Board 8 > GameSpot Contest Stats and Discussion - Part 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

I can't believe they haven't updated the leaderboard YET. Leon's probably in the Top 25 by now.

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I didn't know Zelda games were supposed to be linked. (No pun intended.) -freshmakerrrr
Currently playing: Tetris (NES)

Well, I went 2-2, so it's possible some people ahead of me got Otacon and Dogmeat, so who knows.

But I should be one of the few people who get BOTH semifinal matches right!

And we'll just have to hope that's enough because I guess Launchpad's going to end up winning.

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"The great GF...Bahamut."
"...GF? I...? Using my powers...It is you humans...I fear..."

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic/28869802/there-are-still-lessons-to-be-learned-gamespot-short-essay.?page=0

Good post by Harrich about how to make the Gamespot contests better, but too bad it just turned into a bunch of new accounts trolling

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http://i54.tinypic.com/2yziu0o.jpg
http://myanimelist.net/signature/RyanSaotome.png

FateStayAlbion posted...
Good post by Harrich about how to make the Gamespot contests better, but too bad it just turned into a bunch of new accounts trolling

I agree. It's sad to see some people in there argue about "tl;dr", how ugly a random guy's green-and-purple avatar is, and whether or not the Watchmen movie sucks.

Oh, GameSpot.

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I didn't know Zelda games were supposed to be linked. (No pun intended.) -freshmakerrrr
Currently playing: Tetris (NES)

It's one of those "Casting pearls before swine" kinda deals.

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http://i.imgur.com/CbfFb.jpg

I do have to congratulate 4chan though, it took them three tries, but they finally got one of their characters to win.

Another reason why GameFAQs seems immuned is that morale is pretty low on 4chan. They pretty much have no "victories" on our site and are pretty much reduced to supporting roles like L-Block where the entire internet joined in.

Their best hope is to hope for some kind of 12 hour four-ways format and that our vote totals continue to drop.

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BOP Results: http://charmander6000.webs.com/GotD%20BOP.xls
Congratulations to Black Turtle for winning the guru contest.

Now that you mention the drop of vote totals, why have they been dropping?

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I didn't know Zelda games were supposed to be linked. (No pun intended.) -freshmakerrrr
Currently playing: Tetris (NES)

Otacon :(

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caps

They tend to drop when big games that require FAQs don't come out for a while. The main reason is that younger people aren't filling the void of older people leaving the site which I think is because wikis are becoming more popular and offer more information in an easier format than what GameFAQs can produce.

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BOP Results: http://charmander6000.webs.com/GotD%20BOP.xls
Congratulations to Black Turtle for winning the guru contest.

I was recently looking at some of the FAQs for FFX. I know how hard it is to write a huge walkthrough for a game that size, but I noticed there were a lot of unnecessary clutter and some glaring grammar mistakes. Who would honestly prefer something like that when there are better kept wikis out there?

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Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a ***** in space.

charmander6000 posted...
They tend to drop when big games that require FAQs don't come out for a while. The main reason is that younger people aren't filling the void of older people leaving the site which I think is because wikis are becoming more popular and offer more information in an easier format than what GameFAQs can produce.

Yeah, wikis are the big thing, in my opinion. Just look at a Wiki like this for Fallout 3: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Portal:Fallout_3

Theres no way Gamefaqs current guides can compete with something like that, so its lost a lot of the reason for going here for guides, at least for newer games.

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http://myanimelist.net/signature/RyanSaotome.png

Man, I can't wait to see the X-Stats for this thing.

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CRAZY DAVE (PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES)
Your Character Battle IX champion.

You're probably the only one.

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http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2011/8/22/2094c2de-bae8-4f5b-9f27-67eaff0aaeaf.jpg

LeonhartFour posted...
It's one of those "Casting pearls before swine" kinda deals.

Bingo. I had to look that phrase up though.....


Thanks for the kind words about the post there. I've tried to make a good quality post at the end of each of their contests -- halfway hoping GameSpot actually does something with it, halfway hoping the forum will think more critically of what they're following. It's been to no avail, of course...but hey, we live in hope.

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http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3492/eponaharr.jpg
Nominate E P O N A.

charmander6000 | Posted 9/22/2011 2:37:07 PM | message detail | quote
I do have to congratulate 4chan though, it took them three tries, but they finally got one of their characters to win.

Another reason why GameFAQs seems immuned is that morale is pretty low on 4chan. They pretty much have no "victories" on our site and are pretty much reduced to supporting roles like L-Block where the entire internet joined in.

Their best hope is to hope for some kind of 12 hour four-ways format and that our vote totals continue to drop.

Our vote totals are worse than what they were at the time of our last contest. Last October, the average vote totals were 61422 for the 19 polls in that month before the "Game of the Decade" contest started. Average vote totals now stand at 51078 for last month. And now for this month, the average vote totals are currently at 49986, which doesn't include today's poll (which should finish around 53000 votes).

We are struggling just to break 60000 votes on any poll and it's been almost 4 months since we had over 70000 votes in any poll. It's also been 473 days since we had over 100000 votes in any poll. None of the 24 hour matches from the last contest got over 100000 votes.

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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as BlAcK TuRtLe, Guru Champ!

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?&w=400&h=220&o=f&c=1&y=r&b=ffffff&n=666666&r=2y&u=gamefaqs.com&

Compare that holiday timeframe at the end of 2009 to the holiday timeframe at the end of 2010

We're on a sinking ship

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http://i54.tinypic.com/2yziu0o.jpg
http://myanimelist.net/signature/RyanSaotome.png

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?&w=400&h=220&o=f&c=1&y=t&b=ffffff&n=666666&r=5y&u=gamefaqs.com
http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?&w=400&h=220&o=f&c=1&y=t&b=ffffff&n=666666&r=5y&u=gamespot.com

If you think it's only GameFAQs that's suffering from getting less traffic, GameSpot is being affected as well. In last year's GameSpot contest, every match in round 4, round 5, and round 6 had over 100000 votes. None of the matches in this year's GameSpot contest have gotten over 60000 votes. Perhaps the lower vote totals are the main reason why 4chan was successful this time around.

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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as BlAcK TuRtLe, Guru Champ!

Gamefaqs might drop out of the top 1000 sites at this pace, when they were top 150 in 2008... Gamespot has dropped but not as much, from 100 to 400.

I think Wikis hurt, but I don't think it hurts that much. There has to be other reasons Gamefaqs is dying.

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FateStayAlbion posted...
Gamefaqs might drop out of the top 1000 sites at this pace, when they were top 150 in 2008... Gamespot has dropped but not as much, from 100 to 400.

I think Wikis hurt, but I don't think it hurts that much. There has to be other reasons Gamefaqs is dying.

Of course; it's rarely one central reason. The website itself is generally just incredibly outdated. The website's specialty is Walkthroughs which are rarely very useful outside of the relatively unpopular JRPG genre. For most genres, a guide on Youtube does the job better due to visuals (albeit being infinitely harder to find). Fewer and fewer people feel compelled to submit walkthroughs, even for the latest big 3D Mario game. And a vast number of the walkthroughs that exist are poor; many are riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, seemingly written by 10 year olds or 13 year olds who are in a crappy ESL class. And then, of course, there's the boards with their insanely strict policies compared to just about every other board out there. You can't have avatars, you can't have giant, image filled signatures; you can't even have spaces in your name.

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http://www.nbc.com/parks-and-recreation/exclusives/ron-dancing-animated.gif

The GameFAQs boards are outdated when it comes to features, although some attempts have been made this year to add new features to the boards. We've already gotten post editing, QuickPost, PMs, and a basic quoting feature (which will be upgraded later on). GameFAQs is still behind other forums in its functionality and features. Also, GameSpot doesn't allow you to have spaces in your name and I don't think that has anything to do with why GameFAQs is dying.

I think GameFAQs is losing some of its site traffic because GameSpot has more types of content than GameFAQs. GameSpot has professional reviews, video game news, podcasts, demos, videos, and official GotY awards - types of content that GameFAQs does not offer on this site. GameSpot also hosts video game tournaments (where you play against other people in fighting or FPS games), which GameFAQs does not host.

GameFAQs must start offering new types of content or it will continue to lose site visitors as they will go to sites like GameSpot and IGN, which have more types of content than GameFAQs. That may be why GameSpot's traffic is dropping off much slower than GameFAQs.

GameSpot also has a strong presence on Facebook and Youtube with official Facebook/Youtube accounts. GameFAQs has yet to establish their presence on Facebook and Youtube, although GameFAQs does have a presence on Twitter.

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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as BlAcK TuRtLe, Guru Champ!

Wow, those Gamespot trolls suck ass.

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Give up some love for the Guru!
Ladies and gentleman, the Incredible Black Turtle!

Gamespot is losing traffic because the site design sucks. We lose traffic because we are still stuck in the early 2000s.

It's funny though. When I go to Gamespot, I look at the front page and I'm not sure where and what I should be focusing on. I go to Gamefaqs and I see nothing.

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Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a ***** in space.

I admit that GameSpot's front page has way more content on it than GameFAQs. GameFAQs's front page has too little content on it and slightly more content should be added to it.

And yeah, GameFAQs is still stuck in the stone age when it comes to the site design. SBAllen has to modernize all aspects of the site, not just the message boards.

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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as BlAcK TuRtLe, Guru Champ!

Bah, fix the scoring and update the leaderboard, darn it!

I need to see where I stand!

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http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/2369/mythbattlers.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Sensui22/1248835958206.png

FateStayAlbion posted...
http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?&w=400&h=220&o=f&c=1&y=r&b=ffffff&n=666666&r=2y&u=gamefaqs.com&

Compare that holiday timeframe at the end of 2009 to the holiday timeframe at the end of 2010

We're on a sinking ship

Seeing posts like these just makes me awfully depressed.

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Growlithe-Tackling Mantine - Go To Meowth - Gardevoir + Mamoswine
Woo Woo Woo! You Know It!

GTM posted...
FateStayAlbion posted...
http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?&w=400&h=220&o=f&c=1&y=r&b=ffffff&n=666666&r=2y&u=gamefaqs.com&

Compare that holiday timeframe at the end of 2009 to the holiday timeframe at the end of 2010

We're on a sinking ship

Seeing posts like these just makes me awfully depressed.

No kidding. Seriously, yikes. :(

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CRAZY DAVE (PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES)
Your Character Battle IX champion.

Let's see...Based on the last round's results, I have 73 points right now. After this round, I'll have 93 points. That SHOULD put me ahead of most of the pack, and hopefully the few users who have Launchpad winning it all won't have enough to push me out of prize range. The main issue is obviously that there are only 4 prize winners instead of 10, so it'll be tricky.

I just wish they'd update the standings so I could tell!

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http://www.gifsoup.com/view/593815/frasier-and-niles-dance-o.gif

The reason the GameFAQs contests have been dying is because they aren't done in the Summer anymore.

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It's F-Zero. F-ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERO!
http://img.imgcake.com/RedShifter/trisisofasscendsjpguv.jpg

We haven't had a true summer contest since 2006 with that Series Contest.

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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as BlAcK TuRtLe, Guru Champ!

ibleonwithafunentry

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Growlithe-Tackling Mantine - Go To Meowth - Gardevoir + Mamoswine
Woo Woo Woo! You Know It!

GameSpot doesn't let you do Fun entries. If you want to try for something like a zero bracket you can't submit a real one.

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Pokemon VGC2011 NW Regional - Top 8
Pokemon VGC2011 US Nationals - 54th place

In other words, GameSpot Palmer-proofed their contests.

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"Stay with me until the end. Please."
"Not until the end. Always."

Final match has just started.

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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as BlAcK TuRtLe, Guru Champ!

Ha, #4 on the leaderboard.

No chance of winning though unless Einstein somehow wins.

...Not sure why I got points for the semis and not the quarters though.

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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."

Voted Einstein to help Leon.

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Nominate Bahamut for the next Character Battle
http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy/images/0/0e/Ffx-bahamut.jpg

Voted Einstein as well, though I fear it won't matter

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http://i54.tinypic.com/2yziu0o.jpg
http://myanimelist.net/signature/RyanSaotome.png

Actually, if Einstein actually won this thing, we'd have four Board 8ers in the top 5.

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http://i.imgur.com/CbfFb.jpg

Voted Einstein because I like him better than Launchpad. :P

Seriously though, I'm rooting for ya, Leon!

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CRAZY DAVE (PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES)
Your Character Battle IX champion.

Also, has GameSpot addressed why nobody got points for the quarters?

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"The great GF...Bahamut."
"...GF? I...? Using my powers...It is you humans...I fear..."

they havent updated the blogs or anything either

Usually they post soemthing along the lines of "final 4 has started!"

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Growlithe-Tackling Mantine - Go To Meowth - Gardevoir + Mamoswine
Woo Woo Woo! You Know It!

GTM posted...
they havent updated the blogs or anything either

Usually they post soemthing along the lines of "final 4 has started!"

They're probably too embarrassed at this point

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http://i54.tinypic.com/2yziu0o.jpg
http://myanimelist.net/signature/RyanSaotome.png

is it me, or do I not even see anything about this contest on the front page anymore?

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Growlithe-Tackling Mantine - Go To Meowth - Gardevoir + Mamoswine
Woo Woo Woo! You Know It!

Yeah, I think this is the last time GameSpot has a contest. They've been putting very little effort into... well, anything these past few rounds. I think they've finally thrown in the towel.

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CRAZY DAVE (PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES)
Your Character Battle IX champion.

Hopefully that means we can actually get a contest much sooner next year if Gamespot stop this garbage.

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Nominate Bahamut for the next Character Battle
http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy/images/0/0e/Ffx-bahamut.jpg

umm I can't figure out how to vote

The vote links me to Round 1-1

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Growlithe-Tackling Mantine - Go To Meowth - Gardevoir + Mamoswine
Woo Woo Woo! You Know It!

You have to scroll all the way to the end using the tab.

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Support Barret Wallace (Final Fantasy VII) for Character Battle IX!
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3834/banner1barret.jpg

never mind, jsut had to scroll it to the very right

here's a vote for einstein

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Growlithe-Tackling Mantine - Go To Meowth - Gardevoir + Mamoswine
Woo Woo Woo! You Know It!

Honestly, they couldn't make this interface less userfriendly, even if they actively tried.

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Nominate Bahamut for the next Character Battle
http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy/images/0/0e/Ffx-bahamut.jpg

ART

Those are only the SFW ones. I saw quite a few of Dogmeat "Violating" Alyx and Luigi

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