Video Game Forums

Most people that participated in the poll asking about the site remaining online did not seem interested. Some only came back after years away to say goodbye, and some have otherwise moved on. Maybe they'll post sometimes and maybe not, but in any case, there was at least some interest in the idea from some members of the community, so we had some discussions about it and figured it was worth trying and seeing what happens.

As mentioned, one thing we did was to significantly reduce the number of forums, leaving just five forums open to consolidate the activity into a handful of forums rather than having a bunch with only periodic posts.

Misc. and General Gaming obviously. Also General Entertainment, to replace the movies/TV/animation, arts/literature, and music/podcasts forums. The only game-specific forum that was kept was Smash Bros. since @CaptHayfever regularly writes content for that forum.

Of special note, we have gotten rid of and do not plan to restore anything related to politics because it was toxic. Most of us have known each other for 10 or 20 years and share at least some similar interests and hobbies. We should be able to get along. Political posts have only accounted for a small percentage of the posts here but also almost all of the problems and divisiveness, so we are not interested in dealing with the fighting going forward. If people want to play in a dumpster fire, that's what Twitter is for.

That said, the Life Forum has also been kept active, with a goal of providing positive reinforcement and support.

If anybody has any other forums they would like to see active and try to breathe life back into or any other suggestions, feel free to open it up for consideration.

Thanks, Shane!!!

I appreciate the first couple of months will be interesting, but I'm willing to help to see where we can go from here!!!

With all due respects, what is the plan here? Is there going to be a unique selling point, or advertisement that'll ride activity back here now or what? It makes no odds to me as I honestly am very extremely unlikely to participate beyond this point, but I am very curious as to if this extends to anything beyond leaving it up for a very small handful of people to discuss things in what is honestly a very neutered forum, with a solid amount of historical content which would act *as* a guiding point to the forum being basically Thanos snapped away.

I don't mean to come across as rude or overtly negative, because at the end of the day this is your forum and your place to do with as you like, but I just want to know if you are planning some sort of resurrection that will actually breath new life into this place, or if it's here to remain on life support and just existing to 'hope for the best.' I don't think it's really controversial to state that, outside of HotD, the head staff of this forum have been remarkably silent over the years and not really done much in the context of pushing the forum forward & the overwhelming majority of people who did work to promote this forum and provide interesting content are long gone.

I suppose the long and short of this comes down to this; Are you going to do anything different this time Shane? Because if not, then we're really just kicking the can down the road.

^ I don't think VGF is trying to compete with modern social media so it probably doesn't need unique advertisement plans or anything like that imo.

I do think it could be interesting to consider exploring some kind of revival though. It would seem appropriate considering VGF is back on its feet, and it wouldn't really need to be anything too extensive.

You make a good point about staff not doing much to provide compelling content, but I think that's because they sort of became inactive without passing on the torch. Might have been a good idea to shuffle the moderators around a bit to try getting more active members into those positions, especially the creative type like Capt.

Just to throw my two cents in, I don't think it's fair to ask "what's going to be different" without offering specific suggestions. In fact, I don't really think there's necessarily anything wrong with maintaining a low activity forum, personally. It was a blast back in the day when topics were constantly on fire, but I've come to accept that's not how people mainly engage online anymore. Also, taking steps to consolidate the activity was a nice start, and moving forward by considering input from members is good as well.

I don't have any great ideas for the site myself, the only thing I can think of is perhaps having a light news section for significant ongoings in the world of gaming. Not every random indie game release needs to be clogging it up, but major releases, events, and industry news could be worth checking out and discussing. I feel as if VGF's members have always had a bit of a Nintendo slant, a lot of us came here through the likes of Nintendoland in the first place after all, so maybe having a focus on that would be more attractive than some Xbox game, but I don't know.

Anyway, I'm just glad the forums are open again, so thanks Shane.

I'm interested to see how things go, at least.

Do you think perhaps you could move all the closed forums to the locked Archive section at least, so all that content isn't gone forever?

We're discussing things intensively... looking for ideas for our 'niche' in the world of social media and instant information. All ideas are valid and we will consider any that you're happy to share with us.
Right now, we're willing to try... and I'll start by making some threads. Of course, I can't do all this by myself and I'm reaching out to people who I hope can help, even in some small way.

I'm hoping for and encouraging an over-riding theme of positive discussion towards each other (for gosh sakes, we're all adults here) is what I imagine for the future of VGF, at the very least. As Shane indicated, we've agreed that no political posts will be accepted.

The content hasn't gone anywhere and we will certainly consider archiving it at some point.

LAST POST FOREVER

Sorry to hear that, Scotty, but wishing you all the best out there!! *leaves you marshmallows*

Lol did you delete my sprite request thread? I guess I only did three so far anyway, and it's not like I wasn't expecting it to be deleted when everything went dark, but still.

Xanthous wrote: ↑

Wed May 19, 2021 9:19 pm

Lol did you delete my sprite request thread? I guess I only did three so far anyway, and it's not like I wasn't expecting it to be deleted when everything went dark, but still.

I'm sure starting a new one would be appreciated by everyone, it was fun seeing your designs.

Xanthous wrote: ↑

Wed May 19, 2021 9:19 pm

Lol did you delete my sprite request thread? I guess I only did three so far anyway, and it's not like I wasn't expecting it to be deleted when everything went dark, but still.

Nothing is deleted. Just invisible. We've been moving some topics to other places as needed. Can do that if you want. We're also open to reopening any forums if there's a need for them, but not sure there are any for which there's a particularly compelling need.

viewtopic.php?f=502&t=102885

Social Games and Role Playing forum has been reopened by request.

Is there anything we can do to help the forum out specifically?

@Bad Dragonite Sent you a PM, and thank you so much for asking!!

Woah, this is a surprise, but a welcome one. I remember getting the e-mail that the forum was going offline permanently and I missed the deadline to say goodbye back when that happened. Glad this place is back. I’ll try to be more active on here again but work has had me really swamped and has kept me from having much spare time for anything lately.

Inferno Dragon wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 31, 2021 6:20 am

Woah, this is a surprise, but a welcome one. I remember getting the e-mail that the forum was going offline permanently and I missed the deadline to say goodbye back when that happened. Glad this place is back. I’ll try to be more active on here again but work has had me really swamped and has kept me from having much spare time for anything lately.

Hey there, glad you got a chance to at least pop back in.

I REALLY HATE POKEMON! wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 31, 2021 6:24 am

Hey there, glad you got a chance to at least pop back in.

Thanks man. I’m just glad to be back.

Inferno Dragon wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 31, 2021 6:20 am

Woah, this is a surprise, but a welcome one. I remember getting the e-mail that the forum was going offline permanently and I missed the deadline to say goodbye back when that happened. Glad this place is back. I’ll try to be more active on here again but work has had me really swamped and has kept me from having much spare time for anything lately.

I'm very happy to see you back!! *gives you marshmallows* You pop in as time permits and that'd be awesome!!!

I think I'll pop in a couple times per decade as long as it's up.

Kukurio wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 02, 2021 7:15 am

I think I'll pop in a couple times per decade as long as it's up.

Same here. Hard to believe this account of mine is nearly old enough to drink.