What's with the forums?

[StormChase]

I'll admit, I haven't been here that long, but why are the forums so... miserable? I get that people come here to give feedback, but it feels like some people see it as permission to be as toxic as possible. To be clear, I'm not talking about just any criticism. I mean people demanding staff members be fired over mild grievances, claiming there's some kind of conspiracy to ruin the game, portraying anyone who isn't as negative as them as idiotic, that type of thing. I guess what I'm trying to say is at some point, there's a line between criticism and entitlement. Have the forums always been this way? Even before I set up my forum profile I heard they have a reputation.

[LaylaTsarra]

Most of us don't come here anymore. Poke in now and then and end up marking the forum read.

[CVXIV]

To be fair the forums are meant for feedback, but when that feedback is seemingly ignored people get annoyed and frustrated.
It doesn't help when people stir the pot and make arguments in bad faith, or the various troll posts that can admittedly be amusing at times.
I'd honestly suggest blocking people, it'd probably make the experience here a lot better, and to make forum posts about things you want to see discussed.

[gumas]

those who enjoying the game will be busy inside the game and have no time posting comment, and those who dont like it will have less time playing and posting in the forum nonstop voicing what they dont like, hence the forum now.

dont expect much from game forum like this, its the same with other mmorpg forum, outside of technical question like troubleshooting or class ability/macro etc, the general content is usually like this too

[localareanetwork]

i'm not really seeing what you're on about unless it's the very obvious bait threads. most of the discussion is quite civil generally.

[ZephyrMenodora]

The forums have been like this for a long time. A lot of it veers negative, and regular troll threads. How trolling forums that have like 30 users amuses people so long is beyond me, but it is what it is.

I come and go and little changes. I only like the forums because the number of users is very small compared to reddit so I feel you can have better conversations when they do come up.

[Jeeqbit]

I'll admit, I haven't been here that long, but why are the forums so... miserable?

For the most part, this is just where salty veterans come to complain how the game isn't like it was "back in their day". Humans don't like change, after all.

Others want it to change drastically to be like other games they are familiar with such as WoW or GW2.

People who are happy are less likely to have a reason to come to the forums after all.

I get that people come here to give feedback, but it feels like some people see it as permission to be as toxic as possible.

Agreed. This has always confused me. Feedback can be given in a polite, considerate and constructive way.

Have the forums always been this way?

Unfortunately, yes, as long as I've looked at them since SB (I made forum account in HW but didn't really look much).

[NegativeS]

Several years ago--or near enough not to matter--villains known as the Warriors of Spite drove off the CS, stewards of developer communication.

In the wake of this tainted deed, spite began to pour onto the board as if from unseen cracks. It pooled and swelled without cease within its threads in the face of continued unheard feedback, and eventually the day came when an enormous, blinding wave rose up and swept across the website.

We called this calamity the "Flood of Spite". Everything it touched was leeched of constructiveness and respect, leaving naught behind but an inactive wasteland.

Yet just when it seemed that all would be lost, a savior appeared before us...

The Oracle of Spite. He stood 'twixt us and approaching apathy, and by his trolling did he we embrace the Flood. Thus was this board, and this board alone, spared the fate of stagnation.

Tragedy would, however, arrive in another form. From the twisted live game descended horrors of strange and terrible level distribution to bedevil the few constructive folk who remain.

These "Titanmen" were Spite incarnate, and their robotic presence stole the originality from the trolls' posts.

...And thus did the forum become what it is.

[CuteBucket]

Admittedly I came here initially after the Dawntrail benchmark was released to voice my concerns with the changes being made to character faces. Even though I'd played for years before, I just never felt the need to come to the forums because I didn't have much interest in discussing what few issues I did have with the game.

Well, Dawntrail came out, my characters faces are still messed up, the story sucked, AND I can't freely DC travel anymore, so they quickly gave me LOTS of reasons to stick around and give feedback.

That said, I'm here banging pots and pans in certain threads about these issues because I do deeply care about this game and want to see it improve.

[Kaurhz]

I would say negativity bias feeds heavily into this one. It's easy to overlook a lot of the fairly civil discussion if there is just 1 or a couple of people being unrestrained with their comments.

That being said, the issue is a combination of relaxed moderation, and generally they aren't quick to act on feedback, and when you do so to the extent seen on this game (bar a few exceptions), then you just replace what would otherwise be a civil discussion with something more akin to exhaustion and annoyance, this tends to happen with people that don't feel like their concerns are heard.