People that have been on this forum for at least 5+ years, what was SF like back when you first joined? Was it any different?

[𝐍𝐲𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥]

I've been lurking this forum for about 4 years, and I've always wondered what this forum was like a decade or so ago, was it any different? Was there anything from back then that isn't here now?

[Jotari]

Only difference as far as I can see are the newer games providing more things to complain about. Drafting and LTC used to be more popular discussion topics too, I guess.

[Florete]

It was really cringe.

[Punished Dayni]

Back when I joined, I was only around for a few months in the last quarter of 2013. Pretty decent buzz then with some of the patches coming out (pretty positive progress with BB and NMotE that year) and the sense that the series wasn't dead with Awakening's sales success.

I absolutely contributed to stupid things said at the time.

[Sasori]

This topic makes me feel very old . Even if I spend most of my years lurking. I do remember the Pokemon subforum being a lot more active. Especially when XY came out. 

Other then that I remember some unit vs unit debates between posters back in the day.

[Acacia Sgt]

Uh, the RP subforum was more active?

I'll be honest, over thirteen years here (counting lurking time) and I don't remember a whole lot.

Edited February 22, 2022 by Acacia Sgt

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I think 5 years ago is a considerably different answer than 6 or more years ago. 5 years ago today we had four fire emblem games to look forward too, where as just a few months before that the most recent Fire Emblem content, rumored or otherwise, would have been Fates DLC that was never localized. A Fire Emblem mobile game was mentioned to be in the works in Nintendo financial reports, but a third 3DS game blindsided everybody. Plus with the only other nintendo mobile games being Miitomo and Super Mario Run, suffice to say I don't think the word "gacha" had ever been uttered on these forums before then. January 2017 saw a lot of new and returning users - and even I primarily lurked before then. Most of what interested me back then was the Rate That Unit threads for older games and other tier list-y discussions.

Edited February 22, 2022 by Zapp Branniglenn

[AnonymousSpeed]

To the extent that internet culture in general has changed, I would say SF has changed.

However, my time on the site has been limited to fairly small circles, so whether people have come and gone in those is the most impactful change to me personally.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Been here since 2013 (wow almost 10 years...) and yeah, it's pretty different now. Arguments can still get heated, discussions are still had, but the way the forum physically LOOKS due to software updates and whatnot and the way everything feels is different. Not in a bad way! Just different.

[XRay]

I am most familiar with the Heroes subforums, so I can only speak from my experience there. Five years ago, there were a lot more questions being asked and it was wwwaaayyy more active and hectic. It is still active today, but not on the same level as it used to be.

[Roxas]

DEGENERACY

 

DEBATES

 

DEEZ NUTS

[MRDRHAWK]

it was a lot more active and also probably a lot shittier back then

[Original Alear]

There was this guy named Nightmare he was cool.

[Ertrick36]

I've been here since 2015 (I remember clearly because I visited this site not long after I got the 3DS to play SSB4, which came out in 2014 - I was a guest for a while before I officially joined).  I remember the thing that got me here in the first place was someone on GameFAQs shared a link to one of TheMoniker's screenshot LPs and I found those LPs incredibly entertaining.  I joined and made, like, a single response.  Back then I literally just used the pic of Wil as my profile pic from FE7 because I liked his appearance and I sometimes used the name "Wilson" to represent myself online (it's not my actual name, btw).

When I joined, conversations about Fire Emblem: Fates were ripe.  Everybody was talking about the game.  Back then the game to rip on was Fire Emblem: Awakening, which upset an adolescent me because that game got me into the series and I was quite fond of it (still am, actually).  There were series veterans (some, I should emphasize) who genuinely thought that Fire Emblem: Fates might be a return to form and bring back the kind of storytelling they yearned for - I think even some fans of the Kaga games were clamoring for this, which is kinda funny to think about.  Of course the game came around, it became the new target, and that's when I realized the cyclical nature of the fandom's hatefests, lmao.  At this point I just find it kinda amusing.

I'd say the site itself is the internet equivalent of a small rural town that occasionally holds a big festival that attracts all sorts of tourists.  Which is basically most forums these days, particularly when we have things like Discord and social media for people to hold discussions on.

[Original Alear]

I remember when Hikarusa got banned. That was shortly after I joined IIRC. I believe the reason he was banned was that he had changed his name to "White People Suck." It never occurred to me until the past couple years that he might not be white himself (never seen a picture of him). Not cuz I did/didn't like him, and am trying to imply he sucks, but because I was just very much about parody/irony/humor where a white person giving themselves such a name would be a typical kind of humor for a person (making light of themselves).

[Parrhesia]

Been here since 2009. There's been two big obvious changes since then.

1) The big one, the time between 'it becoming clear that FE12 wasn't coming out in the West and that the series was dying' (yes, newcomers, this genuinely was the rhetoric at the time, and understandably so) and Awakening rolling in, bringing a ton of new blood to the forum and single-handedly saving the series.

Pre-13, FE was very much a niche thing, and just being enough of a tryhard to be on the forum gave you some 'I'm not like other girls' cred. There was something nice about this obscure yet excellent series, half of its games not even having an official English release. Unfortunately, the result was that when 13 saved the series and brought new blood in, a lot of people - myself included, regrettably! - turned into hardcore grognards overnight, resentful of the change in tone 13 brought and the new wave of people who only knew that tone, in a game perceived as a dumbed-down experience both in gameplay and writing. Now it's become clear that FE is alive and kicking, doing better than ever, and that 13/14 did not signify a permanent tone shift as the series embraces its history through remaking 2, through effectively remaking 4, and through Heroes.

2) Back then, a lot of the casual experience of the forum was just fucking around on FFTF, chatting shit. Along with 1, it created a very tight-knit atmosphere. However, fundamentally, casually shooting off one-line posts on a low-effort board has been obsoleted by the increased usability and ubiquity of chatroom services - IRC and Skype, now Discord. Back in 2009-12 there were a bunch of threads which pretty much were chatrooms, and while some of them cling on to activity, they don't seem to have the 'refresh every minute for new content' vibe they used to. Because, I figure, everyone's just... on Discord, now. I know I am.

[Roxas]

1 hour ago, Original Johan Liebert said:

I remember when Hikarusa got banned. That was shortly after I joined IIRC. I believe the reason he was banned was that he had changed his name to "White People Suck." It never occurred to me until the past couple years that he might not be white himself (never seen a picture of him). Not cuz I did/didn't like him, and am trying to imply he sucks, but because I was just very much about parody/irony/humor where a white person giving themselves such a name would be a typical kind of humor for a person (making light of themselves).

WIST LOVES EROGE

[Dark Holy Elf]

Been here about 7 years, lurked for a few years before then. The site was certainly quite different pre-Awakening. By the time I joined, I feel it's... pretty recognizable to what we have now? The site has gotten older (which is to be expected, pretty much any given gaming forum has) and more laid-back, which is nice... I remember seeing a few nasty arguments back in my first couple years here but they've gotten much rarer.

[NoNameAtAll]

A lot more active back then, but this was also before stuff like Discord and the like, so...yeah.

[Comet]

the forest was living, but now it is only alive

[Integrity]

On 2/22/2022 at 4:15 PM, Florete said:

It was really cringe.

this is the way

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I joined eight years ago.

Unfortunately lots of friends I learned to know here left.

I learned online forums are a come and go.

As for myself I am still here, but way less active than in earlier days, mainly because I learned to know other franchises than Fire Emblem that I enjoy.

[Belisarius]

its a video game forum. i've been part of the FE community and forums since FE7 came out in the US, times have changed but its fundamentally the same as its always been.