Thread: Retail game forum moderators

  1. #1
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    Retail game forum moderators

    Why do games allow absolute clueless mods to moderate their forums? In several instances I've seen false, inaccurate, and technically impossible suggestions offered to people who are having problems with their games.

    In one case someone told a person to reinstall their OS to run the game or buy a new graphics card when the card they had was completely sufficient. Several other threads and gamers alone seem to think multi-core support in games will somehow magically fix their game. There is so much confusion out there now about multi-core and what it does that most are clueless. I find that most people that get irritated about their games become that way after going to that particular game's forum for help and get some crazy advice or get slammed for saying the game is this or that. If companies want to use forums as tech support then they absolutely must screen their moderators so they can at least tell people how to get to the start menu.

    I've tried to offer help but more times than not my threads get deleted or people think I'm a developer when all I'm really doing is giving them some good advice about how to get their game to run. But people would rather throw out wild ideas like re-installing this or that or setting core affinity and other garbage that does nothing to help. I do not mention that I'm a graphics programmer or any type of programmer at all in the forums b/c I don't want them then asking me a billion stupid questions. The amount of incorrect information floating around on the internet related to games, graphics, and code is staggering and it just gets worse every day.

    Anyone else attempted to help people on any game forums only to be told you are either clueless or you are a dev posing as a normal member?

    That being said I'm proud to be a member of this board b/c I believe we attempt to provide the most accurate and relevant information possible. No one knows everything but collectively I believe we do a good job of providing accurate technical information.
    Last edited by VirtualAce; 10-30-2010 at 12:18 PM.

  2. #2
    Lurking whiteflags's Avatar
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    I have stopped playing PC games because I don't have the money to upgrade my computer all the time, and performance power is apparently why most stuff that I could buy (or stuff that I did buy on impulse) doesn't work.

    Anyone else attempted to help people on any game forums only to be told you are either clueless or you are a dev posing as a normal member?
    Even if you were a developer answering questions through lunch, why would this be wrong or undesirable?

  3. #3
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by whiteflags
    Even if you were a developer answering questions through lunch, why would this be wrong or undesirable?
    It sounds like a sarcastic resort to me: "who do you think you are, insignificant little member? A developer posing as a mere mortal? I will ban you if you continue your impersonation."
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

  4. #4
    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
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    Gaming forums... 'nough said.

    In any case, when the company only support policy is to tell users to upgrade their systems and upgrade their drives, moderators simply follow the rules. The problem is upstream; The computer entertainment industry is quite possibly the worst industry in post sales quality of service. We need to come down to small studios and indie developers to hope to have real quality of service. And all around a < $20 game title with sales that dwarf any of the AAA titles.
    Last edited by Mario F.; 10-30-2010 at 02:46 PM.
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

  5. #5
    Registered /usr
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    When I'm bored I go trawling through the Steam forums because people on there are funny.

    You can tell that there's problems there: anyone who's ever said anything even slightly negative about a game has the word "Banned" under their name.

  6. #6
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    Even if you were a developer answering questions through lunch, why would this be wrong or undesirable?
    Because that ruins their conspiracy theory that the devs were just out to get their money by putting out a crappy product.

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