LogFAQs > #955570625

STEROLIZER posted...

The issue is just that as all the awkward teenagers from the geocities/angelfire era of internet grew up into well functioning adults around the age of 25, they simply got gatekept out of GameFaqs.

Look I enjoy it here. I generally like this place, but I can recognize that the way GameFaqs most hardcore communities behave (CE, Politics, LUE) is not on par with general society. It's not normal behavior.

This place, like most super forums from the late 90's, was inhabited by young social outcasts looking for a place to belong. A safe place to interact and discuss with similar people whom were also in similar situations. That was great!

But the internet evolved. With the rise of social media and the mass adoption of smart phones the internet was normalized. The next generation was on internet since they were small children...it was cool. It was normal.

As the internet became more normalized, the platforms that suceeded and thrived were the ones who adapted to encompass all people - from all walks of life. From the nerdy WoW virgin, to the captain of the cheerleading squad.

GameFaqs was actually doing a pretty good job of this between 2008 - 2012. The stats will show that this site was still onboarding new users at a steady rate. As more and more users graduated college, got careers, began to raise families, it should have became even easier to evolve GameFaqs into a successful mainstream platform - a proto Reddit or Twitch even.

Unfortunately, w/ adulthood comes responsibility and a decrease posting frequency. As such the most active posters were the more recluse members, the users that never actually shed their awkward teenage skins. This antisocial behavior just intensified as the years past by. Eventually, the normal folk, which probably 95% of the GameFaqs userbase evolved into, got gatekept right off the platform.

As more users aged into normalcy and got gatekept off of GameFaqs, the platform stopped onboarding new users. User Aquisition methods were always virtually non-existent, but now it is near impossible to market the platform. I mean, young gamers don't want to hang out with a bunch of 30 year old virgins...that's just weird. How do you market that?

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---./|,-``\(o)_\,----,,,_........................Love is like a bottle of gin
---( `\(o),,_/` : o : : :o `-,..............But a bottle of gin is not like love.