Found this amusing

[Mandrel]

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this, but thought some of you would enjoy commenting.

http://community.istaria.com/Web/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=17


Apparently the people over at Horizons have enough confidence in their game to facilitate their players saying goodbyes to each other.  Doesn't look to good when your "Goodbyes" forum has more than half as many topics as your "General Discussion" one does.

[Signe]

Is the "good-bye" thread the most popular? 

[Alkiera]

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this, but thought some of you would enjoy commenting.

http://community.istaria.com/Web/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=17


Apparently the people over at Horizons have enough confidence in their game to facilitate their players saying goodbyes to each other.  Doesn't look to good when your "Goodbyes" forum has more than half as many topics as your "General Discussion" one does.

Huh?

Forum	Threads	Posts
General	2,763	38,693
Hello	268	1,723
Goodbye	218	1,411

If anything, there's more Hellos than goodbyes.  And a heck of a lot more activity in the general forum.

*shrug*

Alkiera

[Mandrel]

OK, I'm the jackass.  I was so astounded that a game would even have a board dedicated to saying goodbyes, that I misread the number of topics, transposing the "suggestions" and "goodbyes" numbers.
Still, has anyone else seen a game that has a specific forum dedicated to this?

[Rasix]

Still, has anyone else seen a game that has a specific forum dedicated to this?

On The Nameless server in Everquest we had a server board.  One specific forum was titled "Retirement" and that really how seriously these people took it.  It got a decent amount of traffic, people were leaving all of the time.  Plus, you got all of the necro posts saying, "I'm un-retired. Love me!", like they're some sort of prize fighter stepping back into the ring.

It was kind of sad.  People reaching out looking for validation that their time spent in EQ meant something beyond their shiny planes armor.  It wasn't enough I guess to just say your goodbyes in game to the people that actually cared and then go stick your account on player auctions.

[Signe]

I've seen good-bye threads but I don't remember ever seeing a good-bye forum... at least not on official boards.  Maybe I just didn't pay attention.  I do know, however, some game boards don't even allow good-bye threads.  They get locked and deleted or sent to the junk/off-topic forum. 

[HaemishM]

I look forward to the Good-Bye post on that board from David Bowman, as he waves goodbye to all the users when the game collapses in on itself in a firey pyre of suck.

[Dren]

Retirement posts.  That is so appropriate it is funny, yet it is not.

I suppose that is a lot like the guy that hits himself with hammer.

Because it feels so good when you stop.

[Venkman]

This is the thing that always gets me about beta tests and their impact on a game.

Some of these people have spent a full year or even two beta testing the game on and off. The fact is that this isn't even normal for a Live MMOG anymore, and hasn't been for awhile. And that's first and foremost because people get bored.

So people have been playing a game for free through their entire enjoyment cycle, and will not buy it. A game that's built with dollars that need to be returned through box sales and monthly fees these people, arguably their most dedicated fans, won't be paying.

There's just something wrong with that.

And while it's nice for them to have a forum dedicated to Exit Statements, it's stupid of them to make it a public forum. It should at least be visible only to registered logged in accounts.

[Morfiend]

I look forward to the Good-Bye post on that board from David Bowman, as he waves goodbye to all the users when the game collapses in on itself in a firey pyre of suck.

Could we pay you to resub to Horizons for a few weeks, just so you could write another article as good as the last one?

I think that artice provided one of my all time favorite quotes "I looked around for the sign pointing to FUN, but I couldnt find it".

[HaemishM]

I'm not sure there's enough money in the world to get me to sub up to Horizons for even a month.

[schild]

If you resub to Horizons, I'll get a picture taken of myself smacking David Bowman's ass at E3. Surely you'll trade a review for gangrene.

[WayAbvPar]

If you resub to Horizons, I'll get a picture taken of myself smacking David Bowman's ass at E3. Surely you'll trade a review for gangrene.

Smack which one? The one in his trousers or the one on his shoulders? To be fair, I guess the latter is usually buried in the former...