Hi! I am new here, how are these forums different to any other such as GameFAQs?

I know it is my first time here and would like to get to know this site a little more in depth. Are the forums here any different than any others I have come across? I read so many good things about the site's forums overall and would like to know how it works.

Thanks for your time. :-)

We have a Vinny.

I haven't been on the GameFAQs message boards for a while, but this forum is probably not nearly as active if I would guess. There is not as much trolling here or pointless arguing about what console is better and shit like that. I don't know how much it differs really other than that.

And while this site also has a game wiki with a dedicated board for each game, you won't find any secret threads here. That was always the fun part about GameFAQs, searching for obscure games and looking at what weird threads were posted there.

The people who frequent the forums tend to be nicer first off. Also the mods help keep stuff in line so that topics don't get to a point where they could become bad. I guess the members on this site are more like a big extended family than just a bunch of randos on the net.

Also it's a bit late but welcome to Giant bomb!

And yes, we also have a Vinny. =) Vinny makes everything better.

Yeah, I think the nature of the site and the work of Rorie and the mod team have just helped this place to be a little more pleasant than a lot of forums tend to be. There tends to not be much in the way of trolling or name-calling, and discussions are mostly pretty civil.

Plus the site itself being at the centre of it all means there's a lot of chat around the games and topics that the staff are talking about or playing on-site, which helps give the forums a little more focus than a lot of places. GameFAQs tends to have a few people in almost every game's forum, but here you'll usually find fewer active forums at a time but the ones which are are busier on the whole.

Great answers! I hope my experience here will deter me from ever visiting the wretched scum and villainy that is gamefaqs. The vita boards there is a total mess....

I like to think of the Giant Bomb forums as the friendlier side of the internet.

These forums are populated entirely by different bot programs competing to seem the most like people.

@enomotoshards: Welcome! GB is quite literally the only forum that I currently post on (and clearly not much at that), so I don't have a great base of comparison, but generally everyone is more cordial, mature, and helpful around here than what most people imagine internet discussion boards to be. Hopefully you'll have better luck with the Vita boards here!

Mods are a little more harsh, but that keeps these forums a bit more friendly. I was on Gamefaqs around 2000 and things could go off the rails rather quickly so I'm certainly not complaining.

Basically, these forums are less active but tend to result in more quality discussions.

Its modded fairly well, people are generally more friendly, and most of us have something in common besides video games which is being fans of the actual site and its personalities(this isnt 100% everyone though). This is pretty much the only board i frequent anymore, even has a few topics outside of videogames.

This is true, but could also be misleading, based on your interpretation of "harsh." Mods here take the whole "don't be a jerk" rule pretty seriously, but most threads that turn into heated arguments just get locked, due to wanting to keep this a friendly place for conversation, and not wanting to keep constant tabs on a thread about a controversial topic.

The downside to this is that some threads about certain topics don't last very long. The upside is that it keeps things a lot more friendly, and less confrontational.

We're a classy group of ladies and gentlemen.

Here, we mostly obsess over a small group of people we'll never meet and sometimes we play video games.

Thanks everyone and @ralphmoustaccio for the vita boards link. As a Sony fan I am a early adopter of the ps vita 3G/wi first model and have previously most of not all the trophies on vita games more than my PS3 and PS4 combined. :)

Well no one is as cool or smart for starters. And we repost people's FAQs without their permission.

We don't think that Undertale is the greatest game of all time over here, so I dunno how we stack up to GameFAQs.

In all seriousness, these forums are usually pretty civil. People can sometimes get a little weird about the Giant Bomb staff, but we have fun over here.

As long as you use the white theme (right theme) then you will find the threads here very kind, welcoming and geared towards productive conversation.

If you use the dark theme then you're a savage and your presence is... "tolerated" let's say.

Back out of this thing while you can and never look back...lol jk

Actually, I honestly don't know what it would be like to come to the site just looking for a good board. I'm guessing you'd like it but be a bit confused with a lot of the references users make on a pretty frequent basis. Giant Bomb the site is as much about the staff that works here as it is about video games so, if you're down, I'd encourage you to check out the 2 main podcasts, Giant Bombcast (every Tuesdays) and Giant Beastcast (every Fridays) or at least one of them to get to know the faces of the site. The Giant Bomb crew is the thread that connects the community as much as gaming and you'll get the most out of the site and the forums by getting to know them. You're probably wondering who the hell is Vinny. I guess that's a good place to start if you want to go down this rabbit hole. He's the host of the Friday podcast. Good luck and welcome.

Less fan fiction though.

@fatalbanana said:

What kind of heresy is this?

Oh yea, good point. @enomotoshards: There's a dark theme. You should probably switch to it now, if you haven't already, and value your eyes.

anyone here know how to get past level 3

I honestly don't know what it is about why people spread doom and gloom about the ps vita but when I look at the vita boards on GF, a select few will troll on a topic if something gets announced on the vita and others still wishing for Sony to pull the plug so those troll users can rub it in our faces.

I hope you do not see a lot ps vita shilling on this site as much as it is there since mods are volunteers there and do nothing about the trolls...

These forums are a lot more centered around personality (both of the users and of the main editors/video people) and we all tend to be fairly chill.

Apart from speculating on certain editors leaving, who is or is not in the pocket of Big Publisher, or how much the duders actually do or don't like each other, but perhaps that's just leftover from the Bad Old Days.

It's kind of like a hive mind or that town in the Truman Show, where everyone is optimistic. A lot of people here have similar opinions. They don't like negativity. Be careful with what you say, because controversy or arguing could get you a warning and a locked thread. You can count on that happening as soon as someone says "troll." I've been on forums for twelve years or more and have never had administrator actions taken against me, until here, recently, for a response I felt at the time was justified. My posting privileges were suspended. I can't find my post or the post I was responding to now. The admins must have deleted them both after I complained. People here are also really into the Bomb crew. I was once put me on the spot when I said that I don't watch or listen to Giantbomb. It's so strange to people here that someone would regularly visit the forum without consuming the stuff on the front page.

Welcome. These are probably my favorite forums I have come across. Generally people are nice and mods are good at moderating discussions. There's also plenty of discussion on non-gaming topics. For example, we have a shockingly active community of wrestling fans on here.

I have been an active user on GameFAQs for over 15 years at this point (jeeze has it really been that long?). That place is largely a hole, but the one good thing about it is there's always people there. I really just like talking about games. The Giant Bomb forums are like another planet. People are nice. They're overall not too negative. They have interesting things to say, and there's not much arguing. It is, at times, a bit too sanitized, and you can definitely feel like there is a right way and a wrong way to think here. But more than anything, the biggest problem is there's not enough activity. I guess it's a blessing and a curse though.

@arbitrarywater: Did you already hear that Undertale is coming to PS4 and PS Vita?

Let's just say there's a reason Papers Please is as well liked by GB as it is. They're a stickler for rules.

dark for life.