Bethesda Forums limit gameplay discussion

T

Tannhauser

Venerable Relic of the Wastes
Orderite
Since the moment the Fallout 3 subforum opened on the Bethesda Studios Game Forums, discussions about Fallout 3's gameplay have flourished. Constituting a significant part of the forum discourse, these topics touched a large number of smaller aspects, such as possibilities for a hybrid system, market viability, or the intentions of the original developers, among many other subjects. However, earlier today the Bethesda forum staff decided to strictly limit all such discussions to a single thread. <blockquote>We have decided to have one thread to discuss several game play options that are frequently discussed here and have resulted in many threads for debate and discussion. We are in hopes that by limiting these discussions to one thread that will serve several purposes. First it will allow us to keep the discussion together and thus more orderly and easier to follow. Next, it should cut down on the number of threads being opened to discuss these game play options thus keeping more varied topics on the first page. And last but certianly not least it will allow moderators more ease in moderating said threads.

We will be limiting discussion of RT/TB and isometric, top-down, first vs. third person debate to one thread. Please keep all discussion of this here

[. . .]

All other threads for this debate will be closed.</blockquote>It seems unlikely that a single thread could reasonably discuss a fraction of the multitude of subtopics associated with this subject. Along with the BGSF policy of locking threads at 200 posts, it appears inevitable that much of the rich prior dialogue will be lost.

Link: Official Game Play Options Thread, RT/TB and Iso, top down, FP vs TP at the Bethesda Studio Game Forums.
 
Bethesda knows what it is doing with its forums. Pre-Oblivion release, I was watching their forums like a hawk, because I had thoroughly enjoyed Morrowind, and was constantly on the discussions about Oblivion gameplay. The forums they have set up are a hype engine, and nothing else. They are there for the sole reason of self generating hype, fans stirring each other up, all with very minimal cost to Bethesda as opposed to setting up a full marketing campaign. The discussions that are going around in Fallout 3 General are likely not going to end anywhere, and the real discussions here are being watched and taken into consideration much more than what's going on over there.

I was banned from the Bethesda forums and eventually from the IRC, but that doesn't really matter. It was someone else's way of telling me that I didn't belong there among them. After all, after having nearly all of my respect shattered for Bethesda with the release of Oblivion (which I actually missed school to run over to the store to buy), I don't really want to go back to their forums anyway. But yeah, that's about all.
 
Isn't this just another way of saying "We don't want to hear what you have to say on the subject. We've already decided how we're gonna do things, so shut up and live with it."?
 
Most of all, I do agree that just having one topic to discuss it (I guess the mods will keep a continous thread that reopens after post limit like the Meet the devs thread) will be to narrow and just plain annoying to take part in. Kinda like how there was a single Fallout 3 thread in the Community forum over there before the official Fallout 3 forums were opened.

I guess it was an effort to clean the forums up as there were millions of threads discussing this. I think a better solution would just be to try and keep track of the threads and close the ones that really aren't going anywhere. Keep at least a few of them open.
 
Opening a sub forum for Game play discussion would be so much more suitable. What mindless idiots...

Then again, they would need more mdos to keep track of the sub forums. but what the hell, isn't BS-corp a huge million dollar company?!
 
Bethesda @ work:
KeepTalking.jpeg
 
Maybe it will stop people from starting the same topics with the same arguments again and again and again and again...
 
Oh... Let us start the drama. bah.
OMG they won't let us say the exact same things for the million time in a gazillion different topics!!!! bethesda are evil! meh.
if you guys didn't notice, it's quite the task moderating that forum. there should be a sub forum with it's own moderator for each major topic about fallout, to keep it anywhere close to moderated.
 
Maybe this will help split up the discussion? At least give the idea to people that, when they want to talk about real time versus turn based gameplay issues, they should start threads about tactics versus fast paced design issues :P
 
Heh :) ...
IIRC some forum members including me stopped posting on Bethesda forums because of repeating topics. There's nothing more annoying that discovering that a day of heated debating and writing arguments is wasted just because some moron wanted to start the same topic that was debated a day before.
 
I'm happy they are doing it. Although there were a few good topics most of them were redundant and or retarded anyway. I'm tired of the whole TB/ISO RT/FPP debate. When will people realise that you can't argue on personal preference? Besides we all know bethesda has it all planned out and they aren't changing anything. Its useless discussion. Sadly since there is no info available on the game yet, there will be even more retarded discussion about other crap now.
 
Sorrow said:
IIRC some forum members including me stopped posting on Bethesda forums because of repeating topics. There's nothing more annoying that discovering that a day of heated debating and writing arguments is wasted just because some moron wanted to start the same topic that was debated a day before.
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Limiting it to one thread won't change a thing about that. Nobody is going to read the entire thread, meaning most posts will become just that, separate posts, maybe with short debates. Rince and repeat within two pages.

So the situation became more concentrated, but noticeably worse, as far as "healthiness of the argument" is concerned.
 
They should start moderating that place properly, not delete threads and stifle debate.

If it's already been discussed than say so, point towards that thread, don't relegate the whole forum into one thread.
 
I've barely been back there for a few weeks now because of all the reduntant threads, so this descision doesn't bother me at all.

I think we've made it clear want we want and, really, it was perfectly clear before they ever opened the forums. We aren't telling them anything they didn't already know about what the fans want.

They have already either decided to go with what we want, or ignore it. Most likely going with it in some areas and ignoring it in others.

Poll#274 on "Real Time vs. Turnbased" or Thread #789 titled "Fallout can't be First Person" isn't going to make one iota of difference and, really, never was.

The last time I visited their forum, the first page was the "meet the devs" thread and maybe one or two threads with somebody showing some piece of Fan Art they'd made. And literally, every single other thread was some form of discussion on Fallout being real-time/turnbased or 1st person/isometric. And if the thread didn't start out as that, it had deteriorated into that by the time I got around to reading it.

Maybe when some info comes out it will be worth going back there, but I don't need to see the same things rehashed, over and over again.
 
Oh my god, that's so retarded...

Once again, they shit on the fans of fallout and intentionally ignore their words. great job.



$$
 
still it doesn't change or mean anything... at this point it's even pointless to continue discussing at all, as anything and everything has been discussed endlessly over at quite a few different forums and sites, which the devs visit/visited. once there's any new real info about the game, there will be a reason to discuss things, but right now it doesn't matter at all.
besides, "they should start moderating"? the mods are volounteering as it has been said before. if noone suitable vaulonteers for the job, there will be no mods. and no, they shouldn't hire some. the situation is out of control, so they did what they could. it might have mattered if it was only when the forum came to life, but after all the threads and 100K messages, it means nothing.
 
DirtyDreamDesigner said:
They should start moderating that place properly, not delete threads and stifle debate.
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It's all about basic decisions. They decided that forum should be a chatbox where every thread that reaches 200 posts goes down the drain... Moderating properly won't change a thing, they have to change the spirit.
 
Brother None said:
Limiting it to one thread won't change a thing about that. Nobody is going to read the entire thread, meaning most posts will become just that, separate posts, maybe with short debates. Rince and repeat within two pages.

So the situation became more concentrated, but noticeably worse, as far as "healthiness of the argument" is concerned.
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Frankly, I think that the whole discussion is pointless.
We know what Fallout is and we know that some people don't want another Fallout.
At least it should be easier to copy/paste the same arguments and a link to the History of Fallout to a single thread than to hundreds of threads...
 
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