Does Anyone Remember System Wars Back In The Day?

I got into system wars back when Socom vs Halo was a heated battle. I was pro Socom and resorted to attacking the user and was reprimanded for it. I've since then cleaned up and stuck with keeping focus on the games/topic instead of insulting the user.

Don't know, I was too busy talking to girls to care about and school and stuff, ya'know, life.

Yeah. No way it's gonna go back to those days.

Anyone remember the user who got caught using the same three images of a far cry 3 screenshot to try and prove that there was no difference?

@naughtyottsel: Topics would get bumped off the front page in minutes if they weren't super active.

There were people who genuinely HATED each other. Most trolling was designed to bait people into suspensions, you weren't allowed in theory to flame people so it was a weird passive aggressive style of posting that evolved where you would call someone stupid and a moron without actually saying it lol Basically you tried to walk a line a very thin line without crossing it and sometimes you got away with it and others you got smashed for the most mild taunt.

Certain posters would start a thread and you could guarantee a 500 replies in an hour.

The remnants of SW is pretty civil. As someone else said most of the posters left really are just here for a bit of a laugh and don't take it seriously in the slightest. Back then it really was life and death serious almost lol, I'd get people messaging me on XBL saying about "how the cows took a beating today". Bananas.

The good ole days, when you learned to troll silently yet effectively.

I remember the days. I was on here under a different name at the time, but I remember it. I especially remember the guy with the Panda avatar that went on about the master race and the user who always talked about the leaves in Fable 2 and how Witcher 2 looked better on 360 than on PC because of the lighting. I used to love laughing at how serious people took this stuff back then. The new format kinda destroyed that as most of those users left Gamespot. This place has become really tame in comparison.

One of my favorites was when lems pulled out pictures of DMC4 and how the textures were just a tad lower on PS3 and they claimed ownage because the game was designed for the PS3. That thread was like 80 pages long. It just doesn't happen anymore. I kinda miss those days.

I also miss how there was a dedicated board to PC Hardware, and a separate one for PC games.

I miss the old days. So many good topics and some heated arguments. Now its just reposting of gamespots news feed and the same handful of people arguing about which system sucks the most

@iambatman7986: I remember the day that GTA4 was announced for the X1, and when MS revealed FF13 at their E3 Keynote. Cows went nuts.

I think first joined around late 2003 or early 2004 but left after the Doom 3 debacle and the left and right banning. I then went to that other System Wars forum that was created by some of the banned members here but it quickly turned worse than Youtube comments section and full of piracy stuff. I then returned with this account since I couldn't remember what email I used and much less the password, just to go through other few episodes of banning left and right. At least the forums were more alive back then than now.

I remember way back in 2003, when I first discovered Gamespot forums and found that people were hating on Halo 2. I thought to myself, "how could people hate on the best game that will ever be made?" I signed up, posted my first rebuttal to what I would come to know as a 'cow', and within a few minutes someone quoted me wasting that guy by saying "Owned." That's all you needed to do to win an argument pretty much.

I suppose System Wars at its zenith was in 2007, when the PS3 had only been around (and critically flopping) for several months, Halo 3, Crysis, The Orange Box, and Haze (lol) were going head-to-head, Super Mario Galaxy was the killer app... yeah, it'll never be like that again because the new generation of gamers don't lurk on forums like we do. They're all on Youtube.

Also does everyone remember subrosian? hahaha that guy took System Wars seriously.

Most of the people you guys refer to went to either Giant Bomb ,Playfire or IGN, or Combat's wayward home for as*holes. I was reading the IGN boards recently as well and from the looks of the IGN boards....well pffftt, the IGN have always been a joke, but more of what you guys are looking for. Ask the Mod's about Combat, boy what a trouble maker lol

Also , what ever happened to the groups or Clan feature of GS that was started ...uuhhh, some time back . I can't remember :(

Never forget.

it was way better back then.. far more entertaining and the trolls actually put in some actual effort..

Kind of crazy, we used to be as active as NeoGAF. The forum was probably hitting a new peak again in 2011-13 they were adding new forums too. Hell, unions were pretty fun too, even if they weren't alive then as they used to be.

The redesign was pretty much about attracting the front page users, the people that just type in "GameSpot.com" and go on a few clickbait articles. To this day the forum side has never recovered due to this being a poor man's GiantBomb. Seriously, thank you Synthia, if not for her we wouldn't even have signatures. Otherwise it's been a complete mess, and the only way it's better than the old design is notifications.

The old site was awesome, I actively love posting here with features like Quick Quote and all. Now I still can't shake the feeling of what used to be, it's such a disappointment.

The Tattoo on his arm, That was epic. 360 was loaded with ammo at the beginning of last gen under Moore. Such good times on SW.

I remember how busy it got when E3 came around, the official sticky would end up with hundreds of pages. I prefer SW now as it's more laid back but you get the odd crazy who shows up with numerous alt accounts.

this board was so active back then it might aswell been called a chatroom. 500-700 post threads were the norm and the fanboys were actually clever. They knew just how to bait people into saying something that would get then banned or even perm banned. I would get mod warnings atleast 2 times a week sometimes because the rules back then were so strict.

i can think of a number of posters that wouldn't have lasted a month back in those days.

The best way to troll back then was to always post your flamebait as a serious question so you had a less chance of being modded. Back then it would be like

"So I really want to get a PS3 but I heard Sony has lost so much money that they are going bankrupt sometime next month. I dont want to waste my money if this is true and I cant get games anymore. Have you guys heard the same thing?"

"I really want to get a Wii but my friend who is really really into games told me they are only working on games for little kids. Is that going to be the case?"

I still got modded a lot but it was fun.

I miss these threads. And then they would end the paragraph with "Flame shield activate" hahahahahaha

Oh man those were fun times. I only lurked for a few years before creating an account in 2005. I used to be a hardcore cow back then that would go on about teh cell. Then i became a hermit that bragged more about pc gaming than actually playing games for a couple of years.

not an old SW dude (or well, 2009 doesn't seem that long ago). I've seen some stuff here, but It's nothing to brag about.

@-CC-: Prime example. A user named xbox3604lyf with an Xbox 360 avatar and 8 Xbox 360 game reviews (0 PS3 reviews) asks if he should sell his 2 broken PS3s to get a 360.

You playing the import?

I live in Scotland so it's out here.

Ah good times

lucky :O

In all fairness, there was actually a system war to be fought back In the early days... Now it's mostly a flaccid industry built around samezy offerings in terms of both hardware and software. The system wars are dying :(

Yeah, I do. Good times. I was a mod back then too, but mainly for OT.

OT is a shadow of its former self. I remember posting a ton in RC.

Good times indeed. I posted a lot more back then and trolled a lot.

And til this day......I still think waffles are better. *runs*

HAHAHA, you mean when this place wasn't complete ass? Yes, I do.

G$ went through so much shit in a 3 year span. Horrible rule changes, the buggiest commercial site I've ever seen, and Gerstmann being fired. I wonder if it's effected their hits...I'd imagine so, considering all the clickbait and movie reviews they do now. Can't say I feel sorry for em though.

I remember the more filthy lemmings like Yellow_Rose and hd28guy_basic because of their extreme filthyness.

TLHBO

True and PC gaming has become extremely well-rounded with the evolution of Steam and DD. Consoles went x86 and now PC gets almost everything.

Last gen was a perfect storm with 360 and PS3 both being something new and amazing, but also shitty at the same time. Wii was dominating out of nowhere. Now we have a repeat of gen 6 without all the exclusives.

The fanboys were the life blood of SW now they have grown up or moved on. Millennials don't have the ability to even access a forum let alone make a coherent argument. So here we are now, a forum full of 25-45yr-olds making eloquent speeches on the good ole days.

I decided to look at SW after a lot of years and I don't think I was at the right place, at least it was not the same one I once knew. Where you had to think a lot about what you wrote or else you would be flamed to death by everyone and everyone was pissed at something but I couldn't quite know what it was. I miss it.

those were the best days. Lots of people, lots of characters, lots of activity, lots of discussion, lots of community stuff like YLYL threads. Suicide threads almost every week.

We had way more fanboys but they are for real. Same with Troll, the trolls back then were legendary.

We used to have our own lingo and inside jokes, most of it has disappeared by now.

The front page of the board wouldnt have threads from one or 2 days ago because people were pretty active. Threads that were a hot topic that had alot of people commenting in it would get a flame in front of it.

I miss the leveling system.

OT and the PS3 board were crazy active and fun too. OT actually had decent tolarent level for freedom of speech unlike today. We used to talk about just about any subject and good deep, religion, 9/11, current events, why this, why that, Hot Babes threads Pics, Gifs YLYL threads, Racial stuff, political issues, social issues, gays, we would get atleast 4 "Girl help/advance" threads a week and also get follow up threads to see the progress that guy made with the girl. We had marriages.

I miss the freaking insane and super elaborate Sigs people would have and the bets they would do and have them in their sig.

To me it wasnt bad at all. Sure the mods were Nazis back then and yeah it was chaotic at times, but it was 100x better than todays dead community.

Definitely miss the old days too. Been around since 2002 I think. So much effort put into the posts back then, like people already said you had to hide your true intentions in a clever way to avoid bans. Good times. Never been much of a poster obviously but always loved to read the "crap" that came out of this place back then. Much better than the stuff now.

Meh, seems to be the same. Just different users and fanbases shift here n there.

but look at you now....

The old days will always be referred to as the good times no matter what subject we are talking about. No one has ever said in the history of man, "You know what, now is the best time ever."

people that went through the depression?

people that went through long lasting devastating wars?

Black people?

Gays?

Jews from 1931 till... psh till the 1960s?

societies that went through famines?

Countries that went through dictatorships?

South Africa before aparthied was removed?

people who were contracting aids in the 1980-1990s?

Tuberculosis?

Some times... for somethings... thing might have been better for a particular thing.... in this case, yes GS was way better than today, but the internet as a whole is extremely better today.

Yep, none of those examples are of people at those times saying they are living in the best time ever. I was born in 74' and look at the 50's and 60's as a golden era but then have to think what the black experience was then. All things are relative. Let us all just enjoy the present time as much as possible. We make it what it is and only have ourselves to blame if it sucks.

Would Casey_Wagner be Batman?

I remember it back 2 years ago when more than 6 lems were on the board. They jumped ship fast when PS4 came out rolling large.

Its not our fault GS sucks now?

people tried to make it better and keep it from dying in 2014-2014, but they would just end up getting banned.

Yeah, I signed up back in 72 immediately after the release of Pong. Those were the glory days alright.

In all seriousness though, I signed up with Gamespot around 2003 (I can't seem to get my original account unbanned), but I didn't start posting in SW until closer to the release of the 360/PS3. It was pretty fun to constantly fight over stupid shit. Stupid though it may have been, I still enjoyed defending the PS3 through its rocky years. Nowadays, my partisanship is less potent; my consoles are far more peripheral in my life than they once were.

But as much fun as I may have had, it was marred by god-tripping GS mods on who refused to acknowledge their own mistakes, hypocritical bullshit, and reactionary/bias modding. So many fights with the mods, and so much suppression of dissent. The problem was so bad, GS became notorious for being the asshole of the game-journalism world on every other gaming forum. I'd like to say this place has changed its ways, but I realize it's only less shitty and restrictive because so many people have left, and they don't want to chase anyone else off with BS charges of trolling/hate-speech/profanity/abuse. That being said, there are still quite a few SJW mods roaming the halls.

Not certain if he still posts here, but Wegner was the most disingenuous mod that SW had to offer, if not the most ethically compromised (I could never tell for certain because they refused to divulge who carried out the moderations).

I'm way too old for this shit.

SWs used to be really good around the 6th and first half of the 7th gen. There were multiple good, engaging discussions everyday, back when mods gave a ****.

It used to be addictive. Now it kind of sucks. Just kind of come in every now and then. Maybe there's a good discussion every couple of weeks or so.

I think that might have been it. Back then even if you were a fanboy you had to bring something decent to the table.

I came into SW when Killzone (PS2) was the alleged "Halo Killer" over a year before it was even released.