Interesting topic since I just happened to check this site out again after not really being here for months and posting for probably a lot longer. The main reason is, frankly, I found many of the topics "odd" and I'll leave it at that but I'm sure many can figure what I mean. I just got tired of scrolling through nonsense topics and questions.
I barely use the database and collection management either. The reason for that is that as many have noticed, collecting has gone down and I'm one of those who don't hunt anymore. The only thing I really buy are Atari homebrews and am on the pre-order list for the Collectorvision Phoenix and as such, have reacquired a few Colecovision games. Other than that, I don't really buy anything gaming related.
As for forums in general being down in use, the only forum I still frequent is Atariage and it is still running strong with lots of new threads and discussions on a daily, even hourly basis. It has a very strong user base and the site is very well supported. One of the best gaming forums IMO. For me this forum and its members are mostly younger and lean more to consoles and games that aren't of interest to me. The only other forum I used to frequent was Digit Press and that really is a pretty much dead forum and I was never a fan of Nintendo Age so that only leaves Atariage for me but I also post and follow many gaming groups on facebook.
I can't think of a way to liven it up. These things have a natural ebb and flow. It's like trying to force a conversation - it just becomes awkward and uncomfortable.
As you're probably aware, Atari was a popular platform to collect for in the late 90s to the mid 2000s and then like all popular, nostalgia-driven collecting trends it lost interest amongst most people who got into it, minus the really hardcore. I feel like this will essentially happen with the entire retro video game trend in general, which this time around seems to encompass everything from NES up to PS2 at the moment. Essentially I think discussions around the NES or Genesis will be allocated to those hardcore fans who would love these consoles no matter if 50 people liked them still or 50-million people did. This definitely seems to be the direction things are going, and I wonder what a lot of retro video game prices will look like in 4 or 5 more years, essentially 10-years since retro video game collecting really exploded as a hobby.
This decline in retro video game collecting is why I think sites like VGcollect are on the decline since they are sort of a general, catch all site rather than something a lot more focused like Atariage or NA. I personally still love this site, if for nothing else than it's great user driven catalog of games that has been my goto way to keep track of my collection for years now; I honestly can't imagine using any other site/tool for this reason. I log in here almost daily and hope for interesting threads to appear, or maybe even think of one myself, but it just hasn't been happening for a while, with many threads of late really lacking relevance to video games or just lacking potential for interesting discussion. As someone said, most of what there was to say about video games on here has been said, leaving threads like people updating others on games they've played or what they recently bought as being the most active threads on here. Beyond the threads though, I feel like people are just burnt out on high prices, lack of available deals like there used to be, or they've just lost interest and moved on in life. I know a local collector who was one of the most active people in the hobby several years ago, at least locally, and has had a few kids over the last 3 years and is now in the process of selling his collection in order to afford parenthood. These things happen and many of the people who were at the right age to start collecting back around 2012 (mid to late 20s, well paying career, disposable income) have moved onto another phase of their life were going thrifting for hours or spending hundreds of dollars on ebay for rare games is just not in the cards for them anymore, much less actually playing video games.
As for the general age of the forum users on here, I feel like most people on here probably range from mid 30s to late 40s. Atariage definitely has an older userbase though, especially now, with probably the average Atariage user being late 40s to early 60s. Nearly every Atari collector or former collector I know is in their 50s, albeit I know about 3 of them out of the hundreds of collectors I've met since I've been doing this.
