Board 8 > is gamefaqs dying?

(+) Yeah! (+)

gamefaqs used to be hell in the internet form, due to the unprofessional moderation system that would allow any fanboy to become a mod and terrorize their board

apparently they fixed that dumb system but it seems to be too late, all boards across the site are slowly dying it seems, even fresh AAA game board get nowhere as much activity as they used to

is gamefaqs dying?
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SBAllen have repeatedly claimed that the site is getting more visitors than ever. Alexa does rank the site very high.

I have been here for a while and I don't feel the boards are dying faster than before, new releases see huge initial activity on the boards but after 2-3 weeks it slows down a lot, except for the REALLY big games like Smash and Skyrim etc these boards usually stay active for years.
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yes. Site peaked in 2007


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The website's dyin', Cobra!
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abdou posted...

SBAllen have repeatedly claimed that the site is getting more visitors than ever. Alexa does rank the site very high.

I have been here for a while and I don't feel the boards are dying faster than before, new releases see huge initial activity on the boards but after 2-3 weeks it slows down a lot, except for the REALLY big games like Smash and Skyrim etc these boards usually stay active for years.

I'm talking about user activity, not leeches and silent members who visits for some tips and leave, maybe the site has more and more of the later but the community seems to be dying slowly

and I don't know if alexa is accurate but it shows a major drop in popularity



from 500 to 50,000 ???? O_____o
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The community outside of this board sucks tbqh, so that's fine.
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It's just a shift in the gaming audience's habits:they prefer to seek information on YouTube, Reddit and wikis.Not to mention towards easier\dumber stuff that you don't need a game guide for...
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igordebraga posted...

It's just a shift in the gaming audience's habits:they prefer to seek information on YouTube, Reddit and wikis.Not to mention towards easier\dumber stuff that you don't need a game guide for...

I think you're right I barely used a faq here in years
subwikis and youtube have all I need and much less painful to use than some wall-o-text faq.... I guess gamefaqs just failed to evolve and got outflanked by the competition
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CobraSA posted...

abdou posted...

SBAllen have repeatedly claimed that the site is getting more visitors than ever. Alexa does rank the site very high.

I have been here for a while and I don't feel the boards are dying faster than before, new releases see huge initial activity on the boards but after 2-3 weeks it slows down a lot, except for the REALLY big games like Smash and Skyrim etc these boards usually stay active for years.

I'm talking about user activity, not leeches and silent members who visits for some tips and leave, maybe the site has more and more of the later but the community seems to be dying slowly

and I don't know if alexa is accurate but it shows a major drop in popularity



from 500 to 50,000 ???? O_____o

I am going to guess that drop was due to the site's domain moving from gamefaqs.com to gamefaqs.gamespot.com
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abdou posted...

CobraSA posted...

abdou posted...

SBAllen have repeatedly claimed that the site is getting more visitors than ever. Alexa does rank the site very high.

I have been here for a while and I don't feel the boards are dying faster than before, new releases see huge initial activity on the boards but after 2-3 weeks it slows down a lot, except for the REALLY big games like Smash and Skyrim etc these boards usually stay active for years.

I'm talking about user activity, not leeches and silent members who visits for some tips and leave, maybe the site has more and more of the later but the community seems to be dying slowly

and I don't know if alexa is accurate but it shows a major drop in popularity



from 500 to 50,000 ???? O_____o

I am going to guess that drop was due to the site's domain moving from gamefaqs.com to gamefaqs.gamespot.com

ah you're right I see gamespot has increased their rank in the same time frame so it makes sense
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1. Games are easier and more straightforward these days with autosaving every 5 seconds, quest markers, Ubisoft towers, etc. Outside of maybe Soulsborne and some retro indie games, I can't even think of any modern single player games you even need a walkthrough for unless you are trophy hunting or something. Compare that with older NES games with cryptic directions like Castlevania II or are just super difficult like Ghosts and Goblins.

2. And even if you do get stuck, there are too many alternative sources nowadays that are more user-friendly. Back in 1998, if you get stuck in the Water Temple, there's not much you can do other than buying an official guide or checking GameFAQs. Now you can go on Youtube or Twitch for a LP or just ask someone on Reddit or on any of the dozen social media.

3. While the "big console games" back in the days were single player or couch multiplayer, the advent of PSN and Xbox Live in the mid-2000s meant that there's a shift towards online multiplayer. So if you are trying to better at an online game, it's probably more helpful watching pros play on Twitch than reading a text walkthrough on GameFAQs.

4. There's a big difference between GameFAQs as a site dying and the GameFAQs boards dying. SBAllen claimed that we're getting more visitors than ever, but it's clear that the board activity has been dying down. However, this discrepancy can be explained by the fact that perhaps visitors are increasingly leaving as soon as they get their information and not staying and participating on the boards. Forums as a whole have been dying out and aging considerably and are one of the last bastions of Web 1.0. I think there's an entire younger generation that grew up on Reddit, Tumblr, Discord, Twitch, etc that's never really used a forum before and never will.
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Archiving topics, while still locking them, was what did the community in. Completely cut off community interaction on two fronts.

Yes, it stopped the same topics from being made over and over again, but those repitive topics were how the vast majority of people made their entrance into the GameFAQS community. It's hard to find something new to add to the conversation when there are ten years of conversation frozen in place and with no meaningful way to interact with it
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HeroicSpiderPig posted...

Archiving topics, while still locking them, was what did the community in. Completely cut off community interaction on two fronts.

Yes, it stopped the same topics from being made over and over again, but those repitive topics were how the vast majority of people made their entrance into the GameFAQS community. It's hard to find something new to add to the conversation when there are ten years of conversation frozen in place and with no meaningful way to interact with it

Yep, I said at the time they started doing this that it would kill a lot of game boards for this very reason, and it did just that.
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No, The Show is back and GameFAQs has never been stronger.


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HeroicSpiderPig posted...

Archiving topics, while still locking them, was what did the community in. Completely cut off community interaction on two fronts.

Yes, it stopped the same topics from being made over and over again, but those repitive topics were how the vast majority of people made their entrance into the GameFAQS community. It's hard to find something new to add to the conversation when there are ten years of conversation frozen in place and with no meaningful way to interact with it

I kinda agree that auto lock thing is kinda dumb and another example of suicidal community management
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CobraSA posted...

gamefaqs used to be hell in the internet form, due to the unprofessional moderation system that would allow any fanboy to become a mod and terrorize their board

apparently they fixed that dumb system but it seems to be too late, all boards across the site are slowly dying it seems, even fresh AAA game board get nowhere as much activity as they used to

is gamefaqs dying?

Yeah. It is basically dead. This contest pretty much cements it for me.
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a general gaming site so disproportionately dominated by 30- and 40-year-old Nintendo diehards is a turn off to the rest of the gaming community. that's why GF is dying.
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CobraSA posted...

abdou posted...

SBAllen have repeatedly claimed that the site is getting more visitors than ever. Alexa does rank the site very high.

I have been here for a while and I don't feel the boards are dying faster than before, new releases see huge initial activity on the boards but after 2-3 weeks it slows down a lot, except for the REALLY big games like Smash and Skyrim etc these boards usually stay active for years.

I'm talking about user activity, not leeches and silent members who visits for some tips and leave, maybe the site has more and more of the later but the community seems to be dying slowly

and I don't know if alexa is accurate but it shows a major drop in popularity



from 500 to 50,000 ???? O_____o

That's because of the domain name shift obviously. Try searching the actual new domain name.

Edit- missed where you guys talked about that somehow.
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The planets dyin', Cloud!

Forums as a format are dieing. They have been replaced by Reddit and social media.

Because everyone uses guides from Youtube now. I haven't used a faq from here in years. I ask some questions on boards but that is.
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I still skip a lot of posts when reading topics, especially walls of text. Activity seems fine enough.
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metaIslug posted...

I only come here for videogame news, which NGG delivers

you could do this on reddit
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Social media and technology is slowly killing off everything. Its fairly obvious.

You see it in how almost all forms of culture attempt to callback or reference the era of pre-social media.

(Remakes, nostalgic, remastered, sequels)
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this "controversial" thread would have gotten to #500 easily back in the days

now.... need I say more?
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CobraSA posted...

this "controversial" thread would have gotten to #500 easily back in the days

now.... need I say more?

that is so true. i miss those days
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Also don't forget this site mainly focuses on gaming. Fair right? Except other sites like Reddit and Youtube focus on everything equally so better to go there.
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CobraSA posted...

this "controversial" thread would have gotten to #500 easily back in the days

now.... need I say more?

well yeah because GameFAQs wasn't dying back then so this thread would've made no sense and everyone would've just been making fun of you for saying it

now everyone's just "yeah you're right"
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This site is a relic. But the community is very loyal.
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