-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
|OT| topics will now go live on game launch date
- Thread starter charlequin
- Start date
Hip Hop
Member
I was gonna say "but I like hyping up my games before they are released, where would I go to now?" but your explanation is true, it happens all the time.
Good change I guess. It's for the better.
I'd be okay with having the |OT| there but locked until midnight of release date for the big midnight release games. My concern, and I think others' concern about this is if people want to post in the |OT| after midnight of the release, but can't because the person who claimed it hadn't put it up yet.
Quote
Member
This is great. A lot of OTs are pure hype trains till release and while being excited with others is fun and all, it becomes an echo chamber. The first couple posts that have any criticism are met with some harsh replies. It is not till a week or weeks later any real level-headed discussion can happen.
I've never been a fan of the ad-like OTs either. Maybe those can go next.
I've never been a fan of the ad-like OTs either. Maybe those can go next.
No. For the record, I'm not with people who complain about spoilers in a thread dedicated to discussing the thing they don't want to be spoiled. It's their responsibility to reasonably avoid spoilers, especially if they are more sensitive than the average person to them.
shinobi602
Member
If we're allowed to freely speak our minds, in the most polite way possible...
I feel like the answer by the moderation (generally speaking), to problems like the 'OTs being places where dissenters are pushed away' , is to shut something down completely instead of weeding out those who are acting hostile and berating others. If some folks are ruining it for others, then close it all down, essentially.
It ultimately feels like collective punishment unfortunately.
I understand the reasoning ... but I will say I do like being able to pop into an OT pre-release and, if it's a good OP, catch myself up on a game I may not have been paying attention to. I'm a lot less likely to hunt across various "new news, new thread" posts for all the info that might be in an OT.
ComputerBlue
Member
Fair enough, have seen this time and time again.
You can certainly speak your mind. And then I'll remind you that all of the staff on this site are unpaid volunteers, giving their spare time to moderate the site. Expecting us to keep close tabs on every OT (or every thread, even) is not reasonable at all. We do the best we can, with the time we have, but this site is enormous and enacting sweeping policy is sometimes the only way to keep things from getting out of hand.
The scale there is tricky though... say somebody comes into a pre-release OT with a less-than-positive opinion and gets ostracized by the echo-chamber hype train for it, who then is to blame? Do they slap the wrists of the guy stirring the pot or all of the posters too defensive to realize it's an opinion?
I think trying to weed all of that shit out is a good idea.
I understand but where can other like minded users who are interested in the game before release discuss? Maybe reduce the OT to perhaps 3 days before release or something but this sounds really harsh. I am afraid it is like ridding a home and bulldozing each respective games' community GAF offers and where people interested in the same game come together to form a community and add each other on friends lists and so forth.
I'll just like to suggest a 3 day before release OT. That sounds a lot more reasonable than the day of, which is really little time for the community to come together and reduces the excitement since it will be hard to befriend each other after the game comes out lessening the fun and hype of playing the game together, joining parties, adding to friends list, etc.
BossLackey
Gold Member
100% agree. That's exactly what I thought OTs were for in the first place. I like getting hyped for an anticipated game. Speculating, scouring screenshots/trailers/gameplay. That's the fun of the OTs! Getting excited alongside others who are all in the same place, all looking forward to something together.
Making this day one might as well have renamed the review threads "OT". I legitimately don't understand the logic behind this.
*sigh*
Die Squirrel Die
Member
I think the problem with that is that the process of a thread turning from a place of discussion to an echo chamber is a gradual one and pinpointing exact posts that are chasing dissenters away is difficult.
What may make somebody reluctant to post a contrary opinion in a thread may not be the fear of a specific personal attack, but rather getting quoted and refuted over and over by a group that has been forming and coming to a concensus for a week before the game has even been released. What the individual posts say may not be contentious and therefore it would be unfair to those poster to be reprimanded or banned for expressing their view, but rather that the dissenter is outnumbered significantly by those who represent the majority view.
People will just bump an old thread for the game that is tangentially relevant and form cliques and mini-communities there. I don't know how that's better.
Exactly. The "hype" and general pre-release bullshitting that would normally be reserved for OTs will just spill over into other threads.
I agree with this decision. I love some good old hype threads with my GAFfers but if it's a highly anticipated title most of the posts will be about expressing how excited they are, often not saying much other than a brief sentence or just a couple of words "OMG" "Day 1" "Hype!".
While it's great for many to express their happiness towards a new title it creates a big wall of posts where a proper discussion could take place. Even worst if a OT| gets a bit too off topic with topics that many not even been gaming related. For those trying to find information, the first page should always answer most of the questions but if they are not there it's nice to expect an answer from a kind fellow GAFfer. If said hype posts are too often, this help could be harder to find and opportunities to generate a proper discussion are also lost. I would also like to see some detailed posts when we post in OT's. I know we have little time between life, backlogs and so on but it's great when people provide useful info, thoughts and opinions regarding the story, visuals, etc. That is what makes this fine community the best place to be and I hope that, with this new decision the "empty" hype/one-word posts can be reduced for a bit and instead we get more discussion going.
While it's great for many to express their happiness towards a new title it creates a big wall of posts where a proper discussion could take place. Even worst if a OT| gets a bit too off topic with topics that many not even been gaming related. For those trying to find information, the first page should always answer most of the questions but if they are not there it's nice to expect an answer from a kind fellow GAFfer. If said hype posts are too often, this help could be harder to find and opportunities to generate a proper discussion are also lost. I would also like to see some detailed posts when we post in OT's. I know we have little time between life, backlogs and so on but it's great when people provide useful info, thoughts and opinions regarding the story, visuals, etc. That is what makes this fine community the best place to be and I hope that, with this new decision the "empty" hype/one-word posts can be reduced for a bit and instead we get more discussion going.
ShockingAlberto
Member
I like like the act of calling OTs should be overhauled, as well, but I think this is a good step, too.
Agree. The OTs allowed expression among us members and let us let it all out.
Excellent point. At least the OTs consolidated everything, and this decision may lead to more disorganization and random posts with the search engine and so forth. I don't like it. GAF offers a more serious gaming community than GameFAQs.
SliceSabre
Banned
Sounds like a reasonable move to me, cuts down on the clutter.
I'm with this guy. I like the OTs being up a little early because it creates awareness for the game and is the best outlet to sell me on it. A week was ideal IMO. I understand the reasoning but it didn't appear to be such a problem to warrant change, and it seems a minor problem that doesn't outweigh the pros of an earlier OT. But what do I know; I'm just a guy who was perma junior'd for posting a rumor that TLOU was coming to PS4...which turned out to be true :/.
matrixman92
Member
I like having one place to discuss and "hype up" a game if you will, before release. Its cool going into a thread and seeing other people as excited as you for a game, kind of like stories I have heard from midnight releases. I guess this is fine, although I would prefer if it would go up like 2-3 days before release
dragonbane
Member
I think this is a good idea.
Skel1ingt0n
I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
I also think that's a fair compromise.
Considering there's always quite a few people who get the game the day before release, why not just change it to 24 hours before release? It would still be a huge change from the one week system.
With all the different time zones GAF members live in, release day might get chaotic imho.
With all the different time zones GAF members live in, release day might get chaotic imho.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
I think this makes sense, or maybe 24 hours before, just based on the fact we're getting games that can go through nearly 20000 posts in a single week before the game even releases. There isn't really that much to post pre-release that isn't just mindless hype most of the time.
But at the same time I don't know if having the OT go up on release day is really going to change anything regarding how the community around a game is formed. Typically the same people posting in the OT a week before release are the same people actively posting in the various pre-release topics about a game. The community is already forming before an OT ever goes up and those topics also have issues where people pile on others with dissenting opinions.
But at the same time I don't know if having the OT go up on release day is really going to change anything regarding how the community around a game is formed. Typically the same people posting in the OT a week before release are the same people actively posting in the various pre-release topics about a game. The community is already forming before an OT ever goes up and those topics also have issues where people pile on others with dissenting opinions.
TheAbsolution
Member
Does this go for Off Topic OTs too?
Hibiki Kurosawa
Member
Alright, fair enough. I can live with that.
Lactose_Intolerant
Member
Good, keep the hype to their own threads and give impressions and general game discussion to the OTs
FleetingFlowAir
Member
Understandable change. I like it.
That's not even what's happening. Sounds like "hype" as a whole is trying to be eliminated.
I see nothing wrong with this, but I'm curious whether the dissenting opinions are that big of an issue in OTs? Like, how frequently will people get straight-up attacked if they explain why they think the game is bad?
jacksepticeye
Member
Good call. Destiny OT was a bit of a joke
That's fair, but if you have overwhelming support for a slight tweak to that policy - letting OTs up 24 hours prior - why would you not indulge the community's wishes?
What does that have to do with what you quoted?
Lactose_Intolerant
Member
People overly hyped don't allow for people to discuss the game if they don't like what they are seeing.
You get a full week of nonsense before people have even played the game in OTs before this change. Hopefully now it will be impressions and people thanking the OP for the OT on the first pages.
You were explaining why policy change is sometimes the best course of action - which is fair - so it seemed logical to ask why user feedback would not be considered at the time of such a change.
You would have two options.
1.) Post about it in a different thread the same way you would if you got the game more than a week early now.
2.) Use the extra time you have to type up really detailed and informed impressions and then get to post them really early in the OT.
Similar threads
- Locked