Gamershell forums and creativity..

As a community of gamers, you would expect that the Gamershell forums would be very welcome and open to other members of the gaming world that want to come here and display their works for the world to see.

I am ashamed to say that this is far from true of these forums.

It wasn't very long ago that our idea of a sig was to have a quote from another forumite, or to just grab some picture off the web and stick it under your name. Then a few of our fellow forum members started playing with some art programs to make a sig for themselves. The first results were predictably foogly, but peeps were congratulated for making the attempt, and sporting a sig that they actually made had its own l33t status that I never obtained.

It wasn't long however until this little group turned into the full-blown crew of l33t artists that we are graced with here today. And this group of sig makers have stayed wide open to neophytes trying their hand for the first time. I recall Cow's first sig. It was godawful, but the other artists applauded him for doing his own, and tutored him until we see him winning contests with his works.

So, with this kind of background, WHY do we as a community tolerate the abuse heaped upon someone who enters these forums and has the brass balls to show off a work that they made themselves?

Gatekeeper, a regular member of our community, routinely posts things for fun, just to entertain us. The response is almost like a lynch crowd moving in for the kill. GM was actually chastised for giving GK a hint on how to improve the works. WTH is wrong with what GK is doing? Is there something horribly offensive in his pics that I am missing?

What about these other people that put out their very first movie or mod and bring it here to show off? Look at the response they have gotten!! FFS, these aren't Hollywood directors people, they are GAMERS trying to do something creative to entertain their fellow GAMERS!

Our elite sig-makers didn't just fall into these forums, they grew right here. I want to see the same thing happen here with movie makers, flash artists, modders, etc.

What do we need to do to change the atmosphere here so that they are welcomed, instead of hounded?

Hear, hear!

I agree 100% with everything you've said. Very good post, hopefully some will open their eyes.

All of that statement is true. The only reason I dislike GK is due to his lack of respect of other forum members

It's nice you all agree with me about there being a problem, but no one is offering any suggestions as to how to improve.

TALK!

Originally posted by matreox@Jul 22 2005, 03:55 PM
All of that statement is true. The only reason I dislike GK is due to his lack of respect of other forum members

... and I might point out that GK hasn't gotten a whole lot of respect from a lot of the forumites.

I know, off topic, sorry.

In my opinion kindergarten is somewhat responsible for this. Although it creates a great outlet for flames, nonsense and other crap it also creates a culture of offense which has widely spread beyond the borders of kindergarten.

The sigmakers are not the only ones hurt by this, random new people and those with different opninions about games are being slaughtered on the forums by the dozens. I remember some guy being a bit to enthustiastic about Halo 2 and his clan and the poor soul got butchered for his love (and way to passionate expression of that love) of that game.

I'm not in anyway saying kg should leave or is the source of all evil, I love it and it should remain here forever. All i am saying is that the negetivaty that is sometimes expressed there has crossed the borders into the rest of the forum.

Well there is always the possiblity of making a forum for movies, mods, and such and have it have the same rules as hellp and hardware. Or just rename the art forum to The creativity forum where all of that stuff could go. And again keeping the same rules as some of our other sections

Yes, I agree Bucky!

I have said this many times before! Thank you for putting it into one post for me! :thumbup:

gamersHELL... I would be ashamed if everyone loved each other

anyway I think it's just cause of site demographics, 14-18 year guys are way faster offending that being propositive, personally it's just about reading one post each three (skipping my own...) and it works fine :P