Really interesting video. I highly recommend a watch. However the reason I am posting it here is his commentary on the lack of game forums and the popularization of reddit and other social media.
I got to thinking about why Nelson created SDG Forum, I think it might have been in part due to some of the reasons mentioned in that video. I find the forum is a much better place to browse and discuss than the subreddit or any Unturned discord I have found. I feel like we have a little community here where I feel more compelled to read almost every post and reply/post when it seems fitting.
Curious what Nelsonās thoughts are as well on this.
The thing about that is I agree, but I also wonder what would happen if the forum were to grow in size. Would the community feeling remain or would it just become like the others?
Great question, while I donāt know for sure. Realistically, the larger the forum community becomes the more posts may try to appeal to a wider audience. Possibly causing a lack of depth in content. Similar to the memes page of the forum.
However optimistically, userās decide which content is popular. If we like and comment on high-quality content, lower quality content should fall to the side. I can only hope ;D
After I wrote that, I was curious if this is true. If the memes category has more viewers/ participation so I took the last 25 posts on Memes and compared them to the last 25 posts of U4 Discussion.
What this shows is that memes typically has more replies and interaction while U4 Discussion has around the same amount of views. Granted this is a small sample size, but I do this its interesting how people are more likely to reply on a post when it is a meme versus a discussion.
It is easier to think of something funny (or in some cases, not funny) and shitpost, rather than giving a well thought-out reply on a serious discussion; Some people donāt really bother to give feedback on game discussions and suggestions. Some people rather come here to laugh at a couple meme discussions, or some people come here to see serious discussion about the game. Some come for both. Remember that unturned is a game with people from all different ages playing and not everyone coming on this forum are mature people. I donāt know how to word this any better, sorry my explanation sucks. I honestly canāt think of any other good reason why people reply less to U4 discussions.
Also, nice comparison.
Edit:
I was going to edit my message and point this out ā I am genuinely sorry about it.
Thereās nothing wrong with voicing your opinion or being interested in one specific part of the forum (as i just talked about), as long as itās appopriate for the community; Some people may agree, some people may disagree. Some people may like your behaviour around the forum, some people may not. Everybody has got a different taste, and there is no forcement about it.
Thereās definitely a content drought at the moment. What people want to say has already been said long ago in greater detail when the forums first launched, and thereās no real info on new 4.0 mechanics or gameplay to go off of for new suggestions, leaving no foundation for ideas.
I agree that memes are infinitely easier to come up with and post casually than a long, in-depth mechanic or gameplay suggestion, let alone replying to responses that pose questions towards the idea in general.
Interesting points. Iām kind of nostalgic for that era as well, having spent my fair share of time on misc gaming forums.
The sense of comradery in this close-knit forum is nice. It could be argued itās the same as other social media owned by companies, however SDGās financial interests are in gamedev not advertising. Iām happy with essentially anything being discussed here regardless of whether itās Unturned related as long as itās appropriate for the community.
It would be interesting to know more details on why the Facepunch forums shutdown after such a long run. They were certainly one of the big non-mainstream (offstream?) gaming communities. I doubt this forum will ever be closed, as Discourse is well-maintained popular open-source software, the members here are nice people including great moderators (thanks Yarrrr!), Molt is actively improving the server, and itās relatively inexpensive to host.
I do most certainly agree with the consensus that thereās been a decrease in in-depth threads and interaction as a whole has substantially shifted to memes, but what might perhaps be the most interesting question is what factor(s) we could possibly attribute this shift towards.
For one, you could be right about an influx of supposedly less mature users, but have you noticed that memes appear to take over the forums in any long intermission between devlog releases?
Or perhaps itās the state of other larger mediums having already hit the age of the SDG Forum that is causing this eventual shift towards mass appeal, because the SDG Forum isnāt what it used to be for a lot of us when we first joined, and because the SDG Forum is still more or less the newest of the official community mediums.
Plenty of people who were making in-depth suggestions on a somewhat regular basis are either burnt out currently or have been on a hiatus lately. Iād be lying if I wasnāt thinking of myself in this example, but I can name plenty of others - @NarcolepticHound being a prime example as well. Because of this minor lack of in-depth posts, itās easy to see how memes and other less in-depth posts can be felt more prominently.
Maybe all communities are bound to expand in appeal at the cost of depth as the size and age of one increases. Itās what has happened with the Steam discussions, /r/unturned, Unturned Official Discord, and countless other mediums - and while Iām not implying thatās a bad thing, itās definitely something that a lot of SDG Forum users could probably hardly imagine.
Alternatively, it could be some unforeseen external factor that causes this gravitation.
The SDG Forum is a very interesting example of a plethora of social dynamics taking place in a somewhat enclosed environment from all the other mediums of the community - and hopefully itās an environment that will continue to thrive, perhaps even with changes nobody could possibly imagine at the moment.
Until then, we have each other, and the sense of comradery that allows us, no matter where we are in the community, to connect over Unturned and beyond. You all know exactly who you are. Thanks guys (and gals).
If I recall correctly the reason was that it only costed them money and it was too much trouble to run - especially with tons of NSFW stuff people were posting as well as content ripped straight out of AAA games.
Shame it was closed - new forums looked like a great platform for an innovation of some sorts with the coins system they introduced.
Itās very sad to see that the internet golden age is gone. I started watching YouTube videos back in 2007, my brother had a YouTube channel with 10,000 subscribers and millions of views back during the 2011-2015 years. But as of 2017, weāre entering the stages of the Internet Dark Ages.
Itās sad to see good websites from smaller companies like the face-punch forums go. The FTC getting their fingers into YouTube, as well as the corporatization and centralization of the internet. The internet for the next few years or so is going to be a depressing place.
Staff are able to easily & directly communicate with individual users, and engage in normal discussions, because itās a small community. The larger the community, the harder this is to do.
Regarding non-staff engagement, you start to have a wider variety of posts (like @HoldBaker mentioned).
Realistically, the larger the forum community becomes the more posts may try to appeal to a wider audience.
While more people may be comfortable in knowing that thereās content that appeals to them, you lose a bit of the ātight knit communityā feeling because of the different directions people are pulling the Forum in. Not necessarily a bad thing, because you can still have a strong community, itās just different to what it is currently.
Memes are easy to read and subsequently like (or pretend that thereās a dislike button). Replies are also much easier, since a lot of them are in and of themselves a meme.
Iāve considered making it so brand new accounts canāt have their first posts be in Memes, but this isnāt something weāve actually gone forward with doing atm and was really just me spitballing ideas.
Itās a mix of both new accounts and older accounts that post exclusively in Memes anyways, and I enjoy the occasional meme from either group. Itās more of trying to figure out how much emphasis there should be on SDG-specific content before community-specific content.
Itās definitely easier to keep something relevant, useful, and active. Sometimes things feel too niche, and in some cases itās easier to either combine communities, or to broaden the community, than to reconsider what the community should be about/for.
If the community expands, the quality of content will decrease as people will be less determined to propose solid suggestions for Nelson and the amount of shitposting will become incredibly high because manyā¦ how should i say itā¦less mature people donāt really care about the gameās development, they care about the gameplay and the memes.
This really isnāt a downside. Whatās wrong with a games community making memes about it and only caring about the gameplay? I mean we literally play games for the gameplay. Like by playing a game you donāt need to care about the development, Personally I do but it isnāt an issue if someone really doesnāt care. By calling people who shitpost and play the game less mature you are literally talking about every single person who plays the game including yourself, You have posted memes here yourself if I remember correctly. By playing and enjoying a game you arenāt obligated to make suggestions for the game.
Personally I feel the community has a lack of purpose right now, Its memes and suggestions - people blaming everyone and everything for the inactivity but really its cause an entire forum cant exist on suggestions and shitposts alone. There needs to be more community content - more incentive to create something and share it. Who cares if there is a bunch of memes if there is an almost equal amount of creative creations? Bottom line is - making shitposts and caring about the gameplay doesnāt make you less mature it makes you a part of the community, Not everyone needs to make suggestions or contribute to development.
In my opinion, a potential solution is an incentive to get featured in @MoltonMontro s community blog. Maybe something like what destiny does where getting featured on the blog gives you exclusive cosmetics in-game. Different cosmetics for different types of feature (ex - tshirt for videos, hat for art, different gunskins for different types of mods etc) Like honestly anything to incentivize creating something other than curated maps, Curation has lots of creative limitations and have to be spaced out - with a game as goofy as unturned we should be encouraging the community to just go bonkers and make crazy shit for the community. Stuff like Candyland and Tales of Terror are good examples of what we need more of, just really out-there stuff that still loosely fits unturned. I know fun workshop content is possible, just look at the mapjam stuff. Unturned videos should be as bonkers as the game, We need more unturned art that captures that crazy feeling of playing the game. The solution to the meme suggestion loop we see every day - is a reason to do literally anything else, and I feel like the community blog is where we could do that.
TL;DR: Instead of hating people for making shitposts or suggesting nonsense we should encourage them to create something more āworthwhileā via the SDG blog.
Staff are able to easily & directly communicate with individual users, and engage in normal discussions, because itās a small community. The larger the community, the harder this is to do.
But What are you guys gonna do I dont know if it will ever happen or when it will happen but what if the community gets to a scale that you guys cant check through the stuff that the community posts anymore what will you guys resolve to then?
And can somebody tell me how to make a quote with mentioning a text of a other person?
