4 years and counting, still no NeoGAF account

On 04/08/2013 at 11:06 AM by Chris Iozzi

About four years ago, a close family friend received his 15 minutes of internet fame when he posted a badly photoshopped image on NeoGAF of an ostrich body onto the handle and head of a melee weapon on a preview still of the then upcoming Red Faction: Guerilla. The "Ostrich Hammer" was born. The gag became so popular that Violition actually added an Ostrich Hammer to the game.

I had never heard of NeoGAF before all this so I decided to check it out. It looked like a really cool and dedicated gaming community, one that a chap like myself might enjoy being a part of. I decided these lucky ducks would get me as member. During the sign-in process I learned that NG tries to weed out the riff-raff by having a strict approval process before members are accepted. You must have a non web based email account, either from you ISP, workplace, or school. Hotmail, gmail, yahoomail etc are not accepted, and approvals can take a while because of the volume they receive and the amount of people they have processing memberships. Fair enough. I signed up with my work place email since I don't use my ISP email and don't have a school email. I submitted my humble member request and waited.

...and waited...

and..waited...

I then forgot about it.

Then I remembered, and did a search of my sent box and realized about 2 years had passed since I sent my request. So I searched around to see if this was normal, some people get accepted in 2 to 6 months, others have waited a couple years. So i was on the long end of the wait stick. So did my request even go through? I sent a message to their support email from the email address I signed up with and very nicely asked if there was any problem with my submission. I sent the email and waited.

...and waited...

and.....waited.....

and...

(wait for it..)

Waited.

So last week I did another search of my sent box and realized its been two years since I sent that email to customer support. I've done a bit more searching around to see if anyone else has waited that long. Looks like I might be a record setter.

I've been asked a couple times why I would even want an NG account, its been described to me as just a "snobby gamefaqs". Personally I don't really care what the reputation is, all I know is I'm the type of person they want on their site. I'm active, respectible, speak my mind and don't troll. So whats the deal?

I'm wondering if the fine people at Pixlbit have NG accounts and if they know who's bread to butter so I can get one, too. Maybe I'll just forget it, another two years from now maybe they shall grant me the honor of posting on their hallowed message boards. For the time being I'll just blog on pixlbit and lurk in gamefaqs classic console message boards.

Nick DiMola Director

04/08/2013 at 11:19 AM

I've been trying to get an account (using my PixlBit email) for going on 4 years as well. At this point I just don't care any more.

Chris Iozzi Staff Alumnus

04/08/2013 at 02:00 PM

dang. how rude. I hear people who sign up with a .edu email have better luck.

04/08/2013 at 03:40 PM

04/08/2013 at 03:41 PM

HA!

Joaquim Mira Media Manager

04/08/2013 at 07:08 PM

HAHAHAHAHAHA that's just awesome. Go Bender!

transmet2033

04/08/2013 at 11:31 AM

that seems like too much of a hassle.

04/08/2013 at 02:02 PM

yeah. If i knew then.... At this point I really don't care, but it would be nuts if all of a sudden I finally did get an account. how often would I use it? hard to say. But I love Gamefaqs even though its a troll breeding ground, just gotta know where the cool people are.

Ranger1

04/08/2013 at 12:13 PM

If their that picky, Chris, do you really want to hang out with them?

04/08/2013 at 02:03 PM

Put it this way, if they said my submission was denied, I wouldn't fight for it. But I feel like I"ll have a sort of redemption if I finally get an account at this point.

mothman

04/08/2013 at 01:57 PM

After reading that I won't be attempting to join them any time soon.

I don't blame you.

BrokenH

NeoGaf THE ELITE, yo! Whenever I browsed their forum it didn't seem "more special" than any other forum. I don't think you're missing out. Sorry, this strict process just makes them seem like snobs to me. And for what? Posting on their board? Wow. (sarcasm)

04/08/2013 at 02:07 PM

The funny thing is the trolling and nonsense is worse on there than it is on the open-for-all gamefaqs. On GF you can have multiple accounts and sign up instantly. The only real bad forums are the current gen console forums, fanboy flame wars a plenty. But if you know what boards to go on there are some awesome people on there.

I also have read that after a few years people get their account approved and they immediately jump on and get banned for posting threads like "WHO THE HELL DO YOU PEOPLE THINK YOU ARE?"

04/08/2013 at 02:15 PM

Well, if it's these same "cool people" that make the admission process so brutal I think I can do without. lol. However, you maybe talking about non mods too who are merely members. (In which case maybe you gotta point)

It's just that there are only so many hoops I'm willing to jump through to be apart of a gaming community and since I know plenty of awesome folks here I really don't feel the need to be apart of a V.I.P club.

Elitism among geeks just makes me bitter about the whole geek culture in general. As if we don't get enough problems from the outside world we also turn on each other. What's up with that,mang?

True Gamer At Heart

04/08/2013 at 03:21 PM

Yeah that seems like a place that I do not want to join?? I have heard about it, but never really bothered to look into..I say forgot about them and join elsewhere!

04/08/2013 at 03:35 PM

oh trust me, I have. I'm joined up with plenty of gaming sites to eat up 100% of my downtime and thensome. Just can't help wondering exactly what the deal is.

Caesar

04/08/2013 at 04:01 PM

They're "premiere," but I wouldn't say that getting an account would really be worth anything. Reading some of their threads is frustrating to me if only for the reason that they're absolutely flooded with users; it seems like it would be hard to get a word in edgewise.

04/08/2013 at 05:08 PM

premiere?? In what way??

04/08/2013 at 05:31 PM

They generate a lot of buzz, and have quite a bit of buzz coming to them. I've heard of game dev team members going on there and joining in on threads. They're not like Reddit's "AMA" series, I don't think, but it's a pretty major site nonetheless.

Travis Hawks Senior Editor

04/08/2013 at 05:18 PM

I have an account there, but don't have the ability to post. I have never tried to "upgrade." I'm not even sure what's required to do so. That forum is way to busy for me to keep up with even a couple of threads, so I rarely look at it. I think I got my essentially pointless account pretty quickly, though.

Super Step Contributing Writer

04/08/2013 at 05:20 PM

I really don't see the point in that, but I guess it'd be nice if you got in.

Cary Woodham

04/08/2013 at 06:37 PM

Well I know one site I won't be trying to join. Probably couldn't anyway because of my email. That's just stupid.

leeradical42

04/08/2013 at 06:48 PM

Sounds like a bunch of snobs, i can understand weeding out undesirables but thats ridiculous, even if I got accepted after that long i would tell them to stick it lol. Hell bank loans dont take that long lol.

04/10/2013 at 09:22 AM

Sounds that way, but all I hear is every topic gets lost in a sea of other comments/topics. Maybe they are holding off on approvals. 4 years though?

TripOpt55

04/08/2013 at 09:39 PM

I am a member over there. I signed up four or five years ago. I think it took me about six months to get approved or whatever (it seems I lucked out... maybe because I used my college email?). I had honestly forgot I had applied when I got approved.

Most gaming threads feel too big and move too fast over there though. It feels like you are whispering in a giant crowd. I kind of prefer small communities where it feels like people actually read your posts (like here at PixlBit). The one thing I really like is the TV threads and some of the other smaller community threads (the LEGO thread is really great) as they aren't as huge as the gaming side. I always have good discussions on there and everyone knows me in those TV threads.

I wish I had some sway over there, so I could help you get approved, but I imagine if I messaged a mod they wouldn't know who I was... haha.

04/10/2013 at 09:23 AM

Yeah seems people have more luck with school emails. Don't know why.

SanAndreas

04/08/2013 at 10:17 PM

I'm sure some of that is the sheer volume of users and applicants they get there. It's probably a combination of crowd control and simply not having enough resources to vet everyone who wants to post there. However, I've read NeoGAF, and it's nothing special and certainly not worth waiting four years for approval to post there. I guess it's cool that it's well-known enough to attract industry insiders. Famously, Denis Dyack of Silicon Knights got NeoGAF's notorious banhammer upside his head. :)

04/10/2013 at 09:27 AM

Still, someone who is waiting patiently and respectfully contacting them requesting any kind of work at all to get pushed aside is annoying. But they put priority in school emails? I would think the younger types would be more likely to flood, spam and troll. How about older workplace email applicants first?

PixlBit