This is a place of business where people are working. if you show up unannounced I am afraid we will have to turn you away.
i understand you are upset, but there are more constructive ways to communicate that.
While a kind gesture, we would prefer any donated food be given to local shelters or people in need instead.
An amazing pair of posts tbh.
This honestly just seems like standard BW laziness in regards to the forums. IT thread got hard to moderate? Lock it and ban new IT threads. Romance forum got hard to moderate? Shut it down. Off topic got hard to moderate? Shut it down. Only a matter of time before they got too lazy to moderate the entire site and just nuked it entirely.
This is a real shame. I haven't been super active here since my last playthrough of DA:I but it's been a great place to come talk with fellow fans about Bioware games. We never really expected BW Devs to communicate with us through the forums.
And, like other people have pointed out, none of the other suggested sites are very good for in-depth discussion. Tumblr's a blogging platform, and it's a lot of yelling into the void while hoping nobody takes issue with what you're saying. Twitter is terrible for trying to have any sort of nuanced conversation. As is Facebook (especially if you don't want to broadcast your real name). Reddit is intimidating and many places on that site are pretty toxic.
Plus, I don't know about you but people use multiple social platforms. I can be active on tumblr and also come on BSN to discuss new Mass Effect info. They're good for different things. So saying that we can just go to tumblr or twitter or reddit, etc, is missing the point. People came to BSN for a reason.
Anyways, I'm saddened by this move and hope there's a way to fix the problems you have with the forums in a way that keeps the community together. The old BioBoards was my first forum and I have fond memories of my time both there and here.
Working as intended.
Part of me won't miss this place, but I did meet some cool cats along the way. To all of you:
Good game. Well played.
"We realized we're not engaging on the forum that exists specifically for discussing our games so instead of encouraging our devs to use this central, logical hub to engage with our fanbase we decided it'd make more sense to engage with our fans on dozens of decentralized 3rd party sites."
Please. 
Rest assured, this is about money and money only. The OP and staff replies are pure doubletalk, the oldest damage control move there is.
Frankly, if the company is this pressured for money, it really calls for questions about their future. Forums don't cost very much to maintain at all, even when big and fairly famous. And like one poster said, these forums are the heart of their community.
Pretty disheartening to see this happening.
PS: I'm a poster since the old Bioware forum days, and haven't logged in for years. But this called for a comment.
No, this was not a monetary decision. It also was not an easy one for us to make.
We understand that there are people who use and love these boards. And like them, we are sad to see them go. However, many of our players and staff now use other sites and networks outside of these boards, and we want to foster these interactions and support the great fan communities our players have built.
As always, we are committed to our players, and will continue to seek out and solicit their feedback. All of you are why we make games and what we love about gaming. This is the end of an era, but we will always, always listen to our players.
I'd like to point out how impressed I am with the number of folks coming to this thread to express in a respective and constructive manner what the forums have meant to them. Very sad to see this community go 
No, this was not a monetary decision. It also was not an easy one for us to make.
We understand that there are people who use and love these boards. And like them, we are sad to see them go. However, many of our players and staff now use other sites and networks outside of these boards, and we want to foster these interactions and support the great fan communities our players have built.
As always, we are committed to our players, and will continue to seek out and solicit their feedback. All of you are why we make games and what we love about gaming. This is the end of an era, but we will always, always listen to our players.
Conal I'll have to handwrite you a letter then with my Andromeda feedback because it won't fit on Twitter 
It's nice to hear it's not a monetary decision.
The fact that nobody from Bioware has yet to come to respond to this thread at all clearly shows how much they don't care for fans nor it's forums.
Well I spoke somewhat too soon.
I've read every (every) devs posts during DA:I development (and translated/linked them into the french forum), and there were a substantial amount of that during 3 years.
I was wondering why nobody from BioWare were posting in the ME:A forum. Now I know!
Well, I'm gonna miss this place, and the people in it. I've been here since the old BSN. Maybe I'll make a Reddit account, I don't think I can take my avatar with me though.
Hopefully I'll see some of you folks there.
No, this was not a monetary decision. It also was not an easy one for us to make.
We understand that there are people who use and love these boards. And like them, we are sad to see them go. However, many of our players and staff now use other sites and networks outside of these boards, and we want to foster these interactions and support the great fan communities our players have built.
As always, we are committed to our players, and will continue to seek out and solicit their feedback. All of you are why we make games and what we love about gaming. This is the end of an era, but we will always, always listen to our players.
Seriously?
PLEASE explain to me how another site is better designed to discuss the lore, characters, and such?
Twitter with its 140 character limit? Tumblr that's terrible for the back and forth discussions on here, or Reddit where everything gets buried. We know its not really about "players and staff using other sites" at east do us the courtesy of an honest answer.
You clearly don't understand. I'm not upset.This is a place of business where people are working. if you show up unannounced I am afraid we will have to turn you away.
i understand you are upset, but there are more constructive ways to communicate that.
Also but what I don't understand is why you can't foster interactions on other sites while also having these boards.
"Supporting the great fan communities we have built" - this is a great ambition and ideal, but I don't see how it's being served by completely deleting the main one.
If BW listens to fan feedback, listen to our feedback on the idea of closing the BSN.
Except for this one? I really don't see how fostering community is aided by shutting down one.However, many of our players and staff now use other sites and networks outside of these boards, and we want to foster these interactions and support the great fan communities our players have built.
I'll add my voice to those that say this is a huge bummer. I've met people here, had great conversations, learned quite a few things, and looked at things from different perspectives.
It's a great shame you aren't keeping these around as read-only. Please reconsider that.
While I doubt that anything I say will change the mind of those responsible for the decision, I feel I should point out that most people have kept coming here and posting in these forums even after the devs disappeared. Sure, I've even made posts lamenting that fact, but talking about the game and characters I love with other players, sharing knowledge with them, and learning from them is what kept me coming back here, not the illusory promise that a developer would pop in.
I'm primarily familiar with the Dragon Age forums. I think it was pretty clear to most players that the devs just had little to no interest in posting here very shortly after DAI's release and most of their posts dropped off dramatically. But players have kept posting for nearly two years since the game's release without that developer connection on these forums. That should say something.
I'm not going to use Facebook. I'm not going to use Twitter. I'm not going to use Reddit. I do have a Tumblr, but that is not the place to have conversations. Reblogging with comments is not conversational.
All of those other media listed don't afford the opportunity to have real conversations. Also, they are all third party. A AAA gaming company should have their own forum where they communicate with their players and disseminate information in that unified manner, not piecemeal over different apps. Also, players who have an Origin account, required to play certain games like DAI, already have access to these forums and don't have to do anything special or sign up for yet another service.
To be perfectly honest, despite the words in the OP, it just seems like there is no effort or drive to maintain these forums any longer. Since the developers don't post here anymore, I guess the fact that there is a thriving community, despite the few bad apples, has no significance whatsoever.
Aw, this is a shame.
I don't post very often, but the Twitter threads here have been a great resource for keeping up to date on news. I'm not really sure what an alternative will be for me. I have a Twitter account, but I'm not really interested in following dozens of people's personal accounts for the chance of tidbits of information, nor is it a good place for the discussions I do like to join, what with the character limit.
I'm not willing to create a reddit account. I can't. I've created for myself a limited and specific social media bubble. I want to keep my internet presence small and mostly professional, and reddit would be too much. It's too broad. I don't need that much distraction and anxiety. And I really don't want to be tempted to change my mind about it. And Facebook? No thanks. Facebook exists for me to stay in touch with distant friends and family, but little more than that.
I will be keeping an eye on the twitter threads here until the end of the forum, but if I don't get a chance to say it before then, thanks to all the wonderful people who have been doing all the work of gathering and posting information here so I don't have to. Thanks to those who've been kind and friendly and supportive. Thanks to those who, even if we disagreed on subjects, still discussed with respect. These forums are far, far, from perfect, but I will still be sad to see them go.
Clearly, these forums mean an awful lot to so many people. I respect Bioware's decision in this, but i don't think any other site can give the kind of feed back or connectivity to the fan base that BSN has.
Taking their explanation at face value, they're doing this purely because they don't directly engage with the forums much and thus it doesn't benefit them?
That's incredibly shortsighted. Do they not understand the benefit of the active and enthusiastic fanbase on these boards at all? Of having this space to congregate and discuss? Do they even understand what a forum is for?
to spout self congratulatory drivel
Guys I'd appreciate your feedback in this thread: https://forum.biowar...ommunityforums/
Concerning starting an alternative third party forum for Bioware games.
It won't work, Im afraid, because it never does. There going to be lots of small forums and people won't know where to go. People are going to try them all, but it's going to be tiresome. In the end there's going to be some last-one-standing, but by this moment people would drift off. It would take time to regain and reattract the public.
That's why we have official forums. Used to have, I mean...
Seriously?
PLEASE explain to me how another site is better designed to discuss the lore, characters, and such?
Twitter with its 140 character limit? Tumblr that's terrible for the back and forth discussions on here, or Reddit where everything gets buried. We know its not really about "players and staff using other sites" at east do us the courtesy of an honest answer.
It's not.
But those forum are known as "toxic" , which I imagine is not an issue because Tumblr....but beyond being toxic we don't socialnetwork in here.We're not linking our weird debate about Tali Sweat ( ) with hashtag so we're not hooking up newcomers.
So they just get all the drawbacks.
Anyway I know they can't say it's about the money , imagine the article "Bioware can't pay for their forums anymore!" but it's about money sounds better than err you're useless to us or embarrassing or we can't be bothered anymore.
Forums are as good as their moderation. I won't argue that moderating a forum is easy. It's always tough to know where to draw the line in heated discussions and it's been known to turn otherwise normal people into tin-pot dictators. But if there was a problem with rampant toxicity here...well, I'm not blaming the fans for that.
No, this was not a monetary decision. It also was not an easy one for us to make.
We understand that there are people who use and love these boards. And like them, we are sad to see them go. However, many of our players and staff now use other sites and networks outside of these boards, and we want to foster these interactions and support the great fan communities our players have built.
As always, we are committed to our players, and will continue to seek out and solicit their feedback. All of you are why we make games and what we love about gaming. This is the end of an era, but we will always, always listen to our players.
If it isnt monetary I literally dont understand this decision. A forum is an ENTIRELY different form of communicative experience than reddit, twitter, or tumblr.
I don't think I have ever seen a more transparent attempt to quell criticism.
That was the thought that popped into my mind when I first read about it early this pm. And as I wrote in another thread (already closed):
... I loathe social medias and the mindless babbling that goes on there. I wonder if there are other reasons behind this questionable move, besides the usual crass monetary considerations?
Here's a suggestion:
Is it possible to get a dump of the forum's database and host it on a private, fan-run site?
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