Polarization of opinions on the forums

gillrmn · February 2013

Recently a disturbing trend has arisen in the forums which avoids all the discussions and reduces them into pointless debates. It was not so a few months ago when discussions used to be more enriching and full of facts rather than emotions of hate, anger and love for an argument.

For example any topic presented polarizes the thread into shades of white or black - i.e. those who will defend the game at any cost Vs those who will bash the game at any cost. In this fight between two polarized sides the reasonable discussion on topic is lost.

There are no more 'fans' of the game who will criticize the game for its weak points and there are no more 'haters' who will support the game for its innovative features.

Any argument present whether for or against the game is met by comments of fanboi or hater. The comment is not taken up for its own argument but on the posts go personal towards who has made the post.

This makes me sad and miss the old times when such spats were few yet civilized and people were more understanding.

ruinedmirage · February 2013

I noticed this as well. A lot of people don't like what they see on livestreams (and haven't played the game), while others have finally shown that "donating" toward the game's development was never their true motivation and now they're disappointed with lack of content (in beta, nevertheless).

So many new joiners ...... not necessarily a bad thing, but I wonder if their expectations of the game are so radically different as to affect the whole atmosphere of the forums.

muzrub333 · February 2013

Well that's what happens when a Forum goes from being the "private" domain of a few people who have gotten to know each other over many months, to being a forum populated by a much wider player base. This forum used to be primarily old school PnP D&D fans, who liked to theorize about what "might be", but now you have to understand, the majority of people looking into this game couldn't care less about D&D. This is just another MMO to them, so they don't want to hear why things are a certain way because of the tie to D&D, they want things to be how other MMO's are. It's only going to get worse as the game gets more press. That's the nature of the beast.

Now I will say, that not everything was rosy before either. I remember people being tarred and feathered, and basically driven of the forums, not because of the game, but because people here made things personal. Attacking their parenting skills, talking down at them because they didn't agree with the Old Clique. It was so ugly, and full of personal attacks, that I just left the forum, and stayed away until Cryptic began releasing more info, and more people started posting to create some semblance of balance on the boards. This place was a true old boys club, and god forbid you didn't toe the line with the "elders".

So yeah, it's depressing to see the polarization of the forums, but it's not like it was a warm and welcoming environment before. (Unless you knew your place, and didn't challenge the status quo.)

shiaika · February 2013

gillrmn wrote: »

Recently a disturbing trend has arisen in the forums which avoids all the discussions and reduces them into pointless debates. It was not so a few months ago when discussions used to be more enriching and full of facts rather than emotions of hate, anger and love for an argument.

For example any topic presented polarizes the thread into shades of white or black - i.e. those who will defend the game at any cost Vs those who will bash the game at any cost. In this fight between two polarized sides the reasonable discussion on topic is lost.

There are no more 'fans' of the game who will criticize the game for its weak points and there are no more 'haters' who will support the game for its innovative features.

Any argument present whether for or against the game is met by comments of fanboi or hater. The comment is not taken up for its own argument but on the posts go personal towards who has made the post.

This makes me sad and miss the old times when such spats were few yet civilized and people were more understanding.

The more people you gather in one place, the more chances of disagreement. Even if the forum was full of Drizzt clones only, get enough of them and you will get the same issue. And being human beings, the line between disagreement and argument is too thin.

But all that has been happening for a long long time in forums. I can predict with 100% probability that on release, the forum will be a Blood War battlefield for a while that will make the current situation pale in comparison. And if Cryptic/PE cannot react swiftly to correct mistakes in communication, even with more reason.

It would be nice if all of us could behave all the time and be reasonable in our arguments, right? One would expect people to be able to get along despite their differences, right? To keep their emotions in control. But if that was the case, we would have achieved World Peace long ago.

I haven't been a moderator on any forum for a long time now and altough sometimes I miss it, most of the time I'm just glad because more often than not some people make me wish I could smash their... nevermind. I'm quite sure that I provoke similar reactions to some people.:o Internet is the Points of Light setting, if you know what I mean. But it's difficult to keep manners when some people are convinced than being rude is the way to go if they want to get what they want. Maybe if RealID was compulsory in the whole internet and we could be policed, we could finally go from libertiny to liberty. Meanwhile, it's up to the private forum owners to scare people to behave when they fail (why whatever reason) to do so and/or reward positive behaviours.

muzrub333 wrote: »

Well that's what happens when a Forum goes from being the "private" domain of a few people who have gotten to know each other over many months, to being a forum populated by a much wider player base. This forum used to be primarily old school PnP D&D fans, who liked to theorize about what "might be", but now you have to understand, the majority of people looking into this game couldn't care less about D&D. This is just another MMO to them, so they don't want to hear why things are a certain way because of the tie to D&D, they want things to be how other MMO's are. It's only going to get worse as the game gets more press. That's the nature of the beast.

Now I will say, that not everything was rosy before either. I remember people being tarred and feathered, and basically driven of the forums, not because of the game, but because people here made things personal. Attacking their parenting skills, talking down at them because they didn't agree with the Old Clique. It was so ugly, and full of personal attacks, that I just left the forum, and stayed away until Cryptic began releasing more info, and more people started posting to create some semblance of balance on the boards. This place was a true old boys club, and god forbid you didn't toe the line with the "elders".

So yeah, it's depressing to see the polarization of the forums, but it's not like it was a warm and welcoming environment before. (Unless you knew your place, and didn't challenge the status quo.)

Ah, the Camarilla. But we now have the Sabbat and the Independents, plus surely some minor bloodlines.
*feels like an Assamite*

The forum has more than old school D&D players and MMO players that don't care about D&D.

deathssickle · February 2013

Shoot I used to get attacked for how I "greeted" new members and that my signature linked to my guild. Stupid stuff like that, currently I have Tried to stay out of the debating that is in threads(I admit I will point people to news and dev stuff that tells you about the subject) which were more meant to say what you believe would help, and not saying someone is stupid because they think there is too much or too little of something.

I admit we have new users and as I said before when the typical MMOers(most of these people tend to move along if a forum starts getting positive)(and members of the facebook page) bunch come through we need to prepare for a bashing, and we will need more Mods.

Anyway, I do think that we need to stop the fighting, there needs to be discussion and criticism but the bashing needs to stop.

Also the people of facebook who are just coming here for beta or a contest will Bash more likely than not if it is not exactly how they want.

lastperson · February 2013

once there is in game community it will revert ... people need to define if they are going to be long term or not and then more constructive criticism will occur

deathssickle · February 2013

Well if you guys remember when they were giving away an Alpha key tons of people came and bashed us, but afterwards they left, most likely those that are similar will leave after they know it isnt going their way.

trollolollol · February 2013

I think its not just teh forums but game industry, basically all this blockbuster mega sellers, are so big incidents, players are basically supporters of those and their makers... Of course Blizzard and WoW is the worst of the worst. Things have definitely changed.

What theres to say basically big companies have became big brands nowadays.

I think its pretty cool how Steam has grown, damn I remember when it was announced and how awful it looked.

klaw10 · February 2013

This is actually a science. There are people whose job is to work out what the answers to polls and questionaires actually mean because the only people who respond to polls and questionaires are passoinate about the issue and you don't get the people in between. In fact this is why you get fined if you don't answer the questions on national census day (and why here in australia elections are compulsory for everyone over 18).

draxonfly · February 2013

It hasn't changed that much... there is just a lot more people on either side now which makes it louder..

Also I think people are starting to panic and/or their emotions are taking over more since the game is getting closer to release..

beowulf1961 · February 2013

Sadly it seems to happen in every beta test lately.

getcarter88 · February 2013

gillrmn wrote: »

Recently a disturbing trend has arisen in the forums which avoids all the discussions and reduces them into pointless debates. It was not so a few months ago when discussions used to be more enriching and full of facts rather than emotions of hate, anger and love for an argument.

For example any topic presented polarizes the thread into shades of white or black - i.e. those who will defend the game at any cost Vs those who will bash the game at any cost. In this fight between two polarized sides the reasonable discussion on topic is lost.

There are no more 'fans' of the game who will criticize the game for its weak points and there are no more 'haters' who will support the game for its innovative features.

Any argument present whether for or against the game is met by comments of fanboi or hater. The comment is not taken up for its own argument but on the posts go personal towards who has made the post.

This makes me sad and miss the old times when such spats were few yet civilized and people were more understanding.

i agree with what U r sayin - i really hoped that NW forums wud b diff than othaz iv cn that r just like this - i rarely add 2 post as i am not knowledgeable enough 2 help/give advise & got my nose rubbd in it if i tryd - so i do not fit in with the ppl who dabate but i love to read the threadz but find them spoild by ppl who r not interestd in NW FR DandD lore or PnP - but r just lookin 4 anotha MMO & wish 2 trash it when it is not what they want i LUV NW & wil b stayin no matta what but i wil not b - addin 2 postz regularly or makin any of my own nor wil i prob join a guild - itz just 2 much drama - i hope it settlez down but i doubt it

atherr · February 2013

Very good post gillrmn.

Thank you.

Polarization of opinions on the forums

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