There’s been an idea that I’ve seen kicked around Twitter a couple of times, but I’ve not seen anything come of it. It bubbled up again in the middle of the RealID Forum fiasco, but went quiet after Blizzard changed their plans. As a result, I’m not sure if it’s needed or wanted, or if anyone else is planning anything.
Basically, do mages want or need their own spot on the web?
There’s a handful of reasons why I think it’d be a good thing, plus I think it’ll sit alongside places like The Warlock’s Den, Tankspot, Shadowpriest.com, Shadowpanther and so on. Even the Shaman are getting in on the act with Operation Totemspot.
So please, PLEASE, leave your comments on this. Do you think it’s a good idea? Would you use it? What would you expect it to do? Would you be interested in getting involved? Anything else you can think of?
That’s it for now – I have a podcast to prepare for!
UPDATE: Following the enormous response, I’ve opened up a new set of forums! You can find them here or by clicking the “Forums” link above. Please go there, register and join in!
I think it’d be a neat community — particularly since I have a deep respect for a lot of the mage bloggers I’ve met through our own site. I’m not sure what I’d contribute besides theorycrafting and speculation on how talent changes will affect us, but that’s something, right?
I mean, heck, we can just have a forum for making fun of warlocks and/or rogues. š
It’d be great to have you involved, and I think that it’d be a great thing to have something for everyone. Just because you have a specialism in a few areas doesn’t mean you can’t get involved in other parts š
Despite the handle, my main is now a mage.
And the answer is yes! I’m also starved for mage theorycrafting. There haven’t been any significant changes in the mage community since before ICC came out. I need new mechanics to ponder!
That’s the thing that gets me. There’s a lot of people saying “wouldn’t it be cool if”, yet nothing seems to come of it. It’s why I thought I’d ask the question – does it make sense to do this?
I certainly don’t think it would hurt to have one. There are still a lot of people trying out the class for the first time that could use some direction. There are still people struggling with current raid content that could use advice on improving either in gear or in play style, and so forth.
Do we need one? Of course not, we’re Mages.
Could we make use of one? Of course we could, we’re Mages.
Would it compare or even completely blow away all of the other community websites? Of course it would, we’re Mages.
Does all of that make sense? Of course not, we’re Mages.
You get what I’m saying here? Of course you do, we’re Mages.
Even though I don’t get much into theorycrafting myself, as a mage, I think a community for mages is long overdue. EJ can only take a person so far and in my case, it didn’t take me far enough. However, all the great WoW bloggers on Twitter were able to assist with some problems I’d been having.
So, yes, it is a good idea. I would use it and point my guild-mates to it. I would also be willing to help out in any way someone thought I could. But again, I rarely sit down to write about how to be a mage and when I do it tends to be snarky advice. š
yes, i’d love one! i’m not a blogger, but i am proud of being a mage, and want to learn from and share thoughts with other mages. there was a site once (magecraft) that was off to a great start, but something happened and it faltered. i miss it. it’s time for mages to gather together again!
As a part-time mage, I’d *love* a dedicated mage resource. My mage resource of choice has been has been Empowered Fire (*waves at Meta*) but having read and (hopefully) absorbed their levelling and raiding guides, I’m at the “use Rawr or hang out at EJ” stage.
And I’m lazy.
Don’t feel bad — I’m at the “god do I even care about milking another 10 spellpower at this point of the game” stage so I don’t even have Rawr installed. š
^^^ This
Meh, I’m at the point in my mage where I know I can’t get new gear and yet I feel I’m not doing all I can with the stuff I’ve got. I feel it in my bones that something’s off but for the life of me I can’t really figure out what and EJ just makes my brain go numb and Rawr just makes me scratch my head. *siiiiiiiiiigh*
Yes. Bring it on.
Although I don’t have the time to read let alone contribute to such a resource, I know that Magecraft is a missed resource.
It was designed on the same principles as PlusHeal, a noob friendly environment where Mage specific questions and answers could be raised. These were for/from the initiate to the EJ level.
The reality is, even if we discount the rerollers, those that give up in frustration before level 10, there are long term mages that need to know that:
It’s ok to roll Frost, and
When they reroll Fire they will be loved.
The ultimate issue is, the founder(s), owners(s) etc need to be in this for the long haul 12 months can be a long time to nurse a monster like this… Can you feed it years of your life?
If you build it, they will come… Just don’t leave them knocking at your closed doors (which I personally doubt you will do).
And that’s the key, really. You need some serious dedication to keep something like this up and running, and you’ll need some thick skin for when the trolls come a’trollin’.
Yeah, I think you’re right there. If it’s just forum moderation I like to subscribe to the “many hands make light work” theory. Spread it wide, share the load, that kind of thing.
As for trolls? I’m used to it. I earned my stripes as a Wikipedia admin š
I would love to have a Mage community where people can ask general and specific questions and get real answers, instead of just being told to go read EJ.
There was a forum like that once upon a time which I failed to visit regularly for some reason. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. Go ahead if you have the energy to run it as a side project to blogging and podcating. And see if you can find some willing moderators etc to help out. It would be wonderful, especially now that the EJ mage forums are in a terrible shape and the compiled thread with basics about mages are almost impossible to get through.
But the long haul is important. After the first month of enthusiasm, who will still be around? Think one year ahead.
Cheers!
There’s a couple of really good points here:
Do I think I have enough time to run this thing entirely by myself, alongside the blog, the podcast and my real life? Probably not. I can help with the technical aspects, but I’d need a lot of help to get this thing off the grounds if it was going to be anything more than a forum tacked on the side of my blog. Of course, if a forum’s all we want then it’s easy to do.
The long haul isn’t an issue for me as long as it’s either something that’s easy to set up and manage, or it’s something that’s supported by a good number of people. If neither are true, then I’m not sure how to go forward.
I’m pretty sure that Mages are perhaps the only class without some form of community website, and this is an idea that I’ve felt Mages have needed for a long long time. I sincerely hope that you get a fair bit of feedback from people willing to help, and that it becomes well used as a great Mage resource.
We used to have a few community places for Intelligent Mage Discussion (pardon the pun, as IMD was one of them), and it would certainly be neat to have something like that happening again.
Yes we need one!
A place that the best class in the game can come and find out good useful info on gear specs and such that would just rock!
I’m only a part time mage, but I think this is a great idea. A place to pool knowledge and share experiences… what’s not to love? The hard part will be the time and man power to get it up and keep it going. And in that, I wish you luck. All I can offer is one overeager Frosty Mage poster full of questions.
I love this idea. I’ve got so much out of the Warlock’s Den (booo! hisss!) and a similar resource for mages would be a great asset.
I suspect that it will take a lot of effort to organise, though. Good luck with getting it off the ground.
just a thought… what about setting up a Q&A forum like how the stack exchange is run? that way, it would be moderated by the users (sounds scary, i know, but i swear it works). read about it here: http://area51.stackexchange.com/faq
for an example of how a site is looks and is run, here’s one: http://tinyurl.com/2c2tmuh
i’m not sure if it’s the perfect setup for whatever you are envisioning, but the fact that the users run it is pretty nice. it lives or dies all by the users. and, it’s FREE. : )
While the StackOverflow model is great for a question/answer mechanism, I’m not sure if it’s as good when you’re trying to encourage discussion/debate on a topic. It’s also the mechanism that EpicAdvice uses to manage their system, so I’m not sure if it’s something we’d want to copy here.
It’s worth pointing out though! I think EpicAdvice is a great community anyway, and I’d really encourage people to give it a go and try it out – the mechanism is fantastic for Q&A stuff š
ah! well, i’m not familiar with EpicAdvice… should i duck, running? anyway, i just thought i’d throw in my two coppers to help the discussion. i realize it probably isn’t the best model for anything but simple questions, but i like how you sort of… you know… grind rep (to put it in a familiar context, haha). : )
I think something for mages would be great. My mage is my alt and I have been trying to find good resources for mages that are up to date and it is really tough. Having a mage community would be great to go and ask questions, etc.
Awesome idea in my opinion.
With cataclysm lurking around the corner the internet is going to be flooded with more mages then ever from all around the world of warcraft looking for information about this or that. While some things (like the 31 point talent trees) are going to be plastered on every wow related website there are going to be several lesser known items out there that are only covered on a blog or two.
Having a central spot where anyone can go to find accurate information about all the different aspects of a mage will be a godsend. Especially if a mage who is just about to branch out into raiding can ask questions and get intelligent answers while also being able to share his/her massive pvp experiences with the mage who is looking for help there.
The hardest thing will be finding people who are dedicated, and have the time, to weed out the trolls and water it from time to time.
Completely agree with you. I’m hoping that if it’s something that does get set up, that people go on to help with moderating, maintaining and responding to topics. It’s not something I’d be able to pull off by myself.
I’m fully in favor of the idea, my main worry is that the loudest voices might end up taking Total control. As long as there are ways to avoid that pitfall, sign me up.
Further caveats, Gaz: while I am not accusing anyone of this, I only want to participate in spaces that are at least somewhat “safe”: that means no homophobic slurs, no sexist commentary, no racism. I’ve been part of a few comms where those rules weren’t enforced and I just didn’t feel comfortable staying there. (I even left wow-ladies for a time because they permitted users to call others bitches and sluts; they’ve since changed their stance on this.)
It looks like there’s interest, at least as much as socializing with other mages — and man, the class really does attract some intelligent and hilarious people. While I don’t want to force Empowered Fire’s ideology onto people, there is something to be said for being a space where people traditionally overlooked by mainstream fansites can feel secure. (As someone in the RealID forum thread remarked, “Who knew so many women played WoW?”)
I think that’s fine and I don’t see it as being unreasonable. I think we all want somewhere that’s safe and comfortable for people to use, that’s newbie friendly while still promoting intelligent debate and discussion. Anything that detracts from that – by attacking the person rather than the point they raise – works against that. I wouldn’t have it on my blog and I certainly wouldn’t want it on a forum that I was supporting.
/signed.
I would certainly support and read the excepts & feed from a dedicated mage community, same as I read others. My mage is mid 40s and will not get played any time soon; but I love the class and like to know how to manage and interact with them.
A mage is far more than a food and sheep factory.
I’d love a definitive place to go for mage info… I mean one central spot like Maintankadin or Pwnwear. One central spot and all that… And a good place to refer players to at the least š
I think this is a brilliant idea! I would love a place to go that has all the LATEST and most accurate mage advice, theory-crafting and issues. And a great mage community is what we need, we all need to learn to love one another with flowers and daisies and puppies even if some of us are completely crazy (read: frost)! š
Do we need a place of our own, I think so. With some added skills to the Mages arsenal, there will be questions, even from us old warhorses.
Absolutely! This will be especially helpful for the new Cata changes!
I for one would use and love it if there was someplace for me to go and ask my noob rotation and gear questions. I’ve had my Mage since the beginning of Wotlk and am only now getting her to 80 through BG since lfd takes anywhere from 30min to an hour I just don’t have time for that nonsense. But I really still don’t know what I’m doing with her and wold be embarassed to ask the above posting ^ Mage heroes my silly questions. So hopefully others will ask and I can sneak in and learn from their pearls of wisdom š
I think this would be a fantastic idea! I always envied places online that were class-specific and when I solely played my priest for a year and a half Shadowpriest.com was indispensable for new information and advice.
I love the mage class; I’ve played one since open beta and still consider it my token class for everything (raiding, pvp and role play ;)). If you want help count me in!
Well…everyone else has fancy long explanations…so I am just going to go with yes.
I agree with Tarinae š
Seriously though, when I was looking for info about my mage I had to trawl blogs to find the information I was after. I would love to see a community site up and running for Mages, but don’t take it all on your own shoulders, Gaz.
Alright, I’ve got a forum set up. You can find it here, or click the link in the top.
http://www.manaobscura.com/forum/
Feel free to go there, register and start posting!
I like to see a Mage podcast