Are the official forums a good or bad thing?
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
May 14th 2007 at 11:51AM
Late Saturday night, Tseric, a community manager on the official WoW forums, got into an argument with a (literal) troll about freedom of speech on the WoW forums. Tseric then posted a pretty stunning denunciation of the whole forum concept:
"When you can understand how a group of beligerent and angry posters can drive away people from this game with an uncrafted and improvisational campaign of misery and spin-doctoring, then perhaps, you can understand the decisions I make. Until you face mobs of psychology, you will not see my side.
Until you see some bright-eyed player coming onto the forums wanting to know what they should spec as this class, and see them shat on and driven away by petty and selfish people who are simply leveraging for game buffs, you will not understand.
You will not understand until you have to see it daily, for years..."
Pretty tough words from someone who gets paid to manage the forums, but I have to admit that I kind of agree with them. The WoW forums can be a great resource -- specifically the UI, Customer Service, Guild Relations and Professions forums -- but most of the class forums, the raids and dungeons forum, and the general forum can quickly become a cesspool of complaining. Instead of helping people in the game and offering constructive criticism, the forums can serve to drive away new players, and make them see problems when there may not be any. For example, while I'm writing this post and skimming the forums, I've "discovered":
- All the battlegrounds suck.
- Diplomacy is one of the worst racials in-game.
- Everyone is quitting WoW.
- It is a slap in the face that people who are hated with the Steamwheedle Cartel cannot get epic blacksmithing weapons. What do you mean, buy some cloth and get my rep back up? I like being a pirate!
- Blizzard hates casuals.
- Everyone hates hunters.
- The American health care system sucks (originally titled Are Nihilum Human, thus demonstrating some pretty admirable topic derailing.)
Man, and ten minutes ago I was happily grinding on dinosaurs in Un'Goro until I got killed and camped by a rogue. (Just checked -- yep, he's still there.) Who knew I had so many things to be angry about?
Do you read the WoW forums? What do you think could be done to improve them? Overall, do you think they're good or bad for the game?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Rich May 14th 2007 11:57AM
I avoid the official forums like the plague. Forums are always a good indication of the types of people that play the game.
mugginns May 14th 2007 12:01PM
The forums are a cesspool, but Tseric posting drunk doesn't help. He caused a lot of it by posting without thinking and then trying to get the last word in EVERY TIME.
Chedder May 14th 2007 12:03PM
I agree the Official Wow forums are total crap. I for one NEVER go there. Unless to check if my escapades the previous night, have gained notoriety on the realm forums.
Other then that i completely agree with Tseric.
Atie May 14th 2007 12:03PM
I have to agree with Tseric. I generally avoid the official forums due to the level of idiocy that goes there. Most forums or blogs, or plain ol'sites like wow insider, tend to draw the serious but the "HEY HEY LOOK AT ME" attention getters that the official forums tend to draw.
so...I would have to give Tseric and the other official moderators some credit and grace...I would not want that job.
Dakinnori May 14th 2007 12:04PM
I take everything that I see in the official forums with a massive grain of salt. The way I've always looked at it is this: The forums are an extremely vocal minority who will whine, bitch, and complain about absolutely anything. Having said that, there are always exceptions to the rule. Sometimes you'll stumble across that diamond in the rough and it makes it all worth it. And I have to say... I fully support Tseric's tirade in the forums. It's something that they deserved, and had coming for a LONG time.
Also, if you want to see a *decent* forum community, check out the overseas boards. (forums.wow-europe.com) I find that set of boards to be much more civil and generally full of better information.
-Daki
Atie May 14th 2007 12:06PM
Edit to my post:
meant to type "tend to draw the serious but NOT the "HEY HEY LOOK AT ME" attention getters"
did not type in not...feeling foolish...mybad.
Ugkul May 14th 2007 12:09PM
10% signal, 90% noise. There's some great stuff on the forums, such as the Lux et Umbra guide on the priest forums. Some of the individual realm forums are also quite all right.
WOW General is a total cesspool though.
plunge May 14th 2007 12:22PM
The offtopic forums are the silliest. Anytime anyone tries to have a discussion about anything, entire threads are deleted without any explanation, regardless of the politeness of the posters, with no hint of why in the rules. It's almost pointless to have a real discussion about anything: it's not allowed. No wonder its so bad.
Chilblain May 14th 2007 12:31PM
I learned a huge lesson from the last MMORPG I played: don't go to the official forums... ever.
They are, in my opinion, NOT an indication of who plays the game. They are a very, very vocal minority, but mostly a lot of complainers and drama kings. They have better gear than you, better skilllllz than you, they spec better, play better, and their grasp of the English language is second to none.
One of the best things about this game is that it's so popular, there is very little information you can't find elsewhere. Kaliban's loot guide, Jame's Leveling Guide, and Thottbot come to mind.
claude_verna May 14th 2007 12:23PM
I love the freakin forums.
Such a great place to be a totally mindless asshole.
It's like 24/7 Barrens Chat! w000000000 \m/
Jp May 14th 2007 12:24PM
Tseric's posts are why I read the official forums. The entire place is overrun with whiny, "I pay $15/mo for Blizzard to make all my dreams come true" idiots, and Tseric's the only one with a great enough sense of job security to actually tell it like it is.
Sylvina May 14th 2007 12:30PM
I read the forums to keep up on blue responses to classes. I also read my realm forums to keep up on realm drama. Like, did you know that somebody is having a WoW Affair?! There is just so much good stuff to be found!
Chris Anthony May 14th 2007 12:29PM
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."
I've never been particularly impressed with the official forums, but I keep wanting to be. I keep trying to go back, and every time Sturgeon's Law trips me up within five minutes. My hope springs eternal, I guess; unfortunately, so does the forum trolls' banality.
nubular May 14th 2007 12:33PM
I started browsing the forums a few months ago and now I wished I hadn't. It's overrun with tools, jerks, assholes and morons who all think that the 'customer is always right'. Work in retail or in the service industry for a week and then tell me whether the customer is always right.
lendas May 14th 2007 12:35PM
the shaman forums are pure poison right now. i used to read them for funny/interesting discussion but now it's a horrible, depressing pit of despair.
Nyx May 14th 2007 12:39PM
On the one hand, Tseric is an idiot. Opinionated, hard to deal with when there's a genuine concern, and very ready to make you look ridiculous because he can.
On the other hand... he's dead on about the forums. And without a lot of active policing, which would be too expensive for Blizzard, I think that they're just going to continue to be the cesspool of humanity that they are.
Miko May 14th 2007 12:46PM
I'm a casual player. I usually log on for a couple of hours on the weekend, so needless to say I rarely visit the forums. I leave that to my boyfriend. However this latest brouhaha caught my attention.
I'll just say that Tseric is right that sometimes excessive complaining turns players off, on the other hand self-righteous community managers don't do much for the image of the game and community either.
This whole thing is terribly amusing, because to me, it seems like he is complaining about himself.
Loud? Check.
Belligerent? Check.
Completely and utterly self centered in his point of view? Check and Check.
I never hear about a constructive criticism being responded to promptly. Usually, and unfortunately the loudest people get paid attention to first. Not that it’s right to make yourself a nuisance to humanity. Well, it’s just that, do you really think they’d pay them as much attention otherwise? Somehow I doubt that they would.
As a side note it would be wonderful if someone could explain to me WHY they break the classes in the first place. As a casual player, it seems cyclical. Right now it’s the Paladins & Shamans turn I guess.
Steve May 14th 2007 3:25PM
Yeah, the official forums are absolutely horrid right now. I still check them regularly, because you can sometimes find that decent post or topic somewhere in the mess. Plus you can find some pretty amusing stuff sometimes ("Skinning a bear should aggro every bears", springs to mind). But if I want good, serious information i just go to the subcreation forums where idiocy is not allowed.
As for Tseric's comments, he was dead right and it's about time someone told those idiots the way it is.
Jack Kelly May 14th 2007 1:54PM
They could cure the forums in a few days if they really wanted to.
They could post a sticky that simply said that posting flames was against the terms of service and start handing out bans left and right.
They could leave the off-topic forums for flames if they wanted to but the ability to clean them up is there.
They just need to do it and stop bitching. I hate the forums for the most part but go to them in spite of the BS for the one out of a hundred good posts.
Madcatt May 14th 2007 12:53PM
It's quite true about the surface being dominated by people who are constantly correcting people for mis-using the English language, (not thinking for a second about the number of people from other countries who don't have perfect English... seriously, who cares if someone mispells a word or something) calling people ridiculous (sometimes offensive) names for putting points into the 'wrong' talents or having the 'wrong' gear (whatever the poster happens to think those are) and people starting low level accounts solely for causing problems for various guilds or individuals.
One thing I've noticed recently is the different 'personalities' the class forums can have. I started out reading the Pally forum, but after I started regularly reading the Priest forums I realised how dominant the whingy topics are in the Pally forum comparitively.
The Paladin forum has all but lost any sense of humour it seemed to have when I started reading it a few months ago. At least among all of the 'Priest self loathing' threads there are a few threads that poke fun at the class, or other classes, or just at general silly beahviour in-game.
It's so right about how skewed someone's perception would get if they read the forums before even starting the game.