In general, I also find ESO has a better community than many I've been a part of (although LOTRO takes the win as far as awesome communities go as far as I'm concerned)

as an example - from time to time, I miss playing WOW - there were parts of that game I enjoyed - and anytime I feel a sudden urge to maybe reload and resub for a few months, I hop into the WOW forums, read about a half-dozen articles, and my desire to play WOW almost magically disappears.

I also used to spend quite a bit of time on the Planetside 2 forums - played the hell outta that game, loved it - awful, awful, awful forums, although to be fair they were less *personally* awful than WOW, but far more selfish and inconsistent about game mechanics posts (sadly, the devs actually used the forums for advice on how to balance the game as well as future design content to some extent, which meant that everyone posted constantly on the forums desperately hoping to realize their dreams as a game designer with no experience, skill, or regard for anyone's play experience other than their own)

and like someone said, I think at least part of the reason the forums here are reasonably less abusive than in other MMO's, is that there is still a fairly active mod presence that does censor stuff. Call that good or bad as you will, but as it turns out, it does seem to have at least one positive effect.

ESO is better moderated which is good.

And "free speech" ? This is a private forum, owned by zos so they can make the rules by which we post.

The forum has some good moderation which keeps threads which are too much troll/rant/edgy from sticking around.

There are still a large number of stupid threads with people making personal attacks on the community (players and devs) or ranting for the sake of ranting but for the most part if you're not asking ignorant or demanding on the forums people will engage your with respectful debates.

Lieblingsjunge wrote: »

Turelus wrote: »

The forum has some good moderation which keeps threads which are too much troll/rant/edgy from sticking around.

There are still a large number of stupid threads with people making personal attacks on the community (players and devs) or ranting for the sake of ranting but for the most part if you're not asking ignorant or demanding on the forums people will engage your with respectful debates.

This.

Although ESO-community is still garbage.

And calling it garbage adds more garbage.

Voxicity wrote: »

Because the ESO forums are heavily censored and free speech doesn't exist on them

Some would consider that a good thing, others not

But it is what it is

themaddaedra wrote: »

Yeah it's better moderated -luckily.

As for the free speech part, i'm just glad ESO devs team realizes free speech doesn't mean just keep yapping.

I think most the people who cry about free speech don't actually have any idea what oppression of free speech actually looks like.
Either that or they fully understand and they just like to cry "free speech" because they think it's a clause which lets them spread toxic or hate speech more.

Why are the forums better than some others?

Because only this place has the wit and wisdom of many wonderful khajiit to balance out the snooty, grumpy and bitey things that the elves they write yes.

Also the orcs with their thoughts about breaking things and hitting things.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

From time to time you will see threads and complaints that are beyond pointless. I wonder if it is for attention or to just be that guy. Regardless, I think the community here is great and I enjoy the random shenanigans that happens from time to time on PS4. I found a few players trying to start a band at the Davon’s Watch Wayshrine and I hoped in too. They created a guild for it too but I could not get an invite because the game has issues from time to time.

I digress. It is also nice that the forum here requires an invite which reduces the chances of trolls by tenfold. Games like Overwatch where it is super competitive just breeds a lot of toxicity among gamers. This may apply to FPS games, like Call of Duty, but I cannot say with exact certainty as I play a whole lot less of those games than I used to. I just find ESO much more enjoyable in almost every aspect.

Maturity.

By that I don't mean older people are more mature than younger people. There are a lot of older people here who act childish and we have lots of teenagers who behave like adults. I believe there is just more mature people who are playing ESO and less mature people than other forums.

That could be from and I could be wrong, is that lots of people are from the old Bethesda forums. Not the new horrible forum Bethesda uses but the old one. That felt like a family there. So part of that came here. While not perfect, what family doesn't fight, it was still family.

I am gonna say the mods and admin put a lot of work into it. Doesn't mean they are perfect but, they do a great job.

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

There's a difference between free speech and openly bashing or unconstructively criticizing. We do have community rules in place for a reason.

And you guys do an excellent job of keeping it free from both


I actually enjoy the fact that the moderators here uphold a certain standard when they moderate. This isn't a free speech forum and nor should it be as things here should revolve around the game this company produces and not all the politics or hot-button topics of the day outside of the game.

Sometimes I get on the wrong side of that and thankfully you guys are pretty quick to let me know when that happens as well as the fact that most of the mods have been pretty forgiving and understanding when certain things get under our skins.

Heka Cain wrote: »

They aren't!

*I put on my wizard hat and robes, swapping to my back bar heals (there is a slight delay) casting level IV purge the negativity on Heka Cain*

These forums are moderated, and contrary to some poster's beliefs, don't completely shut down "free speech". They will shut down the pointless ranting, name-calling, and less than polite behavior. However if someone disagrees with something in the game, rng boxes, nerfs, "balancing", or whatever, and does so with reasoned statements, and constructive criticism, threads will usually stay open. The ones that degenerate into sniping and personal attacks, or swearing at the devs by name won't. Mods have cleaned up threads and posted reminders about the forum rules in some problematic threads, and only shut them down after posters ignore the clean up and reminder.