As an old guy on the internet, I have a real fondness for forums. Social media has largely usurped their utility, but it can't match the sense of community that comes from hanging out with a (relatively) small group of like-minded fans of particular games, movies, music, or whatever else is interesting enough to bring people together. Sadly, nostalgia does not equal relevance, and next week Bethesda Softworks will begin the process of shutting its forums for good.
"When the forums first started on Bethsoft.com, they were a great place for everyone to discuss amazing games, share stories, and come together with similar interests," Bethesda said. "The forums have seen many changes over the years, and we’ve enjoyed seeing our community grow and evolve alongside Bethesda and all of our games. Now, though, with the numerous ways people are communicating, we feel the time is right to move away from the forums and chat with you where you prefer to be."
On May 24, all Bethesda forums will be put into read-only mode, meaning that no more posting will be allowed. Forums will remain accessible, however, so users will have a chance to save anything they want to keep. On July 6, "smaller, less populated" forum categories will start to be archived, at which point they will no longer be accessible.
In place of the forums, Bethesda is making the move to Discord, and will have servers dedicated to each of its big game series:
- https://discord.gg/Arkane
- https://discord.gg/Bethesda
- http://discord.gg/BethesdaStudios
- http://discord.gg/DOOM
- http://discord.gg/ElderScrollsOnline
- https://discord.gg/Quake
Bethesda's community teams will also continue to have a presence on Reddit, and support requests can be made through Bethesda's help portal. Forums dedicated to the Elder Scrolls Online MMO will not be affected by the closure: They're operated separately and will continue to work as they always have.
