by The Kingmaker » Mon May 29, 2017 5:24 pm
Happy birthday to whoever's birthday it was!
In regards to the forums/discord debate: the issue is a viscious cycle, or a self-fullfilling prophecy, depending on how you look at it.
Quite simply, after two years of no physical updates from ironhide, there isn't an awful lot to discuss. Discord allows for faster and more informal conversation that either wouldn't have happened or would just clog up off-topic of it had occurred on the forums. Discord's more personal and faster nature lends better to some (not all) of the discussions that occur between the community memebers. I certainly feel closer to some of the others thanks to the personal discussions on the discord.
Should all of these discussions have occurred on the forums? No, as I said previously the forums wouldn't have a place for them beyond the dredges of off-topic.
Should some of these discussions have occurred on the forums instead? Yes, absolutely. But they occurred on the discord due to the wealth of regular users and feedback/discussion available.
Should new members to the forums use the forums? Yes, again of course, but they shouldn't be denied the option to join the discord if they so wish. A hypothetical (and rather fanciful) Expdus returning to the forums upon the release of Iron Marines might include these newer members if they joined the discord, instead of getting no response from the lukewarm cadaver of the forums.
I'm obviously complicit in all of this, but I have tried to use the discord to fling ideas out at people, rather than use highly singular PMs, which then coalesce into ideas here on the forums. However to be frank I don't know where to go with that considering the feedback (or lack thereof) to Zephyrine, both Eloras and the updates for Burden and Ainyl
That I tried to bring out in close succession to allow for... something. They got no feedback on discord or the forums and I honestly fail to see why I should make anything else.
Fan fiction discussion clearly isn't going to relindle the embers of the forums. I don't know what else will. Solid gameplay from a new game is a good bet, but it isn't surefire. I personally couldn't care less for Iron Marines - perhaps I am old and bitter but with how terrible anything in Origins after the main release was, combined with a total feeling of disenfranchisement with the Studios at large thanks to the loss of Tats the feeling just isn't there for me. If I didn't have the discord to fall back on I wouldn't check the forums anywhere near as often as I do. I don't check or reply as often as I'd like, but frankly I'd have left and not returned without the discord.
I'll be more than happy to post this in its own thread if it is unsuitable in this theead, and wish to state I have no wish to antagonise or start an argument. Just a friendly discussion.