38 réponses à ce sujet

[Ieldra]

So the forums are going to be closed. 
 
For me, 15 years of sojourn on several incarnations of Bioware's forums are coming to an end, and that deserves a few words that can't be summarized with "this sucks" or anything like it.
 
 
A look into the (actual) reasons
 
No business will maintain a moderation-intensive forum without getting something back from it. That can be an expectation of higher profits, useful feedback, a good reputation, motivation for the developers if forum interaction is good, and maybe a few things of which I'm unaware. If the forums will now be closed, clearly those who make and influence such decisions think that EA/Bioware doesn't get anything back from the forums any more, or that they don't get enough back to put up with the considerable annoyance of moderation.
 
One thing has become increasingly apparent over the last five years: Bioware's developers do not like to come here any more and occasionally enter a discussion, or even read stuff the fans have written. That should already have served as a serious warning sign. In general, I do not think these forums were any more "toxic" than most other existing platforms for debate, except in the time after ME3 came out. However, the ME3 debacle may have brought home to EA/Bioware that they do not make their games primarily for their hardcore fans. Not that they ever did - it would be bad business to do so since the hardcore fans are a small group - but in normal times they are those who appreciate details that escape most others, and game developers are artists enough to like those details being noticed.
 
Some people may look as far back as the forum's reception to DA2 to mark the start of the increasing awareness that we - the hardcore fans - aren't really in Bioware's primary target group and the increasing perception of irrelevance, and that may be true. It was masked, however, by the fact that as opposed to ME3, DA2 *was* clearly rushed and put out in a rough and unpolished state. In ME3, the forum reception was all about what was *in* the game, while its technical brilliance was widely acknowledged.
 
In any case, hardcore fans are multipliers. One hardcore fan who appreciates a game will influence others. If the hardcore fans are out of touch with the developers or vice versa, they can become multipliers of negative opinions, and I'm sure that did some damage to the sales of ME3. If the impression of toxicity continued - and it appears it did, justified or not - then at EA/Bioware they may feel that the forums aren't just not useful any more, but likely do to some actual damage. I don't have the data to back up my opinion, but even though we are a small group, I think in times around a game's release still many people come here to get others' opinions about the new game, and thus we've still acted as multipliers for DAI, assertions of irrelevance notwithstanding.
 
So....useful feedback and developers getting some motivation from fan feedback, that didn't happen any more, starting at some unspecified time in the past, and fans acting as positive multipliers, that didn't happen with ME3 for sure, and may have continued, though I think DAI's general reception was good. Along with side issues - like romance - getting excessively discussed at the expense of more central elements of their games, I think these are the main reasons why the forums will be closed. 
 
A look at the given reasons
 
In the announcement about the forum closure, it is said that other social media as well as increased personal presence make the forums obsolete as a platform for exchanging opinions and for contact between developers and fans. 
 
I disagree.
 
Everywhere else, you may chat or post comments, but only in a discussion forum you can have any sort of in-depth debate. No matter that the forums were overburdened by chat at times, there was still enough in-depth debate that it made me come here regularly. Personally, I'm not much for chat. I'm not very social overall, and if I come to a place where people talk I want to talk *about* stuff, preferably in some depth. So, the Bioware forums - along with another few I regularly visit - were a very good place for me. The times I posted in the old OT section I can count on one hand.
 
As for more direct contact with the developers, that, too, isn't conducive to any in-depth exchange of opinions, simply because that would take too much time. It's even worse for players living outside the English-speaking world.
 
Are the developers not interested in in-depth discussion? Specifically, as opposed to in-depth commentaries that go uncommented by any opposing opinions?  I don't suppose they generally aren't, but to the extent that they *are* interested in it - there are many, many in-depth debates about completely irrelevant topics on the forums - they may feel that the forum debates come late, and much of what's discussed has already been discussed internally way before the game came out. And to the extent that they are interested in the fans' in-depth response, they may feel they have to wade through too much BS to find the occasional gem. Having said that, while I very much sympathize with such a viewpoint, I have a hard time imagining that this is actually better anywhere else. 
 
In any case, Tumblr and Reddit - both quoted in the announcement - are both much harder to use for people like me, who like in-depth debate, Twitter is completely useless for anything but chat, and I distrust Facebook enough to regret that I ever made an account there, no matter that it goes unused. There is no valid substitute for a discussion forum than - another discussion forum.
 
 
Assertions of irrelevance
 
So...they appear to dislike "their" fan community. Unpleasant as being disliked generally is, I can live with that. The assertion of irrelevance stings, however. I had thought - or deluded myself into thinking, as it now appears - that at least occasionally I had written something someone at Bioware found worth reading, and that this would be the case with some other regulars as well. 
 
In any case, the underlying basis for a perception of irrelevance as a group may be somewhat valid. Again I lack the data for a final judgment, but what I'm seeing is a forum dominated by a few hundred regulars, which would be about 0,01% of the total player base, with a highly non-representative selection. Maybe we have become a little too insular over the years to count our feedback valid with regard to players outside of this place, but again, I can't see any other developer's hardcore fan community being significantly different, and many of *their* forums remain. There must be more to it than that...
 
As I said above, hardcore fans have a unique perspective which developers may value as artists even where they don't value it as businessmen. Apparently, that fundamental connection between the developers at Bioware and their fans has been lost at some point. This is very unfortunate, and it's unlikely to come back between the same groups of people. Quite possibly closing the forums is the natural reaction to that, assuming that there is nothing to balance that, that no more direct benefits should be expected from continuing them either.
 
 
Exiled - what now?
 
I read some of the rage posts that appeared in response to the announcement. I didn't feel anything like that. Things change, and as unexpected as this one was, it is a very small - dare I say, almost irrelevant - change compared to many others I can imagine. Still, the Bioware forums had become a sort of online home for me over the years. I regularly looked in here for anything new every day, right after the news, and at times even before the news. I made some friends here I wouldn't know without this place, and valued the presence of some ideological opponents whose opinions I found worth considering nonetheless. I will now have to meet them in other places, quite likely more than one or two other places. 
 
When I read the announcement, my first reaction is: well, this is inconvenient. Inconvenience is still the main reason why I dislike the decision, but as I said, things change. I hope that another place will emerge and I won't have to distribute my attention over several places. Fexelea made a copy of the forum structure at fextralife and has made a successful test run with moving existing content, which is why I have given that place my prelimanry preference. We'll see how things go. I find Reddit hard to use so I probably won't do much there but they posted a nice welcome message and made an extra forum-like place for in-depth discussion, so that's worthy of consideration as well. We'll see how things go. Some other places aren't up yet, but I'll check them out once they are.
 
Apart from that, and wherever I go, there will be no other place like this. Goodbye. To everyone I met here and won't meet again elsewhere: goodbye, it has been a great ride. To everyone else I met here: see you in some other place.

[Fiery Phoenix]

Great writeup. Disbanding the community in favor of impersonal mediums like Twitter and Facebook was never going to fly.

[Iakus]

It will certainly be embarrassing that other companies like Bethesda, Obsidian and such have thriving official communities and Bioware does not.

[SmilesJA]

Yup this decision will haunt Bioware. Despite whatever reputation the BSN had, It was a still a place with in depth discussions and a tight knight community.

[Super Drone]

You guys are a hoot.

 

Wizards of the Coast shut down their community forums almost a full year ago. For exactly the same reasons, their "fans" on the forums were a bunch of solipsistic, reactionary grognards who drove away their less "enthusiastic" fans with their shrillness. 

 

Almost a year later, and WotC doesn't seem the least bit bothered by not having their own forums. Not a hint of regret. 

 

 

Seriously people, Get over yourselves. Vibrant fan communities don't sell games (anymore). Especially vibrant fan communities that are mostly people sitting around [...] about how much ____ (Bioware, ME3, DAI, Templars, not getting to be evil in game, straight people, gay people, non-binary gender people, binary gender people, etc.)  sucks, Circle-J****g over irrelevant, half-understood details, and squeeing over their husbandos.

 

Go do that on a fan-forum, where Bioware can plausibly try to ignore you. 

[voteDC]

You guys are a hoot.

 

Wizards of the Coast shut down their community forums almost a full year ago. For exactly the same reasons, their "fans" on the forums were a bunch of solipsistic, reactionary grognards who drove away their less "enthusiastic" fans with their shrillness. 

 

Almost a year later, and WotC doesn't seem the least bit bothered by not having their own forums. Not a hint of regret. 

 

 

Seriously people, Get over yourselves. Vibrant fan communities don't sell games (anymore). Especially vibrant fan communities that are mostly people sitting around [...] about how much ____ (Bioware, ME3, DAI, Templars, not getting to be evil in game, straight people, gay people, non-binary gender people, binary gender people, etc.)  sucks, Circle-J****g over irrelevant, half-understood details, and squeeing over their husbandos.

 

Go do that on a fan-forum, where Bioware can plausibly try to ignore you. 

It's a risk to my eyes because, and I dislike the term, the hardcore fans are those who keep your business ticking over when you haven't made that a good a product.

They are the ones who will vocally tell others what great products you make and that the not so good latest release really did have excellent parts to it, ones that make it worth buying despite the flaws.

Now the target audience Bioware are going after is no longer the hardcore fan but the big Call of Duty money. Those are the people who will forget about the last game when the new one comes out. Sure you aren't going to get the negatives clinging on in their memory but you'll also not have the same level of long term support when the latest game isn't that good.

You see people passionately defending Dragon Age II to this very day, how many staunch defenders of Call of Duty: Ghosts do you see?

[Biotic Apostitute]

You guys are a hoot.

 

Wizards of the Coast shut down their community forums almost a full year ago. For exactly the same reasons, their "fans" on the forums were a bunch of solipsistic, reactionary grognards who drove away their less "enthusiastic" fans with their shrillness. 

 

Almost a year later, and WotC doesn't seem the least bit bothered by not having their own forums. Not a hint of regret. 

 

 

Seriously people, Get over yourselves. Vibrant fan communities don't sell games (anymore). Especially vibrant fan communities that are mostly people sitting around [...] about how much ____ (Bioware, ME3, DAI, Templars, not getting to be evil in game, straight people, gay people, non-binary gender people, binary gender people, etc.)  sucks, Circle-J****g over irrelevant, half-understood details, and squeeing over their husbandos.

 

Go do that on a fan-forum, where Bioware can plausibly try to ignore you. 

 

Don't hold back, let it all out. 

[Super Drone]

It's a risk to my eyes because, and I dislike the term, the hardcore fans are those who keep your business ticking over when you haven't made that a good a product.

They are the ones who will vocally tell others what great products you make and that the not so good latest release really did have excellent parts to it, ones that make it worth buying despite the flaws.

Now the target audience Bioware are going after is no longer the hardcore fan but the big Call of Duty money. Those are the people who will forget about the last game when the new one comes out. Sure you aren't going to get the negatives clinging on in their memory but you'll also not have the same level of long term support when the latest game isn't that good.

You see people passionately defending Dragon Age II to this very day, how many staunch defenders of Call of Duty: Ghosts do you see?

 

All the passionate defending of DA2 in the world didn't stop it from being price-dropped less than 6 months after being released. All the lack of defending of CoD: Ghosts in the world didn't stop it from being a money-printing machine with guaranteed sequels. Fan Communities don't sell games to people outside of said community.

 

You know what passionate fan communities are good for? Inspiring and heartening the developers to keep up the good work. Unless, of course, you're BSN, in which case you're mostly good for driving up the devs therapy bills.

 

Now you can say that the devs need to grow thicker skin, that this board is no more toxic than any other on the internet, or any of the other sentiments repeated ad nauseum in the thread above; but that changes nothing. If the devs don't feel inspired by this forum, and this forum can't sell games to anyone outside of the people on this forum (who will buy the game anyway, get real), then this forum is useless to them. 

 

Useless things get cut in big business.

[goofyomnivore]

Just wanted to say thanks to you Ieldra. You always brought your A game to discussions. Even the silly stuff in the Miranda thread back in the day you'd answer in detail and with courtesy. Your DA:I walkthrough/diary thread is one of my favorite on the BSN and your Synthesis thread actually made that ending somewhat okay to me.

[voteDC]

All the passionate defending of DA2 in the world didn't stop it from being price-dropped less than 6 months after being released. All the lack of defending of CoD: Ghosts in the world didn't stop it from being a money-printing machine with guaranteed sequels. Fan Communities don't sell games to people outside of said community.

Most games see price cuts after a shorter period of time than six months. If DAII held that price point for that long then it's a pretty rare exception.

Call of Duty is a, license to print money, because the FPS crowd as a general rule aren't that bothered about quality as long as they get new maps for multiplayer. Yes I know that is a terrible generalisation but can anyone really argue that I am wrong?

Now I enjoy the single player of Call of Duty titles but I am under no illusion that the reason people buy those games is because they want to play the freshest version of the multiplayer.

The difference is that people are buying Bioware titles for its single player, that is after all what Bioware is known for. So why are they so desperately now chasing the Call of Duty crowd? The people who will give up on a game when a newer multiplayer experience is available to them?

Bioware's 'hardcore' fans will buy their titles no matter what, the CoD folk will abandon them as soon as something new comes out. Even if you are right and the fan communities don't sell outside of that base, your games are still selling in pretty damn good numbers.

[Super Drone]

Most games see price cuts after a shorter period of time than six months. If DAII held that price point for that long then it's a pretty rare exception.

Call of Duty is a, license to print money, because the FPS crowd as a general rule aren't that bothered about quality as long as they get new maps for multiplayer. Yes I know that is a terrible generalisation but can anyone really argue that I am wrong?

Now I enjoy the single player of Call of Duty titles but I am under no illusion that the reason people buy those games is because they want to play the freshest version of the multiplayer.

The difference is that people are buying Bioware titles for its single player, that is after all what Bioware is known for. So why are they so desperately now chasing the Call of Duty crowd? The people who will give up on a game when a newer multiplayer experience is available to them?

Bioware's 'hardcore' fans will buy their titles no matter what, the CoD folk will abandon them as soon as something new comes out. Even if you are right and the fan communities don't sell outside of that base, your games are still selling in pretty damn good numbers.

 

Re-read what you wrote.You aren't making any sense, none of what you said is relevant. 

 

They are chasing the CoD crowd because of all the things you just said. They spend money. They don't complain ad nauseum about frivolous nonsense. Who cares if they don't appreciate the single player campaign, or "abandons" the game when a new one comes out. Activision has their money, and when the next one comes out, they will have their money again. Why is your money better then theirs?

[Ieldra]

Yup this decision will haunt Bioware. Despite whatever reputation the BSN had, It was a still a place with in depth discussions and a tight knight community.

I don't think there will be any regrets on their side. I rather suspect they'll find it liberating.

 

The problems are all for us. Scattering to the four winds (read: to different places on the net) will result in even more tight-knit (read: even more liable to become insular) communities. This place had the advantage that it was well-visible to players looking for information and reasonably big as fan communities go, for games that sold in the low millions. There will be no place like this again. 

 

The great inconvenience for me is this: I want a big place with many people and a wide variety of opinions, but I also want a place that will become familiar in time, where I meet like-minded people. In its best times, Bioware's forums served both needs. I can see no other site that may do the same at the moment. Most likely, my future primary site will be one not exclusively dedicated to Bioware's games.

[Vigilant111]

I haven't made any decision yet as to which unofficial forum to join or whether I want to join... I mean I play games from other studios but for some reason I only joined this one.

 

These could well be my last forum-going days , even if MEA turns out to be good and I played it I will have no one to talk to... not many people at work play video games, so...

[Ieldra]

These could well be my last forum-going days , even if MEA turns out to be good and I played it I will have no one to talk to... not many people at work play video games, so...

....which is actually a good reason to look for a new online place of residence to talk about games. It's the same for me.

[Fredward]

You know what passionate fan communities are good for? Inspiring and heartening the developers to keep up the good work. Unless, of course, you're BSN, in which case you're mostly good for driving up the devs therapy bills.

 

Just out of curiosity, is this what you think fanbases should be? How would such a fanbase look do you think?

[En Es Ef Dubyu]

I don't think there will be any regrets on their side. I rather suspect they'll find it liberating.

 

The problems are all for us. Scattering to the four winds (read: to different places on the net) will result in even more tight-knit (read: even more liable to become insular) communities. This place had the advantage that it was well-visible to players looking for information and reasonably big as fan communities go, for games that sold in the low millions. There will be no place like this again. 

 

The great inconvenience for me is this: I want a big place with many people and a wide variety of opinions, but I also want a place that will become familiar in time, where I meet like-minded people. In its best times, Bioware's forums served both needs. I can see no other site that may do the same at the moment. Most likely, my future primary site will be one not exclusively dedicated to Bioware's games.

I rather liked coming to this place. It felt like neutral ground. I do not think the other fan created sites will remain harmonious for long, and by that I mean large, tight-knit, and diverse. I have seen a few very far left-leaning posters, and I have seen quite a few very far right-leaning posters that have gotten into major issues on this site involving bigotry (hating on ethnic/racial/gender/orientation groups in particular) on here (and some subsequently outright banned from BSN for declaring so) on some of those sites. Remember the guy who declared he hated Jews, non-whites, and women and thought they got what they deserved??? He's happily on one of the sites and he has lots of like minded buddies. Not going there. Nope. I like a neutral place where I am not going to get ganged up on by a well coordinated group of peeps if I happen to say i'd like to see stuff in game that is now unfortunately declared sjw stuff. 

 

Just reddit and twitter for me, as much as a dislike the two.

[wright1978]

I don't think there will be any regrets on their side. I rather suspect they'll find it liberating.

 

The problems are all for us. Scattering to the four winds (read: to different places on the net) will result in even more tight-knit (read: even more liable to become insular) communities. This place had the advantage that it was well-visible to players looking for information and reasonably big as fan communities go, for games that sold in the low millions. There will be no place like this again. 

 

The great inconvenience for me is this: I want a big place with many people and a wide variety of opinions, but I also want a place that will become familiar in time, where I meet like-minded people. In its best times, Bioware's forums served both needs. I can see no other site that may do the same at the moment. Most likely, my future primary site will be one not exclusively dedicated to Bioware's games.

 

Yeah i agree the scattering to the four winds effect is going to cause big problems in terms of a large community surviving. I've signed up for felexea's site in the hope it'll gather sufficient numbers to make it. If not it then maybe cyonan's will but i won't admit to being filled with optimism. If it doesn't happen i sadly probably won't discuss bioware games anymore, unless it's in passing on sites such as CD red's.

[voteDC]

Re-read what you wrote.You aren't making any sense, none of what you said is relevant. 

 

They are chasing the CoD crowd because of all the things you just said. They spend money. They don't complain ad nauseum about frivolous nonsense. Who cares if they don't appreciate the single player campaign, or "abandons" the game when a new one comes out. Activision has their money, and when the next one comes out, they will have their money again. Why is your money better then theirs?

Because those same people will eventually move on to other shooters that offer the freshest multiplayer. The players don't have brand loyalty, as soon as they think they can get a better experience elsewhere they'll move on, to say Battlefield.

Now Call of Duty manages to stay in people's head because they get a new release every year. Bioware don't release a game every year, there's often a gap of 2 or 3 years between releases, so a bad game in a franchise will stick in people's heads far longer because there isn't a yearly refresh.

True there won't be a central place for people to complain, but by the same token without your own community, your dedicated fanbase, there's no central place for people to see others defending the company or games either. 

I apologise if I am not being clear. I do tend to ramble on. Look on the brightside though, in a small amount of time we'll likely never interact again.

[NRieh]

You know what passionate fan communities are good for? Inspiring and heartening the developers to keep up the good work. Unless, of course, you're BSN, in which case you're mostly good for driving up the devs therapy bills.

It's a pity that no dev here is going to tell me whether I'm wrong or not, but as I pitcure the thing there's a single thing that defines the fan community. It probably also its purpose (in a sense). Fan community are the ones who CARE. They may hate things, they may love things, but they are not indifferent. People love and hate (sometimes - a mix of both) games, installments and characters , they are passionate about it. And then there are people who just buy games *because reasons*, which do not give a **** about lore, characteres, consistency, art or whatever else.

 

Yeah, we know, they have that telemetry now, like who romance whom, who had played as femQunari and the completion percentage, but they'll never know whether someone had cried during the Trespasser ending...or may be they would, it's going to look like 'Omg! :'(  #DAI #Solas #BioWare'. 

[Super Drone]

Because those same people will eventually move on to other shooters that offer the freshest multiplayer. The players don't have brand loyalty, as soon as they think they can get a better experience elsewhere they'll move on, to say Battlefield.

Now Call of Duty manages to stay in people's head because they get a new release every year. Bioware don't release a game every year, there's often a gap of 2 or 3 years between releases, so a bad game in a franchise will stick in people's heads far longer because there isn't a yearly refresh.

True there won't be a central place for people to complain, but by the same token without your own community, your dedicated fanbase, there's no central place for people to see others defending the company or games either. 

I apologise if I am not being clear. I do tend to ramble on. Look on the brightside though, in a small amount of time we'll likely never interact again.

 

The benefit in this case just doesn't outway the negative (at least in the minds of EA/Bioware). BSN has become a battleground between trolls and online tribes seeking a legitmate-feeling "safe space" where they mostly chat with the same people over and over again. BSN upsets the developers that try to interact with it. BSN has a reputation on the internet that drives casual fans away from the site. The "central place for people to see others defending the company or games" won't be seen by anyone who's mind wasn't already made up about the upcoming game. BSN is just not going to make them that much money anymore. 

 

Maybe other fan forums are not in this situation. CDPR, for instance, is a young company whose game style has not had the time to change much. You aren't going to see as many people bitching about how "their games used to be" (but I seem to recall even CDPR gets some of that garbage thrown at them), or flipping out over representation or lack thereof. True, that's because their games just don't attract as diverse a crowd, but that's the point, not every game company has the same needs social media-wise.  But BSN is an unwieldy, socially-awkward monster Bioware themselves created, that has long since gone from being helpful to hindering from them.

 

but hey, look on the bright side, by the time the forum closes down someone should have everything transferred over to one of several fan made sites. Y'all should have moved to fan communities a long time ago anyway. With better moderation and less contention between the factions of Bioware's superfans, eventually the developers may even start to interact with the more popular sites again.  

[Super Drone]

It's a pity that no dev here is going to tell me whether I'm wrong or not, but as I pitcure the thing there's a single thing that defines the fan community. It probably also its purpose (in a sense). Fan community are the ones who CARE. They may hate things, they may love things, but they are not indifferent. People love and hate (sometimes - a mix of both) games, installments and characters , they are passionate about it. And then there are people who just buy games *because reasons*, which do not give a **** about lore, characteres, consistency, art or whatever else.

 

Yeah, we know, they have that telemetry now, like who romance whom, who had played as femQunari and the completion percentage, but they'll never know whether someone had cried during the Trespasser ending...or may be they would, it's going to look like 'Omg! :'(  #DAI #Solas #BioWare'. 

 

All of that is true. But BSN does not offer this to Bioware. It drove the devs away and broke their spirits and made them seek therapy. It doesn't matter if part of that was just the devs being sensitive, the damage is done. 

 

Twitter is actually just fine for letting a writer know you cried during their scene. Even better, because the word limit means you can't also add in the aside where you thought something else was dumb for reasons, or were mad that gay people are in the game because bigotry, or are offended that the game doesn't have enough gender-fluid cupioromantic demisexuals in it because hyperbolic not-bigotry.

[PapaCharlie9]

Apparently, that fundamental connection between the developers at Bioware and their fans has been lost at some point.

I'd use the word "discarded" rather than "lost", and that cuts both ways, but yes, I think this is true.

Ultimately it was a business decision. I would have preferred that they just came out and said so, instead of talking about Twitter, Reddit, etc. Because that displays either a fundamental disregard for the value of a forum to a business, or, it's indicative of a desire for more distance between the brand and the fans. I can't think of anything more impersonal than those 5-minute attention span platforms.
 

All of that is true. But BSN does not offer this to Bioware. It drove the devs away and broke their spirits and made them seek therapy. It doesn't matter if part of that was just the devs being sensitive, the damage is done. 
 
Twitter is actually just fine for letting a writer know you cried during their scene. Even better, because the word limit means you can't also add in the aside where you thought something else was dumb for reasons, or were mad that gay people are in the game because bigotry, or are offended that the game doesn't have enough gender-fluid cupioromantic demisexuals in it because hyperbolic not-bigotry.

For the record, a virulent minority, temporarily using BSN as a platform and megaphone, made life hell for Bioware. I'm not apologizing for them -- they are execrable in any context -- but let's not tar everyone with the same brush.

And if Bioware thinks Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook are utopian havens of courteous discourse, don't make me laugh.

Your analysis of what makes Twitter "safer" for Bioware is categorically incorrect, based on the track record of that platform. Just read some of the evidentiary death threats and other hate speech that was Tweeted during the GamerGate sh*t storm. The 140 character limit just concentrates vitriol and/or turns into tweet storms (repeated or multiple tweets).

Retreating to Twitter, FB, etc., can't be about finding a place free of hate speech. However, Twitter, Facebook and Reddit allow blocking, so there is an advantage there. It doesn't prevent the rest of the world from seeing that hate speech, but at least Bioware folks can filter out some of the crap from their own consumption.

I suspect the larger reason is that social marketing is lucrative, and having a presence of Bioware folks on those platforms increases the potential for monetization. Plus, as I mentioned in another thread, if you own the platform, you are accountable for the hate speech on it to some extent. If you don't own the platform, you aren't accountable. Nothing to apologize for to the EA overlords if some group of haters goes apesh*t on Twitter over Cass being too ugly to romance.

Bottom line: I communicate with friends on social media, I make friends on forums.

[PapaCharlie9]

Speaking of Twitter, I had an interesting Bioware experience a while back. One of the leads of Andromeda (I won't say who) tweeted a question: what would you like to see changed in the game (relative to ME3)? And then retweeted private replies.

So I sent a reply which was a valid suggestion, but included an implied mild criticism of Bioware games in general. I wasn't trying to troll, it was just something I really would like to see changed.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but my reply was not retweeted. So I tried again, but instead of configuring it as a private reply, I did it as a tweet in my own stream with an @mention to the lead. So at least my followers could see my idea. Still wasn't retweeted.

It's a clever and effective strategy, since it gives the "host" the opportunity to filter replies and discourages people from criticizing, because getting retweeted by a host with a large following helps your own standing in the community. There's an incentive to a$$-ki$$.

A glimpse at the future of discourse with Bioware?

[Super Drone]

Bottom line: I communicate with friends on social media, I make friends on forums.

 

Bottom Line: Bioware is not interested in subsidizing friendships.  

[Addictress]

You guys are a hoot.

Wizards of the Coast shut down their community forums almost a full year ago. For exactly the same reasons, their "fans" on the forums were a bunch of solipsistic, reactionary grognards who drove away their less "enthusiastic" fans with their shrillness.

Almost a year later, and WotC doesn't seem the least bit bothered by not having their own forums. Not a hint of regret.


Seriously people, Get over yourselves. Vibrant fan communities don't sell games (anymore). Especially vibrant fan communities that are mostly people sitting around bitching about how much ____ (Bioware, ME3, DAI, Templars, not getting to be evil in game, straight people, gay people, non-binary gender people, binary gender people, etc.) sucks, Circle-J****g over irrelevant, half-understood details, and squeeing over their husbandos.

Go do that on a fan-forum, where Bioware can plausibly try to ignore you.

Ouch. Well, I was curious if there were any examples of other companies who shut down their forums. I mentioned in my other thread, I thought Bioware was the only one.

But if WotC went through this as you say, it makes sense. :/