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NeoGAF was always good for two things - lightning fast breaking news/leaks and absolutely hilarious threads revolving around people who were too stupid to breathe. I've also heard they had really tight communities, but I never followed the place enough to get that deep.
The place was always bad, but it got especially toxic in the last few years. Gaming side skewed so hard towards Sony that it was almost impossible to read threads involving Nintendo/Microsoft, because it would end up clogged with bullsh*t console warriors trying to kneecap each other with petty insults. Drive-by sh*t posts and mental gymnastics were the name of the game. SalesGAF and review threads were particularly vile. It was always full of overreactions to meaningless news, sh*tty hot takes and god awful gif memes. I hope I never see that f*cking Antonio Banderas gif again. Dogpiling became a real problem at some point, especially when detective GAF got on the case and blew everything out of proportion, like it always did.
All that said, it was an easy way to catch up with news or get a quick general opinion on stuff in games. The community was so huge you knew whenever news hit it'd be top thread on GAF and someone would have created a meticulous OT with all the relevant information and links available. There will never be a forum as central to games as GAF ever again and that kind of sucks.
A lot of the bigger named posters have apparently created a new forum, ResetEra, which is set to launch any day now. They've got a pretty wild set of Admins and Mods for the place, but it remains to be seen what exactly that place looks like after it launches. I think the community has splintered to a point where it'll never be as huge and all-encompassing as it once was, but it might turn out OK.
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