This seems like the crap I'm talking about. You make an absurd assumption. You lumped the user into s group for no fucking reason.
And worst of all, it's toxic baiting and you know it.
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It feels like it's getting harder to discuss thing calmly in the gaming community
- Thread starter TheEchosOfTheCyborg
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And worst of all, it's toxic baiting and you know it.
When someone complains about the amount of politics discussed on this forum that throws up a big red flag. If you want to defend that I guess that is up to you.
I also politely asked for examples so I could get a better understanding of what they meant. And you are part of the problem by going 0-100 like that. Way to be calm.
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The only toxic baiting here is when someone come into a thread and says they don't want politics in their videogames forum.
Why? Why does it raise a big red flag? Why can't it be taken lightly? Politics does makes its way into too many gaming threads in my opinion as well. I also don't think all cops are racists. But some would love to lump me into a group because of my opinion.
I think what's most tiring is everyone challenging each other's opinion, rather than just accepting them.
No one thinks every single cop in the whole world is racist but there are racist cops and that is problematic. You're just using the "not all gamers" rhetoric here but with cops instead. It doesn't change the fact that there are far too many cops in the US that want to kill black people.
Because opinions can be wrong, especially when it is harmful to a marginalized group of people.
Well....I mostly avoid this stuff by avoiding the front page and by just posting posts that no one wants to engage with either because they don't want to bother reading it or because it doesn't neatly slot into prefigured debates.
I've been dog-piled on GAF. Usually by people who did not read what I wrote and just latched on to a word or two. It is an awful experience, trying to explain yourself to people who cannot be asked to read what you wrote and have all these preconceived notions in approaching it. The internet is a very, very dumb place. Dumb and aggressive. It encourages users to be at their dumbest and most vile and then tells them they're right if they're like that.
It is best to try and avoid the fray, imo. Nothing is gained from encountering prejudiced, furious idiocy: it will not reform itself on account of your interaction. Find the people who will actually try and engage what you think and will actually treat you like a human being and ignore the rest.
Try not to be furiously stupid yourself, as much as you can. The internet makes it hard.
I've been dog-piled on GAF. Usually by people who did not read what I wrote and just latched on to a word or two. It is an awful experience, trying to explain yourself to people who cannot be asked to read what you wrote and have all these preconceived notions in approaching it. The internet is a very, very dumb place. Dumb and aggressive. It encourages users to be at their dumbest and most vile and then tells them they're right if they're like that.
It is best to try and avoid the fray, imo. Nothing is gained from encountering prejudiced, furious idiocy: it will not reform itself on account of your interaction. Find the people who will actually try and engage what you think and will actually treat you like a human being and ignore the rest.
Try not to be furiously stupid yourself, as much as you can. The internet makes it hard.
Great thread. A little introspection and calmness goes a long way.
I notice a lot of people knee-jerk reacting with "fuck this company", "fuck this group of people", "what the fuck", "fucking yikes". People are passionate and you're allowed to voice your opinion, but these short anger filled reactions add very little to a thread and foster more negativity than is needed.
Don't just shout your opinion and leave. Reel things back, have some etiquette and act like you're talking to people in a room.
I notice a lot of people knee-jerk reacting with "fuck this company", "fuck this group of people", "what the fuck", "fucking yikes". People are passionate and you're allowed to voice your opinion, but these short anger filled reactions add very little to a thread and foster more negativity than is needed.
Don't just shout your opinion and leave. Reel things back, have some etiquette and act like you're talking to people in a room.
You like Kingdom Come? Oops you're supporting Nazis
You like games made by THQ? Oops you support child pornography
You didn't like the new Ghostbusters? Ah so you hate it because it has women eh?
You like Dragon Quest games? But the composer said some racist things, how dare you support those games are you racist too?
Etc
Etc
Etc
You'd have to be daft to not see how it operates here. People are incredibly quick to judge, condemn then judge and condemn again and again through 20 degrees of separation and don't you think about disagreeing!
Everyone is entitled to their opinions, including those listed above. Where it becomes toxic is when there is concerted effort to squash any and all discussion that doesn't lie within the very narrow constraints laid down by the mob. There is no room for discussion which leads to a lack of growth and understanding.
I personally believe politics and social matters are interwoven with many facets of daily life and I think the discussions available in these subjects is invaluable to growth as an individual. But it's hard to have any sort of meaningful dialogue when you are expected to just step in line and not think outside typical boundaries.
You do realize that people get warned if they shame others for buying a game that might have something problematic associated with it, right?
Also that was not what you said. You were complaining about the amount of politics on the gaming side of the forum.
Please stop with this extreme position. Just because it's for a good cause, it doesn't mean that you are given a free pass to decide what's wrong and right as an opinion to have. This is what gets some members unfairly banned.
Your replies have been displaying a perfect example of how it starts and how it gets out of hand.
Again, I understand it's for a good cause but this reason has made the forum unbearable sometimes.
No I wasn't? Someone else complained about the amount of politics. You replied to that person wondering if what they said was bait. I replied to you saying it's ridiculous to think politics doesn't dominate many discussions here. Not exactly sure where you got me complaining about politics in the gaming side. In fact even my last reply I even said I'm open to these types of political discussions, but they need to be done properly. Not just an immediate judgment set in stone with dog piling on any wrong think.
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No. Some opinions are extremely harmful and they have no place in our community. I never said I was the person to decide what is right or wrong did I? That's up to the moderation team.
It's like you can't help but be very antagonistic. Maybe you don't noice that your position is very stand-off like.
You've taken them to the extreme.
Why should someone have to defend their position on the subject of not liking Death Stranding? Because it seems like if you don't like it, you're a "hater."
Should someone have to defend their thought that Link is ok as is, and doesn't need to be queer? As is, people are challenged at every step of every subject.
Obviously someone should be challenged if they state that all Mexican Americans should be deported, or whatever.
You said opinions can be wrong. I don't think it's worthwhile to discuss whether you mean it was up to you to decide or the mods. However, I'm going to focus on what this mentality does.
In practice, you end up fighting for a good cause, you and others dogpile members and eventually get them banned. Sometimes it's needed but sometimes it goes out of hand and it hits others who truly didn't deserve it. It is because you feel certain opinions are harmful or wrong.
And so, what kind of opinions are we talking about here? Mothballs gave good examples of opinions that should be respected. Those are the kind of opinions I'm talking about. It's unfortunate that members are branded as something extreme because they like certain games or a company just because said company happens to have done something reprehensible.
I hope you don't see me as trying to attack you. I just wish you can understand and that maybe you and, others like you, can lighten up a bit and not always be in this mode.
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What does this have to do with what I am talking about? I don't like the look of DS either. That has nothing to do with the politics of gaming.
This is more what I'm talking about.
And me being antagonistic? Your the one in this thread that used the term far-left and conflated it with the far-right:
And this is a progressive forum and has been moderated that way for a reason. To allow people from minority groups a safe space to discuss gaming from their perspective and give them a voice.
Opinions that are offensive to minorities/marginalized people in gaming. Do I really need to give specific examples?
Gaming opinions are fine and was not what I was talking about at all.
I don't get anyone banned? The mods ban people. Dogpiling itself is a bannable offense.
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That's what the board needs most. Not to be in 100% serious mode at all times. It seems like the levity and fun are gone these days.
I don't feel like I should make my stance as a person of color in every thread and feel recognized in every game.
I guess everything is just taken so damn serious now.
I think you need to learn the difference between the cause of something being political, and an aspect of something being political.
It is 100% certain that games are not 100% political, so you can expect people to not always want to discuss whatever politics they entail, when YOU want to.
At the very least, they may not want a topic to be overruled by a political statement.
Being angry at that, is just arrogance.
But it's fine to make sure that the political statement is acknowledged via another thread.
And that is usually what happens, like with Fire Emblem and wanting better representation of LGBT+ relationships.
Again, another thing that gets a warning here is derailing such as when people started talking about police in the Astral Chain thread so that is already dealt with.
I'm not sure I understand your post, honestly.
Personally I think any poster who starts a post with this should be banned regardless of their opinion. This type of snark is an epidemic here and has really lowered the overall discourse.
I think the same of back-seat modding but yes I apologize if it was a little snarky.
Edit: And now look at who is getting dogpiled lol...
I had to ask this question just to make sure we're talking about the same opinions that shouldn't be tolerated. And I'm honestly not sure if we really are.
It also seems that we're not understanding each other fully.
So I'll just bow out of this discussion.
I used to be one of those members who didn't want political threads to be separated from games threads. I don't feel as strongly anymore with how the threads have become.
This definitely has something to do with it. I am still hopeful that there is a way to discuss both and not have them separated in a more calm manner.
I miss the day when people would just call me r*tard or call me gay and try to assert their mental superiority over me by yelling at me. It's much worse now that people find the wordiest way to tell you your wrong. Just insult me and get it over with so I can disregard your opinion.
Normally I don't back seat mod, but this thread's whole purpose is to discuss the gaming community's lack of respect and your post was a great example of a big issue I see.
Fwiw, no one is perfect, including me, but I think a temp ban for the kind of snark is warranted. I should be held to that standard as well
That doesn't happen often, you just notice the popular threads - i.e. THQ Nordic, Pokemon Sword/Shield, the recent Apex comments etc.
Because of the sheer amount of threads, people are used to forming mobs (people finding quick points of agreement) to push their politics in the thread of a related topic. It's probably difficult to moderate, tbh.
Of course, that says the cause of the need to discuss these politics lies outside of ERA, but the point is that rare and specialised topics get overwhelmed by the sudden popularity of certain events. This popularity is usually associated with anger and a focused theme, which replaces the original topic.
Fear is instituted as people don't know what to say in order to please everyone in the hypothetical mob.
So, new topics increasingly continue to propagate the popular politics, regardless of the content of the videogames/publisher/content they are associated with.
As it then gets more difficult to discuss 'videogames/publisher/content' on a video games forum, some people stop posting or leave.
And I got dogpiled because of it. I don't see you condemning that, you just want to get me banned. How is that helpful?
I didn't ask you to be banned. My post was for the mods who are reviewing this thread. I think it's a rule they should strongly consider.
"You do realize" type posts are an epidemic on here and it really degrades the overall discourse.
I get that you feel this way.
I was annoyed at what you were posting, but you obviously care enough about the issue to post in this thread, so I just tried to reply earnestly.
So you are asking for me to get banned but trying to do so in a way that doesn't get yourself banned.
Sorry, I was replying to someone else while talking about that :-)
Edit: You may have them on ignore or something.
No, I think it should be a new rule and should be announced and added to the guidelines. Retroactively banning people with a new rule would be totally unfair.
To clarify, you are part of "guys" here.
This isn't the appropriate topic to debate policy. Drop it.
I don't contribute much, but that's more because I have nothing worthy to add pretty much anywhere. I'm just noise by comparison. I am learning to just not post if someone says something I perceive as rudely stated or snotty--and that's my perception due to my own state of being overly sensitive at times. That's not just on ERA but anywhere. I know I have not done as well as I used to, so I need to start by changing how I post and contribute. Be the change you want to see, and change starts with me. Good things I try to remember.
I dunno if the state of the world has made people surlier than before. There's a bit of a gradual decline in post and discussion quality since Trump was elected, but my timeline might be off and I could be connecting dots incorrectly. Obviously that wouldn't be the only cause/reason.
I rambled. Sorry.
I dunno if the state of the world has made people surlier than before. There's a bit of a gradual decline in post and discussion quality since Trump was elected, but my timeline might be off and I could be connecting dots incorrectly. Obviously that wouldn't be the only cause/reason.
I rambled. Sorry.
Jumping back into this real late to say that it's really weird that you inferred all of this from my thread. The automatic assumption that somebody can't possibly be interested in something/information about something without a cynical motive behind it is one of the things OP is talking about in this thread.
I like this. I'd like to invite you over to my house for a beer but your basement is probably nicer than mine.
This observation is correct. Its one thing to ignore the aggressive statements themselves, but the constantly reinforced feeling that if you are not on board, you are a piece of shit is going to scare a ton of people off, exactly as it is meant to.
And I find weird you claim to be interested in a game, but made a topic before making a simple google search about it. Why did not made a topic compiling everything we know so far? You bet you would get way better responses.
Like I said in my post: want better response to discussions? Then start discussions better.
I get all my gaming news from here, so it was kind of an automatic assumption that Era could potentially have some more valuable insight.
Big oops.
Also, weird that you automatically assume I didn't do a Google search, when a Google search only revealed the website which hadn't been updated, many articles about the E3 demo, and a few about the game's original announcement in 2017. Part of my point in my thread was that there's often more information available on a game at this point in development. I posted more to elaborate on this, which many people missed while falling all over themselves to say "games take time" which really wasn't what I was asking.
If discussion isn't up to your standard, maybe consider applying to be a mod instead of doing it from the backseat?
I suppose this suggestion is towards op, who decided to create a topic about the low quality of the replies in the most controversial threads in here, right? I'm fine with it and even explained why things are like that. I'm not the one trying to change things in here.
Just made a thread and it really was the epitome of what this thread's talking about. Multiple people had to get the comments in ASAP no matter what they said and I just had to ask for it to be closed because, fuck, a thread that's just a whole bunch of "did you even play the game you have a subjective opinion about?! You dumb dumb!" is not one I wanted to keep open. There's no room for calm discussion there because the dogpile 'thread backfire' had already begun.
Oh, and this isn't specific to gaming side but the phenomena of posters talking shit about others behind their backs in otherwise unrelated threads actively brings down discussion. It makes it so that people become more entrenched in their viewpoints as they see other people not as human beings but as irrational creatures. It's happened to me multiple times now and nobody's ever apologised after being called out.
Oh, and this isn't specific to gaming side but the phenomena of posters talking shit about others behind their backs in otherwise unrelated threads actively brings down discussion. It makes it so that people become more entrenched in their viewpoints as they see other people not as human beings but as irrational creatures. It's happened to me multiple times now and nobody's ever apologised after being called out.
I read the thread and I could only see three posts as being dismissive, which fair enough, is still a large amount. The others appeared to be posting in good faith. Maybe it would've devolved from there but maybe it wouldn't have.
It's rather annoying being quoted 10x times for the same thing just so everyone can get their shot in
It's why I very rarely make new threads and I very rarely take part in discussions that I don't feel strongly enough about to tolerate all that crap. Sometimes it feels like people have completely forgotten how to have a discussion without immediately resorting to Twitter-style reactions and ad hominem attacks. The thing that drew me to forums as a means of discussions in the first place was the ability to develop an argument and read other arguments from others. This seems to be slowly fading away as more and more people embrace the 'yikes' school of reactionary posting instead of actually attempting to have a normal discussion.
Eh, at the rate it was going I simply didn't want to deal with it no matter where it went. There's only so many times your intelligence can be questioned before you're just like "nah," lol Maybe I'll reboot the thread to say something less controversial but that thread was clearly not going to work out.
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