To address the issue of content, or lack thereof, in The Game Room, isn’t it possible that the current muddle has a deleterious effect? Perhaps a more organized approach to the currently chaotic layout of these quite disparate topics would encourage more traffic to various video-game, sports, what-have-you threads. I like the notion of reduced clutter and a more focused presentation of the diverse topics included there.
A sub forum for thread games ( mafia, speak to me, RPGs etc) would ease clutter. I don’t see enough traffic to warrant splitting video games, any other games and sport into separate forums or sub forums.
One potential problem of dividing threads into too many forums is that you may end up with less participation in the various threads. I drop into the game room to keep an eye out for any video game discussions, and then have engaged in some sports and a couple of thread games that caught my eye, thus come back more often and see other threads I read. The more casual participation you get from people dropping into threads may not be the meat of the discussion you get from the people there for a sports discussion, but if sports or video games are off on their own, you may end up with a whole lot less traffic from people not actively seeking out a sports discussion.
Sports and video games don’t have enough content to spin off their own forums. Having a bunch of low-thread niche forums is ultimately a negative for the board. So yes, the game room is cluttered with having fairly disparate topics, but it doesn’t have so much content that it’s unmanageable.
However, the thread games dominate forums by their nature. They require a lot of posting and always stay near the top. A few people post in them… a lot, and the majority of people have no interest in them, but constantly see them at the top, and with a hundred pages each. They are essentially their own separate thing on the board.
So splitting off sports or games is, while logical in terms of thinking about categories, too narrow to be good for the board at this time. But splitting off thread games would bring all the people interested in thread games there, and get rid of the constantly to-the-top clutter for everyone else. So if there’s going to be any change, there should be a sub-forum for all thread games.
Just another voice chiming in that thread games are really the problem here. I tend to think whatever minor benefit you get from having people who aren’t interested in sports or video games in the Game Room is more than offset by the fact that almost by definition every sports or video game thread is going to be 5-10 threads deep at all times. Basically, the sports/video game fans aren’t any more interested in having thread games around than the MPSIMS die-hards were, there’s just fewer of us. Which does make the forum traffic balance a little easier, so I dunno…
Regarding the number of non-thread games, I agree that their abundance in TGR has a chilling effect on other discussions. I know I don’t frequent TGR as much as I’d like to because it’s hard to find the other threads among all the thread games.
Anyway, it seems like a clear majority of you folks think it’s a good idea to give the thread games their own forum. Seems like a good step. Anyone know how I can formally propose it to the Powers That Be? Do do they prefer PMs? Prayers? Bribes?
I think you already have via this very thread. But a little bribery never hurts anything. I read somewhere else around here that chocolate is a favored form of currency. Let’s get someone a Whitman’s Sampler. 
Bah! This is why I said splitting off the The Game Room was a mistake to begin with! As was splitting off Cafe Society, which I still think of as “the new forum.” Much as many people feel about climbing down out of the trees, I’m still not convinced it was a good idea to move beyond two categories: [ul]
[li]Cecil’s columns[/li][li]Everything else[/li][li]A list does need three items after all![/li][/ul]
Now get off my virtual lawn!
I don’t think it’s necessary to break the Game Room up any further. Even though I generally ignore the thread games, they don’t keep me from finding any of the threads that I am interested in. As much as some posters express negative interest in Video Game and Sports threads, these categories really don’t need sub or separate forums.
Bah. We need fewer forums, not more of them. The continued fragmentation and isolation of members will eventually lead to every group getting their own little niche area, never interacting with the rest of the board. Just like real life, and that is a Very Bad Thing.
Don’t like thread games? then post in other threads more often so they stay at the top of the list. Otherwise, (graphic and warnable statement of acute disinterest in your opinions.) 
I’m not sure how serious your final suggestion is, but just in case: as has been pointed out, thread games generate lots more posts by their very nature. It would not be possible for other threads to compete with this without effectively morphing them into thread games. Having said that, I have some sympathy with your first point.
Would be nice to have a formal response from TPTB - Reply, I would suggest sending them a PM or e-mail.
OK, I’ll look into it.
The Game Room **must **be split up - I’m a gamer, it’s one of my main hobbies, but this forum just does not work remotely at the moment - I just ignore the whole thing mostly.
I would suggest removing video/computer gaming first to it’s own sub-forum, then all other board games, card games etc into a physical games sub-forum, leaving word games, thread games etc for a forum called A Bit of Funor something.
The game room is not cluttered, and the proposed “solutions” would therefore not improve anything. If you can’t find enough of the sort of threads you like in there, then that’s just because the threads you like just don’t exist, and re-organizing them won’t change that.
Others in this very thread disagree with you.
What makes games so special they need to be split into different forums? Look at GQ - it has questions about everything under the sun, yet people still manage to find stuff there. The same arguments being made about games could be made about splitting GQ into science, automotive , computer, history, etc. Why not separate “relationships”, “medical”, and “legal” forums under IMHO?
Every forum has a bunch of posts that are of no interest to particular people. Just skip those.
What makes elections, the arts, and {games+sports+game threads} so special that they needed to be split into different forums? By creating Elections, Cafe Society, and the existing Game Room, the admins have demonstrated that they disagree with “people can find whatever they want anywhere”.
At the moment 21 of the top 25 threads in the Game Room are game-playing threads. They have hundreds to thousands of posts each and get bumped every few minutes. Contra Chronos, The Game Room is the very definition of cluttered, if you are looking for either sports or video-game threads.
This is a pretty dead time of the year for sports threads. The NFL, NBA and NHL are all in their offseasons, and there is no World Cup or Olympics going on.
Look, if we can have an Election Forum, we can sure as hell break down the game room into three entities.
I’m not following the logic that a forum must have X amount of threads in it to justify its existence. I’ve seen the Election Forums, in a non election season, have as little as 6 or 7 threads in it.
And some agree.
And the oldest thread on the first page of the Game Room forum hasn’t been updated in over two weeks. So threads aren’t being pushed off–all the Game Room threads that are active are on the first page. Splitting the forum into smaller ones won’t result in a larger number of active threads.
Not all front-page real estate is equal. The non-gameplay threads get bumped out of the prime top spots within minutes.