totally fine even with them. This place is just the same.
I'm dubious about that, but then we're disagreeing after all :)
Quote:
When it's something that people feel deserves greater discussion they go and create proper threads for the topics.
I just don't think that they do. Or not nearly often enough. I think there's a huge amount of conversational inertia keeping things confined to the megathread. My whole issue with the thread really started because I observed how it had absorbed so much of the activity in the forum, and I feel that's still the case.
We probably also have differing opinions on what "deserves greater discussion". I'm more of the opinion that if you're posting about it at all then obviously it deserved discussion, and the best way to have a discussion about it is for people to be aware that there's a discussion happening so that they can join in.
Quote:
You could go and say the same about the "What are you watching?" thread over in comm chat, or the "What are you making?" thread.
Partly, but both of those are far more niche examples, whereas the topic of "What are you playing?" is very nearly the same as "General Gaming". It's still a sub-set, sure, but it's a
huge sub-set of the scope of this forum.
Quote:
I get what your saying, but I don't agree with it at all.
Again, all good.
icemann on 14/11/2015 at 05:00
To cite an example, Rock paper shotgun has one in their "PC Gaming Discussion" section, and their forum THRIVES regardless. That said they get ALOT more people going to their forums (I would assume) than here but just using that as an example.
Mr.Duck on 17/11/2015 at 21:29
CLOSE THIS THREAD. USE THE NEW ONE!
:D
icemann on 18/11/2015 at 02:18
Your more than welcome to. The rest us will be right here :p.
twisty on 20/11/2015 at 06:46
Quote Posted by henke
I'd say the proportions of FPS and RPG are pretty much the same as in FO3, but the FPS stuff has been improved.
Also, guys, we have an entire Fallout subforum RIGHT THERE.
And ironically everyone is posting in a megathread in that forum as well :erg:. Time to set some limits on these kind of threads I reckon...
