It is not about gameplay on the forum. Seriously, I've explained this a few times. It is about taking away gameplay from the game. The most simple and obvious case is that there is a lot of socialising being done on the forum - that could happen in-game. At tournaments, on the ruler channel, through guilds, etc.
But a lot of it is being done in an explicitly OOC manner—players talking about their characters, not players talking
as their characters.
The other most obvious part is that only the part of the playerbase who frequent the forum get to be a part of it. That's like hanging out with a bunch of guys who all go to the same school and you don't - you will be the outsider in that group.
I'm sorry, Tom, but this is a terrible argument.
First of all, everyone who uses the forum or does not use the forum chooses that for themselves.
Second of all, that's true of
every kind of interaction that's not the bare minimum required to play the game—both in the game and outside it.
Third of all, it was just as true of the discussion list, and is just as true of IRC.
Fourth of all, and perhaps most important, this is
not a "punishment" to the people who do not participate in the forum. This is a benefit to those who do: an additional sense of community, camaraderie, and friendship with the other players in the game. We would be quite happy if more people from the game would join in, and become part of the broader BattleMaster community, too.
Removing the forums would, at this point, be one of the worst things you could do for the game.
Frankly, Tom, you seem to think that the game can exist in some perfect vacuum, where nothing outside it can affect what goes on inside. But your game is played by
people—by human beings, flawed and imperfect creatures that we all are—so that's not possible. Your attitude reminds me very much of those who think that advocating abstinence is the best way to prevent teen pregnancy: you have a picture in your head of how Things Are Supposed To Be, and you approach this problem by trying to force them to be that way. But they aren't, and they can't be, and trying to punish the people using the forums for being human—for wanting to engage their fellow players in a community, and be social—is the worst kind of counterproductive.
BattleMaster
needs its community. It cannot survive long without it, and the more people participate in the community, the more are likely to invite their friends and want to play the game longer. Every move you make to shrink the community is more likely than anything to harm the game in the long term.
I don't doubt the forums also have good sides.
But quite frankly, they are a MAJOR distraction. If nothing else, my own time spent on the forum vs. doing anything else for the game compared to my time spent on the discussion list vs. doing anything else for the game - wow.
Then ignore them all but the dev board, and let us handle them. Indirik and I are both forum admins; say the word, and we will take over the running of the forum, and you won't have to spend any time on the forum that's not directly related to development—ie, doing stuff for the game.
