Registering on Neogaf is simply impossible. IMPOSSIBLE.

Won't accept free email services. So I go though the signup with another work-mail. All's good, I get the email to activate my account. Click the link. I've read around that it can take up to 6 months-a year to activate until I can post. So I come on today, and I've been logged out for some reason (I could log in when I initially verified the link in my email, just not post or make new threads until I get approved).

So I enter my user and pass, "sorry, that password is not recognized".

"click here to change password"

*click*

"enter email"

*enter email*

"Sorry, we don't recognize that email"

*contact Neogaf moderators*

"Sorry, that function is currently unavailable"

What the ****, do I need to be Harvard alumni to get into these goddamn boards?? There is nothing I can do? Do they do a background check on me or something?? They have great threads over there but I've NEVER seen a site so insanely hard to get into. What the hell have I done wrong? I can't see anything. If my email and pass where wrong, why was my link approved in the first place, and why can't I get help from an admin?

I have been waiting for my account to get approved for nearly 6 years now.

Good luck.

I got it approved in less than 3 weeks, though I've actually never used it.

6 yeas? I think it's fairly safe to say you're probably not getting in at that point. I'm up for a little waiting, but hell with waiting half a decade+.

Since GS is so dead, I'm shopping around for another good forum. Can you recommend any to me?

I've been waiting for a couple of months now, i'm afraid they wont register me.

I just dont understand why they will register some people but not others, there's no way of knowing the quality of the poster unless you just let them post.

You might have better luck posing this on neogaf and perhaps find someone who actually cares what another site´s signup process is like.

You hopefully know that NeoGaf and Gamespot are two different sites even tho most of gamespot´s staff seem to confuse the two on a regular basis

I'm with him. I want a message board with a half-decent community to post in, but it doesn't look like NeoGAF is going to be that place.

Did you read what I said? I CAN'T LOG-IN with the user and email I used to sign-up for Neogaf. Hence, I can't post. Kind of an obstacle there.

NeoGAF isn't much to get up in arms about. Its site, just like most others, has its fair share of users, conversations, and paradigms that most don't like to see.

Not worth it. I had an account years ago during the PS2/GC/Xbox era. That community is completely overrated. The novelty of seeing people like David Jafee cuss people out/ get cussed out by David Jafee (or that hack from Silicon Knights whose name I can't remember) wears out quick, and the actual conversation isn't really elevated over what you get here or at IGN, it's the same conversations with a greater emphasis on sales and stats, a few somewhat notable MVPs, and a unique culture that will either seem really cool or really freaking stupid to you.

Tell them you offer free sex in exchange for approval. That's how vader got in. Or how they got into vader, I always forget.

The problem is, even if they let you in, it is more common to get banned on that website.

There's no point, the gaming side of NeoGAF is as bad as System Wars is here. They just get news the fastest, I lurk more than I post. The OT section is far better than the gaming side is. Everyone just whines on the gaming side.

Well at least I can lurk. : '(

Any site that forces you to jump through so many hoops just to sign up isn't worth the trouble. Boggles my mind how they continue to use such an absurd registration process.

It's not as good as it sounds; you'll get the same content on here or IGN.

I got approved a few days ago. I think I signed up 1-2 months ago. Used a University email.

I don't actually want to use NeoGaf regularly, I just wanted the account so that I can reply every now and then when I check it out. The problem, as far as I see it, is that board is just overwhelmingly active. It's almost suffocating. I scroll through page 1, click on page 2, and I've missed like 10 threads which have now switched onto page 1 because they all had replies in the 2 seconds it took to switch over.

NeoGaf is just too much for me. I like the slower pace of forums like these.

It is a good way of getting comprehensive gaming news though. If its even remotely news-worthy, its on NeoGaf. Obviously there's no need to waft through 50 pages of people's opinions though.

I had to wait close to a year before being accepted in 2010.

I completely disagree. The great thing about the gaming section at GAF that I haven't been able to find anywhere else, is that there's literally groups dedicated to game discussions. Sure, this doesn't really apply if all you play is mainstream FPS titles, because there are literally discussions on every gaming board about those games.

But Any game or subject you can think of... there's someone who has experienced, interested, or likes the same subject. You bring up a game like DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou on GS System Wars, and maybe 1 or 2 people will have any sorta clue what you're talking about. You try to talk about it on GAF, and there's two threads (1/2) with entire communities of people looking to discuss it... in addition to a game-based thread.

I was actually surprised when I found the GAF community of people who have actually played through Moon: Remix RPG Adventure (PS1), who just like me... consider it one of the best RPGs ever.

There aren't many trolls... because of instant bans. Therefore, most discussions are typically in a positive light since everyone in the thread usually supports the game in discussion.

That's why you have to subscribe to the topics you're truly interested in discussing and not just "browsing". The board moves so fast that there's no point in manually tracking. I have auto-subscription based on my replies, but even before then I was still managing about 200 thread subscriptions.

There are elitists in every business. I doubt the discussions over there are better than any place for video games.

P.S. meh, a gaming country club *is jealous*

I have been using SolidSnake as a username on other videogame forums and I have talked a lot of shit about GAF (I was pretty pissed off about the way they treated Dyack) on many of those forums. That might be part of your problem.

lol.

I think the requirements are a filter 'tween those working the industry, games journalism, or other posters likely to post 'work-safe' vs random public trolls. Why the work email, sensitive banning grounds and long approval period eh?

Not that corps don't have their own forums but that's what it looked like to me.

I just thought of a good analogy too. browsing GAF is like browsing default reddit. unless you're into the mainstream hive topics which you can read most anywhere, reddit doesn't become an awesome source for material until you start subscribing to subreddits and removing yourself from the default ones.

85% of the time I browse my subscriptions tab instead of the actual board.

Just for fun you can read all their posts in ' thick snobby, valley-rich-person' accent. It'd be like your own personal version of feedbackula. ;)

@dvader654: People are the worst their ... because they all think they're entitled and elitist. I agree it's the best place to get information and there ARE some useful threads, but I really can't stand the nonsense and bickering about why company X is doing this or that, which results in a bunch of people basically saying "EFF this company. TYPICAL".

I'm not 12 and I really don't care for people who really don't understand how business works.

Biggest idiot on GS right here, lol.

OP, it's not that great a site anyway man, I'm a member there and I hardly ever post or visit, the site might seem great from a distance but the people there are worse than they are here, the only good thing about it is that trolling isn't allowed. But the amount of entitlement the average member thinks he/she has is hilarious when you know the average member is just an average pos.

Why do people go to a forum just to complain about another forum?

lol.

I'm not very happy with the views of most gamers. A lot of gamers come off as intolerant and hateful. I can't help but feel some gamers opinions on things influence their choice of games. I doubt the users on GAF are different in that respect.

I've never experienced user "entitlement" on GAF... though I have experienced everyone telling me that I should play everything because everything is the best (lol). So I guess that could count?

Maybe I just don't experience it, because I stick to the topics I enjoy reading about which are typically topics not discussed elsewhere. I met some really awesome people on there that I now trade (and challenge them to beat my saved battery score :)) arcade boards with.

I'm sure I'd see it more often if I went to a Titanfall or GTA V thread or something similar. But users here who play those same games are the exact same way.

@dvader654: It does but it's not nearly as bad.

I am registered but I can't do anything cause administators needs to make my account work. BTW go on google.com and type email. Search something that isn't popular and make yourself an email. Then register with that.

I have read their boards on and off for news during e3 and console launches, and it's the same old elitist talk that you see everywhere else, as well as how it used to be over here when you could get modded for the most insignificant of things. I don't care for it, and I prefer more laid back communities. If I want to talk about games that aren't brought up on GS, I'm already a member of other sites that will.

seeing as you're a retro gamer, I'm surprised you don't subscribe to a lot of the retro-based discussions over there. even in terms of non-retro games... GAF is the reason I imported demon's souls, despite the majority (which was small - many didn't even know what it was) of people on GS system wars bashing it.

I've actually been reducing a decent amount of the time that I spend here to now actively participate on system11, neo-geo.com, arcadeotaku, eti, gaf, and a private site that I mod.

please feel free to post examples of posters worse than projectnatalfan, bioshockownz, and mastershake in the time of his dozen+ vanquish thread-spam spree.

I am, but I play new games too, and so I don't have any interest in being part of that community for the reasons mentioned above. I get the feeling that if you have opinions that go against the grain, you could get banned for it. I don't want to have to write paragraphs upon paragraphs to justify that I'm not trolling whenever I post something that most people disagree with.

I already have different outlets for learning about and discussing retro games, and I'm ok with those right now. That, and there's also only so much I'm willing to converse about retro games, because my opinions are pretty firm at this point. Going in circles over why "x" is better than "y" can only be an engaging conversation for so long. :P

eh... okay. I think that's part of the appeal and what makes the place so pleasant. there aren't people constantly posting against the grain. generally, every thread has users who are enthusiastic about the games being discussed. It leaves me to decide which games I want to play, read about, and discuss with other people who have the same intentions.

if I wanted to read about how everything sucks, I'd just stick to the luelinks gaming section.

Personally, I love interacting with some of the best english shmup players on there. It's fun watching their live feeds with other posters, hearing their opinions on new arcade boards, and getting advice on games they've played.

i.e.iconoclast - the current west record holder for Akai Katana, deathsmiles II, dodonpachi saidaioujou, mushihimesama futari black label god

Super nice dude who is very helpful/insightful.

I don't know, I find "knife at the throat" type of posting very totalitarian and uncomfortable. You also don't need strict rules to have a good community. At CGR, for example, everyone is enthusiastic and nice to each other without the fear of being modded. We're just there to talk about the games we love, and no one acts like an elitist dork either. The same holds true for the non-dedicated game sites I post on, so I think it's good to allow and hear multiple opinions even if they're unpopular. You can make real points without saying everything sucks, but sometimes people can take even that as trolling, and so I don't think it's fair for those users to be banned. From what I've seen at neogaf, I don't think I'd enjoy posting over there, but it's cool that you found your niche though.

Holy smokes, how does this thread have over 4,000 views and only forty-something posts? 0_o

Lurkers.

I got approved i thing(used an email my isp provided) but never actually visited the site since then.

@Renegade_Fury: CGR? Computer game reviews? I'm been looking for another forum ever since this one has been ruined by GS. RoF looks good, but barely anyone is there.

niche(s), but yeah I get what you're saying

classic game room. their retro game reviews (and Mark Bussler) are among the best.

Neogaf isnt better than other forums.

Neogaf like be a very active forum but if you think about it, it is only more concentrated.

Neogaf has some of the most interesting, best-informed, best argued discussions I've yet seen on any game forum anywhere. People back up their arguments (most anyway), there's posters such as Aquamarine (who I believe is an analyst if her posts are any indication to go by) who have access to charts and graphs that show pretty much anything you'd want to know pertaining to the growth or decline of the industry, a company, or such simple things as software/hardware #s, and who know how to interpret them accurately in context.

From what I hear, this is also a place where some developers and people inside the industry hang out. I've been perusing Neogaf for years and have learned more over there in a few years than all other game forums I frequent combined since I began in 2001. Yea, it's draconian in its moderations oftentimes and seems overly strict but nonetheless there's a healthy community thriving that make great contributions to the discussion of gaming.

I have been a memberr of NeoGAF since 2009, and even so, I am still considered a "Junior Member" due in part that I am often a lurker. I assume that I need to post mor so I can be a regular Member.