5830 réponses à ce sujet

[LPPrince]

Received a PM on Fextralife from someone who saw my posts a lot on the BSN and made me feel good, so I've got that going for me.

[Pasquale1234]

The big thing is that posters on this site have posted very valuable information about the games that can't be found anywhere else.
 
How to do a playthrough this way or that way? How to make the most of whatever class you're playing? What happens if I do this instead of that? Many other things.

Do you suppose the ever-helpful EA Help will find themselves a bit busier on August 26th? Or a lot busier on October 26th? Or possibly deluged after the release of MEA?

Stranger things have happened.

[Silcron]

The gaming media will side against gamers every single time. If this ever becomes a topic, it will be a "Toxic Gamers Force Developer To Shut Down Forum" type deal. If BioWare tells them we're toxic, then toxic we are. Gaming media hate their audience even more than BioWare does.

 

Oh yeah. Can you believe I had forgotten about the whole "Gamers are dead" thing?

 

I still hope someone at a convention asks them about this, it'll be much more difficult to ignore the question if it's face to face.

[Pasquale1234]

The wikis made by the fans are filled with sources. That many of those sources are linked to HERE is something you folks have forgotten. Info will have to be removed and or constantly declared false due to lack of sources. Not to mention, in the future, filling up those wikis will get harder and harder due to lack of contact.
 
A wiki is a CONSOLIDATED SOURCE OF OUTSIDE INFORMATION. This is INTERNAL. They cannot replace the other.

Shhh... they probably get royalties from those overpriced guides released with the games.

[themikefest]

Do you suppose the ever-helpful EA Help will find themselves a bit busier on August 26th? Or a lot busier on October 26th? Or possibly deluged after the release of MEA?

Stranger things have happened.

I'm sure they will. I'd be curious to the response they will give to folks looking for answers

[SnakeCode]

Wew lad

[Kantr]

"Skepticism" is being mild, it's easier to find a publication covering a topic like this that DOESN'T immediately demonize gamers (the same people who make up the core readership of said publications, making the vilification all the more bizarre). Any time a gaming outlet addresses a topic that doesn't immediately concern a game, I just assume it's an agenda being driven, and I'm right 9 times out of 10.

 

You NEVER see the "other side" being given any credibility, it's always the same stream of "gamers r ebil misogynerds driving their developers away" or other some such garbage, and then when the idiots who write this crap inevitably receive flak (because insulting your audience tends to make them hate you in return), they run to their echo chamber on Twitter about the mean bullies, when they're the ones deliberately provoking responses.

I don't notice any of this on RPS

[Draining Dragon]

Wew lad

[Dobbysaurus]

zozzle

[Lieutenant Kurin]

Do you suppose the ever-helpful EA Help will find themselves a bit busier on August 26th? Or a lot busier on October 26th? Or possibly deluged after the release of MEA?

Stranger things have happened.

 

Even if that's sarcasm, it's too false to be funny.

 

EA Help man, EA Help.

[Jeremiah12LGeek]

I've always been a big fan of angry condemnations of entire communities.

[bEVEsthda]

(Polish, French, and German announcements follow)

 

After great consideration, we are closing down the BioWare forums, effective August 26, 2016. The Star Wars: The Old Republic forums will continue to operate; however, our public boards for Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and legacy BioWare titles will no longer be available.

This wasn’t an easy decision.

Our players are important to us. Your feedback, stories, and love for our games drive and inspire us.

In the past, our forums were the only way we could speak to you directly. They allowed our developers to talk with fans, and gave our players the opportunity to talk with each other about our games. But with the rise of social media and geek culture, there have never been more ways for us to connect.

Now we can travel around the world, meeting with you face-to-face at events like PAX, SDCC, and even shows in our own backyard. We can share stories with you on the go, giving you a look behind the scenes on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

In turn, you’ve built your own fantastic communities in places like Tumblr and Reddit. You’ve created comprehensive Wikis and countless pieces of fantastic art, fiction, and cosplay.

With so many great things so widely available, our developers today find themselves spending more time on other sites, and less time in our own forums. And to our fans and players who came to those boards looking to talk to us, it was a great disservice.

So it is with a heavy heart that we will close our public forums on August 26, 2016. We will maintain some private boards, and may use these in future for beta feedback or other special projects.

Because we know there is a lot of information on there you may want to keep, the public boards will remain in a read-only state until October 25, 2016. After that date, they will be taken down.

While we are saying goodbye to this venue, we remain committed to our community and will always be here to listen, share, and support you. Online and in person, we will continue to seek out opportunities to interact and share in our combined love of games.

 

I'm afraid that this statement is formulated in a way that will more satisfy corporate directors and convince them of that you are a good communicator than actually convey the message to the audience.  But, of course, the best way is likely not possible.

Other follow up postings improved the communication though.

 

My guess/estimate is the decision itself is a result of group thinking. I don't really believe that Twitter, Reddit, Facebook and Youtube are more relevant. Not even when that's where your staff is. The traditional Forum is still the best form for discussing a particular subject, like games. 

 

So yeah, while I will briefly consider your statement that you didn't think this was an easy decision, I do think you're cowards taking the easy way out here. But yeah, things have deteriorated in later years. You've had some bad luck, as a string of game releases featuring innovation and changes which haven't been well received or as appreciated as you maybe hoped. Those definitely affected the atmosphere here. Then I think it may have been a big mistake to create BSN and force all users to register there. I'm not entirely sure of that, and I understand the idea to lock out Trolls not even having purchased the game, but I still think this permanently changed the Bioware Forums for worse. Next mistake was closing down Off Topic, I still don't understand the logic that led to this. Again group thinking would be my guess. Finally, the implied assumption that the Forums are past their usefulness, just because Bioware staff/devs are not here, is also logic which I can't understand. Again I have to assume group thinking is in effect here. It was cool back in the days when devs contributed something, but frankly I'm here for Sylvius the Mad, not the devs.

 

...And now I'll go back to Kerbal Space Program's forums. While I profess to like DA:I, I absolutely love KSP. I have accumulated +1,500 hours in KSP, less than 300 in DA:I. And you know what? Besides the joys of KSP itself, one of the things that keep me playing it is the Forum. It serves so many things...  And it is brewing BUZZ! How the h*** is Twitter supposed to do that?

[Saake]

Reasons Bioware told us for closing the forums feels like this.

 

 

[SmilesJA]

"Skepticism" is being mild, it's easier to find a publication covering a topic like this that DOESN'T immediately demonize gamers (the same people who make up the core readership of said publications, making the vilification all the more bizarre). Any time a gaming outlet addresses a topic that doesn't immediately concern a game, I just assume it's an agenda being driven, and I'm right 9 times out of 10.

 

You NEVER see the "other side" being given any credibility, it's always the same stream of "gamers r ebil misogynerds driving their developers away" or other some such garbage, and then when the idiots who write this crap inevitably receive flak (because insulting your audience tends to make them hate you in return), they run to their echo chamber on Twitter about the mean bullies, when they're the ones deliberately provoking responses.

 

You're right about that which makes it fustrating to read these smear jobs about gamers. It makes you believe that these gaming publications are no different than those extreme critics from the 90's

[Seraphim24]

No offense but the "gaming culture" (the one of relentless insults and invective" being dead doesn't bother me in the slightest... 

[Kantr]

Then I think it may have been a big mistake to create BSN and force all users to register there. I'm not entirely sure of that, and I understand the idea to lock out Trolls not even having purchased the game, but I still think this permanently changed the Bioware Forums for worse. 

Er what do you mean by that? Bioware have had forums for over a decade. How does only letting people who own the game post on the forums make things bad?

[robertmarilyn]

Well, time to make my daily post about how ill thought out this whole thing is. Forgive any typos and particularly bad grammar. I woke up with the stomach flu and it's not been a fun morning.

Anyway, it occurred to me that they aren't just negating the fan posts. There is a lot of confirmations about lore, gameplay mechanic and general interaction with the fans. To me, that means that not only are the posters here disposable, but so is any dev/writer that ever came by here to chat.

"You guys built wikis." Yeah, some really dedicated fans did do that. However, those are in real jeopardy, even as people are getting things archived. There are conversations and statements made by the devs/writers that don't exist anywhere else. They aren't comments on facebook or twitter. I haven't bothered mentioning Instagram because that sounds so out of touch that it isn't worth mentioning all that much.

This is just awful. All those years of lore confirmation, various mechanics by the devs and writers are getting flushed down the drain. Far as I can tell, that seems really disrespectful.

"Well, we've decided that the forums need to be erased. It's not like it has anything useful from the employees that work here. Good riddance, and the devs that posted there were idiots in the first place. The only ones that are okay are the ones that posted and now see the error of their ways."

You know, I'd like to hear one person address the deletion. Just one. This isn't something that's going to be hidden like a bad pimple. Gaming and tech news has been all over this. I don't give a flying pyjak if it's PR speak, just something. They love to go on about how much better Twitter and the like are for interacting with their fans. But the fact that this is all getting erased? Not a peep. It comes across as cowardly to me.

...I'm not into company bashing. I'm also not a fan of wearing a tinfoil hat. That being said, I can't help but feel like BioWare is in danger of becoming an EA shell. Existing in name, but with EA picked employees with cookie cutter stories that have all the depth of mental junkfood.

 

A few days ago you said one of your posts would be your last post. I'm so glad you kept on posting. 

 

Hope you feel better soon. 

[AngryFrozenWater]

You know what I'm really curious about. The next convention they'll be in. Because I'm almost sure one of us is going to attend said convention and when the time for the Q&A comes I bet someone will ask them about this, face to face, in front of a crowd, cameras and possibly being streamed.

 

How will that go for marketing and pr, huh? Will we get a nonsense. rehearsed reply, a "next question", will they call us toxic again?

 

And aside from fans, they should remember gaming and media in general have turned towards sensasionalism, because drama drives clicks? You know what many media outlets could start asking them about to make sure people will read/watch their interviews? Or maybe they'll specifically state that they won't answer that question so they don't ask about it...until someone mentions that to get a new article on a slow news day.

 

Or how about the few gaming critics that dare ask those kind of questions, will Bioware be ignoring them now?

 

Because here's the thing, there is next to no information on Andromeda, so this drama here is about the only interesting question media outlets can ask Bioware right now. Well and related things like "Did you do it because you think ME:A is not going to be good and you didn't want a repeat of ME3?" "Will you all have to look for new jobs after ME:A?" Because plausible or not, one of those question can make for a clickbait title to an interview, and media nowadays loves that.

 

P.S. Save yourself this trouble while you still can Bioware. Keep the forums. We can forgive, let this be just the Summer 2016 anecdote.

 

P.P.S. Shut up cynical self.

I like to agree with you, but currently BW's PR seems to work for the media. There are not many sites (if any) that believe shutting down the forums is a bad thing. All seem to think that it is time for this forum to go.

 

All that BW had to do was give us one month notice of the event and a tell us that the forums will be purged from history. They knew that the fans would be going nuts over this. And now BW can simply point to a thread like this, to show they were right.

 

None of the "journalists" will take the time to read the hundreds of pages here. They spend a couple of minutes, see confirmation that this forum is toxic, and write up their silly story. They have to take sides with EA, because otherwise they will miss their next scoop or will be deleted from the list to get early review copies, or EA will not advertise there anymore. And that's certainly not in the interest of the journalist's employers, because it will cost them money. And if sensationalism is what they are after then pointing to toxic fans is enough click bait.

 

So, no media outlet will feel the need to properly investigate this.

[Spirit Vanguard]

I'm tired, but also officially at 500 posts and figured it should be in this thread. Didn't think I'd reach it so soon, and was hoping to be more appreciative or excited about it... but it feels kind of like

 

(Sick of my Anders gifs yet?  )

 

Also reached 900+ likes.  Thanks everyone on BSN for those little alerts that (the memory of which) I will treasure forever. Some screen grabs might be needed. (A shout-out to Wolven_Soul, who gave me my 900th like.  ) 

 

I wish BSN would stay...

[Seraphim24]

I'm tired, but also officially at 500 posts and figured it should be in this thread. Didn't think I'd reach it so soon, and was hoping to be more appreciative or excited about it... but it feels kind of like

 

(Sick of my Anders gifs yet?  )

 

Also reached 900+ likes.  Thanks everyone on BSN for those little alerts that (the memory of which) I will treasure forever. Some screen grabs might be needed. (A shout-out to Wolven_Soul, who gave me my 900th like.  ) 

 

I wish BSN would stay...

 

I like your stuff on DA2 spirit. 

[bEVEsthda]

Er what do you mean by that? Bioware have had forums for over a decade. How does only letting people who own the game post on the forums make things bad?

 

I've been on one Bioware related forum or other since we waited on NWN. I actually seem to remember I've been on Bioware forums since we waited on BG2, but I may have been mistaken, it might have been News groups.

 

No, only letting people who own the game post on the forums may not have made things bad. You misunderstand. That's not what I said. I said creating BSN. They funneled every customer to their own Facebook project.

 

Just having the forum is quite enough and such simple forums seem to attract mainly people interested in the game. There also seem to not be any harm in letting non-customers post. They're just curious. Even if they become persuaded to buy the game and then don't like it, that's just it: They don't like it and don't come back. Of course there is bitching about bugs and version changes, but that's actually an important function of a forum.

[o Ventus]

I don't notice any of this on RPS

 

Literally just Google "rock paper shotgun gamergate".

[von uber]

I ended up ranting a bit, but this is why we, and Bioware, need a forum - so we can discuss and promote the game:

 

https://forum.biowar...8#entry20434183

 

It's such a silly decision.

[phagus]

Do you know what's funny about this forum closure?

 

They're doing this to "get rid of the toxicity". To avoid the ME3 endings insurgence from happening to Andromeda.

And they blame the fans that use the BSN of doing it. They chose to call us the black sheep.

 

 

 

Now, I'm currently in some fandoms composed by younger audiences, with ages varying from 15 to 20 and guess what.

The people there are as obnoxious as some of the people the devs have criticized in this forum.

 

It's the same trolling, the same childish feuds, the same tantrums being thrown, the same posting of porn to defy admins, and best of all, the same strident complaints when a game or series isn't everything they expected it to be. 

 

These are the people EA wants to buy Andromeda. Those are the fans they're afraid might be "contaminated" by the BSN extensive past. The people that are already trolling, throwing tantrums and bickering in other forums.

 

 

 

EA still doesn't realize that, no matter how good Andromeda turns out to be, the new fanbase will have the same "childish" reaction that the original one did with the ME trilogy.

 

They're about to find out they're just replacing one group of undesirable fans for another group of undesirable fans. What will they do, then? Blame the new fanbase? Blame the internet's general aggressiveness? Who'll be EA's new scapegoat, then?

 

This is hilarious.

As long as they buy the game, EA don't care. And yes they will blame the "new" fans for the very reasons you suggest.

 

As soon as a fan base reaches a certain level of criticism it must be destroyed and all traces of toxicity removed from history. The cycle must continue...

[SmilesJA]

As long as they buy the game, EA don't care. And yes they will blame the "new" fans for the very reasons you suggest.

 

As soon a fan base reaches a certain level of criticism it must be destroyed and all traces of toxicity removed from history. The cycle must continue...

 

And the "games media" will take the corporate side..... always.