Server forums?

[Vandrel-Blitz]

On the first day of xmas Bioware gave to me.....

 

 

1 MMO

1 Official Forum

12 Forum Sections

41 Sub-Forum Sections

 

aaaannnndddd

 

ZERO.....SERVER.....FOOOORRUUUMMMMMMSSSSSSSZzzzzzz!

Edited December 25, 2011 by Vandrel-Blitz

[Crittcann]

So the only server, the only one on the entire list that is offline is The Maw, and that was where I was playing, no server status or update as to why or when it will come back online. This is why we need server forums, cause right now it's just a server down and lost playtime with no explanation. I will play an alt on another server but I'm into my story on that one and I hate switching up this deep into my character.

 

Server forums pls thanks.

[murkin]

You know its truly pathetic that the reason we don't have server forums is because of the lack of their ability to moderate them.

 

The game is awesome. Its great.

 

But we need server forums.

 

No one even knows whats going on throughout my server (Jung Ma). We even have it easy with RP-PvP forums being so few, but its still not worth it for most of us. No one is going to use those sub-forums to find a guild. And then there are the server types with a billion different servers. The regular PvE servers are just completely screwed.

 

Why are the forums easier to moderate without server forums and instead having these crappy sub forums? Because hardly anyone is willing to use such a horrible forum system. Instead we will walk around SWTOR castrated and dumb.

 

Honestly, whoever had the idea to not have server forums in swtor needs to play their own damn game and realize that its impossibly hard to get to know a community you have almost no communication with.

 

Go ahead and talk in general. You'll probably run into a pothole of trolls and drown.

 

Props! for all here who are wishing that we receive server forums.

[EternusIV]

/signed

 

It's simple, really: This game will lose subs and loyalty if the developers continue to ignore the implementation of sever forums.

 

Nothing helps business better than word of mouth, and for the MMO genre, the server forums are essential for recruitment and directing friends and new players to specific communities. How can they not see how server forums will translate to added scrips?

 

MESSAGE: Help us help you, Bioware.

 

Somebody within the ranks must be stubborn. Perhaps they assume that social media can spare them the bother? Perhaps the story-driven theme is assumed to override all other considerations?

 

Somebody smarter than the current decision maker should emerge and fix the problem and if not: remember that SOE assumed the Lucas license would cover all sins, too.

 

Every once in a while you see a competent company make a terrible decision and pay the price in the open market. The lack of server forums is excellent news for TOR's competition.

[Pixieydust]

Having forum servers make it very nice for guilds to announce when they are having events. Since they are going to get rid of the guild help with the forums and such making it easy to search this is a much needed thing. Let some of the players moderate it. I have not seen a mmo game site that did not have one. Everyone wants the game to do well, having a server forum helps the community bond together, get to know each other also. I have met some really great people in other games via the server forum. The general forums topics move so fast and easily get overlooked. Posting the server events on the server forums also helps with in game spam. If a player is looking for a guild, doing so via the internet is pretty impossible given how many things they have to search. The server forums help with this.

 

 

Please give us server forums. It helps players get together and have fun in the game. Community along side a great game equals success.

[DeathPriest]

/signed

 

We need server forums... No idea what they're thinking not putting them in its ridiculous. Browsing my server forums is almost as much fun as playing the damn game.

 

 

 

Coucou BioWare...wakeup sunshine.

[Activetimes]

I completely agree with many of the statements made in this thread. Server specific fourms are absolutly needed. If bioware wants us to be community oriented then we need a section of the forums dedicated to each and every server.

Idk about everyone else, but I feel the way the sub-forums for guild recruitment are set up are just flat out dumb. However creative the moderators/developers thought the sub-forums were, they need to understand that it was a horrid idea. I don't know anyone that wants to sift through thousands of posts just to find one that is related to a guild on their server. Even with the proposed search option (that still doesn't work]) you have to consider that many posts don't have server names in the title nor do several of the posters know how to spell the name of their server. These two issues alone cause the search option to be lackluster.

To prevent any ranting on my part, I will stop here... I just hope that Bioware holds true to the thought of community and can see that server forums would do nothing but bring that idea of community to life.

[Ovuel]

This is something that definitely needs to be reevaluated on BioWare's end. Server forums are a valuable part of a gaming community and while I agree there are some negatives that can come with server forums, there are far far more positives. It's nice not to have cross server this and cross server that, as it gives the servers the feelings of closeness we all grew to love and have mostly lost in today's MMO world. The lack of individual server forums, takes all of that and throws it right back out the window. May as well institute all those cross-server tools if we're "expected" to be one big community.

 

I can understand that BioWare is concerned with being able to properly moderate such a large number of forums, but there are businesses out there who specialize in doing exactly that and some of them are employed by the other large MMOs and other games out today. I obviously don't have TOR's sales/sub numbers in front of me, nor do I know the final cost of R&D for this game, but I can't imagine with the popularity of this game, that the resources to make this a reality are tight enough to prevent this from happening in the very near future.

 

TL;DR Version - We understand your concerns, but we are missing a huge part of the community without server forums.

[yutrio]

Consider this post as another voice in support for server forums.

 

Bioware states that they want people to congregate together and form communities. After all, that's why we don't have things like cross-faction warzones and flashpoint finders. However, community building is more than what goes on in-game. There needs to be a place for players on that server to meet up with.

 

You cannot say that you want to encourage community building, and then not give the community tools in order to do so. Web hosting costs both time and money to set-up and maintain, and while some servers will be able to have server forums hosted elsewhere, not all server communities will be lucky enough to have people able, or willing to do that. And there is also the issue that people may never know about it, or people do not want to use it because of security reasons. As a customer, and a strong advocate for community bonding, I find your intentions and subsequent actions not only contradictory, but baffling as well.

 

I do hope that you reconsider your choice. The game is still young, but I think the longer the game goes on without an avenue for players to converge that's provided by Bioware, the less likely it is for people to stick around playing the game. If people cannot come together and bond, then there is nothing that holds a community together.

[Ki_Draken_Magus]

I have always been told that mmo fourms are largely ignored by the vast majority of a games subscribers. They either don't care to view/post or don't know about a forum.

 

I've read that time and again on every MMO fourm I've ever visited both from individual posters and developers.

 

So....my question is, how are server forums supposed to build a "community", when the vast majority of the "community" either ignore and don't know about the forums?

[MajikMyst]

/signed..

 

I would like to see this as well.. I think it is good for the communities on each server..

[catherder]

just start a server thread... something like -- Server X Discussion -- Discuss...

[AlexHjelm]

People that playing on Bloodworthy EU can use http://www.bloodworthy.com or http://www.bloodworthy.eu

[Valcutio]

I enjoy this game but the lack of server community sucks. Not constructive enough? Too bad. It sucks, plain and simple.

 

The game needs server forums and Blizzard figured that out 7 years ago. Catch up, Bioware.

[Sufran]

I have always been told that mmo fourms are largely ignored by the vast majority of a games subscribers. They either don't care to view/post or don't know about a forum.

 

I've read that time and again on every MMO fourm I've ever visited both from individual posters and developers.

 

So....my question is, how are server forums supposed to build a "community", when the vast majority of the "community" either ignore and don't know about the forums?

I’m afraid I think you’ve constructed a bit of a straw-man here as nobody is suggesting that every player is clamouring to use this or would use any implemented forums. It is simply the case that those who do visit the forum will be impacted by it, and those that visit the forum are (bluntly) the ones that are more likely to keep a server alive for those that don’t visit the forum via organising and publicising RP, PvP, PvE, etc.

 

It acts as a nucleus for things to congregate around thus any activity on the forum will transfer into the game, where it impacts even those that don’t visit the forums. It isn't necessary for everybody to participate in the 'community' on the forum for it to exist, a minority can provide the framework quite easily.

[Kagon]

As far as the argument of not being able to moderate all the different forums, why not allow players to vote posts up and down? You already have the Flag button for inappropriate/abusive posts. Let the community take care of the rest with a voting system.

 

Agreed.

 

The mods here, at least from what I saw in Beta, go way overboard anyway.

Edited December 25, 2011 by Kagon

[christianizcool]

replying, just to show my support! There is no really excuse for this

[kahunax]

Is there an unofficial forum set up for the Jedi Covenant server? If not...we can host one on our guild website.

[jackccc]

/sign.

 

Bioware talks about building communities but how can you build a community without a server forum. Its way harder to have community sites. At the very least we need server forums for the RP realms.

[jackccc]

I’m afraid I think you’ve constructed a bit of a straw-man here as nobody is suggesting that every player is clamouring to use this or would use any implemented forums. It is simply the case that those who do visit the forum will be impacted by it, and those that visit the forum are (bluntly) the ones that are more likely to keep a server alive for those that don’t visit the forum via organising and publicising RP, PvP, PvE, etc.

 

It acts as a nucleus for things to congregate around thus any activity on the forum will transfer into the game, where it impacts even those that don’t visit the forums. It isn't necessary for everybody to participate in the 'community' on the forum for it to exist, a minority can provide the framework quite easily.

 

^ this

[Oohm]

The response from Bioware about server forums is really just disgusting. They say they want to focus the game around building communities when this does nothing but hurt it. There are no benefits at all to not having server forums.

 

Bioware argues from a point that is basically we don't have the mod power to keep every server's forum clean so forget it. I'm not sure exactly what they want to moderate out of the forums. They could be referencing a lot of tension that comes from a server forum but that helps the community grow.

 

By having a collective place in which everyone from the server can find (instead of 1 of 10 different random sites for the same server no one will ever visit) you can create that drama and connection with people. It makes you feel a deeper sense of connection and liveness in the community.

 

Not to mention the extra bonus, such as guild recruitment, profession advertising, roleplaying threads, and just getting to know the community you're on a server with.

 

So get it together Bioware, if you want a real mmo-community to flourish than do your part and add something in as simple as realm forums.

[Raggok]

So, let me see. In order to experience a server community I have to put my computer at risk by going to a website that could be run by anyone.

 

This is not acceptable, Bioware. Either create your own server forums or partner with an established gaming site to have them host server forums for you.

 

I am not going to websites that might intentionally or unintentionally put my computer at undue risk.

[gramirez]

Not having official server forums was a big disappointment. If its left up to the player base to create and moderate our own server forums it will undoubtedly fail, as I have seen many pop up already and either people dont post or they spread the player base amongst several.

 

The lack of official server forums voids the player base of any true community and instead pushes us to be less social, and treat the game as a solo experience and less like an MMO. For an MMO this is so fail, and will end up becoming one of the reasons people will beat the story and end up leaving.

[Kaddywompus]

I'm actually surprised there aren't individual server forums.

 

Almost every MMO i've played has had these...even the bad ones...

 

 

So, what the hell, BioWare? We know you're new to the MMO party...but EA sure isn't.

[christianizcool]

I think the biggest reason BW and EA won't add server forums is they have so strictly moderated the forums. The more boards they have to moderate, the more criticisms will sneak past their watch.