Obsidian: Closure of Forums

[Sol Invictus]

Tags: Obsidian Entertainment

Feargus Urquhart has announced the <a href=http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?act=announce&f=5&id=1>closure</a> of the Obsidian Entertainment forums:
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<blockquote>I have personally gotten a lot of e-mail lately about the fact that I have not been posting a lot and neither has much of anyone else from Obsidian. We all have our excuses; one of mine is that my wife and I had our second child recently.
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Our largest problem is that we do not have a full time community manger here at Obsidian who can answer questions for most of the day and handle posters that are only trying to disrupt discussion.
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So, unfortunately, we are considering closing the forums either temporarily until we can afford to hire a community manger or possibly permanently.
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We should be making the decision within the next week.
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Sincerely,
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Feargus Urquhart
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CEO
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Obsidian Entertainment, Inc.</blockquote>
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I wonder where all of the forum denizens will go to now.
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Thanks to <b>Kumquatq3</b> and <b>Mr. Teatime</b> for the news.
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Update: <b>Feargus Urquhart</b> posted this in <a href=http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=31151&st=165#>response</a> to the fan reaction to the closure of the Obsidian forums:
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<blockquote>Just a quick message to let you all know that I am reading the posts. And no I didn't just jump to the end and post this Hades.
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Oh, and I will come out and say the one thing that iritates Obsidian employees the most is when we are referred to as BioJr, Bioboys, Bioleftovers, Biobitches or whatever fun little moniker has been thought up for the day. That's not a reason for us to close the board down, it's just one of the things that doesn't help get us pumped up about reading the forums every day.
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Another random thought of mine (I'm pretty much dealing wtih sleep deprivation right now) is that it seems perfectly acceptable for people to call us names, but if we ever respond in kind then we would be the ones being childish or poor sports. Half the time I want to post "Sticks and Stones will break my bones, but why don't I just shove my fist down your throat."
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I'm perfectly fine with criticism - just not the "YOU SUCK DONKEY BALLS OBSIDIAN, GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK BECAUSE WHILE I PLAYED YOUR GAME THREE TIMES ALL THE WAY THROUGH I THINK IT SUCKED!1 JUST LIKE YOU DO AND SO DOES YOUR MOM!11" variety.
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If we were to keep the forums up, I would probably have the moderators become more strict about posts from trolls and give them more liberty in banning people.</blockquote>

 

[Fez]

That's a bit shitty. At least they didn't claim they had to close it down due to a plot to assassinate someone.

 

[Killzig]

Meh no big deal. Save themselves some bandwidth, let the fan sites handle the forums. Maybe they can foster some good feelings that way. Not that they need to. Just think its better when a company doesn't have their own personal forum with their own little goon squad making things a nightmare. (i.e. interplay with Hampster King guy...)

 

[Fez]

As long as they promote the fan efforts to encourage their use then.

 

[Killzig]

all they have to do to accomplish that is make a post every now and again. Get a link on RPGDot and weeeeee.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

We all have our excuses; one of mine is that my wife and I had our second child recently.

SLAMDUNKIN'!!!

Actually, congratulations to Feargus. I don't think I'll ever be able to stomach being a father, but I believe it's nonetheless a good experience. Some charm may have been lost since this is the second time, but it's still a thrill somewhat now that you've become wiser in the ways of teaching the Sith ways to your firstborn. The second one will be much more powerful

I wonder where all of the forum denizens will go to now.

I think a few forumites there have migrated here. Surlent, zer"0", stark... I'm sure there's others. There's also the old BIS remnants like the Winterwind forums, or even Missy's Lair. And Bioware, even.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Missy's Lair is an outhouse, though. All they do over there is wet themselves over the middle aged horny female presences.

 

[Killzig]

Gah... I'm still traumatized by the huge fat lady sag bags that Saint uncovered in #interplay...

 

[Seven]

You know they haven't actually closed'em yet.

 

[taks]

Missy's Lair is an outhouse, though. All they do over there is wet themselves over the middle aged horny female presences.

and bash the US... really, it gets old hearing the same shit over and over and over and over...

uh, and note, they haven't decided to close the forums, just that they might close the forums. kinda odd given their success with kotor2.

taks

 

[merry andrew]

kinda odd given their success with kotor2.

Isn't that the problem? If they had a small community, they probably wouldn't need a community manager.

 

[DemonKing]

Closing the forums would be a major mistake, IMHO. It's hard to keep a loyal fanbase if you boot the vast majority of reasonable posters out with the few trolls and flamers.

Of course, it could be that Darth Lucas or the evil Atari empire are bringing a bit of pressure to bear on the situation, or simply that the cost of maintaining the forums has risen beyond Obsidian's current capacity to maintain with the recent release of KOTOR.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Bandwidth costs are probably eating them alive. I can't blame them for closing the forums.

 

[Fez]

If they are closing it because of cost reasons they should say so, not lie like Interplay. I'd rather they actually posted sometimes on a few related forums somewhere. An offical forum means nothing if you never see anyone offical.

 

[Killzig]

why pay to maintain their own forums/servers... just get one person in house to start talking to fan sites and getting fan boards up and running. making the rounds and creating fan site kits.

 

[Sol Invictus]

They can always come here. The community already exists outside of Obsidian, much like many of the Obsidian members already post here, and MCA and Feargus frequent this place.

 

[z3r'0']

Maybe Obsidian aka BioJunior will open a forum on Bioware's.
They already moved the NWN forums there.

 

[Avin]

"If we were to keep the forums up, I would probably have the moderators become more strict about posts from trolls and give them more liberty in banning people"

then you will be sadly acting like BioJR. i always stick to BIS/obsidian forums because I believed you are different, that you care about weenies had to say and not only cocksuckers like in BIO boards. the boards clearly differenciates BIS spirit from BIO. now OBS is getting closer to the dark side, etc.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

They can always come here. The community already exists outside of Obsidian, much like many of the Obsidian members already post here, and MCA and Feargus frequent this place.

Isn't Volourn enough?

 

[Naked_Lunch]

No.

 

[anonymous21]

The fans there really deserved the close. I lurked there occasionally (not unlike my tenure here) and I really wasn't impressed by how the fans handled themselves. Outside of the poor ending, I thought KOTOR II was a pretty good game, especially considering the time frame Obsidian was working with.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

Hes probably mad that he accidently put his new baby in a blender and drank it.

 

[Killzig]

dead baby jokes never get old.

hey what's the difference between a dead baby and a sandwich??

you don't fuck a sandwich before you eat it!

 

[aphatmc~]

KILLIAN FUCKING TELL THIS FAGOT TO GIVE MY THREAD BACK

 

[Killzig]

KILLIAN FUCKING TELL THIS FAGOT TO GIVE MY THREAD BACK

HEY FARGOT, GIVE HIM HIS THREAD BACK!

((psst... who are we talking to????))