As I had told you
@WhoAteMeDinner, I also don't think that merging all those threads into one would make much of a difference. In my opinion, the problem goes deeper.
I remember a few months ago trying to start a debate on the Corner thread about what could be done to make retro-PES a more attractive activity, and what could we do as a community to bring more people in. At the time, most responded that we shouldn't worry about that, that retro-PES is in itself a niche so, all in all, we should be happy with the number of people that were already participating - and there were a lot of them, on a daily basis. Now, we're reaping what we've sown: when those users stop posting, the thread dies, because when the Corner was truly popular, we failed to capitalize on that popularity to "spread the word" and seek out more potential retro-PES fans: people who would "carry on the torch" if user X or Y stopped posting, filling in his/their shoes. I feared this, which is why I attempted to start that debate.
As a side note, despite the fact that our thread is uniquely focused on past-PES games, naturally we rely on the modern-PES game to generate activity on Evo-Web, which is good for us as well. What I'm seeing more and more is that the lifespan of new PES games seems to shorten year after year. 10, 15 years ago, the problem me and my friends had was choosing whether to go on playing, for example, PES4 when PES5 came out. Then, we got to a point where a few months after the new year, people got bored with it. Now, I'm baffled when I read that people are selling their PES on October/early November, or even if they don't sell, they lose interest and stop playing. The cycle that
@Chris Davies so accurately described is going into overdrive and to insanity levels. I already believe it's absolutely impossible to enjoy even half of what a sports game has to offer in just a year; what about in just 2/3 months? This relationship between gamer and game is not love anymore, it's a tinder fling or hookup at best. It's madness.
Still, once in a while I look at the PES and NBA2K subreddits - important places of communication for fans of the games - and it's a freaking day-care or something. Either it's filled with cute, ironic little videos, or people discussing Level 7 Magikarp - ehm, excuse me, [insert player name here] - on MyTeam/MyClub/Ultimate Team/BaseballMySide/My8Ball. Compelling stories, career saves, intelligent discussion about the game, is nowhere to be found. People just don't give a sh*t anymore, and developers also don't because they keep on buying/spending money on it and playing, developers don't have any incentive to put in more effort on their product. So, as long as these virtual casinos masquerading as sports games keep on profiting, nothing will change.
I have ranted profusely here, but had to show that I'm concerned about this state of things. I strongly believe that Retro-PES is an important and sane last refuge to this insane new world of gaming, and if we don't protect it fiercely, we risk it dying off because it's a mainstream, worldwide, but utterly toxic culture of gaming against the values that we stand for.
