Build Workshop 2 months in. Success? Failure? Work in progress?

As the title mentions, the Build Workshop forum is now 2 months old. From your standpoint do you think this has become a success, a failure, or still a work in progress?

Just so folks know where I stand, I thought this forum was an odd choice that pulled focus away from the individual AT forums. If it worked, it worked. If it didn't, oh well, "no biggie".

Personally, I can't call it a failure, but I certainly can't call it a success either. Yes people are getting some help here, but the majority of the build requests aren't getting as much attention as I've seen in the individual AT forums. So I ask you these questions:

• Has this forum had enough time to mature? If not, how much more time should it get before we decide success or failure?
• Should we called this an interesting experiment that hasn't lived up to expectations, and should be dismantled?
• Has it lived up to expectation and has become a success?

People don't always title the topic well enough. Also I would read half a line before finding out its not the AT I feel that I can really help with. Half the time you respond nothing is responded back and so ya never know if it was worth the time.

In AT sections people collect, they think up and share ideas, that's where people should read a title and immediately know which AT it is. Even if no one responds to the assistance, multiple viewpoints are there to absorb.

It doesn't really matter if it's either we have absolutely no control over these forums. The Developers and Moderators will do what ever they want.

The only freedom I have here is where I post. Personally I only respond to build request in the AT forums. I expressed my opinions when this first came out and I exercised my choice of not posting here for my reasons.

But his thread is going to get ugly.

This forum is one of those things that seems like a nice idea on paper, but falls kind of flat in practice. I'd personally rather see build info in the appropriate AT forums than separated out like this. I don't really see a benefit to spreading things this thin; it makes both the AT forums and the builds forum less desirable "targets" when I'm staring at the already-massive list of sub-forums on the main page.

Quote:

Originally Posted by plainguy It doesn't really matter if it's either we have absolutely no control over these forums. The Developers and Moderators will do what ever they want.

We have no direct control. Just like we have no direct control over which items a store sells or which channels are provided by our cable company.

But if you think customer feedback isn't a major factor in the decision-making process of the people who do have direct control...

People have always discussed builds on the respective AT section. I can't see why would it change.

I think it's fair to say that over 70% of ATs posts are about builds' questions n criticism. Even some of those that start off as a regular topic, might end up with a build suggestion somewhere. Yes, it can be annoying to see 5 similar posts on the same page, but at least it keeps that section active.

I had forgotten this secion existed. If I have a build question, I still go to the AT forum.

This is a completely useless section. If you want build advice, the best place is the AT forum. Sifting though a mix of ATs in this sub isn't something I would bother doing.

All I can add is to detail a practical example.

During lunch I came to this section to see if it had anything about TW builds (no excuses, bandwagons to me are like a car is to a dog. Once it rolls past I gotta get me a piece).

The first page has loads of builds I don't want but this post caught my eye. Now I'm off to the Brute and Scrapper sections to get the info I want.

Build Workshop = Fail

As noted, it was a poorly thought out move based on a badly skewed conversation with someone who was hadn't learned anything about the game or the support structures in the community yet.

Hey Zwill. If some newb thought it was a good idea to pass out CoH-themed ball gags, would we be be getting them in the mail right about now?

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

This is the first time I've re-opened this forum since the first few days after it was created, to be honest.

I don't post my builds, or build requests here. Half the time when I am looking for a build I am really dialing in a playstyle and/or concept anyways. the other half the time I am looking for very specific tweaks to a concept that has been debated in the appropriate forum a hundred times. So, it just makes sense for me to post in the appropriate AT section rather than here. The only time I would consider posting here is with a very finished piece of work. Both as a presentation of something I think is great and a challenge t the board to improve it. But in truth most of my builds (based on my style above) are actually someone (or some four or five people's) work that have helped me, that I mesh together, or that I make a small changes to I do not feel it appropriate to post them here as my work. Someday I may post two or three of them here to show what I am running, more or less to help anyone looking for something similar. But in truth I suspect most people are like me and just post in the AT section, and i post my best stuff there whenever it looks like it might help someone.

Short answer. No, i don't use this forum.

Ok, I've got two questions.

1.) When the hell did this section of the forums get here?

2.) Does that answer your question?

This one section I hardly come into. Ive never posted in this forum until now. I honestly cant justify the need for this forum. I think the individual forums were enough to post builds. Theres just too much stuff in here. If I want to look at Brute builds, Im better off going into the brute section.

This may just happen to be my first post in here.

This is the only the second thread in this section I've ever opened, let alone posted in. The first was the mids' thread, so no, this forum section isn't at all useful to me. For me fiddling with builds is a solo exercise, and I don't have any real interest in optimizing posted builds just for the sake of optimization. I'd much rather participate in a thread with an interesting discussion of tactics, powersets, content, or whatever, which might happen to include builds but isn't *about* them. And even if I *did* have a build I wanted help with, I'd post it in the appropriate AT forum since I would be looking for feedback from the AT gurus who frequent those forums.

I went looking for an ice/cold controller build today, and because of this thread I thought to look in this forum. I also looked in the controller forum. I couldn't find anything anywhere. I finally resorted to using google site search instead of the forums search. I found a few good threads, all in the controller forum.