User:An Adventurer/Blog/Community

Community
by An Adventurer

Asheron's Call officials and fans alike have always praised the community as one the great strengths of the game. And while the players that make this community are certainly something to boast about, there is no denying that community has been on the decline for years now.

Prior to the Asheron's Call Community Wiki opening in October of 2007, the major fan sites - Maggies, ACVault, and Crossroads of Dereth - had either stopped updating altogether, or only had shells of patch notes with little to no information. And today, Maggies and ACMaps are completely gone, CoD has lost all of its information due to restructuring, and ACvault (VN) closed all of its AC forums except for Darktide. The ACCW stands as the last fan site with any up to date information.

A major problem facing the community is the lack of places to communicate. Fan forums are only as popular as the fan site they belong to. Crossroads of Dereth is inactive, and so is its forum. ACVualt is inactive, and they removed all their AC forums. Postcount.net was created by refugees of the VN board closings, but most of the VN boards were almost inactive by the time they closed, and only the die-hard VNers migrated over. And while postcount is somewhat active, its not linked to anywhere other than this wiki's community page, which means its hard to increase traffic.

The decline of the community is not only noticeable on fan sites. Turbine's community team hasn't been pulling their weight either:

• In November of 2008, an article was posted on the official site outlining the plans for for a new Lore section of the site with new artwork and backstory for the major characters in Asheron's Call. That has never happened.

• For the 10th Anniversary, the beta version of an official AC patch timeline was posted. It hasn't been updated since, and is still linking to the unsupported Wikia copy of the wiki.

• Also around that time, a new feature called the Community Spotlight was added. Its first featured player, Connor the Craftsmaster, is also its only featured player.

• The Fansites section has three dead links (AC Mystics, Maggies, and Dereth.info) and two links to sites that have not updated in years (ACVault and CoD). The link to the wiki, the only useful fan site, is at the bottom of the list.

• The Screenshots and Video page hasn't been updated since it was created. There are only 4 pieces of art, the single featured video is a story-related video from the Grael arc which is completely irrelevant today, and the screenshots feature outdated graphics.

• Some time ago, the official site was hacked into, and they had to remove some art assets that were part of the left-hand navigation. These have never been restored, and because of this the site has an unfinished look.

• Despite all the major changes that have happened over the last few years, most of the articles in the Gameplay and About Dereth sections are seriously out of date. These same articles have been available since 1999, with only minor updates since then to include things like Covenant armor. They don't mention very important updates like the Town Network, the combat skill overhaul, new skills, new races, and so on. A new player going to these articles for guidance is getting wrong information on the official site.

So what can Turbine do about this?

Open the Forums
The official forums are by far the most active AC forums, but are restricted to subscribers only. And I think its time to get rid of that restriction. When they made the forums for subscribers only, it was a company wide policy - the same occurred on the DDO and LotRO forums. But now, Asheron's Call is the only one of these three games still requiring a monthly subscription. Essentially, AC is the only game whose forum requires fees to use. And beyond the cost, I believe the reason for the restriction is no longer relevant. The reason for the restriction was to silence former players who may have wanted to stir up trouble. However, the community is much smaller these days and most trolls have moved on. The few trouble-makers that might pop up could easily be dealt with. By opening the forums up to all users, not just paying customers, it would be much easier for former players to rejoin the community (and hopefully the game), and it would make the forums more active, giving at least the appearance of a larger, healthier community.

Update the Community Section
Turbine needs to emphasize the community, and get their pages properly updated to highlight the active areas and remove dead ones. Community Overview and Fansites should be merged into a new Community Links page, containing updated links to fan sites, official forums and social media, and any other important links. The ACCWiki:Community Portal does a good job of this, and I don't see why Turbine can't do the same. As for the Community Spotlight, since they haven't updated it in three years, and they probably aren't going to, it should be removed.

Update the Art, Video, and Screenshots
This is another easy thing to do that can have a major effect. One of the most heard complaints from non-players is that the graphics are too old. And while the graphics are indeed old, it would still be best to feature the most updated graphics available, not what is currently being shown under featured screenshots. The Grael video again features outdated graphics, and is a story related video from an arc that concluded five years ago. At the very least, they could replace it with the spring 2010 preview, which shows updated textures and, being a teaser for playable shadows, may pique the interest of former players. And for the artwork, they have plenty of concept art which hasn't been posted yet, including the character art originally intended for the Lore section that was never completed.

There is plenty more Turbine could do to improve the community on their end, but these three ideas are a good start and most importantly require minimal work. On 8/10/2012 Frelorn mentioned that updates to the website were coming, and on 10/30/2012 he again said things are still in the works. I sincerely hope that he means it this time, because the current state of the official site reflects poorly on the game and its community.

---

Want to respond to or discuss this blog post? use the discussion tab!