[quote name='darthbudge']This.
What is great about CAG is great atmosphere and cool community. If I want super strict professionals only professional reviews for professional people who want things professionally reviewed, I will go to NeoGAF or another lame ass site like that.[/quote]
Since I joined CAG it seems like this site has degenerated into more or less a Gamefaqs-esque shell of it's former self, with sprinklings of Slick Deals and Fat Wallet type behavior thrown in for good measure.
I mean, you have some users buying up assloads of games, then plunking them on their TL's at 3-5x what they paid before 'shipping, something for gas and a big chunk for "my time" ', you have people insulting the shit out of each other and various acts of trolling, flame baiting, etc, etc, etc.
There are still great CAG's to be found on here if you look hard enough, but lately with the new infraction system, many have been forced to walk on eggshells lest they say something that's bannable.
Let's look at this site for what it is really...it's Cheapy's site, we're just registered here. He could ban us all tomorrow if he wanted to for whatever reason. But this site is also a money maker for Cheapy and without us using the affiliate links, how would he make money without click throughs and the like?
It's really a symbiotic relationship all CAG's have with the site. Sure, we could go to SD or FW and find some of the same deals or we could run all over creation in our own areas and try to snap up deals before other people do, wasting tons of gas in the process on what may or may not get us the deals.
To sum this all up: Without CAG, some of us would still go on but have to waste ALOT more money checking for deals that other members may help us out on from time to time. The site has it's bad members, but we do all somehow seem to get along like a big, dysfunctional gaming family. However, the site has become more about 'me me me' attitude lately if you ask me, but I steer clear of those users.
I know I would've never found many of the deals I have without this site, so I'm thankful to still be here.