Why has WotC stopped posting on ENWorld?

[KirayaTiDrekan]

I also think that WotC is generating some good will by putting Basic D&D out there for free. I think that will have a definite impact on forum atmosphere in the near future.

 

[billd91]

I believe edition warring will subside even further, when people grudgingly admit they are having more fun with the new game than their old favorites.

This is why I think Basic D&D taking a lowest common denominator approach and calling that Core is the right way forward. You tailor the game by adding the options you like to it, rather than telling others to take out the stuff out that they don't. Rather than "everything is core, if you don't like such and such, tough, you're a fossil" attitude, which was infuriating.

I hope it will subside as well, but it may have less to do with enjoying 5e more than its predecessors (since 4e players certainly said they enjoyed that) and more to do with the fact that the designers have done their homework with respect to producing a D&D that more people will not only play but embrace. And I think they really have done much more this time around in validating that their design ideas are appreciated by a wide cross-section of players/customers. But, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and we'll get our chance to dig in later this summer...

 

[Agamon]

That is true - I wandered away from ENWorld about the time 4E came out, and I'm just returning now. it is much better.

I'm also back after a 4-year hiatus. It was tough trying to find a thread not full of pointless bickering back then. Agreed, much better now.

 

[Thaumaturge]

I'm also back after a 4-year hiatus. It was tough trying to find a thread not full of pointless bickering back then. Agreed, much better now.

There's a couple of year wide gap in my attendance, too.

Thaumaturge.

 

[mearls]

The social networks have largely supplanted small forums all across the web. The RPG segment has actually been pretty lucky and remained comparatively intact. Hopefully that will last!

This is really the root of it - Twitter and Facebook are designed for sharing. Take the photo of the Starter Set dice I posted this morning - that spread pretty quickly, and it showed up on the EN World news feed.

Forums are better for in-depth, back and forth, but they come at the cost of reach.

That's why we watch the forums to see what's happening and what people are talking about (along with Twitter and Facebook), but use streaming video, social networks, and our own web site to put information out there. It lets us reach as many people as possible in both directions (talking and listening).

Plus, from my POV it's much easier and more efficient to spend 15 minutes a day replying to questions on Twitter, then stepping into the middle of a forum conversation that I may or may not actually be able to contribute anything useful to.

 

[Morrus]

The essential difference between social networks and forums - and Google or Facebook could do this in a heartbeat, and probably will at some point, which is when places like this will go away forever - is archive-ability. You can't stumble across a Facebook conversation from a week ago and contribute to it, let along a month or a year ago. G+ is a little more archivey in that Google's search index features a G+ post linking to an article higher than the actual article, assuming it is set to be public. Twitter is pretty much what folks are saying right this second, like a giant worldwide chatroom.

So a conversation on Twitter, G+, or FB is about "now" - what folks are talking about right this second. It gets high immediate response rates (and folks replying are where most of us get our online fuel), but those are limited to those that look at it right then, and overall views are lower. It's gone in a day or two, never to be seen again - but it's a quicker immediate fix. Folks won't stumble across it on Google in a year's time (well, G+ maybe, but Google pretty much controls the web these days). A forum conversation can go in-depth and last much longer, and be accessible forever. A forum doubles as an information archive. How many times have you searched for info, and the answer has been a forum thread on whatever game, electronic device, washing machine, skincare product, or what-have-you? Lots and lots, I'll wager.

This will all change, of course. Web pages as we know them won't be around in ten years. Forums won't be, either. Or rather, forum software will evolve to integrate social networks as much as those corporations will allow it to. Forum topics these days are fairly easily shareable on the social networks, and that will become easier, automated, and more integrated. Eventually, they'll be hard to separate.

To tie that into the current discussion - WotC's behaviour follows these trends exactly, and I'm sure every corporation on the planet does exactly the same. We're all customers of Twitter, FB, and Google these days, whether we want to be or not. Sure, those specific networks might not be around forever (Hi MySpace!) but that's the future model.

Reading that, you probably ask: why not just have a FB page or G+ group than a site and forum? The answer is that those spaces are rented; you don't own your group or page - the big corporations do. If Google decides to close G+ or FB changes the way a Facebook page works (as they frequently have done) you have no control over that.

 

[Morrus]

Of course, and I don't want to speak for him or anyone else at WotC, but I'm sure Mike can confirm this, he knows that if he posts something on Twitter, it'll end up here. When he posts on Twitter, he's posting on every RPG forum on the web. That's part of what he means by reach. If it didn't, Twitter would be a bit crappy as a medium, as it only reaches a few thousand directly. But it's strength is that folks share what he tweets.

(Then again, if he posted 5E info here, or anywhere else, it'd be on Twitter, FB, and G+ pretty quick, too - wherever it's posted, it'll get shared in zero seconds; it's not Twitter that has the reach, it's the D&D brand - if he posts about the cookie he ate today, it won't spread very far) These days its all about where's quickest and easiest to post, and the social networks are miles ahead of forum software on that for now).

 

[Ahnehnois]

A fair number of Paizo employees do post occasionally here (most of whom of course are formerly of WotC). Even though they have their own forums, apparently they see some value in ENW specifically.

 

[Remathilis]

There's a couple of year wide gap in my attendance, too.

Thaumaturge.

I was a casual reader. I fluttered in and out during the 4e/Paizo debate years, returned briefly during the Essentials run-up (mostly out of morbid curiosity as to if/how they were going to fix 4e) and then again when the Playtest was announced.

 

[Morrus]

A fair number of Paizo employees do post occasionally here (most of whom of course are formerly of WotC). Even though they have their own forums, apparently they see some value in ENW specifically.

It's not so much about providing value - and I wouldn't want it to be. That'd be a terribly cynical indictment of social interaction. It's about community. Partly, when you build your own new community, as Paizo did, your heart understandably lies there. That's their community. Just like this is mine. But there's crossover, just like in any social dynamic.