Official forums incoming

[Arthur_Parker]

linky

Rarely has this site ever posted anything by way of news that wasn't first passed by Mythic and fact checked. We've always appreciated the hard work of the developers and have always worked to get the facts straight before we bring it to the community. However, today's news item was met with both the suggestion I talk with someone higher up the food chain and a, "no comment". Despite the official company line, when unofficial people in and out of Mythic, as well as inside EA, all tell you the same thing, well, I'm going to listen and I think you should too.
 
Contrary to Marks insistence that there will never be official forums, last week I received word that plans are on for the building and launching of official public forums early in the new year. There are plans for three separate official forums, one for the USA, one across the pond at our GOA friends and also one for the good folks in Russia where WAR will be released in early 2009. It should be no surprise that this is going to be a huge undertaking and the community teams are staffing up to handle the new responsibilities.
 
Ultimately this is going to be a fantastic thing for Warhammer Alliance and the folks at this site. For more than three years this site has been the premiere community provider for the Warhammer Online community. In that time we've grown and shifted focus to handling the massive growth that the forums have been experiencing. In that growth however we have not been able to deliver the quality content and information that I feel this community deserves.
 
Official forums are going to definitely help lighten the load of the volunteers at this site and allow us to focus on getting the community better information, better guides, better tools and better insight. It's going to allow us to spend less time banning idiots and more time creating readable and interesting content. Most importantly, it's going to allow me more time to level my alt characters to 40.
 
Now while this bit of news is officially relegated to the land of rumor I would suggest that folks not be shocked or surprised when this is officially announced late this month or early next year.
 
Now with that bit of news out of the way, let me repeat what I said five months ago. Warhammer Alliance is not going anywhere. I and the staff of volunteers are committed to providing a quality community experience to everyone who visits Warhammer Alliance or our addon site at Curse.com, and the fantastic database at Wardb.com. We're committed to bringing great tools, great forums and great content. The prospect of official forums are going to allow us to focus on enhancing those things and frankly, I think it's going to bring about some fantastic changes for the site.
 
For those of you on the fence about WAR, I suggest you stick around. There are even more changes afoot at Mythic and we're going to continue to bring you the latest news, tools and information.

Somebody should have suggested this idea to Mythic.

Edit to add fixed link. Just noticed the changes afoot comment at the end.

[ghost]

Yeah, the "changes afoot" thing certainly sounds interesting.  Wonder where that is heading?

[tolakram]

I don't know that I believe this, but interesting none the less.

[Soln]

remind me again of MJ's logic not to host a community?  (i know DAoC also had none)

[tazelbain]

Maybe EA finally brought the hammer down.  Certainly EA didn't buy WAR for CoH numbers which is where Mark's "the player is always wrong" strategy is leading.

[Arthur_Parker]

I don't know that I believe this, but interesting none the less.

Believe it.

Fixed link in op, going to quote it below.

Edit to avoid confusion, the below is an old post from 05-24-2008 when Mark said there wouldn't be official forums

Folks,
 
Will there be official forums? Maybe. Despite whatever Mark says about forums today, that answer might change tommorow. That is the nature of business. So, never say never. That said however, Warhammer Alliance will continue to exist the same way it has for the last several years.
 
The same moderation, the same policies. We'll continue to evolve and adapt. If people don't like it, thankfully, there are several fantastic websites out there, all with varying degrees of moderation.
 
We're not the fansite for everyone. But I still think we're the best.

Never.

There, I said it (again). :)

I would rather hear William Shatner and Roseanne Barr singing a duet while having my fingernails pulled out one by one while sitting in a pool of molten lava than have Mythic's own Official Forums for WAR.

How's that for clarity? 

Mark

Change of bus driver incoming?

[tolakram]

Nope,

I believe the deal with EA puts Jacobs in charge of the bus.

Official Forums puts you more in charge of your message and Jacobs is wrong on this, I believe, but I'm not really qualified to have an opinion on the matter ... ;)

[Lakov_Sanite]

The phrase better late than never comes to mind but sadly in the world of MMO's you don't get a second chance to make a first impression.

[Montague]

Nope,

I believe the deal with EA puts Jacobs in charge of the bus.

/Vader voice

"I've altered the bargain. Pray I don't alter it further!

[Soln]

madness


utter crazytown

[Lantyssa]

At least he got Jacobs to post at WHA finally.

[ghost]

Maybe EA finally brought the hammer down.  Certainly EA didn't buy WAR for CoH numbers which is where Mark's "the player is always wrong" strategy is leading.

Clearly, with 55 initial servers, they wanted a grand slam. 

[Bismallah]

Clearly, and losing half of those within 2 months had to have been eye opening for the bean counters at EA. Those kind of losses in subs do not go unnoticed when money is anywhere on the table.

[tolakram]

At least he got Jacobs to post at WHA finally.

That was an older post (May 2008) from a different thread.  Fooled me too.

[Grumlic]

DOH! Tolakram beat me to it while I was typing 

So maybe we'll actually get a Shatner / Roseanne album after all.   Discuss!

[HaemishM]

Nope,

I believe the deal with EA puts Jacobs in charge of the bus.

Unless he decides to leave the company (i.e. taking his money and going home to retirement). Which is most certainly a possibility.

[Jherad]

That was my thought at the 'more changes afoot' bit... MJ has made it clear he is not compatible with the idea of forums. If they really are on the way, then a culture change is on the cards - perhaps one not involving him.

[Arthur_Parker]

From the WHA thread.

Couple of points.
 
One I think it's more than a little unprofessional to post rumors like this. I just checked with my sources at Mythic, the same sources that gave the heads up the Class cuts a good month before they happened and was told that it was BS, furthermore EA has a bigger issue with official forums than Mythic does so it's double BS. That is from a Mythic Employee guys. You guys know I have been posting here awhile and I don't BS, so take that, as you will.
 
Secondly and more importantly what is with the snarky way that this was presented? We get that WHA needs to prove that they do not kiss developer hiney on a hourly basis, but there is a fine line between being there as a community resource and flipping off the developers just to prove your street cred. Seriously guys saying you respect the developers with one face and pulling crap like this with another is a bit over the top.

So on the "it's true" side we have Garthilk, on the "it's false" side we have some dude who makes his text appear silver when he posts.

I'm not seeing a downside, it's funny either way.

[Hindenburg]

Downside is melee survivability in T1 went straight to hell with the new patch. You're either a tank or dead in 4 sec.
Oh, wait...

Also, I concur with Morfiend.

[Morfiend]

I think we need to change the name of the Warhammer subforum to just 

[ghost]

I think we need to change the name of the Warhammer subforum to just 

Probably  is more appropriate.

[Arthur_Parker]

A short video - how open RVR contribution was broken for two months and nobody at Mythic noticed.  Maybe official forums would have helped.

[Threash]

A short video - how open RVR contribution was broken for two months and nobody at Mythic noticed.  Maybe official forums would have helped.

WTF? so that whole contribution is decided by a die roll thing was real? and its not fixed yet? and this two cunts actually work in the game? and probably make more money than me?

[Bismallah]

Haha. Awesome.

[Ingmar]

"We've tried everything else, guys, maybe we should look at this thing called "professionalism"?" (Based on that video this idea has not yet reached Paul Barnett.)

[rk47]

That was my thought at the 'more changes afoot' bit... MJ has made it clear he is not compatible with the idea of forums. If they really are on the way, then a culture change is on the cards - perhaps one not involving him.

I'm still not sure what is Mark's vision on this game. Wards? PQ Grind for Zone Controls? LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG travel quests. Outside party healing giving 3-4x the renown while tanks who had to beg for heals are getting less and less.

[Megrim]

I think we need to change the name of the Warhammer subforum to just 

Probably  is more appropriate.

I petition it be changed to "Three star ability, five star drive."

[Zzulo]

I don't care what you guys say, I still like Pauls video blogs

[Pringles]

A short video - how open RVR contribution was broken for two months and nobody at Mythic noticed.  Maybe official forums would have helped.

[Fordel]

See that still isn't as bad as DoubleFrost Math.


While that was boneheaded and all that, it was probably just an error they failed to see for awhile for whatever reason.


DoubleFrost Math though, that's when some designer failed at arithmetic so horribly, he randomly doubled the values of every special attack in a spec line, for no actual reason.   

[Goreschach]

A short video - how open RVR contribution was broken for two months and nobody at Mythic noticed.  Maybe official forums would have helped.

Has he managed to get himself punched in the face yet?

[Montague]

A short video - how open RVR contribution was broken for two months and nobody at Mythic noticed.  Maybe official forums would have helped.

Speechless. I'm amazed Riccitello hasn't erupted like Vesuvius and fired the lot of them.

[waffel]

You really can't make this shit up.

The original post, marks view on forums earlier this year, the video with paul and fuckfaceprogrammer talking about the contribution fuck up. Comedy gold.

and yeah, the contribution code still isn't as bad as DoubleFrost math. Its close though. Almost ranks up there with the screenshot jumping in warhammer allowing people to scale keeps. You know, the screenshot jumping that was in DAoC FROM 6 FUCKING YEARS AGO.

[rk47]

AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA AHAHAHAH this is too much lol

[schild]

Throwing people under the bus is Good Business.