Are the official WotC forums worth going to?

[Particle_Man]

I recently got sucked into a 51 page thread on WOTC about whether Blues should be LA +1 or LA +0 (note: not what they officially were, but what they should be). It was enjoyable in its own way, but no one got convinced of anything, and it tended to run off-topic in various ways (sideways and meta). I think, aside from the "Ask Gary Gygax anything" threads that were here (before he had to stop answering so much, on account of the stroke), it was the longest thread I had ever been a part of.

On the other hand, I got way more responses to my "9 god world" idea over here than over there.

 

[Grazzt]

No. To my knowledge, the atmosphere hasn't changed, although I stopped hanging there a year ago.

Agreed. Same reason I dont frequent there anymore.

 

[kuje31]

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.

Come on Nightfall, we all know you go to the FR boards to annoy the posters there who dislike your ORCUS RULES! replies.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Go over and just read some of the post, then make up your mind.

I found it like visiting relatives, after three days it got old. the posters at WotC seem to believe there is nothing better than a Wizard product and if you question all things Wizard you are a witch and in need of burning. Okay, it is not that bad and you have to admire the drone like loyalty.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

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.

Absolutely!

Indeed, while we have an Ignore feature here, I've only had reason to use it once. Over there, I would have loved such a feature for well over a dozen or two people, including 1 or 2 of the mods.

Nightfall: Not who I was thinking of either. I figured it was the one that called you the "walking advertisement". Now, your individual (one of whom I, too, had issues with) eventually revealed his true nature: It seemed that no matter what anyone did (change the rules, stick to the rules, min/max, role-play, etc.), you were doing it wrong and just sucked. Reading his posts, it eventually became clear that he delighted in spreading ill-content. Period. He didn't care who you were, how you played, your preferences, etc., because you were obviously an idiot, played poorly, liked the wrong part of the game, and thus worthy only of being slammed in the head with a shovel and burried in the backyard.

Once that was clear, he was exceedingly easy to ignore.

 

[Alzrius]

My biggest reason for abandoning the WotC forums was also due to the lack of maturity there. It's too easy to get into a flame war with someone who decides the best way to respond to something is with an attack.

I find most message boards to be like this, truthfully, which just makes me more grateful we have EN World.

Another reason is that the WotC forums are seriously compartmentalized. While part of this is good, if you mention something not on topic to the forum you're in, that'll get you in trouble a lot faster than a flame war.

Finally, there's the fact that some things there don't get to be discussed at all since they don't have a forum, such as Dragon and Dungeon magazine, and Forgotten Realms novels.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

In general, I find discussion on ENWorld to be a much nicer atmosphere.

However, if you like min-maxing (or are a DM and want to know which things to ban), it's worth reading the character optimization forum every now and again.

 

[kuje31]

My biggest problem over there are people who argue until they are blue in the face even though sourcebooks prove them wrong and they still keep argueing that the sourcebooks are wrong and the book doesn't really say that. This happens A LOT (well actually almost daily) on the FR boards.

 

[CrusaderX]

I was just on the new Eberron forum, and it seems like quite a nice place.

 

[talinthas]

it completely depends on which forum you go to. there are a ton of boards there, and some very isolated communities. the dragonlance board, for instance, has no interaction with the rest of the site at all, but is a great board. The minis board as well, totally self contained and a cool place to be. Can't say anything about the rest though.