The good old days

Where have all the good old days in Trainz gone? I remember back when folks helped each other out in their creations. Just about anything was considered a "good" screenshot. People joked, people laughed, it was a fun place to hang out with a fun community and a fun game.

However these days it seems that most people are here to accuse people of doing things (namely stealing), make a dime off from anything, poke fun at the new guys, chew people out, and argue over which simulator is better.

What happened? I used to enjoy coming over here to talk with people, have a few laughs and enjoy Trainz. Now a days I spend very little time in the community, I breeze in look at some screenshots (maybe post a few) and leave.

peter

Well, I really don't know. I think I really need to stop posting for a long time.

Yeah I wish those days were to come back but it doesn't look like it will happen.

to borrow a turn of phrase, "... these are the good old days ..." I think it is just selective memory and the fog of time that renders the past so rosy.

True, Trainz was new and it seemed that someone was discovering new capabilities every other day. There were no old timers, everyone was in for the first time so naturally the tone of the messages was lighter.

Plus, and this is not a slight at the younger generation, many of the early adopters were old model railroaders who came from a world were there was no instant gratification. Scratch building anything took weeks if not months of hard work.

So perhaps they were good old days but someday these too will be good old days and people will be reminiscing about how much more fun the forum was back in 2011. :hehe:

Newbie thoughts

As a newbie here I find this forum to be VERY helpful and friendly. There are many occasions when I needed help the members came to my rescue.

Another point is the creator of a passenger terminal kindly updated his work to match how the station looked back it's operational days. He only asked for pictures and a few tweaks to make this stunning place.

Lastly I have received kind words and good advise on a few of the screen shots I have posted. So compared to other forums I'm on this one is hands down the most enjoyable :Y:

martinvk said:

to borrow a turn of phrase, "... these are the good old days ..." I think it is just selective memory and the fog of time that renders the past so rosy.

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Spot on Martin! Age tends to encourage nostalgia, a desire to relive those times when everything was new and exciting, and the curtain of fantasy hadn't been swept away to reveal the world and all it's darkness.

I see your point, Peter, and in many respects I agree.

many of the early adopters were old model railroaders who came from a world were there was no instant gratification--martinvk

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Yes...instant gratification is here to stay I think...pity. I intend to keep chipping away at my nearly 5 year project. Model railroaders know it's not about the finishing...it's about the doing...the journey, if you will.

Cheers,
Fred

P.S.

Age tends to encourage nostalgia--Euphod

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Arthritis too...

There are still a few people helping each other out. Unfortunately there always seems to be some new dusty corner of Trainz that needs attention. Currently I think its shadows and TS12's optimistic requirements on poly counts for shadows.

I think I agree there seems to be a more commercial angle these days. Could just be the recession I'm not so sure.

In many ways we've come a long way, there is a much wider range of content these days, the DLS clean up is continuing, saves heaven only knows how much of my time cleaning up config.txt errors, Pev has created a wide range of tools. Perhaps we are just maturing and growing older and the forum has settled down in some ways so the questions are more repetitive?

Cheerio John

While I am a newbie to the Trainz community. I am not a newbie to train sims as I have been part of the MSTS community for 4 + years. I can say that a couple people have been very helpful to me in the Trainz community. I wont mention their names as they know who they are. Ive also had a couple people get pissed at me for asking them politely about asking "What route is it" via PM messages as I was interested in getting the name of the route and trying it out. Ive even had a couple people claim that I was a "Gimmie pig", But I am far from being one of those type of people. Do I hope to create a route for Trainz at some point like I did with MSTS? I hope so at some point, But right now I just cant be certain. I know two things for certain is that the route would be a fantasy route like the Rattlesnake Desert route was for MSTS and I wont be starting a route until I get Trainz 12 which will be late this year.

It's the same with youth and then time moves on and you get used to life. I can think back to places and clubs I went to as a boy and they seemed exciting and big and years later the halls were smaller in reality! Each time I took a youth organisation to summer camp the first visit to the new destination would be fresh, new and great but over a number of years gets routine as you have in the expression of the recent Pepsi ad - seen it been it done it.

There are people here who will knee-jerk at the least wee assumed slight or go into a speed limit breaking, swift curve from annoyed to belligerent. Others will be more pragmatic and see a wider picture wondering what that is all about. And others again do help either directly on the Forums or in PM's/emails.

What does this say? Well it says that we are a reflection of the life outside! The one thing that happens to bind us is our liking for Trainz even when we have moans and grumphs.

PerRock said:

Where have all the good old days in Trainz gone? I remember back when folks helped each other out in their creations. Just about anything was considered a "good" screenshot. People joked, people laughed, it was a fun place to hang out with a fun community and a fun game.

However these days it seems that most people are here to accuse people of doing things (namely stealing), make a dime off from anything, poke fun at the new guys, chew people out, and argue over which simulator is better.

What happened? I used to enjoy coming over here to talk with people, have a few laughs and enjoy Trainz. Now a days I spend very little time in the community, I breeze in look at some screenshots (maybe post a few) and leave.

peter

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I agree with you Peter. If this current forum was like this in 2004 I doubt I would have gotten involved. Maybe it's just a reflection in general of how people were better off a few years ago and it carries over into the forum. It could also be a trickle down effect of the changes Auran has gone through. It's kinda hard to put a finger on what the causes may be but I certainly am aware of the difference.

I agree.

Another measure of how the forum has changed is how many people you have on your "ignore" list. When I started out, I ignored nobody, but these days I have about 10. That's sad to admit, but it does make for a less stressful forum experience.

@ JimDep - Jim, please check your PM's, I have a request.

~ D

Good idea...

I thought about the "ignore" list, but people find their place & if they act right I'll pay attention.

It is the same on every forum. There is a ton of negativity on the web & people tend toward bad behaviour if given enough time.

Use the "New Posts" button. If you grab the icon on the Explorer bar & put it on Quick Launch or you Desktop, Links, Favorites, Start Menu, it will make a shortcut that will open the New Posts page automatically. Quickly, browse each title to the topic...

If you recognize a subject, click the title...you may learn something.

If you don't recognize the subject yet, I leave it to your discretion...if you don't have a clue, pass, until you see the title for several visits.

If it's negative, some one's mad and their leaving, some personal complaint, the end of the world, the end of Trainz, a non technical issue, etc, avoid it like the Black Plague!:hehe:

You'll learn to scan quick, and that leaves more time for other adventures. After several visits, if a particular topic catches you eye, by all means, check it out.

It never pays to get mad at anyone, let alone someone you don't even really know. Most of the problems people have on the Web are with young people that are maybe slightly immature. Or maybe not so young people that are totally immature....pecking around in someone else's business.

I am not perfect, but neither is anyone else...I give them whatever chance I have to give.

If it's not your dog, don't chase it no matter how much it barks!

Ignore list, I never bothered with it, I just ignore EVERYBODY.......:hehe:

I would be honest and say that the modern generation seems to have acquired this 'gimmee, gimmee' attitude, we never used to have that back in the days of 2004, and it's not all kids with this inconsiderate frame of mind, neither. There seems to be less patience, more aggresiveness and selfishness than ever before in all our real lives which, unfortunately, is reflected somewhat on many, many forums these days. A fact of life that we will all have to come to terms with eventually.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

The good old days? Well that must have been before my time then. As far as I am concerned - being a relative newbie and all that - these are the good new times
I find the community generally friendly and always helpful. Maybe I missed something on the way? Or was that the point? Lol

ex-railwayman said:

I would be honest and say that the modern generation seems to have acquired this 'gimmee, gimmee' attitude, we never used to have that back in the days of 2004, and it's not all kids with this inconsiderate frame of mind, neither. There seems to be less patience, more aggresiveness and selfishness than ever before in all our real lives which, unfortunately, is reflected somewhat on many, many forums these days. A fact of life that we will all have to come to terms with eventually.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

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The "gimmee" attitude never bothered me. I had PM requests in the past and took it as a compliment that others had a shared interest.

The selfishness and aggressiveness of behaviors is another story. That is something that is apparent now that was not as common a few years ago.

i been around from day one of trainz, some where ona disk is a demo copy of
trainz,,, teh very first game..... i seen cry babys from day one,, i want this or i want that,,,,, can we all get a long..

I've been around the community almost 10 years, and I too have noticed a change, although socially we weren't as connected as we are today, what with facebook etc... I just feel that flaming happens more occasionally now, whereas before we would actually use this forum to discuss Trainz and off topic stuff... its now a place for people to moan about how there game isn't working, and won't load because of the 50+ gb of content they have, and somehow its aurans fault that Trainz can't cope with tens of 1000's of different items and half of which you don't know you had....

[/rant]

anyway what i'm saying is, since facebook and all those before I guess people just forgot common courtesy. Seriously if you passed someone in the street who was having a conversation in public, much like we do on forums... about how railworks is better at this and blah blah blah you wouldn't get up in their face would you? you wouldn't call them names? you defiantly wouldn't start shouting at them because of their opinion?

Just my 2pence worth...

NNPW

Eaglefan9727 said:

While I am a newbie to the Trainz community. I am not a newbie to train sims as I have been part of the MSTS community for 4 + years. I can say that a couple people have been very helpful to me in the Trainz community. I wont mention their names as they know who they are. Ive also had a couple people get pissed at me for asking them politely about asking "What route is it" via PM messages as I was interested in getting the name of the route and trying it out. Ive even had a couple people claim that I was a "Gimmie pig", But I am far from being one of those type of people. Do I hope to create a route for Trainz at some point like I did with MSTS? I hope so at some point, But right now I just cant be certain. I know two things for certain is that the route would be a fantasy route like the Rattlesnake Desert route was for MSTS and I wont be starting a route until I get Trainz 12 which will be late this year.

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I've never seen you as a gimme pig, but one who has asked some great questions. Like how do you go about building a route! That was one of the biggest questions that people ask all the time, but you got the creative juices going and suggestions from lots of "old timers" here.

Also remember the old saying. The only question that is a dumb question is on that's not asked. Many times, there are several people wanting the answer to the same question, and if you ask, then everyone benefits.

Now there is no need to not start working on a route TS2010 while holding out for TS12. Your route will import fine. I was able to bring my very old route, dating back to 2004 into TS12. It was started in early 2004 with TRS2004 before the first SP came out. It has gone through a few variations, but there are still original sections in there even in the latest version.

Anyway, my few pennies in here. The forums have changed since the early days. Perhaps it's because we no longer have people like John Banks, Greg, and Lance poking their noses in like in the early days. Yes, we know they've headed on to bigger projects at other companies, and Auran/N3V has matured. These guys would poke in and add to the frey, and help us out too when we'd go off track and start waffling. Other times too they would waffle along with us, and give us some input on the direction of the company. When companies go beyond this development stage however, this is when they change, and sadly so did Auran. This big change happened just about the time of the Fury failure that nearly cost us the company. During these times a lot of people left, were laid off, or were let go due to the financial changes that took place. The other big change in the forum feelngs happened in 2006 with the big forum crash. After that, nothing was quite the same. It was like someone had taken the steam out of the community.

The other thing too is there is a new group of noobs. These people, fall into two categories. Those that are the gimme-pigs and instant gratification seekers. This is a new generation of kids that feel that they can get everything for free off the net, and everything has to work right off. Unfortunately for them, Trainz is not like that. For others, such as myself, this is like a giant model railroad, as someone else here said. There's that level of creativity, and tinkering, creative thinking, and planning that goes into making things happen.

And then there are those that come here to whine and stirr up the works. Many of these noobs are young, and I've seen the same crowd in other forums as well. These guys have no real point of being there, other than acting like idiots, and getting everyone's knicker in a knot. They feel that they can hide behind the IP address with an anonymous name, and not be called on the carpet. To them being banned from a forum is an honor, and not a mark of shame.

The thing is, the core group, which I hopefully will stay here for some time, can absorb those that want to learn and ask all the questions they want, and kick the others out for being rude. By welcoming in those that show the initiative to move on and mature, this new generation can help keep the community growing and moving forward.

John

Excellent summation John.

Trainz has never been my "majority" sim but I do use it and take an interest in what is happening around it including occasional contributions to this forum.

Second what you say about Greg Lane and John Banks etc. It felt as though we were personally involved with the project and there is a definite feeling these days it is all just a business. I guess it was back then, too, but Greg was never afraid to share his vision even if the aspirations far exceeded the achievable.

Then there's memorable characters like Barney aka the "SFC" (sinister fat controller) who was bereft when his post count accumulated enough to lose his Krokodil avatar for the yellow and red bonbon. His wisdom on these boards is sorely missed and I do hope that he is still keeping well. Or Bruce "3801" Kennewell, who gave us the phrase - "Auran, a place where dreams come true".

However rest assured it's not just here things have changed, it's exactly the same on other boards that I frequent. There does seem to be less of a community spirit and more "gimmie", more "take". Guess it's just a sign of the times as the cellphone-texting/Farcebook/Tweetering/Happy slapping generation comes of age.