MMO Beta forum

[Tarien]

Hello

As anyone moderating the Video Games forum knows, its awash with Rift posts and people are flaming back and forth about it, oh no not another Rift thread, this isn't Rift-champion, etc etc. So I have copied and pasted this suggestion I came up with. Please consider it, as I feel it will benefit everyone.

I've been following the posts in the Video Games forum for the last week or so, as I'm a fan of Rift and will likely play it at launch. I have kept my posts constructive and informative but it's quite the struggle in the face of so much... troll? Both sides are as guilty though, both MMOs are great games and I tried to highlight this in my own thread.

The point of this post is that creating a dedicated Rift forum at this point would be stupid as for all I know the game may crash and burn a month after launch. However, I am not really a fan of this single thread business. No one has really created a single post containing all the good info, and if all the Rift threads were combined we'd have a 100+ page thread, most of which will be glossed over because people can't be bothered to swim through two dozen troll/flame posts to find useful information.

However, why not create a dedicated Beta MMO Games forum and let people post what the hell they want as much as they want. Let the moderators go crazy stickying the best and most informative threads and deleting repeat posts and banning those who merely troll or flame. Move all existing beta MMO threads there (Rift, GW2, Tera etc).

This way there is no favouritism, the video games forum settles down, there is some place to hype all the new MMOs, and the mods can hopefully deal with all the flamers and trolls in such a fashion that this new Beta MMO forum becomes a nice place to live. I would honestly post some guidelines along the lines of my other post.

What do you think? You are going to see this sort of behaviour for every semi-decent new MMO published, I figure this way we can hype the games and whatnot without upsetting the rest of the MMO-C community.

[Fuzzzie]

Stick to a single thread in the video games forum, seriously, most of you won't play that game anymore in 1 months.

Pretty much this. If Rift takes off and develops it's own community that's one thing, but catering to the flavor of the week MMO is foolish. It's why there is no Age of Conan or Warhammer forum here. This is a WoW community.

The current video game sub-forum is enough to handle interest.

[Tarien]

Pretty much this. If Rift takes off and develops it's own community that's one thing, but catering to the flavor of the week MMO is foolish. It's why there is no Age of Conan or Warhammer forum here. This is a WoW community.

The current video game sub-forum is enough to handle interest.

Meh, can moderators not even read the whole post? I am not asking for a Rift only forum.

EDIT: Btw I don't believe that quote is Boub, was someone else on the Video Games forum. Link if it was, if not please don't use his name to wave authority about.

[Deleted]

It's him.

However, I'll have to agree about the "not reading" part.

[Fuzzzie]

I read it. Twice. You want a forum for games in Beta. What's wrong with the current format? Clearly you just want a Rift forum.... What other beta games do you want to discuss? I don't see an overwhelming amount of posting on other games.

[Tarien]

I read it. Twice. You want a forum for games in Beta. What's wrong with the current format? Clearly you just want a Rift forum.... What other beta games do you want to discuss? I don't see an overwhelming amount of posting on other games.

Not really sure I like your moderating style tbh, reading some of your comments in the Video Games forum made my eye brows raise. I would expect a little more patience and politeness from a Moderator.

I would also expect you to be a little more thorough and look at the threads I linked above and see that I try to present both sides of issues, I even argue Blizzards/WoWs corner in my Rift thread. I am not some howling idiot desperate to have his very own little corner to spam his poorly thought out opinions.

But, you aside, Rift is flavour of the month because it's about to launch. I am also quite hyped about SWTOR (massive SWG fan before Sony destroyed it) and GW2 (played the original) and so are many others. The reason I ask for a beta forum is that once the Rift fans have settled down, you are going to see all this again with Tera, with SWTOR, with GW2, and with every new decent MMO.

Maybe it's just me but it seems to make sense to contain the hype in one place and moderate it heavily until people get the idea that they should a) read the stickies (which you remove once the game is launched) and b) behave themselves. Readers get less annoying spam unless they go to that specific forum, the hype posters get a specific forum to nerdgasm, and moderators can exert some more control over things.

The problem with the current forum is that a lot of people want to read about other games, on other platforms, and it's being lost in a flood of posts about the latest MMO. To counter this you've limited us to a single thread. Do you have any idea how constricting that is? Can you imagine looking for useful information in a 100+ page thread? At least if there was a forum for this where we can have multiple threads we can have a thread for reviews, a thread for screen shots, a thread for discussing talents, one for PvP, etc. This isn't a simple console shooter or RPG, it's an MMO, a vastly more complex beast that can provoke endless discussion of it's many aspects. I wouldn't recommend an unlimited number of threads tho, some common sense should be applied.

I could be wrong. But if I am taking the time to write all this, please at least make an argument against the very explicit and reasonable points I put forward for my case rather than assuming I am all about the new hotness.

Thanks for reading.

[ChildeRoland]

Why is there any need for more than one thread about a single MMO when this is a WoW fansite? Don't let MMO-Champion fool ya, WoW-champion should work just as good. Find or make your own BETA-Champion and you should be fine.

[Fuzzzie]

TBH most of the new threads about Rift are re-hashes of old information already contained in established threads or trolling. It can't be helped if people choose to not read the forums before venting their opinions.

As you say, upcoming games will spawn their own threads. They will be handled in a similar fashion. This is a WoW community after all and other games are discussed in the Video Game Off-Topic Forum. Not much more to say really.

[Fierae]

Do you go on an automotive site and ONLY talk about cars? I don't. We have an 'Other Marques' forum for that.
Do you go on a WoW guild site and just talk about WoW? I don't. We have an 'Other Games' forum for that.
Do you go on an educational site and just talk about education? I don't. There's a 'Daily Life' forum for that.

I agree with the OP, as per the thread I wrote in my signature, I think boards should allow diversity. Do I even smell I little bit of that 'MMO Hatred' from some of the moderators?

---------- Post added 2011-02-12 at 12:59 PM ----------

Perhaps even a sub forum, labelled 'New Releases' for instance. Where people don't go around locking threads. But, if you please, get rid of the morons posting in those threads with 'Go away we don't want you here', and so on. If you don't want to read it, you have a choice, just don't click.

[Tarien]

Why is there any need for more than one thread about a single MMO when this is a WoW fansite? Don't let MMO-Champion fool ya, WoW-champion should work just as good. Find or make your own BETA-Champion and you should be fine.

You are overlooking the fact that MMO Champion attracts more english speaking MMO players (probably more gamers) than any other single site in the world. This is a natural hub for them and they are going to talk about other MMOs here whether you like it or not.

At at times such as this when the hype is running high towards the end of the beta period you will get a lot of posts, a lot of discussion and not all of it welcome. I am just trying to offer some way of dealing with that while making everyones experience better.

---------- Post added 2011-02-12 at 01:04 PM ----------

But, if you please, get rid of the morons posting in those threads with 'Go away we don't want you here', and so on. If you don't want to read it, you have a choice, just don't click.

If my solution above is unacceptable, then at least consider more strict moderation? So many of the posts in the existing threads contribute nothing.

[Fuzzzie]

Perhaps even a sub forum, labelled 'New Releases' for instance. Where people don't go around locking threads. But, if you please, get rid of the morons posting in those threads with 'Go away we don't want you here', and so on. If you don't want to read it, you have a choice, just don't click.

It will ultimately be up to Boubouille, but he's already spoken on the issue. I don't see the purpose of trying to push it. As I said, threads are usually locked because duplicates exist or they are just trolling.

Reading the Video Game Sub-Forum Guidelines (found here) it clearly says one topic per game.

Do I even smell I little bit of that 'MMO Hatred' from some of the moderators?

I doubt any of the mods would be doing all this work if they disliked gaming or MMO's...

[Tarien]

It can't be helped if people choose to not read the forums before venting their opinions.

So by confining people to a single thread that's going to help with people posting about the same things over and over again? I would imagine it's the opposite, people can't find information buried at post 534 of 1291, and will just make a new post.

[Deleted]

Why don't you go and make your own fan-based forum for Rift?

---------- Post added 2011-02-12 at 02:12 PM ----------

So by confining people to a single thread that's going to help with people posting about the same things over and over again? I would imagine it's the opposite, people can't find information buried at post 534 of 1291, and will just make a new post.

Search function mate, it exists.

[Fierae]

I doubt any of the mods would be doing all this work if they disliked gaming or MMO's...

Sorry, I just get incredibly frustrated at so called 'gamers' nowadays, branding other games as useless/bad, and so on, before; even playing them, knowing what they are about etc, because WoW is 'their game' and noone should quit or play anything else simply because 'every other game is bad'.

[Tarien]

Why don't you go and make your own fan-based forum for Rift?

I could, I even have a phpBB style mocked up, but people just wouldn't go there, you wouldn't get the same depth or variation of views, the same amount of information being contributed.

Search function mate, it exists.

I know, but you're still going to get a lot of hits no matter how good you are with manipulating search strings. It's too much effort and people won't bother, so they'll post.

[Tuvok]

Do you go on an automotive site and ONLY talk about cars? I don't. We have an 'Other Marques' forum for that.
Do you go on a WoW guild site and just talk about WoW? I don't. We have an 'Other Games' forum for that.
Do you go on an educational site and just talk about education? I don't. There's a 'Daily Life' forum for that.

I agree with the OP, as per the thread I wrote in my signature, I think boards should allow diversity. Do I even smell I little bit of that 'MMO Hatred' from some of the moderators?

---------- Post added 2011-02-12 at 12:59 PM ----------

Perhaps even a sub forum, labelled 'New Releases' for instance. Where people don't go around locking threads. But, if you please, get rid of the morons posting in those threads with 'Go away we don't want you here', and so on. If you don't want to read it, you have a choice, just don't click.

Pretty sure the only thing the mods have a hatred of when it comes to this subject is the constant breaking of their rules whenever someone posts yet another Rift thread. Regardless of subject, it's not fun to see your forum get cluttered up with 10s of threads about the same game.

The only thing people want to stop is constant Rift threads - it's annoying and it clutters the whole place up.

Now tell me, do you go on a Ford website to talk about Nissan cars? Sure, there might ba a thread or two at max about Nissan, but if you really want to talk about Nissan that much, go to a Nissan forum.

I actually think a "New Releases" sub-forum might not be a bad idea (although I really, why not just post in the normal forum section anyway?), as long as it isn't simply a protective guise under which to spam Rift threads or commandeered for that kind of usage.

[bahumut5]

Sorry, I just get incredibly frustrated at so called 'gamers' nowadays, branding other games as useless/bad, and so on, before; even playing them, knowing what they are about etc, because WoW is 'their game' and noone should quit or play anything else simply because 'every other game is bad'.

The problem is that we do not brand other games as "Useless or Bad", its just that this "hype" as you might call it, keeps happening every now and then.
We had the exact same questions when Warhammer was in Beta.
We had the exact same questions when Aion was in Beta.
We had the exact same threads as when Age of Conan was in Beta.

Its due to this that we are not making any new forums about these games. People just want to do something new every now and then. Its for that reason I to play other games then WoW (Like League of Legends) and stuff like that.
We also play Rift Beta, surprise! So no, we do know what we are locking and why we are locking it
Its new! Its exciting! Its "unique"! It has Rifts and awesome Graphics! To us though, its just the same as ever (Not game wise, but forum wise).

We had A LOT of Rift Threads going around. It was no longer a "Video Game" forum, but it turned into a "Rift Beta" or "Why Rift Sucks", or even "The pros and cons of Rift, WHY MUST YOU PLAY IT??" Forum. It became quite a mess with a lot of threads discussing the same subject, which is why most new Rift Threads are locked and everything will be cleaned up.
For now, just stick with the one Rift Thread the Moderators of the Game section have made. Who knows, maybe when Rift is still a huge success after 4 months and when Boubouille is in a good mood, change might happen.

Ow and by the way:
If you feel like saying "That Moderator is not doing a good job", then please do so in a PM (Personal Message) towards Sunshine instead of posting it in a Thread (Which is in the Rules of the Forums).

[Sunshine]

Please calm down, everyone.

There's always going to be hype toward whatever the new upcoming game is. It's happening for Rift now; it will happen for D3, for other MMOs, for Titan, etc. You're right; there will always be "that hot new game".

I don't think it requires a new sub-forum though -- without the discussion of hot new games, what else is there to talk about in the video games forum? It's important to make sure we don't have 124809 threads on the same exact subject, so that it's still possible to discuss other games, but that's where most of the life in the forum comes from.

Basically, I'd like to find a way to discuss these games in the video games forum itself without having anyone go crazy.

[Lysah]

tl;dr
If you want to create a thread about Rift that is both new and exciting, it will remain open. However, rehashing old topics in new threads is against the forum guidelines, and has been for years. There already exists a "what I think about Rift" thread, so making a new thread to talk about what you think about Rift is out of place. Put it in the corresponding thread.

If you want to get more specific and actually bring up a new and different conversation, feel free. Otherwise, we don't want 300 threads of the original poster expressing his thoughts on the first three levels of Rift when it could all fit in one thread.

[Tarien]

Please calm down, everyone.

There's always going to be hype toward whatever the new upcoming game is. It's happening for Rift now; it will happen for D3, for other MMOs, for Titan, etc. You're right; there will always be "that hot new game".

I don't think it requires a new sub-forum though -- without the discussion of hot new games, what else is there to talk about in the video games forum? It's important to make sure we don't have 124809 threads on the same exact subject, so that it's still possible to discuss other games, but that's where most of the life in the forum comes from.

Basically, I'd like to find a way to discuss these games in the video games forum itself without having anyone go crazy.

Well, the Video Games forum would be for released games and anything not MMO (since I intended that the new forum would be for MMO Beta's only, those are the ones that set people off). I think there would be less frenetic discussion once a game is released as there's a lot less room for the type of hypothetical discussion that gets people carried away.

To be honest, I think it's sorta settling now, or maybe I am just in the wrong time zone

The perfectionist (or pedant, if you want) in me would like to see everything a more clearly defined and presented (beta reviews thread, class disussion, screen shots etc) and the existing threads cleaned up as theres a lot of 'this game suxx0r itz Aion dead in a month lolz' comments or 'reviews' based on a trailer/screenshot.

Just to be clear, Lysah and Sunshine you two are saying we CAN post new threads, but only if its NEW material?

EDIT: Don't worry I dont have any new posts in mind. Just curious.