I agree with the OP 100% , maybe a game like WOW with 8 Million users can succed at not having an offical forum , But Vanguard with its small player base can not ...
you are of course are correct that I am to lazy... hmm seems like a lot of work I went through to post my opinion here and on 2 other sites as well as email both sigil and soe to express this but your right I am lazy...
How can this poster be a troll if what he said is true by your own words? I think you need to check the definition of "troll" as used in forums.
On the topic of this thread however, I don't see a need for any type of forum. As many others have stated, forums have turned into a place for people to bash and smash - not just the game but others that are not like minded. The addition of forums in no way enhances the game play of any mmorpg. Now you may counter that without forums there is no way to have your voice, as a paying customer heard but, 95% of the time a good idea is either ignored for whatever reason the company might have or lost in the flame fest that usually follows.
I think they have made the right move. Without any forums they can avoid having people who have nothing but bad things to say. Don't blame them though. Blame yourself and others - it's us who have turned forums into the bash fest it is today.
Surround yourself with positive effects and positive things are sure to follow. Surround yourself with negativity and your sure to fall.
I agree with the OP 100% , maybe a game like WOW with 8 Million users can succed at not having an offical forum , But Vanguard with its small player base can not ...
And your source for this information? Oh thats right you don't have any because it's just your guess. Move along now
I agree with the OP 100% , maybe a game like WOW with 8 Million users can succed at not having an offical forum , But Vanguard with its small player base can not ...
And your source for this information? Oh thats right you don't have any because it's just your guess. Move along now
Source ?
1: WOW 8 Million has been on ever major site accross the planet including the offical site
2: Vanguard , well I was streching the truth abit with 200k , what is it 10 Servers 5000 per server you do the math ..
3: Offical Forums are usually the easiest place to gather the infomation you need & allways have the highest posts , & yes I know many posts are just crap but that goes for every forum .. with Vanguard baning many major MMORPG sites like allakazams ect ect its going to spread the community to thin & if you think Sigil are going to keep an eye on every affilated forum you deluded , most companys have trouble keeping there 1 offical forum up to date . I can see it now on an affilated site forum {New Post} March 6 2007 , Vanguard announces new expansion release date feb 22 2007
Interviewer: So why doesn't Vanguard have official servers?
Brad: I am a happy person. So I don't like people telling me bad things, like complaints about the games I make. I especially don't like hearing those things when they are right. So, we at Sigil (read me, as always) made a decision that this is the best way for us to put our collective heads in the sand and hide from reality. If we ignore the customers, they will give up and play whatever I put in front of them like mindless lemmings. That's the Vision (tm).
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Lidane, you don't get it. The system they have now isn't "inefficient", it's just decentralized. If anything, the information is in more than one spot, and on sites that are endorsed by Sigil. Not having an official forum for you to bitch in does not make it a "niche" game, the two have nothing to do with eachother and it's a pretty big leap to come to that conclusion. You guys are falsely claiming that no forums means no information. That's just an outright lie. Infact they post very important information on their main website, and if necessary their technical support forums. The only difference is that there's no place for players to directly bitch at the developers. about unimportant things. Tell me, what possible information could you want that's important enough where you need a direct line to the developers, which isn't major game information like that which they post on their main page, or in their technical support forum? Seriously, I'd love to knowwhat kinda super important stuff requires an official forum, which you can't get from simply looking at one of the many affiliated sites. I mean, it's not like you get charged for each page you view on the internet. It takes about as much time to do a quick search for something as it would to search through some forums. Besides, most of the people (in this thread for example) are fine without having an official forum. Sigil also gave very good reasons as to why they decided not to. It's not a game breaking decision as much as you'd like to think so either. So seriously, what possible information could be so important that it requires a direct line to the developers, but isn't covered by their main page or the technical support forums? Personally I can't think of anything except information that would just be frivolous spoonfeeding.
Gotta say, I disagree. If you're asking how official forums could possibly be important, I suggest you really take a look at City of Heroes and how they use their forums. Yes, there is bitching there just like in any forum setting, but there is a lot of good that has come out of those forums as well. The devs there use the forums as a tool, and as a result, the game has been improved many times in the past as a direct result of first hand communication with their paying subscribers. Communication is most effective when it works boths ways, and Sigil will be missing an opportunity.
At any rate, it's their choice, so I suppose debating the issue here is a waste of time. You know why? Because I have no idea of whether or not they'll ever even see this thread. See how that works?
Its sorta funny that even in todays age people like to THINK they have a direct line with the developers. The truth is you never have a true direct line. You will always have your information funneled through several different people that have there own opinions before the developer sees the post. Most MMORPGs well no I would go out on a limb and say almost all MMORPGs have CSRs that do the job of finding the information out of the trash that is posted on there offical forums. WoW as a great example you will be very hard pressed to get your information seen by a Dev. The forums move WAY to fast within a matter of a min your post could be on page 2 or 3 of the forums.
And as CoH continues to come up as a game that has truely changed because of its forums. Well thats just not true at all. The Lead Designer of CoH hates visiting the forums. His respose was that it just wasnt a effiecent medium togeather information from.
70-80% of all posts on a offical forum come from people that are not happy about something and they usely only account for less then 10-20% of the player base at most. Anyone that enjoys the game is doing just that playing the game because they enjoy it.
DaoC was an amazing game that never had a offical forums but still did well for its time. Guild Wars over 2 million people have purchased the game and atleast enjoyed it enough to purchase it. There line of communition with the community is so effiecent that game changes occure on almost a daily basis because of it and they have no offical forums.
Offical forums provide more of a false view of the game they represent then anything else. WoW as an example ageain if you visited the general forums you would think everyone in the world hates the game. Yet somehow 8 million people are there playing and enjoying it despite the bad image the forums provide. And do you really think the GOOD information posted about ideas and suggestions that are posted on the forums there are really read? I serisely doubt it because for every one of them posted theres around 100+ trash posts that push the good suggestions so far back that 3-4 CSRs could easly miss the post.
Besides Vanguard is a niche game. Brad has already stated that Vanguard will be a niche game and that him and the dev team is very fine with that.
Deathstrike, I agree with you on the good that has come from the CoH forums. However, what I'd like to know is what good can an official forum give that decentralized affiliates cannot?
The devs do actually post on the forums of the affiliate sites, and having them this way offers a better connection between the developer and players on the various areas of the game. Case in point, the druid example I gave above.
If the Druids Grove is an affiliated site, and it's frequented by druids because it's a druid specific site, then when the devs need to talk to druid players, they have the perfect place to go. This means they can talk with druid players directly, without having to worry about spammers or whiners or any of the other butt-insky's that typically frequent official forums. They know they're getting their information straight from the mouths of people who play druids and frequent a druid site, because they care about their class.
How is that bad? The information is all still available and there's many easy ways to search for it.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
Deathstrike, I agree with you on the good that has come from the CoH forums. However, what I'd like to know is what good can an official forum give that decentralized affiliates cannot? The devs do actually post on the forums of the affiliate sites, and having them this way offers a better connection between the developer and players on the various areas of the game. Case in point, the druid example I gave above. If the Druids Grove is an affiliated site, and it's frequented by druids because it's a druid specific site, then when the devs need to talk to druid players, they have the perfect place to go. This means they can talk with druid players directly, without having to worry about spammers or whiners or any of the other butt-insky's that typically frequent official forums. They know they're getting their information straight from the mouths of people who play druids and frequent a druid site, because they care about their class. How is that bad? The information is all still available and there's many easy ways to search for it.
LOL..... so forums on affiliated sites are "perfect" ? Devs get to talk to players of class X "directly" (as opposed to what? indirectly?). Affiliated web sites are not afflicted with "spammers or whiners"?
....ahem.... I'm moving to canada; cause that stuff is illegal here and I want me some.
And as CoH continues to come up as a game that has truely changed because of its forums. Well thats just not true at all. The Lead Designer of CoH hates visiting the forums. His respose was that it just wasnt a effiecent medium togeather information from.
Really? I suppose that's why they have "Ask a Dev threads" and threads specifically designed to solicite feedback from users on how powers or game mechanics are working? I am guessing that the forums used for the training room are a waste as well, even though a direct quote from a dev is that "You guys make the training room a success and it’s greatly appreciated." How about this dev quote: "So once again, thanks for trying these out and posting your feedback here for us. It’s been an immeasurable help. " There's a lot more where these two came from as well. Take a trip over to their forums and do a search. The information is all there in one easy to find place for any user that wants it (as it SHOULD be).
You are simply wrong when you say that it is not true at all that the game has changed because of the forums. It's changed many times and in many significant ways as a direct result of user feedback.
Deathstrike, I agree with you on the good that has come from the CoH forums. However, what I'd like to know is what good can an official forum give that decentralized affiliates cannot? The devs do actually post on the forums of the affiliate sites, and having them this way offers a better connection between the developer and players on the various areas of the game. Case in point, the druid example I gave above. If the Druids Grove is an affiliated site, and it's frequented by druids because it's a druid specific site, then when the devs need to talk to druid players, they have the perfect place to go. This means they can talk with druid players directly, without having to worry about spammers or whiners or any of the other butt-insky's that typically frequent official forums. They know they're getting their information straight from the mouths of people who play druids and frequent a druid site, because they care about their class. How is that bad? The information is all still available and there's many easy ways to search for it.
IMO, official forums are better for a number of reasons:
- Consistency: Knowing the rules of one website is much better than having to learn the ins and outs of several websites. Plus different websites offer different tools. For example, one may have an excellent search engine for finding old posts while another might not even keep posts older than 30 days. Different people running different websites means different policies and rules.
- Control: I like knowing that the info I'm reading from the devs has not been filtered or edited by anyone outside Sigil/SOE. On a third party site, I do not have that sense of trust. Official information just doesn't feel official if I'm getting it from a non-Sigil website.
- Twoway Communication: As a paying subscriber, I feel that I have the right and obligation to let the devs know what I like and what I don't, and in this way, help shape the future of the game. Likewise, I want to know what they're thinking and/or planning. Maybe I can do this on a third party site...maybe not. I could definitely do it on official forums.
There are a lot of other reasons as well, but I don't want to beat a dead or dying horse here
Bottom line is that I like official forums, but I'm only one player. If they did have official forums, what would it hurt? People who don't like them would still have the same fan sites to visit. Seems like it'd be a win/win.
Wise choice not to have official forums. Most times 95% of it is full of crap where devs have to weed until they find something usefull.
This is the same asinine point they tried to make to excuse their ineptitude. Fan forums contain the same kind of posts, from the exact same players as the official forums do. At least on official forums the developer / publisher has some control over the content posted. On fansite or super-guild forums you have to deal with the forum owners agenda, biases and lose moderation policies. I won't play a game that makes me beg for scraps at the feet FOH and the like to get any information.
When I found out they were going through with the forum close, I canceled my pre-order and all plans to play this game. It's unprofessional and lazy.. there really is no excuse for it.
i like that they're going without official forums. WoW forums are all sheep, idiots, and epeens. Eve forums are nothing but propaganda.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You? if I were to kill a titan tomorrow and no CCP employees showed up to say grats I would petition it. Waiting for: the next MMO that lets me make this macro if hp < 30 then CastSpell("heal") SpellTargetUnit("player") else CastSpell("smite") end
Well, I read all the posts here, and... I still want an official forum. Sorry, I'm not lazy, I visit all sorts of good fansites (they are far fewer than you might think) but its nice to have a source of information direct from the game's developer's like DAOC's Camelot Herald feature... as for open Chat type forums, not quite so necessary..but a nice to have.
Sigil won't lose many players because they don't have official forums, so doubtful they'll change their stance on this.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
But you do not necessarily get any information from the devs with an official forum. . .I don't know why no one even notices that. I haven't seen a Developer answer the questions you usually find on forums like "How Do I trade?" - "Where to find boots of speed?"
It would be different if Sigil promised official forums at launch and then took them away. But they didn't they said flat out before release they are not going ot have official forums. . .if you want your information then get it from an affiliate.
It does cost a lot of money to keep official forums up. I can see why they are not having it and giving it to the other sites. I just wish they would have it. Silkyvenom seems to be the biggest but i hate there layout. I pray that maybe allakhazam would start a site up but he said he wont unless there is a large crowd. There FFXI, EQ, & WoW sites have great forums and great features on them.
Lidane, you don't get it. The system they have now isn't "inefficient", it's just decentralized. If anything, the information is in more than one spot, and on sites that are endorsed by Sigil. Not having an official forum for you to bitch in does not make it a "niche" game, the two have nothing to do with eachother and it's a pretty big leap to come to that conclusion. You guys are falsely claiming that no forums means no information. That's just an outright lie. Infact they post very important information on their main website, and if necessary their technical support forums. The only difference is that there's no place for players to directly bitch at the developers. about unimportant things. Tell me, what possible information could you want that's important enough where you need a direct line to the developers, which isn't major game information like that which they post on their main page, or in their technical support forum? Seriously, I'd love to knowwhat kinda super important stuff requires an official forum, which you can't get from simply looking at one of the many affiliated sites. I mean, it's not like you get charged for each page you view on the internet. It takes about as much time to do a quick search for something as it would to search through some forums. Besides, most of the people (in this thread for example) are fine without having an official forum. Sigil also gave very good reasons as to why they decided not to. It's not a game breaking decision as much as you'd like to think so either. So seriously, what possible information could be so important that it requires a direct line to the developers, but isn't covered by their main page or the technical support forums? Personally I can't think of anything except information that would just be frivolous spoonfeeding.
Honestly, the whole reason I'm against not having an official forum is because it's lazy and unprofessional, and it gives the impression that the developers don't take pride in their game and they have something to hide.
My primary game for the past 33+ months has been City of Heroes/Villains. For all that game's flaws (and heaven knows there are plenty of them), at the very least I know I can go to the official forums and actually give real feedback to the devs of the game. They actually do post, on a regular basis, and they interact with the player base. Even the most unpopular decisions have been discussed openly at length, and on their official site, where anyone can see. They don't hide the fact that the game still has issues, and that they're working to correct them with the excuse that information is only available on a fansite somewhere.
Someone else mentioned DAoC not having forums. DAoC is also a 5+ year old game that has its best days behind it, and which can afford to not have official forums anymore. Vanguard, on the other hand, is a new game, in a much different market than the one that DAoC entered when it came out. People now expect some level of service from a game, especially if they're expected to pay to play it.
Look at the big kahuna, World of Warcraft. Are the WoW forums a haven for stupid wank and idiotic threads? Sure. But you know what? At least Blizz makes the effort to have official boards in spite of all the idiocy that often ends up there. Why? Because they know as a company that their customers matter, and that they have to provide something for them in return for the subscription fees they get every month. It's a basic quid pro quo-- people pay for the service of the game, and in return, they get the ability to directly talk back to the developers on their own site.
BTW, what will make Vanguard a niche game isn't the lack of an official forum. It's the attitude of the hardcore fans of the game that will do it. Suggesting that anyone who wants a more professional amount of service from Sigil just wants a handout and that they're a mindless kiddie who wants everything given to them is an attitude than smacks of an elitism that the game hasn't proven it deserves, and it shows an immaturity on the part of the hardcore fans.
Comments
How can this poster be a troll if what he said is true by your own words? I think you need to check the definition of "troll" as used in forums.
On the topic of this thread however, I don't see a need for any type of forum. As many others have stated, forums have turned into a place for people to bash and smash - not just the game but others that are not like minded. The addition of forums in no way enhances the game play of any mmorpg. Now you may counter that without forums there is no way to have your voice, as a paying customer heard but, 95% of the time a good idea is either ignored for whatever reason the company might have or lost in the flame fest that usually follows.
I think they have made the right move. Without any forums they can avoid having people who have nothing but bad things to say. Don't blame them though. Blame yourself and others - it's us who have turned forums into the bash fest it is today.
Surround yourself with positive effects and positive things are sure to follow. Surround yourself with negativity and your sure to fall.
Source ?
1: WOW 8 Million has been on ever major site accross the planet including the offical site
2: Vanguard , well I was streching the truth abit with 200k , what is it 10 Servers 5000 per server you do the math ..
3: Offical Forums are usually the easiest place to gather the infomation you need & allways have the highest posts , & yes I know many posts are just crap but that goes for every forum .. with Vanguard baning many major MMORPG sites like allakazams ect ect its going to spread the community to thin & if you think Sigil are going to keep an eye on every affilated forum you deluded , most companys have trouble keeping there 1 offical forum up to date . I can see it now on an affilated site forum {New Post} March 6 2007 , Vanguard announces new expansion release date feb 22 2007
Interviewer: So why doesn't Vanguard have official servers?
Brad: I am a happy person. So I don't like people telling me bad things, like complaints about the games I make. I especially don't like hearing those things when they are right. So, we at Sigil (read me, as always) made a decision that this is the best way for us to put our collective heads in the sand and hide from reality. If we ignore the customers, they will give up and play whatever I put in front of them like mindless lemmings. That's the Vision (tm).
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Gotta say, I disagree. If you're asking how official forums could possibly be important, I suggest you really take a look at City of Heroes and how they use their forums. Yes, there is bitching there just like in any forum setting, but there is a lot of good that has come out of those forums as well. The devs there use the forums as a tool, and as a result, the game has been improved many times in the past as a direct result of first hand communication with their paying subscribers. Communication is most effective when it works boths ways, and Sigil will be missing an opportunity.
At any rate, it's their choice, so I suppose debating the issue here is a waste of time. You know why? Because I have no idea of whether or not they'll ever even see this thread. See how that works?
Its sorta funny that even in todays age people like to THINK they have a direct line with the developers. The truth is you never have a true direct line. You will always have your information funneled through several different people that have there own opinions before the developer sees the post. Most MMORPGs well no I would go out on a limb and say almost all MMORPGs have CSRs that do the job of finding the information out of the trash that is posted on there offical forums. WoW as a great example you will be very hard pressed to get your information seen by a Dev. The forums move WAY to fast within a matter of a min your post could be on page 2 or 3 of the forums.
And as CoH continues to come up as a game that has truely changed because of its forums. Well thats just not true at all. The Lead Designer of CoH hates visiting the forums. His respose was that it just wasnt a effiecent medium togeather information from.
70-80% of all posts on a offical forum come from people that are not happy about something and they usely only account for less then 10-20% of the player base at most. Anyone that enjoys the game is doing just that playing the game because they enjoy it.
DaoC was an amazing game that never had a offical forums but still did well for its time. Guild Wars over 2 million people have purchased the game and atleast enjoyed it enough to purchase it. There line of communition with the community is so effiecent that game changes occure on almost a daily basis because of it and they have no offical forums.
Offical forums provide more of a false view of the game they represent then anything else. WoW as an example ageain if you visited the general forums you would think everyone in the world hates the game. Yet somehow 8 million people are there playing and enjoying it despite the bad image the forums provide. And do you really think the GOOD information posted about ideas and suggestions that are posted on the forums there are really read? I serisely doubt it because for every one of them posted theres around 100+ trash posts that push the good suggestions so far back that 3-4 CSRs could easly miss the post.
Besides Vanguard is a niche game. Brad has already stated that Vanguard will be a niche game and that him and the dev team is very fine with that.
Deathstrike, I agree with you on the good that has come from the CoH forums. However, what I'd like to know is what good can an official forum give that decentralized affiliates cannot?
The devs do actually post on the forums of the affiliate sites, and having them this way offers a better connection between the developer and players on the various areas of the game. Case in point, the druid example I gave above.
If the Druids Grove is an affiliated site, and it's frequented by druids because it's a druid specific site, then when the devs need to talk to druid players, they have the perfect place to go. This means they can talk with druid players directly, without having to worry about spammers or whiners or any of the other butt-insky's that typically frequent official forums. They know they're getting their information straight from the mouths of people who play druids and frequent a druid site, because they care about their class.
How is that bad? The information is all still available and there's many easy ways to search for it.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
....ahem.... I'm moving to canada; cause that stuff is illegal here and I want me some.
Really? I suppose that's why they have "Ask a Dev threads" and threads specifically designed to solicite feedback from users on how powers or game mechanics are working? I am guessing that the forums used for the training room are a waste as well, even though a direct quote from a dev is that "You guys make the training room a success and it’s greatly appreciated." How about this dev quote: "So once again, thanks for trying these out and posting your feedback here for us. It’s been an immeasurable help. " There's a lot more where these two came from as well. Take a trip over to their forums and do a search. The information is all there in one easy to find place for any user that wants it (as it SHOULD be).
You are simply wrong when you say that it is not true at all that the game has changed because of the forums. It's changed many times and in many significant ways as a direct result of user feedback.
IMO, official forums are better for a number of reasons:
- Consistency: Knowing the rules of one website is much better than having to learn the ins and outs of several websites. Plus different websites offer different tools. For example, one may have an excellent search engine for finding old posts while another might not even keep posts older than 30 days. Different people running different websites means different policies and rules.
- Control: I like knowing that the info I'm reading from the devs has not been filtered or edited by anyone outside Sigil/SOE. On a third party site, I do not have that sense of trust. Official information just doesn't feel official if I'm getting it from a non-Sigil website.
- Twoway Communication: As a paying subscriber, I feel that I have the right and obligation to let the devs know what I like and what I don't, and in this way, help shape the future of the game. Likewise, I want to know what they're thinking and/or planning. Maybe I can do this on a third party site...maybe not. I could definitely do it on official forums.
There are a lot of other reasons as well, but I don't want to beat a dead or dying horse here
Bottom line is that I like official forums, but I'm only one player. If they did have official forums, what would it hurt? People who don't like them would still have the same fan sites to visit. Seems like it'd be a win/win.
This is the same asinine point they tried to make to excuse their ineptitude. Fan forums contain the same kind of posts, from the exact same players as the official forums do. At least on official forums the developer / publisher has some control over the content posted. On fansite or super-guild forums you have to deal with the forum owners agenda, biases and lose moderation policies. I won't play a game that makes me beg for scraps at the feet FOH and the like to get any information.
When I found out they were going through with the forum close, I canceled my pre-order and all plans to play this game. It's unprofessional and lazy.. there really is no excuse for it.
-----Zero Punctuation Eve Online Review-----
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
if I were to kill a titan tomorrow and no CCP employees showed up to say grats I would petition it.
Waiting for: the next MMO that lets me make this macro
if hp < 30 then CastSpell("heal") SpellTargetUnit("player") else CastSpell("smite") end
Well, I read all the posts here, and... I still want an official forum. Sorry, I'm not lazy, I visit all sorts of good fansites (they are far fewer than you might think) but its nice to have a source of information direct from the game's developer's like DAOC's Camelot Herald feature... as for open Chat type forums, not quite so necessary..but a nice to have.
Sigil won't lose many players because they don't have official forums, so doubtful they'll change their stance on this.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
But you do not necessarily get any information from the devs with an official forum. . .I don't know why no one even notices that. I haven't seen a Developer answer the questions you usually find on forums like "How Do I trade?" - "Where to find boots of speed?"
It would be different if Sigil promised official forums at launch and then took them away. But they didn't they said flat out before release they are not going ot have official forums. . .if you want your information then get it from an affiliate.
http://mentaltruancy.guildportal.com - Friendly Vanguard:Saga of Heroes Qalia based Guild.
Honestly, the whole reason I'm against not having an official forum is because it's lazy and unprofessional, and it gives the impression that the developers don't take pride in their game and they have something to hide.
My primary game for the past 33+ months has been City of Heroes/Villains. For all that game's flaws (and heaven knows there are plenty of them), at the very least I know I can go to the official forums and actually give real feedback to the devs of the game. They actually do post, on a regular basis, and they interact with the player base. Even the most unpopular decisions have been discussed openly at length, and on their official site, where anyone can see. They don't hide the fact that the game still has issues, and that they're working to correct them with the excuse that information is only available on a fansite somewhere.
Someone else mentioned DAoC not having forums. DAoC is also a 5+ year old game that has its best days behind it, and which can afford to not have official forums anymore. Vanguard, on the other hand, is a new game, in a much different market than the one that DAoC entered when it came out. People now expect some level of service from a game, especially if they're expected to pay to play it.
Look at the big kahuna, World of Warcraft. Are the WoW forums a haven for stupid wank and idiotic threads? Sure. But you know what? At least Blizz makes the effort to have official boards in spite of all the idiocy that often ends up there. Why? Because they know as a company that their customers matter, and that they have to provide something for them in return for the subscription fees they get every month. It's a basic quid pro quo-- people pay for the service of the game, and in return, they get the ability to directly talk back to the developers on their own site.
BTW, what will make Vanguard a niche game isn't the lack of an official forum. It's the attitude of the hardcore fans of the game that will do it. Suggesting that anyone who wants a more professional amount of service from Sigil just wants a handout and that they're a mindless kiddie who wants everything given to them is an attitude than smacks of an elitism that the game hasn't proven it deserves, and it shows an immaturity on the part of the hardcore fans.