D&D 5E Why Forums Should Be Ignored By Game Developers

[Parmandur]

Sage Advice does link to the originals so you can see the whole thread in context.

 

[Sunseeker]

So, you made a forum thread telling game devs they should ignore forum threads? Seems...contrary.

 

[corwyn77]

I just typed "magic missile site:twitter.com" into Google and hit search, clicked the first link, and was taken not to an individual tweet, but the whole post/response thread in which that tweet was made.

Sageadvice.eu

Thanks for that. It still makes one reliant on a fan site to emulate what forums are designed to do so, IMO, an inferior alternative. Also, you don't get easy to peruse lists of topics like forums. It's still a challenge to find a topic of conversation of interest.

And in other forums for other companies more in tune with online fans, you get actual responses from designers in more meaningful ways. Green Ronin, Hero, Steve Jackson Games, Savage Worlds, etc.

 

[happyhermit]

Thanks for that. It still makes one reliant on a fan site to emulate what forums are designed to do so, IMO, an inferior alternative. Also, you don't get easy to peruse lists of topics like forums. It's still a challenge to find a topic of conversation of interest.

And in other forums for other companies more in tune with online fans, you get actual responses from designers in more meaningful ways. Green Ronin, Hero, Steve Jackson Games, Savage Worlds, etc.

And yet Green Ronin recently said they were going to shut down their forums due to it's atmosphere (much like Wotc), I think they have reconsidered since then.

While I have seen a lot of good things at "1st party" type forums over the years, I have seen them cause a lot of grief for fans and companies.

 

[Parmandur]

Thanks for that. It still makes one reliant on a fan site to emulate what forums are designed to do so, IMO, an inferior alternative. Also, you don't get easy to peruse lists of topics like forums. It's still a challenge to find a topic of conversation of interest.



And in other forums for other companies more in tune with online fans, you get actual responses from designers in more meaningful ways. Green Ronin, Hero, Steve Jackson Games, Savage Worlds, etc.

It's less about topic, and more about following individuals. Not that hard, and more immediate than forums really. More well broadcast, which is their goal as a company: get the word out broadly, not in depth.

 

[Parmandur]

And yet Green Ronin recently said they were going to shut down their forums due to it's atmosphere (much like Wotc), I think they have reconsidered since then.

While I have seen a lot of good things at "1st party" type forums over the years, I have seen them cause a lot of grief for fans and companies.

I think the main thing was that they couldn't justify any ROI when third parties lime [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] who run for.s for a living can focus on it full time; way lower cost to have staff tweet than to run a forum.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

...way lower cost to have staff tweet than to run a forum.

Not to mention the increased likeliness that staff actually respond to fans, given than said staff were probably on twitter anyways, and can easily fully utilize twitter on a mobile device, so there is less of a "I'd have to get to a computer, then I'd have to sign in... that takes too long" barrier.

 

[happyhermit]

I think the main thing was that they couldn't justify any ROI when third parties lime [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] who run for.s for a living can focus on it full time; way lower cost to have staff tweet than to run a forum.

I am still involved in the running of a few forums (non-rpg related), was more involved in the past. It is hard to moderate your way out of a toxic environment, investing time and money in that certainly has a terrible ROI. The tech ROI is not usually a huge problem, if things are run sensibly. Bigger issues for businesses with forums are employees engaging in arguments and saying things they wish they hadn't, people making things personal, having an "official" site contain things you would never want associated with your brand. These were the problems Green Ronin mentioned (including an employee/moderator allegedly being being "cyber-stalked" or some such) and I have seen similar things before. Twitter in particular seems to (at least at this point) suffer from these issues to a lessor degree.

 

[Morrus]

I am still involved in the running of a few forums (non-rpg related), was more involved in the past. It is hard to moderate your way out of a toxic environment, investing time and money in that certainly has a terrible ROI. The tech ROI is not usually a huge problem, if things are run sensibly. Bigger issues for businesses with forums are employees engaging in arguments and saying things they wish they hadn't, people making things personal, having an "official" site contain things you would never want associated with your brand. These were the problems Green Ronin mentioned (including an employee/moderator allegedly being being "cyber-stalked" or some such) and I have seen similar things before. Twitter in particular seems to (at least at this point) suffer from these issues to a lessor degree.

Twitter is infamous for online harassment. It's the poster child.

 

[happyhermit]

Twitter is infamous for online harassment. It's the poster child.

Sure there are issue on twitter, but it's on twitter, not on their website.