I think it movement to some sort of social media is pretty much inevitable. I don't think I've ever played a game where the forums are more active than reddit/twitter.

Paradox still maintains their forum and advertises them but lots of their players still congregate in the game subreddits instead.

Can they bring back making games worth playing first?

What bothers me most about such decisions is that I am denied access to the official discussions (and sometimes even the tech support) of the product I paid for, unless I'm willing to accept the third-party platform's terms of service. Discord is another common one. It's a sure-fire way to lose me as a customer.

BSN is the unofficial fan forum for BioWare related content these days. I quite like it. Rarely, someone from BioWare drops in and leaves a comment so BioWare does monitor what fans are saying.

Lemmy could be a great place to restart this communities

I don't have much of an opinion on the bioware forums, but man - it's crazy to think about this period as the collapse of web2. I mean, I'm aware of it, but somehow, giving it that title seems so real.

The online spaces I've spent most of my time in are collapsing, and all that'll be left is the shambling, soulless husks of bankrupt cryptocurrencies. I guess we can just go ahead and skip straight to web4?

No way. Forums should never be run by the people the forum is discussing, for the same reason that newspapers should never be government-owned.

If they are dumb, they bring the forums back in form of Subreddits. If they are smart, they bring them back in the Fediverse. Using Twitter as a discussion platform is a dumb idea. The most likely thing that would probably happen is, they bring discussions to Discord...

Oh boy, the odds are not good. Too many shiny alternatives to fail and only one way to make it right.