I was just trying to find the root of the cause, and i ended up confirming that yes, there are a crap load of snuggie wearers in seattle..

http://www.google.com/trends?q=gamedev%2C+snuggie

I'm almost completely inactive now whereas at one point I was the single most active user, mostly because being a computer science student pretty much takes up the math/programming that I'm willing to focus on for a given period of time and I just can't maintain the motivation to make games. On the other hand I've been doing a lot more art on a hobby level, but I'm so used to associating the site with game programming and I don't even really think about talking about art, even game-related art, when I'm here.

That said, I don't think the overall activity has gone down. In fact, I think the amount of useful game development information in the forums has gone up. The lounge has less random flamboyance, which might hurt the "community feel" or something a bit and give the impression that activity has gone down, but I think this is mostly a coincidence. Also, people come and go, but I think it's human nature to notice that people you're used to saying who disappear seem more notable than new people showing up and becoming active.

I think the overall activity level may be a bit depressed, but the productive activity level is much higher and the overall attitude is more serious. It's a good thing.

Quote: Original post by Promit
I think the overall activity level may be a bit depressed, but the productive activity level is much higher and the overall attitude is more serious. It's a good thing.

I completely agree. Back several years ago, a huge amount of the "For Beginners" traffic consisted of threads along the lines of: "I want to make another Ragnarok Online! I don't want to learn to program, so can you just tell me how to do it or make it for me?", etc. There were a ton of MMORPG questions, tons of bad team requests and others. People got tired of making the old "Tic Tac Toe, Pong, Tetris" advice. In general, the forum is much more serious now, even if there is less actual posting.

-sigh-

...I kind of miss grabbing popcorn for flame-wars though.

Quote:
...I kind of miss grabbing popcorn for flame-wars though.

It is so true! The OpenGl/DirectX flames have gone down.
The Java/C#/C++/C/Pascal/COBAL language choice threads have gone down.
They are all still there, but WAY less frequent.
But now we have things like Abaraba (aka victor-victor, aka gbLinux, aka...) and the rantings of "Fix your timestep is wrong!" "P2P is better than Client Server!" and "I know Electrodynamics kung foo!"

The biggest trend I see on this site though, is the ever so common seasonal question swarms. People get assignments, and you get 40 questions about how to make a linked list. People get new projects at work, and a swarm of "whats the best build tool" "best version control" "best bug tracker" start popping up.
It dies down a lot in the off season. Though I kinda wonder what other sites people go to? Few seems as good/active/informative as this one.

I agree with Promit. In general (and looking at Analytics) things have largely stayed the same. However there's the awesome fact that the majority of original community members are now gainfully employed in the games industry, and many more are making strides in that direction. Everyone's busy so posting seems down but from what I've been seeing lately the quality of both posts and threads in general has just kept going up. It's great to see this community mature so well - though even I miss our rambunctious "teenage" days [smile]

Quote: Original post by Crazyfool
I think the activity goes in spurts. Most people here are either A) full time employees and/or B) full time students.

That means a good 30-50 hours minimum [edit: per week] of their lives are sucked into work or school. Then they have family, friends, and other non-game development related activities. That can often leave little time for gamedev.

QFT.

Is the trend based on searches? Maybe the growing of game dev courses allow people to go there and really learn the basic and rules instead of googling game dev and start asking "I wanna make a MMORPG?"


Or maybe with even big boys are attacking 'niche' (actually not niche) such as 2d casual games, iphone, etc, maybe less people want to come here.

I can't remember who, but someone said that the end of GBA means the end of small scale indie developer, since at that time big boys also want to make 2d casual clones.

I don't know. But I still browse gd even though i haven't programming seriously for a while. the lougnge is where smart people have small talks.

Quote: Original post by FableFox
Is the trend based on searches? Maybe the growing of game dev courses allow people to go there and really learn the basic and rules instead of googling game dev and start asking "I wanna make a MMORPG?"


Or maybe with even big boys are attacking 'niche' (actually not niche) such as 2d casual games, iphone, etc, maybe less people want to come here.

I can't remember who, but someone said that the end of GBA means the end of small scale indie developer, since at that time big boys also want to make 2d casual clones.

I don't know. But I still browse gd even though i haven't programming seriously for a while. the lougnge is where smart people have small talks.

WHAT?

Anyway, I was always inactive :D
Today is just one of those times I actually log in :)
I do lurk a lot. Seems like the only place that's less active is the lounge.

Most of the cool members are gone, inactive or just gave up on the lounge because of the rating fiasco.

I cherish the times when Miopic Rhino himself, would make a thread of hot chicks where all the members would post pics of hot barely dressed models.

That kind of things used to make this site, besides being a useful resource for game development, a fun place to visit, even if you had your life sucked into work or whatever.

Now you're sorta expected to insert a stick into your anus before talking around here.

I still like the place though. It's still a place where you can find really cool people and wise people.

The articles section is getting outdated.