SWTOR Subforum

ZeitgeistGlee

Posted this over in the Characters & Servers thread but I figured it might be better to do an actual thread on the subject. (Apologies if this is against the rules, I thought it would be OK to have this discussion prior to actually putting forward the request.)

Would people be interested in supporting a request to get a Star Wars: The Old Republic subforum set up here on boards? We've got roughly 10 threads here on the first page covering various topics and over 800 replies between them. More and more new names are displaying interest from the initial CE thread, enough I think to get the prerequisite numbers to launch a request.

Obviously given the game is out in less than two weeks we're caught in that the forum itself won't be up and running until the first month is nearly over but I think given the scale of the launch numbers expected for SWTOR that discussion will likely persist beyond that initial point.

The function would be the same as pretty much any of the other MMO subforums, swap specs, rotations, guild statuses, recipes, tips, tricks etc.

Any thoughts?

Kiith

Definitely a good idea. There's going to be a lot of posts in the next few weeks. Post this in the forum requests. Fairly sure quite a few of us would +1 it.

red_ice

Yep, do it. +1

I speak for nix aswell who wants his +1 on this forum.

aN.Droid

I don't know if it needs one right this minute. Most of the threads on the front page of this forum are weeks old now. I would wait til the new year personally as I fear if a subforum is opened it would be very bare until people start having things to talk about :P I know I won't be wasting my time posting when I could be playing!

EDIT// Infact I think we should ask to close the wow forum as some of the threads in there on the first page are from september! =O

ZeitgeistGlee

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056476246

Bit the bullet lads, let's try to get this sorted ASAP so we can enjoy our shiny new subforum for New Year.

CyberJuice

i hereby put myself forward to be overlord and boss moderator of this new forum

can i get a second on this lads

ZeitgeistGlee

Get in line CJ, and it starts behind me.

aN.Droid

Personally I don't think it will need another moderator. Mr E and Sierra Oscar would be able to mod it easy enough themselfs. I am going to stick to my original opinion that it is not needed yet and wont be needed anytime soon. Most of the posting in there will be around xmas and new year then it will die. Look at the other mmo forums they get no action really. Should all just be consolidated into the one Massively Multiplayer forum.

Just to show what I mean,

The wow forum has only 2 threads with replies from december, the eve forum has only 2 aswell and the WOT forum has 10 with replies from december but thats a new forum so expected. Also the WOT forum has 1191 posts, 1111 of those posts are from a thread that was started a year and a half ago.

Raphael

Honestly, if it's made then it needs its own mod, Mr E & Sierra Oscar are the cat mods, and cat mods generally don't (and shouldn't) mod day to day. If anything it'll be Ivan, but he's already flying solo for MMORPGs, so a dedicated mod would help. For one thing, if he's not playing or interested in TOR - I don't touch the Elder Scrolls and JRPG subforums over in Roleplaying, because I don't know or care about them - they have dedicated mods.

aN.Droid

Raphael wrote: »

Honestly, if it's made then it needs its own mod, Mr E & Sierra Oscar are the cat mods, and cat mods generally don't (and shouldn't) mod day to day. If anything it'll be Ivan, but he's already flying solo for MMORPGs, so a dedicated mod would help. For one thing, if he's not playing or interested in TOR - I don't touch the Elder Scrolls and JRPG subforums over in Roleplaying, because I don't know or care about them - they have dedicated mods.

That's fair enough but I still tend to believe that it will not be active enough to require mods. The 2 or three threads that will be started a week would be very easily handled by the category mods.

Kiith

There'll be more than 2 or 3 threads a week, certainly at launch. Might quieten down after a while, but will be busy for at least a few weeks/months.

aN.Droid

Kiith wrote: »

There'll be more than 2 or 3 threads a week, certainly at launch. Might quieten down after a while, but will be busy for at least a few weeks/months.

Maybe so but I stand to my gun's and think it is a waste of a few Kb of sql data :P

After the initial launch and xmas is over and done with the forum won't be active at all. Just look at the other mmo forums.

Kiith

To be fair, the Warcraft and Eve forums were really busy for a long time. Hell, even the Warhammer and LotR were busy for months after launch. Whether or not TOR will keep that popularity is debatable, but if it does than we'll be seeing a lot of posts.

Raphael

Limericks wrote: »

That's fair enough but I still tend to believe that it will not be active enough to require mods. The 2 or three threads that will be started a week would be very easily handled by the category mods.

It's not that they couldn't handle it, it's that Cat mods job isn't to mod day to day - they're job is to keep watch over the entire cat, and focusing on one forum loses them the big picture - it also servers to undermine the dispute resolution process, as the cat mods are the first court of appeal. I'd agree it's small, but small means one dedicated mod - honestly, MMOs is currently lacking, it could do with a second to get it up to scratch. (nothing against Ivan, 2 mods is just much better than one)

Also, I'm inclined to agree that it might not be needed, but the decision's not gonna be made for at least a month and a half - so end of january - by which stage dying off will have happened a lot if its happening.

aN.Droid

Raphael wrote: »

It's not that they couldn't handle it, it's that Cat mods job isn't to mod day to day - they're job is to keep watch over the entire cat, and focusing on one forum loses them the big picture - it also servers to undermine the dispute resolution process, as the cat mods are the first court of appeal. I'd agree it's small, but small means one dedicated mod - honestly, MMOs is currently lacking, it could do with a second to get it up to scratch. (nothing against Ivan, 2 mods is just much better than one)

Also, I'm inclined to agree that it might not be needed, but the decision's not gonna be made for at least a month and a half - so end of january - by which stage dying off will have happened a lot if its happening.

Your right, a mod would be needed when you look at it that way.

Maybe the forum would be popular. I have been looking forward to this game for a long time and don't get me wrong I would love to have somewhere to discuss the game with other Irish players but the pessimist in me comes out every now and again :P I still feel the MMo forum would do but if a forum was made for swtor I would post in it :P

ZeitgeistGlee

Limericks wrote: »

The wow forum has only 2 threads with replies from december, the eve forum has only 2 aswell and the WOT forum has 10 with replies from december but thats a new forum so expected. Also the WOT forum has 1191 posts, 1111 of those posts are from a thread that was started a year and a half ago.

The difference is that both WoW and EVE are long-time established MMOs who are at lulls of activity due to veteran players have completed the vast majority of new content since the expansion. When Mists of Pandaria rolls around the forum will pick up again for a while and then a couple of months later go quiet again, it's a cyclical process.

As for WOT, well that's a tiny scale MMO in comparison to TOR so the activity isn't going to be as big in the long run. They've managed a respectable level of activity in order to get the subforum and if they're able to maintain activity to the point it's useful to people well then that's job well done.

Maybe SWTOR will be another flash in the pan like RIFT, but honestly I'd be very, very surprised if it is. WoW has bled off a non-negligible percentage of its playerbase and those players are going to be looking for something enough like WoW for them to pick up and play again. You're also going to have Star Wars fans, KOTOR fans, BioWare fans all picking this up, a portion of whom are never going to have played MMOs before.

Does that translate directly into this proposed SWTOR subforum being a success? Hard to prove. We've already seen a sharp uptake in activity over the last while (bunch of new threads, new faces posting in old and new threads) and as I said in the proposal thread I think that's only going to strengthen come release. If people come to boards looking to talk about SWTOR and we have an entire subforum dedicated to it, then that shows we believe there's a niche for it similar to big names like WoW and EVE and I think people will pick up on that.

I can certainly say, we'll be busier than WoW is currently.

aN.Droid

ZeitgeistGlee wrote: »

The difference is that both WoW and EVE are long-time established MMOs who are at lulls of activity due to veteran players have completed the vast majority of new content since the expansion. When Mists of Pandaria rolls around the forum will pick up again for a while and then a couple of months later go quiet again, it's a cyclical process.

As for WOT, well that's a tiny scale MMO in comparison to TOR so the activity isn't going to be as big in the long run. They've managed a respectable level of activity in order to get the subforum and if they're able to maintain activity to the point it's useful to people well then that's job well done.

Maybe SWTOR will be another flash in the pan like RIFT, but honestly I'd be very, very surprised if it is. WoW has bled off a non-negligible percentage of its playerbase and those players are going to be looking for something enough like WoW for them to pick up and play again. You're also going to have Star Wars fans, KOTOR fans, BioWare fans all picking this up, a portion of whom are never going to have played MMOs before.

Does that translate directly into this proposed SWTOR subforum being a success? Hard to prove. We've already seen a sharp uptake in activity over the last while (bunch of new threads, new faces posting in old and new threads) and as I said in the proposal thread I think that's only going to strengthen come release. If people come to boards looking to talk about SWTOR and we have an entire subforum dedicated to it, then that shows we believe there's a niche for it similar to big names like WoW and EVE and I think people will pick up on that.

I can certainly say, we'll be busier than WoW is currently.

Yes I agree with you that the forum would be used and that it is a cyclical process of activity and in fairness to WOT that had allot of action in this forum as allot of people here play it. It just all comes back too why bother opening a new forum when it will eventually fizzle and there already is a place to talk about it. There is nothing stopping someone opening a new thread about the game in the mmo forum as it stands about swtor, people don't need to do all there conversation in the few threads already open.

koneko

FWIW, I was the mod on the WoW board when we got that set up initially, and it was very very busy. It needed it's own board, so using it as a comparison right now (this long after it was released) is not all that valid.

At the time, it would have utterly dominated the MMO board otherwise.

Raphael

The problem is that right now, TOR is drowning out the other traffic - it's more notable in forums more active than this, where other threads will get bumped by traffic for one thing.

As I said, in 6 weeks the admins will decide, and they'll take into account any traffic decline over that period.

ZeitgeistGlee

koneko wrote: »

FWIW, I was the mod on the WoW board when we got that set up initially, and it was very very busy. It needed it's own board, so using it as a comparison right now (this long after it was released) is not all that valid.

At the time, it would have utterly dominated the MMO board otherwise.

Exactly this. We've had six new threads open up in the last while despite the very limited access Irish players had to actually get hands-on testing. When the game goes live the level of corresponding activity is going to be that much bigger.

Heck I even created the General Discussion thread simply so we wouldn't drown out every other non-SWTOR related thread because that would be kinda rude.

aN.Droid

koneko wrote: »

FWIW, I was the mod on the WoW board when we got that set up initially, and it was very very busy. It needed it's own board, so using it as a comparison right now (this long after it was released) is not all that valid.

At the time, it would have utterly dominated the MMO board otherwise.

There is a page and a half of threads from the first month the wow forum was open, I would say some of those are from before it was opened and moved to the subforum when it was eventually opened. Same went on for about 4 months then it started to decline from there. I don't know if that is domination of a forum.

I don't know maybe it is a good idea to have a dedicated forum but I am still not convinced. Either way, subforum or no I will still be posting about my experiences

koneko

Limericks wrote: »

There is a page and a half of threads from the first month the wow forum was open, I would say some of those are from before it was opened and moved to the subforum when it was eventually opened.

That is only the threads where the last reply was during that period.... A lot of the threads would have been more active.

I don't care a whole lot either way, it just wasn't a valid point IMO, as anyone that was around at the time would tell you it was very active.

aN.Droid

koneko wrote: »

That is only the threads where the last reply was during that period.... A lot of the threads would have been more active.

I don't care a whole lot either way, it just wasn't a valid point IMO, as anyone that was around at the time would tell you it was very active.

Ok I concede the fact I didn't think about that :P my bad. But I still don't think a whole new forum should be made about a "flavour of the month" topic. I don't mean the game will fizzle but conversation about it here sure will.

ZeitgeistGlee

Perhaps Limericks, but I think there's enough of a discussion level currently which warrants it so we don't swamp the rest of the Massive Multiplayer forum. I guess we'll know by the time the first month is over and we're up for admin evaluation.

aN.Droid

ZeitgeistGlee wrote: »

Perhaps Limericks, but I think there's enough of a discussion level currently which warrants it so we don't swamp the rest of the Massive Multiplayer forum. I guess we'll know by the time the first month is over and we're up for admin evaluation.

I would love to be proven wrong. What I would like to see is the forum open now, if it was I feel it would get the love it needs. But that is bureaucracy for you. Why didn't you think about it sooner Zeitgeist! Geez.

koneko

The entire forum-creation process these days.... I don't get it.
Back in the day if a forum had merit, someone would just create it, and off you'd go making your stickies/guides etc and have a place to put everything.

Now it's a 6 week process? Ah how things have changed.
I'll add my +1 anyway to help yes

ZeitgeistGlee

Limericks wrote: »

I would love to be proven wrong. What I would like to see is the forum open now, if it was I feel it would get the love it needs. But that is bureaucracy for you. Why didn't you think about it sooner Zeitgeist! Geez.

Yeah, if I'd had sense I should've done it weeks ago but I didn't know the evaluation process was this long (I figured it was propose it decently, get a few votes of agreement and then it'd be put forward for a decision). It's a pity there's not a way to fast-track a proposal but that probably wouldn't be fair on others.

aN.Droid

I'm gonna change my stance on the forum, the more and more I think about it the more I find myself liking the idea. Having a place with stickies for guides and resources and such would be good and help allot of newbies and lowbies out.

Changed my vote on the proposal thread aswell.

ZeitgeistGlee

Cheers mate, I can definitely understand your viewpoint but I think we could definitely use a forum of our own at least for the first few months/years. If after that things die off then there's nothing preventing them merging all the threads and moving us back here to Massively Multiplayer.

Raphael

koneko wrote: »

The entire forum-creation process these days.... I don't get it.
Back in the day if a forum had merit, someone would just create it, and off you'd go making your stickies/guides etc and have a place to put everything.

Now it's a 6 week process? Ah how things have changed.
I'll add my +1 anyway to help yes

Ah the good ol' days. Sadly there's just too much traffic in there now to warrant that. This system is good, the 18 votes provides a good first pass for crapness, and the 6 week period gives the admins a nice 6 week period to review.

TBH, I think it's as well that you didn't say anything sooner, because the last 6 weeks sure as hell didn't justify one. The next 2 or 3 will, and the latter 2 or 3 will be where the decision really comes down to.

ZeitgeistGlee

True enough Raph, it is only is the last two or so weeks we've see an increase in activity and really the first month is going to be make or break for TOR as it has been with Rift and however many others.