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Vapourware Separate threads for released games

made

Arcane
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Megathreads are cool for pre-release hype/beta talk, but when/if a game actually manages to come out it should get a separate thread like we used to do back in my day.

Thanks
 

Malakal

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I would love to have less megathreads. They made me stop posting in GRPG since when I see a thread already at 100 pages I sure as fuck am not going to read it all from the start to catch up.
 

Roguey

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If you want a new thread, start one.
 

mondblut

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In between steam early access and games gaining some of their functionality 20 patches after being supposedly out, we need a whole new definition of "released".
 

Malakal

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Making a thread for each new version would work best as long as there is a lot of forum posts and we dont end up with a full page of threads about different versions of the same game.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
In case you haven't noticed, I have been starting new threads for the big released Kickstarter games. They turn into megathreads too. No merging required, people just keep on posting in them.

Nobody's expecting you to read an entire 100 page thread. Just skim the last few and join the conversation.
 

Angelo85

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I don't particularly enjoy the current situation of pretty much every game, especially new releases with lots of interest and buzz around them, only having one single mega Thread either.
It leads to - in some cases - 100+ page Threads with shit posts sprinkled in-between esteemed, yet sometimes several totally separate discussions happening simultaneously.

The result is that most mega Threads are really hard to follow, keeping track of sub-topics / discussions that are of interest to you is unnecessarily hard, questions can get drowned out or overlooked and remain unanswered even though someone probably had an answer/hint and detailed debates about certain sub-topics regarding a game become much more complicated than they have to be.
The above mentioned, occasional shit post from the odd Andhaira GD visitor who stumbled into one of the real forums by accident doesn't help either and those posts generally add nothing of value except futile derailing / trolling attempts to the otherwise *incline* discussions going on, in turn making those huge ass Threads even more chaotic / messy.

I think there should be a change.


We as human beings are constantly evolving, growing, adapting. And so should the Codex! The 2014 incline has already begun with The Banner Saga, Blackguards and Might & Magic X. All those releases and the hype around the other prestigious soon-to-be-released games have started to spark interest in hordes of unenlightened newfags and reignited the old, familar fire in many a veteran. Hell, if things work out, the Genre as a whole might become mainstream level popular again :D
Many among these potential new bros will be (and some probably already are right now) looking for places to exchange opinions, discuss strategies, look up tips 'n tricks etc. beyond the Steam and Game specific Communities/Forums because they fell in love with the Genre and want moar or they are just looking to connect to other fellow addicts. I think the Codex should keep aspiring to be the go-to place for these folks.

In my opinion the current mega Thread trend doesn't help this effort though. It's not very user friendly and specific information is hard to find and sub-discussions are hard to follow for the reasons outlined initially in this post.


Well, what would help then?
Good question! The most obvious suggestion that springs to mind:

How about we get some sub-forums for "hot" games going? When activity goes down, the sub-forums could always be dissolved and topics moved back to GRPG or merged into detested mega Threads if a huge list of eventually semi-dead sub-forums is undesired.

The big Threads - most noticeably as of late since we finally actually have a couple decent, new games to discuss instead of just spinning in verbal circles rehashing the same old over and over - tend to move quite fast. And 100+ pages worth of posts should be proof enough that they warrant a dedicated sub-forum. To keep things in order and the information/discussion topic you seek easily accessible sub-Forums seem to be the best option in my opinion.

In case sub-forums / several Threads on the same game are an undesired thing I would have to first of all ask why that is, because I personally think several topics on the same game (but about different topics/aspects of the game of course) should not only be allowed but actually encouraged.
I don't know if merging-on-purpose is a thing right now, just putting it out there because Roguey referred to it ;) overeager merging really hurts IMHO. Several Threads on the same game but different topics allows a User to keep up-to-date on the topic that interests him without having to sift through dozens of pages of a mega Thread. An additional benefit would be to have the ability to subscribe to an individual, topic-specific Thread instead of whole mega Thread, avoiding getting an alert every single time someone posts anything. Instead you have to ability to get informed when something that is of interest to you gets posted.


/e: Why sub-forums, why not just post all Threads in GRPG you might ask?
Well here's the thing: this approach doesn't really help visibility/tidiness either. Many topics would just get "swallowed" by the activity and go too many pages back.
It's scientifically proven that
a) Many people don't bother to look more than a couple pages back (if at all) or don't want to look over all the topic names if they are looking for something specific about a specific game. Tags and clear topic titles help in this respect, but only so much.
b) Many people don't bother to use Search Functions on forums.
 
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made

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mondblut

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But yeah, megathreads are retarded. I'd rather see a "how do I equip the ring" thread for every game in existence than search 200 pages for it. What happened to starting a new thread to discuss or ask about a particular aspect of a particular game (and putting the name of the game in there)?
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
If you want a new thread, start one.
*Waits for new topic in Site Feedback: "Why was my new thread merged into the mega-thread?"*
I thought you told the mods not to do that anymore?
They still do it.

Nope. Typically the only mergings we do is when there's new news about something and multiple people start a thread about it at the same time, or when somebody goes "I didn't see a thread about this, so I'm starting a new one" when there actually was a previous thread.

But yeah, megathreads are retarded. I'd rather see a "how do I equip the ring" thread for every game in existence than search 200 pages for it. What happened to starting a new thread to discuss or ask about a particular aspect of a particular game (and putting the name of the game in there)?

Nowadays, people often start threads with the intention that those threads will become "general discussion megathreads". They don't have names like "how do I equip the ring" in the first place. They're called "The <Game X> Discussion Thread".

It's just how the forum has come to work, the moderators have little to do with it at this point.
 

Monty

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Nowadays, people often start threads with the intention that those threads will become "general discussion megathreads". They don't have names like "how do I equip the ring" in the first place. They're called "The <Game X> Discussion Thread".

It's just how the forum has come to work, the moderators have little to do with it at this point.
I'd say the forum 'has come to work' like this because of the actions of the moderators. Everyone knows that everything will be consolidated into a few megathreads so they act accordingly.

I've given up trying to follow most of the megathreads as if you ask something on page 127 someone will reply that this was 'covered on page 62'. So I tend to stick to the news posts as the games develop instead. Every other thread I've made on the Codex has ended up in a megathread.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I'd say the forum 'has come to work' like this because of the actions of the moderators.

It's true that Jaesun did some aggressive thread merging a year or so ago, but I don't believe he's entirely responsible for the change. He may have given it a kick-start, but if it was clearly suboptimal, the Codex would have reverted back to the old way of doing things by now.

I think that, due to Kickstarter, the Codex has an unprecedentedly large amount of "pre-release hype"-related content compared to previous years, and that people feel that it's more natural to follow such hype in one place. That way of posting has in turn spread to other, non-KS topics as well.

As I've said before, it's basically like following a blog feed, only with commentary. It's good for hardcore lurkers, good for hardcore posters, not-so-good for the type of people who, say, only jump into the Codex once every N days looking for specific conversation topics about a particular game. For those people, I don't have a solution other than "stick to the news posts", as you are already doing.
 
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Crooked Bee

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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Currently, I believe the merging guidelines are as follows:

- If you create a new thread that is identical to the existing one (e.g. "Let's discuss Might and Magic X again"), they get merged

- If you create a new thread for a specific issue ("How does the class system work in MMX?" or "Here's why Josh Sawyer sucks" (plz don't create this one)) or just different from any existing thread ("So, are you enjoying all these new KS RPGs?"), it stays

Mods as well as user reports tend to follow that.

Also, if ppl in a large thread tell you to "read page 67, lol" - I don't actually recall that happening often though - chances are it's the same people who'd tell you "we already had multiple threads about this, lol" if you were to create a new one. Other ppl will just answer your question.
 
Self-Ejected

theSavant

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Good idea. And get rid of the dozens of threads of "new minor Game Update"
 

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