Obsidius (User:Archabaddon)
Obsidius' Rules of the STO Forums
As a guy who's lurked and participated on various online forums, I've come up with rules that will help in partipating in the STO forums, or any MMO forum in general. I'll add more when they come to mind or as I come across them. Enjoy.
Forum posts are not legally binding contracts.
You wonder why devs don't talk about a lot of stuff on the forums? Because every time they talk about something in development that doesn't actually make it into they game, it bites them in the ass. But when they do, don't hoist it on your shoulders like the Ten Commandments, Moses. Sometimes stuff just doesn't pan out in the long run. Anything a dev "promise" on the forums isn't actually a promise (unless they actually use the word "promise" in their posts, which is pretty effing unlikely). But seriously, Cryptic and PWE don't guaranty the legality of anything said on the forums, so deal.
(Almost) no one cares about the forums
Game forums in general are known to be stereotyped as the place where petulant man-children rant and rave about everything that's "wrong" with the game. Therefore, there's no such thing as "bad press" on the forums, because by association, forums are known to be nothing but the home of ranting tirades. Rarely, someone in the game press will refer to a game's forums, but only to reinforce something already in a story. Press or breaking info rarely starts wholly from the forums (usually Marketing posts something elsewhere first or in conjunction with a thread), because, by their reputation, no one but die-hard fans and community reps read them.
Demanding a Cryptic or Dev response in your thread is a good way not to get one
The community forums are for the community. Sometimes, you'll get a dev to chime up about something. They do this during their free time, out of "the kindness of their hearts". They get paid to develop MMOs, not sit around on the forums all day (aren't you supposed to be working, buddy?). So demanding a dev response from anyone but the community representative just makes you look like an entitled asshat. Your ever-so-important hair tech will come it when it's good and effing ready, and when there aren't more important things ahead of it on the schedule.
Don't Nitpick.
If you seriously believe that fixing every last window on a Galaxy class star cruiser or fixing some deflector art on a drop-box unlocked ship is the top priority of the art team, I want to know what you're smoking, and where I can get some. Well, I guess you can nitpick, but it won't get you very far and will probably just chafe the people that can actually fix your problem. Just ask CapnLogan. Go ahead, send him a PM about a weapons hardpoint.
Do you ask loaded questions because you eat babies?
See what I did there? I hope so. The devs sure love to respond to threads entitled "Devs: why do you hate <insert faction or gameplay here>?" OK, not really. If you want to get a serious response to your thread, maybe even by a dev, instead of just looking like a troll, leave your questions unloaded. Don't be an ass.
Asking for compensation is overt entitlement
So the servers were down for a few hours, or someone hacked into your account. Besides restoring your account to a previous state, you're not entitled to jack shit. Look it up on the End User License Agreement and the Terms of Service. You know, those things you agree to whenever you log into the game. Don't be an entitled jackass.
Get some perspective - it's a freaking video game
People will complain incessantly on the forums about even the most trivial things. Look, I understand that you're upset about your ship's turn rate or the latest "nerf" for whatever. It doesn't main you have to go on a tirade every chance you get. You're in your 30s for crying out loud, grow up and realize that it's just a video game. Otherwise you just end up getting wrapped around the axle and looking like this guy, getting kicked off the forums and keeping track of every little developer-induced injustice from your secret underground lair (read: mother's basement). Is this how you want to live your life? Or would you rather enjoy a warm summer day with the family and blow up some Borg when you want to relax? That's what I thought.
