Jently said:
^ So if that's what you want why don't you start some new threads and see how they go?
As for games what's the problem, nobody is forcing you to take part and the people that do enjoy them and, personally, I have made some good friendships just by playing games.
Loneliness alleviated - Job Done.
You must not be on very often.
I've done it endlessly; I've added to old conversations after reading some engaging posts and made as many new topics as possible. I can't think of anymore for people who aren't actively engaged or demanding more without outright forcing it, and then it'd be meaningless.
Some topics I made never even got a single post; it always just goes back to the games that don't even build on anything; unlike say, the topics about sharing your pictures which can let a community get to know one another, how they're feeling, etc.... Those are still insightful and can allow someone insight.
I mostly mean the purely superficial ones like "make a word" or "answer with a question", etc.... They literally offer nothing. You could post or not post and the topic would not change; and that goes for literally everyone. It's not building to anything, you don't get any insight into whoever posts, there's nothing to respond to, it's literally a time waster; pure purgatory. You make a post, leave, another person comes in with their own post with no relation or any addition what was built on it, rinse, repeat. It's incredibly stagnant.
I'm glad that alleviates loneliness for you, but for me that's the very definition of isolation. And if I was feeling really lonely, I'd feel even more-so if that's literally all I had to do with people instead of actually talk to them, get to know them, discuss things, etc. I might as well just be browsing the internet solo or talking to a website bot. There's no difference here in that it's real people or not.
The best way I can describe it is doing outright NOTHING (literally sitting there) vs twiddling your thumbs. Yeah, you're doing *something*, but is it accomplishing anything or helping? Probably not. Why bother? Why is it a forum vs just some app game instead if that's literally all you can do with it?
Granted, without the games the forum itself would be 99.9% dead, nor do I even actively dislike them (I post sometimes too); I just wish others wanted to do or talk more about things with a little more substance most of the time and just have the games as essentially a side-dish to the main course meal of discussion. Because just the games themselves offer an incredibly light snack I don't think could actually sate anyone who's starving to death.
Can you make actual friends this way, or do you just count bodies who are keeping you from technically being alone because they're also posting on the same place as you at the same time? Because at times, I feel that's what a lot of people do.
I've never even had any qualms with games at all on more active forums, I guess because there was always more to do vs where you just want to goof off for awhile. Like a video game with a great story but lots of side-missions to mix things up. Not a game with virtually no story and nothing but side missions, if that makes sense.
The games themselves are not an issue, it's that there aren't enough members who want to do anything else it seems, and I guess I really don't see how that fixes being lonely or even justifies this place as a forum.