Once upon i time, the general forums were a place for discussion and debate. I come to the forums now, and i can generally predict a thread and its quality by the poster (usually) and if not easily cross-reference by subject. Almost immediately i'll give the thread up as hopeless, then read hopefully, and no, it's just crap. Dukplatey says "no subject line spam, nothing to see here"--something useless. Asusklan adds something pissy and offtopic with mediocre spelling. A few C worthy posts are made. The late-comers troll more effectively and it's dead. Then 3 more threads pop up with a derivative title. Similar responses, and a derivative conclusion. No mas. The only notable thread i've seen in months is mawashimono's fashion thread because it is actually community building in a sea of termites. This sucks.
Are the forums worse for wear?
Dukplatey says "no subject line spam, nothing to see here"
Actually, I'm pretty sure you're referring to me.
yes
Forums were only good in Beta (before Sega gave out keys) after that it all went down the drain, but oh well its life we adapt.
but truth is, i only joined the general discussion about 3-4 months ago, after i got tired of raping, pillaging, and razing the bazaar to the ground.
it was never awesome, but its certainly less awesome than it was when i first migrated over.
Its only awesome when GMs reply to posts.
At least those are the first posts I check.
When I first started on the forums, it was better.
There WERE trolls, but the community was more or less better.
Nowadays, the community has more 'diversity', so yeah, it's getting worse.
Not that I'm saying all the new posters suck, I'm just saying there is/was a recent influx of 'noob posters'(you know the kind), and that left some of us in a perm-rage mode, as well as a few of them sticking around to just...do whatever.
TL;DR: Yes.
@Canozo: Kind of ironic saying that when no GM have posted here yet xD
The General Discussion forum is mostly trolls, suggestions, and complaining. I mainly read the Arsenal forum, which is largely people asking questions that have been asked a million times (most recent: "DA or GF?"). But sometimes interesting threads occur. Also, those discussions can often be settled with facts, so they tend to be of a higher quality.
Wanna know what a noob/troll poster looks like?
<------------Babang.
Meh, that's why I like the Arsenal forum best. (Sans the "zoMG, i cants us a serch br, whas the bestst sord!?!!??" threads, of course.)
@Pawn
Actually, I'm pretty sure you're referring to Pladypus.
I think the problem has to do with a number of issues;
1. The player base is young since it's free to play and not that challenging a game. The older players don't stick around since they can throw some cash at this game and reach "end game" in less than a month. After all the nerfs and repetitiveness of levels it becomes easy after a few runs on the same levels to become "skilled". <-- Immature forums because of average age of player base.
2. No significant content has been added to the game in quite some time. Rather than the players focusing their attention on discovering the nuances of the game (as was the case in Beta), they get bored and troll each other. What have we to discuss about the game that hasn't already been discussed...? At least the different facets of the game are objective rather than the subjective crap that is usually argued over in the forums.
c. The forum police. They contribute nothing other than taking up space and trying to control something they have no right to. "Move this to Graveyard" = GFY, imo. While I'm on that subject, my pet peeve is when the grammar/punctuation police show up and decide an argument holds no value because words are spelled incorrectly. Not everyone's native language is English and not everyone is good at spelling, that doesn't mean they don't have a good point.
IV. More established players are more likely to converse with their respective guilds on various topics rather than on the General Discussion forum. As much as the guild system is lacking in SK, it's actually one of the reasons that I'm drawn to this game and keep coming back. If people were to act the way they do on the forums, whining about everything and begging, in the most established guilds then they would be kicked pretty quickly. They can't repress their urges to vent and do so on the forums.
e. Saying the same thing every post diminishes any amount of respect others have for you. At least switch it up from something like "Falcon punch" to "Falcon kick" or be witty. Stop taking up space with the same thing over and over...these forums suck because of people like you.
What we're left with is a vocal contingent of entitled players that have nothing better to focus on than being negative and whining rather than contributing. I think the upcoming influx of content (fingers crossed) will help to alleviate that. All though I don't agree with every post Pawn or Rommil has ever made I can appreciate their opinions because they're open to discussion rather than rage and irrationality (unless of course you nerf a certain shadow bomb :) ). Thanks for posting on a topic that I've been observing for quite some time.
I just can't wait to see what these danger missions are and the guild halls :D That is what's keeping me.
so, you were saying?
I think you have some very valid points. I myself try to keep myself civil and to have good grammar. But I think there are the people that both have no maturity and a lot of spare time. I mean seriously! Why waste 7.29 minutes of you life making a random post that only broadcasts to the community that you have no intelligence. I think we should collaborate and try to come up with a solution.
~Gigglebytes
I don't recall forums displaying much quality threads and I already was playing in 2011 sooooo..
Ha, Fallconn, nice to see your range and depth of emotion come out. :)
Greaty post. I suppose i feel a bit unburdened by simply knowing i'm not the only one who feels this way.
That people seem to wan't to take away the stamp, or mark from some. Putting a Sig, or doing something like that is like signing your name on a drawing, at least to me.
It just saddens me that people are like "y u no origanal, yu do samething ober an oober!"
I like signatures...when they come after a meaningful post. Just not when the entire post is a signature, as I have seen some spam before. It just takes up space and detracts from credibility. Whatevs if you have a portion of your posts the same every time, just not the same exact thing every time as that adds nothing to the discussion.
It really is a pain to get intent and tone across in forum discussions. I think that adds to frustration a lot as well when slightly ambiguous posts are misconstrued and tempers flare. Dynamic conversations (like guild chat) are at least a better form of communication and not knowing personalities makes it very difficult, for me at least, to properly interpret intent of the other posters.
^-^ You are quite right.
You forgot my epic epicness of epicly epic proportions.
I'll forgive you though.