Yesterday, long time supporter of the station and, at one point, DJ (for the Guild wars 4th birthday event), Martin Kerstein of Arenanet, makers of Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, has signalled the death knell of the community fansite, or at least their support for it

Let me point out the two biggest changes in the ways we interact with our communities between the original Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 right up front: we will have official forums, and we will not have a traditional fansite program.

 

This does NOT mean we will no longer support all our dedicated fansites out there! We will continue to work with fansites as we have done in the past, but in addition to “traditional” fansites, we will also provide a platform to support smaller, specialized communities/projects that would never have had a place in a traditional program, like blogs, machinima, etc.

 

Let’s take a step back and look at how community, gaming and community management have evolved over the last 6 years. When I started working on Guild Wars back in 2006, traditional fansites and forums were the main hub for fans to gather. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter were in their infancy.

You can read the full article here:  http://www.arena.net/blog/building-community

What do you think?  will you be sticking with your chosen fansite of choice or going official only?