Bioware's forums closure and wtf is "social" website?

[Domi]

Uhm, checked bio forums today, and they moved to something called a social website. Anyone knows if it's any different than a regural forum, or is it something that requires Facebook, Twitter and other weird stuff that puts you in the Internet spotlight?

 

Also, a couple of people mentioned that I have a facebook account from which they got invitations, but I don't remember ever opening one. That's kind of scary. Anyone experienced something like that?

[Aion]

I recently got Dragon Age: Origins and it recommends (requires?) you log into the social website in-game (automatically on launch) so content is automatically published on the social website. You can choose not to share anything, though. If you want to game in private and still benefit from the connection (needed for downloaded content, such as the free golem NPC you get with the game), you can.

 

Bioware's "social" website reminds me of things like Facebook, MySpace and the like...but focused on Bioware games. It has a forum and everything. Fortunately you can edit the privacy options rather well. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[Wisp]

As far as I can tell it's just another forum, but probably with some additional bells and whistles I don't use.

 

They probably moved because the old BioBoard (likely) required constant life support or it started bugging out wildly (posts disappearing and reappearing, general database havoc and lots of downtime).

[Domi]

I don't have DA, so I guess I can just skip it until needed. Grr, don't like the 'social' thing.

[berelinde]

It isn't really a big deal, Domi. I think that it can be set up to operate like facebook with blogs and personal pages, etc., but you aren't required to use those features. I don't, so to me, it's pretty much just a forum.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Old news. The old forums closed this Monday. Their "social" site is nothing but a prettier forum with more functions.

[argent77]

Their "social" site is nothing but a prettier forum with more functions.

It might be prettier, but their javascripted menus are also sluggish as hell. And their text editor doesn’t even work in Opera.

[devSin]

I don't have DA, so I guess I can just skip it until needed. Grr, don't like the 'social' thing.

It's not any more "social" than the old forums unless you want it to be. But it allows for some features if you choose to use them and is integrated with the games (like, your screenshots can be uploaded and people can see your achievements and you can cross-manage your DLC and host your projects and stuff), again, if you so choose.

 

They probably moved because the old BioBoard (likely) required constant life support or it started bugging out wildly (posts disappearing and reappearing, general database havoc and lots of downtime).

I wonder if this is incorporation of BioWare into EA (i.e., the old forums are in Edmonton, but the social site is here in the US)? But I've never even cared to check, nor that the same old web guys are even there anymore, so it's kind of lame to speculate.