I sort of disagree. I do use another forums very frequently, but I come here just as much, and I think a lot of other people still do, too :).

There seems to have been a very stiff decline in threads created in all of the development forums. Unless you count the numerous pointless scripting ones, other than that things have been stagnant. The forums are going more in a general direction instead of being focused on the game itself; seeing as more and more posts are in the off-topic section than anything. I think it is time to implement an iphone section into the forums (I know it's a very unpopular idea). For reasons being you want to keep the players separate, but I think the forums could be a great way of getting iphone players interested in the other servers by seeing what the content is etc.

Development forums are slow, but stagnant moderation isn't helping. Believe it or not, good moderators that are active within the section are quite motivating for users.

The graphics forum could really use one. It's been one of the most active forums for years, and there's been several occasions where it could have used moderation.


Yeah, this is actually a pretty important point.


You're both right and wrong. Even though there are many unofficial forums for Graal, a lot of people still see this as the main one, as it rightfully should be. Whenever someone needs help with graphics or scripts, I personally refer them here. Giving active Classic/Hosted playerwords a forum here should be a given, yet I was even denied one when Maloria went Classic. Personally I'd use these forums over maloria.com any day, simply because these are the official forums for Graal.

This is a very real problem. At least the top two most popular servers have active forums outside of the official ones, I'd bet the other playerworlds do as well. If these forums were easier to get started with (why do people have to register? why can't they just hit start > forums and be logged in automatically like they can with the Graal site?) and offered more for the server staff I think they'd be used more. For a long time Era used the official forums, but we finally gave up with them recently because it's so hard for the players to get access.

It's really not hard to register...

There is a layer of confusion when it's actually your Graal account being used, but you still have to register an account/password/email. This is not normal for registering on forums. Though I imagine it may be out of Stefan/Unixmad's hands to link the Graal account database to vBulletin.

It's obviously sort of linked already since you have to have gold to even sign up.

It's a lot more difficult than it should be. You have to register using your Graal account/community name and Graal password, which is silly by itself. Then you have to wait an arbitrary amount of time for somebody to approve it (why?) before your account is activated. New players won't know this and won't do it. History has shown that it's confusing to a lot of people

Upon registering a Graal account, a forum account should be created as well. This is easily possible to do with minimal scripting work. Account approval can be disabled; it's not needed on a forum this small and just deters people. The "Forums" link in the Start menu should direct you to a page that verifies the request and gives you a session cookie, just like the "Upgrade" link does, and lets you start using the forums immediately. There's no reason for it to be more complicated than that.

Lol, I had to be on the forums to log in, if I tried to log in from the Graal Website it would always say I was banned. Apparently my email was different or something..

I come on here less than the unofficial because most of the iPhone players are nicer. I can say this honestly because a lot of the PC players who have migrated there are still the ones ill mannered.

However, I do use this one due to it having a slightly player-count using it, and due to the fact it is more for development. Even though I must admit, I try to stay away from the development forums for the above mentioned reason.
I think the last few days are a good example why.

Furthermore, the unofficial forums have more leeway to teach, and there is even a thread section that doesn't relate to Graal that is easily accessible.

The logo even is more enticing..
I'm not even sure what the icon above the two A's is supposed to be... A bionicle?

Nevertheless, I still get on here.

I check for new registrations daily, so there is never any wait, except for maybe a few hours. I dont understand the difficulty. Seems like it would be easier since you use the same account and password as the game itself to register. I am sure there are other ways of doing it, but still, I dont see how it is so difficult

Well, it took me a few months to be able to sign up because of some stupid glitch. (I can't remember what it was.) So I can sort of understand where they are coming from. And it is, after all, another stupid thing they have to sign up for, which maybe daunts them a little bit. I agree that it isn't much of a hassle, but little things can drive people away :/

If it's difficult enough that people are confused by it, then it's too difficult. There's no reason that accounts can't be created on the forums at the same time they're created for the game. It can be streamlined and it should be.

.... isn't this how all of our personal info got leaked in the first place?