Three things official/unofficial forums can and can't do
by Brooke Pilley 
Feb 7th 2009 at 7:00PM
Filed under: Forums, Warhammer Online, Opinion
Ryan Shwayder, a game designer for 38 Studios, recently put in his two cents on the official vs. unofficial forums argument. He originally called official forums a necessary evil but when prompted by Warhammer Alliance forum administrator, Garthilk, to name three things official forums could do that unofficial forums couldn't, he changed his tune a bit. In a response post, Blackguard (aka Ryan Shwayder), commented that both forum-types were necessary and neither actually evil. He then listed off three things official forums could do that unofficial forums couldn't. To bring some balance, he also listed three pros of unofficial forums. Ryan believes official forums have a leg up on developer-to-player communication, ownership (the forums won't close if admins lose interest), and integration with official web tools and in-game features. Alternatively, unofficial forums have a leg up with less restrictive codes of conduct, a stronger focus on micro-communities, and feature innovation through creativity. Some of the commenters on his post shared a sentiment that they would like to see official forums focus more on developer-to-player communication and technical support, while the unofficial forums focus more on class forums and creative discussion. What are your thoughts?
We recently had a chance to interview both WHA and IGN regarding Mythic's official forum announcement and we will share that with you early next week.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Johnny_Velocity said on 7:56PM 2-07-2009
City of Heroes could have used a strong unofficial forum. Their censorship is horrific. Almost five years in, it is not likely to happen. And its too late - their community has been whittled down to the brown nosing few....
Reply
Jess said on 8:08PM 2-07-2009
I actually feel sorry for Garthilk of Warhamemr Alliance. Even though I can't stand his site and think his moderators are a bunch of sycophants to EA Mythic, I nonetheless feel bad because up till now his site was basically considered the defacto WAR official forums.
Now his site and many others will become a second thought at best. Ever see the LOTRO forums at IGN? Ghost town. The same fate awaits WHA and WAR's IGN as well. It sucks to see so much hard work pulled out from under them, especially when Mark Jacobs was so (apparently) adamant about there NEVER going to be official WAR forums.
Reply
jpo said on 8:36PM 2-07-2009
I think the biggest advantage to official forums is that everything is in one place.
Some unofficial forums seem to get skipped by devs for various reasons....one can never really be sure which unofficial site to send a dev question because you can't always be sure they even visit the site.
Official forums elimtnate the guess work...you know they are there lurking and reading, even though they still may ignore you.
Reply
Kyoji said on 8:57PM 2-07-2009
Plus anyone who subscribes to WAR will know where to find the forums. Granted its not hard to come across the Warhammer Alliance site, but official forums keep everything organized and discussion in one place.
Reply
Tokesh said on 9:36PM 2-07-2009
official forums won't save warhammer
better off spending their time redesigning the whole game
Reply
Lethality said on 10:42PM 2-07-2009
Official forums are absolutely necessary and can do many things that unofficial forums cannot.
Garthlik is crying over spilled milk because he's going to lose his cash cow banner revenue source.
Reply
Bossy said on 2:50AM 2-09-2009
The ONLY man against official forums is ... Mark Jacobs.
But that's because he shows some real signs of psycho behaviour lately.
MJ think he can manipulate the mass media with lies about this very mediocre War game he produced.
But truth always comes out in the end. NO 750 K subs, NO 1.2 M copies sold, NO limitless end game without a player CAP.
NO 120 full/full servers and billion dollar signs.
This kind of "manipulation" of the truth was the ONLY thing why MJ didn't want official forims and "hide" behind "unofficial" onces .... so he could always come back with "I didn't say that... it was on the unofficial forums".
Sorry guys but I HATE this person. MJ is completely wacky and NOT up to the job he is supposed to run.
EA should frte the guy immeadiatly.
Period.
Reply
Saylah said on 6:21PM 2-11-2009
I think it was a arrogant and poor sighted decision in the first place. You're a subscription MMO and official forums should be part of the price of doing business. I said it then and I'll say it now, if Blizzard can deal with their MASSIVE and insane player-base in official forums, no one else gets to whine or bow out.
Reply