[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).

 

[Yaarel]

ENWorld seems a safer place to put information that can remain useful in the longterm.

By contrast, WotC periodically lost information during forum migrations.

I enjoyed my time on the WotC forums and will miss them.

 

[Azzy]

To be clear, folks, calling the newcomers names will not be tolerated, and cross-board drama is, as always, not allowed here. Please be civil, and if you have issues with another messageboard, take it up with them, not here.

Well, the upside is that it does allow the refugees to know which regulars they should put in their ban filter.

 

[JohnLynch]

It is sad to see at a time when Paizo have developed their forums into a tool that creates a friendly environment and a critical tool in not only engaging the community but in fostering and building their community that WotC chooses to close and delete their forums. It truly is indicative of the different styles between how the two companies are publishing their rulesets and engaging in their customer base.

Of course, Twitter and facebook ar great at speaking at people but aren't so good in having a dialogue. Twitter by it's nature is a limited form of communication while Facebook is also not conducive to indepth conversations. I know which ruleset I currently feel more engaged with and which one garners more of my attention. Thankfully For enworld I'll be able to keep track of the limited announcements regarding 5th edition announcements.

 

[Azzy]

It is sad to see at a time when Paizo have developed their forums into a tool that creates a friendly environment and a critical tool in not only engaging the community but in fostering and building their community that WotC chooses to close and delete their forums. It truly is indicative of the different styles between how the two companies are publishing their rulesets and engaging in their customer base..

To be fair, Paizo doesn't have to answer to Hasbro. Before Hasbro bought up WotC, WotC was a lot more like Paizo (run by fans of the game who actually play the game, and are happy to interact with fellow fans of the game).

 

[JohnLynch]

To be fair, Paizo doesn't have to answer to Hasbro. Before Hasbro bought up WotC, WotC was a lot more like Paizo (run by fans of the game who actually play the game, and are happy to interact with fellow fans of the game).

I understand the corporate structures are responsible for a lot of how WotC operates these days. I do not understand how Hasbro has any impact on a forum given D&D is going gangbusters. If Hasbro is micromanaging WotC down to whether their website is permitted to host a forum than I don't see what hope WotC possibly has. However I do not believe (until presented with evidence to the contrary) the forum shutdown was a directive from Hasbro so therefore I'm not really seeing the relevance to the observation.

 

[Uchawi]

The quality of the posters on each forum I'd say is relatively the same, I think this one just has some features, such as different moderation approach and ways to show people you appreciate what they say, that help encourage constructive (or at least entertaining) behavior.

I agree. I have not noticed a huge difference in the quality of posters, so overall forums like Enworld may appear more neutral based on the simple fact of being able to host more diverse discussions (multiple RPGs). Consider it Switzerland

However, things may change as the WOTC hoard starts looking for different lands to conquer. For better or worse, depending on your viewpoint.

 

[Orlax]

I understand the corporate structures are responsible for a lot of how WotC operates these days. I do not understand how Hasbro has any impact on a forum given D&D is going gangbusters. If Hasbro is micromanaging WotC down to whether their website is permitted to host a forum than I don't see what hope WotC possibly has. However I do not believe (until presented with evidence to the contrary) the forum shutdown was a directive from Hasbro so therefore I'm not really seeing the relevance to the observation.

I'd base the validity of the Hasbro call out on the idea that I don't think the WotC guys are allowed to post on the forums. When Next first started ramping up (as in the very beginning of the play test) Rodney and a few of the others did make a few posts. Unfortunately they didn't always get the best responses from those posts, and some would bandy them about like gospel from above, seeing unintended promises in the words of the post. While others would bandy those words about as proof of a lack of vision (or some other naysayer BS). If I were a corporate PR guy I'd have stopped them from interacting on the forums because it almost always served to stir up someone's anger at the devs, and no matter what they said someone was ready to toss fire. It was either piss off this one group to try to appeal to this other group (originally had labels for said groups bet felt that was unnecessary because there were so many play style variations right at the beginning), or the other way around, and it wasn't really conducive to a constructive process, and it lead to a lot of flaming from all sides.

I'm pretty sure, that's why they made the switch over to the surveys (which seem to be working well for them) as their main interaction on gathering meaningful feedback. Between the survey responses (which includes a moderate amount of space to just write what you think is important) and social media interaction on twitter and facebook they must be getting a meaningful amount of feedback and interaction for them.

Since the release of 5e, the forums (at least the D&D forums) there have gone on a bit of a downward spiral. If only in participation numbers. Once things started getting written with ink instead of pencil a lot of people checked out because they saw how the game had landed, and didn't like it, which is fine (also apparently there was a ban storm that I didn't hear about). In the general forum its pretty much the same like 20 people on every post, and they just keep looping different variations on the same arguments (which is why certain topics will rule the forum for a month or two at a time). As much as I enjoy participating there, will miss some of the posters that don't transfer this way, and will be sad to see a part of my daily life disappear...I can understand why they are doing it, and can accept that sometimes change can be for the better. I mean the magic forum getting toasted, I can't explain, I literally never even look into that forum, or really much else but the main D&D forums. However, from the D&D side, those forums had stopped being a useful source of feedback months ago because the selection size of respondents was so small there, and a number of the regular respondents left were kind of just there to keep saying everything sucked.

I look forward to getting to know this forum a bit better. I may go into a bit of a lurk mode just till I get a feel of the overarching community, but I'll likely be active in the discussion of Unearthed Arcana Articles Sage Advice rulings new player options content (like the elemental evil players companion) and stuff like that. I think I see a lot of home brew here so I might start actually posting some of my home brew items and subsystems here.

 

[Morrus]

For you incoming folks, if you came from the D&D Adventurer's League forum over at WotC, I have created a DDAL forum here.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?539-D-amp-D-Adventurer-s-League

We'll see if it gets any use, but it's there if you need it.

 

[Orlax]

For you incoming folks, if you came from the D&D Adventurer's League forum over at WotC, I have created a DDAL forum here.

[Had to clip the URL because this is my second post]

We'll see if it gets any use, but it's there if you need it.

Nice I just started checking in on that board over at WotC today because I was wondering what was going to happen to them. I don't even play AL, but I felt bad for them losing such a resource.

 

[neobolts]

Well, the upside is that it does allow the refugees to know which regulars they should put in their ban filter.

Honestly, the policing by [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] and crew is top notch. They devote a big chunk of time to keeping the peace on these forums and respond quickly to (what I assume is) frequent use of the report button. Whenever I feel my mouse hovering over the "Ignore List" I get a page or two further into the thread first. Every time, a mod is there telling the offender to cool off, or showing a repeat offender the door. I have never had to use the ignore feature.