[UPDATED] WotC To Close Forums - Including D&D and M:tG (aka "Welcome New Forum Members to EN World!

WotC has announced that it will be closing its forums, which they refer to as a "former foundation of our community". The forums will close on October 29th. Of course, WotC's forum members are welcome here at EN World (although the expectations are a little different, so please do check the rules if you sign up!) The forums have been around for nearly two decades, in various incarnations, but WotC cites the rise of social media platforms as the reason for the closure.

Here's the announcement in full.

Choosing to retire a former foundation of our community was not an easy decision, but we feel that we must adjust our communications structure to reflect where conversations about Wizards of the Coast games are taking place.

Social media has changed significantly over the last ten years, and discussions about games aren't exclusive to company-hosted forums. The majority of community conversation takes place on third-party websites (such as Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and many other fantastic community-run websites), and it is up to us to evolve alongside our players.

We encourage past and current users to retrieve any information you want to retain from the Community Forums for both Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. The shutdown will occur on October 29, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. PT. We want to provide enough time for our forum members to move their content, and we recognize that given our forum's vibrant user base and extensive history, this may take time. Any information still on the forums on the cut-off date will be deleted.

Thank you to all of our past and current forum users. You helped build our community into what it is now, and we look forward to continuing to interact with you on our many active social platforms.

WotC's Trevor Kidd had a little more to add.

"I could hop onto all the forums having this discussion or I can say it here and let it disseminate. I'm choosing the former. Moving away from running our own forums doesn't mean we think longer conversations or fan sites/forums aren't good or necessary. They are both good & necessary. From what I'm seeing, they flourish and you enjoy them more when they are run/managed by fans.

DnD & RPGs in general are all about story telling & talking with friends. It makes sense that we want to share those stories. So, it's vital that we have places to share those experiences & stories, like forums & fansites. But it's not vital that #dnd run those.

Closing our forums does not in any way lessen our interactions. We'll still be talking & lurking in your social media & fan sites. And the idea that forums are going away because dnd &/or magic are doing poorly - that's ludicrous! Both are doing very, very well.

We'll still be talking with you here, and elsewhere. Enjoy your new forum homes and don't forget to migrate your treasured content!

On the topic of losing forum content - it's tough, I agree. Once we knew we were going to close the forums, we also knew we weren't going to maintain the community site indefinitely, so we opted to pull the band-aid off quickly rather than let it linger."

Welcome to new members!

If you're a refugee from WotC's forums, you are very welcome here. You can register here at EN World by clicking here. You'll find out community busy and vibrant, and generally welcoming. We've been here over 15 years now, and there is tons of useful content here and lots of great resources which you're welcome to explore. These include:

• Forums.We have forums for 5th Edition, Homebrews/Houserules. Character Builds, Older D&D Editions, Pathfinder, and more.
• Gamer Search. The world's largest gamer search database: find roleplayers near you!
• Downloads. There are thousands of items in the downloads area, including hundreds of character sheets.
• Features. Useful features like the D&D Pronunciation Guide, Hot Games Chart, D&D Product Schedule, and a history chart of the game.
• Reviews. A system which collects and aggregates reviews on the latest products. For example, Out of the Abyss is currently trending at 79%!
• News. And, of course, constant daily news on the news page, all about tabletop RPGS, including D&D! There's no better way to keep up with what's going on!

(Announcement spotted initially by Critical Hits on the Twitters).

 

[guachi]

I get it. Social media is better for promotion. Forums are better for discussion and criticism. But promotion - and let's be honest here, social media is king there by an order of magnitude - is not the same animal as discussion.

EN World's core business is discussing RPG stuff. It's optimized for that, and that's how I make my living. WotC needs to promote D&D stuff. And social media is weak for discussion but strong for promotion. Discussion only makes you money if you've been doing it for 16 years and really know what you're doing. Hell, there are various people round the web who snottily proclaim that I'm doing it wrong. Maybe they're right.

We can all sit here snottily deriding the business decisions of WotC. It's what we do. It's what the internet does, and that's OK. What the internet usually misses is that the target of their criticism's goals aren't what they think they are.

Know what promotes a game? People discussing it. Know what got me to buy 5e after not playing D&D (or any RPG) since 2000? People discussing it. On a forum. Not WotC's social media.

 

[Shasarak]

That's easy. Their goals are promotion, not discussion.

Social media is outward but less in-depth. Forums are insular, but more in-depth. They need outreach, not dissection. I think it's the right decision. Conveniently, I'm in the opposite business, so the latter benefits me more.

I suggested this to them years ago. I do know *some* stuff! Not a lot, but this thing I know about.

From my data point of not having Twitter, not going to their Facebook and rarely going to their website, it seems like less promotion.

But heh, there is always Dragon plus.

 

[Yunru]

Are we going to have a problem, Yunru? Because your dripping hostility and sarcasm has gotten old really frickin' fast. It's really OK if you don't want to be here. You're welcome here, but if it's a problem for you, then it's OK if you look elsewhere. The post you mention has been dealt with. Drop it, and move on.

Nah, it just takes a while for my jimmies to be unruffled. Ever since I lost the butler (which I totally have) to the recession, it takes longer.
>_>
<_<

Although I must admit I try to never drip hostility (barring to the hostile). Sarcasm however, is a part of me. Call me jaded if you will.

 

[Shasarak]

But you aren't everyone. Anecdotes are not data, and avoidance of social media is the exception, not the norm.

Believe me, I wish it were otherwise. Social media impacts on my forum too. I'm competing with Mark Zuckerberg and Google (which is a losing proposition).

I did say data point. =;o)

 

[guachi]

I first went to WotC's website last June or so. Their website, in my opinion, was terrible. It still is terrible. Finding the new UA D&D articles there is... where ARE they buried? I always end up finding them via a post. On a forum.

Ok, I found them. The UA articles are poorly buried under the Media tab.

Dragon+ is terrible. Only on my phone via an app I have to download? No thanks.

Facebook? No. I belong to several Facebook D&D forums (one is my FLGS) and it's useful for ephemeral stuff (convention going on in XXXX. Starting up new Encounters season!) but it's terrible for discussion.

 

[Banjodruid]

Hi guys! Don't. Mind me, just rolling in with the waves.

Also, I'm not completely sober.....

BUT....

I hope everyone is well and whatnot.

 

[sgt-d]

I used to post over there often, but the vibe was too negative. I mostly lurk here. But, from a business viewpoint, I can see why they would shut down the boards. First of all I do agree that the social media mentioned in the PR is more for marketing than discussion. But, these forums seem to be reasonably active; perhaps they found their forums to be redundant? If they want to see how the gamers really feel about product, they can lurk these forums the same way they lurked their own, and no longer on their dime. And this is also good for business here. Just my own $0.02; welcome to those new WotC immigrants!

 

[sunshadow21]

The main difficulty I see is that what they really need is both discussion and promotion. They need the discussion to sustain the core group to have people to promote the game on social media. Sadly, from what little I saw of their forums anytime in the last few years, it's already not much more than an archive for the true diehards, so the closing of the forums makes sense. Its sad because if they had been sustained and supported them properly when it was more than worth their effort to do so, those forums could have been a major asset now to help solidify the core supporters, which could then be marshaled to improve promotion on social media, instead of a dead weight that for most people, ceased to be relevant some time ago. As somebody pointed out at some point earlier in the thread, many of the questions asked on social media only came about because of the discussions; losing a central place where new players know they can go to get that discussion or run/find a pbp game will have an impact, however slight it may be at this point in time after so many years of neglecting their forums.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

I used to post over there often, but the vibe was too negative. I mostly lurk here. But, from a business viewpoint, I can see why they would shut down the boards. First of all I do agree that the social media mentioned in the PR is more for marketing than discussion. But, these forums seem to be reasonably active; perhaps they found their forums to be redundant? If they want to see how the gamers really feel about product, they can lurk these forums the same way they lurked their own, and no longer on their dime. And this is also good for business here. Just my own $0.02; welcome to those new WotC immigrants!

This is relatively accurate. One of the things community managers (like me, though not in the gaming industry any more) is lurk in all the places our product is being discussed. Social media, fansites, fan forums, etc. A thriving fansite like EN World really does make any sort of official forum redundant. The fans are far better curators of news and fan-created content than the company themselves, who have to focus on a variety of other things.

As for the decision to simply delete the community and everything in it rather than archive it - that's also a matter of resources. The fans know much better what is worth saving and what isn't. WotC notified us well over a month before the shutdown is scheduled to take place - plenty of time to grab the good stuff and save it somewhere - like here.

 

[hbarsquared]

This is probably me shouting into the night, but I think a Stickied Welcome thread, (perhaps cross-subforum?) might be a good idea, [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] ?

Or, at least, posted by someone more knowledgeable than I. A positive Welcome! with a brief intro to who/what ENWorld is, a summary of the rules with the requisite hotlinks, and perhaps a short list of links to common portions of the site (News, Meta, PbP, House Rules, etc.). A thread that is more specifically one for newcomers to ask questions, as opposed to an ongoing News/Announcement thread.

There's an obvious influx, and welcome to you all!, and I'm sure a more targeted resource woupd be appreciated.