As technology advances, and online communities shift to adapt, we take it as a kind of default suggestion that new sites and platforms should be better than old sites and platforms. Reality, of course, has different plans.
Take discord. It’s a great platform! A huge improvement over the old ideas, and a convenient selection of a number of outdated messaging and communication services. If you like to hang out in a room with friends, somewhere where you can write and talk to each other, this is perfect!
Discord excels as a means of real-time communication for people speaking in the moment. What is the dispute no However, the good thing about it is that it’s a long-term repository of information, the kind of place where you can ask a question, get an answer, and then have that answer easily accessible for months, years, or even decades to come.
So it’s annoying that companies keep shutting down forums, which are excellent repositories, and trying to turn these communities into Discords, which is absolutely useless. I said that In 2021 when Bethesda did itI He said it again in 2021 when Eurogamer did it. I He said it last year when Gearbox did it And I say it now again in 2023. You need to stop this nonsense. These are apples and oranges.
The latest company to make the mistake is Amazon that Made the decision to close the forums for both new world And Missing coffin, and move these communities wholesale to Discord. Here’s how the decision was announced Missing coffin Forums:
As we continue to explore new and amazing opportunities to meet and interact with our players, there will be times when we will evaluate our existing ways of engaging players. Forums are a staple in the history of online gaming and have been the primary point of contact for gamers and developers for quite some time. With the official launch of Lost Ark Discord along with features, functionality and accessibility for players, we have made the decision to embrace Discord as our primary interaction platform moving forward with Lost Ark. To help us add as much value to our Discord server as possible, we will terminate the Lost Ark Forums that will allow our employees to focus on providing quality engagement opportunities in a centralized, easily accessible platform.
Our Discord plans are constantly evolving and we’ll look to get the most out of the platform. We’ll find ways to get engagement opportunities across all aspects of Discord like live audio, gameplay broadcasts, live chat, and forum threads. It will also provide easier and more intuitive access to community-run initiatives such as group research, guild promotion, etc.
You’ll also find us investing time in growing our presence on the Lost Ark subreddit, so be sure to keep an eye out for us there as well.
What does this mean for forums now?
Starting May 1st, we will be removing the ability for users to post to forums but will make them remain visible so that any type of content that users wish to save will be available to them. During this time, we will index all historical comments left by players, ensuring that leftover sentiments and comments are not lost.
After this process is complete, we will give a final reminder that the forums will finally end, at which point our URL will be redirected to Discord 2.7k and other social networking pages.
Thank you all for your continued passion about Lost Ark! We look forward to all of you joining us on our official Discord site. There are so many great ideas we’ll be working on to help grow the Lost Ark fandom that our team is excited to share with everyone.
See you at Arkesia!
no! There’s a lot of nonsense I said! And anyone who has used the forum and Discord knows that! Forums aren’t just a place for people to make initial contact with a developer, they are Places Where someone can ask a question, get an official answer, and then make that answer easy to search for thousands or even thousands Millions of the people who move forward. disagreement, Even with the recent Forum Thread featurenot anywhere near as close as this one.
The bad thing here is that fans don’t want that, and it’s been made clear over and over again (in this case, too, like PC Gamer Collection of negative feedback shows), but they keep happening because companies likely see them as a way to save a little money and resources.
It’s very interesting to know Big publishers are spending Hundreds of millions on marketing But the forum cannot be kept open. A very healthy industry. Hold on everyone.
“Writer. Amateur musicaholic. Infuriatingly humble zombie junkie. General internet maven. Bacon enthusiast. Coffee nerd.”