So, since you all started lurking / posting here, would you say that the site has gone downhill / worsened ( as a general thing, not to any specific quantity ) since you began?

As the site grows older, so do we. The mmo's that were our first loves have for the most part died out and many of the posters here are searching for that feeling again. However you can't have first experiences more than once so that search will be neverending untill we either decide to give up or adept. I think the massive negativity on these forums is the result of most of us refusing to give up and not yet ready enough to truly adept our search. As the search continues the disappointments add up. Over time it gets harder to remain positive about the mmo scene simply because of this.

No, this site has always been a cesspool of bitterness and despair, and we like it that way.

As mentioned above, I do think players are getting more and more bitter with each less than successful launch of MMORPG's that fail to capture our imaginations and inspire us.

If you're not plaing one of the more successful games, you're probably not very happy with the current state of gaming and share it with us here.

Me, I'm happy playing EVE so I don't feel the same down attitude  that others seem to.

Originally posted by Dawnsinger

So, since you all started lurking / posting here, would you say that the site has gone downhill / worsened ( as a general thing, not to any specific quantity ) since you began?

Depends, site is good for debate back and forth on games and opinions, which is more or less what I came for back in the day, and still lets me argue with folks I disagree with today.

There are always going to be people who take it to far, and other people who get offended way to easily.

Its a forum, forums strive on debate.

Originally posted by Pyrostasis

Originally posted by Dawnsinger

So, since you all started lurking / posting here, would you say that the site has gone downhill / worsened ( as a general thing, not to any specific quantity ) since you began?

 

Depends, site is good for debate back and forth on games and opinions, which is more or less what I came for back in the day, and still lets me argue with folks I disagree with today.

There are always going to be people who take it to far, and other people who get offended way to easily.

Its a forum, forums strive on debate.

QFT.  I've been here for quite a while.  I still like the site.  I think it's improved alot over the years.  As Pyro said, yes some people do take it too far.  At the end of the day though, it's still the same old forum most of us, have been lurking at for a long time.

I think (opinion here) there used to be a more engaging community, as many of my favorite posters from a few years back have since left the site to places unknown.

But things are about the same, I'd say.

EVE Online posters are still jackasses, the WoW board is still full of doom and gloom and item selling threads, the older game boards are still desolate, everyone still hates new games for what they promise and probably won't deliver, random people still post samey game ideas in the developer's corner (which I don't think even has a mod anymore, if it ever did), etc.

The personal blogs are nice, but they seem so scattered (not categorized) and out of the way of the forums that they're just not worth delving into.

Not much has changed, so it would really surprise me if the site traffic logs looked any different now than from three years ago.

I think the site itself has improved. 

There are more features and there have been some very good articles.

Not everything has been golden, and there are times when an article pisses me off.  Still the site itself is pretty good.

What I have noticed is that many of those who visit here are getting more grumpy, mean spirited and there seems to be more jerks.  This is mirroring a trend in both MMO's and the real world as anyone who works in customer service can attest to. 

As others above have mentioned, we are in a sort of down period for the genre and this makes a good place to vent.

Love or hate this site, one thing I respect is the fact that MMORPG.COM has a policy of tolerance and allowing of others opinions.  Many sites are very censored, but this one is pretty fair about that.

I think this site has improved a bit. I love to daily digests and the articles that are written. They are also always adding new features and giving rather undbiased opinions of games. This is one of my favorite sites to go to.  

Huge improvement in the last year.  More columnists, more reviews, better moderation in forums, new videos... there's a lot which has gotten much better than before.

Ken

The main page is ugly. Too much info thrown at someone at once, if you're not familiar with it, it's going to take you a min to parse through the information to get anything useful out of it.
The New Forums freaking blow monkey turds. Probably the worst forums I've ever seen in my entire life, the old ones weren't great but these are just nasty. Freaking FireFox spell check doesn't even work.  Right click and you get "Cut/Copy/Paste" but the only one of those that work is Paste and it brings you to a new window to paste it as plain text for some unknown reason.
 
Other than that, the site and the new systems(besides forums) have gotten alot better since 2004. The site used to be really basic and the forum mods don't seem so nazified anymore. I know with the things I've posted since I've been back, I would have been banned at least twice a couple years ago. Either they fired those kids they made mods or those kids got older or something. They would constantly misinterpret decent thought out posts as being flames.

It is kinda sad to see the same ol' same ol' topics are being posted in The Pub that were being posted in 2004.

"X GAME ROCKS Y GAME!"

 "Z GAME WILL KILL A GAME!" 

"WHY DO MMORPGS DO Q?" 

"I WOULD LIKE TO SEE A GAME THAT HAS ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ FEATURES! AND MORE!"

"THIS GAME IS GOING TO PWN!" (then you find out a year later it crashed and burned)

"THIS GAME ISN'T GOING TO BE LIKE THIS!" (just to have the game released and find out it's EXACTLY like that)

Blah blah blah.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same" sums up my thoughts on this site nicely.

Originally posted by Kyleran

No, this site has always been a cesspool of bitterness and despair, and we like it that way.  

Bingo. 

There is nothing different about these forums today than 5 years ago.  It's a bunch of people that act like their opinions are facts and try to belittle others for not liking what they like.  The only difference today is that it's based on different games.

Here is how I approach this forum and any other forum.  Some stuff posted is crap. It gets ignored. Some stuff is dreck. Some of that dreck can be made fun of or be turned into something fun. Ignore the rest of the dreck. Some stuff violates the rules I find important on this site. I report those and blow off the rest of the violations. Some stuff is good conversation. I enjoy that conversation whether I participate in it or not. This has not changed since I joined the site.

Be like a duck in a thunderstorm. Take shelter on the lee side. Let the water roll off your back. Stay afloat and keep an eye out for anything that looks like good eats.