Why has WotC stopped posting on ENWorld?

[Ahnehnois]

It's not so much about providing value - and I wouldn't want it to be. That'd be a terribly cynical indictment of social interaction. It's about community. Partly, when you build your own new community, as Paizo did, your heart understandably lies there. That's their community. Just like this is mine. But there's crossover, just like in any social dynamic.

Not the right choice of words on my part, perhaps. My point is more that there's an identifiable difference between Paizo and WotC with regard to the thread topic. The motivations of both parties may or may not be describable in business terms.

 

[Morrus]

Not the right choice of words on my part, perhaps. My point is more that there's an identifiable difference between Paizo and WotC with regard to the thread topic. The motivations of both parties may or may not be describable in business terms.

A lot of that's simply company size. The CEO of Paizo (Lisa Stevens) is more accessible than the CEO of WotC. Anyone can ask Lisa or Erik questions directly, and that's clearly important to them. WotC uses a PR agency called 360-degree media (which sends pointless announcements the day after the news has spread across the web); Paizo interacts directly. Remember that WotC isn't just D&D, or even primarily D&D - it's M:tG and a bunch of other stuff. Paizo is primarily the RPG. Plus Paizo turns up to accept their ENnies...

I think WotC has been making quite an effort recently, though. They've managed to excite me about D&D (I can only speak for myself) in a way I haven't been for about a decade. I feel like it's 1999 again, when anticipation filled the air. I literally can't wait to see the starter set!

(Also didn't they recently say only 15 people worked fo D&D, and only half of those on the RPG? That's not many people to spare when you're in pre-release crunch mode!)

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

This is really the root of it - Twitter and Facebook are designed for sharing. Take the photo of the Starter Set dice I posted this morning - that spread pretty quickly, and it showed up on the EN World news feed.

Forums are better for in-depth, back and forth, but they come at the cost of reach.

That's why we watch the forums to see what's happening and what people are talking about (along with Twitter and Facebook), but use streaming video, social networks, and our own web site to put information out there. It lets us reach as many people as possible in both directions (talking and listening).

Plus, from my POV it's much easier and more efficient to spend 15 minutes a day replying to questions on Twitter, then stepping into the middle of a forum conversation that I may or may not actually be able to contribute anything useful to.

Thanks for stopping in. It also has to be difficult to take part in a more in depth forum discussion when you have, but can't divulge pertinent information.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I wished WoTC staff would post more often too amd show a visible presence in their own community's forum and at EnWorld and other neutral ground... Their absence speaks for them....

I used to be one of Trevor's minions on the community management team under the username crazy_monkey1956.

Miss you buddy! You were a really helpful semian!

 

[Henry]

Yeah, I really don't blame game companies for not frequenting message boards - given time constraints, the proliferation of ways to disseminate info, and just the diaspora of gamers as a whole who are in the body of people WotC wants to reach - it's a different era for that kind of stuff. In 1999, name more than four or five places D&D players frequented on the web. (well, plus RGFD).

And Mike, its awesome you dropped by to post! Always glad to see you, even if you're more a Man Of The People than back when you'd occasionally drop in on Circvs.

 

[TarionzCousin]

(Also didn't they recently say only 15 people worked fo D&D, and only half of those on the RPG? That's not many people to spare when you're in pre-release crunch mode!)

Yes. The days of it being part of someone's job (The Rouse) are apparently gone.

And Mike, its awesome you dropped by to post! Always glad to see you, even if you're more a Man Of The People than back when you'd occasionally drop in on Circvs.

Those Circvs people are scary and weird. It's no wonder he doesn't hang out there anymore.

 

[the Jester]

Those Circvs people are scary and weird. It's no wonder he doesn't hang out there anymore.

 

[dd.stevenson]

Nowadays I see messageboard posting as its own hobby, separate from the hobbies which are the objects of messageboard discussion.

 

[Dragonblade]

Its cool to see mearls drop by here but times change. Social media has changed the landscape dramatically. I started posting back when it was Eric Noah's 3rd edition news site, lost my first account in the great forum crash of 2002, and then started a new account with a different screen name when the boards came back up.

Back then there was no Twitter, and Facebook and Google weren't the web dominating behemoth's they are now.

I used to post multiple times a day, often from work, but got burned out on the edition warring in 2008 and migrated over to RPG.net. Now I tend to orbit between the two sites, lurking more than I post. Thankfully, edition warring seems to be mostly dead now.

I think the market has reached an equilibrium point where all the varied gaming interests that folks have are served by games that have arisen to fill those various niches. With all the various retro-clones, WotC getting back into the prior edition PDF business, Pathfinder, 13th Age, 4e, Fantasycraft, and so on, there is something for everyone no matter what your gaming preferences are.

With a PDF market that has exploded in recent years, and that keeps games "in print" forever, I think people feel less threatened that their game of choice will be consigned to oblivion, so the need for tribalism and attacking of others gaming preferences is greatly diminished.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

he knows that if he posts something on Twitter, it'll end up here

That's how I find out about such things. I loathe Twitter and Facebook, so I just wait for the information to disseminate out to the discussion boards.