Originally posted by JuJutsu

Originally posted by catplay

So ANET can't afford a forum? Why?

I mean.. every serious company can, but not them? I guess they do not like peoples to come and said what they do not like?

What do you think?

Because their player base is too cheap to pay subscriptions?

Still bothers you that a 'AAA' game isn't screwing over its fans with a sub, eh?  Poor little fella.  The world is moving on and leaving you behind.

/waves

Originally posted by MMOarQQ

There's no feedback posted on forums that couldn't be passed on more effectively through an email to the developer.

It'd be more honest to admit that we want our rants and opinions to be seen by others, more than anything else.

 

As a person who reads through 125-200 emails a day as part of his job I assure you, emails to Developers would not be the most efficent means of commication, no one would get any work done.

As to Darkpony's concern/desire for Realm specific forums to help coordinate activites, I recall back in the day the VNBoards became the defacto DAOC "official" forums which functioned as well as any I've see sponsored by a company, including some reasonable moderation.

So it is possible for a non offical site to fulfill the role, but probably needs to be affiliated with a major gaming website rather than a typical fansite.

A.net did not have any forums for GW1. They relied on the fan forums and were heavily involved with them. I guess they are doing the same thing. Not a big deal but not to the QQ'ers out there.

Originally posted by Unlight

Originally posted by JuJutsu

Originally posted by catplay

So ANET can't afford a forum? Why?

I mean.. every serious company can, but not them? I guess they do not like peoples to come and said what they do not like?

What do you think?

Because their player base is too cheap to pay subscriptions?

Still bothers you that a 'AAA' game isn't screwing over its fans with a sub, eh?  Poor little fella.  The world is moving on and leaving you behind.

/waves

Remains to be seen if GW2 will really be a full featured MMORPG in line with most modern titles today.

If it is, then the entire industry may undergo a revolution in payment structures.

But we don't know yet.

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by MMOarQQ

There's no feedback posted on forums that couldn't be passed on more effectively through an email to the developer.

It'd be more honest to admit that we want our rants and opinions to be seen by others, more than anything else.

 

As a person who reads through 125-200 emails a day as part of his job I assure you, emails to Developers would not be the most efficent means of commication, no one would get any work done.

 

I'm inclined to believe that only legitimate, and less superfluous "bitching" would be sent, as opposed to forum feedback which is 90% motivated by peer reaction.

Paying a couple of people to efficiently filter email feedback would be cheaper as well.

Originally posted by MMOarQQ

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by MMOarQQ

There's no feedback posted on forums that couldn't be passed on more effectively through an email to the developer.

It'd be more honest to admit that we want our rants and opinions to be seen by others, more than anything else.

 

As a person who reads through 125-200 emails a day as part of his job I assure you, emails to Developers would not be the most efficent means of commication, no one would get any work done.

 

I'm inclined to believe that only legitimate, and less superfluous "bitching" would be sent, as opposed to forum feedback which is 90% motivated by peer reaction.

Paying a couple of people to efficiently filter email feedback would be cheaper as well.

That's what I need, someone to filter all my emails for me.

Year's ago we used to have people who would have done this, they were called Admin assistants.

But somewhere along the way someone decided it was better to let them all go and let us highly paid tech people spend our time doing administrative duties.  Go figure.

But you are correct, a properly set up feedback mechanism would likely be a better way to "obtain the pulse" of the user base and far more efficient than reading through forums.

Face it, company sponsored forums are a bonus feature done by companies for the benefit of their customers, and not really a tool that benefits them all that much.

And the reality is, GW2 does not have a sub, so some of the "nice to have" amenities such as forums (and perhaps some of the very necessary things such as good customer service/ in game support) might be lacking under this B2P payment model

They don't need an official forum, they have guru. Guru has always been the 'official' forum for guild wars.

Also, official forums are crap. It's the first target for trolls, spammers, and general idiots. So using GW2Guru as a quasi-official forum is far better. Idiots don't sign up for it because they don't know it's 'official', and arenanet gets all the feedback they need.

The arenanet devs also post directly on guru on a regular basis.

Besides, it's a crap ton of work to go through all the useless junk you monkeys would post there. I wouldn't want to manage those forums either!  

Originally posted by catplay

 

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Originally posted by makkaal

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Originally posted by ariboersma

[...] and Anet Devs frequent GW2 guru.

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This. As far as I'm concerned, they don't need one. Every company of that size has a whole department entirely devoted to marketing, including customer feedback that scan various forums, youtube, reddit and what have you on a regular basis, which in my eyes is a LOT more significant and reliable than giving fanboys a place to rant about mostly irrelevant or misunderstood stuff.

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I am talking about OFFICIAL forum, I dont care about random internet web sites and what some devs visit. One dev do not represent a company.

Tell that to DICE, they have an official forum and NEVER use it or read from it, its an abandoned wasteland of angry gamers.

Originally posted by lathaan

Not having a 'forum' would raise their reputation even more. Official forums are the bane of todays mmo's.

Or a obvious way of giving feedback to a sub par game or reporting in game bugs. Just because TOR got a new a-hole ripped on theirs does not mean all those people are wrong. Not to mention Rift got a new a-hole ripped also when Gersch made Pyros into Bright pyros.

btw if you railed agaisnt Bioware for not having a search feature on their website then you should rail against ArenaNET for not having one. MMORPG community hypocirsy #2 so far.

I miss the VN days... Mark Jacobs drama, Sanya Weathers drama etc.. etc..

I wish VN would make a comeback... Maybe GW2 can do that?

Originally posted by adam_nox

official forums are the difference between a serious mmo and a game.  It's not optional, if they think it is, they are being stupid.

Finally a game where the retards might stay away? Ooh yes please. No really I hope every mong posting here saying it makes them unprofessional stays the fuck away.

If anything, I'd say hosting, allowing, communitcating to; the basement dwelling homopoboc xenophobic vile that is generally generated on a games official forums is unprofessional. Blooy unprofessional at that.

A pro team would think of a better system, like customer support tools and a wiki, maybe some liberal use of social media that both gets answers out there and spreads the word? Oh look, thats what GW2 has done. Why reinvent the wheel, round cannot get any rounder you know.

Anyway, avoid this game because they chose FUN over serious. You know, fun, like games used to be.

No official forums for a game that is based on social activities and social coordination?  Seriously?

My only guess is maybe they have an in-game feature that replaces it?  Or maybe some facebook integration or something?

Originally posted by Wicoa

Games these days need an official forum in the case of GW2 though I dont mind so much because there is no subscription.  However I do not play games (with a sub) that do not have official forums + server specific forums for community integration and organisation.

It is essential in today's social media blabla.

Lets look at the top mmorpgs number wise right now in the west

WoW - Forums + Server Forums

Lotro - Forums + Server Forums

EvE - Forums 1 Shard

Heck Ill chuck in a midranged oldie: city of heroes - Forums + Server Forums.

These are the top and the most successful.

How about we add DAOC to your list... no official forum

There are others, even excluding WAR(since it is still mythic), but this is a perfect example... Anyone want to claim that the community in DAOC would have been better with official forums?

Lets take a different perspective.

Forums exist as a place for players to socialize when not in-game. With the extended experience and other, similar, features ArenaNet is trying to keep players connected and interacting IN-GAME even when not in-game. 

You also can't (legitimately) use the argument that official forums are necessary to get official info from Arenanet, as most devs lock announcements, etc. and Arenanet makes all their official announcements through twitter, their web-site, etc. Arenanet also interacts with their community all over the place, as well as a strong board presences on gw2guru(as has been mentioned several times).

Originally posted by gainesvilleg

No official forums for a game that is based on social activities and social coordination?  Seriously?

My only guess is maybe they have an in-game feature that replaces it?  Or maybe some facebook integration or something?

They have out of game in-game features... look up the GW2 extended experience.

You will be able to interact with people in-game, manage your auctions on the marketplace, be the eye-in-the-sky for your raids, etc... All from your phone or web browser. I'm sure there will be plenty of other features too, those are just the ones I know off the top of my head.

I remember when WAR didn't have a forum.  It took a while but EA finally caved in.

yeah. they really don't need a forum. GW1 worked fine without one, GW2 can do the same. people have this weird idea that forums are somehow necessary, but all forums do is allow people to "interact" outside of the gamespace. i think the hope behind GW2 is that the same things that makes players rush off to the forums to do, the players will just be able to do in game. i dunno. personally i like the no official forums thing. that way, at the very least, anet doesn't have to spend resources patrolling it. and if they want our opinions they can get it through ny number of other avenues.

Originally posted by catplay

So ANET can't afford a forum? Why?

I mean.. every serious company can, but not them? I guess they do not like peoples to come and said what they do not like?

What do you think?

Don't really care. I rarely visit the official forum anyways, only time it did that frequently was when I played AoC to find out quickfixes for all the bloody bugs.

Besides, without monthly fees I can live with stuff like this.

Some time ago forums had a purpose of mature posters, in todays world forums are ruled by trolls, hate and flamers.

I say they are doing a good job and dont need a forum.

I like Official Forums. Does that mean they need it to be official? Nope.

Why Anet doesn't need a forum.

Anet doesn't need a forum because forums allow for discussion/boasting/trolling/flaming. There is a system already in place where customers can provide feedback, it's called the "Support" link on the NCsoft website. In there you may voice your concerns and send it directly to Anet.

Anet has proven that they can provide AAA service without the use of a forum. GW1 is a prime example of that. The game is still be updated regularly and events are constantly happening. They don't have a forum.

Forums are for people that want to harrass/mame/dismember other members of the community ingame and out of game. Most of the time they are so heavily moderated you can't get a true word out anyway. Save your money Anet, don't pay someone to babysit the trolls on the forums.

/nb4