Current Events > ChatGPT on why GameFAQs isnt as popular anymore. Do you agree/disagree?

(+) Yeah! (+)

GameFAQs in general

GameFAQs isn't as popular as it once was for several key reasons:

1. Shift to Video Content

• YouTube and Twitch have become dominant platforms for game guides and walkthroughs. Most gamers now prefer watching a video rather than reading a text guide.
• Visual demonstrations are easier to follow, especially for complex gameplay mechanics or puzzle solutions.

2. Reddit and Discord

• Reddit offers more dynamic, community-driven discussion with upvotes, images, and real-time answers.
• Discord servers provide dedicated communities around specific games, with fast, live help and social interaction.

3. Outdated Site Design

• GameFAQs has kept its old-school, text-heavy design, which can feel clunky or outdated compared to modern web forums and social platforms.
• It lacks some of the interactive features and user experience improvements expected today.

4. Competition from Wikis

• Fandom/Gamepedia wikis offer more structured, searchable, and regularly updated content.
• Wikis also provide more visual aids, interlinked pages, and community-driven updates, which are better suited for fast-changing live-service games.

5. Mobile Experience

• GameFAQs isnt optimized well for mobile, which is a problem since many players now look up tips on their phones while gaming.

That said, GameFAQs still has a loyal user base and is a great resource for older games and in-depth, no-nonsense walkthroughs written by dedicated fans.

The message boards

1. The Merger with GameSpot (20042010s)

• GameFAQs was acquired by CNET and merged with GameSpot, bringing the message boards under a unified login and moderation system.
• This alienated longtime users, who valued GameFAQs for its independence and unique culture.
• GameSpots heavier moderation and different community tone clashed with the more freewheeling, niche discussions of GameFAQs.

2. Stricter Moderation and Policy Changes

• Over time, moderation on the boards became more aggressive, especially after the CNET/Viacom acquisition era.
• Many users felt censored or unfairly punished for minor infractions, driving them to other platforms.
• The loss of karma systems and older moderation policies also hurt community cohesion.

3. Rise of Better Alternatives

• Reddit, Discord, and even Twitter became more appealing for real-time discussion, better content embedding, and more liberal moderation.
• Niche subreddits allowed for more organized, topical discussion than the more rigid, game-by-game structure of GameFAQs boards.

4. Decline in Community Engagement

• As user numbers dropped, so did the quality and activity on the boards.
• Fewer people posting meant fewer responses, which created a feedback loop that made the boards feel deserted.
• The loss of legacy users and longtime personalities led to a decline in cultural identity and loyalty.

5. No Modernization Effort

• The boards kept their early-2000s layout, which many saw as archaic.
• Lack of features like real-time notifications, user tagging, media embedding, or even a modern app kept younger users away.

Despite all this, some GameFAQs boards still have a small, tight-knit communityespecially for retro or obscure titles. But the golden age of the message boards, especially in the early 2000s to mid-2010s, is long gone.

It's no coincidence that gamefaqs decline correlates heavily with the reduction in black man ass.

BlueTigerLion posted...

The loss of karma systems and older moderation policies also hurt community cohesion.

The loss of what? We still have karma, ChatGPT.

A_Good_Boy posted...

It's no coincidence that gamefaqs decline correlates heavily with the reduction in black man ass.

Yea. One difference between Reddit, YouTube, Twitter, etc is there is the option to see NSFW content. It isnt a this isnt allowed deal with it like GameFAQs. If one for example doesnt like horny posting they can just avoid the horny posting subs or nsfw content posters.

BlueTigerLion posted...

Over time, moderation on the boards became more aggressive

People don't still actually believe that, right?

lol

What? I thought this place was dying because of all the power hungry corrupt mods who are unfairly left leaning?

Error1355 posted...

People don't still actually believe that, right?

lol

Is that Average Joe topic still around on hellhole?

Damn, chat really cooked us

heatmon930 posted...

Damn, chat really cooked us

Yea. Saying lack of real-time answers is basically saying you can wait hours/days for a reply. Reddit you can make a thread and get a bunch of comments in minutes. So a kind of direct way of saying GameFAQs a dead site.

Wonder why TC hasn't moved onto Reddit permanently if it's so much better

Who was that guy that used to post his suggestions to fix gamefaqs all the time? This sorta reads like those posts.

VeggetaX posted...

Wonder why TC hasn't moved onto Reddit permanently if it's so much better

Im on Reddit, YouTube, Twitch, and GameFAQs there is no downside to being on multiple sites. Topic was meant to be toward what ChatGPT said. Do you agree or disagree with what it said?

furb posted...

Who was that guy that used to post his suggestions to fix gamefaqs all the time? This sorta reads like those posts.

The only suggestion I ever inputted is to have a social media presence like IGN. That all died ages ago with krystal

I thought "video guides" first and that was the first reason given here. I think that tracks, the site was literally made first and foremost as a way to share cheats and guides and reviews. Now you can leave reviews directly on the storefront pages, videos are more effective than words for most contexts.

I do think the video game boards themselves should still technically be more popular just because it is a consistent experience across the site and everyone gets fair representation in their posts and responses but maybe people just arent that excited to have deeper discussions about games any more

Agree with video guides becoming more popular than text FAQs. Disagree with the format/features stuff. The old school look is why I am still here and features like upvoting and downvoting are terrible.

Clearly it's because horny is missing

I put zero stock into todays AI systems sono.

These programs very clearly cater to whoever coded them and their biases.

VeggetaX posted...

The only suggestion I ever inputted is to have a social media presence like IGN. That all died ages ago with krystal

I believe you I just thought it was funny how similar those posts read to Ai output.

Valid points made by the AI.

I just believe that no community keeps itself alive forever. GameFAQs is just a product of its time and thats it.

Just like someday Reddit and Discord will fall and something else will take its place.

reddit SUCKS for having any kind of a discussion

012yArthur0 posted...

Just like someday Reddit and Discord will fall and something else will take its place.

I don't see how Discord replaced anything but IRC or any of its flavors/successors. Discord is complete crap for finding anything on it.

Aztex posted...

Clearly it's because horny is missing

Yea it thinks so too

Yes, the crackdown on hornyposting and other off-topic or edgy content did play a part in GameFAQs decline but it was more of a symptom of deeper changes than the root cause.
Here's how it factored in:
1. Culture Shift and Moderation Clampdown

• GameFAQs always had boards where people would post jokes, memes, fanservice threads, or light NSFW content often called hornyposting in today's terms.
• As ownership changed (first CNET, then CBS Interactive, now Fandom), there was increased pressure to sanitize the site, enforce stricter content rules, and align with advertiser-friendly policies.
• This led to bans, mod warnings, and topic removals, pushing out users who once felt comfortable there.

2. Loss of Community Identity

• Boards like Random Insanity, Social, or even game-specific forums had vibrant subcultures, including silly or risqu threads that werent strictly about games.
• When moderation cracked down on horny or off-topic content, it eroded the unique identity and humor of those communities.
• Many users migrated to places like 4chan, Reddit, or Discord, which allowed more freedom (or chaos, depending on your view).

3. The Balance Between Order and Fun Was Lost

• GameFAQs had a reputation for being both useful and fun a place for both serious walkthroughs and dumb inside jokes.
• When the moderation focused too heavily on keeping things clean and on-topic, it felt less like a community and more like a sterile Q&A archive.

TL;DR:
Yes, removing hornyposting (and other offbeat content) contributed to the decline not because people desperately needed fanservice, but because it killed a part of the sites personality. The fun, chaotic energy faded, and users went where they could be themselves.

Oh shit ChatGPT know about black man ass

Yes the "black man ass" meme is part of the weirder, more chaotic humor that used to flourish on GameFAQs' Social boards, particularly during the mid-2000s to early 2010s era.
Heres the rundown:
What Is It?

• The meme usually involved users abruptly or non-sequitur posting something like black man ass (often with no context), sometimes in image links, sometimes just as a joke phrase.
• It was part of a broader trend of absurdist or shock-value humor that became a hallmark of boards like:
• Random Insanity
• LUE (Life, the Universe, and Everything)
• System-specific Social boards

Why Did It Exist?

• It was less about race or sexuality and more about being edgy, weird, or trolling in a harmless way.
• These kinds of posts were intended to break threads, derail discussions, or make other users laugh out of sheer absurdity.
• Similar to the duckroll or early 4chan humor, it lived in a time where shock = funny, especially if it caught people off guard.

How Did It Fit Into GameFAQs Culture?

• GameFAQs message boards, especially the Social boards, had their own chaotic microcultures and inside jokes.
• Stuff like black man ass was a product of low moderation tolerance back then, allowing bizarre, irreverent memes to flourish.
• It symbolized how the site was once a blend of game help and wild internet forum behavior a space where serious and completely unserious content coexisted.

Why Did It Die?

• As mentioned earlier, corporate moderation and the push toward a more advertiser-safe environment wiped out this kind of content.
• Random/offensive humor like that was either heavily moderated or preemptively banned, contributing to the loss of personality on the boards.

Its now a sort of deep-cut internet relic remembered fondly (or awkwardly) by those who were there, and completely baffling to outsiders.
Do you remember when or where you first saw it on GameFAQs?

Error1355 posted...

People don't still actually believe that, right?

lol

Yeah, moderation used to be much more aggressive. Stuff that's no problem now would either get modded or cause the board software to refuse to even let you make a post back in the day.

moderation was both strict and inconsistent on here for the longest time. it's lightened up significantly since then but by that time the boards were well past peak traffic era

i think it had a self-selecting effect on the community too. this is the only online community that i still see showing some semblance of early-2000s sycophancy towards mods, whereas they're kinda seen as a joke on reddit and especially discord >_>

AceMos posted...

reddit SUCKS for having any kind of a discussion

Well the downvote system is terrible, no arguments there, but it's easier to keep track of what's being discussed.

Related to #26, one of the fastest moderations I ever got was this one time I called gfaqs mods useless, they clamped down on that real fucking quick

AceMos posted...

reddit SUCKS for having any kind of a discussion

i disagree, and i think people who make this point are just being lazy about learning the interface.

KhlavicLanguage posted...

i disagree, and i think people who make this point are just being lazy about learning the interface.

conversations just branch off rather than a nice neat orderly thing you can read top to bottom

KhlavicLanguage posted...

i disagree, and i think people who make this point are just being lazy about learning the interface.

It's good for one on one conversations but pretty terrible for when you're communicating with more than one person at a time since discussions are forked based on replies.

AceMos posted...

conversations just branch off rather than a nice neat orderly thing you can read top to bottom

which arguably is actually more organized. plus the overall quality of conversations i've had on there were leagues better. it helps a lot to have niche subs centered on certain topics, you get a way better-informed crowd than you get on a social board on a video game website

KhlavicLanguage posted...

which arguably is actually more organized

It's not, though. Because of the forking, it's impossible to hold a conversation with more than one person on a particular thread for more than a couple of posts.

darkknight109 posted...

Because of the forking, it's impossible to hold a conversation with more than one person on a particular thread for more than a couple of posts.

you just reply to both of them lol, plus this way your responses aren't a wall of line-by-line quotes (the gamefaqs slapfight special). you guys are way overthinking this

KhlavicLanguage posted...

i disagree, and i think people who make this point are just being lazy about learning the interface.

I disagree with you. Reddit interface just sucks.

Reddit interface sucks ass for sure. Good look joining in a conversation if it already has hundreds or even thousands of posts already. At least with GameFAQs you see the latest post no matter what

VeggetaX posted...

Reddit interface sucks ass for sure. Good look joining in a conversation if it already has hundreds or even thousands of posts already. At least with GameFAQs you see the latest post no matter what

There are smaller niche subs where you get your attention for your comment. Also some subs sort by new. Such as game threads on sports subs.

BlueTigerLion posted...

There are smaller niche subs where you get your attention for your comment. Also some subs sort by new. Such as game threads on sports subs.

yes niche subs where if you have even a slightly unpopular opinion you get downvoted into oblivion

Error1355 posted...

People don't still actually believe that, right?

lol

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/55a1b1da.jpg
I guess it depends on the context and timeframe.

I can think for myself thanks

Baphometa posted...

I guess it depends on the context and timeframe.

Pretty sure that the time where you couldn't curse had a lot more moderation oversight than now.