What happened?

[Raiken]

Seriously, what's happened to NG4L? It seems like not long ago we had such a strong team here with Seiryu and BoriquaSNK and the others but the staff has dwindled down a lot. I know Seiryu has personal matters come up and had to stop posting for awhile but I can't even understand why BoriquaSNK left us without really saying anything when he's still over at Neo-Geo.com and making crazy threads like this:

www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150723&highlight=boriquasnk

I still come here at least once everyday but it seems like it's rare for more then one section to even have updated posts. We've barely started the atomiswave era of SNK gaming having seen several great new games imo and yet things are so slow here. I honestly don't understand why those guys left us but I'm still comitted to this place and intend to write several new reviews in the near future. Kaz is already preparing my Twinklestar Sprites Le Petite Princess review for the site and soon I'll have another review written up for Metal Slug 6 for the ps2.

[sukotsuto]

I've seen roninbuddha going online in my yahoo messenger, but he hardly comes here too anymore. Even though I don't post as much as before, it has been a habit for me to open up the site and the forums nearly everyday since 2003. I always link back to the site even in other forums I post in so I'm pretty much active in NG4L. It's just that there a a few (more likely obvious) factors why there hasn't been much activity lately:


1. No more official support on Neo-Geo , so there aren't much "where can i dl _____ rom???" threads to lock with the lack of newer neo stuff in favor of console new games & ports and Atomiswave.

2. Most of us have been busy with other things. seiryu has his personal matters, roninbuddha with his college, boriquasnk...err...I wasn't that active at the time when ngfl vets like him and goukistar (remember him?) are still around, I've no idea what hullcityfcmad, darkschneider, kumavonmitsurugi, Throwen and son jason are up to (though son jason and hullcityfcmad drops by from time to time) which leaves the few of us posting regularly.

3. ...or busy playing some games ;D I've been spending hours like crazy playing some awesome PS2/NGPC/DS games for the past few months, and those Nippon Ichi RPGs are really keeping me from going out.

I've been lazy posting up some new stuff recently, but with renewed fervor, I will litter the boards with choaniki screenshots, just like in the old days ;D

[Kazuya_UK]

I agree with most of what suko said. There isn't as much interest in Neo Geo stuff as there used to be, so not so many people surf in here randomly. No-one really browses in here looking for "teh romz" anymore either... while that could be annoying, at least some of those people hung around and made more posts.

I must admit I have barely posted around here in some time because I have been busy with work and other things, but I haven't given up with the site or anything (just paid my hosts fees and paid for the .com domain renewal for another year in fact). I still need to sort your review out raiken and will definitely get it done this week, as well as a few other things that I still need to sort out. Will try to be around here more too!

Other than that I'm not sure what the answer is, but I am really open to ideas. If that means re-organising the forum in some way to make it more attractive then we can do that, or if it meant doing something different with the site itself to attract more people in then we could look at that. My main problem is that whenever I start work on anything on the site I usually end up not being able to finish it because I'm busy with other stuff. The only way around it is if we come up with some sort of plan to do something with the site and then stick to it.

I've had tons of ideas for things that could be done with the site, but putting them into practice is really difficult because it's so time consuming and not many of us really have that amount of spare time to do it. I've thought about stuff like totally revamping everything and running the site using some sort of content management system along the lines of PHPNuke (not necessarily that, but something like it), and having the forums integrated with the site. Although it would mean moving away from proboards and losing the posts we have, this forum could still stay here as an archive, and it wouldn't be too hard to reinstate peoples accounts (and post counts if they really wanted them ). It would be nice because having everything integrated would be better - for instance, with the site the way it is, peoples logins for the forum, the news script (if they post news) and the fan art sections etc etc would be totally different (on that note, the fan art section is still broken, must fix it! . It would be easier for everything to be the same, and more professional. It's something I could think about anyway, but I'd more than likely need to find help to do it, preferably from someone who has experience with setting stuff like that up so that I don't screw it up .

To be honest, although activity on the forum has died down, the amount of people browsing the site and looking for reviews and other info is still quite high - it's not as much as maybe a year or two ago, but there is still a fair bit of interest. It's turning those visitors into contributors though; whether that means they submit content for the site, or if it means they just come and post on the forum, it's all good. We need to find a way to do that though, and we need to make the site more interactive, rather than just a place where people come to get info and then leave. Don;t get me wrong, if you think about it, it's amazing when you realise that all the stuff we've worked on over the years has been so helpful to people. I don't take anywhere near all the credit for that because cheesy as it might sound the site wouldn't be around now if it wasn't for the help I've received from you guys and everyone else that has done anything for NeoGeoForLife.... but I know from the emails I get etc etc that we've been of great use, and even if the site just sat there and we didn't have a forum, I'd still be happy that people were using it. I like interactivity though, and the social aspect of the games we play, and we've had a lot of fun on this forum since 2003 (yea it really has been 3 and a half years!), so there's no way I want it to just die a slow and painful death.

I have ideas, but can anyone else think of anything we can do to give the site and the forum a shot in the arm? Any ideas, no matter how outrageous, will be considered

Kaz

[Emo Fairy]

*gets her ra ra skirt and pom poms* Ok I shall dance, that'll get them queueing up.

I promise to let Kaz out more often but only if he behaves. This site is a great place. It's just a shame that people come but don't contribute.

[Kazuya_UK]

Exalted for dancing.... I like the skirt! ;D

Kaz

[werD]

I don't really know either. I haven't been posting much ebcause I haven't really had much to say. That being said, I check out the forums once a day. Maybe activity will pick up with the Wii and PS3 releases?

-Drew

[Raiken]

I'm actually not sure what we'd need to do to attract more people. The main site hasn't been changed all that while ago and I'd kinda hate to see it change now. I'm sorta hoping this is simply a brief period of dullness here until new games arrive like werD said. If only we had more people we could get back to work on that character dictionary since I actually have a fair amount of free time now and I could contribute more.

[darkschneider]

Hello everyone. Interestingly enough, I was just thinking of this forum and decided to check it out for the first time in a long time.

I used to go to this forum everyday for about a year or two, but times sadly changed

I don't even own any sort of neogeo hardware atm, in fact I've pretty much given up video games. I was definately interested in SNK games, and particularly new atomiswave games, but being in the states it was exceedingly uncommon for me to see an atomiswave let alone a new KOF game or so. I also did not own a PS2 so I missed out on the 3D KOFs, and more recent SNK releases which I have always wanted to play.

By not having any exposure to the games, and not having friends who wanted to play my older fighting games - my SNK passion has died down a bit. Also various events in my life (IE: I'm going to school in Japan) have influenced my present videogameless state.

Good to see some of you still here Of course I remember everyone who was around back when I was a frequent poster (whatever happened to that "upcoming" Underground Union forum? I think thats what it was called?). I will probably check the forums again in the future, but I don't think I'll be anywhere close to a constant poster like I was before.

*DS out

[phry]

*gets her ra ra skirt and pom poms* Ok I shall dance, that'll get them queueing up.

I could dance too, but I thinks that'll scare people away and give them nightmares! ;D

Anyways, though I wasn't around in the early days, I always have a great time on the NGFL forums thanks to everyone here, ever since I was a newbie re-discovering the arcade games I used to play a long while back.

I always try to visit couple of days a week at least but have noticed a lull in forum activity lately as well. IMO I think that it's a quiet time for gaming in general. Of course they'll be plenty going on in the next few months. The new generation of consoles arriving will raise many a discussion I'm sure. I like to be optimistic and believe that the lull will pass very soon.

I have ideas, but can anyone else think of anything we can do to give the site and the forum a shot in the arm? Any ideas, no matter how outrageous, will be considered

Any ideas? hmm. Since people visit the site for NG info, reviews etc, the character database is still a great idea. As well as reviews etc another idea could be to post feature articles about a variety of snk related topics such as what got us into playing Neo in the first place, the best arcades still doing Neo/Atomiswave/any retro or celebrating the underated games (snk or otherwise) of gaming no matter how obscure and to encourage members new and old to post these features - and then link then to forum discussions.

I must really get off my arse and write some reviews etc
(though I would technically have to be on my arse, on my seat in front of my pc - but you get the idea )

[Goemon]

raiken said:

I honestly don't understand why those guys left us but I'm still comitted to this place

That's pretty much how i feel.

Like what has already been mentioned, i think that alot of folks are starting to become uninterested in SNK games lately. Sometimes i think about posting news on the site but i've completely forgotten how.

[Goemon]

darkschneider said:

I don't even own any sort of neogeo hardware atm, in fact I've pretty much given up video games.

First of all, it's good to see ya. I can understand how you feel about video games. I've found myself becoming less and less interested in video games lately. Not because i think i'm too mature or old now, (infact i think playing video games is alot better then coming home after work and being mesmerized by the T.V. for the rest of the night like alot of folks) but i think i'm starting to get tired of the same type of gameplay with different visuals over and over agian. I've been exploring other hobbies lately.

[sukotsuto]

goemon said:

darkschneider said:

I don't even own any sort of neogeo hardware atm, in fact I've pretty much given up video games.

First of all, it's good to see ya. I can understand how you feel about video games. I've found myself becoming less and less interested in video games lately. Not because i think i'm too mature or old now, (infact i think playing video games is alot better then coming home after work and being mesmerized by the T.V. for the rest of the night like alot of folks) but i think i'm starting to get tired of the same type of gameplay with different visuals over and over agian. I've been exploring other hobbies lately.

I think the opposite applies for me. It seems that the more I get older, the more I am interested in videogames (maybe when I become a grandpa, I'm gonna steal the consoles from them young'ins and play them for myself while I tell them to go out and play ). Although I do lose interest in certain games I've had before, in a couple of years or so, I just end up playing the game again out of renewed interest or nostalgia's sake, so never did my interest truly go down seriously. It's probably because I'm bored all the time without old buds to hang around with, so gaming's the only way for me to feel pumped and/or relaxed (aside from music). Anyway, my interest is still strong especially on "underdog" games, since I always go for the least popular games over the mainstream ones (examples: SNK>CAPCOM; Namco Tales series & Nippon Ichi SRPGs>Final Fantasies; Crystalis>Zelda; etc.). Hardcore gamer I am

Anyway, expect me to hang around for decades ;D and good to see ya around here again darkschneider

[phry]

I think the opposite applies for me. It seems that the more I get older, the more I am interested in videogames (maybe when I become a grandpa, I'm gonna steal the consoles from them young'ins and play them for myself while I tell them to go out and play ).

Same here buddy. I found that as I've got older, my interest in videogames hasn't declined. In fact it's actually grown. (particularly since I have much more money that I had has a tteenager! ;D). I've found that my taste in gaming has diversified much more and has slowly mored away from mainstream towards the niche. I'd try games I wouldn't have previously and find the things I like about games changing. For example my appreciation of graphics is now more on an artistic/aesthetic level than a technical one. I'd have the charm of Metal Slug over the likes of Medal of Honor anyday. Five years ago, I would have hated something like Killer7 for example (flat shaded polygons, fixed paths) but now what I see is a unique sense of style, atmosphere and streamlined gameplay (and a middle finger raised to the mainstream likes of EA etc ).

I have also found myself appreciating older games much more - particularly given my re-discovering of SNK a couple of years back, fuelled by a yearning for the dark, dingy, smoky games-laded arcades of my youth!

[nindo]

I gotta admit, too bad seiryu and flan aren't around anymore. They're the reason I completely went over from neotaku to here. I was a neo geo all along though. Even liked King Of Fighters more than Street Fighter.

I'll be hanging around here for quite a while, (That is, until the board is dead) because it's one of the few boards I'm posting at, and I like small boards better than big ones. (I despise gamingforce.com, but they're good for stealing music ;D)

[Kazuya_UK]

Feature articles are a good idea and the character database is too. With that, Edge suggested ages ago that we use a Wikipedia style script to make it so that people can easily edit it. I did look at installing something for that, but then found out that powweb actually has its own script which is almost identical to Wikipedia, and that can be installed and running in about 5 minutes. That might be worth considering? I'm not 100% sure about setting it up though, but we can have a play with it.

I was thinking about the whole changing the site thing, and I did have one idea. I did consider moving all the non Neo Geo related stuff on the site to a new section, and then building the new section using some sort of script like PHPNuke or something. It would still be an SNK based site, but it would be for all the newer games on the arcade/PS2/Wii/DS/whatever. It could also *possibly* include a section for non SNK fighting games etc etc, so we could cover other stuff that might be of interest to people (eg the Fist of the North Star game), and maybe even a little anime. The site could stay the same, but eventually content could be migrated to the new site,or something like that (it would still be NeoGeoForLife though!). It's just an idea, but it might be worth thinking about, because without changing stuff eventually the site will just die a slow painful death as peoples interest wanes away.

Just mulling some ideas around the old noggin...

Kaz