Are the official WotC forums worth going to?

[dreaded_beast]

I stopped going to the official WotC message boards around 4 years ago due to a number of reasons, the 2 main ones being the relative slowness of the boards and, in my opinion, the lack of maturity and manners from many of the posters that frequented the boards.

Then I found the oasis that is EN World, or Eric Noah's 3rd Edition DND page as it was known at the time,

Anyways, does anyone here frequent the WotC message boards often and have they been improved? Do you think they are worth returning to?

I'm not saying the WotC message boards are bad, but that I have just had my own negative experiences. To someone else, their boards may be a perfect place to visit, which is good.

Just tell me why they are so in your opinion so that I may decide if I should return to frequenting those boards.

 

[Feathercircle]

Yes, especially if you are a Planescape fan.... yeah, there's the new Planewalker forums, but the Planescape and MotP subforums at WotC never cease to be a source of enjoyment for me. Where else do you get to see Shemeska the Marauder and Factol Rhys derail a topic by getting in a catfight over the goings-on at their prom? Where else do you get interesting debates as to slaadi alignment? Where else do you have the Lady of Pain smiley (and the accompanying FLAY smiley)?

Other than Planescape, I've found the Monster Lair very much worth visiting, not to mention livelier than the CC forums here... it's been hard for me lately to find live threads here that aren't conversions of stuff, and while conversions are great, I miss when there used to be more xenobiology discussions and people posting their own critters (Demiurge's kaiju, for one...)

The Art forum has a lot of really great artists hanging around, a lot of whom take requests- if you've got a scene or character you want drawn and can describe it vividly enough, you're likely to find someone willing to do it for you.

And the Mature forums can be interesting.... yes, you get the usual amount of IMmature threads there (though those often spark interesting discussions as well...) but you also get a lot of intelligent posting going on as well.

In any case, if a particular area here is being slow for a while, chances are there's posting going on at the corresponding area in WotC- they've got a higher noise-to-signal ratio than here, unfortunately, but that's a side affect of having just THAT much more signal to go around...

 

[Bendris Noulg]

I stopped going to the official WotC message boards around 4 years ago due to a number of reasons, the 2 main ones being the relative slowness of the boards and, in my opinion, the lack of maturity and manners from many of the posters that frequented the boards.

...

Just tell me why they are so in your opinion so that I may decide if I should return to frequenting those boards.

No. To my knowledge, the atmosphere hasn't changed, although I stopped hanging there a year ago. I'll gladly discuss why in e-mail, as it would require the naming of names.

 

[Nightfall]

There's only three reasons I got to the WotC forums db.

1) To spread the Word of Orcus and the Scarred Lands
2) To catch up on the latest Mini news when Merric isn't around.
3) To general poke fun mentally at some of the posters.

 

[Nightfall]

No. To my knowledge, the atmosphere hasn't changed, although I stopped hanging there a year ago. I'll gladly discuss why in e-mail, as it would require the naming of names.

Oh! Can I say one?! You know how much I hated him!

 

[NiTessine]

Oh! Can I say one?! You know how much I hated him!

You mean that guy? Argh, I hate him!

Me, I stopped hanging about in the FR forums, because the atmosphere changed and because of the new novels rules, which seem fairly draconic and perhaps a tad unreasonable by any standards. The new Eberron forums seem to be more hospitable, though, and well worth a visit, if you like the setting.

The main problem I see with the WotC forums is that the active user base is inconveniently large, and the WizOs are forced to use heavyhanded methods to keep the immature and malicious elements in line. I much prefer EN World, due to a more free atmosphere and a higher level of maturity. Also, the WotC boards sometimes go too fast to follow, especially when they're slow to load...

So, go there, see for yourself. Make your own judgement on the matter.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Oh! Can I say one?! You know how much I hated him!

Actually, I know who you mean, so feel free; he wasn't part of my reason for leaving, only a symptom of the problem and easily ignored once his endless pettiness reduced him to irrelevancy.

 

[Nightfall]

Ni,

I'm talking about mister "Beat things with a Stick is realistical D&D", Arturick. The Shovel idiot.

Man I'm glad I don't see him anymore. But yeah his pettiness was his downfall. Not that I'm surprised just wish it had happened sooner.

 

[Kastil]

I stopped going to the official WotC message boards around 4 years ago due to a number of reasons, the 2 main ones being the relative slowness of the boards and, in my opinion, the lack of maturity and manners from many of the posters that frequented the boards.

This is the main reason I stopped going to those boards as well and it's only been a year for me. While I have had people disagree with what I've said here at EnWorld, they have a little, no, a LOT more tact when conveying their opinion.

Oh don't get 'them' started over there on the Drizzt PC clones ::shudders:: Makes me feel like I'm in high school again.

 

[NiTessine]

I'm talking about mister "Beat things with a Stick is realistical D&D", Arturick. The Shovel idiot.

Man I'm glad I don't see him anymore. But yeah his pettiness was his downfall. Not that I'm surprised just wish it had happened sooner.

I see. I just remember him as the person who had amusing anecdotes, like Ab3 of RPG.net. I usually stuck to the FR forums. You know who it was that I meant.