I'm with the minority here - official forums aren't necessarily a good thing, IMO. My reasoning is that I want the Developers - the experts - to stick with their vision of the game without being influenced by the players, who all seem to join in on various crazy wishing bandwagons in official forum threads, screaming "hey - we want this / or that!!!".
Oh, and I think WAR will be more bootay, than boutique.
The feedback forms are freely given, not solicited at all, same as posting on a forum. The polls are solicited, and used when we want a quick idea of what the playing community thinks of a particular idea.
For the record I could care less if you have forums or not. As long as you have a way for customers with issues to resolve those issues I am ok with whatever communicaiton you have in place. If customers cannot resolve anything then you need to re-evaluate your communication methods.
I am registered on your official Warhammer: Age of Reconing site for your newsletter. I and MANY othes do not recieve the newsletter in our e-mail. Yes, I have checked my inbox and my bulk/spam area. It took a long time, but I was able to find the feedback option you often talk about hidden at the end of the FAQ section of the WAR site. There is no link to a feedback option on the main page. I submitted a feedback about not recieving your newsletter. I have yet to recieve an e-mail response or the e-mail newsletter.
If I do not get the newsletter, how do I know I am in the pool of people that might win a beta spot?
Issues like this are a problem if you choose not to have forums.
Since you're a yahoo user, the answer probably lies in this announcement made back in July at www.warherald.com that described the issues free mail services have with mass mailings. It appears that the other free services are handling things well enough, aside from some delays and spam filters, but yahoo has bigger issues.
The Newsletter, Free Email Services, and You
Sanya Thomas
26 Jul 2006 11:23:30 EST
There are some errors cropping up with the newsletter that we sent last night if you use certain free email accounts. Since that is practically everyone including me, listen up to the following bits:
- Gmail is fine, at least for now. You can stop reading now, and go have a snack.
- Yahoo is choking a little, because we dumped nearly ten thousand emails on them at once. It may take up to five days for your newsletter to arrive... but it may not arrive at all due to timeout errors. If you have a Yahoo address and have not received your newsletter yet, hang on for a bit. If you don't get it within the week, I recommend logging in to your newsletter account and click "My Profile" (not "edit profile, and don't ask why). Click "unregister" and then click "yes." Go through the sign up process again, and use a different email address.
- Hotmail users may also experience delays, but you should all get your newsletters eventually. However, if the delay annoys you, please follow the steps I outlined for the Yahoo people.
And of course, as always, you should please check your spam folders before assuming that no email has been received. Don't forget to tag Mythic mail as not-spam. We are twice as delicious.
The above is why many companies don't allow freemail addresses; too much drama.
I do apologize for any inconvenience and annoyance.
1) Fan sites tend to cater to a 'specific' segment of the community:An example of such is Warhammer Alliance: this site tends to focus on on the Warhammer (Tm) tabletop game and its varients. And from what I have read the members have a DISTINCT bias agaist the Warhammer 40k game. They dont sci-fi. Where as in a official or nuetral forum your more likely to get a less... constrained.... thread about certain subjects and view points
2) I prefer Official sites; Peroid: I really just do prefer official sites, fan sites are not accountable for any false info or rumors that are posted on them by there moderators/creators. Official sites, you are much more likely to get correct and imformed information. Probably not very much of it mind you and probably not until exactly when the 'officials' want to tell us, if they want to tell us...
3) In my OPINION, fan sites even the good ones, tend to get very elitist over time and some are just elitist period: Example: PSO World when Phantasy Star Universe came out. PSO-world was hands down the best place to get into on all things PS related, even better than the official sites. But the 'community' became very insular. The PSOers pretty much refused to group with anyone who was not a part of 'their' community and generally locked ALL games. The only way to even get a group on their 'server' was to sign up for the site and then make a specific appointment to group with those on the site. There were several threads about this and the veterans and moderaters were not apologetic at all about how they treated the 'new members' of the community.
Official forums tend to even things out a bit between the new people and the old people when playing a game and it also lets you communicate with others on a more even keel than going into an existing 'community' who are all on the same wave length, Its one thing being an 'outsider looking in', its another thing to be an 'outsider looking in and haveing not chance to get in' because the fansite player base is elitist or insular or just plain arrogent (See what I said earlier about war alliance, they site was created with a specific kind of warhammer fan in mind, so to get a less biased view about warhammer games in general you would have to look at several differant warhammer related sites.)
4) They are fan sites; they can operate and moderate anyway they want anytime they want: Where a official site would have to be careful of moderating willy nilly or face severe feedback. The owners of fansites can do pretty much whatever they want however they want. i am not saying they WILL do this but they CAN do this. No matter how well defined your argument or how articulate you are, if the moderators find the item does not fit what they have in mind or they disagree and dont want to see it.... it can be deleted or edited in a matter of seconds.
5) A official forums seems more well.. official ....: Fan sites are just that people who have one opinion about a topic tend to congregate at one particular fansite. And yes as Richard mentioned there may be a few 'good' fansites when the game comes out but they will still be that and there sites will always be scewed towards their own particular brand of fandom. Where as a at an official forum people you get a much wider variaty of people who feel they can speak freely due to the fact taht the site is 'OFFICIAL' and dont feel constrained or guilty about voicing their true opinion on the matter.
In my opinion you should have official forums. If not there should be no forums at all of any kind regarding the game. But of course their is NO WAY thats going to happen. Because people want to 'talk' about the things they like and dont like.
I personally am disabled and hate having to look at mulitple fansites when I could just go to the official forums. Its hard enough trying to type this let alone voice my opinon in multiple forums on the same topic (which I dont have to do but feel i would have to do if there is no official forum). Also its a pain in the ass typing in the addresses over and over again because I dont want to clutter up my friends list with ten War forums or possibly more.
And to be very honest i would not even be posting here, if this were not the closest thing I could find to a neutral or official fansite. Its also one of the few sites where i have seen multiple post by mythic employee(s). As you can see i have only posted 3 times and only on War related topics. I like reading and posting in forums but generally only in the official ones. I just personally feel like I am just wasting my time at fansites such as this. But I guess i have no choice in the matter on this game.
And I keep on wondering: Besides people thinking that its the only way to contact Mythic wouldnot having a centralized neutral nonbiased place to post not be a good idea?
Besides the bottom line (money) I cant really see a downside to having a official forum. Yes many would see it as an avenue to communicate with Mythic, but repeated warnings in the forums that its just for community would solve that problem (Yes I know warning labes never stop the dumb: Thats way we have warning labels on coffee saying that its hot *sigh* and people still try to sue when they get burned ).
And before I get jumped on about NOT HAVING TO GO TO FANSITES, i want to remind Mr. Richard_Mythic that he has already stated you will 'only need to go to one or two good fansite' to really be in touch with the 'community'. And that seems like I am being goaded in a certain direction to me.
I say if there is going to be a community let Mythic be the one to host it not Annonymous Warhammer Fansite #22435435
No Official forums means the developer does not wish to provide the best customerr service is the way I see it.
A stance Mythic has taken for a long time which shows what kind of company they are.
Completely untrue. I don't agree with their decision to exclude official forums, but that at least tells me they have better things to do.
.... Better things to do than provide the best customer service?. What like take your money for the bare minimum package they can get away with.
Abit of an an exaggeration there but no less unreasonable than your statement.
Not providing offical forums is bad customer service. End of story.
So the horrible WoW forums is the way to provide good customer service? I've had exponentially better CS from Mythic in DAoC than I ever had playing WoW. I had accounts open and active in both games on day 1. DAoC I had minimalist issues playing. WoW, I was lucky if the server would stay up long enough to get a couple levels. That trend continued pretty much up until the day I canceled my WoW account.
Official Forums do not equal best customer service. It's just another avenue that Mythic doesn't feel they need to take since the ways they allow customers to provide feedback and get support work just fine. I agree with them.
No Official forums means the developer does not wish to provide the best customerr service is the way I see it.
A stance Mythic has taken for a long time which shows what kind of company they are.
Completely untrue. I don't agree with their decision to exclude official forums, but that at least tells me they have better things to do.
.... Better things to do than provide the best customer service?. What like take your money for the bare minimum package they can get away with.
Abit of an an exaggeration there but no less unreasonable than your statement.
Not providing offical forums is bad customer service. End of story.
So the horrible WoW forums is the way to provide good customer service? I've had exponentially better CS from Mythic in DAoC than I ever had playing WoW. I had accounts open and active in both games on day 1. DAoC I had minimalist issues playing. WoW, I was lucky if the server would stay up long enough to get a couple levels. That trend continued pretty much up until the day I canceled my WoW account.
Official Forums do not equal best customer service. It's just another avenue that Mythic doesn't feel they need to take since the ways they allow customers to provide feedback and get support work just fine. I agree with them.
I dont get why people even have this debate. As has been said and is accepted by most every level headed person the majority of players will never post let alone even visit an "official" forum. Hell most of the people I played with in WoW wouldnt even have known the official site if they didnt have the account management stuff there.
So why all this debate for something that the majority of the game users will never even bother with? Why spend all the money on moderating and hosting them? It seems to me that the vocal minority that want their forums are up in arms again, much like the vocal minority that always cry and scream for nerfs to X class in their game of choice.
The camelot herald was an excellent place for information regarding the game that may effect "every one" that played the game. Mythic has stated they are going to make the WAR herald bigger, better, and much more robust. Also the little launcher browser that most games have with info and other such stuff is seen by EVERY ONE and much more important than official forums. Which is why it surprised me that WoW took so long to implement one. But then they didnt implement one because they thought the people would go to their official site and forums. Well they found out that most people dont bother going to the official forums so had to implement the log in window with info, which they still suck at updating.
Mythic has a set and streamlined way of not only feedback but getting information out to its players. A system that I would take over the most mature and perfect official forum setting any day of the week.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
I dont get why people even have this debate. As has been said and is accepted by most every level headed person the majority of players will never post let alone even visit an "official" forum. Hell most of the people I played with in WoW wouldnt even have known the official site if they didnt have the account management stuff there.
So why all this debate for something that the majority of the game users will never even bother with? Why spend all the money on moderating and hosting them? It seems to me that the vocal minority that want their forums are up in arms again, much like the vocal minority that always cry and scream for nerfs to X class in their game of choice.
Well, that was just a ridiculous post. We're forum dwellers here! We read and post on forums. So we care how forums are implemented, either officially or through third parties.
And what do forum dwellers do? We debate, we discuss, we argue. And no topic is too trivial. So I think this debate is very valid.
To us, anyway.
Seriously. It's Are'el. This forum doesn't allow apostrophes in usernames.
I dont get why people even have this debate. As has been said and is accepted by most every level headed person the majority of players will never post let alone even visit an "official" forum. Hell most of the people I played with in WoW wouldnt even have known the official site if they didnt have the account management stuff there.
So why all this debate for something that the majority of the game users will never even bother with? Why spend all the money on moderating and hosting them? It seems to me that the vocal minority that want their forums are up in arms again, much like the vocal minority that always cry and scream for nerfs to X class in their game of choice.
The camelot herald was an excellent place for information regarding the game that may effect "every one" that played the game. Mythic has stated they are going to make the WAR herald bigger, better, and much more robust. Also the little launcher browser that most games have with info and other such stuff is seen by EVERY ONE and much more important than official forums. Which is why it surprised me that WoW took so long to implement one. But then they didnt implement one because they thought the people would go to their official site and forums. Well they found out that most people dont bother going to the official forums so had to implement the log in window with info, which they still suck at updating.
Mythic has a set and streamlined way of not only feedback but getting information out to its players. A system that I would take over the most mature and perfect official forum setting any day of the week.
Im not sheep? I don’t listen to developers that TELL Me what I want?
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
ive played guildwars since release and it has never had an official forum, but it never bothered me, in fact, i would say its a good thing.
when i played wow, the official forum was full of people bragging, flaming or just being a pain. when i posted sumin it usually got lost in the pile of posts and threads, so i think a non official forum is good.
it spreads the player base across a number of forums and posts, members and flaming is far easier to handle.
1) Fan sites tend to cater to a 'specific' segment of the community:An example of such is Warhammer Alliance: this site tends to focus on on the Warhammer (Tm) tabletop game and its varients. And from what I have read the members have a DISTINCT bias agaist the Warhammer 40k game. They dont sci-fi. Where as in a official or nuetral forum your more likely to get a less... constrained.... thread about certain subjects and view points
Out of curiosity, what does that have to do with anything, and how would Mythic having official forums remedy this first issue? 40k has nothing to do with Mythic, nor do they have anything to do with 40k. A Mythic forum would be dedicated to WAR, The Warhammer MMORPG based on the Warhammer Fantasy Battles tabletop game, and the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.
You'd find no 40k support there either, short of off-topic forums, where it belongs. Same as warhammer alliance, want to talk 40k? bring it to off-topic (Though you may or may not be right about whatever bias, so it may or may not be a fruitful discussion, that's not for me to debate). They're not catering to a specific segment of the community, they're catering to the WAR community, which 40k isn't a part of. Does that mean you can't be a fan of both? Not at all. The Warhammer community inolves both fantasy and 40k. The WAR community involves just that.. WAR, the game based in the fantasy setting of Warhammer.
Infact, just another tidbit regarding this, 40k is also licensed to another developer.
Anyway, you're voicing your opinions and the lot of them are valid, however this struck me as odd and out of place, and is an thought I don't think you should have spearheaded your post with. Since the reasons for the thing you dislike are thus:
This game, and all fan-based, forum-based activities regarding it are about warhammer fantasy. So it's only natural it's sci-fi counterpart gets a backseat, or no seat at all. So in regards to this issue, I fail to see how an Official forum of EA Mythic for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, would change this problem.
(Also, just a minor thought I've picked up as a lurker of all things WAR, I think whatever possible bias may exist because alot of times WAR was talked about initially (and this occurs even now) you have people say things such as, "Why Fantasy warhammer!? it should have been 40k!", usually in more negative tones as well. You must also keep in mind they are fans of this aspect of warhammer, so it's natural that they will cater to it more than it's sci-fi counter-part.)
The use of Warhammer 40K as an example didn't make much sense, having multiple fan sites does "constrain" the dialog somewhat. One of the reasons that supporters of fan forums use, is that people can pick and choose which forum to frequent. Don't like it at TenTonHammer? Move over to Warhammer Alliance. However, people tend to congregate where there are like-minded people. If people have a choice of where to go to talk on a forum, they'll go where they're most comfortable. And in a way, they'll cut themselves off somewhat from differing opinions. Since forums thrive on debate, this is a bad thing.
Look at Network News as an example. Ten years ago, your choices for finding out what's-what in the world was very limited. Everyone heard the news from the same few sources. As such, people were exposed to opinions that they didn't necessarily agree with. It sparked discussion, debate, critical thinking. Fast forward to today, and you have a network, or a blog, dedicated to bringing the news for every particular slant under the sun. A conservative could tune into FoxNews every night, have thier opinions validated by the talking heads, and never have to hear things from a liberal perspective if they don't want to. This is part of why things in politics are becoming so polarized. No one is forced to hear things from the other side. and thus no empathy is formed. They only hear what they already wanted to hear.
The problem is less obvious when you are talking about a gaming forum. After all, there aren't a lot of vastly different views for gameplay in an MMO. Sure, fans of FFA PvP might stick together, or maybe anti-instance players could choose to ignore the arguements of the other side. But those are all minor things. At most, I think that the lack of an official forum dulls the ongoing debates a little, if just because all the voices are spread out to the various corners of the web.
On a related note. Back on the subject of Server forums. I mentioned that they were a great way to form a server-wide community, allowing trade and events, maybe even some bragging. But another mentioned that third party forums will set up server based forums if asked. Doesn't that defeat the point of having a Server forum? If you want everyone from your server to have a place to congregate and talk, but 3-5 third party sites create server forums, doesn't that just break everyone up anyway?
Seriously. It's Are'el. This forum doesn't allow apostrophes in usernames.
My example was not the best but I will explain what I meant by it:
IN this forum, there have been several WAR 40K MMO threads. Why?
Because its a centralized forum and since this forum attracts Warhammer afficianado's of all kinds, it seems a logical choice to voice how you feel about that game here.
On the other hand, the forums which I spoke of all lean towards one side of the GW universe of games or another.
How many people have stated that they are just happy to have a WARHAMMER Game coming out period, even if its not there favorite Universe?
And many of those people will wind up playing WAR(at least until the 40K one comes). But without a centralized forum, they will have to go to forums that obviously have a slant against them, instead of going someplace where there will be a balanced opinion.
I was basically trying to state the same sentiment as Areel just did. But I failed abysmally..
Originally posted by DuraheLL You'd be delusional to think OF were needed. Things can be well sort out anyway and if they feel a OF isn't needed then they are right. Never make something you don't feel ok with.
Then I must be delusional because I think Official Forums are a great way to get and receive feedback for technical problems and more importantly is a way to interact with people from your server and learn alot about your class/strategy etc.
I currently play WOW and can count the times on my hand how many times I've visited my official "realm" boards. They are such utter crap I cannot even bare to browse them. Don't even get me started on the "General" thread. The only thing I find partially useful is the class boards, but most of that is people trying to tell you why their spec is so much better than yours.
When I look back at my DAoC days... I recall constantly reading my unofficial realm boards (www.palomides.net) and always had the feeling that they gave me Much Much more information on the camelotherald site than I even cared for.
In the end, if they give the same level and consistency of their customer service and communication to Warhammer as they did to DAoC then I'll be happy. Official boards? I don't care... if thats how they want to communicate, great....if not? No big deal... just provide good customer service in some form and I'm a happy camper.
How the hell did this make it to 120+ replies? Official forums? That's the big issue for you people? Whether you'll have a Mythic-run forum to cry for the nerf-bat every time you get killed in RvR? There seriously isn't anything that you find more important about this game?
This thread is a perfect example of why I'm not broken up in the least about a lack of an official forum. People will always find something to bitch about.
If you want a real harsh death penalty, go play Russian Roulet. - Hamzal
This is exactly what has me the most excited about WAR. The longest thread on this forum? One about Mythic not providing official forums. That tells me people aren't able to find any problems with the other, far more important aspects of the game. In a way, it's kind of a compliment to Mythic. There is nothing of substance to complain about, so they complain about not getting official forums.
I have never been a fan of official forums, for several reasons.
1.) All of the whiners go there, as it is the most direct link to the company. As such, the forum is usually filled with flames, trolls, whines, etc., with little real substance. External forums tend to be a bit better.
2.) It is a waste of resources, as official forums require money and time to keep running and moderate. I'd rather EA Mythic spend every single cent on making the game better, not running a forum.
3.) Speaking of moderators, they tend to be forced to just close threads and delete posts en masse, without actually getting any info from the devs. In other words, they are useless and do not make the forum much better.
Anyway, remember, we will have the Warhammer Herald, and that will be a great link to the devs and the company, just like the DAoC Herald is. The Grab Bag will answer tons of questions, and that should be plenty. For technical help, go to the support site or call the number. For in-game help, petition a GM. For general discussion, use one of a hundred fan sites.
Amazing how we are 'complaining'. No one is crying they won't play the game. No one is whining about how mythic is trying to not hear the pleas of their customers. We are just voicing our opinions about why we would prefer or would not prefer official forums.
But i apologise for not finding what you find important to be my most significant concern.
But wait... I don't see you writing anything pro or con about the topic, just about the people who have... So I take my apology back.
Because the only 'COMPLAINER' here was YOU.
We have put down and explained our reasoning for wanting a Mythic based forum. Thats not complaining thats voicing ones opinions and feelings in a constructive manner. Is it not a shame that this thread is the most popular and it lacked any flaming or trolling till YOU came around.
To paraphrase another poster:
"We are forum goers here, we're biased"
( And yes I am on my high horse again: "Giddy up" )
Comments
I'm with the minority here - official forums aren't necessarily a good thing, IMO. My reasoning is that I want the Developers - the experts - to stick with their vision of the game without being influenced by the players, who all seem to join in on various crazy wishing bandwagons in official forum threads, screaming "hey - we want this / or that!!!".
Oh, and I think WAR will be more bootay, than boutique.
For the record I could care less if you have forums or not. As long as you have a way for customers with issues to resolve those issues I am ok with whatever communicaiton you have in place. If customers cannot resolve anything then you need to re-evaluate your communication methods.
I am registered on your official Warhammer: Age of Reconing site for your newsletter. I and MANY othes do not recieve the newsletter in our e-mail. Yes, I have checked my inbox and my bulk/spam area. It took a long time, but I was able to find the feedback option you often talk about hidden at the end of the FAQ section of the WAR site. There is no link to a feedback option on the main page. I submitted a feedback about not recieving your newsletter. I have yet to recieve an e-mail response or the e-mail newsletter.
If I do not get the newsletter, how do I know I am in the pool of people that might win a beta spot?
Issues like this are a problem if you choose not to have forums.
Since you're a yahoo user, the answer probably lies in this announcement made back in July at www.warherald.com that described the issues free mail services have with mass mailings. It appears that the other free services are handling things well enough, aside from some delays and spam filters, but yahoo has bigger issues.
The Newsletter, Free Email Services, and You
- Gmail is fine, at least for now. You can stop reading now, and go have a snack.
- Yahoo is choking a little, because we dumped nearly ten thousand emails on them at once. It may take up to five days for your newsletter to arrive... but it may not arrive at all due to timeout errors. If you have a Yahoo address and have not received your newsletter yet, hang on for a bit. If you don't get it within the week, I recommend logging in to your newsletter account and click "My Profile" (not "edit profile, and don't ask why). Click "unregister" and then click "yes." Go through the sign up process again, and use a different email address.
- Hotmail users may also experience delays, but you should all get your newsletters eventually. However, if the delay annoys you, please follow the steps I outlined for the Yahoo people.
And of course, as always, you should please check your spam folders before assuming that no email has been received. Don't forget to tag Mythic mail as not-spam. We are twice as delicious.
The above is why many companies don't allow freemail addresses; too much drama.
I do apologize for any inconvenience and annoyance.
Thanks, that explains that.
I am for official forums the reasons being:
1) Fan sites tend to cater to a 'specific' segment of the community: An example of such is Warhammer Alliance: this site tends to focus on on the Warhammer (Tm) tabletop game and its varients. And from what I have read the members have a DISTINCT bias agaist the Warhammer 40k game. They dont sci-fi. Where as in a official or nuetral forum your more likely to get a less... constrained.... thread about certain subjects and view points
2) I prefer Official sites; Peroid: I really just do prefer official sites, fan sites are not accountable for any false info or rumors that are posted on them by there moderators/creators. Official sites, you are much more likely to get correct and imformed information. Probably not very much of it mind you and probably not until exactly when the 'officials' want to tell us, if they want to tell us...
3) In my OPINION, fan sites even the good ones, tend to get very elitist over time and some are just elitist period: Example: PSO World when Phantasy Star Universe came out. PSO-world was hands down the best place to get into on all things PS related, even better than the official sites. But the 'community' became very insular. The PSOers pretty much refused to group with anyone who was not a part of 'their' community and generally locked ALL games. The only way to even get a group on their 'server' was to sign up for the site and then make a specific appointment to group with those on the site. There were several threads about this and the veterans and moderaters were not apologetic at all about how they treated the 'new members' of the community.
Official forums tend to even things out a bit between the new people and the old people when playing a game and it also lets you communicate with others on a more even keel than going into an existing 'community' who are all on the same wave length, Its one thing being an 'outsider looking in', its another thing to be an 'outsider looking in and haveing not chance to get in' because the fansite player base is elitist or insular or just plain arrogent (See what I said earlier about war alliance, they site was created with a specific kind of warhammer fan in mind, so to get a less biased view about warhammer games in general you would have to look at several differant warhammer related sites.)
4) They are fan sites; they can operate and moderate anyway they want anytime they want: Where a official site would have to be careful of moderating willy nilly or face severe feedback. The owners of fansites can do pretty much whatever they want however they want. i am not saying they WILL do this but they CAN do this. No matter how well defined your argument or how articulate you are, if the moderators find the item does not fit what they have in mind or they disagree and dont want to see it.... it can be deleted or edited in a matter of seconds.
5) A official forums seems more well.. official ....: Fan sites are just that people who have one opinion about a topic tend to congregate at one particular fansite. And yes as Richard mentioned there may be a few 'good' fansites when the game comes out but they will still be that and there sites will always be scewed towards their own particular brand of fandom. Where as a at an official forum people you get a much wider variaty of people who feel they can speak freely due to the fact taht the site is 'OFFICIAL' and dont feel constrained or guilty about voicing their true opinion on the matter.
In my opinion you should have official forums. If not there should be no forums at all of any kind regarding the game. But of course their is NO WAY thats going to happen. Because people want to 'talk' about the things they like and dont like.
I personally am disabled and hate having to look at mulitple fansites when I could just go to the official forums. Its hard enough trying to type this let alone voice my opinon in multiple forums on the same topic (which I dont have to do but feel i would have to do if there is no official forum). Also its a pain in the ass typing in the addresses over and over again because I dont want to clutter up my friends list with ten War forums
or possibly more.
And to be very honest i would not even be posting here, if this were not the closest thing I could find to a neutral or official fansite. Its also one of the few sites where i have seen multiple post by mythic employee(s). As you can see i have only posted 3 times and only on War related topics. I like reading and posting in forums but generally only in the official ones. I just personally feel like I am just wasting my time at fansites such as this. But I guess i have no choice in the matter on this game.
And I keep on wondering: Besides people thinking that its the only way to contact Mythic wouldnot having a centralized neutral nonbiased place to post not be a good idea?
Besides the bottom line (money) I cant really see a downside to having a official forum. Yes many would see it as an avenue to communicate with Mythic, but repeated warnings in the forums that its just for community would solve that problem (Yes I know warning labes never stop the dumb: Thats way we have warning labels on coffee saying that its hot *sigh* and people still try to sue when they get burned ).
And before I get jumped on about NOT HAVING TO GO TO FANSITES, i want to remind Mr. Richard_Mythic that he has already stated you will 'only need to go to one or two good fansite' to really be in touch with the 'community'. And that seems like I am being goaded in a certain direction to me.
I say if there is going to be a community let Mythic be the one to host it not Annonymous Warhammer Fansite #22435435
Thats my story and I'm stiking to it.
/rant off
A stance Mythic has taken for a long time which shows what kind of company they are.
.... Better things to do than provide the best customer service?. What like take your money for the bare minimum package they can get away with.
Abit of an an exaggeration there but no less unreasonable than your statement.
Not providing offical forums is bad customer service. End of story.
.... Better things to do than provide the best customer service?. What like take your money for the bare minimum package they can get away with.
Abit of an an exaggeration there but no less unreasonable than your statement.
Not providing offical forums is bad customer service. End of story.
So the horrible WoW forums is the way to provide good customer service? I've had exponentially better CS from Mythic in DAoC than I ever had playing WoW. I had accounts open and active in both games on day 1. DAoC I had minimalist issues playing. WoW, I was lucky if the server would stay up long enough to get a couple levels. That trend continued pretty much up until the day I canceled my WoW account.
Official Forums do not equal best customer service. It's just another avenue that Mythic doesn't feel they need to take since the ways they allow customers to provide feedback and get support work just fine. I agree with them.
.... Better things to do than provide the best customer service?. What like take your money for the bare minimum package they can get away with.
Abit of an an exaggeration there but no less unreasonable than your statement.
Not providing offical forums is bad customer service. End of story.
So the horrible WoW forums is the way to provide good customer service? I've had exponentially better CS from Mythic in DAoC than I ever had playing WoW. I had accounts open and active in both games on day 1. DAoC I had minimalist issues playing. WoW, I was lucky if the server would stay up long enough to get a couple levels. That trend continued pretty much up until the day I canceled my WoW account.
Official Forums do not equal best customer service. It's just another avenue that Mythic doesn't feel they need to take since the ways they allow customers to provide feedback and get support work just fine. I agree with them.
So why all this debate for something that the majority of the game users will never even bother with? Why spend all the money on moderating and hosting them? It seems to me that the vocal minority that want their forums are up in arms again, much like the vocal minority that always cry and scream for nerfs to X class in their game of choice.
The camelot herald was an excellent place for information regarding the game that may effect "every one" that played the game. Mythic has stated they are going to make the WAR herald bigger, better, and much more robust. Also the little launcher browser that most games have with info and other such stuff is seen by EVERY ONE and much more important than official forums. Which is why it surprised me that WoW took so long to implement one. But then they didnt implement one because they thought the people would go to their official site and forums. Well they found out that most people dont bother going to the official forums so had to implement the log in window with info, which they still suck at updating.
Mythic has a set and streamlined way of not only feedback but getting information out to its players. A system that I would take over the most mature and perfect official forum setting any day of the week.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
Well, that was just a ridiculous post. We're forum dwellers here! We read and post on forums. So we care how forums are implemented, either officially or through third parties.
And what do forum dwellers do? We debate, we discuss, we argue. And no topic is too trivial. So I think this debate is very valid.
To us, anyway.
Seriously.
It's Are'el. This forum doesn't allow apostrophes in usernames.
Im not sheep? I don’t listen to developers that TELL Me what I want?
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"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
when i played wow, the official forum was full of people bragging, flaming or just being a pain. when i posted sumin it usually got lost in the pile of posts and threads, so i think a non official forum is good.
it spreads the player base across a number of forums and posts, members and flaming is far easier to handle.
Out of curiosity, what does that have to do with anything, and how would Mythic having official forums remedy this first issue? 40k has nothing to do with Mythic, nor do they have anything to do with 40k. A Mythic forum would be dedicated to WAR, The Warhammer MMORPG based on the Warhammer Fantasy Battles tabletop game, and the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.
You'd find no 40k support there either, short of off-topic forums, where it belongs. Same as warhammer alliance, want to talk 40k? bring it to off-topic (Though you may or may not be right about whatever bias, so it may or may not be a fruitful discussion, that's not for me to debate). They're not catering to a specific segment of the community, they're catering to the WAR community, which 40k isn't a part of. Does that mean you can't be a fan of both? Not at all. The Warhammer community inolves both fantasy and 40k. The WAR community involves just that.. WAR, the game based in the fantasy setting of Warhammer.
Infact, just another tidbit regarding this, 40k is also licensed to another developer.
Anyway, you're voicing your opinions and the lot of them are valid, however this struck me as odd and out of place, and is an thought I don't think you should have spearheaded your post with. Since the reasons for the thing you dislike are thus:
This game, and all fan-based, forum-based activities regarding it are about warhammer fantasy. So it's only natural it's sci-fi counterpart gets a backseat, or no seat at all. So in regards to this issue, I fail to see how an Official forum of EA Mythic for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, would change this problem.
(Also, just a minor thought I've picked up as a lurker of all things WAR, I think whatever possible bias may exist because alot of times WAR was talked about initially (and this occurs even now) you have people say things such as, "Why Fantasy warhammer!? it should have been 40k!", usually in more negative tones as well. You must also keep in mind they are fans of this aspect of warhammer, so it's natural that they will cater to it more than it's sci-fi counter-part.)
The use of Warhammer 40K as an example didn't make much sense, having multiple fan sites does "constrain" the dialog somewhat. One of the reasons that supporters of fan forums use, is that people can pick and choose which forum to frequent. Don't like it at TenTonHammer? Move over to Warhammer Alliance. However, people tend to congregate where there are like-minded people. If people have a choice of where to go to talk on a forum, they'll go where they're most comfortable. And in a way, they'll cut themselves off somewhat from differing opinions. Since forums thrive on debate, this is a bad thing.
Look at Network News as an example. Ten years ago, your choices for finding out what's-what in the world was very limited. Everyone heard the news from the same few sources. As such, people were exposed to opinions that they didn't necessarily agree with. It sparked discussion, debate, critical thinking. Fast forward to today, and you have a network, or a blog, dedicated to bringing the news for every particular slant under the sun. A conservative could tune into FoxNews every night, have thier opinions validated by the talking heads, and never have to hear things from a liberal perspective if they don't want to. This is part of why things in politics are becoming so polarized. No one is forced to hear things from the other side. and thus no empathy is formed. They only hear what they already wanted to hear.
The problem is less obvious when you are talking about a gaming forum. After all, there aren't a lot of vastly different views for gameplay in an MMO. Sure, fans of FFA PvP might stick together, or maybe anti-instance players could choose to ignore the arguements of the other side. But those are all minor things. At most, I think that the lack of an official forum dulls the ongoing debates a little, if just because all the voices are spread out to the various corners of the web.
On a related note. Back on the subject of Server forums. I mentioned that they were a great way to form a server-wide community, allowing trade and events, maybe even some bragging. But another mentioned that third party forums will set up server based forums if asked. Doesn't that defeat the point of having a Server forum? If you want everyone from your server to have a place to congregate and talk, but 3-5 third party sites create server forums, doesn't that just break everyone up anyway?
Seriously.
It's Are'el. This forum doesn't allow apostrophes in usernames.
IN this forum, there have been several WAR 40K MMO threads. Why?
Because its a centralized forum and since this forum attracts Warhammer afficianado's of all kinds, it seems a logical choice to voice how you feel about that game here.
On the other hand, the forums which I spoke of all lean towards one side of the GW universe of games or another.
How many people have stated that they are just happy to have a WARHAMMER Game coming out period, even if its not there favorite Universe?
And many of those people will wind up playing WAR(at least until the 40K one comes). But without a centralized forum, they will have to go to forums that obviously have a slant against them, instead of going someplace where there will be a balanced opinion.
I was basically trying to state the same sentiment as Areel just did. But I failed abysmally..
It made sense at the time ( to me at least ).
Hope that clears things up a bit.
When I look back at my DAoC days... I recall constantly reading my unofficial realm boards (www.palomides.net) and always had the feeling that they gave me Much Much more information on the camelotherald site than I even cared for.
In the end, if they give the same level and consistency of their customer service and communication to Warhammer as they did to DAoC then I'll be happy. Official boards? I don't care... if thats how they want to communicate, great....if not? No big deal... just provide good customer service in some form and I'm a happy camper.
This thread is a perfect example of why I'm not broken up in the least about a lack of an official forum. People will always find something to bitch about.
If you want a real harsh death penalty, go play Russian Roulet. - Hamzal
1.) All of the whiners go there, as it is the most direct link to the company. As such, the forum is usually filled with flames, trolls, whines, etc., with little real substance. External forums tend to be a bit better.
2.) It is a waste of resources, as official forums require money and time to keep running and moderate. I'd rather EA Mythic spend every single cent on making the game better, not running a forum.
3.) Speaking of moderators, they tend to be forced to just close threads and delete posts en masse, without actually getting any info from the devs. In other words, they are useless and do not make the forum much better.
Anyway, remember, we will have the Warhammer Herald, and that will be a great link to the devs and the company, just like the DAoC Herald is. The Grab Bag will answer tons of questions, and that should be plenty. For technical help, go to the support site or call the number. For in-game help, petition a GM. For general discussion, use one of a hundred fan sites.
But i apologise for not finding what you find important to be my most significant concern.
But wait... I don't see you writing anything pro or con about the topic, just about the people who have... So I take my apology back.
Because the only 'COMPLAINER' here was YOU.
We have put down and explained our reasoning for wanting a Mythic based forum. Thats not complaining thats voicing ones opinions and feelings in a constructive manner. Is it not a shame that this thread is the most popular and it lacked any flaming or trolling till YOU came around.
To paraphrase another poster:
"We are forum goers here, we're biased"
( And yes I am on my high horse again: "Giddy up" )
This far the line no oppinion mathers , still mine is
Good or bad - serious game must have official forums.
"Before this battle is over all the world will know that few...stood against many." - King Leonidas