Topic: Goodbye/Vacation Thread

@Th3solution Same, I've been tempted to get a poll or something going to kick start things in the forums, but don't have the time recently. I'm just trying to remain active. I think @themcnoisy is still knocking about, he comments from time to time. Let's see if he notices this tag!

@Thrillho I still call him McNoisy (like McDonalds). Infinitely cooler than MC Noisy. There was a guy who used to play Destiny on here back in 2015 called mrobinson (as in M Robinson). I used to call him Mr Orbinson over voice chat for ages until he corrected me, but Mr Orbinson just sounds way too cool so that stuck - for me, at least - and for some reason I still laugh about it with a friend of mine occasionally.

(I just checked, his profile name is @mrobinson91 - hope you are doing well!)

@Thrillho
Totally agree, there are too many similar threads and the problem is that you only need a few comments in various similar threads before threads are pushed off the front page and into the “More Discussions” and ain’t nobody got time for clicking that button, consequently comments may be missed. Just my two pennies worth.

I think so much of the discussion takes place within the comments that the forums get lost a little bit.

The comments sections are more active than they've ever been, and I still maintain we have one of the best gaming communities out there, despite the odd issue from time to time.

It's definitely on us for not paying attention to the forums as much as we should. It'll take a bit of time to take a true stock of the situation and see where we're at, but I'll try to do that ASAP.

I think the industry has changed a lot from when the site first started; the way people interact with PlayStation is a lot different now.

In the old days we were in a constant cycle of first-party releases and third-party games; now a lot of activity centres around a handful of games, but I think our audience largely consists of "old heads" who perhaps want things to stay how they were.

Unfortunately, we're not PlayStation — we can only really report on what's happening in the world of PlayStation, and things have changed. (For the whole industry, honestly!)

More games are releasing than ever, but there's only so much excitement we can build around another Metroidvania or another roguelike. (And we do see the numbers.)

TL;DR: Things are changing but we need to figure out what works/doesn't work anymore. I agree the forums could use some TLC. I do listen to what people are saying.

@get2sammyb Amazing that you always take the time to respond to the goings-on. And thanks for the clarifications too.

And I get what you're saying too, with the industry ever changing, and therefore this community as well.

More games are releasing than ever, but there's only so much excitement we can build around another Metroidvania or another roguelike. (And we do see the numbers.)

I can see that. Maybe you can put a fraction of that kind of content you used to do into articles like "5 hidden gems released in june" or "3 brilliant games nobody's talking about" or something like that. I think you experimented with that once or twice too (which I remember really liking).

Anyway, thanks for listening!

@get2sammyb would it be a good idea if a PushSquare staffer made a thread about the bigger releases and left it as a place for people to talk about the game if they are playing it.

I know when people created a Dragon's Dogma 2, and Baldur's Gate 3 thread they were fun and pretty active, as people who were playing through those games added their experiences and thoughts, and helped others new to the games. But at the moment I'm not sure if people are taking that first leap to make the thread themselves. I know I should have probably made a KCD2 one, but I didn't, and so we never had a little community of those who were playing that at the time in one place. But if a thread is made by the person that reviews each tentpole game for the site it could be a good starting point for engagement, and then either people get involved, or it passes by, but the chance will be there for community engagement. And community engagement is far more valuable than community destruction.

It may be too late though. But a good example would be that Death Stranding has a 25 page thread, and Death Stranding 2 has no thread at all. I'm not sure anyone is taking the leap to post the initial threads any more, but I'm pretty sure those playing it would happily post in a thread dedicated to the game.

@get2sammyb Thanks for pitching in.

Personally, I struggle with keeping up in the comments of articles as the layout makes it difficult to keep up with any “conversations” going on as replies aren’t directly linked to each other or with any quoting of previous posts.

I do think forums are becoming a bit antiquated and can see that when it’s only a small but regular group using it that isn’t a priority.

I’ve always appreciated how yourself and @antdickens still take time to keep an eye on things here though.

@Th3solution @kyleforrester87 @Thrillho @Gremio108 I see you!

Thanks for remembering me. I'm trying to write a book in my spare time. Your name is in it Sol ROFL. Sol and Rog are members of the outer guard, who get arrested by the government in a version of Liverpool which has been hit by a small asteroid, then cordoned off from the rest of the UK. It's a slow project, rewriting draft 2 ATM.

I've just bought an evercade as I can't stand microtransactions. It's like buying a collection of games again. But honestly, although fun, the vast majority of the games are a bit too long in the tooth.

Hope y'all are doing great. 😃

@themcnoisy There he is. Legend. Hope you’re well, pal. Miss the Rocket League days!

@themcnoisy Hey boss! Honored to be a part of the outer guard! Sounds awesome and I hope that my character is clever and handsome as the real thing! 😂

Good to hear you’re staying creative and busy, mate.

@Thrillho @FuriousMachine Theres also a What are you playing on PS3 thread as well lol. Obviously the PS4 thread was created when there was only a PS4 at the time it made sense since PS4 wasn't backwards compatible with PS3 so we had threads for each of those consoles. With PS5 being backwards compatible with 4 it doesnt make sense to have the what are playing on PS4 or 5 thread but someone either wasn't thinking about that or just wanted to talk about PS5 exclusives I am guessing. Honestly maybe it should just be what are you playing on Playstation thread. They have that same problem over at Pure Xbox as well. They have what are you playing on Xbox 360, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S threads which I usually just post everything in the Series X thread since that's what I play my Xbox games on. I will be honest though if I played more of my Playstation games I myself would probably post in the PS4 thread since that's what I have and quite frankly refuse to get a PS5 so a What are you playing on PS5 thread wouldn't make sense to me.

As for the forum decline, I have noticed that on all three sites, Nintendo Life, Pure Xbox and here, Obviously Nintendo Life is alot busier now with the Switch 2 just releasing but I think as someone pointed out there is so many places now to talk about stuff with groups, Facebook, Twitter, Discord, Reddit, YouTube etc. etc. that the need for a specific forum site is not needed anymore. It just easier to do so. I mean if I am playing a game and I need help in it its alot easier to hop into a Discord channel talk with live people and get an answer immediately then say pausing your game going to a site typing up your problem in a thread and hoping that someone responses immediately. Also Facebook groups for example can be set to private giving members alot more control on who's part of the chat the dont have to worry about trolls or spammmers and if that happens mods are pretty quick to act. Its these other outlets that these younger generation uses more then website forums. As for the older generation well alot of them may not have the time to spend on forums like they once did or maybe even the interest. Its kinda not worth the time when you try to talk about retro gaming and some kid brings up PS3 and talks about it as its retro like the SNES or N64.

Is it sad to see forums what they have become, yes especially with so many good times and memories. But like everything else its just natural evolution.

@Th3solution I will send you a copy when it's finished. On my current trajectory, sometime next year.

@Kairuuu hi bro. Me too. I don't have a playstation console anymore unfortunately and haven't played Rocket League for years. I did try rematch. But for all the hype, it's not that great honestly.

@Th3solution Hey man, hope you are well. Bit late to the Goodbye Party and missed the reason Jimmer-jammer gave for leaving the forum, as he has deleted his account I can't read it now, so I was wondering ,if you or anyone else on here remembers, what were the reasons or what was the reason that he gave?

Kind regards,

BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN @RogueCooper I missed it all tbh… but from what I gather the comments section of an article about the curvaceous bum of Stellar Blade’s Eve got a bit spicy…and it then spilled over into the Ideas for the Site thread. You can’t really see what happened as a lot of the comments have been removed but if I know @Jimmer-jammer, I’m sure he was nothing less than thoughtful, considerate and astute… but it obviously weighed on him all the same.

There's the short version @RogueCooper.

From what I remember all he said in the message here @BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN was that he was leaving a message here as a courtesy.

Oh you beat me to it @graymamba

@themcnoisy Excellent stuff, add me to the list of people to give that a read when it's done. Glad to hear you're doing good

@graymamba @HallowMoonshadow Thanks to both of you for filling in the blanks. I think that the reason he gave for leaving is totally understandable. Good luck to all on here, and Happy gaming! He and the others who have left will surely be missed around these parts. And their contributions remembered, for a long time, as well, I'm sure.

@Gremio108 thanks Grem. Will send a copy

Hope you are good bro. Are you up to anything exciting?

I like this forum community a lot, whether we're with 40 or 4 people.