Whether you like them for communication, commiseration, and news, or despise them because they almost never seem like happy places, the point stands that official game forums are something of a legacy method for game devs to communicate with their playerbase, crafted at a time where things like Discord, Twitter, and Reddit weren’t so widespread. The times they are a-changin’, however, and so the folks at Bethesda announced this past Monday that their official game forums are being sunsetted and community discussions will be moved to official Discord servers.
The process will begin this coming Monday, May 24th, when categories will be made read-only. After that, smaller and less populated categories will be archived starting on July 6th. Conversations from the Bethesda.net forums will be moved to their game-appropriate Discord servers, while members of the community team will continue to be active on social media and Reddit and the support team can still be reached from their usual help portal.
It’s important to point out that these changes affect the Bethesda.net forums — Elder Scrolls Online’s forums are operated separately and will remain where they are.
Readers will note this isn’t the only time game forums have been closed in favor of other communication platforms, including some past Daybreak games> and Hi-Rez Studios. It’s also been a topic of conversation here at MOP.
As for Bethesda’s forums, the post simply explains that it’s pure evolution. “The forums have seen many changes over the years, and we’ve enjoyed seeing our community grow and evolve alongside Bethesda and all of our games. Now, though, with the numerous ways people are communicating, we feel the time is right to move away from the forums and chat with you where you prefer to be,” reasons the post. And so it goes.
