Is the forum dying a little bit?
For the past few years this has been a hell of a forum. It's been a very active and friendly place. Over the past few weeks though it's been quiet, the number of posts seems to have dropped off considerably. I know it's been ages since the most recent patch but it's still slow.
Have I just missed the bits of the forum that're moving and shaking or is it really this quiet?
Have I just missed the bits of the forum that're moving and shaking or is it really this quiet?
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workaroundsolution for thatbugproblem: close the curtains/blinds. That's what I've been doing for the last few weeks. These high temperatures in the UK, though. I'm melting. Can't wait for winter—then I can moan about how cold it is.I agree this has been a good forum, lots of nice, helpful people and little of the nastiness usually associated with internet forums. However, interest in the forum is directly tied to interest in the game. I played the original BG games many times through, and I only really ever planned to do a couple of playthroughs of each EE. The bug situation, particularly in BG2EE and the crappy support, kind of ruined that experience for me. The new content is below par in quality and extremely buggy, and the rest of the game is not so bad but buggier than it should be. I also feel there were many small simple tweaks which were never made but could have improved the game.
People also made a lot of noise prior to release about how modding would be easier and there would be fewer limits on what could be done. As I understand it (and I don't know much about the technical aspects of modding) this is true, but I still can't have my ranger/thief (just something I personally wanted to play). Modders also took/are taking a lot of time to update to the EEs and some older mods are no longer supported including one of my favourites, Level1NPCs.
TLDR version: Interest in the game waned for several reasons and interest in the forum is tied to interest in the game.
I feel you have besmirched all the undead mummies, vampires and zombies that actually might just like visiting a dying forum. In fact. Who say's it's not dead already!
However, after the world cup, holiday's, teacher report writing and end of school year exams... I think it will come very much alive again...
Damn it...
(Either this, or my plan to confuse the forum with my myconid army working.)
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/19861/let-s-take-this-forum-to-the-next-level#latest
Personally, I don't see anything unnatural now. Yes, we've seen some heavyweights of the forum gone either temporarily or permanently (such as @ajwz , @Eudaemonium , @KidCarnival , @Mortianna , @typo_tilly , @reedmilfam and several otheres) but in the same time we've seen an arise of new legends in the last several months such as @CrevsDaak , @jackjack , @Blackraven, @Pibaro and many others all of whom are my friends and contribute greatly here. We still have the essentials here such as @elminster , @booinyoureyes , @Anduin , @Quartz , @Shandyr , @Erg , @Montresor_SP , @SharGuidesMyHand , @smeagolheart , @ZelgadisGW , not even mentioning moderators @mlnevese , @Metalloman , @LadyRhian , @Tresset, @Lemernis - all good people too. Even @Heindrich has returned!
And we see the young forumites as well - spectacular and full of new ideas. There're PLENTY of them: @Elrandir , @Gotural , @lolien , @Stormvessel , @abacus , @dustbubsy , @FinaLfront , @Demonoid_Limewire , @Dungeonnoob , @kiwidoc , @TheElf , @Ravenslight , @MacHurto , @Sjerrie , @DreadKhan , the list can go on and on and on.
We've had some wonderful threads recently, surprising, entertaining and fun - about female portraits, about favourite classes/kits, about good weapons, about confessions of Bhaalspawn. We've had over 20 detailed playthroughs, wonderful to read and to discuss.
This forum is living. I'm very much into having a great pleasure with it and for no second I can think that something is wrong. No day can be the same and no forum day, week or month is the same. I'm sure that the quality of this forum is even improving and the fun stays on the highest of scale.
My interest in nearly everything goes in waves, which is why I've had some minor breaks from this forum and something like a three month hiatus at one point. I've got music, designing maps in Bitfighter, several different video games, role-playing, sprite art, reading, voice acting, writing, using forums such as this one... I mean, it's whatever my amount of free time allows combined with my mood/inspiration. It doesn't take a lot of inspiration to browse these forums, but nevertheless, a bit of it sure makes things more interesting (Planescape song). It doesn't take much to play video games. Art forms are disgustingly inspiration-based of course, which leads to periods of frustration and periods of grand excitement. This is why writing my NPC mod has been a rather slow, on-off process. I'll get there eventually, I just hope @CrevsDaak stays interested in programming it or else I'm screwed!
And I just went and talked about nothing but myself for a couple paragraphs or so. I'm not self-absorbed or anything. Pfft.
Hmm... I'll say this: I like the regulars right now a lot better than I ever have. I had a bit of a love-hate relationship with this forum when I was new to be honest. The smoke seems to have cleared after a little over a year, or some such. I do miss a couple of oldbies of course, in the form of @Brude and @SandmanCCL -- Brude seems to be lurking even more than usual lately though so that's nice.
@bengoshi
I bet you will recieve a lot of attention from that post ;].
< CerndMode > As the moon waxes and wanes, so does my interest at times. < /CerndMode >
I am currently playing a few other games as well (including DA:O, another devourer of my spare time) and I'm on the lookout for a new place to live. My status on the forum may be 'lurker' at the moment, but I always come back.
@Sjerrie - OK now I am going to show my age. What's DA:O ?
This is also true for me Wanna know a secret? I haven't played Baldur's Gate in like 3-4 months for more than 5 minutes (which I used to create a character for a journaled playthrough on this site). Yet I have still been active. The only brief sabbatical I had to take was due to work. It might not be a lack of interest in hanging out here that is responsible for the lull.
Though I have not experienced any big bugs that @ryuken87 mentioned, I have also been frustrated with the modding situation. One of the reasons (one of the main reasons actually) that I was so excited to buy this game was that I heard claims about modding being easier... yet the exact opposite seems to be true. The reason I haven't played the game in months is that the two most essential mods for me (BG1 NPC Project and Ascension) have not been released or made compatible.
Though I've spent time on this website quite a bit (mostly for the jokes and the people) I initially came her to see if BG1 NPC Project was released yet. That is what brought my foot through the door. My first comment was about that... almost a year ago! And that mod is still not compatible. At the time they were saying "any month now".
Not really blaming anyone for this since it is not even an official part of the game, just pointing out that its annoying for a huge fan to be teased so! Also maybe would help to bring people back to the forum.
Maybe @bengoshi cast raise dead on the forum?
I haven't even bought BGEE or BG2EE yet. Do I win?
I go. I take you all with me...
MwahahahAhahA!
...
Honest.
When I eat the wrong kind of foods...
I become so essential...
I start to leave essence wherever I go...
I also lose three points in charisma!
The forum is ALIVE! A-L-I-V-E ! ! !