So why did NESing die?

[EQandcivfanatic]

I always felt those numbers reflected a push away from consistent updating and activity towards instead high quality updates and investment. My opinion has been that we focused as a group too much on quality over consistency, and this ultimately led to the intimidation of would-be players away from what seemed like a vast and deep community with too many unspoken rules and high expectations and a higher rate of fatigue for game moderators. After all, there was always a lot of pressure to keep an eye on all the activity, and typically the reward would be not much more than a handful of "nice update" posts and twice as many posts complaining about misinterpretation of orders or things not working out the way people expected them. Combine that with the pressure of matching the quality seen in other NESes, and it's easy to see why people wouldn't want to start new games in this forum compared to elsewhere.

 

[Lord_Herobrine]

That was months before the split that effectively killed us.

I do not believe that I stated that it was the only reason? I merely pointed towards actual information that I believe may have contributed to the decline of NES. Split or no split, the sub-forum was facing this rise of inactivity for years in advance.

 

[Thlayli]

I always felt those numbers reflected a push away from consistent updating and activity towards instead high quality updates and investment. My opinion has been that we focused as a group too much on quality over consistency, and this ultimately led to the intimidation of would-be players away from what seemed like a vast and deep community with too many unspoken rules and high expectations and a higher rate of fatigue for game moderators. After all, there was always a lot of pressure to keep an eye on all the activity, and typically the reward would be not much more than a handful of "nice update" posts and twice as many posts complaining about misinterpretation of orders or things not working out the way people expected them. Combine that with the pressure of matching the quality seen in other NESes, and it's easy to see why people wouldn't want to start new games in this forum compared to elsewhere.

Interesting theory EQ, but just to use one example, EoE (one of the 'deepest' NESes in the forum) was also one of the best at attracting new players. The decline in player participation can honestly be traced to a decline in CFC forum activity overall. IOT embraced a lower quality content model than NES and has experienced the same slow decline, I'm pretty sure. Hell, Off Topic doesn't host games at all and their activity has declined too. Another reason your opinion is incorrect is that NESing complexity increased in the 2002-2006 period, as numbers and traffic increased or held steady. So I think the forum activity was really more connected to broader site traffic trends and less to any particular moderating style.

Your opinion also happens to dovetail with how you choose to moderate. Which is not a criticism of your moderating style, just an observation.

Regarding others' comments: There was a slow, long-term decline in activity, but conflating the decline and the 'crisis' is sort of like telling a guy "you have cancer" and then pushing him out a window. Sure, he's still got cancer, and the end result is the same, but you're speeding it up quite a bit.

 

[Luckymoose]

Not only that, but something like EoE actually attracted new players in the "declining" years that were of a different style than those attracted to something like Capto Iugulum (a game of a completely different variety, and thus playerbase, with some general crossover [as all NESing had]). A number of those people came for that specific thing and left when it wasn't available, or linger in hopes of it returning. They simply aren't interested in quantity or speed. I think that is where the community divided long before it literally divided. You had three, maybe even four, types of players and moderators all cramming into a single hobby space and mostly behaving incestuously, and neither side was right but each style had its own participants who were less interested in other styles. You can't expect to please everyone all of the time, and some of these folks simply won't ever be pleased like they want again.

Well, until someone manages to herd dozens of whiny artist types with competitive streaks into a corral for several years with a dedicated focus on narrative and worldbuilding, that is.

 

[justokre]

So sad to see the state of things. Many fond memories with many of you in this thread.

 

[Lokki242]

This thread is so nostalgic for my early years of internet use, holy moly.

 

[TerrisH]

I cast Necromancy!
Edit:
and, brain fart, wrong thread. meant to post it in Ideas thread. ah well, at least I might as well says something.

NESS has not died. It will never die, as long as we remember it in our minds and hearts, and let it color other games we play in, and run. here on civ fanatics or on other boards. no matter what the game is called, as long as it holds the core elements of what we each consider a NES, it shall be a NES to us.

 

[Yui108]

Anyone still alive around here?

 

[Terrance888]

Not dead.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Heyo Yui, good to see you! The best place to find us is in #nes. Also I'm getting pretty close to finishing an update for MigratioNES, if you're interested in an NES where people play as culture groups, rather than traditional nation-states.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

On the topic of NESing being roughly as dead as das, I just updated and would love it if some of you guys lurking about would take part in MigratioNES. We're still peopling the world, there are whole continents awaiting discovery, and the first bronze age empires are rising.

 

[Jehoshua]

It shall be pondered.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Ill will and rancor among the player base made everything much harder. Outbursts of, can I say, childishness, brought down the heavy hammers of forum moderation and all was lost.

At the foot of the mountain, the lake:
The image of Decrease.
Thus the superior man controls his anger
And restrains his instincts.

But while the community was climbing towards its peak, it was quite glorious.

 

[Thlayli]

Well, the #nes IRC channel has outlived NES itself and continues to be a pretty successful community. Community members are always welcome, and we continue to have visitors popping in who have been absent for years.

In particular, I've been running a D&D campaign on there for the past 2 years, and we've now had over 75 sessions.

Links are in my sig for anyone who ever wants to visit.

 

[MjM]

I feel that a lot of the younger kids these days just don't have the desire to go on message boards anymore. It's an outdated media. Without the younger players coming in, and the older players growing up, it's just something that seems to have faded with time.

I'll always hold on to the fun memories though.

 

[Sifaus]

It died because i joined a game after lurking for 5 years. I shouldn't have done that.

Sorry.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

MjM brings up an interesting point about the decline of forums, although there's certainly nothing stopping us from forming our own subreddit, or NESing in some other format.

 

[Gelion]

Not dead.

To use this phrase for NESing as a whole and not for a particular NES as it as been.... it is a new level of irony. God, how many good times have been had on this forum...

 

[Daftpanzer]

I think MjM has a good point about the media form. Even for an ancient 30+ year old like myself, posting on message boards can feel clunky compared to messenger or Discord. Perhaps that will be the way of the future.

 

[Gelion]

I think MjM has a good point about the media form. Even for an ancient 30+ year old like myself, posting on message boards can feel clunky compared to messenger or Discord. Perhaps that will be the way of the future.

Not it might ad some new information, but what does Discord offer that a Forum does not besides, perhaps, being able to connect to a microphone and chat live? The whole idea besides NESing is that it is a silent, read and write activity. Much like the foruming in general. It can never exist in a messenger format of a DnD campaign because whatever we were playing was meant to last for months with creative tools that you can't use on a phone (to my knowledge).

Did we really loose NESing to instant communication and voice chat?