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Been a GAFfer for a year, a retrospective

This is still the only place that I feel like I can really discuss games with others that are as passionate about them as I am, though I have been a little disappointed in the state of the forum during this generational transition. I joined in 2007 so this is my first generation shift on NeoGAF.
 
I found these forums on 2002 or so. I lurked for about 10 years until I finally decided to register on 2012. I originally lurked for gaming news, photoshops and to read posts by members like Demi. Later on, I found the GayGAF threads which helped me to come out. Even the general atmosphere on these forums was more accepting than other sites I had been on at the time.

I do enjoy more reading rather than posting, though.
 
More_Badass said:
Yeah, but it depends on what thread you post in. The Indie threads, where I'm probably the most active, move at a slow enough pace to have a good discussion. The Steam thread, you blink and four pages have gone by. The IOS threads are good for discussion as well as the many show and movie OTs.
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Yeah - the big OTs are absolutely crazy. But they're very entertaining to read - especially if something divisive or ground-breaking is going on. An avalanche of GIFs, arguments and wailing. :D
 
Felix Lighter said:
This is still the only place that I feel like I can really discuss games with others that are as passionate about them as I am, though I have been a little disappointed in the state of the forum during this generational transition. I joined in 2007 so this is my first generation shift on NeoGAF.
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Guess I've avoided this since I've stuck to the Indie and Steam threads, but I'm equally a console gamer and my opinion is this: it's BS. Console wars are BS, and the inane fanboyism that erupts from it is BS. Microsoft may have tarnished its reputation, but looking at the consoles themselves and the games they offer, each has their own pros and their cons. I wouldn't call either one superior, just unique in their own ways. I've been predominately Sony/Playstation since a kid, so I'd stick with PS4, but I'm just as excited to see what exclusives the Xbox One gets as well

That's how the debate should be approached
 
That's one incredible gif.

Anyways, GAF is a pretty great community.

I really like the civil discussions that go on in this forum.
 
I've been registered on here since late 2010 but didn't really start posting heavily until late last year, and I feel I spend way too much time on here now compared to just a year or two ago.

GAF is a great forum though, and the level of discussion and quality of discussions held on here compared to the other half a dozen gaming forums I've been registered and participated on is mostly top-notch. It's why I'm addicted to this place :p. This is also the only place I bother going to get my gaming news now, its just really convenient to have only one website for doing and checking that and for me that is GAF.
 
I'm 20 days and counting for member status, and having come from brief stints at Eurogamer & *shudder* IGN, this is place for grown-ups. I appreciate strong modding of idiocy.

Oh, and the gifs. And the Resogun thread.
 
That gif in the OP finally gave me the answer to why I am still a Junior after three years, lol. Need to post moar!
 
I've logged nearly 8.5 years on NeoGAF, and it's still the only forum I go to regularly, whether I was in the gaming industry or not during that time. Funny looking back on my early posts and threads.

The thing that blows me away is when I look at some folks who have been here for less than a year to see their post counts and per day stats. Insane!
 
GAF is the forum home I've been looking for since quitting Zam when my MMO playing tapered off in 2011. It took about two years to find and I was largely lost without a forum to call home. I found myself attempting to regularly post on news sites (local paper, national news sites like CNN). I started seeing GAF pop up while reading video game stories and seeing the news or leak attributed to GAF. I then applied (not sure exactly when), and was approved shortly before the PS4 announcement. 1,000+ posts later, I haven't looked back and have a new internet community home that perfectly suits me.

It just makes it even better that the forum is so heavily modded. Our community is sometimes immature
every community shares this, not singling out gamers
and overprotective of their games and it's good to see discussions fostered about issues that never really rise up anywhere outside of Kotaku (sexism, homosexuality etc).

People over in OT are awesome as well. I really enjoy getting regular feedback from people around the world and it gives me a perspective we often don't get, sealed in our little America focused bubble.

I love you all, even the console warriors.
 
Congrats! It's my second year here and still going strong!

And still trying to earn my Mighty No. Guy tag.
 
MilkyOctave said:
I found these forums on 2002 or so. I lurked for about 10 years until I finally decided to register on 2012. I originally lurked for gaming news, photoshops and to read posts by members like Demi. Later on, I found the GayGAF threads which helped me to come out. Even the general atmosphere on these forums was more accepting than other sites I had been on at the time.

I do enjoy more reading rather than posting, though.
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Same here. Not quite as long as that, but I do read more than I post. I've been trying to be a little more active recently, but there is such good discussion on here that many times I find a post similar to what I was planning on saying already (like this lol).

Definitely use the site as my #1 resource not only for discussion but for news.
 
On the whole I enjoy the place despite some frustrations. I go through phases where I don't spend much time on gaf and I always miss a bunch of stuff when I do. It's a valuable place to me.
 
I lurked the fire emblem and persona threads for awhile when I was waiting for my account to be activated, all in all gaf reminds me of real life surprisingly , lots of chodes and a couple really cool people in the mix. Still feel like an outcast but that's probably just the teenage angst talking.
 
Nice. I've been lurking since for months, mostly for next gen rumors and news.

For a while, I thought there was some problem with my verification.

Then a couple weeks ago I got the approval email. So far I haven't been very active in posting, though I do browse a lot.
 
suavelicious said:
Similar with me. I think i registered around autumn last year some weeks before the WiiU launch. At that time I was rather tired of videogames. But the imminent WiiU launch led to my registration on neogaf. The enthousiastic people here on neogaf really let my interest in videogames rise again and I think with this community I enjoy playing games more than ever.
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I have similar sentiments to yours. For the last few years I had distanced myself from gaming, probably due to work, life events, etc. But then at the beginning of this year I found myself catching a lot of news stories on other sites, many that sourced back to GAF. Probably the upcoming next gen consoles played a factor in catching my attention. It was the enthusiasm of the community here that too made me want to stick around. Pretty much anything important/related to the gaming industry is discussed here, and I feel like I have a home again to rekindle my gaming hobby. I haven't felt this enthusiastic about a community since the days of the WarpPipe forums. My time here has been short, but it's helped me feel like a gamer again.
 
I love the pro consumer / developer vibe in this place, pretty much stopped reading any other forums since I found it over a year ago.
 
I've only been here for a few days XD Been lurking for a very long time though and finally built up the courage to take the plunge.

That Matrix gif is the greatest thing I've ever seen!
 
Ultimadrago said:
Came for Gaming

Stayed for Off-Topic

Learned better

Left Off-Topic

Stayed for Gaming
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I came here for both side. Mainly for Gaming, but there was the big Man of Steel hype during the time I joined as well. After MoS was released, I stayed for Gaming. But as next gen was approaching, things in gaming side could get so bad that it was almost too much for me. I decided to go black out on Gaming for awhile (I'm a PC gamer so I don't care much for next gen).

Off-topic on the other hand, was easier for me to breath as it is more diverse and less Gaffers there. I have had a lot of fun in Off-topic than I had in Gaming. I've only returned to Gaming twice ever since: GTA V launch and the recent VGX (fucking disappointment). Now that the next gen launch is cooling down, I think I will return back to Gaming. Off-topic is still my main playground at the moment though.
 
Nibel said:
Glad you enjoy your stay OP

I'd love hear some feedback from people who are here since 5+ years
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08-28-2004 is my start date

This post makes 16,751.

Been banned a few times, over time, I started off as a Nintendo fan then largely onto Xbox and it's services though PC is the best if you can afford it. Its a great community.
 
Came here for Durante's DSFix a year ago, and finally got myself approved some months ago.

Have to say that while the moderation is strict, it leads to a community where people don't risk saying intentionally stupid things or flaming each other very often.

Definitely the best videogame community I've seen as a result, and I hope to watch it grow even further.

Only thing I don't always love is how many dang posts there are, it can make a 30+ page topic pretty intimidating to try and enter when you know that there's 30 pages of discussion that you either have to read, or ignore and possibly regurgitate.
 
The best part of these forums for me is being able to have back and forths with developers and other luminaries in the industry. I've had brief conversations with Victor Ireland for Christ's sake. Hopefully I don't come off as too much of a douche nozzle. But the experience has been great.
 
Anung said:
I've only been here for a few days XD Been lurking for a very long time though and finally built up the courage to take the plunge.

That Matrix gif is the greatest thing I've ever seen!
Click to expand...
Welcome, thanks for joining. Always nice to see new people. Hope to see you around. I'm always in the Indie Threads, sometimes in the Steam and IOS threads, and I'm about the main one keeping the IOS Hidden Gems thread afloat
 
Just recently joined myself, enjoying it quite a bit. I was a loong time lurker though, probably since about 2004 or 2005 when it was still a part of gaming-age. It's surreal in a way because i feel like i know a lot of the posters here since i've been reading their posts for so long, but they obviously have no idea who i am. I put off joining for so long because i was finishing up college and getting started with my career, and had a feeling a site like this would be a big timesink (i have no self control). Now, at 30 years old and somewhat settled in my career i have some more free time than i used to.

What really prompted me to join recently is the cesspool known as /r/ gaming. Reddit is a great site if you know the correct subreddits to subscribe to, but all their videogame subreddits are horrific and only a slight step up from gamefaqs or early 2000s gamespot system wars. Neogaf is by far the best gaming board on the net and home to some really great, insightful posters. Granted it's not perfect and there is without a doubt rampant fanboyism on this site, but at least it's hidden under a more polished coat of paint. It makes it tolerable at least.
 
I am changing jobs next week and need to register my new work email address with GAF, since we can't use freebies. I don't think I will need to access my old email to confirm anything but if so I'm fucked!

The thought of being cut from GAF scares me. LOL
 
I've been lurking since June of 2012. Finally got a e-mail I could use with Gaf and I used that to sign up in October. Got approved like 2 weeks later. I'm currently sitting at 625 posts now about a month after becoming a Junior :)
 
I came here after i realized that gaf had a bigger nintendo community than other forums taht are actually nintendo centric. gotta be honest thou, at first when i found out about it through that one gametrailers video, it just seemed like a bunch of ego filled xtards and pstwats :O.. j/k. I also like the PC people here.

Edit: back in the early 2000s i was really active with the IGN forums, man i thought i had seen everything there. This place takes the cake. Fucking wow at some of threads taht sprout here (good and bad).
 
Yeah I like it here. I feel like for the most part people tend to discuss games in a civil and fun manner. There really is a sense of community. The news and updates are nice, It's fun to speculate on all the rumors and When people ask questions most of the time the responses are really helpful. It's a really cool thing when gamers of all types can come together and share their experiences in one place.
 
I have always loved video games. i even remember the game that got me hooked. It was called Jumpman for my Commodore 64. I was maybe 6-7 years old at the time and ti was the greatest thing ever.

I joined GAF because I liked playing games. I stayed Gaf because I had no idea the technical brilliance that's behind every piece of software I have played since Jumpman. Since joining I have read pretty much every technical thread I could and even just downloaded the free version of Unity. I have no idea how to code, I can't draw worth a lick, but I want to understand and feel what its like to create, out of thin air. This is what GAF has done for me, anyway.
 
That gif was amazing...

I was a long time lurker, finally got approved in 2011 and I really do enjoy it, this is just about the only online community that I post on.

I'm not the most active poster but I did eventually graduate to full member from a junior! I'm usually pretty paranoid about pissing people off so I don't post as often as I'd like.

Been playing video games since the NES era so I come here mainly for games discussion but I also dable in the off-topic threads from time to time. I'm a really big spider-man fan so the few threads I've created have usually been spider-man related.

Hopefully I don't annoy too many people!
 
Thanksfor the nice read and for introducing me to that epic gif. haha it's so perfect.

I'm just a junior, but have been loving this place. I even skip most gaming news sites because I can catch the news here.
 
Yep, I love GAF! I'm pretty much the same. I remember hearing so much shit about GAF and how bad it was so then I came here, lurked for maybe a few weeks and I decided I had to join myself (Perfect timing too since I had just gotten a college email address). It's not nearly as bad as people think.

The huge community here is amazing. Before I was so used to being a part of almost dead message boards where there were like 3 new posts a day. Here, I enjoy seeing the many many many discussions on video games as well as just the active community of people posting opinions and up to the minute news. Also some of you guys are just funny as hell. There's always something different to talk about on here.
 
kogasu said:
Yep, I love GAF! I'm pretty much the same. I remember hearing so much shit about GAF and how bad it was so then I came here, lurked for maybe a few weeks and I decided I had to join myself (Perfect timing too since I had just gotten a college email address). It's not nearly as bad as people think.

The huge community here is amazing. Before I was so used to being a part of almost dead message boards where there were like 3 new posts a day. Here, I enjoy seeing the many many many discussions on video games as well as just the active community of people posting opinions and up to the minute news. Also some of you guys are just funny as hell. There's always something different to talk about on here.
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Guess we're in the same situation, so I wanted to ask: since I'm using my college email for GAF, what happens when I finally finish college and have nothing but my Gmail/Yahoo emails? Would I need to register with a new email or now that I'm already registered, it doesn't really matter?

The horrors of not being on GAF...
 
I've been here as a Junior for a little over a year and lurked a short time before that. I don't post often or make any significant impact with my contributions, but it's still great to have people here who generally take my questions and comments seriously and give me legitimate responses when I do post. That and knowing that quality comments/opinions/jokes/gifs are coming when someone enters a thread is a really satisfying feeling. I forget how big GAF really is sometimes given how tight knit some of the groups are or how identifiable so many members are.

I have never had a problem with any poster or thread. Then again, I take informative/ argumentative posts seriously but take everything else with a grain of comedic sarcasm. That has worked out really well so far.

I hope to join you in full membership very soon.
 
I've been here a long time. It's a horrible form of addiction.

On the other hand. I've had some amazing laughs on this board and have read a lot of thought provoking stuff. It can be an inspiring place sometimes.
 
The last 8 months after finding Neogaf have been perfect! Such a great place to keep up and discuss everything!
 
More_Badass said:
Guess we're in the same situation, so I wanted to ask: since I'm using my college email for GAF, what happens when I finally finish college and have nothing but my Gmail/Yahoo emails? Would I need to register with a new email or now that I'm already registered, it doesn't really matter?

The horrors of not being on GAF...
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I fear for that day as well.

I think I've heard of people asking mods if they could switch from their paid e-mail accounts to free ones like gmail and the mods were ok with that but I'm not completely 100% sure on that.
 
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