This 'server group' thing just sounds like a weird and (sorry...) stupid solution. Why are you reinventing the wheel here? If I want to buy or sell a rare item or group up with people or find a guild, I don't care in the slightest about people on other servers (as they are not my target audience for making a post) and it just seems really odd to do it this way. Server forums fix this problem. In fact, server forums have fixed this problem for years. Yeah, I can use the search function, but that doesn't really settle the issue for me, as you are still making it more difficult than it needs to be. Get it together Bioware! Whoever came up with this idea shouldn't be allowed to have ideas anymore...

 

I'm all for creative solutions, but this is just a really crappy way to solve this. In 6 months we will probably end up with server forums after you get a bunch of complaints, so just do it now, save yourself the trouble down the road, and stop wasting everyone's time with bad ideas. =/

 

 

Edit: Some other users also make a good point in that most posts in these server group forums likely won't have a server tag on them. This just makes the problem worse. Please, just fix it, add the server specific forums and let us move on...

Edited January 20, 2012 by Zomboss

Thanks for your constructive feedback! We're looking forward to improving the Forums and getting continued feedback from everyone, and hope the new layout will be helpful and make the Forums much easier to use!

 

I'm sorry but I find this post to be incredibly offensive. I know my post here is just going to get buried and not reach anyone but I'm actually pretty annoyed.

 

You're the messenger, I get that, what I don't get is why you would quote a relatively useless post and say "Thanks!" as though the other posts are useless.

 

Lumping how many every PVE servers you have (what is it 60 or so?) into one forum when we have no filters or search function isn't remotely helpful. I still don't even know how I'm supposed to find a guild in this game when I can't even reasonably communicate with more than a handful of my servers community at a time. We should have had server forums at launch, I don't find what is going to happen to be even remotely useful.

They keep saying they are listening to us because the game is for us...but I wonder if they really are. Never in a AAA MMO has there not been a server forum for each server. Why would they want to be the first with this garbage? No one will be able to find what they are looking for when you have to sift through pages to find things or beg for a sticky so people can possibly find things. Give me a break.

bbbbb

Individual server forums should have been in since day one. No excuse from a subscription based MMO.

Forum search? You seem to have fixed the link to find all posts I have made though so thanks for that! Was getting a bit bored with it telling me I didn't have permission to do that!

Is this a joke? You can't manage individual server forums? Horrible service.

+1 for a forum for each server.

 

We don't need a seperate Events + Guilds forum if each server had its own forum where such threads could take place.

 

Hahahaha way to actually read

Cool their listening. Now change gameplay to action before animation on moves before the game dies because of it and we will be in business.

Hey everyone! You'll notice that the new Server Group Forums and the Suggestion Box are now available! We configured the Server Group Forums to require you to select a forum name tag for each thread, so there is no longer a requirement to enter your server name manually - you'll just select it from the drop-down menu when creating a new thread. Thank you all for your patience. We're looking forward to your feedback!

 

Cool.

This is just amateurish. What we need are server forums. I don't care what's going on in another server that starts with "S."

Bugs are one thing (and they are infuriating), but lately you guys have shifted on to just plain poor design.

Is this a joke? You can't manage individual server forums? Horrible service.

 

They have 216 servers (according to a quick JS count through the server status page), with that kind of setup server forums become a pretty horrible idea and a maintenance nightmare.

 

Blame stone-age architecture, it'd be easier if they'd done it the GuildWars way.

"The" servers have 10 servers clumped into the PVE section. seems like the upper limit of the groups.

 

i guess 9 other servers isn't too much to dominate..

I have 2 main problems I want to discuss today.

 

General Guild Recruitment Closure

 

I can understand the thinking around filtering guild recruitment by server. The majority of people want a guild on their existing server, with which they can play their existing characters. However I think you've misunderstood two things.

 

Firstly, your game is incredibly new; players have not necessarily settled firmly into a server and movement is still common. Therefore having a forum in which you can easily search for guilds by play-type generally is endlessly beneficial. While in fairly short order things will settle and most players will want to search geographically there will still be people who prefer to look broadly. Having local-only guild recruitment hampers this.

 

Secondly; specialist guilds. Quite a few guilds out there appeal to some niche or other. Female only? LGBTQ? Weird play times - late night/early? These specialist guilds consistently attract cross-server interest. While players would love for there to be a thriving guild to fit their niche on every server sometimes there just isn't and people have to look cross-server. Again, restricting matters to localised-only is problematic.

 

Here's my idea: A downscaled general guild recruitment forum, divided simply into 3 groups NA/EU/Other. Players can then tag by server and play type within this forum. Guilds, particularly specialist ones, can then have a guild recruitment post aimed at cross-server recruitment there too. Hopefully 3 forums instead of 24 will still lower moderation stress for you guys while providing high quality service.

 

Server Group Forums

 

I can sort of understand your strange thinking here too. Server forums can at times be quiet and under used - so group them together. But you know what's a great way to make them quiet and under-used? Grouping them together making it more difficult for individual servers to use them. Okay individual server forums may only attract 10-20 posts a day; but that quietness is desireable, it allows even a busy player to keep up with their community and get the best out of the forum!

 

I get that more subforums are harder to moderate, but sometimes you just have to put more effort in to improve the quality of your customer service - you've never been shy about that before. I don't really need to make a suggestion here; it's pretty clear that you haven't given us what we actually asked for.

Hey everyone! You'll notice that the new Server Group Forums and the Suggestion Box are now available! We configured the Server Group Forums to require you to select a forum name tag for each thread, so there is no longer a requirement to enter your server name manually - you'll just select it from the drop-down menu when creating a new thread. Thank you all for your patience. We're looking forward to your feedback!

 

Thanks for the heads-up, Allison! The changes are definitely a step in the right direction!

And people say Bioware doesn't listen.

 

Thank you Allison for this update.

 

But I also wanted a pony!

I have 2 main problems I want to discuss today.

 

General Guild Recruitment Closure

 

I can understand the thinking around filtering guild recruitment by server. The majority of people want a guild on their existing server, with which they can play their existing characters. However I think you've misunderstood two things.

 

Firstly, your game is incredibly new; players have not necessarily settled firmly into a server and movement is still common. Therefore having a forum in which you can easily search for guilds by play-type generally is endlessly beneficial. While in fairly short order things will settle and most players will want to search geographically there will still be people who prefer to look broadly. Having local-only guild recruitment hampers this.

 

Secondly; specialist guilds. Quite a few guilds out there appeal to some niche or other. Female only? LGBTQ? Weird play times - late night/early? These specialist guilds consistently attract cross-server interest. While players would love for there to be a thriving guild to fit their niche on every server sometimes there just isn't and people have to look cross-server. Again, restricting matters to localised-only is problematic.

 

Here's my idea: A downscaled general guild recruitment forum, divided simply into 3 groups NA/EU/Other. Players can then tag by server and play type within this forum. Guilds, particularly specialist ones, can then have a guild recruitment post aimed at cross-server recruitment there too. Hopefully 3 forums instead of 24 will still lower moderation stress for you guys while providing high quality service.

 

Server Group Forums

 

I can sort of understand your strange thinking here too. Server forums can at times be quiet and under used - so group them together. But you know what's a great way to make them quiet and under-used? Grouping them together making it more difficult for individual servers to use them. Okay individual server forums may only attract 10-20 posts a day; but that quietness is desireable, it allows even a busy player to keep up with their community and get the best out of the forum!

 

I get that more subforums are harder to moderate, but sometimes you just have to put more effort in to improve the quality of your customer service - you've never been shy about that before. I don't really need to make a suggestion here; it's pretty clear that you haven't given us what we actually asked for.

 

OMG this exactly!

 

Recruiting for our guild was going very nicely by using the Guild Hall since about 95% of our members were rerolls from other servers. Now I won't be able to find these people and these people will have a very hard time finding us. I don't want to have to search through numerous sub-forums to possibly pick up people that are looking for our type of guild and I'm sure they don't want to do that either.

 

Please bring back a general guild recruitment forum for those of us looking for a specific type of guild, not a specific server.

I like how Allison replies to the post of the guy kissing her behind, but doesn't respond to any post bringing up issues.

 

This is the fundamental problem with the game right now. No developer/community interaction. In the rare case there is interaction, you'll just get a default generic response.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Napalmbrain

The individual servers need to have their own sub-forum sections.

Hey everyone! You'll notice that the new Server Group Forums and the Suggestion Box are now available! We configured the Server Group Forums to require you to select a forum name tag for each thread, so there is no longer a requirement to enter your server name manually - you'll just select it from the drop-down menu when creating a new thread. Thank you all for your patience. We're looking forward to your feedback!

 

I like, thank you. Maybe you all can add a filter on the forum similar. Show only threads for [XYZ] server. Or something.

I like how Allison replies to the post of the guy kissing her behind, but doesn't respond to any post bringing up issues.

 

This is the fundamental problem with the game right now. No developer/community interaction. In the rare case there is interaction, you'll just get a default generic response.

 

You mean the OP in a thread isn't responding to irrelevant off-topic crap that's being resopnded to yb developers in other threads? Shocking!

You mean the OP in a thread isn't responding to irrelevant off-topic crap that's being resopnded to yb developers in other threads? Shocking!

 

/agree

Hey everyone! You'll notice that the new Server Group Forums and the Suggestion Box are now available! We configured the Server Group Forums to require you to select a forum name tag for each thread, so there is no longer a requirement to enter your server name manually - you'll just select it from the drop-down menu when creating a new thread. Thank you all for your patience. We're looking forward to your feedback!

 

 

You have 30+ pages of feedback already. Why impliment something when there's heaps of negative feedback against it?

 

Not to mention the 99 pages of feedback on the original thread which is still linked in my sig.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Vandrel-Blitz

Hey everyone! You'll notice that the new Server Group Forums and the Suggestion Box are now available! We configured the Server Group Forums to require you to select a forum name tag for each thread, so there is no longer a requirement to enter your server name manually - you'll just select it from the drop-down menu when creating a new thread. Thank you all for your patience. We're looking forward to your feedback!

 

Nobody cares about this. We want to know why you havent fixed the patcher yet for those of us who are going into our 3rd day of being unable to play.