Message boards are smited by Hi-Rez

The developer of Tribes: Ascend and Smite, Hi-Rez Studios, announced that they are closing down the official forums for their games. The Georgia-based studio explained that player interaction on the message boards has decreased while social media has become the tool of preference for exchanging information.

More and more players use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit to connect and discuss their entertainment of choice. Consequently, fewer players visit official forums long enough to even create an account. In keeping with this observed tendency, Hi-Rez has shifted focus to those social media platforms increasingly over the course of the year.

Hi-Rez had recently used their own forums to disclose that substantial updates to Tribes: Ascend would cease while the studio moved on to other projects like Smite and the planned sequel to Tribes. The thread became contentious enough that an official statement had to be released to clarify that while major development would end, support for the game would be ongoing.