Forums: "High-Level" General Discussion sub-forum needed

"General Discussion" is currently a wasteland of trolls hiding behind mule accounts and people who haven't played the game in months doing nothing but posting to rip on it and foul up threads. I think we could seriously benefit from having a separate General Discussion forum that requires linking a character with at least one class over 40 (maybe even higher) to post. While there are argumentative people with rank 40+ classes, it's much more productive than arguing with people who aren't playing the game or can't relate to many aspects.

By no means am I saying that the opinions of lower-ranked players are not important. I am not asking to take away their voice or restrict any existing forum in anyway. I only suggest that some sort of "advanced discussion" forum be provided to allow people the option to hold conversations with more active players who can better relate to the issues and to each other. I also understand that some people feel more comfortable with the mask of anonymity that linking a mule account provides. Again, every other forum would still be available to people so inclined.

Thank you for your consideration.

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Originally Posted by Raikki

"General Discussion" is currently a wasteland of trolls hiding behind mule accounts and people who haven't played the game in months doing nothing but posting to rip on it and foul up threads. I think we could seriously benefit from having a separate General Discussion forum that requires linking a character with at least one class over 40 (maybe even higher) to post. While there are argumentative people with rank 40+ classes, it's much more productive than arguing with people who aren't playing the game or can't relate to many aspects.

By no means am I saying that the opinions of lower-ranked players are not important. I am not asking to take away their voice or restrict any existing forum in anyway. I only suggest that some sort of "advanced discussion" forum be provided to allow people the option to hold conversations with more active players who can better relate to the issues and to each other. I also understand that some people feel more comfortable with the mask of anonymity that linking a mule account provides. Again, every other forum would still be available to people so inclined.

Thank you for your consideration.

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Normally, I think I'd be wary of something like this as it tends to promote narcissistic elitism, BUT...

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Originally Posted by Raikki

"General Discussion" is currently a wasteland of trolls hiding behind mule accounts and people who haven't played the game in months doing nothing but posting to rip on it and foul up threads.

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This is a good point.

Instead of such change i'd just ask them to start ignoring general discussion since its supposed to be the off-topic forum. Moving the feedback topics to the correct forum and leaving general chit chat there would also help dimissing the trolls since most of them go mess at general discussion because everything is at same place AND community reps deal with those topics as real feedback.

Its about time for some green, tentacle hentai wannabe community rep *stares at Bay* to start not tossing most of the dev team feedback there instead of the correct forum. If needed just start a brand new topic like "Dev team response regarding pets" at battle mechanics or use the similar topic from there (yep, battle mechanis also has a mount/pet topic...and still it was posted at general discussion).

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Originally Posted by Lienn

Instead of such change i'd just ask them to start ignoring general discussion since its supposed to be the off-topic forum. Moving the feedback topics to the correct forum

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This, too. If the players don't even bother to make threads in the correct section of the forums, the mods should move it to the correct sections for them.

I kind of agree with this. I hate when I talk about an issue like inventory problems, or an issue like leve linking and someone who like like rank 11 or 20 says "i've never experienced that, i've been playing for two whole weeks, what's action based sp LOL sound stupid!"

Also it seems like they lodestone info isn't effective because new people in-game don't know how to link leves without being taught, even though those of us around for the update remember reading vaguely how to it.

Another thing - A second general discussion board would undermine the concept of having separate sub-forums for targeted discussion. That is the main reason why it would probably not be a good idea to implement, unless it was just some sort of limited usage thing.

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Originally Posted by Rentahamster

Another thing - A second general discussion board would undermine the concept of having separate sub-forums for targeted discussion. That is the main reason why it would probably not be a good idea to implement, unless it was just some sort of limited usage thing.

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What if instead of a separate forum then, a thread-starter could decide for their thread whether or not to limit the participation just for that thread? All ideas are appreciated. I think so far we all agree there's a problem, the tricky part is really how to solve it. On other forums it would probably be addressed with much stricter moderation, but I don't think SE wants to go in that direction.

What you're implying is that lower-leveled players have the inability to speak in advanced discussion. Let's say that there are two players. Both players started on the same day. Both players have played for about the same amount of time, putting in the same amount of hours per day. One player's highest rank is 25. The other player's highest rank is 50. Both players have played since launch and have done extensive research on fansites and forums. Do the r25 and the r50 have different levels of knowledge in the game's mechanics and systems? Yes or no. In fact, the r25 might have even more knowledge about the game's mechanics than the r50.

There's a difference, you see, between levels and experience. You can play this game for a long time and not get a r50. Some people don't want to deal with the immense grind... a grind that has you doing the same thing over and over. Levequest, Grind, Levequest, Grind... and if you're crafting, it's even more repetitive.

A knowledgeable person shouldn't be forced to grind to a high rank and level simply to take part in conversation.

How can a r50 relate more to issues than a r25 or a r30? A lot of the issues are the same. There's still the interface lag, the connection problems, the game shutting down due to DirectX problems, the lack of interesting story quests, et cetera.

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Originally Posted by Raikki

What if instead of a separate forum then, a thread-starter could decide for their thread whether or not to limit the participation just for that thread? All ideas are appreciated. I think so far we all agree there's a problem, the tricky part is really how to solve it. On other forums it would probably be addressed with much stricter moderation, but I don't think SE wants to go in that direction.

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Letting thread starters make the decision is a step in the right direction, so this I agree with more. The only problem is that it could be used to make r50-only threads... and if it's related to r50 content, I'd understand. The problem with r50-only threads is that elitists could use that to have conversations and simply keep out the lower leveled players simply to be elitist. Perhaps with some forum moderation, it could work.

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Originally Posted by Raikki

"General Discussion" is currently a wasteland of trolls hiding behind mule accounts and people who haven't played the game in months doing nothing but posting to rip on it and foul up threads. I think we could seriously benefit from having a separate General Discussion forum that requires linking a character with at least one class over 40 (maybe even higher) to post. While there are argumentative people with rank 40+ classes, it's much more productive than arguing with people who aren't playing the game or can't relate to many aspects.

By no means am I saying that the opinions of lower-ranked players are not important. I am not asking to take away their voice or restrict any existing forum in anyway. I only suggest that some sort of "advanced discussion" forum be provided to allow people the option to hold conversations with more active players who can better relate to the issues and to each other. I also understand that some people feel more comfortable with the mask of anonymity that linking a mule account provides. Again, every other forum would still be available to people so inclined.

Thank you for your consideration.

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I like this idea, then there would be a separation of people who actually play the game putting in input and those who dont.

Or they should only accept posts from people which linked character is at least r36. Because is annoying people hiding behind mule accounts to troll...

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Originally Posted by Lienn

Or they should only accept posts from people which linked character is at least r36. Because is annoying people hiding behind mule accounts to troll...

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I must agree, though... I hate mule accounts with a passion.

Rank 36 is alright, I guess... still a bit of a grind to get there. Not lv40-50 grind, though. I'd rather have it at a solid r30 if added at all, though.

This idea is pretty good, dealing with a r1 MIN about my gladiator's shield rotation gets old fast. Tell me who you are mystery man/woman!!!! Also, thank you for putting this into the appropriate section of the forum. Devs really need to be looking to these areas first, I think that would solve a lot of trolling just by iteself.