The State of ENWorld (too important to go to Meta)

[JoeBlank]

You bring up some great points, RW. The feel of ENW has changed over the past 6 months or so. Growth is good, for the most part, and I agree with Morrus and the others about the necessity for the more specialized forums.

I am a creature of habit, but I have modified by ENW routine somewhat. Now, I usually hit General, Rules, Books/movies/tv, Off Topic and Meta. If time is limited, I might skip OT and Meta. This thread has inspired me to start working d20/OGL Games and the d20 Publishers forums into the mix. I enjoy the announcements of and discussion about new products, particularly when the publishers/creative folk participate.

Virtually every non-WotC product that I purchased has been the result of talk on ENW. The best examples are Relics & Rituals (and other Scarred Lands books), all the Bad Axe books (Wulf, your presence here really enhances the feel of yuur products), Whispering Woodwind and other CMG products, and all the EN Publishing products.

I fondly remember a thread of a year or so ago when I asked for recommendations for a campaign setting book. MEG and Living Imagination both got sales out of that. In fact, I'm off the reread the thread now.
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=42500
(Reminder if you read it, probably don't want to post there, as it is pretty old)

 

[Sarellion]

This is a great forum and the moderators are doing a good job. The forumis very civil and nice.

I have seen forums who are bad, this isn´t one of them

So keep up the good work

 

[Darrin Drader]

Yup, Darrin Drader (WotC customer service) is Whisperfoot. He just posted yesterday over in Rules.

Geez Piratecat, CS is just my day job. I had roughly 150,000 words published last year and this year I'm on track to tie or beat that.

Anyway, my thought is that the creation of a forum for everything and enforcing that has been harmful, not helpful to the community. General is where people gravitate to. By weeding it down to just RPG discussion, it is inhibiting other types of discussions that theoretically should be taking place in other forums. The problem is that most people don't bother with those other forums and what could have been a fun or interesting discussion just gets discarded.

So, people who want to talk about RPGs as well as other things end up going elsewhere, such as Nutkinland or Randomling's House. Of course that isn't saying that this is necessarily a bad thing for ENWorld, since driving people away saves on bandwidth and money. Lately I've been lurking more than posting just because I either can't share the information I have on most topics, or have little interest in commenting.

I also think that there are far too many people here who have too strong of opinions about extremely trivial things, which makes discussing anything with them an exercise in futility.

Of course that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

 

[Nellisir]

My posting has actually gone up recently, largely because of the threads on the front page. I don't always post in them, but they remind me to check General and House Rules.

I'm OK with the multiple forums, though I wouldn't mind seeing the monster forums blended into one or two threads and put under House Rules and D&D Rules. The d20 Publishers forums work well for me -- I check all three regularly, though I rarely post anymore -- there's only so many threads on how to start a d20 pdf company I can take.

I also have to agree with marlaxle and a few others (4 or 5, not including myself) -- I've occasionally found the "community"*, if not hostile, at least either dismissive or scornful. I'm trying to change my perspective and post more, particularly in House Rules, but it's difficult.

*I don't think it's "the community". I think it's individuals who are probably non-representative of the community. But the people with the biggest mouths** often have the least to say.

** I don't specifically mean people with a high post count. Really. I don't.

Slow loading times (is this a/the server issue?) have been driving me batty recently. I keep meaning to hop over to meta and check it out...

Cheers
Nell.

 

[trancejeremy]

IMHO, there are probably several reasons to see a decline in general.

1) ENWorld is becoming overly clique-ish and insular, and if you aren't part of the in-group or cool group (the moderator's buddies), you feel unwelcome. I know I personally feel more welcome at that bastion of friendliness, RPG.net. Still, this is probably why posting might be up, but away from the actual general and gaming areas, but more in the clique-ish areas.

2) The servers are slow (could it be related to the more and more elaborate message boards that are incredibly bloated? Nah..)

3) I think the d20 market has slumped, somewhat, mostly due to 3.5 splitting the market.

4) WRT Publishers, I think there are unfortunately, fewer of them in business these days, and those that are still are around are busy trying to stay in business. Also, the bigger ones, like AEG and Mongoose now how pretty active message boards, which siphon off traffic.

 

[Neo]

Some "threads" can certainly be very clique'ish.

I don't know I'd agree that 3.5 split the market either the differences arent huge between the editions certainly not enough that you couldnt easily pick up and use any book from one with the other.

For myself though I dont tend to post as much here as I did once largely because of the amount of negative threads. There are only so many "I Just got <enter book name> and I hate it" threads you can look at in a day before you come away on a downer. I tend to avoid them all now and just check out the reviews section instead which provides two view points instead of the commonly biased singular one you get in the threads.

I love to read the "ideas" threads though and the occasional scoops, following individual threads that talk about (unbiasedly) books due out and how people plan to use them and so forth.

I suspect many many people still visit each day they're just like me and more choosey in what they post about.

 

[coyote6]

Block Lists - A popular web proxy filterning service for businesses has rightfully added EnWorld to the "Games" list, so a lot of large companies are now blocking it.

This is why I don't post or read as much as in times past.

Makes lunchtime really boring, too.

 

[Darrin Drader]

There are only so many "I Just got <enter book name> and I hate it" threads you can look at in a day before you come away on a downer. I tend to avoid them all now and just check out the reviews section instead which provides two view points instead of the commonly biased singular one you get in the threads.

Oh yeah, there's that. I love all the unpublished, highly opinionated critics out there who take every opportunity to dog on a new product. They brighten my day so much. What was that old saying...? Oh yeah, I remember now, "critics are just failed writers."

I love to read the "ideas" threads though and the occasional scoops, following individual threads that talk about (unbiasedly) books due out and how people plan to use them and so forth.

I agree that these are the ones worth watching for... at least when they don't erupt into the previously mentioned throwing of rotten eggs.

 

[PCD]

I used to spend a lot of time on WoTC boards. I 've always found them fun, but my tastes in games has changed. I've come to this board-under one name or another, since it popped up. I've always found it fun. However, I found that some other boards have taken up my time too. I guess it is cyclic.

 

[LrdApoc]

Oh yeah, there's that. I love all the unpublished, highly opinionated critics out there who take every opportunity to dog on a new product. They brighten my day so much. What was that old saying...? Oh yeah, I remember now, "critics are just failed writers."

Sounding a little bitter Whisperfoot, though i do understand the sentiment I disagree with the statement. Critics here tend to be passionate about something and merely voice their opinion.. granted most of them are not doing it in a constructive or thought provoking manor but they are at least involved in the conversations.

For myself I've backed away from posting as frequently because of one simple issue: Life. I have one and have to maintain it

I was a very active member of the Hive in its heyday, and also for a great deal of time I was active in the Art Forum. Personally I find myself reading and responding to the Sci-Fi stuff more often than not because I don;t have a fear of starting a debate for my statments there like I have on rare occasion in the House Rules or OGL/D20 forums..

I can see how intimidating this community can be for someone who just scans the forums and reads the message threads. There are always those who invite and encourage discussion, but just as often because of the medium of written workd and no context it is easy to misunderstand or misjudge a writers views or statements.

I think the growth of the board is great. I still see a lot of familiar names about and make sure to read those posts but I find I am less inclined to comment now. I don;t feel like I'd be remembered by many because I have been silent for awhile, and it does 'feel' daunting to get involved again.

I'm not sure why, but for me when the Hive became fractured and marginalized (and then subsequently relocated to other stomping grounds) I decided my time was best spent doing other things. I miss the instant conversations, the debates and the personal connection those threads made, but I don't miss the complaints from people who didn;t understand the whole movement. The complaint about threads dropping too quickly from a page never made much sense to me since I could easily click the next button and find it.. but I guess some didn't feel that way.

I have a great respect for EnWorld, Eric, Morrus, Piratecat, and everyone who contributes to this hobby that I have been involved with for far too many years now to count and not feel old... this is a great gathering place for new and old players and I have made some good friends from conversations on this site, people I would never have connected with otherwise.

Has EnWorld changed? yes.. it's evolving every day. Even though I'm far less active today than I was 2 years ago, but I still enjoy visiting this place every day, even if I'm just browsing.