To stop. Close. forums For. Discord.

As technology advances and online communities adapt, we take it as a sort of standard proposition that new sites and platforms should be better than old ones. Of course, reality has other plans.

Take Discord. It’s a great platform! A huge improvement over older ideas and a handy combination of a range of legacy messaging and communication services. If you want to hang out with friends in a room, a place where you can both type and talk to each other, that’s perfect!

Discord is great as a means of real-time communication for people who are talking to each other in the moment. What Discord is not however, it’s good at being a long-term repository of information, the kind of place where you can ask a question, get an answer, and then keep that answer easily accessible for months, years, or even decades.

So it sucks that companies keep shutting down forums that are excellent repositories and trying to move those communities to discords that are absolutely useless in them. I said that in 2021 when Bethesda didI said it again in 2021 when Eurogamer did it. I said it last year when Gearbox did it and I say it again now in 2023. You gotta stop this shit. These are apples and oranges.

The latest company to make the mistake is Amazon, which made the decision to shut down the forums for both New world And Lost Ark, and move those communities to Discord in bulk. This is how the decision was announced Lost Arks Forums:

As we continue to explore new and amazing ways to meet and connect with our players, there will be times when we will review our current player engagement capabilities. Forums are a venerable part of online gaming history and have long served as the primary hub for gamers and developers. With the launch of our official Lost Ark Discord along with the features, functionality and accessibility for players, we have made the decision to use Discord as our primary interaction platform for Lost Ark going forward. In order to add as much value as possible to our Discord server, we will be retiring the Lost Ark forums so our staff can focus on providing quality engagement opportunities in a centralized and easily accessible platform.

Our plans for Discord are always evolving and we will try to take full advantage of the platform. We will find ways to have engagement opportunities that include all aspects of Discord such as live voice, gameplay streaming, live chat and forum threads. It will also provide easier and more intuitive access to community initiatives such as finding a group, promoting guilds, etc.

You’ll also notice that we’re investing time in growing our presence on the Lost Ark subreddit, so keep an eye out there as well.

What does this mean for the forums now?

Starting May 1st, we will be removing the ability for users to post on the forums, but we will ensure that they remain visible so that any type of content that users choose to save is available to them. During this time, we will be cataloging all of the historical feedback left by players to ensure the sentiment and feedback left is not lost.

After this process is completed, we remind you one last time that the forums will be closed permanently, after which our URL will be redirected our Discord 2.7k and other social media sites.

Thank you for your continued passion for Lost Ark! We look forward to you all joining our official Discord. There are many great ideas we will be working on to grow the Lost Ark fandom, and our teams look forward to making them available to all.

See you in Arkesia!

NO! So much of what you’re saying is bullshit! And anyone who has used both a forum and Discord knows it! Forums aren’t just a place for people to make initial contact with a developer, they’re a place for someone to ask a question, get an official answer, and then have that answer easily searchable for thousands or even thousands millions of people going forward. Discord, even with its new “forum thread” featurejust isn’t nearly as good for it.

What sucks here is that the fans don’t want that, that’s been made clear time and time again (in this case too as PC gamer Collection of negative feedback shows), but it just keeps happening because companies probably see it as an opportunity to save a bit of money and resources.

It’s very fun to know big publishers issue Hundreds of millions for marketing but can’t keep a forum open. Very healthy industry. Keep it up, everyone.