Okay, this has been a problem for me for a long time now, it first started getting on my nerves around last august when I first got Super Smash Bros Brawl and started going to the Console Games forum a lot. Ever since then it's been my most visited forum. Anyways.. At first when I noticed all these topics that claimed they were the official topic or club or whatever, I thought, ok. That's alright I guess, since I suppose there could be a lot of small topics with one little question that could be posted in these official threads, or clubs.

Then I started noticing, by posting in them, most people don't even notice what you say or ask, or much less bother responding. Even to simple questions. So I thought, these threads seem sort of dumb, but I suppose since they have so many posts and moderators allow them, they must serve some purpose. I thought, maybe it was a better way to talk about small things of a game that aren't otherwise big enough to make a whole thread about.

So, right at Christmas, I got Call of Duty: World at War and thought I'd make a topic with a poll asking fellow gamers which one they like better, the new Call of Duty or Cod4: Modern Warfare. It got about 2 votes and then it was closed by a moderator saying there is already a call of duty topic to post in. Ok, so I have to post in a topic filled with a bunch of rambling about guns, perks, etc. Where not only will my question ever be discussed, but I can't have a poll? This seems to me to defeat the purpose of the entire games forum, which is to discuss and compare games.

Today, some random guy made an "official fallout 3 thread!", with most likely absolutely no forethought or planning or permission. He just randomly thought he would make one because the other threads like that have a ton of posts. I made a post asking why this was necessary, why we can't just make our own topics discussing this very popular and widely played game. First I was told "If you don't want to post here then dont" and then "because it will flood the section if people post topics about every little thing, which is most likely simple questions".

First of all, I never see any posts with little simple questions which flood the entire forum. Never have I seen this, and if this were even the primary reason for making these "clubs", or "official sal's threads", wouldn't it be a better idea to just have a subforum specially for questions such as these?

And to the other argument, which was "if you dont want to post here then dont", well that's perfectly fine. However, I can't post a perfectly good topic with perfectly fine topic material in it and a fun poll without a moderator coming and telling me that there is already a topic for this.



By saying all this, I'm not recommending you guys remove all the threads that claim to be official topics or clubs, I just want to be able to post perfectly reasonable topics in the games forum that discusses the games I'm currently playing. And if flooding of simple questions is such a problem, create a subforum for these questions. That's all. Thanks for reading.

I got a verbal for posting a thread, I believe about either Starcraft or Counter-strike, as it was over a week old. I didn't see the need to make a whole new "club" topic to dicuss a few things about a game I enjoy. The topic was only about half way down the first page, but it was 10 days old.

I agree with what you're saying. If I just want to ask a question about a game or share something it should be perfectly fine to post a new topic just like I would in any other forum. (RS Disscussion, Pixel Studio, ect.)

I totally agree with that. That's what the forums are for!

You have a topic filled with people who know about the game, if you have a question, ask in there! If you don't get a reply, ask again. There's no need to make another thread.

The entire point of this topic was to point out that if he did ask a question, they wouldn't respond. Zamma said:

Thank you for actually reading my post.

They shouldn't even allow people to make those official threads unless it's organized, thought over, etc...

You mean are actually formatted? Remember the average age of most people here?

Nobody should be allowed to make topics that simply say "Discuss Gears of War here!"

I've seen alot of good topics, so I don't see what the problem is.

I'll do anything to prove somebody else wrong.

Oh, you didn't.

If you're going to try make someone look stupid with a quote, at least edit the quote a bit and hope nobody notices. It's easier that way.

I shouldn't have to ask the same question multiple times and hope to finally get a response. The solution I proposed is far better.

I wasn't trying to make you look stupid. You said that we should just go on the official topic and ask our questions there, yet Zamma already said that whenever he goes to the official topics, people don't usually answer his questions. Your post was irrelevant because Zamma had already said that he has problems asking questions in the official topics.

In active topics, posts get missed and yes, sometimes they are ignored. People assume someone else will answer the question. It's inevitable.

When the same question is asked twice, people notice it and think they should answer. Either because they didn't mea to miss it or to shut you up. Either way, it's answered.

But why deal with the chance when making a new topic that isn't official but is a single question about said game can be answered and is more likely to be answered.

Exactly. I've almost never been in the Other Games forum, but (I think?) I've had topics closed before because they weren't "official." It's annoying; sometimes you want to discuss something more specific and can't because of the clutter of unrelated posts. There should be "sub-topics." You shouldn't need an IRC channel or something to talk about, say, a certain part of Call of Duty 4. The subject's too broad; if there's something very narrow you want to discuss, it should be able to have its own subject.

As a result, we see that the Other Games subforums aren't even that fast. There's like thirty topics in ten days of posts. That's nothing compared to, say, RS Discussion.

Come on, people. We can do better.

Wrong and stupid aren't synonyms. Not even in that context.

In an attempt to prove someone wrong, people generally aim to make another look stupid.

Congratulations, you've stated the obvious! What your saying doesn't apply to this case though.

Saying you'd do anything to prove someone wrong shows that you enjoy proving people wrong just to make yourself look smart and them stupid.

It applies.

If somebody is really good at chess, they aren't considered right; they are considered smart.

If a person states that stop signs are red, they aren't necessarily smart, but that are right.

Zamma made a good point by creating this topic, and you discarded it by telling him to ignore the inactivity of the official topics. I thought Zamma was right, and by telling him to ignore what he said, you were wrong. I proved that by pointing out that he already said that when he tried no post, few people responded. I didn't want you to be stupid; I wanted you to be wrong. If you want me to call you stupid, just ask. This little back and forth thing we've got going on is a symbiotic relationship; it brings each other's post counts up. So please, I beg you, find a flaw in my logic.

I was going to PM you with a reply, but the stupidity in that post was too much for a single PM to hold, and I don't feel like sending thirteen just to quote you.

I didn't discard his "point", I found the solution to his problem. The solution was a simple ask again. You have proven nothing that doesn't reflect negatively on you, and you certainly haven't found an instance where I was wrong.

Please read over all my posts in this topic before you reply. You seem to be missing more than a little.

Dad you still haven't addressed my posts, why waste the time.

It's not like it's going to make one topic any less "official", which by the way as far as I'm concerned are the most retarded things I've seen on this forum, period.

In addition stop baiting and trolling each other, it's annoying that you two are acting like children.

Sorry.

Because these official topics remove the need for hundreds of small question topics (the one this thread is about, for instance). In the topic that is filled with people who actively play the game you ask about, you're likely to get better answers. You can even cause that opic's main discussion to change for a couple of days. (In this case it would change to MW vs WaW)

Asking again generally does get a reply.

But it doesn't hurt the topic any such form therefore your point is null. In addition why should someone have to wait for you guys to feel like getting around to an answer, that makes no rational sense.

It's not like this is a chatroom. It's a forum. Replies don't usually come instantly (your post being from 4 hours ago, for instance), as such, a decent number of answers usually takes a day of waiting, anyway.

The topics themselves were made to eliminate the need of constant question threads. In other words, to put all of the discussion together. To make things neater. What point is there to have these threads if people are going to make new ones every time they have a question (which, by the way, would have worked very well in the one discussion topic)?

I'm not trying to flame you or team on you, but for some reason you still haven't understood my topic. I'd stay you still haven't read my topic, but obviously you have by now. You keep pointing out things which I've already pointed out and gave a reason against. For instance, you said both that I should just keep posting until I get a reply, and that we shouldn't be able to make our own topics because they will flood the forum. In my first post I said that I shouldn't have to post over and over trying to get a reply, and that I haven't even noticed the games forum ever being flooded with small meaningless topics; also, I suggested that if this really was a problem, they could make a subforum for such topics and allow us to make perfectly reasonable topics in the games forum which one would think we would be able to make in the first place, given the meaning of the forum.

Once again I'm not trying to get in an argument with you, I'm just trying to get my point across.

I read the first post before my first reply.

In it you never said you bothered to ask twice. To me, over and over isn't something you say until at least the fourth try. The forum remains unflooded with small topics because there are big ones. Why change that when it works so well?

Dude, if I said I tried getting a response over and over, of course I asked twice. How is that even an argument? That really made no sense. Also, once again, by saying I never notice any small insignificant topics being made, I'm saying there aren't any particular topics that the gigantic pop-in-and-just-say-something-real-quick topics cure. I also said that if this even were a problem (which I REALLY have never witnessed it being a problem), making a subforum for these particular posts would be much better than doing away with good topics that we can't make because of the huge machine topics. It's like someone making a combat club in the official runescape forum and any other topics that have to do with combat being closed because there already is one. How do you not understand what I'm saying?

I know at some point I probably misunderstood what you've tried to say, but you aren't getting what I'm saying, either.

THERE ISN'T A PROBLEM BECAUSE WE HAVE THE BIG TOPICS. WITHOUT THEM, ONE COULD EASILY ARISE.

Of course you don't notice many small topics, everyone talks about a game in that game's topic. How does that not work for you?

EDIT

I just re-read the first post. You never once gave an instance of asking a question in the topic, let alone asking "over and over". You just went ahead and made a new one.

I'll address the part about the F3 thread. "Official" topics about single games usually die quickly. The only ones that last are about a series or console. These are the popular ones filled with questions and other discussion.

+1

I've seen some potential threads being locked because of this. Those official topics are great for mindless banter but that's all it is. Most of the posts in there aren't developed because they're so messy. If you look at the Xbox topic, a lot of it is spam and meaningless rambles about a game of Halo someone played last night. Making specific threads deals with a more specific issue and leads to some more meaningful discussion. I don't see what's wrong in making a separate thread at all.