Merging of Gaming Discussion and First Play

[Neon Ignition]

If the FP forum remains as quiet as it is, does that bring the merger idea back around?

[QualityChimp]

Throwing an idea out there: what do folks feel about a stickied thread in First Play for people to ask for thread starters to come forward?

Example posts:
"I see Deep Rock Galactic is on PS+ this month, anyone played it and fancy saying a few words?"
"Every night I see @QualityStreetEater playing Just Dance 2022, is it worth it if I have '21, '20, '19 and '18?"

I can't actually help you, because we're still playing JD18.
I find they've moved away from having a packed disc of songs and are focussing on encouraging people to pay the monthly upgrade to Just Dance Unlimited.

[charlesr]

If the FP forum remains as quiet as it is, does that bring the merger idea back around?

Sure.

[cutmymilk]

Why not just have one thread for every announced game (within reason). Then follow the development and into first play when it is released. Maybe on release the thread title can be edited with the FP post number for those that just want impressions.

This would also bring more people to the forum as they look for information on specific games. I remember finding this forum back in the day looking for import dreamcast games, as a lot of us probably did.

[fishbowlhead]

I think its time to reconsider this as well, as were all getting older its obvious we don't have the time to keep up multiple different threads on the same games. Then again it wouldn't take many new guys on the boards to bring the FP section back to life.

[Sketcz]

I'd like to see a forum set-up here we can create out own divisions of threads. Like we'd create a folder, and then tag different threads and they'd appear in there.

So I might do: News, Chat, Briareos First Play, Everyone Else First Play, Retro Console, Retro Computer, Sales, Cheese Flavours, etc.

Essentially, there would no longer be any sort of consistent shared experience. We'd curate out own varieties of forum sub-directories, thus there would be no need to debate merging Gaming Discussion and First Play, since users could this themselves. One could even merge Off-topic and First Play, on their account, so if anyone else sits at their desktop to browse, they'll be like: WTF?

Does such forum software even exist?

[Neon Ignition]

I thought it had been three months or so since this was last discussed but it's been over a year

I'm thinking the direction of First Play has leant even further toward merging

[Wools]

Yes please!

[MartyG]

Against - as always. There's so little discussion on playing games on the forum now that actual posting about the playing of games will get lost in the complaining about them.

This ^^

Plus the thing I've just thought about I didn't before, duplicate threads of games that will make no sense merged and be confusing to know which to post in.

Want to do something to get more traffic in first play? Move the "What Has Everyone Been Playing This Week?" thread into first play - where it actually should be anyway. And rename it from first play to "Game play impressions" "Games you are playing" or some such thing. Rename "Game discussion (News and Chat)" to "Gaming News"

[Neon Ignition]

Duplicate threads would quickly resolve as an issue because they wouldn't be created anymore and discussion wouldn't be lost because the traffic isn't high enough to drown it out

[MartyG]

It's a daft idea and always will be a daft idea. Having a separate forum for first play is simply better rather than mixing it all in with news.

There's no bazinger here, just a worse outcome.

It's the Bordersdown equivalent of Brexit.

Game news and Gameplay impressions are two entirely different things.

[Neon Ignition]

For me, the argument against it over the last two years or so has effectively been worn down by how often impressions make it into the Game News threads and how very rarely the First Play section sputters into life. It's a situation that's only become more pronounced as time has gone on.

Even the biggest games like GOW Ragnarok take months to clip a dozen posts at best. Take Resi 4 Remake - The News thread never broke double digits in posts whilst in First Play no-one could be bothered to make a thread so we we're still using the same one that was started for the Gamecube game 18 years ago.

I don't feel it would be confusing given we already do the same for other media but I'd expect the real issue would probably be that it would involve too much messing behind the scenes to warrant the effort though.

If that's the case that's fair enough, it's clear FP isn't working though and cuts off more discussion on a title than it generates

[Wools]

I think all my years on forums point to 1 thread being the point of contact for all people. The more you separate, the more you dilute the conversation.

The exception to that is retro where the chat is more specialised and not as fast paced as new games chatter.

I totally get people are worried that stuff that falls off the 1st page doesn't get commentated on, but from forums that run a games thread like First News > Previews > First Play they really don't seem to have any issues in discussion.

I know I keep popping my head up but I think it'll really help this forum so much by combining First Play and Game Discussion. Also, what does everyone feel about Article Comments. Almost no one visits it, should any new articles just be inserted into this new (Hypothetical!) thread? If no one wants to chat, it'll vanish, if it's popular, more eyes will be on it!

[MartyG]

Why not just have one forum for everything then?

[Wools]

Have you not seen Twitter? Let’s not do that.