The Bioware forums were never exceptionally popular, but that's exactly why I enjoyed visiting them. There are very few other places you can go to in order to see what sort of insane theories the community has come up with in order to explain the various plot holes, character motivations, and other little elements only true RPG fanatics could ever find interesting.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and the same applies to the Bioware forums. In a recent announcement Bioware has stated that the official forums for the majority of their games will be closing down on August 26th as the team found themselves spending more time on social networks than in their own home turf. Here's the most interesting part of the message:

"In the past, our forums were the only way we could speak to you directly. They allowed our developers to talk with fans, and gave our players the opportunity to talk with each other about our games. But with the rise of social media and geek culture, there have never been more ways for us to connect.

Now we can travel around the world, meeting with you face-to-face at events like PAX, SDCC, and even shows in our own backyard. We can share stories with you on the go, giving you a look behind the scenes on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

With so many great things so widely available, our developers today find themselves spending more time on other sites, and less time in our own forums. And to our fans and players who came to those boards looking to talk to us, it was a great disservice.

So it is with a heavy heart that we will close our public forums on August 26, 2016. We will maintain some private boards, and may use these in future for beta feedback or other special projects."

While the forums themselves will close down on August 26th, the public boards will remain in a read-only state until October 25, 2016. In other words, if you have any important information, links to various mods, or contacts you wish to stay in touch with, make sure to do it as soon as possible, or you might just lose your chance.

On a slightly unrelated note, the official forums for Star Wars: The Old Republic will continue functioning, so if you're an avid SWTOR player, worry not as nothing will be changing for you.