JarlFrank said:Hey, I did an interview a short while ago.
You did. And you asked reasonable questions. I don't feel like it was your fault, but the interview fell flat for me -- it was just more of the same we keep hearing from the Afterfall devs, so there wasn't much to say about the interview beyond "I'll believe it when I see it."
JarlFrank said:Would also be good if some new RPGs were released, so we can review them.
There's still no Eschalon review. Also, weren't you or one of the other content posters planning on doing a series of "Forgotten Gems" reviews? That could be really useful.
JarlFrank said:Personally I don't mind the hivemind to be a bit seperated in some opinions... makes for a bit more variety.
Me neither, really, except when one the argument is clearly stupid and both sides drag it out ad nauseum with vitriolic, hyperbolic attacks that just make everyone involved annoying. I choose to believe that this is a result of boredom. Especially recently, it's seemed like otherwise intelligent posters simply have nothing to discuss so they compensate by discussing what little there is harder.
JarlFrank said:There aren't many RPGs I'm looking forward to right now, or even RPGs that I know about being in development.
This is why it would be nice to have VD back in charge. His desire to "make something" of the Codex could help here. If there aren't many RPGs to look forward to, then we should be focusing on something to give us an identity, as others have suggested. We could post news and content relating primarily to the indie scene, for example, or focus more on "old school" RPGs and do a lot of retrospectives. Reviews of abandonware games, maybe track down some of the old designers for interviews, that kind of thing.
Note that all of the above wasn't meant at all as an attack on you, JarlFrank. You just posted right before I started this, so I decided to use your post to frame my general comments.
Anyway, the forums have been pretty lame lately, but I do think the content and news have been under par as well. It's no one's fault (God knows my own The Witcher review was no better), and I can tell everyone's trying, but while the news posts have been fairly frequent they're just kind of boring. I miss VD's wit. The only content piece I've really appreciated lately was Section8's Year in Review, which was great.
I agree that the Codex is directionless at the moment. There's no one really at the helm guiding it, which is unfortunate. The official content lacks the bite it used to have, but hasn't replaced that with any kind of insight or other redeeming value; the forums are kind of a waste except for the Let's Play threads; and a great many of the posters are deeply annoying (I liked The Witcher too, guys, but can you stop fucking defending it every time someone so much as glances in its direction?).
Well, sorry for the rant. Probably things will get back to good in time, or maybe this is all just nostalgia warping my perspective. On topic: I don't see much harm in letting Nicolai and Pooper back in, unless a more hardcore general ban and moderation policy like Vince was proposing is implemented. Otherwise, what's the point? Nicolai at least was often pretty funny even if he was an asshole.