A Battleforums Conversion

[Jason]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how to improve the forums, and how to get more activity. A lot has gone through my mind and into an IM window with Roach. He's liked some ideas, and some not so much. It's all a matter of how, when, and the what if's.

Well my latest idea was that of a Battleforums conversion. By this I mean a total remake of the forum. Now stay with me on this one..

As you all know D2, WC, and SC are fun games. They still have a moderate amount of players, and they get patch updates from time to time. But I think we can all agree that even though they may still be fun, they're just getting old, outdated, and not that interesting anymore.

The new era of gaming is MMORPG's. World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Everquest 2, Lineage II, Dungeon Siege 2, etc. I know you've all at least experienced on or more of these games. The member base of a single MMO beats all 3 of Blizzard's old titles. World of Warcraft alone just hit 3 million a while back. That's a significant amount of members if you ask me.

So what I propose is that in due time, not all at once, we slowly get rid of the older Blizzard titles, and replace them with newer MMORPG's. Now, I know what you're thinking.."We'll lose a ton of members." or "World of Warcraft already has it's own forum that's inactive." Well let me address these points.

First off, we may lose some members, but most of those will be people that came just for hacks, people that don't post often, or people that stay singley devoted to a gaming section, and that's it. Not to mention with a new forum comes a whole new flux of members. Sure it may not all happen at once, but if done right, we can get an excellent amount of traffic and activity.

As for the notion of the inactive World of Warcraft forum; that's only due to two things. The first thing being that we have very little for the forum. An MMO needs quite a bit of sub-forums. They need server, race, class, quest, etc. specific forums. They need to be created right, and they need to be not too broad, but not too specific. The second thing that contributes to the lack of activity is the fact that it's just a small little forum amongst a bunch of other ones.

This sort of ties hand in hand with my previous point. Nobody wants to join a forum with a ton of other shit on it just to post in it's dinky little MMO forum. I know I wouldn't. I'd find a MMO specific forum. One much like the one I'm proposing.

In due time we could also fix the general forums up even more, getting rid of some, and making others better. A good aspect to keep in mind is that forums need to be not too broad and not too specific. The need to require the right amount of content for each type of forum.

So I ask you this; is this a good idea? Would you still remain a member? Would you leave us? What are your opinions on this?

Note: This is just an idea. This is probably not going to happen, but given the chance that anything is possible I'd like to at least get your opinions on it.

[IceDevil9]

No. Converting Battleforums would be a complete betrayal of what Battle Forums was founded on. There's much better things we can do than converting, then we'll just be an MMORPG specific forum, and I don't play MMORPGs.

You think you'll only lose 'some' members, you must be out of your mind, we'll lose probably a good one-third of our membership database, if not more. I can guarantee if we switch to MMORPG only, I'll only be here to mod CC, and will be about .08% as active as I am now, and I don't want that to happen, I love Battleforums too much, but if this occurs, I'll have nothing to post about.

Not only would we lose regular members, we'd lose almost all mods and staff members of their respective sections except like Zaku, jd, and Gally. What's the point of getting a mod/staff spot for some shit you don't even play. Make em' all Global Mods? No, too many of them when in reality about two or three could do fine.

What you're proposing will turn a lot of people against Battleforums if it goes thorugh, we'll **** over Battle Forums, and if you think that we won't, your living in illusions of grandeur my friend.

So, in short, no.

-Frank :cool:

[Static]

A main basis of members are immature 13-15 year old kids. Kids who don't really have the money to pay for MMORPGs.

Then all the new members will be rich snobby little bastards. I am sure you will have the basic members staying for chit chat and asylum though.

[Roach Of Discord]

Usually I type an essay, but tonight I'm tired..so no.

(11:31:31 pm) RoaCh Of DisCord: bf has stood still for a long time..we need some new things
(11:32:44 pm) galatia39: definately

That about sums up my opinion on this. BF has stayed the same, for a long time..and survived. However, it cant survive forever without new additions. Times change..and bf needs to change with it.

Changes do need to be made in the future..but as I said to jason in an IM, not all at once. Gradual changes...and changes for the better.

However, of course..these changes need to be well thought out and organized. Advertising would have to change...possibly affiliates. It would take a lot of time and planning. A total revamp would never happen all at once.

Remember though...we're fine for now..activity is actually quite good...but games are starting to die off in terms of popularity. If you want BF to strive and grow larger, you have to innovate.

[Dragnskull]

"i have a dream..."

good speach viz, nice ideas, but never loset he d2 section.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by IceDevil9

No. Converting Battleforums would be a complete betrayal of what Battle Forums was founded on.

Yes, but do you disagree that something's foundation does not have to stick with it forever? There are tons of examples of things that went from one thing to another and had much success.

There's much better things we can do than converting, then we'll just be an MMORPG specific forum, and I don't play MMORPGs.

You don't need to play the games to stay here. You can stay here for the community, the general forums, and the loyalty as a staff member. I, myself, post ONLY in the general forums. And basically 2-3 of them at that. I play WoW, but those forums are so inactive..

You think you'll only lose 'some' members, you must be out of your mind, we'll lose probably a good one-third of our membership database, if not more.

So? We'll lose most of the unknown members..and then we'll get new members to replace them. Think of it as a new forum opening up in the web, but they already have members..heh.

I can guarantee if we switch to MMORPG only, I'll only be here to mod CC, and will be about .08% as active as I am now, and I don't want that to happen, I love Battleforums too much, but if this occurs, I'll have nothing to post about.

That's rediculous to say. There may be little content in just general, but as I said I come here only to post in general. And only a few sections at that. Do you not agree that I'm one of the most active members here?

Not only would we lose regular members, we'd lose almost all mods and staff members of their respective sections except like Zaku, jd, and Gally.

I highly doubt that. If that were to happen it would only go to show how loyal our staff really is. I know if we ever changed to my disliking I'd still stay just because I'm loyal to my given tasks and responsibilities as well as a community I've been a part of for years now.

What's the point of getting a mod/staff spot for some shit you don't even play. Make em' all Global Mods? No, too many of them when in reality about two or three could do fine.

Not all people who moderate a forum have to be specifically linked to that forum. There are such things as forum moderators that are there just to moderate as opposed to having to post in the given section. That's basically how we've looked at the gaming staff members. They don't necessarely have to post in there they just have to get their job done.

I know this goes against some of my arguements about staff members being too inactive to be part of staff, but that's in the inactivity sense of the whole forums, not just their specific section.

What you're proposing will turn a lot of people against Battleforums if it goes thorugh, we'll **** over Battle Forums, and if you think that we won't, your living in illusions of grandeur my friend.

I beg to differ.

-Frank :cool:

-Jason :dance

[Galatia]

Including new and popular games that we all play to BF doesnt mean that we must get rid of the *classics*. But we definately need to change the main focus of the Forums. Battleforums should be based to the games we play and most of us dont play the *classics* any more (me excluded).

Here are some discussion points - I hope we see more coming at this thread.

* We can get rid of all non-blizzard games and make WoW the major part of this forum. Bring it on top, re-shape it and focus our skills and strength on it. I dont play it and I dont know the specifics but I am sure that many of you do. That way BF will still be a Blizzard-based Forum and we can use the WoW experience in order to get ready for the Diablo MMORPG version.

* We can do the above and if it works well we can add more of the popular MMORPGs one at a time and not stick to the Blizzard games.

*I am not sure that the idea of opening BF to all the popular MMORPGs at the same time while keeping the *classics* is something we can do effectively at this point.

[DistortedVisions]

This is a blizzard fan site is it not? I'm not much of a gamer, but by the sounds of it you are trying to create forums based around other MMORPG's. Wouldn't, in theory, those be just as inactive as your current WoW forums?

This sounds like a horrible idea to me. You are taking away what the forum stands for as well as putting up things that do nothing. My suggestion is to stick with your Blizzard forums and just evolve your general forums and your other gaming forums, because after all, that is what is going to set you apart from every other gaming forum.

[ShadowSpectrum]

There are a few games that need to be added to BF, but I don't think we should completely change the forums. Stick with D2, WC, and SC. Those are the classics, those are the games alot of people came to the forums for.

Really clean up the gaming sections, organize things better, focus more on MMORPGs, but don't make them the only games. Once the WoW forums, etc. are more solid, start advertising more to draw in more WoW and other MMORPG playing members.

I say the gaming sections should be the Blizzard classics, like D2, the MMORGPs, and then FPS/War style games like BF2, etc. And then advertise specifically to the people that play those games.

As for the general sections like CC, not really sure as of now. Can't think of ways to improve it.

[SouLess]

I didn't bother reading all the posts.

But; GW/DS2 arn't MMOs.

EQ2 has under 500k people in it's memberbase, D2 highly surpasses it (In accounts all together). As does SC and WC3.

L2 has even lower people.

Sorry, just had to point that out.