But in reality you were most welcome by the members, me, because you are pleasant to talk too. Don’t go doubting yourself. Forum policies are always a bit impersonal, but sometimes strict rules keep things from getting out of hand. So that, we musn’t forget.
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How strict or loose the forum is, is actually individual. For some, the forums may be too strict and they prefer more loose attitude, while for others, the attitude is too loose and stricter management is needed.
For that, we have Off-Topic subforum. And Regulars also have their very own corner where to “loosen up”. 
Well, “back then”, i take it during GZ launch? If so, there wasn’t many topics within the forums and everyone could’ve started a new topic, discussing new stuff. Nowadays, there are loads of topics in the forums, covering almost all what there is in the game. Though, General Discussion topics usually remain as they are posted. It’s the feature request and bug report topics that get merged to the same one.
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Not necessarily related to the topic as it is, but I’ve always felt the devs should chime in more. To be honest, I have no clue how many people play the game, how many of those that do are in this forum, or how many devs are around, but I feel this is a community that cares. Whenever someone asked for support or advice, someone was ready to assist and chatter.
As far as I am concerned: Back when I was active reporting bugs, I’d have loved to receive some feedback. I get that staff have other things to do, but: a word of advice, an affirmation that issues have been seen, acknowledged and put on a to-do-list would do wonders. And seeing that most of the reported issues from back then remain unsolved, even when terrain issues happen where active work takes place, is discouraging to say the least.
I think the forum got quieter because of the shift in the game. I presume the engagement came from the game being obscure and cryptic, and now that it got more mainstream appeal, players inevitably lost the need to seek out others. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it thins out the forums for sure.
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You got a point here. When people dislike the changes in the evolution of the game these players obviously won’t be enthusiastic about the game anymore. I always like to compare the game evolution to real life, and say to myself that we never know what will happen, and that we have little control over the future. Same with the game, the directions it takes might not be the one we expect or like, but we can still make the most of it. For me none of the changes deterred me from the game, the opposite in fact. And I guess the forum loses activity from people for whom the changes are unacceptable.
Also, the need for asking questions is less, because most answers are easy to find everywhere. Via Fandom, guides, and searching the forums.
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That’s why I posted this, in the offtopic forum. And although the Regular corner is nice, not everybody can see what you have to say. It’s kind of the same as having a private discussion, not everybody can join in. Snipergirl expressed exactly what I mean.
Although private discussions can help in some disagreement, or be used as a base to work together on a common goal (e.g. Complete Apparel List), or act just as place where like minded people have a bit of fun, I believe that for a forum to thrive, topics need to be public so everybody can share their thoughts.
For me, the game has brought me to the forum, and the forum made me more involved in the game. Without the forum, I might not have had the same experience. … No, not might, I know my experience was greatly improved, by all the knowledge and interaction with other members of the resistance. 
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Yes, you are right, you probably get more accurate, detailed and clearer answers from live reactions, than from a concise piece of explanation people found via google. It’s always nicer to be able to dig a bit deeper if somethings are still unclear. 
I merely meant that, after years of accumulating questions and answers, a lot of information can be found without having to ask personally on a forum. A forum where you have to register if you want to ask something. Registering might hold people back. 
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Feels like this thread might do better in #feedback-feature-requests, if you feel that there are certain areas where the forum can be improved to make the experience better for new and old users. If you want it moved there, let me know
From a moderator’s standpoint it doesn’t feel like the forums have changed much. GZ is not that big of a title so it’s fanbase is smaller and more condensed. And people come and go at regular intervals.
As a moderator I got access to the forum statistics page, that lets me see all sorts of data relevant to activity, most searched for words, active members etc. Activity has in fact lessened over the summer, I suspect that the delayed Xbox update is partly responsible for this, but also vacation times.
On the other hand we’ve gained a crapton of new users since summer began.
The Nr 1 most searched term is “reaper”.
The Nr 12 most searched term is “capybara”… 
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Would moving lead to the requirement to stay exactly on topic being more strictly enforced? I assumed that having it here in off topic category, the moderators allow it more flow.
What? 
You must be pulling my leg. I just searched on the forum, and I get one hit, in this topic. It most be some google fluke. 
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The Offtopic section abides by the same rules as the rest of the forum. If you create a topic here, you’re still expected to remain on that topic. Topic. Topic. Feels like I’m repeating myself 
Anyway, it can remain here, no problem.
Nah, I’m serious. I’ve idea why. Just thought it was some funny forum trivia.
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There are plenty of devs around. It’s just, that only few of them post in the public forums.
Here’s the link to all devs, ordered by the date they joined: Generation Zero Forum
By my count, they all are in the forums.
On individual standpoint (original poster), the acknowledgement from the dev or mod is yes, assuring. On the dev standpoint, there are so many bug reports made that they can’t respond to individual reports one-by-one.
Though, mods (myself included, back in the day), have poked devs and brought the most severe, game-breaking issues to the devs immediate attention. So, that the worst issues get fixed in timely manner.
And even when some questions are asked, there are several people who jump in to answer it quite fast. 
E.g one of the latest: How I can open it?
That was actually the reason why i didn’t join GZ forums when i started to play GZ.
I don’t like to make a new account with every new game i start playing. (Looking at you, Apex Connect 
) Due to that, Steam discussions are much better since you can bring the overlay up, while in-game and registration free. For discussion alone, Steam discussions is a neat place. Only when i encountered a severe bug, i joined GZ forums to report it.
But i do understand why games have dedicated forums provided by publisher/developer. Oversight in the Steam forums is difficult to do and it isn’t designed for ease of moderating, e.g compared to the Discourse platform.
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No its more than that. I’m also talking physics here. (Maybe I didn’t mention it but it was in my mind) For instance exploding cars and barrels. Its not very realistic that you can stand zero range to a dog and take no damage, but it blows up a car behind you, and three more cars around you from which you do take damage and die from. Realistic damage models on machines, and much more. Physics on riding the bike. So I want to call it FPS experience.
Its also including for instance parkour, which have a topic of its own now. But the parkour and jumping physics are so bad imo. Here there is also room for adding stuff like timing a dodge or something similar, to parkour over something instead of just jumping over it. Like old CS 1.6 where Jump dodge was a thing.
There is so much that can be done with this game.
Let’s not discuss moderator actions on the open forums, please.
//Mod
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I mean with the way things are heading with this community and the game itself I probably won’t be a member much longer 
I’m actually shocked I haven’t been banned myself, the die hards get all aggressive in the forums when I post something that is different from what they think it should be
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I fully agree. I don’t engage with ppl that much in the community because this, Feels like everyone is just being very negative about the game. “except for some ppl”.
I just try to look at things from my side and really don’t care if others hate the things I like bout the game.
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I don’t like being partially responsible for the forum going quiet, but I simply can’t play GZ for a while, so I don’t have much to contribute with anyway…
I’m unsure who these so called “die-hards” are, or if they’re really trying to hinder anyone in speaking their mind. Sounds like an unreasonable accusation to me. 
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Yeah. I’m still regularly checking in to see what’s new and if there’s someone who needs help, but I’m not playing much any more. I’m still hoping for some ‘spark’ to reignite my interest though.
With regards to fearing ‘die-hards’ and a frigid atmosphere - that’s the last thing that should happen in here. As long as there is constructive dialogue, banter and jokes, the game will stand a chance. When people start fearing to speak up, and when honest attempts to engage with the community are shot down, they can close up this place for good.
On the other hand, what needs to be hammered home occasionally is that most people in this forum aren’t native speakers - they might sound harsher or less eloquent than English speakers, but usually mean well.
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This has been quite the meta discussion over the past couple weeks, so I wanted to see what I could add to it I will say that the forums are not as exciting as they used to be, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing like some people seem to be trying to point out because they don’t understand the purpose of these forums.
There are obviously spikes in activity when updates are released; always more questions to be answered and new content to be found with each update! This would be expected with any game. It’s a good thing to see because it shows us that there is still an interested player base for GZ that will always be around.
Thankfully there is a significant less amount of bug reports now a days than there used to be. I believe it’s safe to assume Avalanche continues to develop as a team and is doing a better job with each update they release.
The longer a game goes on, besides new updates that are released, new topics can be harder to come by. I think a lot of people try to justify a game’s forums to be a type of social media type of site, which to a certain extent it is, but then it really is not. As much as we love to see new members and discussions occurring in the forums we still have to abide by the CoC that everyone should have read when they created their account here. This is a forum for discussing Generation Zero, giving feedback, reporting bugs, sharing content, etc. This forum exists to share knowledge about the game. If it was meant to be just another social media site we would have friend requests, groups, and other things of that sort. The reason we have ‘likes’ is so users can show their support of other users comments in discussions, as it helps point out in some cases where the community agrees on something. At some point things will slow down because most things in the game have been spoken about. I think Graham stated it as simply as he could in the CoC:
It is not my goal to try and spoil anyone’s fun in our forums, but anything that violates the CoC has to be handled accordingly. In the community some people see that as us trying to take all the fun out of the forums when in reality all we’re doing is our job that Avalanche has trusted us to do. If you really want to make friends with other members of the Generation Zero community, Avalanche has already given you a place to do just that! The Generation Zero discord is a place you can talk as much as your heart desires as long as you play nice with everyone else there
I guess my biggest point here should be that this is not a social media site. The point of the forums is not to be constantly fun and exciting (or have “Pzazz” as the topic suggests); It is to have constructive conversations about the game. If you decide to break the CoC, expect to hear from a Moderator. If you think you’re too cool for the CoC and want to do it multiple times, I simply wouldn’t recommend it! If you want to talk and make friends, please head on over to the Generation Zero discord.
Removed a number of off-topic comments regarding moderation actions
//Mod
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I don’t know discord, I never used it. I suppose that they have moderation too? With the same Mods?
I will have a think of what to do. The problem that many members have who are regular visitors of this forum, is that they got too attached to it, addicted almost. Me also. I liked it here, but not anymore. These slow times are perhaps a blessing in disguise, and may help members like me to cut loose from it and kick the habit from coming every day. Getting back to what it is all about, playing games with friends and having fun.
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I think Boston is right, if you want more active discussions you can drop into without worrying for downtime the Discord is the way to go. It too is moderated, doesn’t matter which mods as long as you follow common sense and adhere to the chat’s rules.
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True but there is still a lot of bugs present which needs to be squished eventually. I think of the bugs where sounds get lost at random, hunters with railguns can shoot through anything, area effects needs to be improved (spread, barriers), LOUD water etc. The good thing is that with each update the game gets more stable. Hadn’t had a crash for quite a while now
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