I was wondering if sigs are the thing of the past? Is it not a big deal anymore to make sigs. What is the biggest deal to do nowadays?
The hobbyist Photoshop user is a declining breed. Most kids getting into design these days are wanting to make some cash off their terrible designs, or think the fact they managed to download Photoshop off Limewire instantly makes them an expert in the signature posting section. There's such a huge number of design blogs out there these days, amateur sites like these can't compete in terms of expertise, and the vast majority of the user-base here aren't designers by trade, and either aren't here for the graphics side of the community, or simply don't know sh!t. Forums are no longer the social networking superpower they once were, and newer forms of social media negate the need for community based input as far as aesthetics go. The truth of the matter is, people no longer need to make sigs, and there's very few people who are therefore getting into the practice. This is why GR is so desolate. It wasn't inattentive admins, or a lack of content and upgrades from you, Shaggy, that caused this en-masse abandonment. If this site has any hopes of remaining a staple part of the amateur design community (something it hasn't been for a long time now), it has to refine its user-base, specialize its material and content, and focus on becoming something more along the lines of Depthcore or another community-driven high end graphics site. This is how I see it, and you can take this with as many grains of salt as you like, but I think some of what I have said you, and other users, may have observed for yourself, so, whatever.
Sigs are still huge... And people still need renders, they just dont come here anymore. This site was the number 1 render site on the web, but you guys didnt seem to do a lot to stay on top. Planetrenders and Animerenders came out of nowhere and mopped the floor with you guys. Although AR has been declining... I think you have some options here: 1. Go back to the fundamentals and focus on renders and sigs and leave like that an amateur do sigs for fun site...And make the render section open to the public. 2. Make an actually design site which would mean, losing the sigs, renders, marketplace, and etc. And lose the domain GAMERENDERS.com, but that would mean competing with sites like Slashthree, Evokeone, and etc which you'll probably lose. 3. A Game review site plus graphics, which would A LOT of work since the whole site would need to be restructured and getting heavy gamers to come here. You'll need an actual homepage and not a splash. And you'll need staff to actually do something. You know putting effort and etc... 4. Try to do it all and fail miserably 5. Do what you guys usually do, plan something and never follow through, e.g, Updating Splash Page, Crew Art Packs, Tag Team Batting, and etc.
I will now take my righthand and slap you. Like I said before, were I think we went wrong was plannig on updating things and nothing came through. If we never said a thing about v4, it would be a totally different deal today.
Hmm mainly I go to Planet Renders, its much easier to download renders, And because of the no. of post neaded to go to the download section, well im a bit annoyed but im getting my posts up, btw hw many post do you need? You should have pinned render packs or sumtin... cos the main reason im here is to get renders (no tack there lol) Mainly, I go to planet renders, i just saw an awesome render in the download section and I want it badly lol
I'm not going to bother repeating what Inverse already said; I will continue on his Depthcore theory. Depthcore is still huge but also declining in some aspects due to more art groups emerging. However, these are groups are focused only toward people they know are going to make golden large art. I believe that you cannot save Gamerenders. The name spells out renders and renders will soon be a forgotten thing on art communities. If you want to bring this site back you need to rise from the ashes with a new brand name and a new way to go about this. Depthcore, COSMOSYS, Revuh, Slash3 and the hundreds of other art groups are doing the same exact thing. Inverse mentioned that graphics forums are now dominated by people looking to make money. Meaning they want to start using this as a trade; So what do you do? You open up a "Little League". A community designed to be like facebook of the art world with a group release aspect and a focus on helping new "artists" [Not signature makers] learn how to hone their skills. Most signatures you see now days are cropped large art pieces. That is where you should be focusing your attack if you plan on running a successful site again. EDIT: It's 12pm and I've yet to go to sleep. If this came out mumbled tell me and I will explain it clearer when I wake up.
As long as this site is up I will still be here. ( You can tell ive been a member since like 9th grade #800 or something.
Well i discovered photoshop when in college. im not good at sigs but i try. soon i will put my own on here. anyway photoshop for me i just don't use, im cheap so im a Gimper and steal photoshop brushes and filters with my plug-ins. but i have to say gimp does do wonders i can get almost the same effect in gimp as with photoshop.
i dont really believe the name really matters, sure it makes a big deal when you are a starting community, but GR is a long term community already.. Alot of good artists are registered here because alot of them started here. I think gr would have alot more visitors and members if there it would concentrate on a wider group of people. Like gamers: make official gameclans for gamerenders.. this attracts dozens of gamers. if it works out you could rent servers etc.. which would attract even more members. on the frontpage, make it update daily with news and have weekly new tutorials wether old or new doesnt matter, if it keeps updating people keep visiting. Maybe make the slogan Gamerenders: More than just renders Get someone from slash3 or one of those other sites design a professional header, as the skin looks good but the header looks tbh bit amateuristic. i've seen some off slash3 artpacks and there are some real good artists on there. Also look on whats going on in the community; for example ive been posting up some movie topics or gaming topics and it gets lot of reactions, if that happens you can concentrate on that kind of topics. and update the frontpage with information about it.
Gamerenders... more than just renders. Wait, wat? Oh hay everybody I forgot the password of tehsacrifice so I decided to make a new account whats up