I`m curious if any of the mods could shed some light on whether the numbers in the (active) community are dropping off or if there are other explanations (ie: the splitting of creations, shift to people just playing on instantplay etc).

I have to say these forums just seemed *a whole lot* more lively & active a year or 2 ago ... there are some quality games that go unreplied to & apart from Q&A, things just seem really "quiet" here now.

Any thoughts/opinions/figures?

I think the Official Competitions gave a real sense of Community spirit & liveliness - it`s such a huge shame that there are no more on the horizon I think a new Official Competition would really boost activity.

Personally, I stopped playing games a while ago. I only come here to help.

Personally, I'm lacking time :/ ...

But I also *think* that a good cause for the drop of activity is maybe the splitting of creations (games staying longer on the front page without replies, beats the point of splitting it).
There may be other reasons like lack of new good games (good enough to attract overwhelming replies), or may be many other people are lacking time as well since this ain't a holiday season...

EDIT: Err, don't start with the second line again (as it has been done before over and over again)...(I just posted something which *I* *thought* *may be* can be the reason for the lack of *activity*, not *quality posts*, that's all :/)...

Oh no, not this again

The arrangement of the Creations forum has *nothing* to do with it. This forum saw a decline in quality of posts a long time ago.

This is usually a drop off point in activity, if I'm not mistaken. Everyone is busy with school and work, and the weather hasn't become terribly enough to stop doing other things yet! I know for me personally I've been far too busy with schoolwork to contribute much to the forum.

I don't think the splitting of the forums has helped much. Wouldn't it be possible to have a general creations forum like the old days when you click on it that just has the newest topics of all of them put together ?

But besides that, quality posts have been lacking for quite awhile.

Perhaps the lack of very high quality games recently has kept everyone quiet. There's been nothing major to attract mass interest to the Creations forum at least. We could use another Karoshi or Iji to bring back the life, but I think everyone is just going about their projects quietly and soon enough there'll be something to talk about again.

edit: And I still think the new Creations forum is better than the old style.

-Tv

I dont think the loss of activity has anything to do with the creations forum. It seems more likely because people have school. But I bet once the weather gets cold, more people will be on here because they cant do anything outside.

Well at the moment, the only thing thati think is really keeping Yoyo alive are the messages about the new Game Maker programs like Gm8 and GmMac. Yes a competition would probably bring some good games and alot more site activity!

I find that alot of the games advertised might be good but because people are so used to more and more games being announced on the forums that only the really good ones are given feedback.

It'd be interesting to see some statistics over the years, without them you can only say anything about how you 'experience' changes, whether they are actually true or not.

For example, I see (or at least, think there is) a lot less activity in the advanced forum in comparison to in 2003-2004, but this doesn't necessarily indicate a reduction in forum activity. It might be due to better categorization of topics (whereas in the past, novice topics would more often be posted wrongfully in advanced). It also doesn't say anything about the quality of posts, in fact the quality of the answers might be so good, that fewer posts are needed to find a solution for a question. Or, the community has become better educated about GM, and does not ask as many repeat questions.

Those are just a few of the many different causes that can lead to the same result. Fewer activity is not always a bad thing, as it might indicate higher efficiency or fewer questions because of better knowledge.

Whether it's negative or positive, I don't know, I can't say without statistics, and even those must be interpreted in the correct way.

There's only one thing I am certain about. Having been around since 2003 browsing the forums, I can say this: The GMC of today is a place with more information on GM than any other place, or any past version of the GMC. While activity might have been reduced (which I can't say for certain), activity of the past has not disappeared. It's locked up in all the topics and posts, accessible for anyone. I can learn so much if I browse the external forum, the example forum, search the advanced forum etc, more than at any point in the past.

Now that's mostly about the collective knowledge: greater than ever... The other part of the forum is mostly exposure. Now I must say, I experience games to get less feedback on the GMC. There's fewer replies. But this might have something to do with a lower goodgame/badgame ratio, reducing the average posts any one game gets. If you look at the really good games, they still get plenty of posts. And feedback has always been much higher in the development progress, when feedback matters the most. I still see topics with hundreds of posts, hell mine has over a 1.000. Same thing for the creations forum, Iji has 1800 posts, cause it's a good game, not because of an excess or lack of replies.

I personally don't bother checking the creations forum myself anymore, I'm really annoyed with the categorization. I understand it might be better for most though, but I like to open one page, check the post count for all topics on the first page (often an indication of popularity) and click some interesting topic names. (I skip things like pokemon). Now I have to check multiple pages, while I (and most others) enjoy any game genre, as long as it's a fun good game. So I do think the categorization has had an affect.

Secondly, a lot of people now go to Yoyogames. There you'll be able to check out popular games more quickly, play the game without hassle and check screens, comments and ratings in a matter of seconds. So activity hasn't necessarily reduced, just shifted.

In any case, you're more likely to get your questions answered, you're more likely to find information on what you're looking for, and you're still going to get feedback if you build a good game.

I check our stats periodically -- mostly to spot "registration spikes" that may signal a spam attack.

Monthly registration and post count dropped in September, as it always does when school starts in Europe, USA, and the frozen north. But even without the seasonal drop, new registration rates have been dropping for several years. GMC membership is still growing at a healthy rate, albeit at a slower pace.

I think that most of the activity is hidden anyway e.g. some of my topics have nearly 300 views but only 2 repleys. When I think how long the community already exists, I'd say that you can find nearly everything already answered as long as you are willed to look for it

one of the reasons I joined here was because the discussion between members was so warm and welcoming, the community seemed so self-supportive and vivid. Topics like this will (if anything) scare off new members as opposed to bringing them in, which defeats the whole purpose.

How does discussing registration/post stats scare off new members?

*cough*read the topic tile*cough*

This isn't the sort of topic that would attract new members

I suppose that's right... but that's not a criterion for topics. Otherwise we wouldn't have topics about:

-- GM doesn't work with Vista / Win 7 / Linux / etc
-- GM un-registered itself / stopped working for no reason / won't activate
-- GM teaches bad coding habits
-- the forum page doesn't display right
-- YoYo Games wants to steal my games
-- the moderators are evil

Huh? I have never seen a topic about YoYo Games wanting to steal peoples games. Or is it one of those EULA topics? Meh, we are getting(at least I think so)off-topic.

I think it's because there are way too many games. How are we suppose to play them all, right?

Maybe there's more competition from local GM communities than there was years ago, and of course we have the YYG community which wasn't there in the beginning. I'm just guessing now, but could it be that when YYG didn't exist, the GMC was the first place people found when looking for GM games "to see what others made", while nowadays the YYG site if the first "hit"? That would explain the proposed drop of activity in the Creations forums. Of course, for questions about how to do things in GM, the YYG won't really help out, so that forum doesn't decline in activity.

Just a theory

That or people are just busy O_O

I remember back in the day we had several hundred members online at a time. We still have that, except they aren't signed in or don't have an account:

Plenty of traffic on the forum, but very few want to take part in our fun activities.

Personally i dont go out of the graphics forum very often... Im pressing F5 once a while (every 5-10 minutes?) and more often than not there are no new posts. People need to request more graphics so i get something to do. xP

I'd LOVE more competitions. I havent actually entered any yet, since i always seem to go inactive when they start, but i'd like to enter sometime.

Yes, I reckon there is a lack of posts. But if you think about it, the most users ever online was just last month, so I'm positive we won't go inactive for a long time, if ever.

-Bazooie

Maybe not the lack of high quality games, but the increase in games that are crap.




I am in the same boat. Sometimes I go and check out the W.I.P. forum and browse some screenshots and occasionally play a game. Other then that, I usually stick with the Community, Extending GM, or possibly the Q & A.


Maybe the lack of replies is because of the increase in file size with GM 7 games

Ah... that explains it. I was thinking it was the increased pirate activity off Somalia's coast.

I try to review all deserving games that get posted on this forum on my blog.

But still, Gm games don't take long to download. I only generally leave a reply if i have way to much free time on my hands if its a bad game, otherwise i don't bother. Also many people have become lazy in posting topics, i admit i have too. Like only posting a link and a few lines of text, some also lack BB code for links. I also hate it when there is no description or images...

Wasn't there 800 something posts done yesterday?

Be interesting to see if there are actual statistical changes, but people have *always* complained that (their) topics/games didn't get enough attention...

This was only a couple of weeks ago. I think this alone could prove that the amount of active members has only been increasing. Even though I don't like to see a bunch of guests online (when they could be members), I think that there plenty of active members, however the overall reply rate has gone way down.

I believe that once the flood of users that came around, when YYG took over, become better game makers, then hopefully the life of the forum will start to rise.


I also agree with hpapillon. It would be great to see statistics. I think I remember KC posting some statistics a while ago for an issue related to this, but I'm not 100% sure.

October is college application and high school rape-age time in California.
It also happens to be the month in California where dad's complain about their work every day.
November is not much different. Maybe there will be more traffic, that is assuming people are responsible.
September is the month in California where high school kids are clinging to summer. Also where vacations reach their high point for many people.

Most guys I work with from the GMC are in High School. Only reason I'm here is to put off college applications.


Crap GMC games do come out in October. More than any other month, anyhow. joke


I thought that still was a factor.

It will probably boost back up in the summer, when people have more time.

School has started, and people have to put aside their games to do some homework...
And imo, school results in games having slow progress, or even result in abandoning games.

I'd respond to a lot more in the WIP forum if people didn't make such bad topics. Follow the guidelines, especially the one about stating whether or not your game changes the display resolution. It's better for everyone.

If that info isn't there I'm not going to touch the game with a ten foot pole. I don't want to have my display/windows messed up while testing a game. It also makes it seem like you don't care about it if you don't put some effort into the topic.

Yeah, I`ve noticed an (apparent to me) increase in the amount of game topics with no pics/little info as well.

Hmmm. Yeah, I realise that people being back in school would have a big impact lately, but I`m just noting general trend over the last few years really.
I`m sure it`s really a load of different factors combined - likely the release of GM8 will bring in a load of new blood.

I think as many have pointed out, alot more people seem to be "guests" now than before...
& browsing, but not posting/replying...
that`s a real shame as it makes the Communtiy so much less lively
(I wonder if this is partly down to weird board issues - ie: myself, for the last year or 2, I`ve been unable to stay "logged in" on these forums, these days I always have to enter my password to log-in & that requires more time/effort - I wonder if perhaps many have this problem & that`s contributing to the reduction in the replies?)

Another thing is that it seems (to me) that all the "big names" of the GMCommunity have moved on to other things & that no "new big names" have popped up to fill the gaps...
the really popular guys with truly great games (ie:2DCube, RedSystem etc.) really helped prop up the overall quality bar I think.

Also, I think the fact that GM8 has been a very long time coming wouldn`t have helped either (I imagine there would be a fair few people holding off on games production to make use of GM8s new features - like .png support - as I am!)

Well, just curious to hear people`s thoughts on the matter (or if it was all in my head!)
I think someone above made a very good point - that these days the amount of useful info on these forums is incredible & better than ever - many more examples, tutorials & opensource projects than there ever was before - which is cool. Also the extension/dlls sections seem to be really alive & kicking this last year or 2 with some incredible stuff coming out. The help sections are very lively also, & the Community section is fantastic with lots of TV/audio shows etc. (which didn`t exist a few years ago).
It`s really just the game creations forums (with the lack of replies) that seems to be dwindling away (rather than growing/improving)... but in the old days, this was kinda of the heart of the GMCommunity, so it`s sad that this is the case.

Really wish YoYo would start up another Official Comp, & keep the Comps going regularly (even one every 6 months would work well). I think they really bring different people in the COmmunity together (group projects) & encourage a much higher standard of games to be worked on/released.

Anyway, I`ve rambled on enough... keep your thoughts coming!

I would be willing to wager that it's less a change in reply count, and more a change in perception.

Two years ago, I spent most of my time in the novice and advanced Q&As helping people there. A year ago most of my time was in the 3d forum. Today it's mostly community and (the forum formerly known as) experts.

As I stopped frequenting certain forums and favoring others they seemed to me to get fewer and more posts respectively.

As we grow and change our ideas and perceptions of the world (even small parts of it like the GMC) change. I doubt there has been much in the way of a decrease in posts statistically.

Then there's also the fact school started... but everyone else drove that point into the ground, so I thought I'd be unique.

Well, I must say that reading this topic is strangly depressing.

I don't go to the games section of the forums now. I used to go in it click a random game and play it. But now I have to choose what type of game to play, And frankly I don't know what types of games I like...

As I mentioned earlier in this topic, it's just the usual seasonal drop:



The same thing happens every year around this time. Post count will increase gradually throughout the year, and this cycle will repeat itself next year. Nothing new.

Wait till winterbreak, people will have more time then, I believe that people are hard at work at their games, and rarely have time to comment on other games, because each game by the time you download it and everything (comment as well), lets face it, 10 minutes easy.

For example, i only help on these forums, and sometimes take a stroll in the creations subforum

taking a look at the chart, I must say it makes sense. The activity jumps during summer break and then dives when school starts. I assume that after people get back into the groove of school. they will start being able to balence their hobbies so that they are not 100% neglected