I haven't been on these forums for as long as some of the others who've posted have been so do correct me, but I could point out that as the company became more popular, people started discussing their products on other social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and so on - and thus CDPR moved to cater to those social media sites. Now we have updates about any and all CDPR products simultaneously on each of these now official platforms - why would anyone visit the forums? I'm already on Twitter or Facebook, I could just click a button and follow all their updates as they happen, why would I take the extra step and log into the forums? As far as strengths would go, hitting up the forums would be for complaints about bugs, maybe the discussion of mods (moderators, not modifications, ofc ) and, rarely, for a chance encounter with a developer who might participate in the community for their own pleasure.
There's a reason why console exclusives exist - to provide a genuine incentive to purchase the console. Unless it's also available on PC
What has this forum got that the other platforms don't have? The old forum system was - well, old - but it was reliable, it was easy on the eyes, it had all the functionality a forumite could ask for and could compete with the familiarity many people have with Reddit's layout and overall UX. The Reddit is well organised and it has the advantage of a preexisting userbase that can just join in a discussion without having to log in or make a new account
just to talk about this company's products. Then all this platform really has left is the rare interaction with developers, which no one has seen or heard from for centuries, so no one either expects it or talks about it and therefore that potential attraction turns to dust. I'm not saying that developers should make effort to be present on the forums in order to give incentive for users to be here, I'm saying that's the only thing that this forum had that the other platforms don't. Contrary to Sard's claim - but perhaps supporting Sard's claim - if CDPR want a flourishing forum, then they need to put effort into it. Why would I use their forum when it's less convenient and has no outstanding benefits? On the other hand, if we as a community have died down and dissipated enough to say - well, there's nothing here for me and it's not my responsibility to hold a community together regardless of the platform's sullen existence - then perhaps, quoting my favourite banned forumite,
we should just Let The Witcher Forums Die With Dignity.
As for Discord - well I hear in the era before I joined the forums, a group of regular forumites used Skype for IM about topics and they used IRC before that. I think Discord being a
vastly superior IM service that's specifically dedicated to gaming - both to catering to the needs of gamers in particular and for the community that's already familiar and drawn to it - overtaking use of these previous IM services is a no brainer. Skype is the worst program most of humanity has ever been cursed with and other gaming IM services have been either costly for no reason or just shit in general. Discord is just good quality service that's catering to a pre-existing IM requirement from our community and happens to also be supporting the community during this time of poor performance on the forum's behalf. I don't think there's really much of a reason why Discord is so good other than what others have already meantioned - it's easy to use, it's got a pretty good friendlist, the developers of the program are loud and proud about their bug fixes and future plans for feature - something perhaps the web development team might want to consider, you can use it for a few different gaming communities with the same account AND use a nickname in each of those communities to be relevant to that franchise or whatever - as I said before, the rise of Discord is a no brainer.
I'd be all about getting this place back to the former glory that it once was, but alas, it's not the only place to go for Witcher related discussions anymore - and, fact is, not even for Gwent or Cyberpunk. So we're in a new era and this should have been anticipated with the famed release of the Witcher 3 and subsequent announcements regarding Gwent and CP. We're on the cusp of The End and if this platform is really valuable for CDPR to get feedback then they'd better invest some sort of energy into it. Otherwise, perhaps simplify the threads for reduced traffic, improve the features that are apparently unfinished and maybe think about what the purpose of the forums will be when CP takes off - will people discuss on Reddit or make new accounts/log into the ones they used to use on these forums? What incentive do GOG users have for coming here and is it worth integrating all three subforums into GOG's forums?