How Long Will It Last: Shmups Forum

[GaijinPunch]

Anyone ever pondered how long this place will continue? I'd say it's going strong still (even though some of the old faces have gone) even after... shit... a long time. But, I check out other forums and most are a shadow of what they once were. Anyone think we'll still be bitching about the same stuff here in 10 years? Damn... I'll be 50. My son 18... hopefully he's taking me to his parties.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Don't forums stay alive for as long as new folks come along?

[Ed Oscuro]

As long as we keep in a box and nobody outside can observe us, we can enjoy a superposition of states for as long as needed

In all seriousness, massive props are due to system11 for keeping this going.

[cicada88]

let's make a blood pact

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

It will live forever in our hearts.

[Blinge]

Well, it occupies a niche that isn't repeated many times across the internuts. Also the most insufferable pricks are usually weeded out.

massive props are due to system11 for keeping this going.

[Xyga]

As long as there's and internet and new shmuppers certainly (and there will always be, even if just very few).

(Also of course no fed up admin / flood-fire destroying servers-memory / world war and landlines cut)

[Stompp]

Anyone ever pondered how long this place will continue? I'd say it's going strong still (even though some of the old faces have gone) even after... shit... a long time. But, I check out other forums and most are a shadow of what they once were. Anyone think we'll still be bitching about the same stuff here in 10 years? Damn... I'll be 50. My son 18... hopefully he's taking me to his parties.

10 years down the line? I'll be 56 and my eldest 31 Yeah I think so - I hope so. Tons of kudos to system11 for keeping the ship afloat! This place is probably one of the sanest corners of the Intertubes despite the insane levels of shmuptitude

[Mero]

Well, the scene is fucking dying on its arse, but I think Shmups Forum will be here until the admins pull the plug. I don't think 10 years down the line the place will be a dead forum with posts on the first page from 2 years ago (at least I hope not), the other day I was looking at an old forum I used to visit 10 years ago that's now exactly like that.

[Shepardus]

The Top 25 Shmups of All Time list will probably look about the same ten years from now.

There aren't so many shmups being made nowadays (especially good ones), but that's not going to stop people from talking about 20+ year old games as they've been doing for many years already, and there will still be newcomers to the genre who still need to discover the games we're already very familiar with. As long as system11 keeps it going (totally agree with Ed Oscuro btw), there will still be an audience, even if old-timers do leave and the overall population shrinks. In the unlikely event that something refuels interest in the genre, the forums could even become more active, who knows.

[Squire Grooktook]

There aren't so many shmups being made nowadays (especially good ones), but that's not going to stop people from talking about 20+ year old games as they've been

Can't disagree with that first bit harder, but agree otherwise.

[BulletMagnet]

Anyone think we'll still be bitching about the same stuff here in 10 years?

Amateur, we're just getting started!

On a slightly more serious note, I'd wager that most all of us here, myself included, joined up when the genre was a good deal past its "prime" (whenever you'd care to place that), and did so not because we were eager to learn about some new shooter that was coming out (heck, how many of us were shocked to find out that new shmups were still being made at all?), but because we'd either grown a bit tired of "mainstream" gaming and wanted to expand out horizons, or were hoping to rediscover a title we'd played years earlier. Will some of us eventually move on or run out of stuff to say? Sure. Will new people keep showing up to keep the place fresh and active? I think they will, at least for a pretty good while, if they come here for the same reasons we did.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Hopefully in ten years time the forum will have morphed into some kind of virtual reality arcade where we can wander around, chat, bicker and watch people play the virtual cabs.

A man can dream.

[Ji-L87]

I worry that the economical aspect of hosting a forum might bring the ship down before all of us lose interest

In all seriousness, I believe that if this forum were to shut down, parts of it would still be established a new somewhere else - simply because there will still be a need for them. Like, the hardware section for example, which is full of stuff that will always be necessary to discuss.

[Satan]

We're circling the drain, soon finding food will be the main priority for most of us here. Videogames will be a distant memory.

[Xyga]

No there will be a shmup world government ruling us all. Status, food, booze, women, all determined by high score.

[Satan]

Funny, that would make DEL our tyrannical leader lol

[GaijinPunch]

I haven't played a shmup/shooter in... ages. I'm in OT 99% of the time, and Trading Station the other 1%. I think there's a few OT only posters like me.

[jonny5]

I haven't played a shmup/shooter in... ages. I'm in OT 99% of the time, and Trading Station the other 1%. I think there's a few OT only posters like me.

I'm pretty much in the same boat

[Satan]

DEL World Order

[broken harbour]

Most internet forums have, at most, a decade before they become a moody wasteland... this forum seems to buck that trend, though when I see older threads get necro bumped, I don't recognize most of the original posters.

[Pretas]

This place definitely won't last as long as the Neo-geo.com forums, that's for sure. We don't have the same reputation as a hotbed of lulzy internet drama, and far fewer Shmups users have reached the same level of emotional and financial investment in their forum that the NG Big Tymers have with theirs.

[cicada88]

I haven't played a shmup/shooter in... ages. I'm in OT 99% of the time, and Trading Station the other 1%. I think there's a few OT only posters like me.

I still play shooters but I am mainly here for OT and Hardware forums

[BryanM]

I expect to still be trying to derail playstation threads into Phantasy Star threads just because the OPie had the hubris to refer to the Playstation as "PS" in the topic title for the next 30 years or so. But after that, you guys are on your own.

Fun factoid: I think Friendly was enraged when I said that Playstation should only be abbreviated as "PSX". I'm not 100% sure on this, don't quote me. : / Just, cautious cat wonders.

On a slightly more serious note, I'd wager that most all of us here, myself included, joined up when the genre was a good deal past its "prime" (whenever you'd care to place that)

A good point, we were zombies from the start. How you gonna kill that which has no life?

[DEL]

Santa wrote:

DEL World Order

You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.

-------------------------

Maybe the forum will be like Hubble's expanding Universe and peter-out as a collection of Brown Dwarfs in a few trillion years.
Or maybe it will condense and implode in an incandescent shower of PC Engine Fan X! pooooooosts.........

[Strikers1945guy]

The beauty of shmups is that the concept is so simple yet the execution so complex for scoring that hopefully these games will be played forever, and with that discussion will follow... Somewhere on the internet.

[FRO]

I've been an on-again, off-again member of the "shmups" website community since the mid-90's. I've been through at least 4 different iterations of the shmups forum, and although malc has long-since departed as an active member of the community, I'd say the forum is as strong today as it was years ago when I was far more active. The threads are a bit more niche than before, what with the lack of new titles coming out, but as new releases trickle down, or new members trickle in, we'll have the occasional resurgence of more general threads here and there, so those of us less obsessed with the version of this PCB or the scoring mechanics or hitbox of that game will have something a bit more general to talk about

I could see this forum continue for years to come, even if the genre died completely as it pertains to new games. There's still a fanbase out there, and new players discovering Gradius, R-Type, and Donpachi for the first time will seek out like-minded individuals to discuss those games.

[Some-Mist]

together we will live forever

[BIL]

If this forum dies I'll fuck it back to life.

Especially as the alternative is becoming an avid commentator at worldstar hiphop.

deshaun • 26 minutes ago

BIBLE SAY THOU SHALL NOT KILL. SO HE GOT WHAT THE FUCK HE DESERVES

[Battlesmurf]

I lurked back when, made an account after a long time of lurking. I still check this place pretty often with the occasional lag in between. I held out hope for a long time that the attached webpage would see some content added. I don't know why- but I still think that'd help to bring in new blood. The front page used to be a great resource for looking up neat shooters to check out (not that it's bad now).

Every time I log in, I still find new faces, and the obnoxious ones (usually) get pruned pretty quick.

Overall, the atmosphere here is better than most, and while many shmup forums (in English) have come and went, this place still seems to have more information than most and seems to be going strong.