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elkston
High Emperor
Joined: 21 Sep 2002
Posts: 691
Location: North Carolina, USA |
| RPGDOT and the Future of the Gothic English Online Community |
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I have always wished that there would be one place where I could go to get all the Gothic news and particiapte in lively discussions about these games.
Before and around the time of Gothic 2, RPGDOT was the place for English Gothic discussion. In fact when Gothic was frist released in English back in 2001, RPGDOT was pretty much the only place English speakers could go to talk about Gothic. It was even nicknamed the home of the "Gothic Mafia" 
But since the release of Gothic 2 and its addon, 2 more forums have arisen to challenge RPGDOT for control of the English Gothic fanbase: The Jowood Gothic Forums and the World of Gothic English Forums . ( There is also a small community on the gamefaqs.com boards, but the software of that board is not made to promote long-term discussions. )
Now while I do feel a sense of loyalty to RPGDOT, I would be lying if I didn't admit that these other forums (especially World of Gothic) have their advantages. These days I find myself visiting these forums in addition to RPGDOT.
Lets take a look at the pros and cons of each of the major English Gothic Boards.
RPGDOT
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Pros:
1. Most mature and civil discussion board of the three.
2. Talented RPGDOT editorial staff (Druhin, Gorath) are also part of the Gothic discussions
3. Excellent moderators
4. Has the best English Gothic discussions topics of all three boards.
5. Good Gothic walkthroughs and information banks.
6. Great posters and sense of "community".
Cons:
1. Browsing the boards is often slow. So much so that at times it stops me from coming here if I just want a "quick fix". This is really the only disadvantage of RPGDOT, but it is a MAJOR one. Note that it is a bit faster than it *used* to be, but it is still too slow.
Jowood Boards
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Pros:
1. Board navigation is fast and responsive.
Cons:
1. Low signal to noise ratio. Lots of useless and un-interesting discussions. Plenty of redundant topics.
2. Some posters *tend* to be more immature.
3. Broken English in some postings
World of Gothic Boards
================
Pros:
1. Like Jowood, board navigation is fast.
2. Mature and civil posters (though not as many as RPGDOT)
3. Decent discussion topics
4. Affiliated with the premiere German Gothic board. As such, breaking news often hits World of Gothic first.
5. Pirannha Bytes and Jowood communicate directly with World of Gothic often. While this usually occurs in German, it is translated very quickly for the English speakers to see. While developers have posted on RPGDOT before, World of Gothic is their first choice.
6. Very comprehensive Gothic supplemental material as part of the hosting site.
Cons:
1. Board is the youngest of the three, and as such there are fewer discussion archives.
2. Some portions of the board user interface are still in German (not that much of a big deal)
3. Language barrier in some cases where the English of the posters is not 100% on.
4. Needs a bit more variety in the posters.
So looking at all three, the only thing Jowood has going for it is that it is fast. This leaves World of Gothic as RPGDOTs biggest competitor. When Gothic 3 comes out Gothic posting is going to increase once again. So the question is -- where are all the good posters and topics going to be? RPGDOT or World Of Gothic.?
Of course this isn't strictly an either-or proposition. There is nothing stopping a fan from reading both boards. But you are always going to have that one place that is your "goto" board - the board where all the real action is with regard to spoilers and general discussion. At this point in time, that board could easily be RPGDOT or World of Gothic.
I want to keep RPGDOT as my goto board. But I fear that we will lose more posters to World Of Gothic if the speed of browsing and posting isn't sped up somehow.
We are not the only game in town anymore.
_________________
All shall hear the words of Karras...the words of Karras |
Sat Dec 10, 2005 7:20 pm |
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Paul999999
Leader of the Senate
Joined: 08 Oct 2002
Posts: 302
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um ok?  |
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Sat Dec 10, 2005 8:08 pm |
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VPeric
Most Exalted Highlord
Joined: 13 Jul 2003
Posts: 418
Location: Serbia |
Can't say I've been to the other two boards, but I agree that these boards could be faster. Also, sometimes I encounter server troubles, but it's fairly rare. Personally, I'll still stay here, because I'm a member of the RPGDot Shadows.
_________________
Join the RPGDot Shadows |
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Sat Dec 10, 2005 8:29 pm |
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Maylander
High Emperor
Joined: 22 Mar 2002
Posts: 1712
Location: Norway |
I'll stay here, as always. I've been here for ages, and I'm here for more than just Gothic. So far, both JoWood and WoG only has Gothic going for them, so this is my home.  |
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Sat Dec 10, 2005 10:08 pm |
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Paul999999
Leader of the Senate
Joined: 08 Oct 2002
Posts: 302
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Well i dont care really and im to lazy to sign up to those places and pretty useless speaking about gothic any more i just want the game.
Just like gothic 2 i talked about it until it came out then i never posted on the forums again same as Gothic 3 once its out i wont post on the boards until maybe gothic 4 is out.
I know you guys will miss me  |
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Sat Dec 10, 2005 11:01 pm |
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Acleacius
King of the Realms
Joined: 24 Dec 2002
Posts: 453
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You left out the biggest negitive about Jowood's boards, the low quality moderater on the Gothic board, at least while I was there.
Some boards like Arx had good moderaters, thou we are talking about Gothic
I experience slow loads at RPGDot, I figured it was due to the long distance packet transfrer
I am betting you could get an answer to why the limited load times, quicker on the main RPGDot (suggestion/question) forum.
I would bet it is bascily a growing pain and as the site grows (even now they are gettting new site help) and more users they will have to upgrade bandwith, which is not cheap. |
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Sun Dec 11, 2005 2:11 am |
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Sem
Solid as a Rock
Joined: 01 Mar 2004
Posts: 3386
Location: at the Dot |
I sometimes browse the other forums to see what is on. In particular the german ones, because they are the most active. I'm not registered on WoG neither on Jowood.
Most posts seem to be in the trend of "How kewl would xxx be for G3" or "Will yyy be in G3?"
Fill in for xxx: The most bizar and useless feature you can imagine.
Fill in for yyy: Anything that cannot be known be anyone beside the developers.
WoG indeed gets news from very reliable sources, so I check headlines there about everyday, but there isn't much news at the moment.
_________________
"Who are we to call this planet Earth, when it's clearly Ocean."
-- News Editor of GothicDot --
-- Moderator of the RPGDot Shadows --
Last edited by Sem on Sun Dec 11, 2005 4:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Sun Dec 11, 2005 12:00 pm |
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Jazzy_s
Keeper of the Gates
Joined: 26 Jan 2005
Posts: 115
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I like RPGDot and I won't change it for nothing, yes it's a little slow but I'm geting used to it, when i'm waiting the page to load i'm thinking what are the guys talking abut, are there some interesting news....etc.
And the moderators are the best ever. Special thx to Gorath he is the soul of the forum. |
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Sun Dec 11, 2005 1:44 pm |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
Thanks for the flowers!
Unfortunately we donīt know why the site gets so slow when you log in. Until we know it we canīt fix it ...
WoG has great connections and they are fast when it comes to German news, but they virtually ignore English news. It sometimes takes several days until they notice stuff we posted.
We could easily overtake them if we had somebody who can read German and posts news. I often see news before even the WoG forum posts it, but I hate posting news. The news team needs 12 hours on average to post foreign language news. I donīt criticize it, Iīm happy they do it at all.
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Webmaster GothicDot |
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Sun Dec 11, 2005 4:16 pm |
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Sem
Solid as a Rock
Joined: 01 Mar 2004
Posts: 3386
Location: at the Dot |
quote:
Originally posted by Gorath
We could easily overtake them if we had somebody who can read German and posts news. I often see news before even the WoG forum posts it, but I hate posting news. The news team needs 12 hours on average to post foreign language news. I donīt criticize it, Iīm happy they do it at all.
I could do that, I used to send some things to the news team, when I had found some german things, but it seems that the link to email the newsteam is gone (maybe they received too much spam).
_________________
"Who are we to call this planet Earth, when it's clearly Ocean."
-- News Editor of GothicDot --
-- Moderator of the RPGDot Shadows --
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Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:34 pm |
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Dez
King of the Realms
Joined: 08 Jan 2003
Posts: 455
Location: Fortress of Tell Halaf |
I like this place a lot because of the points Elkston mentioned. Unfortunately like said, browsing these boards is sometimes so downright slow, that one can drink cup of coffee while those forum topics are being loaded. That is why i've been using wog every now and then.
In any case dot is still my "goto" board
_________________
The focused mind can pierce through stone |
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Mon Dec 12, 2005 1:45 am |
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Paul999999
Leader of the Senate
Joined: 08 Oct 2002
Posts: 302
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yeah this site is real slow alot of times it takes forever just to load the main page and then posting posts it times out alot some days its screwed and most of the time fine for me. |
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Mon Dec 12, 2005 1:50 am |
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txa1265
Magister of the Light
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 390
Location: Marlborough, MA USA |
The quality of this community is what keeps me here ... it is the slowest forum for me by at least an order of magnitude (I kid not), and that is regardless of whether I'm on Mac or PC, my work T3 or home DSL ...
Mike
_________________
Dopelar effect (n.) The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
Check out my blog. |
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Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:40 am |
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Sem
Solid as a Rock
Joined: 01 Mar 2004
Posts: 3386
Location: at the Dot |
It's not the fastest, but it works very good for me. I normally have 2-4 different windows open with different forums, so I can post as fast possible without getting the spamprotection.
_________________
"Who are we to call this planet Earth, when it's clearly Ocean."
-- News Editor of GothicDot --
-- Moderator of the RPGDot Shadows --
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Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:00 pm |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
Yes, tabbed browsing is a good workaround. Use a good browser like Opera or Firefox and open 5 threads at once.
_________________
Webmaster GothicDot |
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Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:08 am |
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