With Discord becoming so prominent in the gaming industry over the past half-decade, it’s no surprise that some studios are abandoning forums entirely to migrate to where the players are congregating. GamesIndustry recently put up an interesting piece on whether or not it’s a good idea for studios to abandon forums in favor for Discord.
“While many companies seem to think they can do without traditional online forums, others are launching new discussion boards even in the advanced year of 2022,” the piece says. One company that’s proving to be an example of both sides is BioWare, which shut down all of its forums in 2016 — except for SWTOR, which recently launched new and improved forums. Gearbox, which now owns Cryptic, recently did the same thing with most of its portfolio, sparing only the MMORPG forums.
So where do you sit on this issue? Should studios abandon forums as a relic of the past and glom onto Discord, or do forums still have an important function that the chat client can’t replicate?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
