General

I'm not sure about active users, but I miss chat having 50-60 users in it. That was around 2001/2002, I think?

Oh damn, I remember those old chat days 10+ years ago. My younger self was annoying AF in those

2001 for me... got ripped off sometime later... went to paid only... a few years later since I came back. Haven't traded in ages sadly. Clearsights clearly annoying in those days... We'll see...

I still log in and look at general forum. Mostly movie reviews, and the other random ones. I'm not as active as I used to be.

I forgot about the chats! I love this site met some great people here. Traded some and traded for great stuff on here! Chatted via dm or even text about games,life, family ect. Dont let the negative actions of a few take away the positive actions of the many other great people on here!

@bill man 09 seemed to be the peak for the sites active users. That is awsome! I hope this site can grow somehow to where it once was or beyond! Ive been telling my friends about gametz for years!

bill wrote:

Higher than I would have expected lately.

When did you do the subscription only plan?

via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameTZ.com

2014 for me. Seems like there’s a direct correlation of decline coinciding with the digital revolution. Things went digital and active members began to fall.

Ah, 2007-2011 the bustling glory days when we all traded/sold our asses off and now all of those good items are worth 300% more now.

Even so, I joined in 07', and I wouldn't trade that period of time for more value in my collection today. So many users always actively posting lists for sale and making trades. I acquired so many items I wanted at the time, reacquired so many nostalgic items.

I miss the box/manual forum...the console vs portable forum sections as well.

Interesting, reading the Wiki it looks like the site changed from UGTZ to Game Trading Zone in March of 2000. I joined in April of 2000 but remember the UGTZ moniker. I wonder if I remember that not from the website but from the GamePro article mentioning it. Or maybe I was lurking for a couple of months before joining, can't remember.

Kinda crazy to think that I've been on the website for 24 years and other than times of deployment I have probably logged on at least once if not multiple times a day to check the forums. Only other website I've been on consistently for an extended period of time is DVDTalk but even that is probably 6 or 7 years less than this one.

I do miss the anticipation of finding a good trade deal and waiting for the mail to arrive with a new game. I don't think I've traded a physical item for a physical item in probably a decade. I also remember when chat would have 50+ people in it. Still, the community here is great.

bill wrote:
Wow! I wish I had been more active around the low 201s. Oh well. I definitely still appreciate what we have now.

It sucked when there were so many people here. Tons of problems.
So much better now.

I’m sure we could do something about that if you want.

We can start by bringing loans back!

lordly_llama wrote:

Fixed that for you.

loztdogs wrote:

At this point I don't know if bringing loans back would revive this place or throw a few more nails in. Have lending laws changed much since they went away?

loans are just so cheugy

The core issue has always been that we hate new users.

@bill dont we want new users who are good, honest traders tho?

New users don't understand our core rituals. It takes time to become one of us.

I'm kidding, of course we want new users.

Though, I also feel like things are good now and we shouldn't pine for the good ole days. They really weren't all good or anything.

I find it strange when people say how great chat was for example. Chat was awful.

bill wrote:

Live reaction from someone in chat getting (or posting) a BTR was always popcorn-worthy.

Well of course you didn't like the "good ole days" @bill. You had to deal with all the drama behind the scenes. While we had all the fun making the drama. I personally miss all the troll topics in general that always just went completely off the rails. But I also know those were a nightmare for you with complaints and moderation. And I agree, chat was awful. But it was the only place to talk to certain users like BoB. There were handful that only hung out in chat and rarely on the forums.

benstylus wrote:

I wish that user made wiki was still up that had a list of all the drama and major site occurrences was still up. That was great. It had chat logs from some of the big blow outs. A record of all the big crazy things that happened on the site. I can't even remember who made it now. Its been offline for six or seven years now.

Hello, everyone, I have only been here like 10 years, but still have a ton of memories.

I wish I had stats for how much drama we had per year.

bill wrote:

Spike in 14 when I landed on your doorstep. Steady decline since about 2017 though.

psychotherapy killed gtz

bill wrote:

Huh?

Prime was crazier when he started. Given what he said, I'm implying that he got some psychotherapy and is less crazy now. But, GTZ is less fun now too because there's less drama (which was in part caused by Prime's craziness).

Let’s be fair and not act like I was the only mad man you guys had running around here. And while technically I am in therapy that’s only been going on for 2 years and I’ve been dialed down for the better part of 5/6 years. So my journey into chilling out started with self inventory and reflection long before I found a good therapist. I believe this May will mark my 10 year anniversary.

Prime wrote:

How much weed was involved in this "therapy" :)

@Foxhack I actually quit smoking weed about 3.5/4 years ago. And haven’t had a sip of alcohol since September. I hadn’t been drinking very heavy in general the last few years but had a health scare and cut it out completely.

Do you have a ban history? I feel like I was banned a few times during the chat days for some reason or another

ClearSights wrote:

I have an epic ban story but I’ll skip it now and save it for another time. I wonder if it’s on the wiki. Let’s just say I’m one of one. No one in the history of the site was ever able to do what I did. I’m a legend and nobody even knows it.

Baseball cards.

I remember when Bill got banned.