I personally believe that Arenanet made the right decision by leaving this aspect of the game to the community. Forums are a double-edged sword. On one hand, it is a good way to build community and expand and share ideas between players. On the other, gamers in general are extremely passionate about their opinions.

Take the classic arguments: XBOX vs. PlayStation, Intel vs. AMD, Mac vs. PC, WoW vs. GW...the list goes on. I've seen conversations become very heated and it all comes down to a matter of opinion. I just don't think Arenanet wanted the responsibility or the overhead of maintaining an official forum. This is a company that is working very hard to gain positive PR and having something awful posted in their forums, or even just having a slew of negative posts isn't a chance they wanted to take.

They also don't want to be accused of controlling the buzz around the game. Like, if someone posted some info about Chapter 2 on the "official" forum, it suddenly gains more prominance and substance than if the rumor was on a community forum. Therefore, Arenanet might be compelled to remove the post, because it's not true or because it IS true but it wasn't time for that information to be released. This actually would lead to a backlash as people complained about being sensored or their opinions not being heard. Having several forums solves this problem, because a rumor can stay a rumor without appearing to be endorsed by the company.

And don't forget the amount of administrative overhead around a forum. Updating software for hacks, banning out-of-line users, keeping the "spirit" of the forum intact...with the amount of work they seem to do streaming in updates and new content WITHOUT subscriptions, I'm not sure they would want to add a forum staff to expenses. Just a few thoughts.

Zerek
http://www.maxdamage.net