Is this place still active?

After many years of hiatus, I am back and want to dig into a NES... any recs from the more active folk around these parts?

Ever since the NES community split back in late 2014, it has been fairly slow over here. Most of the activity is at the other side's new home, the Frontier. I hear that they are slowing down a bit as well.

Hey:

The community is still active in these two locations:

IOT on CFC

and

the Frontier

Lord_Herobrine said:

Ever since the NES community split back in late 2014, it has been fairly slow over here. Most of the activity is at the other side's new home, the Frontier. I hear that they are slowing down a bit as well.

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It's actually speeding up on the Frontier.

not at all

If you're looking for a fun game, Kashmir over at the IOT section is basically a normal NES in a different subforum. It's an alternate timeline game centered around a weak Rome that begins in 500 AD. It's run by SouthernKing, who has run a few NESes before.

Here's a link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=543086

An update is in the works right now, if you're interested in joining.

I propose that we've got one older generation that has matured, gained more obligations, and gone off in different directions (though a solid segment remains in one piece at The Frontier), while we have a younger generation that now gravitates around IoT, running what are basically NESes of the board-game style.

Also bear in mind that this younger generation has grown up with faster internet, more on-demand instant-gratification, and computer games with richer universes to explore, thus perhaps there is less interest in home-made storytelling as a hobby?

I mean I first started writing and reading NESes to fill a gap that no computer game could fill at that time (and still never really has - but then I don't really play modern games so much).

Daftpanzer said:

I propose that we've got one older generation that has matured, gained more obligations, and gone off in different directions (though a solid segment remains in one piece at The Frontier), while we have a younger generation that now gravitates around IoT, running what are basically NESes of the board-game style.

Also bear in mind that this younger generation has grown up with faster internet, more on-demand instant-gratification, and computer games with richer universes to explore, thus perhaps there is less interest in home-made storytelling as a hobby?

I mean I first started writing and reading NESes to fill a gap that no computer game could fill at that time (and still never really has - but then I don't really play modern games so much).

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Except that there are two perfectly normal NESes being run there that are quite successful. Things haven't changed; maybe you have?

Besides, something as complex as say EoE is more the outlier than the norm, and you can't expect to have one running constantly.

Edit: The two NESes in question: here and here. Also BOTWAKI, which started over here but found a more receptive audience at IOT.

Au contraire! Things have changed. Kashmir is heading in the right direction, but Thomas's NES and BOTWAKI are too narrowly focused to capture a large audience like a traditional narrative NES would. It isn't that we aren't around (cause a large core group of the most talented people are still around and being creative, just not on this forum) but that the games being run aren't of the sort desired. Some people will fall into those three, but not as many who would fall into an EoE or TNES or something of that scale and depth.

I agree with Daft on the generational differences. We definitely made our storytelling habits out of a lack of alternatives, and that shaped how we view gaming. We're also conditioned to hibernate for months at a time, whereas IOTers are used to constant updates. I've played in several NESes where half a year delay in an update wasn't unheard of, and a couple months being normal.

But a lot of us are getting on up in the years, and with that we've branched out into other hobbies. We still NES, if presented with games that tickle our fancy, but we also have other creative pursuits. Daft makes games and does art, NK is a musician, a number of us do creative writing regularly, and a larger section of us are seeking graduate education.

We're still here, waiting, watching. When the time comes so will we. But now is a slow time. We've been here before. Patience, children. There are plenty of years left before they dig our holes.

EoE notwithstanding, we have not had one of the "large/complex" neses for a while. TNES had huge potential hype, and people want to play in those types of games, but fewer and fewer of them will be run as we pursue other creative outlets, and have less time in general. I can count around six people who have actively expressed interest in running a large scale nes, and have the ability to make it an excellent one, but lacking for time.

But like Lucky has said, we've had dry spells before. It's not as if the community has dispersed. A return will come, one way or another

Okay, alright, jeez. I'll be the hero that Gotham needs.

Link to video.

So why did the community split back in 2014?

Depends who you ask, and is pretty much a question that can only lead to getting the thread closed.

A fair discussion would involve a bit of discourse regarding moderation, which is a no-no on this site.

The basic story is that a portion of our community felt that moderation overreached their bounds, and got really angry at the site administration. Some people decided to burn bridges and get their accounts permabanned. A lot of these people moved over to the Frontier, which is another site hosting NES-like games, though our subforum there is currently fairly inactive. I suspect that a lot of us who moved don't have the time to run NESes of the sort that we'd like to play, and moving to a different site just emphasized that issue. Right now the best place to go to find NES-like games is the IOT subforum.

So some of our community now refuses to touch Civfanatics, and as there isn't much NES activity elsewhere, they're not NESing right now. Some of our community stayed here, and don't NES very much as this subforum is rather inactive. Those of us that still want to play these games and write NES-type stories do so in IOT.

Myself, I haven't properly been in a classic-styled NES since NK put N3S (the current pinnacle of NESing as an art form, IMHO) on indefinite hiatus around a year ago. Thlayli has been developing a setting, but it's still in the formative stages. I recently played a space NES-type thingy run by Daftpanzer in the IOT forum, but sadly Daft isn't able to update it at this time.

There's also a pretty active community on #nes, our IRC chat, which can be found at warrensofthought.com.

I think ~a year and a half later the biggest factor in the community's "decline" has been the apathy of its most significant contributors. Had people not come into conflict with the staff, we would still be faced with an inertia situation, where people are not starting new NESes and therefore no NESing is taking place. Some kind of dialogue has been had here and on The Frontier about the reasons why this has occurred, but I think really it's come down to the fact that the people who were most prolific in the community got older and moved to a point in their lives where they had better things to do with their free time than participate in Internet forum games. Compounding this is the fact that has been almost no "new blood" coming into the community for the past two years.

Well, I sometimes think I'm one of those, but I definitely have the will and desire to participate in NES-type games.

Lord of Elves said:

I think ~a year and a half later the biggest factor in the community's "decline" has been the apathy of its most significant contributors. Had people not come into conflict with the staff, we would still be faced with an inertia situation, where people are not starting new NESes and therefore no NESing is taking place. Some kind of dialogue has been had here and on The Frontier about the reasons why this has occurred, but I think really it's come down to the fact that the people who were most prolific in the community got older and moved to a point in their lives where they had better things to do with their free time than participate in Internet forum games. Compounding this is the fact that has been almost no "new blood" coming into the community for the past two years.

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As I recall it was Symphony D. who originally advanced this argument and you (among others) who violently opposed it, so, congratulations on catching the train only a year and a half later.

@justokre: I could construct an accurate recounting of events with 100% more information and 100% less equivocation than Lord Iggy provided, but honestly there'd be very little point and the effort would be subject to untrained surgery by trolls in the grips of delusional psychotic episodes that seem to be only triggered by the use of accurate but unpleasant sentences like "Virtually zero activity in any part of the community for the past year and a half." The bottom line is that all former NESers who actually produce content have moved to IOT in realization of the ancient prophesy that a forum cannot long survive on the fruit of its incestuous chat-room bound culture.

The truth is more depressing than edifying in any way so just go to IOT if you want to play games.

@Crezth, you might be right. Surprisingly time moves on, and I don't really have much to say about changing my opinion on the matter (apparently?) except that it's been nearly two years, and I have disagreements to be passionate about that aren't Internet forum games. Interestingly you have just pointed out that the incestuous nature of #nes has held the community back, so I think we've all come around to a middle point

Everyone should go join this right now.

Crezth said:

The bottom line is that all former NESers who actually produce content have moved to IOT in realization of the ancient prophesy that a forum cannot long survive on the fruit of its incestuous chat-room bound culture.

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It wouldn't matter if we did, cause it'd be dismissed by you anyway. I mean, you'd have to actually come and see to know that, right? How do you know what anyone does if you don't actually ask them? Of course, as Americans, it is our right to spin. The constitution definitely defends your right to be mean about it.