The End of The Forge

Recently Ron Edwards announced that the famous indie RPG forum The Forge will enter into its “winter stage” by the end of the year. What he basically meant was the forum will more of less shut down. From what I understand a few sections will stay active a while longer, especially to allow publishers to move their sub-forums to their own premises.

What really surprised me that he and everyone how commented on this announcement saw this as a good thing. They obviously reached a certain set of goals and that’s why The Forge is not needed anymore. The shutdown of the forums is even declared a victory.

Hmm, I have to admit, I was never an active user of these forums, but from what I’ve read it was one of the cornerstones of the Indie RPG scene. Or am I getting a wrong impression here? So, why is it a good thing that the site is going the way of the Dodo?

And there’s a second person claiming victory. The blogger known as the RPGPundit yesterday declared victory over the Forge-Swine as he likes to call them. For years he has been quite outspoken against any kind of story-based gaming and today he believes he has prevailed against Ron Edwards. Don’t ask me what this guy has been smoking.

While I have looked into a couple of games who have been actively discussed at The Forge, I am not really deep into the indie scene. Can someone explain to me how shutting down an active forum is a good thing? And why does RPGPundit hate anything coming from said forum?