Star Wars Galaxies Forums Turn Player-Only

mwbay writes "A note from the Star Wars Galaxies Forums indicates that starting today, SOE will be hiding the PC MMORPG's forums from the non-paying public. Raph Koster submitted this response [on the now-inaccessible forums]: 'It isn't really that we have anything to hide. We spend a lot of time on the boards here talking to you, and I don't think we have been shy about confronting controversial issues... But yeah, publicity is at the heart of it. The heart of the matter is will a game's Internet forums ever be a source of positive publicity post-launch? And I'd suggest to you that the answer is no... Someone who isn't a player has no idea exactly how widespread a given issue is.' It is certainly well within SOE's rights to do what they want with their boards, but isn't this a bit extreme?"

Comments

A player's perspective

[Snowmit]

I don't play SW: G but I can tell you from the point of view of a regular member of the Neverwinter Nights community that the community members at SWG are probably breathing a sigh of relief. The BioBoards are divided into both 'registered owner-only' and 'open to the public' forums. The open forums tend to be a morass of bad threads, off-topic posts and people making wild complaints, sometimes about a game they HAVEN'T EVEN PLAYED.

The registered owner forums are much more civilized. Which is not to say that we don't have our fair share of complaints about the game - we do. It's just that the public boards seem to encourage flamebait and trolling.

Re:if you ask me...

[Crockerboy]

Smaller than Expected? The games been out 2 months and they've already had over 275k accounts..making it the second largest MMOG in the United States..Second only to SOE's flagship product Everquest.

That is a hell of a lot of people, making this game a far cry from disapointing.

Other forums will take up the slack.

[anser]

For broader discussion of the game - without worrying about Sony's moderators deleting or locking threads or banning posters - there are some other choices that will probably be more heavily used from now on.

There is a Yahoo! Group, the Allakhazam forum, SWG Warcry, the Stratics SWG board, and even the Lucasforums boards, among quite a few others. If you're thinking of learning more about the game, don't let Sony stiff-arm you, visit one of the other forums and start reading.

Re:Bad move

[PeteyG]

I originally said: This is a bad move for people who want to get a better handle on what the game is all about (and whether or not it sucks) before actually paying money for it

You said: The forum could be detrimental to their marketing in that only the most vocal forumites make their views clear, and in many cases, these views tend to be impassioned and sometimes irrational.

As a person investigating a game for possible purchase, I DON'T care about marketing decisions. I want to know what people who are playing the game are saying it. If I'm investigating whether or not I should purchase a MMORPG, then I know a few things about them already. I already know that forums are full of squeaky wheels.

I'm not looking JUST for squeaky wheels. They are important, though, because there are particularly squeaky wheels, I won't touch the game with a 10 foot pole. I am looking for FUN wheels too. I want to know if there's neat strategies being traded, how the cool features of the game work, and what I can expect if I start playing.

Oh yeah, I can also ASK SPECIFIC QUESTIONS of people who are already playing the game.

I don't give a rip what the company thinks about marketing. Privatizing the forums hurts me the consumer.