New forums not a good change at all

[zebulartemp]

I just gave up trying to find information about a possible new character build I was tempted on trying instead of my main. I was using the multiple forums a great deal the past few days and liked how each one was specific to the class I was looking for info on.

Now, having to wade through a ton of other posts on such things is not user-friendly, forcing me to use google to search (site:forums.ddo.com) and then have to wade through all that mess trying to find out which threads are newer and more relevant instead of being able to do this easily via a consolidated forum for the class at hand.

Hope to see class forums come back!

[learst]

While I might not agree with some of the changes to the forums (e.g. classes), I do like some of the others like the General Discussion thread and the Race threads.

However, I do think that some of the posts here have been unnecessarily hostile. Imagine if you're working in the HR department of a company and organised a weekend family day. It may not have turned out as well as planned, but then you hear comments like "So that's what HR folks do to justify as a job","Thanks for wasting my weekend", "Wow, if that's all HR have to do, sign me up too!"; how would you feel?

[Shaka808]

Wow didn't realize it was April 1st already.


DOH its not! Bad turbine

Although im happy I bookmarked individual threads on class discussions I still wanted to look at and read. It is virtually impossible to actually find anything anymore on the class forums.


Maybe this was turbines way of making the game harder by making sure no new players (like me) will be able to find help on the forums and must suffer endless horrible builds in game before figuring things out on their own. Of course this will also probably lead to more turbine point purchases for reincarnation hearts thus earning more $$ for turbine.

[Alabore]

Hamster wheel.

[Sirokko]

Usually i do not post much on forums, but this change is something to notice. I don't bother much about combining other subforums, not a big deal, but changing class subforums definitely is a BAD idea. Well, even at character creation this split like melee, specialist, spellcasters is very debatable (and imho can be removed altogether and not many people even notice this), so what's purpose of putting it on forums. It doesn't make things easier, it doesn't help navigate, discuss or anything. Well, just another example of: if something works, and works great - the easiest thing to broke it is to implement some "improvements". Like "OMG, really, there is no other place to apply someone creativeness ))) Lets screw something. )"

To make it short, i vote for old class subforums. One for each class.

[Emili]

It is quite obvious Turbine does not use the forums to look up information or feedback on the various races or classes for the player's perspective.

Otherwise they would never had made such a change as this which makes looking up these things more difficult.

[Blank_Zero]

Hey.

I just found out that there where other forums besides the Khyber forums.

Lies and Slander!

[blackdoguk]

I welcome the attempt to streamline information for players and indeed this is merely a transitional phase: turbine do value their player's opinions - the only evidence you should require in verifying this claim lies the identities of those employed by turbine to cater for our needs, and act as the voice of those working to enhance our experience in ddo.

Although any player would benefit from a little empathy towards, or insight into, a different class, I think as far as pigeon-holing builds is concerned,the following is pertinent to the discussion.

I fell in love with Dungeons and Dragons when I read the first 20 pages of my very own Player's Handbook. Those pages are responsible for some of the most fun I have ever had. Just a quick point however,

Nowhere in these 20 pages did my PHB mention the words "Specialist", "Melee" or "Caster". The original intention was for players to find their own labels and distinctions - this is one of the great joys of character creation. Nobody has ever said "i have a 14th level specialist"

[Brannigan]

Terrible choice, now if you want to find something class specific you have to spend ages looking for it

Bad move Turbine

[GreatOwl]

I think the "genius" who came up with this new structure for the forum didn't understand the difference between categorization and redundancy. The latter makes stuff harder to find and should be eliminated while the former makes stuff easier to find and needs to be kept.

Give us back the class forums, so that we can one click and find what we are looking for!

[IronClan]

I think you all aren't getting the ingenious design of the new class forums. They have single handedly turned ELEVEN (11!) class forums into THREE (3!) class forums...

This represents a "link savings" of 8 entire links! (eight!) whereas before there were 11 (ELEVEN!) class links, there are now 3 (THREE!) of them.

Oh sure SOMEONE had to sacrifice a little to achieve this massive high order optimization... Hundreds if not thousands of regular readers and contributors per day will now have to sort through 3 to 4 times more irrelivant posts. Those interested in Fighter topics will now wade through Paladin and Barb posts, those interested in FvS advice will have to filter and mentally sort through Cleric, Wizard and Sorc posts... There will even be some new found "your wizards sux, my Sorc rox" cross talk to deal with.

And yeah now when you use search for "best spells to use" you can't simply click "Favored Soul" forum to exclude irelivant casting classes... So you'll put "FvS" in the search string and hope the best thread on the subject doesn't spell out "Favored Soul" or wasn't posted by a Brit (Favoured Soul), or you'll have to hope the OP put a tag on it... But none of that is important... finding information isn't what the class forums are meant for... They're much better served as a sounding board for "Barb's DPS rocks, Pali's are gimps".

Anyway all of this is really a small price to pay for the new found "link savings"... (EIGHT ENTIRE LINKS! that's unprecedented!)

So before you selfishly only think of your own reading and browsing and searching convenience, please think of the link savings.... That's what matters people!

[stainer]

dkyle has a workaround to this *ahem* improvement.

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=305904

[Brannigan]

I think you all aren't getting the ingenious design of the new class forums. They have single handedly turned ELEVEN (11!) class forums into THREE (3!) class forums...

This represents a "link savings" of 8 entire links! (eight!) whereas before there were 11 (ELEVEN!) class links, there are now 3 (THREE!) of them.

Oh sure SOMEONE had to sacrifice a little to achieve this massive high order optimization... Hundreds if not thousands of regular readers and contributors per day will now have to sort through 3 to 4 times more irrelivant posts. Those interested in Fighter topics will now wade through Paladin and Barb posts, those interested in FvS advice will have to filter and mentally sort through Cleric, Wizard and Sorc posts... There will even be some new found "your wizards sux, my Sorc rox" cross talk to deal with.

And yeah now when you use search for "best spells to use" you can't simply click "Favored Soul" forum to exclude irelivant casting classes... So you'll put "FvS" in the search string and hope the best thread on the subject doesn't spell out "Favored Soul" or wasn't posted by a Brit (Favoured Soul), or you'll have to hope the OP put a tag on it... But none of that is important... finding information isn't what the class forums are meant for... They're much better served as a sounding board for "Barb's DPS rocks, Pali's are gimps".

Anyway all of this is really a small price to pay for the new found "link savings"... (EIGHT ENTIRE LINKS! that's unprecedented!)

So before you selfishly only think of your own reading and browsing and searching convenience, please think of the link savings.... That's what matters people!

Turbine would be doing Sony (SWG) proud right now

[cptcruch]

So instead of taking care of in game problems that are known and fixing them.......I don't get it?

Maybe it's me but if we pay for a service and it has many many known issues you find time to fix something that isn't nor was it broken?

Ya I get the consolidation aspect but really you just couldn't find anything in game to fix?

[Cordovan]

We welcome your feedback about our changes, but personal attacks against Turbine employees are not acceptable.

[SlogUK]

/signed

It's ridiculous.

Probably trying to make the game seem less complicated to potential new players. Which overlooks that the complicated nature of this game is a major usp.

Either way, and despite my recent joke post on the same subject; This new thing, it is bad. Ha. Hoist by my own petard.

[IronClan]

In summery:
1) don't consult anyone it's for the greater good
2) combine dissimilar forums
3) ????
4) Link Savings!

[mystafyi]

We welcome your feedback about our changes, but personal attacks against Turbine employees are not acceptable.

I think most folks are miffed that ya'll took something that wasnt broke... and broke it. I highly doubt people are meaning to make personal attacks.... I blame mountain dew overdosing

[Cairo]

We welcome your feedback about our changes, but personal attacks against Turbine employees are not acceptable.

Fair enough. Ad hominems are dumb anyway.

Your new change sucks. Plain and simple. You claim to have "feedback and user requests", well, PROVE it. SHOW THEM.

Because I've seen maybe 10 people that like the new forum setup, and I'd bet dollars to donuts that those 10 people only ever post on 1 or 2 forums that didn't move around - like Server boards.

Why you felt the need to break something that worked ABSOLUTELY PERFECTLY, I've no idea, but it's pretty much the dumbest, most lame-assed idea Turbine has EVER done outside of a game... an I say that as a gamer who played Turbine games starting with AC in 1999. That's right Cordo. For almost TWELVE YEARS, I've played Turbine games, and this change is the single worst to ever come about outside of a game.

Inside a game? Hmm.. Tough. I'd have to go with Dungeon Alert, by far. Over every single other game I've ever played, and all the changes that they went through, the one change that resulted in NOTHING other than frustration, anger, annoyance, and hatred was Dungeon Alert.

[Spoonwelder]

I am not usually one of the nattering nabobs of negativity, but I don't get this consolodation of class threads. I understand the need since in the past the list of forums was often longer than the list of posts.....but this iteration is not the best answer.

Little benefit vs. lots of pain.

If Turbine really wanted to simplify the front page they would have been better off with high level title buttons that break out to more detail. Much cleaner, easier to navigate and with proper titles would actually add scads of useability.

Forcing us to use advanced search to get detailed class info is a supreme shard of pain in the keister.