Post by Warlock on Jun 13, 2013 7:57:07 GMT -5
So a while back, Gameological posted this review of Soul Hackers
And then Kotaku posted this article about fansites a few days ago.
And then Anna Anthropy linked to this screed, which is interesting reading despite the weird complaints about 'academics' at the end (link is SFW as viewed on my phone, but I have no idea what else is on the tumblr. given the person who originally linked there, I'd be wary of surfing it at the office.).
... and it got me thinking back to the internet of the '90s, when Wikipedia didn't exist, GameFAQs was still in its infancy, and if you wanted to learn something, your only choice was to wander through a cluster of weird little fansites. It was an awesome time of the sort of little fiefdoms from which actual relationships form- from the big hubs like the one described in the Kotaku article to the medium-sized AOL enclaves and the tiny ones like RPGamer's non-Final Fantasy boards.
I'd noted places like this seemingly on the decline, but I'd always kind of assumed that it was just me- I've been increasingly out of the internet-fandom loop for the last decade for various reasons. It also seems that many forums eventually go through a phase in their life-cycle where most of the activity moves to IRC; big forums can withstand this (albeit occasionally developing an "in crowd" of IRC-goers and an "out-crowd" of everyone else), but it often heralds actual posting on smaller forums atrophying to nothing. Kotaku seems to indicate that a lot of forums peaked in activity in 2006- and have been going downhill since then. It's just a blog, of course, so their word isn't gospel; it's certainly possible that others which I just haven't heard of have been springing up to replace them. It seems to jive with what I've seen personally, though.
I'm sure part of it is us- many of the active forum-goers I knew back in the day were around my age, and as you get older you develop other interests and responsibilities and simply don't have time to keep up anymore. Forums stagnate, then atrophy as old users drop off or only sign on once a week and new users don't arrive to replace them. Personally, I don't think I'll ever be willing to form attachments on the 'net like I used to; as I've said before, one of the sad lessons of my life has been that the internet is a great place to have fun, but a terrible one to get emotionally invested in anything.
I see a couple major issues having caused the downfall of such places. Many of them spring up around games and series that you can't get a lot of information on elsewhere- in this modern era, Wikipedia is a centralized source for that which doesn't give the opportunity for as much chatter. Consolidation has combined many smaller forums into a number of large, centralized ones- NeoGAF, the SA forums, 4chan. One of the less fortunate results of this is that those places become a few impersonal big cities instead of a plethora of close-knit small towns. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the internet of the 90s felt less like the everyday world and more like some other place- after the rise of Facebook, and tying your virtual activity to your real name, and your mother friending you, it feels more like the internet has become just an extension of real life.
- HC
And then Kotaku posted this article about fansites a few days ago.
And then Anna Anthropy linked to this screed, which is interesting reading despite the weird complaints about 'academics' at the end (link is SFW as viewed on my phone, but I have no idea what else is on the tumblr. given the person who originally linked there, I'd be wary of surfing it at the office.).
... and it got me thinking back to the internet of the '90s, when Wikipedia didn't exist, GameFAQs was still in its infancy, and if you wanted to learn something, your only choice was to wander through a cluster of weird little fansites. It was an awesome time of the sort of little fiefdoms from which actual relationships form- from the big hubs like the one described in the Kotaku article to the medium-sized AOL enclaves and the tiny ones like RPGamer's non-Final Fantasy boards.
I'd noted places like this seemingly on the decline, but I'd always kind of assumed that it was just me- I've been increasingly out of the internet-fandom loop for the last decade for various reasons. It also seems that many forums eventually go through a phase in their life-cycle where most of the activity moves to IRC; big forums can withstand this (albeit occasionally developing an "in crowd" of IRC-goers and an "out-crowd" of everyone else), but it often heralds actual posting on smaller forums atrophying to nothing. Kotaku seems to indicate that a lot of forums peaked in activity in 2006- and have been going downhill since then. It's just a blog, of course, so their word isn't gospel; it's certainly possible that others which I just haven't heard of have been springing up to replace them. It seems to jive with what I've seen personally, though.
I'm sure part of it is us- many of the active forum-goers I knew back in the day were around my age, and as you get older you develop other interests and responsibilities and simply don't have time to keep up anymore. Forums stagnate, then atrophy as old users drop off or only sign on once a week and new users don't arrive to replace them. Personally, I don't think I'll ever be willing to form attachments on the 'net like I used to; as I've said before, one of the sad lessons of my life has been that the internet is a great place to have fun, but a terrible one to get emotionally invested in anything.
I see a couple major issues having caused the downfall of such places. Many of them spring up around games and series that you can't get a lot of information on elsewhere- in this modern era, Wikipedia is a centralized source for that which doesn't give the opportunity for as much chatter. Consolidation has combined many smaller forums into a number of large, centralized ones- NeoGAF, the SA forums, 4chan. One of the less fortunate results of this is that those places become a few impersonal big cities instead of a plethora of close-knit small towns. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the internet of the 90s felt less like the everyday world and more like some other place- after the rise of Facebook, and tying your virtual activity to your real name, and your mother friending you, it feels more like the internet has become just an extension of real life.
- HC
