Never Say Never

Posted on December 5, 2008 by Scott Jennings| 20 Comments

According to Garthlik at Warhammer Alliance, Warhammer to get official forums for the new year.

Mark Jacobs, from May of 2008:

Never.

There, I said it (again). :)

I would rather hear William Shatner and Roseanne Barr singing a duet while having my fingernails pulled out one by one while sitting in a pool of molten lava than have Mythic’s own Official Forums for WAR.

How’s that for clarity?

Mark

That would explain why Garthlik’s post was called “The William Shatner and Roseanne Barr Christmas Album”.  (Note that this is still classified as rumor until Mythic makes some sort of announcement. Or, failing that, the faint cries of Roseanne Barr’s wassails can be heard in the distance.)

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  • http://www.fusionfall.com Tisirin

    Well, considering some of their OCR hiring recently, it makes sense.

    It is still unsubstantiated, but even as much of an advocate of official forums as I am, this seems like “too little, too late” if it is meant as a short-term fix.

    Long-term, I definitely think it’s the right thing to do. Of course, it’s always about how you execute and manage these things.

  • http://emergentufuture.com Arrakiv

    Mythic getting official forums? Craziness. A good thing, but wow. :-P

  • Ingmar

    I’m glad to know they’re taking a step towards professionalism finally.

  • http://tidehorizon.blogspot.com Tide

    what is MJ’s logic for not having forums? seriously, honest question

  • Arthur_Parker

    I’d say taking great strides towards professionalism.

    Latest video from Paul Barnett.

    http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=sjDGJrLzGlQ

  • http://metrogamer.wordpress.com Shiro

    They’re gonna have to outbid Blizzard for William Shatner if that’s the case.

  • rulez

    Since I heard about that the first time warhammeralliance.com is imploded it seems. All I get is a server timeout….

  • Temujin

    Good. You can’t say anything on warhammeralliance.com that in any way criticizes the game or Mythics decisions without being banned for 30 days, and the vnboards are a festering cess pool of dazed fanboys and rabid haters duking it out for interweb supremacy.

    Something in the middle would be a huge step forward.

  • Triforcer

    Not enough. The only thing that could save this game now is a unicorn helmet.

  • Freakazoid

    The irony being that the higher-ups at mythic are like an ironbreaker and mark jacobs is some melee dps class and they’re playing in tor anroc and jacobs just got knocked into the lava.

  • Pandanapper

    I gave up on this game a month ago for such a reason as there not being a real place to put my suggestions for the developers to read. Thank and the bogus “contribution” system they made. You would think that after a game like WoW becomes so successful people would try and follow a similar design and structure to make their game more successful, like having your own forums from the get go.

  • http://bifftheunderstudy.wordpress.com Dan Gray

    Good news, I think. I’ve been swayed closer to the ‘official forums are a good idea’ camp over the past few months.

    “You would think that after a game like WoW becomes so successful people would try and follow a similar design and structure to make their game more successful, like having your own forums from the get go.”

    Copying something popular may give you a good product, but it also gives you far tougher competition.

    WoWs forum isn’t the best example of a well executed official forum, either.

  • Iconic

    “WoWs forum isn’t the best example of a well executed official forum, either.”

    It’s a lot better lately. I think there’s a LOT of moderation going on in the core forums (the ones that developers actually read and post to).

    Now if only they could get rid of the keyloggers…

  • Iconic

    P.S.– on topic:

    If Mythic is actually moving to having their own official forums then good for them. Better late than never.

  • http://www.mmohell.com Garthilk

    Well,

    Mark has posted and his answer? His answer is that he cannot comment.

  • Adam

    “what is MJ’s logic for not having forums? seriously, honest question”

    There are a few comments by MJ in this thread about why Mythic doesnt have Official forums and comments on what it would take for them to implement them…
    http://vnboards.ign.com/Boards/Message.aspx?topic=108600865&brd=22997&start=108604412

    “It’s the abuse, the trolling and the hate that makes things less fun. Probably the strongest argument for having official forums is that you only have to take abusive behavior once. I’ve told my CSRs that they don’t have to put up with abusive customers but the guys who go out to the forums tend to get more of it than the average CSR. One of the things I’ve always thrown around at Mythic is that if we ever offer official forums, we’ll charge $1 per customer on an opt-in, per month for them (except tech support which would be free) and enforce a code of conduct ruthlessly. I think that if we do that, we’ll get a more civilized forum, cash to pay for lots of mods and a user base that really wants to be there and read and participate.

    Mark”

  • Ashendarei

    the truely sad thing about that is that a well managed community is a GREAT way to get the pulse of the community, and feedback and suggestions to changes.

    the TRICK to it is REAL moderation. Don’t do what Blizz did and ignore the WoW forums for the first 3 1/2 years of the game, actually moderate it strongly RIGHT from the beginning.

  • http://bifftheunderstudy.wordpress.com Dan Gray

    @Ashendarei: I’ve seen fansite forums managed well enough to provide that same level of feedback. I’m not saying it’s ideal, or it works all of the time, but it is feasible.

    What it comes down to is the effort involved in running official forums. It increases the workload of your Community Team by a significant margin in the crucial set-up phase, and requires constant maintenance.

    Then there is the cost involved of hiring moderators and admins. You can also go the volunteer route, but then you have the liability of being represented by people with no contractual loyalty to the company.

    Of course it’s not without its benefits. A badly run high profile fansite can be very damaging to new players coming into the community. You have no direct control over that, and the impression it gives of your player base.

    However, this really is a topic that deserves more depth than a few paragraphs in a comment section.

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  • http://www.warhammeralliance.com Garthilk

    Looks like this rumor has panned out. GOA’s new years annoucement confirms it.