Bye bye BoM :(

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Well even looking at the who's online tells a story. Wasn't that long ago that at this time there would be nearly 15 registered users online - today....2 including myself.

 

where's rags? the arguments in the alleys have dried up.

 

Well I could start a fight over something but Tal'd probably get annoyed

 

Heck we could start the whole Northerner/Southerner argument

 

What are you all talking about? This thread does still not exist!

 

The BoM activity is currently sluggish for the following reasons:

1) - BG:EE didn't offer much in the way of new content to generate discussion. BG2:EE doesn't look much better.
2) - Dragon Age II sucked a big one, and Dragon Age 3 is still over a year off.
3) - Interplay is too stubborn and stupid to sell the rights to BG3 so that a decent publisher could get the damn thing made.
4) - Project Eternity still won't be out for a while.
5) - Neverwinter was a snooze, and even if MMOs didn't all suck – and they do - we're not an MMO community.

All of which are, clearly, Obama's fault.

 

And Clinton's fault ... after all his VP invented the internet and clearly we're having problems directing people away from porn ... wait ... Clinton ... VP ... internet ... porn ... wow, it's all making sense now.


Nevermind.

 

I agree with everything in this post, but there’s more to it than that. I think BoM has sort of lost its identity, or perhaps its calling over the years.

I used to think that there wasn’t really a lot more to be said about the Baldur’s Gate series. And yes, the Enhanced Edition didn’t really add a lot of content. Yet, if you go to the Beamdog forums there is a ton of discussion happening related to both the new content and the old.

It’s a similar situation with Project Eternity. Yeah, the game is still a ways off, but on the Obsidian forums that doesn’t stop people from talking about it non-stop. When it’s released there will be an uptick on BoM as a result I’m sure, but not likely enough to carry the site.
The bottom line is, there are posters out there who love the games this site represents, but for whatever reason, they are mostly going elsewhere to post.

Sorcerer's Place still seems to generate a lot of traffic. It’s a great site with a ton of great content. BoM is still a nice community, but it’s mostly comprised of a small core of die-hards and a handful of drifters. It’s sort of like a motel on some desert road in the middle of nowhere. Maybe it used to see a lot of traffic, but a newer more convenient road has since been built and most travelers use that instead. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It sort of just is what it is.

I don’t claim to understand the cause and effect relationship that results in one site flourishing while another does not. BoM has had a good run, and it could certainly continue on as it is for a long time to come. But are future games going to cause a resurgence? Doesn’t seem likely, but you never know.

 

A few things here. The Beamdog forums are relatively new, so you're not going to have any 10+ year veterans hanging around. And sure, you get a lot of folks who pop in for a while, get what they need, and move on. You also have folks who stick around and become more core members.

But I think what's really important here is that it's a site where you can post a thought or a question and receive a lot of feedback and response very quickly. Or in other words, you can engage in active, thought provoking conversations about the game you are interested in. That's much, much harder to do here.

Even if that doesn't materialize into a multi-year active membership for the majority, I don't think that matters. The point is, for those moments that you want to discuss the game with others, you can do so with very little delay.

Here you might wait hours, or days for a response. So... of course most people go and post their comments where they are likely to be discussed. And those forums also have the added benefit of having regular developer participation.

Does that mean it's a thriving community? I'm not sure. But it does mean it's a good place to post about the game, and I'm not sure a gaming forum needs to be much more than that.


EDIT -

From a quick scan of the front page at this moment, I see PLENTY of threads with more than 20 replies, and a good number that have a lot more than that. A good handful have more than 100 replies and one even has 2,600+ replies. So there are plenty of deeper conversations happening. Not all posts require much more than a couple of responses as they might be simple questions that quickly get answered. Sure, some threads largely get overlooked. I'm sure that's true on any forum though.

 

What's the point? Everyone knows that Northerners are better so we'd automatically win!

 

Possible interconnectivity here ...

I don't doubt the game genre angle plays a role, but I also think the SP membership itself plays a role. This is an aged site. People naturally change, and so do their priorities. You have kids, grow up, etc. The same people who used to post feverishly about this or that lose interest, I suspect, not only because BG is not fresh anymore or because they're not interested in Obamacare, but because they themselves have shifting priorities - the screaming kid in the high chair next to you, the job you are going to instead of going on a nice leisurely internet stroll, the lack of energy to contribute to web discussions because you already do that IRL ...

People seem to cry a lot about why no one else is doing anything to keep them here, when they should be pointing the finger to some extent at themselves. A 'community,' even a web community, means a group of people who all contribute to the welfare of that group, not a block of random persons waiting to be entertained.

 

I'm sure there's multiple reasons, like the growing older and such of the community, which leads to less time for internet things (due to work, kids, etc.).

On the other hand a thread for BG:EE on another (dutch) forum I visit regularly isn't that active either, while that's a forum with tens of thousands of people visiting each day, and on which a thread about an announcement of some high profile games like Skyrim, Diablo 3 or Battlefield 3/4 can generate easily a hundred posts in a few hours. So let's say BG:EE doesn't quite generate the amount of interest that BG and BG2 did.

So yeah, there's that. And of course Aldeth not coming around so much anymore. I miss the endless detailed description of our Total War games' progression

Also, I blame Harry Potter. He spoiled the youths and then Obama happened. It's a conspiracy, I tell you. All out to bring BoM down.

 

Barmy Army's post about their not being enough activity has beyond one of the most active threads!

Trivia: which member came up with Barmy Army's name and why? What was his original name?

 

Phew, glad to see this isn't like Kitrax's goodbye thread. You had me worried there for a moment, Barmy. Lighten up!

I only really check the boards that are relevant to me: Icewind Dale 2 because I wrote a guide, Baldur's Gate II coz I'm playing a megamod, and the Alleys for some heated discussion. I must admit it's extremely quiet there now.

But interesting questions are posed there from time to time. Just be patient.
Sorcerer's Place didn't corner the gaming discussion "market" as some might have expected, but I saw people declaring this site to be dead back when I first registered in 2008, but it isn't.

It's a great font of info for lots of D&D type games, and I still get directed here often when i google stuff too. Even the boards have asked and answered almost every question there is to ask on those games. I'm proud to say I sometimes find my old posts answering questions I'd forgotten the answer to.

Daily traffic is just one way to measure this site's relevance, and I don't think it's the most representative one, to be honest.

 

BoM ergo sum!

 

Cool! Are you gonna revive the "BoM Lore Game"-thread?

His former name was Morsmordre. Don't know who came up with his name though. Probably someone who shared his fondness of eh... cricket, right? Or football..? Was it you, Harbs?