Mythic's Mark Jacobs has posted an introduction to the Warhammer Online official forums, giving insight into what form the forums will take and why they changed their stance on official forums.

So, I’m pleased to announce that in the next few months Mythic will be hosting, for the first time, its own Official Forums for one of its games. Now, I expect that some (okay, a lot) of you are wondering what form these forums will take and why, after so many years of being rather vocal against OFs, are we doing them now. I hope to answer both of these questions here today.

First, as to the form the forums will take, I think it is safe to say that our Community Management team has the mandate to create and moderate the best game forums for any MMO. We have spent a lot of time both looking at other games’ support forums and talking about how we can do even better. Our forums will have all the expected niceties as well as our own twist on things. We will also have only full and part-time paid experienced moderators on the forums who will be part of the Mythic team. The forums will be laid out in an easy to access manner, low on the graphics/flash nonsense and we will not be running ads of any kind on the forums. We will have a code of conduct on the forums which the moderators will enforce but this code will not be there to stifle debate but to ensure that name-calling, insults, threats, etc. whether to Mythic, EA, other developers and other players will not be tolerated. This is a similar policy to the one we had with our beta forums and similar to that found on some other forums.

Read more here.

I think I should grab some popcorn.... I have a feeling this is about to get good and juicy.

finally

I don't really see the point, unless it just sticks in someone's craw that the main unofficial sites are making (most likely tiny amounts of) revenue off their game's popularity. warhammeralliance.com feels like an official forum and seems to have been well and fairly moderated. The forums here are always my second stop on Warhammer and offer their own value to discussions of the game.

Of course, running your own forum allows you to put your own spin on things and delete topics of criticism you don't like, so maybe that's what it's all about?

About friggin time...

An interesting change of mind by Mark Jacobs.  I read his post and really don't have a clear idea as to why he thinks they need an official forum.

As for being able to delete posts critical of the game/company, I don't think that ability, even if they use it (and I don't think they will), would be worth the amount of money they will be spending to run the forums the way he described them.  Any critical posts they deleted would just show up on WarAlliance or MMORPG followed by a scathing stream of flames.

I guess I'll just take a wait and see stance to see what it is they are hoping to achieve.

Ion

He should have started off by saying he was sorry for being wrong and to narrow minded to see the need for forums.  This is the same misguided stance they implemented with in game communication that made the game feel like one big single player game. 

While I applaud mythic for taking corrective measures it just illustrates their lack of understanding in the first place. 

 About time too.

I hate warhammerallience.com forums, it's full of crying carebares and name callers. Hopefully being managed by full-time employees it will be a bit nicer.

It's also a good way to keep the community together. Currently they are split amongst several forums trying to be the "Official Unofficial" forums.

Either way, I doubt I'll use them, I'd rather just play and not moan about everything on a forum.

I told you so. =P

I bet the first post on their forum will be a troll.  And will probably make a WoW comparison.

Seriously, the last thing the internet needs is another place for idiots to voice every inane thought that comes to their mind.  I'm already convinced mass extinction isn't a bad thing for the human race, why open another forum to confirm my notion?

- LC

Anyone else NOT in any way surprised that they pulled a Vanguard with the reversal? Or the AoC-ish double talk as to the non-reasons why they're making an official forum?

I was on the beta forums for months and that "policy" was not upheld, like Blizzards Forum.

Normally I find Mr. Jacobs to be a rational and organized speaker (albeit not a gamer), but he sounds like such an asshat in that letter. I feel bad for the folks that work with him, who are gamers if that's the way he talks to them.

Originally posted by ZDPhoenix

Normally I find Mr. Jacobs to be a rational and organized speaker (albeit not a gamer), but he sounds like such an asshat in that letter. I feel bad for the folks that work with him, who are gamers if that's the way he talks to them.

One (among many) of the reasons I quit WAR was because his condescending tone in each and every one of his letters. It always rubbed me the wrong way the way he *thinks* he knows better than everybody else and, of course, as good head honcho he will refuse to admit any errors in judgement. Next? a true realm-wide LFM panel. They've kept their stubborn stance that zone-specific "available party" system is better and have been completely close-minded to the tried and true LFM/grouping system.

Another annoying thing was his "State of the game address" WTF?!?!? That's so preposterous and self-important that's beyond me why that game has more than 100K active subs. honestly that was my cue to leave the game -- and did.

Peace.

Welcome to 2009 Mythic!  It's about time.

 With the way he went on about it, you'd think he was revealing a new life-saving technique.

I'd be willing to bet that EA cracked the whip and reminded Jacobs that he works for them now and that Mythic better start drawing in some subscribers for this half-assed attempt. Fansites are for fans, official forums are for customers. It's a foolish company that closes their ears to customer communication.

The funniest thing i have read in a long time. Really i like war but this just reaks of desperation, and a lack of conviction.

They should be recoding not worring about forums.

Where is the 50+ pages thread on why not having official forums was bad for the game. It just shows how Mythic are out of touch, but thankfully they are learning.