Arenanet should just make this the official guild wars forum.

They pretty much use it for most things, it's at the top of the list, etc. Why not just go the final step and make it official?

Because ANET likes to have community involvement
and so long as this remains a community operated forum, they get to feel good about themselves

There is an article/vid on GW2Guru about why they prefer it the way it is, didn't fully pay attention to it but i think it's the one about what Community Managers do in their jobs(thats if i remember it right, my brain gets fuzzy sometimes). And Regina mentions the reasons... Don't ask me exactly what was said coz it's an hour long and it almost sent me to sleep.

I like the idea of it remaining an independent forum, that way if we don't like something about the game we are free to say so.

Also it would tend to upset the members of any other forums out there by making us a special case, thankfully its not my call I would probably make the wrong decision.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Why should people rage at Anet employees over bans when they can rage at people unrelated to them?

Some of us have observed a pretty big reason why we don't want official forums: Bioware

and besides, this forum is already owned........it wasn't really floating around waiting for someone to claim it

Here's a good place to start OP. Seen what happens when you post something they don't like on the wrong persons wiki userpage? Yeah...

I was actually going to say that and legality issues.

The mods would be working for ANet if Guru became the official forums, they would have to therefore have contracts, wages and things would be very different in terms of forum policies. For example, it could turn out that people would be banned for saying derogatory things about ANet/their staff members or for joking about various things they would like to do to ANet. That would depend on what THEY decided the rules would be. The mods and admins here would no longer be able to enforce the current rule set we know. Sure, some would probably stay the same but I bet you that many things would change. Off-topic could change to the extent that you couldn't post outside links to other sites lest they be scams/viral etc.

Official forums are nice if you need direct contact with staff (although I have to say that ANet staff do a decent job with actually contacting the player-base and making them aware of various things) and that isn't always guaranteed either. If it ain't broke, don't fix it ;D

this forum also has a very large amount of trolls and jaded players who wish that Factions never happened.

I certainly wouldnt mind a nice paycheck from anet-----

but it just aint gonna happen, as an unofficial forum anet doesnt have to look over our shoulders and such---it would cost them a ton of money and resources to have an official one as well .....like lemming said.

Official forums are lame. Since they don't want to pay for an entire moderation team they use volunteers, these volunteers then think they are supreme players for having been chosen by ANet. Then they become self important assholes.

I have never been a member of an official forum for a game I have played (besides betas) and i'd like to keep it that way.

Also, there's the whole censorship matter which I gather is a huge problem on the official Call of Duty forums.