I totally agree. I know there's a problem where some sub-forums are so quiet that you can't get help there and thus you need to post in in general, but please guys: make a thread in the sub-forum afterwards and re-post the problem and possible solutions. The search engine for this forum is basically useless (and sometimes outside engines can't find everything) and having a decent reference point for troubleshooting stuff is really important to the community.

(must admit - did not read OP)

I think the answer to the question is - Play games?

Yeah, that IS a good answer!!!! lol

Yep, I think this is by far the better solution than the "Gaming Questions" thread, sorry Cose. I think even with the creation of such a thread, there will still be people who will just make an individual thread to ask about their gaming question. And when that happens, eventually the Gaming Question thread gets buried and no one checks it anymore until someone necros it. So yeah, it'd be much better if everyone just makes it a habit to crosspost the answer or solution to their gaming questions on their respective games' sub-forums as well. Or maybe have the mods do it lol. But then again, it'd be much more preferable if the users do it themselves imo.

The vast majority of GOG users don't use the forums. If they have problems with games they either go directly to PCGamingWiki or they ask people in communities outside of the GOG forums. This includes the official channels of the developers or publishers. For example the official Cyberpunk 2077 forum (as part of the CD Projekt Red forum) has more activity than GOG's forum for the game. For older games there are lots of retro communities out there.

I am also not surprised by the low activity in the game forums. I skimmed through one game forums today and it took me less than 5 minutes to find a thread where people attack each other.

Yeah, I do that, too. I mean, sometimes tell someone to go post in the game-specific subforum. It's because I lose my patience when I come across lazy forum users that need help but can't be bothered to provide even the slightest bit of context. Far too often I see new topics like this:

topic: NEED HEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!
user: my friggin' gAme crashes when I tickle the thingamabob!!!!111
me: Can you please tell us which game you are talking about?
user: BM2
me: What does that mean?
user: <crickets>
me: .........

Sorry, but not sorry. ;-)

edit: That's not directed at you, OFG. I don't think I ever asked you to post in the Gothic forum instead, right? :-D

It really depends on the specific game forum. I've had some really good discussions on some of them, yet on the forum for a certain well-known WRPG series, many users were more hostile to me (including one in particular).

Worth noting that the latter case was some time ago, and I'm pretty sure that particular user (who I'm choosing not to name here) isn't active anymore.

It really depends.

Not using game-specific forums for game-specific discussions because others don't is just a vicious cycle... And, as was already pointed out, solutions to game-specific issues quickly get buried in the general forum and will likely just get repeated whenever someone else encounters them after some time.
So I'd go for a tiered approach. First, search in the game-specific forum. If no solution shows up or it no longer applies, ask in the game-specific forum. If no solution is offered there in a pretty long time or it's an urgent matter that you really need an answer for quickly, then go with that other suggestion already made, post in the general forum a quick overview and a link to your topic on the game-specific forum, but just as a means to get the attention of way more users who might know what to do, stressing that the discussion should take place in that game-specific thread instead.

This interesting, because, yes, I rarely peruse game forums unless I have a question, so it may be possible that I (or those like me) may never see any given question, even if we have the answer.

I own Two Worlds and I plan on playing it at some point. If you have posted one or more threads with spoilers in the very title, then I request you delete them. I do my damndest to remain ignorant of all games so I can be completely blind when I play them, and thus get the most joy out of plot twists and surprises. I don't read gaming magazines or gaming articles or watch gaming videos or read random gaming threads if I think there's any chance they might have spoilers in them for any game I might one day own/play. Going in to a new game blind is VERY important to me.

Posting spoilers is one of the very few things gamers can do that pisses me off, and to put them in the very thread title??? I appreciate your apology but at the same time I don't. Fortunately I haven't come across any threads here at gog that have had spoilers in them, but I know I would be royally pissed if I did... on any forum. I mean, that's not just an "oopsie"... that's a total indifference to other gamers.

I politely request that anyone who's started threads with spoilers in the very title delete them. I would even request blues edit or delete threads like that. Just because a game is old doesn't mean it's fine to blurt out major spoilers. I'd think us being here on an old game forum, that would be known to all of us and would go without saying. Posting spoilers IN a thread is fine... especially since gog has refused to add spoilers tags in all the years I've been here, but in the thread title, showing up on gog AND google searches??? NOT cool !!

It probably depends on the popularity of a game. In the quiet forums you don't often see problematic posts. Some forums for more popular games are a bad experience though. There are also several old insults and attacks. A few minutes ago I skimmed through another forum for a popular game on GOG and the second non-stickied thread was already problematic. In other threads on the first page I also saw personal attacks. I wouldn't like to ask for help there.

Well, I apologize to you as well. I too don't like spoilers, so it's really bad that I'm guilty.

But I don't know how to delete a thread (if I did I would have made use of it LOTS of times). And as far as the thread title is concerned, if you follow the link in my post that you quoted, the Title of the Thread is something like "I Just Finished Two Worlds" or something like that. I'm not seeing that in and of itself as a spoiler. However, there are spoilers in my posts in the thread. Would you like me to edit them out?

I haven't clicked any links since the topic was spoilers. If your threads don't have spoilers in the title then I'm fine with it. Thread titles appear in google searches, possibly ruining someone's experience before they even own a game, just by looking it up. It's only spoilers in titles I care about, spoilers in threads themselves are fine.

I like this idea, at least this would give more visibility to the game subforums. We could even link to threads made by other people that need an answer.