jawa asks... how are you feeling about GR?

jiggles wrote:
Falsey wrote:You should google 'hot gluing'.

Should I, though? I'm thinking I shouldn't.

You totally should. Im sure nothing bad will come of 'hot glue anime fig'.

As someone who had a break from here and is now back I've really noticed the drop off in activity which is a shame.

2004/2005 when I was most active the forum was amazing with so many different personalities posting and several threads having lots of discussion in a short space of time. As others have said, it's very slow now.

I think back then one of the things that helped was online console gaming taking off. I think people got involved here as a way of making online friends, they wouldn't otherwise have, they could game with. The buzz when Halo 2 was due, the clans, the first few days when literally everyone from the forum was on together and seeing all these username from the forum as characters on the screen was brilliant. I'm not sure why that hasn't continued. I seem to be the only person who plays SW Battlefront. Photek bangs the drum for Halo and there was a bit of interest in the Division but apart from that there doesn't seem to be too much interest in any Xbox online games. That would have been different on the past.

Going over ground what others have already covered the main issues seem to be lack of new members, people leaving and the people that are still here not posting as much.

I think issues 2 and 3 are related. I suspect a lot of people still browse a lot but just don't post as much. I fall in to that category. Reasons is that sometimes I think about posting a comment but then because it's not going to be substantial so question is it really adding anything so don't bother. I can sneakily browse at work but it's a bit difficult to get the time to post something worthwhile without being noticed. (I'm managing this because I've not got much on today but the amount of people who are constantly walking past me is irritating - why they fcuk aren't they working!)

I think a lack of response to posts put some people off. That doesn't bother me, despite the above, because I just see writing a long post as a good way of passing the time. But I can imagine it is disheartening for people who put in a lot of effort but don't get much back. I'm sure a lot of people enjoy and value these post/posters but as they don't really have anything to add they just don't say anything. I can't stand Facebook but actually think a "like" button would be good for this.

Another suggestion to improve lack of activity would be a nominated date, say a week or so in advance so there's plenty of notice where everyone who browses really makes an effort to post and get involved. Not sure if it would be best being a week day or weekend. This would hopefully give an indication of whether there is actually plenty of people who do still browse.

As for attracting new members, I'd be surprised if it's not been mentioned it before but how about people can their online tag to include "GR" or "GRacde"?

I don't post much as I have nothing of interest to say. I read a lot though.

ScouseStevmed wrote:...Another suggestion to improve lack of activity would be a nominated date, say a week or so in advance so there's plenty of notice where everyone who browses really makes an effort to post and get involved. Not sure if it would be best being a week day or weekend. This would hopefully give an indication of whether there is actually plenty of people who do still browse.

I like your idea, 'Stevemed! Maybe we could arrange something where *everyone* logged in and posted on a particular day; a kind of "census" for GR? Hmmn.... yeah, I'll have a think about that and approach the GR management team.

ScouseStevmed wrote:As for attracting new members, I'd be surprised if it's not been mentioned it before but how about people can their online tag to include "GR" or "GRacde"?

No wonder people aren't finding us

(I'm joking, Steve!).

Pedz wrote:I don't post much as I have nothing of interest to say. I read a lot though.

Pedz, man, you're one of the biggest contributors in GR at the mo' and it's sad that you'd think like that. You're into gaming, you're contributing video content to GR and you're a leading figure in the online gaming sessions... of course we are gonna be interested in what you have to say! I know that you do sometimes take a bit of stick but I feel that it's all meant in good spirits; folk do it because they feel that you're a decent chap.

Last edited by Photek on Wed Jul 13, 2016 12:22 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Great post by Steve there, I largely feel the same way as he does, the online side of gaming has deteriorated so much, having said that, when I'm playing Halo online and Monkey joins my games it does cheer me up a lot. :wub:

I enjoyed the mini FIFA tourney, can't believe we got it done, btw, the only reason nothing new is on is cos of the summer, it'll be back with more come October. I played Evolve with Pedz a few times in the beta and enjoyed that also, he seems a nice dude. I even enjoyed the division with Fin, Glowy and Degoose but that got fractured by the games leveling system, I'm possibly ahead of them now which is ironic.

I also enjoy reading posts from people who are passionate about a game, it peaks my interest in said game and also it's just nice to read about, as such steves post about SW was great, as is Jawa's about Elder Scrolls online, I bore most with Halo but I do think (shut it glowy) that Ark would be the ultimate GRcade game, mostly because it's server based so any of us can go on, and help the rest of us even when we others aren't playing by doing all manner of things for the good of the 'tribe', gathering resources, capturing dino's, stocking up food for us, it's endless really. Plus having a tribe of 5-6 members would mean we would boss most people on the Island. Maybe we just need more people online... hopefully it will get a semblance of how it was.

As for Steve wanting name changes online, it's not the worst idea. Forza Horizon 2's clan was called grcade and has more members than this entire forum, the Halo 5 clan is called Grcade and is rather large but mostly empty these days

Nothing would put me off posting more than being told a specific time to post new things. I already avoid a lot of online games here as people seem to always want to do them on one day at one time for some reason. It's not organic enough and too much of a routine.

Ad7 wrote:Nothing would put me off posting more than being told a specific time to post new things. I already avoid a lot of online games here as people seem to always want to do them on one day at one time for some reason. It's not organic enough and too much of a routine.

The idea is not intended for people who regularly post. It's not about asking people who want to post to wait for a specific time. It's aimed more at the browsers who for whatever reason don't post a lot. There must be a lot of people who browse who still play games. An easy start would be for everyone one of those to post in the "Currently playing" thread.

Ad7 wrote:Nothing would put me off posting more than being told a specific time to post new things. I already avoid a lot of online games here as people seem to always want to do them on one day at one time for some reason. It's not organic enough and too much of a routine.

I don't think it'd be the case that we'd force people to post at certain times, Ad - I feel that it'd just be an option to bring people together and focus on something in particular... and only if they wanted to.

I can understand your point about organised gaming -un-planned parties are often better than organised ones! - but, personally, I feel that it can help to have a schedule. The Mario Kart and Splatoon sessions have lasted so well because people know when they are; it'd be equally as cool to have more "random" sessions but I wonder if as many people would join?

ScouseStevmed wrote:...It's aimed more at the browsers who for whatever reason don't post a lot. There must be a lot of people who browse who still play games. An easy start would be for everyone one of those to post in the "Currently playing" thread.

Yep, that could work - most people viewing GRcade will be playing some form of game, so it'd be pretty easy to join in with that thread.

Good times on Mumble:

I can't remember if I was pissed or just very tired. I assume pissed. Good times.

EDIT: I like how the conversation is predicated on an absolutely ancient meme, too, which makes that out-of-context video sound even more insane. I can only barely remember who Nyanners is.

I've got tons of Mumble recordings on my other hard drive of Kil going strawberry floating mental playing Counter Strike/TF2/Gary's Mod/L4D/Any Game. Thought I had uploaded some to YouTube but it appears not.

I've still got this classic though

Trelliz wrote:Good times on Mumble:

Haven't listened to a recording of my own voice in a while. :dread:

Mafro wrote:I've got tons of Mumble recordings on my other hard drive of Kil going strawberry floating mental playing Counter Strike/TF2/Gary's Mod/L4D/Any Game.

Yes!

forgot about that one.

Pedz wrote:I don't post much as I have nothing of interest to say. I read a lot though.

Have you seen the shite people post on here?

I honestly forget this place is even a video games forum. Think the last couple of years, excluding Fifa with mates, I'm probably averaging about 5 hours a year on games.

Nun wrote:
Ironhide wrote:I don't mean to insult anyone who posts on SONM but compared to GRCade that place is in a bit of a sorry state, nearly everyone there is abrasive, rude and generally unpleasant towards each other, threads are always derailed by petty squabbling and endless obscure memes which are utterly meaningless to new members (myself included) and any attempt to post a sensible thread is usually met with utter disdain.

I'd argue that the vast majority of forums have a lot in the way of squabbling/obscure memes that wouldn't make sense to newcomers but honestly SONM is a shell of what it once was. I feel like i'm probably in a similar boat to Jiggles in that it's only really the nostalgia of how things were back on ONM before we switched sites that keeps me posting. Especially seeing as I keep in touch with most of the decent members via the various off site chats that have sprung up over the years.

I think I probably joined SONM just as (or soon after) it was beginning to die but even during my short time there I've noticed the place descend from quiet but friendly into the mess I described a few pages ago.

On the opposite end of the dying forum scale I used to post on an other Games Radar spinoff forum called Wakinglimb which at the time I stopped visiting had about 12 regular posters, over half of whom knew each other irl and the place started feeling a little bit too, for want of a better word, 'intimate' and I began to feel like an outsider despite being a regular poster so I left.

GRCade on the other hand is still largely an inviting, active forum to spend time on.

Mafro wrote:I've got tons of Mumble recordings on my other hard drive of Kil going strawberry floating mental playing Counter Strike/TF2/Gary's Mod/L4D/Any Game. Thought I had uploaded some to YouTube but it appears not.

I've still got this classic though

Why did you stop coming on mumble by the way? You've not been on in ages.

Kil was great.

Qikz wrote:
Mafro wrote:I've got tons of Mumble recordings on my other hard drive of Kil going strawberry floating mental playing Counter Strike/TF2/Gary's Mod/L4D/Any Game. Thought I had uploaded some to YouTube but it appears not.

I've still got this classic though

Why did you stop coming on mumble by the way? You've not been on in ages.

Got bored of listening to everyone playing Counter Strike.

jawa asks... how are you feeling about GR?

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