E3 2011 is right around the corner. Are you excited? Well, you should be. I know I am! As with E3 being the largest expo for the video game industry, naturally there will be many new games/devices/etc announced as well as already-known-yet-still-unreleased games will be shown off and discussed more. With this massive, delicious orgy of video game news, videos and demos, you may be thinking to yourself: What is the best and proper way to discuss all of this video game glory with my fellow Giant Bomb comrades in the forums and how do I go about doing that? Well don't worry my compadre, my fellow moderators and I will show you the way!
Press Conferences
As this week rolls along, you will start to see a set of distinct threads dedicated to each of the major press conferences for E3: EA, Konami, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and Ubisoft. These threads will open up a few hours before their respective conference begins. They will be pinned to the top of the forums and in each of their respective forums(which are the links aforementioned in this segment). These will be the official threads for each press conference and only about the press conferences themselves. That means that there will be no other threads talking about the press conferences nor will there be extensive discussion of individual games shown at the press conference. Just about the conference and things about the games that were shown at said conference. To put it simply, only general discussion of the press conferences themselves will be allowed.
Let us recap, with patent-pending bullet points:
- There will be an official discussion thread for each of the major press conferences: EA, Konami, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and Ubisoft.
- These threads will be pinned to the top of all boards and to the boards of each company's respective page.
- Only general discussion of the press conferences will be allows in these threads.
Now hold on there, champ. What about the games? Well, sir, lets us begin!
Individual Games
Let us all be honest will ourselves for just a second here. E3 is all about the games. That's what we are all here for, right? Tons and tons of glorious video games. So logically, we would want to talk about them...a lot. But wouldn't that make the forums a little messy? Well, thanks to Giant Bomb's awesome super duper Whiskey Media-designed Wiki system, we have a forum dedicated to each and every individual video game. Do these forums sound like the right places to post topics about and discuss these precious games? It should, because that is what we want you to do. They're there for a reason, after all. Can't wait to talk about Mass Effect 3? Discuss Shepard and all of his pals in this forum. Is Uncharted 3 more of your thing? Talk about Drake's latest adventure here. This way, General Discussion is not clogged up with every thread about video games and each game's specific page will receive the proper traffic that they deserve. Any thread dealing with a specific game that is not in that game's specific forum will be immediately moved and the thread creator will be sent a PM detailing his/her wrongdoing and the necessary steps to correct it. Continued misplacement of threads by a user will result in an official warning against them detailed in a PM sent to that user. To avoid running into these problems, you might be asking yourself some questions. Hopefully I will address them now.
How Do I Post a Topic in an Individual Game's Board?
Don't worry, my friend. I am about to show you how. Make sure to follow every step and in order!
Search for the individual game and click on the correct link:
Click on the Forums tab on the left hand side of the page:
The next step in the most important one:
Check If Topic Already Exists in the Forum:
We simply can't stress this enough. Check the forum to see if the topic you want to start/talk about already exists. If it does, simply continue the discussion in that thread. Do no create duplicate threads. Such threads will be immediately locked and PM sent to the user about the situation. Constant creation of duplicate threads by a user will be met with an additional PM with an official warning. Again, please check for already existing threads. However, if you find that there isn't already a thread dedicated to the topic you want to discuss, please continue on to the next step.
Click on the red Start New Topic button in the top right hand corner of the page:
And here you go!
That was pretty easy, right? However, there still might be an additional question that is equally as important.
What if There Isn't a Page for the Game Yet?
Like clockwork at every E3, there will be brand spanking new games announced and possibly shown for the first time ever. Therefore, it is very much likely that there is not already a page for it here on Giant Bomb. What do we do about this? Well it's a pretty safe bet that while you are thinking about this conundrum, somebody else has already gone ahead and created a page for the newly announced game and will likely appear instantly on the site (thanks to our great, hard working Wiki moderator team!). If the regular search method doesn't bring up anything, visit here to look for it manually. If it seems to not be there either, simply go ahead and submit your own request for a page for that game. If someone has already sent a submission before you or you simply missed the already existing game page during your search, you will receive a PM from a moderator rejecting your submission and giving you a link to the newly existing page for that game.
Now let us recap again, shall we?
- Any topics/discussions about individual games should be placed inside of their individual forums and NOT in General Discussion.
- CHECK FOR ALREADY EXISTING THREADS ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT
- Topics not put in the correct place will be immediately moved and topic creator sent a message.
- Constant continuation of above after PM will be met with an official warning.
Summary
We all love the fast paced, almost chaotic influx of news, videos, and games coming from E3 ever year. However, we don't want the choas to flow over to here in the Giant Bomb community. To keep this place organized and easy to navigate for everyone during E3 2011, we all need to make sure what we post and discuss in in the proper forums and threads. Make Giant Bomb the best place to be for E3 2011!
If you have any addition questions, don't hesitate to ask them here. Make sure to place you questions here and not in a PM so in case somebody else with the same question(s) can see the answers too.
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