LFG, why did you start this site?
I am merely an outspoken fan of EQ2 and many of the exceptional people who work on the EQ2 team. This is only a fansite, but it's a different type of fansite indeed. This is not a "rah rah" politically correct fan site. Through this fan site, I hope to provide SoE with extremely honest feedback about its products, practices and policies.
I decided to make EQ2Flames.com as a place where players can give honest and candid feedback about SoE and its games, and can speak their mind in a fun, "competitive" forum without having to watch what they say and risk being silenced and sanctioned by SoE management and moderators.
To me and many others, forums are half the fun of the game. In EQ, before EQ2, the game was released before the forums, so private server and class-based forums sprung up and became very popular as independent communities. Private forums were used by far more players in EQ than the "official" SoE forums that came later. The private forums were popular among players, because they were a place where people could socialize and discuss matters related to EQ with a free-thinking and like-minded community.
SoE launched EQ2 and the EQ2Players.com forums at the same time. This caused SoE's official site to become the instant home for all EQ2 forum communities. Private forums never had a chance to develop and succeed in EQ2, at least not nearly as much as in EQ, because players quickly got into the habit of using EQ2Players.com, and continue to use now much more than any other information source about this game.
EQ2players.com was lightly moderated at first, usually by one SoE employee. In the beginning, people could usually talk about what they wanted to talk about, and the moderator would only intervene in extreme situations and when things really got out of hand.
But near the beginning of 2006, someone at SoE decided it would be a good idea to radically increase the moderation on EQ2Players.com and giving mod authority to a large number of player-volunteers. In addition to increasing average daily moderation events by more than 20 times over what was done in 2004 and 2005, new rules were implemented to greatly restrict what players could do and discuss on the forums.
SoE employees have said that the purpose of the EQ2Players.com forums is: (1) to provide the EQ2 team and devs with feedback from players to improve the game and (2) to provide players with a place to discuss matters related to EQ2. In my opinion, the EQ2Players.com forums no longer effectively serve either purpose.
EQ2Players.com has now become so highly moderated and "G Rated" in terms of allowed speech and content that it has lost all sense of fun and purpose. In my opinion, it is no longer possible for the EQ2 team to receive honest and candid feedback on EQ2Players.com from players, since even truthful, well-reasoned, and articulate posts expressing a negative view toward EQ2, SoE or any of its employees are often quickly deleted.
SoE's new dictatorial-style censorship is especially bad with posts that question the rights of moderators and the wisdom of SoE practices regarding moderation and management of its forums. I've had posts deleted in under five minutes for asking simple questions in the proper forum, such as: "Should the NGD community be subject to the same rules as other EQ2Players.com forums?"
SoE has apparently decided to think like an ostrich on it's forums: bury your head in the sand and pretend problems don't exist, and they will go away. The problem is, they aren't going away, they are becoming far worse, just using this new site as an example. This is what happens when people feel like they have lost their voice and become disenfranchised.
I believe that the new extreme moderation and rules on EQ2Players.com has ruined many of its communities and harmed this game. Many interesting and fun posters who gave a personality and life to EQ2Players.com have been permanently banned from posting there.
I decided to make these forums several weeks ago, after an even-tempered player who I respect was perma-banned for suggesting that EQ2 would have less bugs if EQ2 devs actually played the game. That was a reasonable expression of opinion, and was not untrue in any way. Yet, he was banned for saying it.
Many people have stopped posting on EQ2Players.com out of frustration, and because it is no longer a fun or interesting place to post since many of the regulars either can't or won't post there any more. But many of us still enjoy playing EQ2, and want a place to talk about the game and related issues.
It is my greatest hope that EQ2Flames.com can become that place.
Please post any questions or comments below.
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"Bottom line: we're not all being honest with ourselves here." Become, Kraken forums
Last edited by LFG; 09-18-2006 at 12:16 AM.
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