3173 réponses à ce sujet

[bEVEsthda]

It sounds like Lonelybook418 and Yohko Ohno are employees in the company. The first liking the second's comment, by the way.

I'm not saying they certainly are, but if they were they should stop using common userIDs and get back to their silent roles.

And If they weren't, I'd stay shut anyway if I was them, they're defending Nero's burning of Rome saying that there were too many trees that caught fire.

 

If peoples' personal experience and perspective leads them to defend something, they can do that. That's why we have forums in the first place, to discuss things.  And people defend EA and Bioware all the time. I do it myself, occasionally. So do many BSN regulars.

 

What I mean is that I took intense dislike to your post here, telling people what they should and to stay shut.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what people do professionally, what employer they happen to work for, as long as they only represent themselves and don't post in a dishonest manner, i.e. viral marketing, viral propaganda.

 

And they don't. Their views are obviously personal convictions. What background they have is irrelevant. They don't have to be employees at all. It's just as likely, more likely perhaps, that they're founded in other experiences that they feel are relevant to this case.

Any way, it doesn't matter.

 

You don't have to be Bioware employee to defend the closure of OT. Just go visit the Vroom forums and look at the exodus'ed mess there. Any tendency for anything interesting gets immediately buried in nonsense.

[bEVEsthda]

When a gaming website like this offers an off topic area to talk about whatever, it truly reflects well upon the developers (or the publishers in this case and EA, ya'll know you could use as many good feels as you can get after all of your 'worst company in the USA' awards to date, seriously!)

 

I'm the first one to admit that I'm a huge cynic when it comes to EA but that's not without good reason, and I can't help but think this ultimate decision has EA's paws all over it, for whatever cold-blooded corporate reason you can come up with, at least one of them probably applies.

 

I've only posted in the off topic Lobby section a couple times myself, but I've lurked there so many more countless times than that and I've enjoyed enough of the thread discussions there to be able to say it is truly a shame that EAware has reached a decision where they feel it's clearly something that ultimately benefits themselves overall and their userbase doesn't even enter in to the equation, which is exactly what long time gamers like myself expect to see whenever EA is involved.

 

It's just sad.

 

The problem of The Lobby was that it eventually grew into something that was more a place to hang, for the unruly kids, Bioware's 'new fans'. My solution to this would have been to have two OT forums. One for socializing, one for OT discussion and subjects. But if they don't want to have any forums I suppose they don't want to.

[Puddi III]

Well now, I'm curious about these 'interesting' things you would like to discuss that are so poorly served by the structure and moderation of our OT.

If you make a compelling enough case, they might be willing to accommodate you. That's more than can be said of the deaf ears here, even before they closed OT.

Admittedly I could name some things I'm personally not happy with, but at least it's an effort. Also more than can be said here.

[bEVEsthda]

Well now, I'm curious about these 'interesting' things you would like to discuss that are so poorly served by the structure and moderation of our OT.

If you make a compelling enough case, they might be willing to accommodate you. That's more than can be said of the deaf ears here, even before they closed OT.

Admittedly I could name some things I'm personally not happy with, but at least it's an effort. Also more than can be said here.

 

It took me a good while to realize that you're talking about the Vroom OT? And talking to me?

 

Well, it's simple. The things I like and expect to see in an OT forum are like threads about linked gaming articles, upcoming movies, books, other games, news events, hardware, and why not people's hobbies or interests? There was this thread about photography...

 

Anyway, sort of close enough to what Vroom OT tries to offer. Maybe I'm unfair and visited it a couple of times when the emphasis was temporarily mostly on seeking confirmation in being 'kewl', posting in capitals, speaking about oneself in third persons and "AAARRGRR!!!" ?

 

I like social thread games too. But maybe such activity should be separated from OT discussion?

 

...And now we're really both dead on topic, "Changes to the BSN", and simultaneously very Off Topic indeed, in every regard. Funny.

[Puddi III]

Yes, I was talking to you and referring to Vroom's OT. Sorry for the confusion.

That forum has quite a few subsections now to separate gaming, books, etc. from the general socializing, confirmation seeking or whatever you want to call it. Maybe give it another look.

Yeah, I still love how there's a "What changes would you like to see?" thread here and they were just like, "Yeah, none of that. Let's nuke off-topic instead."

[YohkoOhno]

That's the exact opposite really. You are putting intentions to my words that I do not have.

 

 

I'm not arguing against what you feel, you are saying that what they did is poor PR.  From what I see, it is not, the announcement was handled in perhaps the best way possible (with the assumption that the closing of the forum was nothing that was going to change).  

 

https://en.wikipedia...ublic_relations

 

They were polite.  They closed the forum quickly possibly to prevent protests or bad behavior from occuring.  They left this thread open so they weren't censoring things--and, if the PR wasn't handled well, this would have spilled over and gotten covered by news sites.  And people were able to create at least one alternate forum, which means there was minimal impact to that community. The fact that it hasn't tells me this is a minor thing that will probably not affect how most customers view Bioware.  It might affect a few people's perceptions, but it depends on how many people are upset about it.  So far, I haven't see too much impact on the main forums.

 

PR is not always giving the people negatively impacted by decisions "warm fuzzies".  I wasn't arguing that you shouldn't be disappointed with the decision, but that this was some kind of "Bad PR".  Strictly speaking, it wasn't bad PR.

 

I've only posted in the off topic Lobby section a couple times myself, but I've lurked there so many more countless times than that and I've enjoyed enough of the thread discussions there to be able to say it is truly a shame that EAware has reached a decision where they feel it's clearly something that ultimately benefits themselves overall and their userbase doesn't even enter in to the equation, which is exactly what long time gamers like myself expect to see whenever EA is involved.

 

Of course, we don't know how much this actually benefits them.  The problem with Goodwill is that "goodwill plus the price of a cup of coffee gets you a cup of coffee".  Goodwill is only useful if the company is healthy and focused on its primary goals.  

 

I see this argument brought up all the time when a popular thing is dropped, but the people who are always saying "the're eliminating the goodwill" don't always see things outside of their own perspective.  I've seen people declare these types of things when a feature was dropped or if they had a bug that it would "impact the next release", and it doesn't.  (To think of something easy--people saying, for instance, that the lack of Linux release for the Divinity Kickstarter would cause ill-will for the second kickstarter--but it was such a minority it didn't have that much of an impact).

 

How could that affect things with this decision--well, let's say (making a guess why they did it) that there's a mandate to reduce forum maintenance costs by 25% across the board, either due to costs or to allocate more resources to web sites or social media.  Well, I'm sure Bioware looked at the traffic and types of posts here and came up with the best decision they could, as well as measuring things like the potential downsides.

[Puddi III]

Spinning a 12 minute warning as a positive.

Accepting "we did this to provide a better experience and strengthen the community" as an explanation for reducing maintenance costs.

Only on BSN.

[YohkoOhno]

Spinning a 12 minute warning as a positive.

Accepting "we did this to provide a better experience and strengthen the community" as an explanation for reducing maintenance costs.

Only on BSN.

 

I never said it was a "positive".  Perhaps it was more merciful to kill it quickly, or to not prolong a protest.  It's obviously going to hurt some people.  What would keeping them alive for a week do?  Would people panic.  Would people just cry and scream?  Since they kept this thread up, they didn't censor discussion of it and now you have an alternate forum.

 

"Only on BSN" tells me that you have objections to some of the people in the community here.  Well, if that's the case, I would think you would be happy to no longer be part of this forum, if you feel there are bad elements to this place.  So that makes me wonder why you are even sad that they shut down a part of a forum you don't like.

 

There's an old maxim--the person who can't understand other perspectives can't really understand their own.  

[Puddi III]

To people who blindly defend everything BioWare does no matter how ridiculous it is, sure.

 

Those are people you can 'only' find on BSN, but not really I suppose since apparently they are just as prevalent on reddit.

 

Believe it or not, you don't have to like every single thing about a community to still enjoy being part of the community.

[YohkoOhno]

To people who blindly defend everything BioWare does no matter how ridiculous it is, sure.

 

Those are people you can 'only' find on BSN, but not really I suppose since apparently they are just as prevalent on reddit.

 

Believe it or not, you don't have to like every single thing about a community to still enjoy being part of the community.

 

True, but my critique of how they handled the off-topic forum is not indicative of my own opinions of their games.  I think they are having problems with making fun combat, and that they are cutting some corners.  I think there's decent critiques about their plotting, and I actually agree that they should probably be more active here.

 

You shouldn't dismiss other opinions that happen to disagree with yours as "blind defense".  

[Puddi III]

Saying you "can't see" any way they could have handled it better. Pretty much the definition of blind if you ask me.

 

I didn't say anything about your opinion of their games.

 

Well I guess I said you would 'defend everything BioWare does.'

 

OK you got me, that was hyperbole.

[Vroom Vroom]

It took me a good while to realize that you're talking about the Vroom OT? And talking to me?

 

Well, it's simple. The things I like and expect to see in an OT forum are like threads about linked gaming articles, upcoming movies, books, other games, news events, hardware, and why not people's hobbies or interests? There was this thread about photography...

 

Anyway, sort of close enough to what Vroom OT tries to offer. Maybe I'm unfair and visited it a couple of times when the emphasis was temporarily mostly on seeking confirmation in being 'kewl', posting in capitals, speaking about oneself in third persons and "AAARRGRR!!!" ?

 

I like social thread games too. But maybe such activity should be separated from OT discussion?

 

...And now we're really both dead on topic, "Changes to the BSN", and simultaneously very Off Topic indeed, in every regard. Funny.

Feel free to PM me what you dislike about it, I'll listen and try to accommodate you; VSN is constantly evolving. As Puddi has stated, we now have sections for movies, books, video games and I had even made a section for user created content such as: stories, art, ceramics and even photos. 

[LPPrince]

As great as the "VSN" is for communicating with the people that were lost here it should be completely unnecessary as this place, the BSN, should be the home for these discussions(as long as they fit by the rules, naturally).

 

The rules are apparently adapting and changing, but damn were they better when they left room for talking about other stuff with Bioware fans.

 

Now this place is just...eh. I can't talk about Dragon Age's new content, there isn't enough to talk about regarding Andromeda, and the people who kept me here to stay updated and give me ideas to contribute to DA and ME have bounced. And I haven't even been able to communicate with most of them.

 

We're nearing what, four weeks now? This still feels very VERY wrong. A few people over there are putting smiles on my face but then I come back here and realize that regarding the BSN I have absolutely nothing to smile about.

[Puddi III]

The closure certainly has frayed many relationships, just as intended.

Good guy BioWare.

I haven't had friends from the DA/ME boards since the DA2 days when they all bounced, so my ability to flit in and out of those boards as an outsider hasn't changed much. It's funny to see how those boards are virtually unchanged yet people here insist closing off-topic made such a profound difference. The people who troll those boards with stupid topics and posts are, unsurprisingly, regulars of those boards, not off-topic.

[Reezus Christ]

As great as the "VSN" is for communicating with the people that were lost here it should be completely unnecessary as this place, the BSN, should be the home for these discussions(as long as they fit by the rules, naturally).

 

The rules are apparently adapting and changing, but damn were they better when they left room for talking about other stuff with Bioware fans.

 

Now this place is just...eh. I can't talk about Dragon Age's new content, there isn't enough to talk about regarding Andromeda, and the people who kept me here to stay updated and give me ideas to contribute to DA and ME have bounced. And I haven't even been able to communicate with most of them.

 

We're nearing what, four weeks now? This still feels very VERY wrong. A few people over there are putting smiles on my face but then I come back here and realize that regarding the BSN I have absolutely nothing to smile about.

You care about this a little too much at this point. Four weeks? It's over, fam. It should feel like nothing now. Not wrong, not right. Just nothing. 

[PresidentVorchaMasterBaits]

 

 

Anyway, sort of close enough to what Vroom OT tries to offer. Maybe I'm unfair and visited it a couple of times when the emphasis was temporarily mostly on seeking confirmation in being 'kewl', posting in capitals, speaking about oneself in third persons and "AAARRGRR!!!" ?

 

GRRRAAAAAAAAAGH!!! PEOPLE WHO DO THAT ARE LAME! WE DON'T LIKE THEM EITHER!! BURN THEM ALL!!!!

 

 

OFF TOPIC STILL DEAD! SAD VORCHA!

[LPPrince]

You care about this a little too much at this point. Four weeks? It's over, fam. It should feel like nothing now. Not wrong, not right. Just nothing. 

 

OT was an integral part of my BSN experience for quite a few years. Its gonna take longer than four weeks for me to possibly have feelings change. And I doubt it'll happen. I still get sad feelings about the slow descent of a website I used years ago. Difference between it and this is that the entire website was shut down but we at least had a good long heads up(a few weeks) that it was closing so we all could keep the connections we made once it went down.

 

12 minutes here was embarrassing in comparison. 12 minutes is a joke. You'd think this was Bioware trying to be funny and failing miserably.

 

But then again, what did they expect was gonna happen? We'd all suddenly change our tune and forcibly talk about DA and ME when there's barely anything to talk about? Might as well close the entire forum down until new valid information is shared that allows us to talk about those games.

 

But that would be silly. What wouldn't be silly is moderating this place appropriately and making sure OT served its proper purpose while we sit and wait for something Bioware related to talk about.

[Inquisitor Recon]

So would somebody supportive of this decision care to list all of the positive change brought about by closing OT?

[Puddi III]

You care about this a little too much at this point. Four weeks? It's over, fam. It should feel like nothing now. Not wrong, not right. Just nothing.

 

[LPPrince]

So would somebody supportive of this decision care to list all of the positive change brought about by closing OT?

 

Hah, yeah, I'd love this.

[mousestalker]

So would somebody supportive of this decision care to list all of the positive change brought about by closing OT?

1. No more brony posts
2. No more metal posts in music threads
3. No more having sixteen pages of posts in my favourite topic pop up over night.
4. Much more productive time to spend working and being with family.
5. No more brony posts
6. Fewer 'me too' quote pyramid posts to scroll through
7. ManDogGiraffe has not posted since OT was removed
8. Neither has 4chan invaded.
9. No more brony posts.
10. Less rickrolling.
11. No pressure to come up with funny images or videos.
12. No residual guilt for not participating in the forum murder-mystery.
13. No more brony posts.

[Voxr]

12. No residual guilt for not participating in the forum murder-mystery.

:'-(

[LPPrince]

1. No more brony posts
2. No more metal posts in music threads
3. No more having sixteen pages of posts in my favourite topic pop up over night.
4. Much more productive time to spend working and being with family.
5. No more brony posts
6. Fewer 'me too' quote pyramid posts to scroll through
7. ManDogGiraffe has not posted since OT was removed
8. Neither has 4chan invaded.
9. No more brony posts.
10. Less rickrolling.
11. No pressure to come up with funny images or videos.
12. No residual guilt for not participating in the forum murder-mystery.
13. No more brony posts.

 

Careful, people might take this seriously.

[MegaIllusiveMan]

1. No more brony posts
2. No more metal posts in music threads
3. No more having sixteen pages of posts in my favourite topic pop up over night.
4. Much more productive time to spend working and being with family.
5. No more brony posts
6. Fewer 'me too' quote pyramid posts to scroll through
7. ManDogGiraffe has not posted since OT was removed
8. Neither has 4chan invaded.
9. No more brony posts.
10. Less rickrolling.
11. No pressure to come up with funny images or videos.
12. No residual guilt for not participating in the forum murder-mystery.
13. No more brony posts.

 

Wait...

You forgot

 

Spoiler

brony posts

 

On a plus side, where is TheBunz? 

[Reezus Christ]

OT was an integral part of my BSN experience for quite a few years. Its gonna take longer than four weeks for me to possibly have feelings change. And I doubt it'll happen. I still get sad feelings about the slow descent of a website I used years ago. Difference between it and this is that the entire website was shut down but we at least had a good long heads up(a few weeks) that it was closing so we all could keep the connections we made once it went down.

 

12 minutes here was embarrassing in comparison. 12 minutes is a joke. You'd think this was Bioware trying to be funny and failing miserably.

 

But then again, what did they expect was gonna happen? We'd all suddenly change our tune and forcibly talk about DA and ME when there's barely anything to talk about? Might as well close the entire forum down until new valid information is shared that allows us to talk about those games.

 

But that would be silly. What wouldn't be silly is moderating this place appropriately and making sure OT served its proper purpose while we sit and wait for something Bioware related to talk about.

Same. But what is, for lack of a better word, crying to a faceless corporation about how much it means to you going to do? Everyone in here as said what already needs to be said. It's at a point now where this had turned into what people criticize the regular boards for: A bunch of people reiterating points made many times over. If it didn't do anything two weeks ago I doubt it's going to do anything come the four week mark. BioWare has made their decision. If you're really so attached to the memories you made here then hit up everyone still here you would love to continue having conversations with to migrate somewhere else. It's a done deal here.