Where the hell is everyone?

Social internet has changed. It's not just this site in particular. I see evidence all over the place. I blame mobile tech, the era of picture replies, Twitter one liners, watching other peoples shit instead of pooping out your own. Best way to beat it  is to just pick something to talk about. I may do that right now.

Deep is correct. A lot of the forums that I have participated in over the years do not nearly have the traffic they once did. 

It seems some of the big clans have moved on and killed a lot of the traffic. Most clan have become multi-game clans which in my option is the kill of death for most groups. With no real focus members lose interest and fade away.

I don't see it getting any better with the new systems because I see the new systems being a big part of our social media.

My guess, we'll have to merge forums. It may seem a little messy but it keeps people current on more games at a glance. It might even get some people to try out more games. Perhaps game genre boundaries can continue to be respected but it's not outside the realm of possibility I might get interested in Racing for example if I read more of their posts. Hanging out in one or two restricted content forums creates barriers to propagating information about other game activities. Imagine all the FPS titles together in one forum. Imagine FPS and Racing together.

If people are shaking their head and thinking "NO", imagine your busy little game forum turning into a dry heartless wasteland. It happens.

I agree things changed. Of course, some boards are still doing fine - look at NeoGAF, or Offtopic.

I blame Halo 4 lol

Halo 4, CoD, Battlefield, Forza, Minecraft, ect. all have communities, but people don't wanted to leave there friends.

Deep, in the 8 years I have known you; I have never seen you play or show interest in a game other than Halo. I beleive Destiny will be your first non-Halo game.

A bunch of huge clans left, 2o2p v3 came out and i guess people didn't like the changes, plus there's the already mentioned mobile boom.  I don't even come here that often, not that i'm participating on social nets either, I don't want to do that shit.  Just need to face it, forums and emails are oldschool, internet evolution has made these things almost irrelevant these days.  However we're all old here, so I am a little surprised at the magnitude this has affected us.

I've been laying low barely playing any games little bit of Minecraft that's about it 

To me the site was always about Halo (more on that in a moment).  I was excited to play it with my friends and I stopped by here to see what everyone was up to.  Then I moved on to CoD, and still dropped by from time to time.  Now both games are showing their age and people are losing interest.  And people just generally get bored with forums.  Without new people coming in to take the place of old things start to die.

To me Halo was a very social game.  I had fun playing it, laughing and bull shitting with my friends.  Even though I play with many of the same people in CoD it isn't the same.  While I still have fun their isn't the time for the banter and socializing that seemed to take place during Halo games and in the lobbies.  It's a more intense game I guess.

Anywho, point it the site was about Halo which jumped the shark with Reach.

It wasn't Halo 4, V3 happened. After that nothing was the same. "You bastards, you blew it all to hell....".

I think many people have moved along to other things. I am not sure that Doodi even plays on the console much anymore. Does 2o2p even have a MMO playing guild? Most people I know refer to off site guilds.

Here is an example:

I play FFXIV:ARR. There are maybe 3 people on this site that play it. 3 that I can think of. My free company(guild) has 500 members. I go there to post about FXIV. They are not going to move here.

I guess what I am saying is that people get older and their tastes change.

I've been in 3 2o4f lobbies since getting XB1 and FM5 and all three were less than 30 minutes.  This makes me sad.

I used to be in a FM4 lobby for multiple hours a week.

We ran two 30 minute series races last night at 9pm, on Fm4...R3 GT300 ( Scooby/Nissan) cars at Catalunya and Road Atlanta.

Really, V3? I doubt that as strongly now as I did 1.5 years ago. V3 is a pain in the ass, I agree but the post counts were already seriously down well before that, in my opinion. I remember when I jumped into the Halo series and started pumping Halo: ODST followed by Halo: REACH. Things were quite slow even then. Demographics and mobile connectivity are the most likely culprits plus lack of a huge IP to follow. Maybe the Forza group can say if they think V3 impeded their post counts?

V3 really isn't that different than V2.  I think people use that as an excuse too much.  It's still a message board, and it's still not vBulletin.  It's pretty similar.

I haven't been around mostly due to being a new father. I am a member of one of the clans that left, but I still frequent here and read more than I post.

I don't participate as much as I used to not because of v3, but mainly due to the evolution of the site. It doesn't feel like the same tight community it was for many years. While many of the clans kept the site strong, it has since weakened the core.

While I greatly appreciate all the work that has gone into the site (SOOO many to name), it feels like a bit of focus has been taken away from the comraderie and bonding that this site was so well known for. Most of that is due to the changing social media like many have said. 

While it can be easy to point the finger at a certain group or a change of the times, we can still do our part to keep this place strong. Tell your friends how great this place and the people truly are. 

This place is far from dead... just a little quiet. Remember it is the holidays, which means more potential for new gamers and old gamers to return.