Why are the discussions here so good?

1.  You made a great game.

2.  You listen.

3.  We ran most of the trolls off.

In my opinion I think the majority of the people on this site are mature players you love strategy games (and are gamers in general). Personally I will always be a gamer until I can't physically play games any more, which I hope never happens. I love reading the forums here even though I don't generally post alot myself. People here are very helpful when others have questions and don't put people down, especially people that are new to FE or strategy games in general.

I buy and play alot of games and there is just a sense of comaraderie with all the people here. And I have alot of respect for Stardock and their team.

Hello toad lad...let me try to put this in words. You guys are really responsible for this.

Number one you hired kael.....really big deal to those of us who have lost years playing FFh. He does have rather a superstar status and we would hate to hurt his feelings.

Number two yourself. Do you really miss how unusual it is for a developer to actually take an active role in discussions and seem to give a shit about what we say? Your constant input and neverending sense of humour has done loads for the company image.

Number three everyone else from the company that has taken time to post here. not remembering names but whenever one of your other guys posts here it is ALWAYS helpful. Without fail it has been info or answer to questions that got us closer to where we all want to be... PLAYING a great game. {I was given a special version of the exe just so i could see my sov--thats not customer service-- that goes way up the ladder toward friendship}

Number Four- Pony- yep that is a huge deal. We ran that joke into the ground in WOW and here it is again and we have a pony that is strange color but we all know it is a gift straight from Stardock as a family to all of us. Not a free game which we kinda deserved after the last turkey but just a family gift to the little retarded brother.

And that is the secret..you guys have made us feel like a part of the family not just customers. We know your names and faces and we are happy that we do.

So as the little retarded brother and hell raiser I would like to say THANKS and to convince you that we couldnt act any other way toward members of our family---Merry Christmas and thanks for all your hard work and know that lots of us will be trying to get ponies for xmas.

I'm going to kick the hornet's nest and go with maturity. This is the sort of game that attracts an older audience. This comes from the fact that it is a 4x game, single player only, and that the lore isn't your standard elves and dwarves and sparkles.

We are gamers with finer tastes in games. We're super dedicated to the 4x "niche" and want FE to keep improving and succeeding.

I think it has to do with two factors. The average age here is 32, whereas on other sites, it's much lower, and turn based strategy games tend to attract thoughtful thinkers vs. other games that attract "trigger finger" types.

What is the opposite of a troll post?  A pixie post?      

We are a very sophisticated, good-looking group of gamers who at the same time are extremely modest and a little embarrassed  that you would spotlight our general awesome-ness in a post like this.  So get back to work on 1.1 and let us pat ourselves on the back in the privacy of our own homes!   j/k

You guys are great, your customer service unparalleled, and the games you make are for those of us who like to stretch our brains.  Birds of a feather and all that...

I agree with Heavenfall. If I wanted to be put down I can just log into Xbox Live and play some CoD or something and listen to 12 year olds talk shit and say things I wouldn't even say lol.

1.  You encourage discourse and allow the natural conversation to occur. This means that even when you don't directly respond to virtually everything, there is a notion that there is "a ghost in the machine" telling stardock what players are doing, are wanting, using, complaining about, what they enjoy, don't enjoy, why they enjoy, good suggestions, suggestions similar to internal proposals, etc.  This feeling of attention causes people to have better behavior imo.

2.  You made a good game, and like some MMO forums from older MMO days, there is a community built around some of the names in the franchise. In some cases, player agitation becomes aggression, creating a forum cesspool. However, when the community has faith in the upside (opposed to faith in the downside) the people in the community want to see the hope come to fruition.

3.  Most players are aware of forum toxicity, and there is something about the players you have brought into your audience. I have seen some older, mature mmo's reduced to a juvenile, terrible place within months of a new audience emerging. There is something about the mentality of one who prefers reading a book while listening to classical music, and one who wants to rage at a skate park listening to death metal. You seem to have attracted a crowd similar to that of old school tibia or ultima online, rather than the crowd of Darkfall.

It is just magic. You should understand it as creator of fantasy game.

two simple factors:

1. You are small. Stardock may be growing, but it's still a fairly minor player in the grand scheme of things. Rates of disruptive behaviour in forums are generally proportional to their traffic level. For a small developer, your limited fanbase means that those who do come to post here, really care. whereas in a larger forum, you get people trolling because they have a vast audience.

2. The genre. Strategy games, and especially non-competitive turn-based strategy games, are a niche market with a generally older, more mature audience. Many younger people find this sort of game to be overly complex, and mind numbingly boring. There's no explosions every 2 seconds.

there may be other factors, but i think these two are the biggest ones

It's because you don't have a pair of boobs on your front page, hehe.  See here for example.

Seriously though, yes I think it is the demographic you're attracting that makes the forums so good.

Then there's the willingness to make posts like these and actually ask why things are the way they are.  Most CEOs aren't interested in why, or even what the status of the forums is, they delegate these tasks to people who consequently insulate them from information.  You seem more interested than most in what is going on on your lawn.

Extending the lawn analogy, perhaps the reason why people are so well-behaved is because you're visible and paying attention.  They know that if they try and bring a keg of booze and a loud stereo onto your lawn they're going to get a lecture.

The genre tends to attract more mature posters, a smaller forum attracts fewer trolls,  and most of your long-time customers, who tend to make the bulk of a long-time forum, have been well-satisfied over the years.

Also, your detractors have their own personal forum, so those folks go there and not here. 

Two reasons...

1] The turn-based strategy game is a niche market that appeals to more mature audiences,

2] The game is still in development (with a new development team), and the users (us) have a greater need to help each other    out than in most games which have already completed their development.  i.e., we need each other's help & support during this development period.

I agree with most of the other posts. I'll add one more though: Modding. As modable as FE is it is really in our own interests to support the game to keep it and as such and we can have discussions about actually important topics beyond "X is OP!!!!111!1!!1" and "You nerfed X I'm gonna quit and demand a refund!!!!11!11!"

Simple reasoning: we love FE (despite it's not a polished diamond... yet) and we are aware of its potential. And we do realise that in order to help making FE to become even better the kind words, constructive discussion and patience are always superior to mad screaming, flaming and trolling.

As a recent member I'll share my pov.

1. Strategy game single player. A complex game, with many features, strategies, different ways to play it... A forum is a perfect place to learn new tactics, details, mods, etc from other people. As said, the user profile is someone who wants to be informed. Can you imagine a forum for, let's say, counterstrike? I like that game, but I would never go to a CS forum. No need to.

2. The community. The people wanting to learn about the game, that find many people helping and sharing information. That encouraged me to be an active member too, to receive help and to share when I'm able to.

3. The developers. Showing interest in many different aspects, like this post, loving to improve the game, asking for feedback to do so, answering too (I really like to see Kael posting that "Fixed, thanks" ...). That makes the line between user and developer fades away...

So, mixing it all, you get a forum where you can talk, discuss, ask and receive answers, share ideas, and Devs you are here checking wich ones may be good to quickly implement them (I'm wishing to try those new Juggernauts).

And as stated before, it seems that there is a Despair spell for trolls...they just disappear

Maybe I just have higher standards, but I don't think it's particularly great. There's certainly a lot of horrible game sites out there that make this look great by comparison, but really, all that happens here is reasonable discussion. I don't think that should be considered some lofty achievement to be proud of so much as a matter of course. Most forms of discourse achieve this after all. I think a better question would be "why are so many other gaming sites so horrid?".

I think this is fitting:

The type of person who likes this kind of game is typically more of a nerdy (not in a bad way) intellectual type, and I also imagine most are probably older and more mature.  This is not a game for a hyper active low attention span child.  Plus I think most here care about the game a lot and want it to be around for a while and grow.  Also, the ability to modify the game really helps as people can customize and work together to fix things they do not like or help you out until you have time to fix stuff yourself.

Has nothing to do with SP vs MP.  Or Elves, Dwarfs. Orcs vs 5 human races with little difference between them.

or if people want shallow TC as opposed to a more fun and detailed TC (tactical combat experiance)

It pretty much boils down to two things.

1) Turn-based game which attrachs a more mature crowd (both MP and SP TB people) unfortunatly is a dying concept.

2) You guys actully respond to chat. Your more approchable than other Devs

TBS games attract a small, largely adult following.  That doesn't mean it lacks any people who regard others as objects, but the younger folk tend to go where the action and arcade are.

A lot comes down to attention span, communication, the game, and the audience.  TBS players tend to take a long range view, so any changes are usually not viewed as life-or-death.  Compare to an MMO, where a buff/nerf on a class or skill tends to lead to, "OMG, class X will now pwn/be pwnd!!1!"  The fact the developers are on the forums, communicating with the players, makes a huge difference.  Even if we all don't agree with every change, just the process of communication, rather than months/years of silence makes people feel better.  The fact that this is a single-player game also makes a difference; I sometimes think that multiplayer games tend to draw the worst elements to their forums.

Anyway, keep doing what you're doing, and thank you to both the developers and the players who post here for making this a good place for useful information and assistance.

The penalties for losing are much higher in other genres.  In a TBS, bad end= start a new game.

In an MMO, you lose time.  In a fighting game, you have to hold the L.

This is a big reason why changes aren't as complained about- you don't have to worry about the competitive side in single-player games.

Put multi in a Stardock game and things might change if the multi becomes popular enough.