So, I don't visit much anymore, and the when I do, I am not surprised anymore that this site and especially the Unions are stagnant as the great salt lake in the middle of the dry season.

It seems to me after they did the forced format change things went south, anyone else see it that way. All I know is that I spent much time pushing my choice unions and certain items on here, and the more I used it, the more they screwed with it and changed things till it just seems that everyone just faded away, or at least their interest did. I am just as or more guilty than most, but you can only push on the broken car by yourself for so long before you give up and wonder off with the hope that it will survive the traffic, but not having much faith that it will.

Just curious why everyone else has moved on?

"B"

Being a long standing member of the Battlefiend fan club and an officer in the Battlefield Union, I have had to broach the subject in my mind and in my heart and in forums that BF3 is sup-par, a flop, a failure! It is hard to talk bad about something that you have put on a pedastel for so long like I have the Battlefield game series for several years now, but here isis my feelings on it....

I don't think necessarily that Battlefield 3 is a failure...

I do however think that it is a disappointment. I feel very betrayed on a personal and consumer level to be honest.

As to the consumer disappointment, I expected a game with PERSONALITY like Bad Company and got a MW clone/wannabe. I knew they were trying to capture some market with a bit more "modern" equipment implementation, but they went to far, when they removed the presonality. They already had what none of the others had, and they CONFORMED, which for a rebel like me was not a good thing. And their Frostbite 2 engine that was so hyped, should be renamed the "glitch-master 2.0". And HOW MUCH can you gripe about the server set up.....you go in with a party and you get split up, you sign to play "conquest" and you play one match of conquest and then get shuffled around to TDM, SDM, RUSH, etc. Who needs it, it is frustrating when you can't control your own destiny, and for me, it is unacceptable to the positive gaming experience...!

On the peronsal level; any one who knows me, knows that I am biased, opinionated, arrogant and used to leading and getting my way, well I talked the trash, I bragged and blustered and talked up my favorite FPS series, THEN......BF3 comes out and it honestly is NO longer the series that I love. Even the tactical squad element seems to have faded to a BIG degree to me, But I had to eat crow, even get on line and post that the MW3 campaign outshone the BF3 campaign.

No, BF3 is not a failure in the true sense of the word, it is a failure to it's roots and the games that made a following of a lot of us. It is a failure to those who love it. It is tantamount to your spouse cheating on you, which is just plain unacceptable, where you still love what was and always will, but something was lost when you were betrayed and you just don't feel like you can ever get it back, to a degree that you just don't even want to look at them or BF3 anymore as you see what is NOT more that what is.

Does my ramblings make any sense? This is the first time that I have tried to put my heartache a this loss to words.

We can only hope that "Bad Company, A New Battle in the North" is in the works, otherwise my Warrior friends, I fear the end of BF is on the horizon (my humble opinion)

I didn't find Borderlands till well after it was released in a GOTY Edition. But once I got past the first few minutes, it was instant addiction.

The Warrior Clan is getting ready to try and revive it a bit as it is now and probably will be for some time the best Co-Op game out there with much latitude on player saves that allows for you to save multiple games instead of just one.

What do you think of it and will you play it again just prior to Borderlands 2 Coming out.

Don't know about you, but Borderlands 2 will bea first day MUST HAVE for me, what about you?

Anyone besides me irritated by the fact that when you try to navigate to certain areas of Gamesspot you are FORCED to shift over to FUSE? Can't even find a friend now without having to go to FUSE. FUSE is lame and it sucks and is a definite negative to Gamespot.

Yuck, Yuck . . . .

I get more disillusioned with my beloved GS every day, been a member for over five years, and am very disappointed with the direction it has taken since the FORCED mods.

You know, you can verbalize which games you like the best, but when you get down to brass tacks, and use a site like Raptr, you can actually be amazed at the time investment that you have with certain games.

Below is a list from Raptr of my all time, most time played games (sadly PS3 is not correctly portrayed, as I got my PS3 about 14 months before I got my Xbox360 and games like God of War 1, 2 & 3 and my PS3 version of Red Dead Redemption would be right at the top, but for some reason, Sony doesn't like to play the game even though they seem to be the MOST vulnerable.

Battlefield, Bad Company 2, XBox – 108 hours

Red Dead Redemption, XBox – 104 Hours (I know I have at least 100 hours on the PS3 too, so this is the actual #1)

Mass Effect 2, XBox – 86 hours

Fable II, XBox – 80 hours

Battlefield Bad Company, XBox – 67 hours

Fable 3, Xbox – 65 hours

Forza 3, Xbox – 62 hours

Battlefield 3, XBox – 49 hours

Mass Effect, Xbox – 47 hours

Rage, Xbox – 46 hours

Borderlands. Xbox – 42 hours

Halo Reach, Xbox – 38 hours ( I have played this game through single & co op at least four times)

Call of Duty, World at War, Xbox – 36 hours (All done co-op with Gun Chimp & JB61)

Skyrim, Xbox – 34 hours

Gears of War 2, X Box-32 hours

Medal of Honor, Xbox – 25 hours ( All MP) (Did the SP on PS3 & some MP there also)

I don't know why the PS3 doesn't track well, I know the account is there, but I am constantly having to RECONNECT it.

So, are you surprised by what your Raptr account tells you?

For several yeas now, I have paid my $5.95 a month to be a "paid subscriber" to Gamespot.

The advantanges were:

1. NO ads (you didn't have to see the occasional screen ad delay, which you can click to bypass anyway. ( A minor boon but only worth a few pennies a month)
2. You could change the color of your name under your avatar. (Okay it's kinda diff, but not worth the monthly cost)
3. You could comment and participate in "Subscriber Only Forums" ( WHich I don't recall ever doing in the over two years I have paid for my subscriptionm so it really was of no value to me)
4. I received PRIORITY CUSTOMER SUPPORT, which when I DID actually have an issue, it took them over 40 days to resolve it, hence (it was not worth the investment in the least)
5. You can watch the ads and movies in HD (not worth the cost either considering they are only trailers for the most part anyway)
6. OH YEAH..... YOU GET A SGT STRIPE in lieu of private stripe in your ACHEIVEMENTS data on your profile.

I attempted many times to STOP my subscription, BUT, the attempt was a never ending acycle of signing in to the same screen over and over and over, like putting two mirrors facing each other and you see an infinite number of the same thing over and over. Subsequently, life poo'ed on my daily routine and I had to cancel my oldDebit/Credit card and get a new one, and did NOT change my billing info on the SPOT, and finally they sent me the message that I had been cancelled.

I spent a lot of time noting that those whom I communcate with the most on the spot do NOT have paid accounts and kept wondering if there was a discenable difference, and so far I must say NO.

I have in my own personal opinion noted the decline of the spot to a major degree since the inception of Raptr & Fuse. First came Raptr, which was a bit different and an adder to the spot, then it kinda faded away and the took some of the content on the spot and shifted it to FUSE. I suppose it was to broaden the "advertising" intake to increase revenues, as we KNOW the don't do this out of the kindness of their hearts. But in all honesty, when they made the format change, and took all you cheevos and shifted them out of the SPOT, it has all been down hill.

Just visit the UNIONS as a whole, they are dead.... for the most part, the biggest COMMUNITY adavantage they had and it is withering away. So, IMO either the spot is withering away, or gaming as a whole is in the tank. Heck I don't know...

FYI, I also use IGN & GI and they never lived up to the social level that GS did, but I don't visit them at all anymore, but still cling to my GS visits daily and TRY to keep my past dedication to certain social sites entact and from becoming a total was of my time.

What do you think? Have you ever paid for you scipt here? Do you think it is failing as a whole?

What do you see as missing? AND..... do you also see the decline of the site since the total re-formtting of the site and the addition of Raptr & Fuse?

I would really like to see some responses here from long time spotters.....

Have a good one..

"B"

Soooo......

I belong to five unions these days, a few of which I have been involved in for some time and up till recently were always quite active, but it now seems that since about Oct/Nov of 2011, ALL the union's members of the unions I frequent have just ceased to visit the boards. Most are down to just a few of the officers making most of the posts and it seems that 90% of them, the leaders have just quit visiting completely.

Is gaming disappearing, or has the likes of Steam, PSN & XBL created alternates that make Gamespot Unions obsolete?

I still visit most of my unions everyday, but when there is no one else posting on the boards, or only posting to banal sillythreads,you tend to just leave when you note NO new entries in the threads.

Are unions a trend that has worn itself out or fallen out of favor?

What do you see as the problem that has all the unions in such a funk and downward sprial?

The Spot has even turned the leveling and emblems back on, so there is something to be acheived by being an active union member and supporting you unions.

I would like everyone's thoughts on this if you don't mind sharing, as even the new games infusion of the last six months has had little or no effect in a positive way, and I miss my union time being interesting...

Have a great day....

"B"

Most days when I sign on to Gamespot, I look at the blog updates and attempt to read the blogs that others have posted. But I have noted of late, several of the member blogs that I have attempted to read have resulted in me seeing the message that the members "PROFILE IS SET ON PRIVATE".

So, why blog if you are going to have a private profile that others CAN'T read. If I am blocked specifically from the members, then why follow my activity, take me off your list of friends and send me a message that you would prefer NOT to follow me or be followed by me.

I don't get it. But understanding is not necessarily a necessity now is it.

Have a most wonderful day.

"B"

Happy new year eveyone. 2011 was a bit on the dismal side, I sincerely hope for all and myself that 2012 is a thousand times better....!

HKS-PS3 Driving Sim Controller, anyone have any experience with it. Just picked up one yesterday and while it is not my steering wheel, it is more responsive and is laid out with better throttle/brake control so that you can heel/toe for drifting. I have only used it for about 30 minutes to break into the game "The Run" but I think it will be well worth the 20 bucks I laid out for it this holdiay season while it is on sale.

Also, the "Wireless Speed Wheel" for the XBox360, I got one of those for half price yesterday cause the GS manager said he hadn't sold any and wanted me to "review" it for him. I only set it up, but note a navigation issue with it on Forza 3 since it has NO should buttons and navigating in the "storfront" it wouldn't allow me to fiip pages. At first I thought it was a Kinect controller, but it isn't. It works like the PS3 sixaxis and will work like sixaxis if you use it for a Xer game that supports sixaxis control, but in driving sim games it simply works as a steerring wheel so other movement is not noted.

I will update on both as I get the time to play with them, but was curious of anyone else has them or has used them and what you thought.

Happy Bah Humbug Christmas EVERYBODY.