Sorry if you find the title confusing but I hope you get the message.
Do you think certain forums are destined to be on a certain forum software? As in, one type of forum would work on MyBB but it wouldn't work on phpBB? Do you understand?
Like, an xbox forum would look good on MyBB or vBulletin whereas a general chat forum might look better on vBulletin or PhpBB.
Well yer actually. You generally don't see webmaster forums running PunBB because quite frankly most would agree it isn't the best of softwares. I wouldn't say that an Xbox forum would need to be a certain software though. Not always.
I think however that gamers are used to vBulletin and enjoy using it. It attracts them. Paid forum software I feel attracts people to sites also because it clearly shows effort, time and money has been put into them and they're not just going to disappear straight away. Mostly anyway.
It's all about the administrators view point - what do they prefer. What, maybe, do they think matches their forum? It's one of those things like how humans match certain colours to numbers, words etc., not everyone will agree with one person's selection.
I choose vBulletin for every one of my sites now. I'm probably going to start looking into XenForo once it's stable and feature ready though. I don't think, personally, XenForo would suit all types of forum. I wouldn't like to see a gaming forum on XenForo as I believe gamers aren't all for simplicity, they like features and aren't really fussed about the innovate feel of XenForo.
In conclusion, I think it's a personal thing how we see it. Really I don't think a software matters as much to the users as it does to the admin. You should run a site with what you're comfortable with and what you think would work best.
Depends. For your average discussion forum, I don't think most software would be more beneficial (just whatever works best for the staff/members). Heck, you could probably get away with remotely hosted software for most of those.
Though I think if you were running a technology/programming/etc type forum, then having your own software can give you a better image, because hey, you're showing that you actually have the skills you say you do.
