If you frequent The Forge (or read gaming weblogs), you know that on December 2nd the RPG Theory and GNS Model Discussion forums there were closed to posting. It was a move that had been planned for some time, but it’s still managed to cause a bit of an uproar.
Most of the opinions I’ve seen have, like Vincent Baker‘s, been positive to one degree or another, and that’s pretty much the camp I fall into too. Frankly, while they might have been the site of lots of useful talk once, I’ve never found much use for either theory forum during the few years I’ve been reading The Forge. Part of that is probably due to my lack of fascination with the give and take of theory discussion, and part of it is due to a change in the sorts of interaction that takes place there. Whatever the reason, the Forge-related theory I know I’ve learned from the Actual Play and Indie Game Design forums, plus several of Vincent’s posts on Anyway.
I guess the important question now is how The Forge will change without its theory forums, and what else the future might hold for worthwhile discussion of RPGs. However it goes, I bet it’ll be interesting.
