The hidden rules of N4G
Every community has its rules. You may transgress them or not, they still exist. News For Gamers has rules as well but not as many as other community-oriented websites. As a result, several hidden rules reign on the site, and here is a list of those.
As you may know, the principle of N4G is to let people contribute to the content of the site with submissions of various sites. And every news submitted to the Pending section is susceptible to get approved or reported by other contributors. But whatever the number of reports a news can have, as long as it reaches 10 approvals, the article is accepted. You have no choice. So what is the use of reporting if a news get validated after all?
- Boobs are always related:
Name your site something-gamer, post a pic of a random girl and say she's related to gaming because you know it and submit your article to N4G and your article will be approved. You probably know me for being the one to fight against Loot-Ninja's weekly spam and I know it's a battle I already lost. You can't win against boobs.
- BIoodmask is the king of N4G:
BIoodmask is the most active N4G user of all time, and whatever Cyrus and s8anicslayer try submitting crappy reviews of crappy games from crappy sites, they can't even reach BIoodmask's monthly activity. If you are wondering who is he, people will tell you he's a troll without social life that loves irritating people, especially other trolls. May he be famous or infamous, it seems no one can swear without BIoodmask, and he seems to love congratulating himself to feel so notorious.
- We cannot trust VGchartz but we still trust them:
Are VGchartz accurate? According to many people, VGchartz has been created by a 360 fanboy that got banned from NeoGaf for posting fake charts numbers and now taking his revenge with his site. True or not, I remember a time when VGchartz used to get reported for being inaccurate and never got approved. Until some months ago, where people had no problem with this, and it's especially the case if numbers are in favor of a console or another. So we can't trust VGchartz excepted when our console of choice wins in the charts.
- A multiplatform game is considered as exclusive if there is a similar exclusive game on the concurrent console:
It may seems incongruous but if you read comments, that's how it works. Dante's Inferno beats God of War 3, Prototype beats inFamous, Quantum Theory beats Gears of War, Tomb Raider Underworld beats Uncharted Drake's Fortune, , Brink beats Killzone 2, etc... It's not a matter of graphics superiority, framerate, storyline or gameplay, It's just because one is exclusive so the multiplatform is considered as exclusive to the other console. And this scheme will repeat until the end of times, because if there is a multiplatform equivalent of an exclusive, then the multiplatform game is better and superior on the other console.
- There are only PS3 fanboys on N4G:
When it comes to any random article talking about fanboys or a fanboy war (such as Forza 3 vs GT5), you'll often see people barging about how pathetic PS3 fanboys are, and how this or that is a twist from Sony Defense Force. Apparently, N4G is owned by a large PS3 fanboy majority. Wii owners do not exist on N4G beause they are not hardcore enough to know this site and the only PC fanboy is Pandamobile. 80% of other people are PS3 fanboys, and the others are just gamers with an Xbox 360.
- Sex sells, controversy sells, interest fails:
Do you want to know how to reach more than 500° hotness with your articles? Talk about sex. Put a sex picture as illustration. Talk about some controversy, it's even better if it's sex-related. Start a flamebait such as "HipHopGamer rewarded as the best gaming journalist of the year". If you can gather every points, then it's Jackpot. A sex scene from an exclusive game? Naked pictures of game babes? Jade Raymond talking about how she loves Wii Fit? Bling bling. Talk about an alternative to Natal developed by MIT? A non-Nintendo Wii game got canned? Chinese government censoring social games? You fail my friend, no one cares about that.
- We don't care about facts, what matters is the interpretation:
Never say an obvious fact, you'll get disagrees and eventually lose a bubble. Never say Wii is winning this generation of console, PS3 is in the last place of the race, how much aliasing there is in Forza 3, Halo 3 : ODST is a simple DLC with a retail price, PSP Go flopped, your PS3 died (mine died twice but I must not say it because it's not the truth, it only disappeared for 4 months, but it never broke). However, if you say that Gabe Newell is lazy, that Natal will sell tons of consoles, that PS3 will close the gap with Xbox 360 anytime soon, that Xbox 360 is leading this generation, that Left 4 Dead 2 is a good game, that Wii doesn't have games, then everything is ok, you're everyone's friend.
- The systsem is flawed, we love the systsem:
This joins my first point about the non-existence of veto. People keep complaining about VGchartz "guesstimations" but they still approve it. They keep mocking about HipHopGamer being a caricature but his articles keep being approved. They complain because a glitch video of an exclusive game has been approved but they submit a glitch video of a concurrent exclusive game in response. They complain because some bad story has been approved whereas it was many times reported, but they're happy if it's theirs. They whine when they lose a bubble but they don't have any remorse to click the debubbling button if they meet someone that doesn't match with their opinion.
- No one is unbiased, not even websites:
If you're on N4G then you have to choose your side. You're either a PS3 fanboy, either a 360 gamer (because N4G is ruled by PS3 fanboys, remember), you can't be unbiased. If you have both consoles you're a denying fanboy, if you have all three consoles you're a rich man that has nothing to do with his money, if you prefer PC over consoles you're a Pandamobile other account. It works for sites as well. Kotaku and Eurogamer are Xbox 360 fanboys while IGN and Gamespot are obviously PS3 fanboys. As soon as you post a comment, you're categorized following the bias of your comment, which also means your comment cannot be unbiased.
- Gamer Zone is where we can to troll gently:
N4G comments section is separated in two categories: Gamer Zone and Open Zone. The Open Zone is where people have 1 bubbles and say "lololol Xbot can only play Glitchza 3 in 2009". Gamer Zone is where people have 5 bubbles and say "Xbox fanboys can only play Failza 3 in 2009 because they only have that". Yes, Gamer Zone and Open Zone is pretty much the same, there are as much trolls, the only differences are just the orthography and the length of some messages. There is no place for real gamers comments, you must choose between idiot troll area or clever troll area.
- Nasim is worse than Agent Smith:
According to Alexa, the wide majority of N4G visitors are 18-24 years old American males. According to the only review of the site there is on Alexa, N4G is just a flamebait place where only the big ones get approved. And among all of that, there is Nasim. Nasim virtually died months before I register to N4G so I'm not old enough to know him personally, but according to legends, Nasim used to be a severe PS3 troll, not an ordinary one but a legendary one. And since Nasim stopped his virtual activities on N4G, it seems that every old ones get paranoiac and detect Nasim everywhere. You're a troll, you're biased toward PS3 so you're Nasim with another name. Nasim is as much a legend as mods on N4G, you never see him but you have the feeling he is everywhere. And YOU could be a potential host for Nasim after all. Watch your back, he may scratch at your door at a moment or another.
- Never dare to be against the majority:
It's not a matter of bias but tastes. In N4G, everyone must have the same tastes regarding games, no matter on which side you are. So never say the MAG beta disappointed you, Halo 3 is ugly, Left 4 Dead 2 is an expensive scam, Brütal Legend is a fairly good game, Wii has hardcore games, Xbox Live is not lag-free, you did not enjoy Fallout 3 or Street Fighter IV was disappointing, you'll be considered as a traitor and automatically get disagrees and lose bubbles. Everyone must have the same opinion. Heavy Rain is GOTY 2010 even if no one ever played it, Activision is evil, Natal will be a system seller, Alan Wake has a great concept, Assassin's Creed was awesome and had a great storyline, Metal Gear Solid Rising will match Metal Gear Solid 4 quality if you're a 360 fanboy, it will be milking a great franchise if you're a PS3 fanboy,if you're a Wii fanboy you don't care because you already have Snake in Super Smash Bros Brawl. There's just no place for differences of tastes in N4G.
- Every field is a potential battlefield:
The video game industry is a perfidious equilibrium between PR vomit and fanboy swallowing. In this context, every subject can be hijacked into a fanboy war, no matter if the war is related to the original discussion. What only matters is the way your gonna say it. And if you success, then the entire discussion will turn around what you said and not the content of the article.
- Having friends and several accounts is the true Force:
Want to know the secret of longevity? Follow this rule. As you may see, comment section is regulated by a bubble system. You say crap you have less bubbles, you say interesting things you have more bubbles. But how can some trolls on N4G don't say anything interesting and still keep at 6-7 bubbles? It's simple, you have duplicate accounts, you can bubble yourself. You know people browsing N4G, then ask them to give you bubbles. The same happens for pending news. How can certain garbage sites still be approved and reach the top stories? Just ask to your buddies to approve it, you'll be on top within seconds. What a wonderful world it is when you have people to count on to approve your faeces, give you bubbles and congratulate you when you say that Xbox 360 sinks or PS3 stinks.
- The more you submit, the more you have chances to get approved:
This is another point of the top contributors war. I don't know what you get from being the first biggest contributor in N4G excepted self-satisfaction and a flawed perception of your own success, but it seems being number one is a long and hard race (I love when it's long and hard anyway). And so in order to be The One, the most common thing is to submit as much as possible, whatever the subject, whatever if it's a duplicate story or not, whatever the site... The most easy to submit are reviews: there can't be a duplicate review, it's fast to submit, no need to check and it gets approved quickly, disregard the game or the platform. As a result, a day you have half a dozen pending news, then once the review contribution is unleashed, you have more than 5 to 10 pages of pending news and reviews. Consequence, 35% of pending stories fail to get approval. Sometimes because it's a duplicate, sometimes because it's a poor quality news, and most times because the story simply hasn't been approved at time. But who cares, as long as in the 65% stories that don't fail there are our shitty reviews.
- Original story is pointless, we only read the title and click for the pic:
I really love this one because it defines N4G very clearly. The community is set around a single metaphysic law:
tl;dr. Most N4G users only read the title of stories because it's written in big and blue, and the pic becomes an intensive to click. So if you put a chick, boobs or pantsu even if it's not related to the story, you'll gather some extra visitors. But the best of that point is how people comment a story where they only read the title and sometimes the summary. The shorter, the better. This is why E4Ginfo and VG247 are so popular on N4G, even though their news are copypastas where they don't credit their sources. N4G love them because their articles never last more than three sentences. And with this point, opinion blogs like HipHopGamer and GameThirstArticles gather major success, because their headlines are deliberately flamebait, even if the content doesn't follow. Who read stories with more than two paragraphs anyway? Want a proof? You wont read entirely this article. You'll see the title, you'll click because you're intrigued, but when you'll see it's a pretty long article, you'll just read the red headlines and watch the pictures. You'll only read the paragraph that interest you and comment this article like if you've read all of it.
You can now switch off your sarcasm detector and thank the Lord for the ham in your plate.
A wonder read i must say. One of the most enjoyable blogs i have read in a while. Great job. Hope to read more of you work in the future.
Well you gotta admit, the majority of the community of N4G is biased towards the PS3, any 360 news gets full with trolling comments and bashing.
Makes for a good laugh ;)
Excellent read, and very true.
Good read and some very true statements are tucked in here.
Heh, I enjoyed reading this.