Briefing
If you're a longtime GameSpot member, you've probably noticed the sharp decline in posting quality in System Wars over the past six months. I may not have been on as long as some people, but yes, I've noticed a decline.However, it's nothing new. While the staleness and repetition are nothing new, the quality has hit an all time low.It has, but it's not as bad as you think. There are enough intelligent posters in here to balance out the idiots.Thanks in part to the Gerstmann incident, and in part simply to burnout, GameSpot's best posters are losing their reason, will, and need to post here, and that's just sad. Yes, they have, if Jechtshot is any indication. :(
I've proposed a solution here - six steps towards making System Wars brighter in 2008, and perhaps giving it a return to more intelligent, thoughtful, serious discussion.Wait, what? This is called System Wars, not System Debate Forum. If you believe in this goal, I ask you to support it wholly and vocally. No thanks.
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Unfortunately for this to be achieved, several people who have gained a position of authority will have to step down. So you can geta position? This is a hard thing to ask of anyone, especially for a normal poster who feels their "community effort" is a positive influence on GameSpot. It is a hard thing to ask, and there's no reason why you should ask that of anything!
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I am convinced that without these changes, System Wars will continue to stagnate, and we will watch a groundhog day of mediocre posting, and the continued departure of longtime intelligent posters from this forum - a precious resource already in short supply. I'm convinced that with these changes, the life blood of System Wars will bleed out even faster.
Minimum Poster Level
NO! Anyone should be able to post in System Wars, no matter how stupid. This gives me the impression that you are elitist.
A significant percentage of spam, trolling, and flaming comes from low-level posters, either because they are alt-accounts for troublemakers, or inexperienced users who do not see a higher purpose in System Wars. Not every low level member doesn't know what they're talking about, and many higher level members don't know what they're talking about.
I propose a minimum level of 10, and a minimum post count of 100 to post in System Wars. This level is not hard to achieve, but it will force new accounts to prove they can contribute meaningfully to GameSpot before participating in System Wars. Yeah,and what would that solve?
An added perk is this will reduce the moderation load in SW - ban-dodgers will have to spend more time with an account before they are able to disrupt the SW board. That's a good point about ban-dodgers, but the moderation load doesn't depend on acount level.
Change of Leadership
CaseyWegner has been an important supporter of System Wars both on the board and behind the scenes for years, however it is not secret he's been burned out for quite some time, and, let's face it - jaded by his experiences. I agree with this, but...
It's high time we introduce a newer moderator to the position of "master mod of System Wars" - perhaps CakeOrrDeath, or newly elected moderators. I don't think Casey will agree to this... and there you go again with putting yourself in a higher position than you're really at!
Admin Involvement
A big part of keeping other boards on GS healthy has been the work of admins in making the site, TOU, and enhancement transparent. As such, it'd be nice to see an admin turn a loving hand toward system wars.
Many SW posters don't venture further into GS, and without doing so may never discover that there's more go GS. Having an admin volunteer a bit of their time on this board would create more of a sense of community and solidarity with GS - something system wars is sorely lacking. Yeah, we should have some more admins on SW.
Encourage a Community of Discussion
Moderation should be used harshly on spam, trolling, flaming, grouping, and anything that comes close to the spirit of doing this, even if within the letter of the law, and relax on other areas. In essence the ideal System Wars is one in which "Lemming Pwned, Forza 3 Flops" is locked immediately. Giving the mods too much power is just asking for tyranny. Heck, with Casey it's been bordering on that. The ideal System Wars is not your idea of it. Threads about the different fanboy groups getting owned shouldn't be locked unless there are 200 billion of them, in which it would be spamming.
Also in this vein, serious, contemplative posting should be encouraged - this means anything (and anyone) who treats System Wars as a game should be removed. Joke comic strips, bets threads, "flop / score-hype" threads and the like should all be unstickied and locked for good. What?!!! No! Subrosian, System Wars WAS NEVER SERIOUS, IS NOT SERIOUS, AND WILL NEVER BE SERIOUS. You know what? Yeah, System Wars is a meta-game. And you know what? I'm a supporter of that meta-game. It adds unique-ness to System Wars. If your reforms are set in action, that unique-ness will give way to something boring and stagnant that I will no longer visit.
Removal of Reward Mechanisms
Removing Bets, Hype, and Flop stickies would remove a large part of the "game" reward mechanism, but it means sacrificing other threads too - "best poster", "best thread", et cetera are all a breeding ground for troll-worship, encouraging porn-suicides, fakeboys, and intentionally stupid posting.
Enough is enough, and these types of threads need to be shown the door. If intelligence is to win out in the end we have to remove reward mechanisms for thoughtless, stupid behavior. This would kill System Wars with a dagger through the heart. Bets, hype, and flop threads are what makes System Wars fun. It's a game; you win some, you lose some. The reward mechanisms aren't the evil here, stupidity is. I do agree that the Best Poster threads are stupid, though.
Acceptance of Positive Outlook
System Wars currently takes a negative outlook - that is - a war of mutually assured destruction, in which we debate not on strengths but on weaknesses - not on good but on bad. System Wars encourages the "I hate", "I won't", and "this sucks" posting.
Rarely, if ever, does System Wars celebrate a greatness collectively, or embrace titles despite them being a positive for the "other guy", or push away and compliment competition when a title seems like a victory for "your guy".
Without a positive outlook, System Wars becomes needlessly bleak - the outlook of a war-torn, horrific future, in which each platform struggles to survive benefits no one.
Wow. It's called System Wars for a reason.
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Closing
Please do your part to support these changes in 2008 for System Wars, I strongly believe they are needed to restore the System Wars forum to something that stands up to the quality we expect on a site of GameSpot's calibre. No way. Worse still the attitudes, and posting sty-le we see as a problem in System Wars are being extended into news stories and onto other boards.
Without a real change, System Wars may continue down its path towards schizophrenia and self-destruction, a future for which I fear it may already be fated.
subrosian
You know what, Subrosian? You're treating this as a life or death situation. It's an online gaming forum in which you argue for your respective gaming console. You treat the metagame as something evil and terrible, while some would argue that it is the best part of System Wars. Your reforms would basically change SW from an anarchy into a Fascist dictatorship. I can't see anyone supporting this, personally.
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