With the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic came a new and improved forum system for the community, and everyone lived happily ever after. Right? Yeah... not so much. It turns out that BioWare neglected to include individual server forums for its many, many, many shards, and this omission has rankled some players who were looking forward to talking amongst their new communities on the site.
TOR-Talk got in touch with BioWare to ask about why the individual server forums were cut down to four ruleset forums. Senior Community Coordinator Allison Berryman says the decision was a matter of practicality as there would be too many forums and not enough moderators to go around: "Generally speaking, server forums for many MMOs tend to be largely un-moderated and can become unpleasant to visit."
Instead, BioWare hopes that server communities create and moderate their own server-specific sites and forums. "This is also a great opportunity for the community to come together in their own ways – on fan sites and through other resources," Barryman said. "Of course, we want people to visit the official forums, and will use them to provide information that's of specific interest to the community, but we also love to see the community coming up with cool stuff on their own."
Reader Comments (60)
Posted: Dec 21st 2011 3:32PM Dril said
One word:
Lol.
Lol.
Posted: Dec 21st 2011 3:51PM Clemalum07 said
@Dril Server forums in EVERY mmo are nothing more than a shit show of people calling out one another and stupid crap like that.
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Posted: Dec 21st 2011 3:55PM PhelimReagh said
@Clemalum07
When I played WoW, the server-specific forums were places the trolls and losers would spend their time and drive off any legitimate posters. A virtual Mos Eisley, if you will.
While I couldn't give two turds about this game, no one will suffer from this omission, except for the trolls and losers. They may have to find someplace else to go and be d-bags.
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When I played WoW, the server-specific forums were places the trolls and losers would spend their time and drive off any legitimate posters. A virtual Mos Eisley, if you will.
While I couldn't give two turds about this game, no one will suffer from this omission, except for the trolls and losers. They may have to find someplace else to go and be d-bags.
Posted: Dec 21st 2011 3:56PM fallwind said
@Clemalum07 if by "every other mmo" you mean "wow" then yes. If by "every other mmo" you actually mean "every other mmo", then you need to get out more.
Server forums are a great way for new players to get information on a server (population, demographics, faction balance, RP content), find guilds and generally get a good idea whether or not a server is worth rolling on / transferring to.
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Server forums are a great way for new players to get information on a server (population, demographics, faction balance, RP content), find guilds and generally get a good idea whether or not a server is worth rolling on / transferring to.
Posted: Dec 21st 2011 4:18PM jealouspirate said
@Clemalum07
That is simply not true. Sure, there are some bad apples, but a lot of good can happen there too. Building relationships, guild recruitment, planning server events, etc. Good luck planning an event, especially a cross-faction one, without a realm forum.
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That is simply not true. Sure, there are some bad apples, but a lot of good can happen there too. Building relationships, guild recruitment, planning server events, etc. Good luck planning an event, especially a cross-faction one, without a realm forum.
Posted: Dec 21st 2011 5:54PM Heraclea said
@Clemalum07 - My experience in the City of Heroes server forums has been entirely different. And while the Age of Conan forums are often bad, the PvE server forums are easily the most welcoming place there. Things may be different on PvP servers, but I don't play on PvP servers.
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Posted: Dec 22nd 2011 10:04AM (Unverified) said
@jealouspirate
Negative Bro. Let's look at SWG shall we since tons of players are from there from the good old days (everyone in my guild played SWG on Bloodfin). The Bloodfin server forum was nothing but board warriors, trolls, and shit talkers. Moving on to WoW Archimonde server forums, pretty much half of that was the same. Moving on to RIFT. While I took RIFT a lot more casual than other MMOs since I mainly played on a PvE server (Keenblade) it was not some welcoming mat either. Though all that has died down a lot everyone just made fun of Trinity on it. I did play on a PvP server to start but most of those friends left.
I am almost expect that most of the PvP forums will be nothing but name calling just like every other game I've played. Just consider that if there were server forums, every Republic guild would be posting screen shots of Heat dying over and over.
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Negative Bro. Let's look at SWG shall we since tons of players are from there from the good old days (everyone in my guild played SWG on Bloodfin). The Bloodfin server forum was nothing but board warriors, trolls, and shit talkers. Moving on to WoW Archimonde server forums, pretty much half of that was the same. Moving on to RIFT. While I took RIFT a lot more casual than other MMOs since I mainly played on a PvE server (Keenblade) it was not some welcoming mat either. Though all that has died down a lot everyone just made fun of Trinity on it. I did play on a PvP server to start but most of those friends left.
I am almost expect that most of the PvP forums will be nothing but name calling just like every other game I've played. Just consider that if there were server forums, every Republic guild would be posting screen shots of Heat dying over and over.
Posted: Dec 21st 2011 3:38PM Mtor said
Bioware, ur doing it wrong.
Posted: Dec 21st 2011 3:40PM jealouspirate said
I find this highly disappointing. I've always really enjoyed sever forums, and they have facilitated everything from friendships to in-game events.
Their reasoning irks, as well. Have any of their moderators actually visited "General Discussion"? Or the PvP forum? Talk about 'highly unpleasant to read'....
Their reasoning irks, as well. Have any of their moderators actually visited "General Discussion"? Or the PvP forum? Talk about 'highly unpleasant to read'....
Posted: Dec 21st 2011 3:40PM Mikx said
Server forums are pretty dumb and unused, however expecting the community to come together and create one is insane. You'll end up with multiple competing forums for some servers, destroying any sense of coordination and purpose for the server forum.
Would certainly be cool to have one for each faction on rp-pvp servers though.
Would certainly be cool to have one for each faction on rp-pvp servers though.
Posted: Dec 21st 2011 3:43PM Leandra said
And here I was hoping they just hadn't gotten around to adding server forums yet. :-/ It seems to me server forums are usually a lot of more pleasant than the general forums, so their reasoning doesn't really make much sense...
Posted: Dec 21st 2011 3:46PM Vgk said
A forum for an individual server just makes things more personal, your talking with people you see in game on possibly a day to day basis, you can set up events with both factions, more efficiently recruit members for your guild etc. via server specific forums.
Ya, a forum for a server may get checked less by the moderators but isn't that why we have a report button in most forums?
Ya, a forum for a server may get checked less by the moderators but isn't that why we have a report button in most forums?
Posted: Dec 21st 2011 3:47PM rhorle said
If they don't have enough moderators then you would think they would hire more to handle it. Instead of just offering less.
Posted: Dec 21st 2011 3:50PM (Unverified) said
I understand it though. 140 forums, 140 moderators. Even if you cut that in half, that's 70 paid moderators.
Posted: Dec 21st 2011 5:15PM (Unverified) said
@Mtor
Hence the "even if you cut that in half"
Herp derp. Please go troll another game.
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Hence the "even if you cut that in half"
Herp derp. Please go troll another game.




