Merge some forums!

Alistair

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October 29, 2006
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Hi guys - I like this site, but I can't see that anything is served by dividing your audience among mini-forums per title. I want to read them all, and I want to see comparisons between them all...

The only useful split I could see would be between spoilered and spoiler free sections...

Next time you're doing a revamp, I vote for:

News
MMORPG
RPG (No Spoilers)
RPG (Spoilers)

... and I'd consider merging the MMO stuff in as well. And to be honest, if the RPG news is commentworthy, surely we can open a thread in the RPG section for it, or comment in an existing thread...

.. and link to your main forum (that's the rpg one, not the rpgwatch one...) from your home page!

Keep up the good work ;)
 
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First, MANY people like having separate forums for popular games as it keeps similar threads together in one place. News comments are a special case as unregistered people may post there. Also, our non-games forums are VERY popular, especially the Off Topic and P&R forums. I'm sure the site admins will consider your points, but when we established the site, MUCH thought went into exactly what forum divisions we wanted. Could we hear from the rest of the site regulars what you think!!
 
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I don't see much point in merging forums. The divisions make sense, and there are plenty of general RPG threads that compare games. If we took away the divisions, you'd have to sift through pages of material to post on one of the few individual games we have separated out or start a new thread every time. Sounds like a nightmare to me.

Just my opinion, of course. :)
 
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If only you had pages of material to sift through...

Why don't the Oblivion/Fallout 3/Mass Effect fans get a forum? Am I missing it somewhere?

A.
 
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Because we didn't see enough demand. ;)

This is of course a highly subjective thing. It is possible that we'll close forums and open others in the future. A Divinity (2) forum is probably coming, everything DSA could be added to Drakensang, Arcania to Gothic, Risen would be a candidate for a new forum, Dragon Age too.
Killed game forums would be integrated into CRPG General.
 
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I doubt that the 3 people who love those games deserve their own forum!! :D Seriously, only FO 's traffic would perhaps warrant such a forum, but our colleagues at the Codex and Game Banshee and NMA already offer that. There aren't many English forums for Drakensang, so it was decided that we would offer one, as there is not only a lot of interest for the game here, but with a large number of German visitors we can cover aspects of all the releases.
 
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You're not really RPG Watch are you? You're more Euro-fantasy RPGWatch :)
 
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Well, for the most part, the Europeans are attempting to make REAL RPG's while the Yanks are stuffing around with those pseudo action rpg lites we all hate!! :)
 
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We would add Australia if there were any RPG developers. Not counting those living in a bunker. ;)

The big chunk of the western RPGs are either made in Germany or funded with German money (Divinity 2, NWN 2, Two Worlds) nowadays. Add Poland and not many developers of interesting RPGs are missing. More precisely only the few AAA studios.

We had quite a few dead forums at RPGDot. We decided to be a bit more careful here. As a rule of thumb I think a forum with a chance to pass 1000 posts within a short time is worth opening.
 
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Hey Australia has/had Micro Forte which made some good games; Freedom Force springs to mind!! :)

And I've been inside that bunker!! :p
 
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Well, like Gorath said - forums come and go. They are opened, closed and merged as necessities arise. Should, say, the FO discussions rise above a certain point, a forum might be created... just to be merged with General RPG again once traffic decreases.
 
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Personally I like it as it is. I know exactly where to go when I need something so... no changes please :)

Imagine how it would be if you had to sort through tons of threads just to find... for example some info on a Gothic quest.
 
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Jan 10, 2007
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I prefer the current forum layout for reasons already mentioned and forum management is outstanding in my opinion.

However, maybe it is possible to accommodate both points:

I really like the "News Watch" and "Forum Watch" lists on the main page, often stumbling upon an interesting thread I would never have looked at otherwise because I do not have a habit of checking all the new posts in the different forums and subforums "manually". However, usually there are more than 5 new posts per day, so I tend to miss some of the updated threads.

If these lists could be extended to list all the threads updated during the previous day, or maybe even week -- in essence quite similar to a merged forum but (possibly) time limited and linking to threads on existing boards -- this might do the trick.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
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^ On the top bar, choose Forums > New Posts, which'll show you everything new since your last visit (and a number of threads with unread posts). If you try to get there from the main site, you'll have a "Today's Posts" option (I suppose "New Posts" is tied to your account, and you're not really logged in when just browsing the site), which is pretty much what you're asking for.

In fact, I've long since stopped browsing the forums the "usual" way and just use the New Posts option.
 
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You're not really RPG Watch are you? You're more Euro-fantasy RPGWatch :)

I know you did a smiley, but the statement assumes some games are on and off topic, which is not the case. We've had *loads* of discussions about FO3, ME, Oblivion, not to mention STALKER, HL2, and more. It is just a question of whether or not they earn a full forum. NWN2 was a bit of a stretch, but it made sense at the time because of the folks active in NWN1 here.
 
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@VPeric: thanks, I never noticed that option! That is exactly what I was asking for :)
 
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I have difficulties making apart "General Non-RPG" and "Off-Topic" but that's just me.
 
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Maybe "General non-RPG" could be renamed ? Into "general non-RPG games" ? It would add to clarity.
 
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I like the splits..lets me find the parts I want to read first then I can pick the order I want to jump to the rest in without viewing long lists of topics ect first.
 
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