Official forums tied to an account are a must. If they don't give us that, we will have to live with it but it's a shortage and speaks poorly of Mythic.

Originally posted by altairzq

Official forums tied to an account are a must. If they don't give us that, we will have to live with it but it's a shortage and speaks poorly of Mythic.

Forums are hardly needed on any level. DAoC, as has been said numerous times, has done fine with no official forums, as has FFXI, No UO Forums either to my knowledge. Considering FFXi has a constant 500k+ playerbase, not having forums must not speak that poorly of them.

SoE forums and Blizz forums both fail to give anything to the customer any faster then the FFXI devs posting on Alla or KillingIfrit, and usually those sites have informationon EQ1/2 or WoW, leaked or otherwise, faster then the official forums will acknowledge, generally days if not weeks in advance.

Forums are not a needed thing, since the internet has tons of fansites, and as Mythic has already showed in WARs development, they tend to communicate just fine on the more popular and mainstream sites(which will more then likely include such big names like Allakhazam after release).

Originally posted by kefkah

My opinion (as I thought this thread could use just one or two more) is that official forums are needed as a pseudo check and balance. Yes, I completely agree that forums official or non are dramafests with conspiracies, e-feelings and complete oversue of the words noob, fanboi and <3. It goes both ways. But as I too have played quite a few mmo's in my time on this mudball and in my experience, official forums are a necessary evil.

1. They allow for a single meeting point to gather information or to find other communities on the same subject. Every single mmo I have ever played on that had multiple servers had a forum that related to information specific to that server. It was a place to learn about each other when not in game or to read about events (nonguild related) while afk. Was it necessary to enjoy the game? Nope. But it enhanced the experience and the feeling of belonging to a community.

This can be done unoffcially as well but then - who is considere the true source of this knowledge? Who do you turn to? Even at best, this will still divide the knowledge and information to multiple locations thus losing its effectiveness to to lost percentages of viewers or the lost time that it takes to gather all of the pieces of it together to get the true picture.

 

2. Official forums hold the company accountable. Here is why - when people post in mass about issues on official boards - they are more likely to be addressed. It become a pimple on their public face. True you could use the email addresses or the phone lines but that allows the battle to be minimalized into an individual cause. One on one - the communities needs will be minimalized. Which is more effective - a glaring 20 page thread about an issue or Bob, the tech support guy telling his boss - "Yeah I had a few calls about this one issue."

And more importantly - it provides an out for a company. Since the forums are unofficial and numerous - the devs and staff are not responsible for anything posted there and are under no obligation to read them. "Got issues? How are we supposed to know? We do not actively read this forum..."

 

Now as time constricts me from writing much more - I understand those of you who have played under these conditions before - have no issue with the lack of an official forum. You are commited to the game and in all - your opinions and likes and dislikes are yours and thus nothing allows me to criticize you for them. I would be the equivalent of me arguing with you about your favorite food.

However, as someone who is actively seeking an mmo that I can commit myself to and someone who has seen the gambit and been burned a few times - the reasons given behind not housing an official forums have me concerned enough to even post in this thread. The game looks interesting enough and I hope it does give WoW a run for its money. Competition makes things better for all of us but I digress you aren't reading this to hear me talk about that.

In summary, official forums are a necessary evil for consolidated and timely information. Yes google is quick but try looking for antarian rangers sometime on the web. You may lose about 1/2 an houror more weeding through the deadwood and spam sites to get the details that you are looking for.

Will the game function without one? Yepper. Will the hardcore fans still play it? You bet! But when going for WoW like numbers - a company must be willing to accomodate a little bit of everything for everyone. But isolating certain types of players - there is one more obstacle in your path to try and take the king down.

That sums it up.

It would not stop me from trying the game but for those trying to downplay it as if it is not a big deal they need to reconsider.  For this game to move beyond being a niche game it has to go that extra mile.

No official forum = not going that extra mile.

The year is 2008 and DAOC is considered an OLD game.  The internet has grown significantly since then so lets put that arguement to rest.

The fact that  there are games that do NOT require a monthly subscription but still have have official forums speaks volumes about the importance of them.

Yeh... with Kefkah's post, could could we now let this thread die? :)

We've heard about every individual opinion on the matter, it's been discussed by others and I think about everyone knows the no forum decision by now. If there's anything left to say I'm surprised :)

Actually I have something to say and it has most likely been said in some way already. I would love to see an official forum. Yes they would have to deal with some idiots, a few posts in this one thread are good examples, but the way to deal with them is pretty simple. I favor the Zero Tolerance approach. You get abusive to a CSR, Mod, or anyone else that works to maintain the game and forum you get smacked with the ban stick. Quick, simple, and permanent.

Official forums would have been a nice place for would-be future subscriber to find out the game was delayed instead of having to find out on a third party fan site.

Originally posted by Paragus1

Official forums would have been a nice place for would-be future subscriber to find out the game was delayed instead of having to find out on a third party fan site.

Info is up on warhammeronline.com :P

Originally posted by golembane

 

Originally posted by altairzq

Official forums tied to an account are a must. If they don't give us that, we will have to live with it but it's a shortage and speaks poorly of Mythic.

Forums are hardly needed on any level. DAoC, as has been said numerous times, has done fine with no official forums, as has FFXI, No UO Forums either to my knowledge. Considering FFXi has a constant 500k+ playerbase, not having forums must not speak that poorly of them.

 

SoE forums and Blizz forums both fail to give anything to the customer any faster then the FFXI devs posting on Alla or KillingIfrit, and usually those sites have informationon EQ1/2 or WoW, leaked or otherwise, faster then the official forums will acknowledge, generally days if not weeks in advance.

Forums are not a needed thing, since the internet has tons of fansites, and as Mythic has already showed in WARs development, they tend to communicate just fine on the more popular and mainstream sites(which will more then likely include such big names like Allakhazam after release).

Yes they are needed. If only to give your project a solid feeling and to show your compromise towards the people that play your game.

Lots of new info released today, and Warhammer Alliance apparently can't handle the load! It's been nearly impossible to get into the site.

I think Warhammer Alliance is hosted by Curse Gaming. I also notice that    war.curse.com is also having issues.

I wonder what kinds of servers the other fansites have?

A simple cost vs benefit analysis will show that the cost to maintain an official forum strongly outweighs the benefit.

It is not an issue of the customer being ignored, because they wont be. There are other avenues for player feedback and yes fan sites will also be used. I'm sure the fan sites love this decision too as it will give them a community.

I really don't see what all the fuss is about. If you can't wrap your mind around why a company might be opposed to maintaining an official forum, then I hope you choose to play another game.

Originally posted by ItalWHOP

A simple cost vs benefit analysis will show that the cost to maintain an official forum strongly outweighs the benefit.

 

It is not an issue of the customer being ignored, because they wont be. There are other avenues for player feedback and yes fan sites will also be used. I'm sure the fan sites love this decision too as it will give them a community.

 

I really don't see what all the fuss is about. If you can't wrap your mind around why a company might be opposed to maintaining an official forum, then I hope you choose to play another game.

Subscription based games have to go that extra mile IMVHO or else we as customers lose in the end. 

Originally posted by Hoplites

 

The cost to maintain an official forum outweighs the benefit?  Explain to me then why non subscription games feel that the benefits of having an official forum outweighs the costs? 

 

Subscription based games have to go that extra mile IMVHO or else we as customers lose in the end. 

The customers lose in the end? I think you're being a bit over the top.

There is no real benefit to the company to host a forum. Anything the forum can provide (feedback) can be obtained through other channels or fan site forums. The cost is having to maintain as well as moderate said forum. As they have a responsibility to now make sure content they are hosting does not break things such as laws or go against what they would like to represent as a company (lets say hate here).

As a customer, I am sure one or two fansites will be able to accomodate whatever you feel a forum provides you. I mean I'm sure you'll need a place to trash talk thine enemy or read a bunch of troll posts. You'll get your fix, don't worry.