it can be, but it is better and more responsibly curated than most give it credit for. Contrast it with r/games, where the entire sub is little more than press releases and “gaming news”, and it’s a 50/50 crapshoot as to whether or not the mods will remove a thread, based on constantly changing interpretations of the frustratingly vague ruleset. I’ve had threads on certain new games or games coming out of steam greenlight into full releases taken down by mods citing the infamous “rule 7”, only to see another poster drop an absolutely identical thread and watch it jump to the top of the page in less than an hour. I’ve had other threads with high upvote numbers get removed on the same basis, while again, nearly identical threads about the same game or news item with less upvotes are left alone. it appears totally arbitrary, and a lot of people are fed up with the schizophrenic moderating there. r/pcgaming is a lot friendlier in general, and although it doesn’t have the sheer numbers or as much fresh content day-to-day, it’s nice to know that you are not left at the whims of whatever moderator might be looking at the page that moment as to whether or not your submission will stay up or get taken down.
Hell, for example, I made a thread when the indie game “Party Hard” came out, basically just describing the game (as I thought it was an interesting and unique concept) and highlighting it as a successful indie release, which began as just a pewpewdie game jam submission, but ended as a finished and polished release, which is notable in an industry chock full of failed kickstarters and greenlight garbage. The thread was removed due to rule 8, no excessive promotion or self promotion. I attempted to contact the mods and explain that I had nothing to do with the games production or release, I was simply highlighting the release of a new game, as many threads do in r/games. the mods told me that I had violated general promotion rules, and wouldn’t respond after that. that’s right…in a sub that is literally full of nothing BUT promotional press releases and news articles about new games, my thread about a successful indie title release was “violating acceptable promotion limits”. What the fuck?
many months later I attempted to do a thread on a then new F2P game called Fractured Space – people were disappointed with game footage from Dreadnought, which many thought would be a sophisticated tactical game about commanding large vessels, but ended up looking much more like an arcade space game. After getting some attention, the mods simply removed it and never told me why. Less than a month later, someone else posted a thread nearly identical to mine, and like me, presented Fractured Space as an alternative for people disappointed by Dreadnought footage. that thread stayed up.
There’s just no consistency whatsoever, and the mods have little to no interest in explaining themselves.
it’s VERY frustrating to know that even when you are clearly following the rules and people are commenting on and upvoting your thread, that it might get taken down, JUST BECAUSE. it kills fresh content and original content (on which there are also a lot of silly restrictions in r/games), which is a big part of the reason why the sub is filled mainly with corporate press releases and what amount to games “journalists” blog posts. Bottom line of this big rant – I’ve NEVER encountered these issues on r/pcgaming. if appearing “boring” to some people is the result of this, so be it, I can live with that.