It is March 2010 all over again. That is when 15 of us in a group left the official forums and came here - and for the same reason. The Fic forum changed from being the best to being almost unusable. (and at the time, unreadable too, because it started off glossy black with bright white print - sent me running to the eye doctor) .

Well, it is just like Myspace - these people need to learn that if something isn't broke, you shouldn't keep fixing it. But I think Bethesda wants to shake off their old fans and make room for a new generation of fans before they bring out their next offering in the TES series.







This was exactly my first thought when I saw the new forum; that what you said is exactly what they were going for. I believe you are right.

So then it just becomes propaganda rather than interactive; and they don't have to hear us complain if their game ships broken,

Urk. Our era is dying out, I believe.

Going by some of the "features" the new forum has, that's what I'm thinking too. They don't want the people that stick around for the series, just the ones buying on hype and moving on when they get bored.

I'm starting to wonder what the purpose of the bogus "first time" problem is?

It seems that it keeps forgetting who I am, and losing its cookie, and not letting me in until I give it the number it conveniently sent to an email address I can only access when I'm at home (private email server with LAN access only). So I essentially can't use the new forums from work.

I think the idea of shaking off the old guard and only keeping the new kids is exactly right. Maybe the date of birth prompt will stop letting in anyone above 30?

Agreed, and I think it is because we care too much. Example = we cost them money when we raised such a fuss over the paid mods till they finally had to drop that idea. New fans wouldn't care, they don't have the long history of the way things have always been; Lore; etc.

So maybe Bethesda just wants to be able to make a big haul and go onto the next game without fans demanding they patch the last one.

Well, they technically have a cult following in us older fans of the series; and we have kind of kept them in line through the last several games = forced them to produce a decent game instead of shipped half completed; forced them to patch the errors out; voiced our opinions when we didn't like the way the new game stomped on Lore, etc. - and made them act with decency toward us fans instead of grasping greedily at every cent they could milk from us.

I'm thinking with new fans they can double their profit by producing junk and not patching it; not listening to anyone's complaints because their forums are "Read Only"

Well, as long as there are sites like Chorrol.com - the old fan base will live on despite all Bethesda's attempts to shake us,

I'm thinking they may have seen what happened over on the Bioware forums. Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 both split their respective fanbases and turned the forums into a warzone. If Bethesda are planning something really different with their next TES game, like an even greater departure from previous games, then a new site that purges the old guard from the forums would be the simplest way to prevent having something similar happen.

What I think they should do when they want to make a huge departure from "The way things were" - is to make a whole new game of it, instead of calling it a part of the series.

I think the reason they "name" these departures a part of a series when they obviously aren't is to snag the initial pre-sales from the active fan base to fund the shipping to the masses. Then when the actual fan base sees what they have and starts raising a stink over it; the company steps back and lets the new fan masses handle it.

Well, if they had named it differently and separated it from the series to begin with - touted it as a whole new awesome game - the old fans might have tried it while waiting for the next in the series - and maybe liked it. But when they are expecting one of their beloved series and get something way off from it instead - that creates issues that didn't need to be there.

It all goes back to the company/developer's greed to grab every dollar from every direction instead of just advertising it as a new product. Milking the loyal fan base because they are sure money in the initial pre-ship phase.

Well, they won´t see my cash ever again that´s for sure. When a company whose products you like screws you over it´s time to abandon ship.

Absolutely. It's a disgusting approach, and one that's comically short-sighted. But it's exactly the sort of move you have to expect from EA, and while Bethesda haven't been moving as aggressively, there is a definite progression in their games. It's only a matter of time before they pull something else huge(I'm guessing open world will be next, just because of how much it'll reduce their costs) and without the dedicated fans of the series kicking up a fuss, they'll get much less negativity on the forums.



Heh, I made that call before the release of Skyrim

This post has been edited by Callidus Thorn: Apr 14 2016, 08:04 PM

But it´s always been about open world. Or am I missing something?


Who amongst us two didn´t?

Sure it has, but look how much got cut from Morrowind to Oblivion. And then from Oblivion to Skyrim. Just the way they handle quests in Skyrim is suggestive; no directions, quest markers, and arrows on screen so you can't miss what you're looking for. Add to that the clairvoyance spell and they're already aiming to railroad players into things.

The open world is undoubtedly the biggest sink for time and money, and if they're shifting the crowd they're aiming their games at(and they certainly seem to be) then it's probable that they'll get rid of it sooner or later.



I thought you're objection was based on it requiring steam?

Oh, I think I misunderstood "next big thing to pull". I thought it as "pull a move" not pull as in remove.


Partly, yes, but not entirely. I´ve seen the HUD, user interface etc and I do not like how they removed spellmaking and enchanting. Add to this I´m still deep into Oblivion even though I´m not playing as much as back in 2007-08. It´s still very much my go-to game alongside Fallout 3 and I can´t add another huge time sinker to the mix

Well enchanting is in the game, but they just amped it up and changed it, along with smithing. Personally, what got me was the removal of spellmaking, the neutering of magic in favour of shouts(which I hate by the way), and the removal of attributes and birthsigns.

And you've just reminded me how many games I've got to get sorted out...

Oh, yeah. Shouts and all that *sigh*



Not my cup of heroin

New forums have entirely ruined the private messaging system as well, it's more like some sort of chat now, no longer can you make paragraphs, insert quotes or emoticons. Since I'm still a member on Beth mostly because of PMs, there isn't any reason for me to participate in the new forums. I'll either use Chorrol or Nexus which has almost the same PM system as Beth.

Yeah, Nexus works quite well. Have been there since 2010 but I only started to use the forums now because of the move. Didn´t disappoint me tbh

I might have to check out the Nexus forums then...

I've been mostly active in Nexus only when I wanted to ask something about mods or praise some mod. I didn't notice that it's PM system is almost the same as Beth until recently.

Hey, why don´t you guys head over there too. Give me a PM or something, I also have a few threads up like the Update Thread for Oblivion and Fallout 3

Recruiting for another forum?

From Chorrol?

I'll continue posting updates / stories here, the pace is just as I like it, and I don't need to catch up on 100 stories each time I visit. I'll use Nexus for PMs though, in case I haven't already told that.