Reviving the PS community: necromancy?

[BenoitRen]

I remember a time when there were two big Phantasy Star message boards. A lot of people posted on them both. They exchanged ideas, argued with each other about opinions, and had a good time.

Then the dreaded day came when it was declared that the board script of PS Cave would need to be changed, as it was problematic and no longer maintained. The board was closed temporarily. But even weeks later, it did not re-open.

Months later, a server move would close the doors of the PSDB temporarily as well. When the move was done, server problems were cited to be the cause of the board not re-opening soon.

This went on for months. The community fled to little Phantasy Star forums all over the web, or simply remained silent.

After two years, a site called The Fringes of Algo silently appeared on the web, and managed to regain some former community members.

Months later, PS Cave would re-open its doors at last, and be the home to some more members.

But to this day, the community still has not regained its former glory. Both open boards barely get any posts each day. Many older regulars never joined up.

Some have grown older and pursue a career.
Some have lost interest.
Some still lurk.
Others don't even know there are once more places to discuss Phantasy Star.

Could it be that the community has died years ago?
Could it be that we're just trying desperately to animate a corpse?

[Abominae]

I think so... I love the PS history... but sadly, without much effort on Sega's behalf, I don't see much interest surging in this series again (which, subsequently, would mean more people searching online about it and coming across these boards).

[Danny]

This is indeed quite sad... I've known about this site for years and it's a pity to see it like this. Especially considering the fact of how I and many other people long awaited for the forums to come back online. I guess people's lives are justing getting in the way from posting here. Not to mention that almost every question has been answered about the games in the series, not leaving much room for further discussion.

The only way I can imagine seeing this site active again like it was in the past, is with fan creations. Fan art, games, etc. I'm not sure what else to say at this point, I just hope to see pscave alive again. This is actually the first video game fan site I've ever known and the oldest too. It would be a great shame and loss to witness it fall dead forever. Hopefully, things will turn for the better for this site that has introduced many of us (including myself) to the great PS series.

Long live the Rayguard Empire!... Err, pscave! Haha...
(Must resist urge to re-play Der Langrisser for the 100th time...)

[Mono]

The brazilian-based PS community on Orkut is quite active, or, at least, a little more than PSCave nowadays (but it is many times larger, which means that the rate between lurkers and active members is much lower than here). Not only that, but there are two fan games being made and discussed right now that we are following there. Most of them are old time gamers, though, around my age, who have played Phantasy Star I when it was released (in portuguese, after 1991), and are not much of hardcore fans of PSO or PSU.

They have made me moderator without me knowing it. NEVER FEAR*!!!

(*PSIII Engrish :^P)

[Mono]

The "non-brazilian" PS community on Orkut (the english speaking one) is not dead only because it exists, since there isn´t any activity there.

[Neo48]

I am going to say it is because of the Age of both PS and PSO. When I joined this forum it was in the middle of PSO:GC's lifetime. There was much to talke about and many tips to learn.

This may be a good resource for PS information but the discussion aspect may be gone with age. As for PSO information, there are far better places for information, such as my personal favorite; the colour coded drop charts in IGN.com's FAQ section for PSO. People have either moved onto PSU or stopped playing (offline does get boring eventually and online leaves little options).

Bottom line, there isn't much to talk about. Like Danny said, all questions have been answered.

As for PSU, we do not have anywhere near a good supporting community to keep even the current PS game under good discussion. But unless this site is overhauled to cater to PSU players there is a slim chance of growth there.

I'll keep throwing in my two cents on topics but I'll always remeber the days when the topics in the PSO section outnumbered the topics in General Discussion.

I never played the old PS series, but many people seem to feel that this is a great place for that information. That is something for Missagh to be proud of. As well as providing a great experience back in the day for the PS community.

[BenoitRen]

More discussion is always possible. I remember Maxx from the PS Pages explaining that after two weeks of the PSDB's launch pretty much everything seemed to have been discussed. Yet it continued for many years.

People need to be willing/able to create discussion, to come up with new ideas. Those who did so often either now have less time on their hands (the Canadian twins, for example), or rarely post (examples: Forge, zoothe).

Of course, with few posting in the first place, there isn't much incentive. Who are all those lurkers, anyway?

[Neo48]

New discussion is possible but the chance of something being said that we don't already know is slim.

I've tried to get the PSU section rolling with some new discussions but there seems to be only 4 (give or take 2 people maybe) who play the game. Thats not enough to make a forum thrive.

I would love to see this place grow once again but how much more creative can we get with PS and PSO. In the latter, we've dicussed everything from the many ways of "dogding (resta for example) to stats possibly crossing over (why boost evasion when a high enough DFP could lead to evasion of all attacks?).

If I think of something I'll be sure to post it always, hehe.

[Mono]

It may be only my case, but as I get older (I turn 30 in the end of the year) I read the games differently from what I did when I first played them, not only PS and not only games, but everything in general (He-Man was my hero when I was a child, and now I only see so many gay refferences that make me want to buy a poodle).

I have recently played PSIII (that´s why I mention it all the time since I came back), and it gave me quite some new insights about the game plot, characters, background story that I didn´t realize 5, 6, 10 years ago. Not only it refreshed my memory, but also gave me the feeling that I didn´t know everything about it as I thought to know back then. (I have realized that the people in Neopalm possibly DID know about Dark Force. How? Why? I don´t remember it being discussed before). So there is always some detail that was overlooked, a theory that wasn´t developed, an opinion about certain aspects in the games that changed since the last time you really thought about them. It´s just a matter of people willing to give attention to these nuances when they feel all the themes seem to have been squeezed enough.

What brings anyone into a community of any kind is the subject in discussion, but what binds a community together is the people's will to interact with it, for the most relevant or silly reasons they can find.

[IndispensablePeaGuy]

What bugs me about this place is when I usually post something here, people get their panties in a twist, like they did over my YouTube PS reviews.

Can't be arsed with softies.

[LegoMuskCat]

Eh. In my case, I simply lose interest at times. =O But busyness also plays a huge factor, so I'll lurk, for the most part. ^_^

Why I am posting this, I does not know. Perhaps to contribute a singular post of epic shortness? Or for zee lulz? Hmm...

[IndispensablePeaGuy]

Eh. In my case, I simply lose interest at times. =O But busyness also plays a huge factor, so I'll lurk, for the most part. ^_^

Why I am posting this, I does not know. Perhaps to contribute a singular post of epic shortness? Or for zee lulz? Hmm...

Hullo Dreamer. Long time no see.

[LegoMuskCat]

Eh. In my case, I simply lose interest at times. =O But busyness also plays a huge factor, so I'll lurk, for the most part. ^_^

Why I am posting this, I does not know. Perhaps to contribute a singular post of epic shortness? Or for zee lulz? Hmm...

Hullo Dreamer. Long time no see.

Hai Peegai! ^__^ Always great to see you too.

[Noahlis]

Well i think that the have up and down in every think, so i think it's maybe a question of time before people will post more. (maybe it's a good sign, i am new to this furum!...)

[KexMex]

I just lost interest.