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.

ClearSights wrote:

Sort of. Much of the info (complaints/restrictions) is hard to dig out. But, you had one suspension.
It was on 30-Jan-2013. For, "multiple accounts: ClearSights TheLordsEye".
It was resolved quickly, you said "My apologizes. I will obey the site rules in the future, I am sorry."
and I let you back on. Seems like a slap on the wrist sort of thing for trolling.

Looking around and bit more, it seems that TheLordsEye made a post that was insulting and anti-gay.
"You guys are all inconsiderate ignorant asssholes if you believe that homosexuality is ok. Follow me if you want to open your eyes.... https://twitter.com/GodHatesFags" You were trolling people with it and it worked, lots of complaints. It was in the forum not chat.

ryanflucas wrote:

I never got banned over that. I got reprimanded for carrying on about it. But I’d like to think we’ve moved on.

benstylus wrote:
Wait... What? Was it an April fool's joke?

Once they bring the death camps back the hate will return.

bring back Donlad, make gametz great again!

No no. Death camps was Obama administration. I barely escaped.

There has been a huge decline in activity over the years I have been a member. I'm going on almost 20 years. We've lost some great members, those who have moved on and those who have passed away unfortunately (RIP). We used to have a pretty active group of people that would play Xbox Live daily together, that's one thing I miss the most. Sublime, BoB, and I got some random girl to flash us with her husband behind her. Xbox Live Uno was amazing lmao.

I really appreciate Bill for keeping GTZ running regardless of the significant decline over the years.

Cyco2oo4 wrote:


I agree with this! He is a good dude for doing so!🤗

Thanks.

The decline freaked me out at first (many years ago). I assumed the site would die, then it didn't. Listening to people who are still here, most seem to want to keep it going. So, I've been trying to adjust to that. My goal these days is to keep it going as long as I can.

I've backed off somewhat, not putting a lot of work into it or expecting much from it. I've cut costs to some degree as well. I think I can do it without much stress. I'm not that busy otherwise, so it's something to do. It's mostly automated and easy, but there are sometimes little crises that make me question what I'm doing. It's hard to say how long it will last, but the end doesn't seem imminent to me.

It's nice having a place to chat that isn't run by a corporation focused on selling data to advertisers.

bill wrote:

I just signed in for the first time in like 5 years. But the number of loan post back when was crazy.

Hopefully the site has gone from quantity to quality. Hopefully, the users who came here simply to try to make a quick buck by making lowball offers and trying to resell what they got cheap have moved on. Ditto for those who were here just see how many other users they could piss off. I would like to believe that those who remain are more likely to treat other users with respect and contribute to the sense of community.

Bring back Chat!

(I know Discord is there, but this chat was much easier to make deals on!)

Jeff wrote:

Or move the whole site to Discord.

Chat had essentially died on its own. Sure, I took it down after people kept fighting and such, but it was a very small group (part of why it didn't seem worth keeping it). The reality is that people hadn't been using it for years. Most of the time, chat was empty or just a few people.

As far as I know, Discord is similar (not a lot of active chatting). It still has value, but it's not like how it was. There were some good times here in chat when it was quite popular in the evenings and deals were easy to make, but that was a long time ago.

bill wrote:


I love you, never change.

bill wrote:

I know it's silly, and most of us haven't been around in forever, but you created a small pocket for us nincompoops to dwell in at 3am before the internet was what it is today. Obviously you have to do what's right financially for you and yours, but I hope you keep this site up. It'd truly be missed if it was gone.

Anytime I open my web browser, mobile or desktop, gametz is the first recommendation as it's my most frequented site. I can't imagine an internet without GTZ.

This topic has prompted me to purchase another year of sub-time, thanks bill

I can't really take credit, I just keep the lights on. You all make it a place worth coming back to.

TBRANIK wrote:
Gotsta have that gold card icon

I’m on my bi-yearly check-in, so I’m barely active.

GameTZ will never be fully removed from my life. Even if it’s just saying hey to everyone before vanishing into the oblivion again.

Hey!

Man I just love my Gametz fam!🤗 like family we squabble sometimes but in the end most of the time we work it out with each other! (trades or otherwise) I know if there is a mess up I try to make it right on my end😃

Love GTZ.

Thanks bill.

I use to cause bill stress. But I also identified (and shared with bill so it was fixed) some simple URL hacking on the site over the years, so I figure it evens out.

You used to be able to get into anyone’s trade data via URL hacking, for instance.