The Games Category: Discuss

Dont be at yourself

This post is in reaction to various threads that have appeared across boards.ie recently. On the forums board, three are currently requests for three new additions to the dropdown (FIFA, Fallout, LittleBigPlanet). On the games board, there is a thread - largely contributed to by old hands - bemoaning the downturn in posting on the board. And on the moderators board, I recently posted a thread suggesting a re-organisation of the category.

If I have my history correct, the entirety boards.ie grew from a Quake board. Certainly when I joined back in 2000 (and again in 2001!), the Games board was at the very centre of boards.ie. It was, for a long time, the most popular, most active forum on this website.

By my count, the Games category now consists of something like 58 forums - making it far and away the largest category on boards.ie. There are also additional games-related forums under the Hosted category.

It seems clear to me (and others too, judging by the aforementioned Games board thread), that as the number of boards has increased, the quality of discussion has taken a nose-dive. With no concrete policy for approving the creation of boards, perhaps too many were created too quickly - and this created problems.

A big problem is undoubtedly the issue of overlapping forums. Were one to draw a venn diagram of the various boards and their areas of discussion, it would look like it were created with a spirograph. Do I post about the latest Street Fighter in Arcade & Retro, in Competitive Gaming? In Playstation, or XBox? In the Games board itself? Does LittleBigPlanet fit under Playstation, Games or Game Editing? Does Wipeout HD fit under Games, Playstation, Arcade & Retro, Racing Sims or even Webgames? There are too many boards with overlapping areas, and it's completely killing discussion rather than fostering it.

Another problem which I would say has arisen from the scattershot policy on the creation of boards is that many were created before the groundswell was there to support them. Boards are perhaps best left to grow naturally - to be created if the current boards cant support them. There is certainly merit to the 'If you build it, they will come' approach, but in many cases we built it, and they haven't come. Indeed, many have possibly been driven away. We're left with boards that - while still active - do not have anywhere near the volume of traffic to warrant a dedicated board, and could be better re-incorporated into or merged with pre-existing boards.

A certain portion of blame lies at the feet of the various forum moderators (myself included), who should be more active and more strict in moving threads that are best suited to different boards. In the past, I've been reluctant to move posts on the Playstation board discussing a multi-platform game, but I think that those kind of posts should be moved to the Games board itself in order to foster better discussion. The Playstation, Nintendo and XBox boards should be solely for talk of titles, features and so on that are exclusively to do with that console. The same approach can be applied to many of the other forums in the dropdown.

So, what was I prattling on about anyway?
- There are too many overlapping forums
- There are too many forums that don't warrant their own forum
- Moderation needs to be stricter in moving threads to more suitable boards

The Games Category is at a crossroads. We can continue with our current approach, by adding boards as there appears to be demand in Forums, or we can cull forums and cut the category back to its healthier roots, and let it develop organically, as and when demand for new boards manifests itself in terms of volume of posts.

I'd welcome the thoughts of other users, games-category moderators and admins on this.

Kinetic^

Tbh, I think it's fine the way it is. Perhaps another cmod as well as 1 or 2 additional mods could be brought in to help make sure threads get to their correct home.

Stercus Accidit

Have to agree, and I suggested one of the forums listed above.

The cross over with consoles, pc's and games on them, some competitive, some rpg etc. I dont know where to post on what.

Ok, in the case of what I asked for, Fallout, I could post in xbox, games, rpg. or if I had another format, ps3, pc, etc.
So not knowing the extent of the amount of categories I asked will there be a fallout forum.

Too many subcategories thin out discussion, and keeping up with any one game requires checking a few different fora.

Kinetic^

A fair point. Why not just create game genre forums rather then specific game/format forums?

Stercus Accidit

If ever I get rrod, I know to ask in xbox what to do.

So those forums have a place, but with a game, its hard to know where to post.

Krieg

I would leave the generic "Games" forum and console forums as they are and just trim some of the game specific forums.

For example the "Unreal" tournament thread received very little activity during the release of UT3 and there has been only the odd postings for the last year afaik. It also links unreal.ie as a place for Irish UT players to have discussion, which confuses me a bit

Im only picking the unreal forum as an example. Say you remove it, anymore posts regarding the game will end up in the generic games category and may propagate further discussion in general

Ultimately theres going to be a lot of forums set-up and taken down in the games category since games generally only last so long, I don't see anything wrong with game specific forums so long as there is a decent amount of discussion on (i.e. at least one new thread a week type thing).
If a forum does lose popularity, let it die and start another forum for the next big game release. I personally think some of those game specific forums should have died some time ago (Except! quake forum ofc, its now a shrine as I understand it, a pilgrimage for the long time boards users)

AlmightyCushion

I think when it comes to the cosole forums they shouldn't be used for the discussion of games (threads like "what do you think of x game" type think). Hardware, features specific to that console (eg xbox live), bargains for that console (e.g. cheap ps3 games in currys thread) should be discussed there and any games threads moved to the relevant forum.
The way it is now a game could be getting discussed in xbox, playstation and games forum which is a bit of a mess.

For the game specific forums I don't really see a problem with them. They only tend to be busy when a new iteration is released but if they were to be closed then the games forum would be bogged down with threads whenever the new iterations were released.

Retr0gamer

Perhaps we could keep the console forums to specific threads about the hardware etc. while moving any game related topics to the games forum?

leninbenjamin

it's funny, but i'm doing a course in video games yet rarely ever post in the games category because since i've joined boards i've just found it a bit of a quagmire to navigate really.

I agree with the above posters who suggest reorganising it into genre's.
It will be a difficult process to rearrange the category to a coherent format, but i believe in the long term it would be worth it.

console forums should be just for discussing hardware. end of. threads on specific threads should be moved.

game specific forums shouldn't exist as a forum in their own right. sub forums to co-ordinate the various communities perhaps, but overall the forum-per-game ideology should be binned.

Kintarō Hattori

Battlefield
Call od Duty
Counter Strike
Half Life
Halo
Quake
Unreal
Wolfenstein

Just to give an example they are in the list yet they could easily be lumped into an FPS category, though perhaps with the exception of Quake for historical reasons of course.

Other categories could be created such as RPG, online, sim etc, really just the most relevant ones. As another poster said game talk should really be limited to a games forum and in the case of consoles the respective forums should really be used to discuss consoles itself.


Some clever reshuffling and any issues should disolve.

R0ot

I think the Category is fine the way it is.

I may be wrong about what was said above but if you group lots of fps games into one forum you will get one big explosion of chaos very fast.

(Could always remove the Football Manager forum altogether.

tba

I like the genre idea, it fits more in tune with the way things are going. However then we get the problem of games that defy genre.

FPS
MMO
SIM
SPORT

we have a STRATEGY forum, it does work in some senses but topics on DOW or C&C get lost in there cause they overlap with their real forums.

But what about the odd balls?

Its a very kafkaesque system.

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

tba

I think that about sums it up, there are too many forums and not enough posters in the games section, we keep walking into rooms and missing each other, thus no discussion takes place!

I not sure if the idea of putting halo/half life/cod etc in sub forums is a good idea, I would much prefer to see them in a forum simply titled action as you put it, more forums = greater spread of eyes and discussion.

Cuddlesworth

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Battlefield
Call od Duty
Counter Strike
Half Life
Halo
Quake
Unreal
Wolfenstein

Just to give an example they are in the list yet they could easily be lumped into an FPS category, though perhaps with the exception of Quake for historical reasons of course.

Other categories could be created such as RPG, online, sim etc, really just the most relevant ones. As another poster said game talk should really be limited to a games forum and in the case of consoles the respective forums should really be used to discuss consoles itself.


Some clever reshuffling and any issues should disolve.

Best to leave the CounterStrike forum where it is. Best for everybody else.

Sabre0001

Would agree with grouping most games by genres. Some should stay seperate, for example CS and CoD. It would be good to see the console forums used for hardware issues, etc but I think the mods will have quite a bit of work to keep things in order at the start

tman

Nobody listened to me when I said all these extra forums would cause unnecessary segregation... Nobody ever listens to me:(

I'm happy enough with the current layout, but do find myself skimming through various forums to get my fill of posts that could have been in just one.
Perhaps just one "console issues" type forum, and anything else could go into the main games forum.

Rabies

The Games category is split so much that I only read the Games forum now. Very rarely any of the other forums unless something catches my attention on the front page.

Creating forums for popular games has spread discussion thinly across too many places.


I don't have a structure in mind to throw forward as an idea. Will take a look later.
My head is wondering why there is no water in my body after too much drink last night

Kiith

I also think it should just be a Console section, where all technical questions can be asked (and flame wars can be started). Keep the games questions to the Games forums. A lot of new forums get created when a new big game comes out, then it dies down massivly after a few weeks. GTA, Metal Gear Solid, Warhawk and Resident Evil (to name a few) could all be condensed back into the main forums.

I guess its just personnel preference though. I'd prefer to have most topics on the one forum.

Maximilian

I think a lot of people look for new game forums (latest being fallout 3) for no other reason than the kudos of getting a new one created and perhaps a hope they will be made moderator of it.

The Games category is confusing at the moment. I think so many of the forums are totally pointless graveyards. The ones dedicated to single games, other than online games/mmo's with large followings, should go. Genres probably works best.

Forums like Strategy & RPG should have far more traffic than they do. I think the reason they don't is that they don't have a critical mass - people tend not to post in forums they think people don't read. So people post about rpg games for example in the main Games forum.

Could I suggest that an effort be made to move threads to appropriate genre forums - might help kick start the ailing ones. The other option being scrap all of the genres and organise generally according to platform.

Exception being Quake. I think I would be horrified as a Feb '98-er if this went

Dr Bob

Krieg wrote: »

I would leave the generic "Games" forum and console forums as they are and just trim some of the game specific forums.

For example the "Unreal" tournament thread received very little activity during the release of UT3 and there has been only the odd postings for the last year afaik. It also links unreal.ie as a place for Irish UT players to have discussion, which confuses me a bit

Im only picking the unreal forum as an example. Say you remove it, anymore posts regarding the game will end up in the generic games category and may propagate further discussion in general

Ultimately theres going to be a lot of forums set-up and taken down in the games category since games generally only last so long, I don't see anything wrong with game specific forums so long as there is a decent amount of discussion on (i.e. at least one new thread a week type thing).
If a forum does lose popularity, let it die and start another forum for the next big game release. I personally think some of those game specific forums should have died some time ago (Except! quake forum ofc, its now a shrine as I understand it, a pilgrimage for the long time boards users)

This is good,
But add a PC gaming forum as well.

Mr E

I think alot of fora could be merged... perhaps some tags, a-la the developer forum could be used to categorise threads at a glance?

LoLth

hmmmm, personally I'd leave Quake as a seperate category... it was the daddy of all of this after all but definitely categorise the remaining games.

FPS (single & multiplayer)
Driving sim
Flight Sim
management Sim
MMO
CCG
RTS
PBeM
RPG


Ignore platforms. so what if there's a copy of quake on the xbox, the DS the wii and the PC, they're all quake.

Awards , editing , reviews and workshop should all be sub-categories of the general Games.

Console and PC hardware should be discussed in the tech section where it belongs.

it will take a good bit of policing to ensure threads and categories stay organised but will make the fora much more accessible and will encourage readers to read threads they would otherwise have missed unless actively looking ( I for example regularly read the AoC board even though I have no intention of ever playing it, it just happens to be in the MMO category that I frequent).

Retr0gamer

I think Categories is the wrong way to go. There are far too many games out there that defy genres and it will be confusing where to post them. Also searching through 5+ forums for the info I want that used to be in one forum is bad enough but segregating it into even more is just going to make the matter worse. I'm totally against categorisation into genres.

Also keep the arcade/retro forum. It's far from dead!

quarryman

FPS (single & multiplayer)
Driving sim
Flight Sim
management Sim
MMO
CCG
RTS
PBeM
RPG

that still seems like a lot to me.

I would have said:

Consoles (discusses all hardware questions)
Games (All games)
Arcade/Retro
MMO

And THAT's it. No more sub-division. Its already killed what was a great games discussion forum.

Sub-forums are the way of the devil. I think it was written in the Bible somwhere....

mcgovern

I like it the way it is, you are going to end up with huge flaming wars if you have a game released on PS3, X360 and PC, with just the one thread in the one section for all.
You'll have the PS3 and X360 players arguing over which version has better framerate/multiplayer and the PC gamers shouting to all and sundry how its not a real game on consoles because they don't use mouse and keyboard. We get enough of this already, but it will be even worse if they are all together.
You'll also end up with every thread for an exclusive game turning into a pissing contest, with "Exclusive for A is crap and the new Exclusive for B which is coming out next month will be ten times better, which proves that B is the best!!".
Keeping it the way it is now, minimises the fanboys exposure to threads they can flame, and stops the rest of us searching through all the threads for something relevant.

Ponster

NekkidBibleMan wrote: »

There is certainly merit to the 'If you build it, they will come' approach, but in many cases we built it, and they haven't come. Indeed, many have possibly been driven away. We're left with boards that - while still active - do not have anywhere near the volume of traffic to warrant a dedicated board, and could be better re-incorporated into or merged with pre-existing boards.

I've been admin of Vbb sites in the past were we had a policy of creating forums based on public support and also when we knew in advance that the release of a product was going to result in an increase of traffic. When forums were no longer active (<10 new threads per month) then we closed the forum and merged it back into the general 'games' forum.

As mod of Battlefield I can say that it looks like a forum that should be closed and Battlefield threads/discussions moved to a general FPS forum. But if EA release BF3 next year then with a potential 10+ new threads per day it will be almost impossible to manage if we didn't have a dedicated forum. So yes to closing some forums and creating more generic ones leading to, I guess, more activity but NO if it means that in times of need we have to go through a 3+ months long process to get forum approval again.

tHE vAGGABOND

I was actually a made a mod of the first spin off forum of the original quake board, the unreal board. I earned this honor as I had a warez copy of a beta of the first unreal tournament a while before it was released [warez being a very rare thing back in 56k modem/isdn land].

For a number of years the Games board was very good, as you had a diverse range of things going on there at one time. Its now dead as a door nail now tbh.

We now need to merge a lot of the games which were made for individual games into a lesser number of forums. I like the idea of sorting it my genre, and maybe have console specific forums, as there are always people asking basic questions about where to get a cheap wii or how do I fix my broken xbox etc

Retr0gamer

mcgovern wrote: »

I like it the way it is, you are going to end up with huge flaming wars if you have a game released on PS3, X360 and PC, with just the one thread in the one section for all.
You'll have the PS3 and X360 players arguing over which version has better framerate/multiplayer and the PC gamers shouting to all and sundry how its not a real game on consoles because they don't use mouse and keyboard. We get enough of this already, but it will be even worse if they are all together.
You'll also end up with every thread for an exclusive game turning into a pissing contest, with "Exclusive for A is crap and the new Exclusive for B which is coming out next month will be ten times better, which proves that B is the best!!".
Keeping it the way it is now, minimises the fanboys exposure to threads they can flame, and stops the rest of us searching through all the threads for something relevant.

It's far worse than it used to be when we had the one forum.

Ponster

A problem I see is deciding who gets to keep a forum and who gets merged. If we take FPS as an example we have 'Battlefield' Call of Duty' CS' 'Helo' 'Quake' and 'Unreal'.

Do people think they all get lumped into FPS? I'm sure some mods and members will fight to have their forum saved...

tHE vAGGABOND

Do people think they all get lumped into FPS? I'm sure some mods and members will fight to have their forum saved...

there are not a lot of recent posts in any of the forums you mention..

The only problem with that list is that some folks may want the quake board saved, as it was the original forum..

But why have 20+ dead forums, where you could have circa 5 or so active ones - is that not what boards is about

Ponster

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

But why have 20+ dead forums, where you could have circa 5 or so active ones - is that not what boards is about

Because the day that a new version of one of those games comes out, or even a new patch, it could take over the entire forum for a certain period of time.

People keep on complaining about the amount of discussion in those forums.
Certain forums I'd argue aren't there so much for discussion but also for helping new players and working on patches/bugs. Someone who asks why their Unreal game isn't working properly in a week that "Call of Duty" release a new game isn never going to get a reply. Their post will be on page 2 before anyone ever sees it (imho).
It would be like having to rename/tag every AfterHours thread with a header :

"DRUGS: Why is cannabis illegal"?
"RANT: Poles taking our wimmin"
"YOR MA: Your Ma"


IMHO a certain about of discussions levels on on the mods shoulders. You don't just create a forum and sit back to mod all day; you have to keep a forum active by driving the discussion yourself.

Earthhorse

Personally, I think this is symptomatic of a bigger trend on boards; it's so big now that creation of even the most specialist forum will get traffic, at least for a while. Perhaps having a Games forum with a "Latest Releases" subforum would be the way to go. Having forums dedicated to individual games would seem to me better suited to a website's forum rather than a subforum on boards, though if such websites exist, accomodating them under the Hosted category (that's still around, right?) would be feasable.

Mr E wrote: »

I think alot of fora could be merged... perhaps some tags, a-la the developer forum could be used to categorise threads at a glance?

Don't know how far along CuLT is with the tags but I think they're the way to go. Creating a tag per game just recreates the problem so genre tags, platform tags and a few miscellaneous tags would cover it. Don't know what the problme is with having one busy central Games forum over many small less buys ones; once you can filter on the tags you'll find the content you're looking for and be able to remove it and find out what's happening elsewhere at a glance.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Also keep the arcade/retro forum. It's far from dead!

Definitely. There are probably cases to be made for each of the individual forums in existence.

Ponster wrote: »

'Helo'

Hi.

Ponster

I also think that no global decision can or should be taken on the future of all the Games sub-forums. It takes a while for forums to get created around here and even longer to have one removed. If the members of PES forum are happy with the way its being run then I don't see why anyone else can have an opinion on it's existence or not. If a chmod feels that by combining FIFA and PES together there will be more traffic generated then having them separate then that's fine. But the idea of removing a whole bunch of forums and putting them into a generic one isn't IMHO on the cards at this point in time.

As tHE vAGGABOND said, in the beginning there was just 'Games'. Unreal was spun off due to popular support. if they support is gone there should be no problem in 'Games' absorbing the 'Unreal' forum. But it doesn't make sense to remove all Unreal-like forums in this way. Talliesin said something important regarding how the precedence of a particular forum affects a request for another forum (hint: it doesn't !). The same rule should apply regards the removal of a forum.

Stercus Accidit

Maximilian wrote: »

I think a lot of people look for new game forums (latest being fallout 3) for no other reason than the kudos of getting a new one created and perhaps a hope they will be made moderator of it.

*cough*


Fallout's 1,2 and 3, and I suggested it include eldar scrolls, bethesda games and all.

Also I could give two sh1tes who mods it tbh, as long as they don't ruin it, I'm happy, there are plenty of people who would be more qualified*.

This is a separate issue though, I do also support a reshuffle of the games category, I asked for this forum in the first place as I couldn't find an obvious suitable place to post on it (games, rpg, xbox). That and I was just simply surprised that there wasn't one in the first place.
I'd prefer that the request for a Fallout/Eldar Scrolls forum wasn't used as a negative example of what's wrong with the games cat.


*interested in being a mod on an internet forum and all the "kudos" that entails.

faceman

I hate seeing sub forums for specific games being made. They tend to have regular postings for a few months every time a game or sequel come out. But it gets confusing then when e.g. the Guitar hero forum has threads about Rock Band.

Then you get pointless threads about which version is better, xbox or PS3 etc which is like being 14 again and arguing with your classmates on your lunchbreak.

As you can see from my sig, ive being tried to rally support for a multiplayer sub forum where boardsies can get together to arrange leagues and informal party nights. For a site as large as we are, its surprising to see that the existing fora dont really cater for it. (and despite what Maximilian says, i couldnt give a dog's dickie who moderates it!)

I think a reduction in the number of forum is definitely needed.

thelordofcheese

Disclaimer: This is a cross post. Sorry if you've read it before

I've had a think about it, an i think we should reduce everything down to about 2 forums. MMOs and Games.

I'm being serious here.

we don't really need the sub-divisions on the level we have them, do we really need to break things down for various consoles. They're all games.

Flamewars? Better modding would stamp that out far more than segregation. That doesn't solve the problem it just prevents the problem from occuring provided people don't look over a forum and see the one dedicated to the console that isn't theirs.
And a new game spawning 10+ threads? Merge them. Easiest way to go about it, it's not like it's hard to do under VBB either.

If we want more conversation here we need more people, we won't get that by splitting games into smaller chunks based on Genre or system or whatever.
And before people think what i'm speaking of is madness, the penny arcade Games and technology forum operates under this same principle and it (probably) has higher traffic that here and isn't a heaving sea of constant flamewars.

Ohh, And the only reason MMO's get their own space is well... WoW players, man. They're mental.

Ponster

thelordofcheese wrote: »

Disclaimer: This is a cross post. Sorry if you've read it before

I've had a think about it, an i think we should reduce everything down to about 2 forums. MMOs and Games.

I'm being serious here.

we don't really need the sub-divisions on the level we have them, do we really need to break things down for various consoles. They're all games.

I thought you were joking. If you're not well then lets say that I hope you never get a job of making any decisions around here


What you're proposing is IMHO impractical and not needed. "Games" isn't Afterhours.

thelordofcheese

Ponster wrote: »

I thought you were joking. If you're not well then lets say that I hope you never get a job of making any decisions around here


What you're proposing is IMHO impractical and not needed. "Games" isn't Afterhours.

Why is it impratical? I'm not seeing it.
Why is it not needed? The community is fragmented and we have a load of dead forums. More to the point, why do these sub forums even exist? Is there something stopping people discussing Nintendo games in 'Games'?
The case for sub-divisions is lost on me, i can't see a single benifit of slicing the community into tiny slivers.

5starpool

Is the focus on this purely on computer games? There are a number of non computer game entries on the list and if they are looking to get moved or consolidated I'm sure people other than myself would have views on this too.

Speaking for poker only, I would not be in favour of having this as a subcategory within a menu structure. It was like this before and it was decided to move it out to a cetegory of its own.

thelordofcheese

5starpool wrote: »

Is the focus on this purely on computer games? There are a number of non computer game entries on the list and if they are looking to get moved or consolidated I'm sure people other than myself would have views on this too.

Speaking for poker only, I would not be in favour of having this as a subcategory within a menu structure. It was like this before and it was decided to move it out to a cetegory of its own.

I imagine that things like poker would be left alone, at least until the various game types of poker start getting their own sub-forums

KevIRL

5starpool wrote: »

Speaking for poker only, I would not be in favour of having this as a subcategory within a menu structure. It was like this before and it was decided to move it out to a cetegory of its own.

+1 to this. Its one of the busiest forums on boards.

Ponster

thelordofcheese wrote: »

The case for sub-divisions is lost on me, i can't see a single benifit of slicing the community into tiny slivers.

Do you suggest we do the same with Music and the 19 sub-forums? I mean, it's all music isn't it?

What about the 35 Edu forums? Aren't all those students just learning?


There is a lot more to a games forum then just discussion. There may be some posts about the game in question but most will be from people looking for help with installing, patching, getting the damn thing to work properly.

These questions aren't going to get answered in a generic forum which receives many new threads per day. If you delete a sub-game forum and replace it with nothing but the existing Games forum then don't expect the members to start posting there as a certain % will just not bother posting anymore leading to even less 'discussion' then there is today.

quarryman

5starpool wrote: »

Is the focus on this purely on computer games? There are a number of non computer game entries on the list and if they are looking to get moved or consolidated I'm sure people other than myself would have views on this too.

Speaking for poker only, I would not be in favour of having this as a subcategory within a menu structure. It was like this before and it was decided to move it out to a cetegory of its own.

True. Computer games only.

throw the rest in with After Hours.

L31mr0d

I'd be for splitting it up into Genres, and if certain games in that genre are particularly popular (i.e. quake, CS, Unreal in an FPS forum) they can get their own subforum as required

Most gamers have the genres they like and the ones they don't so having separate genres that can be subscribed to would be better. A tag system such as [xbox], [PS3], [Wii], [retro] could also be a requirement when titling a thread in these forums

Kurtosis

Some consideration has to be given to practicality, there is a sweet spot somewhere between the current number of forums and just having one Games forum.

I would make a case for keeping the console forums in place as this is a limiting factor for a lot of people - if I only own a PS3, I want to be able to read topics relevant to the platform and to be able to post about it without having to trawl through pages of posts about every other platform as well. Fair enough on moving some topics on multiplatform titles from the console sections to the Games forum (I feel if there are drastic differences between versions e.g. 360 and DS versions, they could stay in their own sections), but discussion on games should not be outlawed from the console forums - that would take away any interesting topics the console forums have.

I would disagree with the suggestion of filing all the individual games forums under various genres, as it doesn't really solve the problem to any great extent. Best case would be to try and shift the little discussion that happens in some of these forums into the Games forum in an effort to try and reinvigorate it.

I feel any reorganisation should not be done in one fell swoop, maybe pruning back some of the very very quiet forums first and seeing what effect it has might be the way to go.

Earthhorse

Ponster wrote: »

Do you suggest we do the same with Music and the 19 sub-forums? I mean, it's all music isn't it?

I would, yeah, pretty much. Any other forum I visit tends not to split things as much as boards.

Don't really know what the problem is with having megathreads for games or a particular console.

quarryman

Ponster wrote: »

Do you suggest we do the same with Music and the 19 sub-forums? I mean, it's all music isn't it?

What about the 35 Edu forums? Aren't all those students just learning?


There is a lot more to a games forum then just discussion. There may be some posts about the game in question but most will be from people looking for help with installing, patching, getting the damn thing to work properly.

These questions aren't going to get answered in a generic forum which receives many new threads per day. If you delete a sub-game forum and replace it with nothing but the existing Games forum then don't expect the members to start posting there as a certain % will just not bother posting anymore leading to even less 'discussion' then there is today.

Ponster I think your views may be heavily biased (judging by this thread).

Yeah though it'll never happen. Boards.ie is a business and part of my 'job' as I see it is to increase traffic to this site so more people click on ads/subscribe leading to hopefully a better site for everyone. Directing members to a different site would probably result in me being sent on a long holiday somewhere (probably the Battlefield forum for the rest of my life...)

It looks to me like your 'attachment' to the Trophy manager forum might be distorting an opinion.

IMO, Trophy manager is a perfect candidate to get killed off. A forum that barely gets 1 post a day should be merged with something else.

Retr0gamer

Splitting it into genres is just giving us the same problem we have now but under new headings. We still have loads of different forums with very little discussion going on in each. Where would the games that defy genres go?

thelordofcheese

Ponster wrote: »

Do you suggest we do the same with Music and the 19 sub-forums? I mean, it's all music isn't it?

What about the 35 Edu forums? Aren't all those students just learning?

Poor analogy. A better one would be to divide the film forum based on what studio produced the film, and then seperate forums for big name directors/Actors.
Which is kinda what's going on now with games.

Ponster wrote: »

There is a lot more to a games forum then just discussion. There may be some posts about the game in question but most will be from people looking for help with installing, patching, getting the damn thing to work properly.

Ok, three forums, Game, MMO and Help/Advice. Actually yeah, a seperate help/advice forum, that's a good idea. Definatly should have one of those.

Ponster wrote: »

If you delete a sub-game forum and replace it with nothing but the existing Games forum then don't expect the members to start posting there as a certain % will just not bother posting anymore leading to even less 'discussion' then there is today.

Well seeing as a large portion of the fourms are dead, then a certain % of zero is still zero lost posters.
But to be serious for a second, i don't believe for one second that people will simply vanish if their sub forum goes. They like games, they also like a certain subsection of them, like say PS3 games. Why would they suddenly stop posting alltogether because now instead of 8 subforums that could possibly be applicable to talking about, say, LittleBigPlanet there is now only one?

I'm not following your reasoning here.

super_furry

Personally I'd have just a few forumes. PC Gaming (with a MMORPG sub-forum), Console Gaming and get rid of everything else with the exception of arcade/retro. The console forum by nature would have to be modded more strictly to prevent the fanboy flame threads but that could be done easily enough.