Originally posted by kwai

 

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth
Baring my persional feeling on this... Lets make a poll.

 

Why the hell make a poll about it , we all know that with a forum for the community will only cause 1 thing.

Flaming , trolling , whining , bitching , racism , politics, religion ,sexism.

 

Thats what the general population without a brain does on a forum.

 

I'd vote "good thing".

I have to agree and vote "good thing" too.

Dark Age of Camelot had no official forums -- and I did not miss them at all.

On the other hand, it did have the Camelot Herald which I truly loved.  It had tons of information which included all player characters on all servers.  That was a very good thing indeed.

And, since we have a Warhammer Herald, I look forward to the same interesting information source.

There will be no shortage of Unofficial Warhammer Forums should you care to use them.

Generally, however, I find that less time spent on the message boards and more time spent playing the game is a good thing.

Don't care to be honest, in all the time i've played World of Warcraft, i very rarely ever go on the main board unless its for something important, the only sites i go in is my servers unofficial forums and my guild forums.

Hopefully what they will have one of those tech support sites(where you send in a question and you'll get a answer back from them) like NCsoft(Or PlayNC if your going by what the Eu and US site is called)and Fileplanet/ign/3fgamers(the ign group basically) has.

Originally posted by SpiritofGame

 

Generally, however, I find that less time spent on the message boards and more time spent playing the game is a good thing.

As I said, there is no shortage of fansites. Find one (or more) that is to your liking and I am sure it will add to your enjoyment of the game.

Originally posted by Trizap

1. as proven in past games, official forums are NEVER a source of good information, or a source of help or a good place to socialize, instead you find nothing but trolling, whining and flaming shooting around

2. Mythic has better things to do. They are IN THE MIDDLE OF DEVELOPING a game here, they don't have time for people spamming up boards they will never have, they are putting their money to better uses.

3. Mythic wants to preserve their vision of Warhammer, listening to the vocal, unskilled minority idiots would only mess it up.

4. Mythic has better ways of finding out what the playerbase wants, a poll is a far better idea

5. other than that? everyone who thought no official forums is a bad thing: go DIAF

thank you, thank you

I couldnt give a hoot wether there were a forum or not. I only went to the blizzard wow forum my last year in the game. Any probally in game, i sent a petition in game, and it was cleared a day or two later.

In city of heroes, if my synapse or whatever was bugged, once again. In game petition. Was usually fixed within in hour or so.

The thing is, this is Mythics idea, no amount of groping on this thread will change thier policy on leaving out a forum. If mythic doesn't want an official forum, then that means they are more than happy to travel to fansite made sites, where the sense of a community is far stronger. A majority of WAR fans use the fansites linked on the official website.

And even though whining and spammers are found on official forums, thier found on all forums. Most official forums are moderated to a certain agreeable degree.You cannot block all the spammers.

Blizzard does a very good job of listening and replying to people who whine on thier forums. The problem is , you cannot make a game perfect cause there are players who will find out always how to use part of the game to its max potential which in turn is fed into the internet teaching other players.

So wether or not they have an official forum matters not, the outcome is the same.

Lacking the balls to operate and actually use for communications and official forum. Shows me that the developers are not serious about their community and that they dont have faith in their product. True official forums are often filled with flames but in most cases that means there are problems in the game. Lack of OF also tell me that their product is going to be inferior and that they do not want a centralized place for people to whine because people like me read the actual player discussions to decide if a game is ready for purchase.

Game companies should always use their  Tech advantage to bring themselves closer to their audience. And that means having a couple guys on the payroll to keep up with the feedback they find in a central location.

Everyone seems to be pointing at Mythic as representative of not having OF being a good thing. I have to wonder if these people played the game in the first 16 months when there was nothing but problems and mass confusion and no where to go with questions or to see what the dev team was planning.

I will go for a shameless plug! We have forums up at www.totalwarhammer.com and are looking to start up a nice community centered around WAR (go figure)

Originally posted by Prankster

Lacking the balls to operate and actually use for communications and official forum. Shows me that the developers are not serious about their community and that they dont have faith in their product. True official forums are often filled with flames but in most cases that means there are problems in the game. Lack of OF also tell me that their product is going to be inferior and that they do not want a centralized place for people to whine because people like me read the actual player discussions to decide if a game is ready for purchase.

Game companies should always use their  Tech advantage to bring themselves closer to their audience. And that means having a couple guys on the payroll to keep up with the feedback they find in a central location.

Everyone seems to be pointing at Mythic as representative of not having OF being a good thing. I have to wonder if these people played the game in the first 16 months when there was nothing but problems and mass confusion and no where to go with questions or to see what the dev team was planning.

Bad thing imo.

IMO it's great!

Originally posted by wjrasmussen

IMO it's great!

less whine you  say?

Originally posted by Hellrise

Originally posted by wjrasmussen

IMO it's great!

less whine you  say?

Did I say that? Power and control for the companies.

Originally posted by Prankster

Lacking the balls to operate and actually use for communications and official forum. Shows me that the developers are not serious about their community and that they dont have faith in their product. True official forums are often filled with flames but in most cases that means there are problems in the game. Lack of OF also tell me that their product is going to be inferior and that they do not want a centralized place for people to whine because people like me read the actual player discussions to decide if a game is ready for purchase.

Game companies should always use their  Tech advantage to bring themselves closer to their audience. And that means having a couple guys on the payroll to keep up with the feedback they find in a central location.

Everyone seems to be pointing at Mythic as representative of not having OF being a good thing. I have to wonder if these people played the game in the first 16 months when there was nothing but problems and mass confusion and no where to go with questions or to see what the dev team was planning.

Name another game that invited the leaders from all the fansites out there to their HQ, let them play the game for hours, have hours of Q&A time, and the entire trip was "all-paid." 

No they sure don't care about their community at all.  hahaha.

They had no Official Forums in Camelot, and that game was far from "inferior."  There are also more than a couple of guys that keep up with the feedback they find on the fansites.  Just go to warhammeralliance and hit the DevTracker and you'll see how involved they are in the development.

Your assumptions are horribly mistaken.

It’s a good thing that Mythic has decided not to run official forums seeing there are so costly as surely they would discount the monthly subscription fee by not offering a service that most other MMO’s do..

Simply fact of the matter is, its not relevant if OF provide a good source or bad source of information as it’s a service to customers other MMO companies provide that Mythic has chosen not too.

It’s just another company trying to make money without having to provide a level of service to its paying customer base and keeping them at arms length.

I quote from Richards own words:

How in any way are we showing we don't want to listen to our community when we are providing means for the community to speak to us directly, just not official forums.

You’re not listening now about something that a lot of posters here consider irrelevant when the poll clearly shows that most are in favor of. After all, if  OF requests are ignored I would imagine anything game related will more then likely be also.

If you don’t believe the poll here, Mythic should run their own and see what information they get from it, but sorry any company telling me what’s good for me and they know better when I expect a particular level of service that other companies provide just ticks me off.

That level or arrogance to its paying customer base is deserving of a vote from my hip pocket if I'm paying the same subscription as other mainstream MMO companies who do go the extra mile of providing offical forums.

There was a really good interview with the CEO of Guild Cafe given recently on Gamasutra. He made a very good point as I see it on why Official Forums aren't really that beneficial.

www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php

To what degree do you think developers and publishers rely on outside community with MMOs?

Originally, it was more about trying to control the community by creating some in-house forums run by overworked moderators. Now it is about engaging in conversations with your players and prospective customers. Those conversations happen everywhere—on outside forums, on blogs, on places like GuildCafe. The in-house forums are a tiny minority of very dedicated players; to really grok your community you need to go outside your walls and interact with people.

Official forums are and always have been the vocal minority of a player base. To really understand your community, you need to visit these fan operated sites as more of your community uses those far more than they use any kind of official forum. Mythic has just decided that the vocal minority isn't what they want to focus on. They've also said if you don't want to play their game because they don't have official forums, that also is alright with them.

The whole aspect of a lower monthly payment with the lack of official forums is flawed. What it allows them to do is hire another programmer, or another artist, or put that money into a different system that can be of a greater benefit than some website a tiny minority of the playerbase will post on that ends up with no real discussion of any true value.

Originally posted by cewpa

It’s a good thing that Mythic has decided not to run official forums seeing there are so costly as surely they would discount the monthly subscription fee by not offering a service that most other MMO’s do..

 

Simply fact of the matter is, its not relevant if OF provide a good source or bad source of information as it’s a service to customers other MMO companies provide that Mythic has chosen not too.

 

It’s just another company trying to make money without having to provide a level of service to its paying customer base and keeping them at arms length.

 

I quote from Richards own words:

How in any way are we showing we don't want to listen to our community when we are providing means for the community to speak to us directly, just not official forums.

 

You’re not listening now about something that a lot of posters here consider irrelevant when the poll clearly shows that most are in favor of. After all, if  OF requests are ignored I would imagine anything game related will more then likely be also.

 

If you don’t believe the poll here, Mythic should run their own and see what information they get from it, but sorry any company telling me what’s good for me and they know better when I expect a particular level of service that other companies provide just ticks me off.

 

That level or arrogance to its paying customer base is deserving of a vote from my hip pocket if I'm paying the same subscription as other mainstream MMO companies who do go the extra mile of providing offical forums.

How in any way have official forums been helpful to the developers? Usually it is a small subsection of the consumer base that posts and usually it is all complaining. Cries for nerfs, buffs, class imbalance, lack of devs listening.

Yes I can see where forums are an essential part of an MMO experience. /sarcasm

The Devs have already shown they frequently visit fan sites and siphon off constructive suggestions. Lets totally forget the fact that Mythic is also helping to drive traffic to community centers which helps gather people of the same interest to resources to help them play the game better.

There is nothing you can say to justify official forums. It is a luxury with little benefit to players or the company. Just because you want an official soap box to complain on does not justify the need for it.

Originally posted by atziluth

 

Originally posted by cewpa

It’s a good thing that Mythic has decided not to run official forums seeing there are so costly as surely they would discount the monthly subscription fee by not offering a service that most other MMO’s do..

 

Simply fact of the matter is, its not relevant if OF provide a good source or bad source of information as it’s a service to customers other MMO companies provide that Mythic has chosen not too.

 

It’s just another company trying to make money without having to provide a level of service to its paying customer base and keeping them at arms length.

 

I quote from Richards own words:

How in any way are we showing we don't want to listen to our community when we are providing means for the community to speak to us directly, just not official forums.

 

You’re not listening now about something that a lot of posters here consider irrelevant when the poll clearly shows that most are in favor of. After all, if  OF requests are ignored I would imagine anything game related will more then likely be also.

 

If you don’t believe the poll here, Mythic should run their own and see what information they get from it, but sorry any company telling me what’s good for me and they know better when I expect a particular level of service that other companies provide just ticks me off.

 

That level or arrogance to its paying customer base is deserving of a vote from my hip pocket if I'm paying the same subscription as other mainstream MMO companies who do go the extra mile of providing offical forums.

Are you serious?

 

How in any way have official forums been helpful to the developers? Usually it is a small subsection of the consumer base that posts and usually it is all complaining. Cries for nerfs, buffs, class imbalance, lack of devs listening.

Yes I can see where forums are an essential part of an MMO experience. /sarcasm

The Devs have already shown they frequently visit fan sites and siphon off constructive suggestions. Lets totally forget the fact that Mythic is also helping to drive traffic to community centers which helps gather people of the same interest to resources to help them play the game better.

There is nothing you can say to justify official forums. It is a luxury with little benefit to players or the company. Just because you want an official soap box to complain on does not justify the need for it.

You missed my point, as i stated it's not relevant if the forums are helpful or not to the developers, but it is to ME as a would be paying customer and judging by the poll to others as well. It may not be to YOU as thats fair enough, but it comes down to a level of service that I expect for my dollar, if they do not wish to provide it that is their choice, but by the same token I should at lest get a discount if others provide it at the same cost.

I'm sure the game will be a success and I hope it is, but is it being unreasonable for me to ask for something that other MMO's provide as a standard level of service, thats all I am saying.

It all comes down to a choice, you say they are not needed and i respect that, and i say I would like them, can you not respect my opinon on the matter? As at this moment in time, I have no choice, if they did support and provide offical forums, you would still have the choice of not partaking in that service.

Also I forgot to mention hence the edit, who said I would use them for complaining? If you look at my post count and join date say compared to your own, you would come to the conclusion that I was one of the silent majority who on this rare occasion merely decided to voice my opinon.

Originally posted by cewpa

  

You missed my point, as i stated it's not relevant if the forums are helpful or not to the developers, but it is to ME as a would be paying customer and judging by the poll to others as well. It may not be to YOU as thats fair enough, but it comes down to a level of service that I expect for my dollar, if they do not wish to provide it that is their choice, but by the same token I should at lest get a discount if others provide it at the same cost.

I'm sure the game will be a success and I hope it is, but is it being unreasonable for me to ask for something that other MMO's provide as a standard level of service, thats all I am saying.

It all comes down to a choice, you say they are not needed and i respect that, and i say I would like them, can you not respect my opinon on the matter? As at this moment in time, I have no choice, if they did support and provide offical forums, you would still have the choice of not partaking in that service.

Also I forgot to mention hence the edit, who said I would use them for complaining? If you look at my post count and join date say compared to your own, you would come to the conclusion that I was one of the silent majority who on this rare occasion merely decided to voice my opinon.

The problem is part of your point does not make any sense.

You say that other companies provide this as part of their service that you pay for. Fair enough, but what they spend on forums comes out of every other aspect of the company. Less QA, DEV, and other resources that go into the game. To say you should get a discount is a failed argument. What they do not spend on forums will go to other aspects of the game itself.

Are you arguing that you would rather have forums then more content or bug fixes?

There is also a question of necessity. If there are 3 - 4 major sites the company participates in (forums) how is that any different then having official forums? If they make the same posts and respond to threads how is that any different other then location and moderation?

While you can argue that you would not complain, history dictates the majority of the people voting for official forums would.

Like I said you cannot give reasonable argument for official forums except selfishness. While you do have a right to be selfish it does not mean your points are correct and hiding behind consumerism does not change that fact.

edit:

As to the argument of choice. You do have a choice. WAR has arguably the most open development of any MMO to date all without official forums. If you are not going to the forums to argue then you must go to get information. Mythic has enabled the fan sites to provide more game information then most other companies. You have the choice on which sites relay that information the best and which have the most interaction with mythic and GW. This gives you more of a choice then if I had to go to the official boards to get information. You have a several tiered choice... I would only have 2 options.

The question here should not be "Why won't WAR have official forums?"

But.."Will EA/Mythic have some sort of feedback system for players to expres their concerns and the developers to respond?

Forums are the normal way to do this, but it's not impossible they will have another method.

Originally posted by terrant

The question here should not be "Why won't WAR have official forums?"

But.."Will EA/Mythic have some sort of feedback system for players to expres their concerns and the developers to respond?

Forums are the normal way to do this, but it's not impossible they will have another method.

If they use the DAoC model then yes there will be. Also they are using the fan sites for feed back so I really think this is a none issue.

Originally posted by checkthis500 I laughed when I read your first two sentences.  Are you kidding me???

Name another game that invited the leaders from all the fansites out there to their HQ, let them play the game for hours, have hours of Q&A time, and the entire trip was "all-paid." 

ArenaNet's GuildWars