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What is it about being gamers that turns so many of us into assholes when it comes to what we like and don't like?

RoboFu

One of the green rats
I am more of a contrarian than a fanboy except I’d say I am a Nintendo fanboy lol.

I usually go for irony more than anything. During the ps3 era people would call me a PS fanboy, Wii era Nintendo fanboy, ps4 - ps5 era a Xbox fanboy. I just naturally gravitate to responding ironically to the loudest group. 🤷‍♂️

Like right now the trend seems to inserting untrue statements about “ hype “ where no one is hyping anything. Like the recent hell blade 2 thread.
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
Meh....some people think their opinion is superior to others or even think it is a matter of taste. Just gotta....

Steve Harvey Wow GIF by NBC




Politics and sports forums/discussions are worse



Exactly. I spend a little time on a sports forum and those guys are constantly being assholes to each other, even if they root for the same team. I go there and think "damn....GAF ain't bad at all".
Between playing and attending I could not even begin to count how many sporting venues I have been to and before "todays" athletes became so sensitive I heard every insult that could be thrown at players and fan to one another

I have seen so many fights between people

Have told this story a few times but my first wife was shopping with our at the time 1 year old son and I blew a save and some fan knew who my wife was, saw her in the store and shoved her to the ground and told her if I blew another save he would kill us both

This was not the only death threat I received throughout playing Baseball and why I started carrying protection at all times and still do to this day

People are horrible to one another
 

Topher

Gold Member
Between playing and attending I could not even begin to count how many sporting venues I have been to and before "todays" athletes became so sensitive I heard every insult that could be thrown at players and fan to one another

I have seen so many fights between people

Have told this story a few times but my first wife was shopping with our at the time 1 year old son and I blew a save and some fan knew who my wife was, saw her in the store and shoved her to the ground and told her if I blew another save he would kill us both

This was not the only death threat I received throughout playing Baseball and why I started carrying protection at all times and still do to this day

People are horrible to one another

Yeah, I remember that story. Can't imagine. Most I can relate to is going to Auburn football games and dealing with the threats from drunk fans after the games. Assholes like that suck the joy out of all of it so I stopped going.
 

Phase

Member
Personally, I like a lot of what gaming used to be. I liked the innovation and the creativity and the fun. I see where companies want to take gaming and I don't like it. They've been taking innovation, creativity, and fun out of the equation for money. This has gotten worse and worse over time.

So when I see people like, engage, and purchase games that I see as detrimental to what I like about gaming it makes me upset. This is just the plain 100% truth and the only thing that genuine upsets me within gaming. It's the reason the most recent release I've purchased was Elden Ring, and why I've amassed a huge collection of retro roms to enjoy to get away from "modern gaming."
 

cireza

Member
You arrive in a new forum and make your first post. Respectful, with the intention of being a nice guy. Because that's what you are in life, and that doesn't come from you, but from how people really do consider you (family, work etc...).

Among the answers, you get a number of anonymous guys being super disrespectful, making fun of you, insulting you or whatever. Or they judge you on the spot because they have been engaged in whatever stupid crusade for too many years (you didn't even have a chance to know about).

Why should I continue being polite and nice if a number of people around me are being as dumb as they can possibly be ? Why should I put even the smallest effort to bring up constructive discussion with these people ? And there you have it : they paved the way for you. For sure, my second post will be about showing them how dumb they are.

You don't even have to be invested in anything. The simple display of blatant bad-faith, hate, disrespect towards whatever community or group can be enough to annoy you to the point where you simply can't engage positively with people doing it, and become like them : an asshole.

As long as being an anonymous disrespectful asshole will be tolerated, then this situation will remain the same.

On a personal note, I am certain that some people consider me as an Xbox fanboy or whatever stupid status (paid shill or whatever they come up with). Truth is I don't give a shit about MS or Nintendo or Sony (I only really care about SEGA, so I will let you guess the extent of my suffering for the last 20 years, I didn't even make it in the 40 hours stat of Starfield lol). But I am annoyed by the constant, ridiculous bashing we get around here. This is absolutely in-sa-ne. So I don't even remotely want to engage in any positive discussion with people that are constantly pushing for this.
 
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Fbh

Member
It's not about being a gamer, it's about almost all enthusiast crowds. Once people turn their hobbies into a significant part of their personality that sort of elitist mentality becomes common.
Go to a coffee enthusiast forum and tell them you like cheap supermarket coffee instead specialty arabica harvested at 50.000 feet by blind Colombian virgins


It's sort of like this:


But more agressive.
 

sigmaZ

Member
Even I am guilty of this more than I like, though I try to keep it under control. More than any other group I have had to be a part of online, too many of us only exist to tell the other person how wrong they are. You like Metroid Other M? You suck and should never be heard from again. You like Final Fantasy 13? Your opinion is bad and you should feel bad. You think TLOU 1 is better than part 2? Bigot sandwhiches! You think old god of war is better than new god of war? Boy.......

ok, but seriously. What is it about being gamers and being online that makes so many of us assholes who seem hell bent on jerking themselves off over what they like, while tearing others down over other Gamer opins?

Personally, I can't stand TLOU2, but you know what you don't see me do? Bashing people in threads about the game for liking something. Live and let live I hear some folks say. Why does it seem that this is such a foreign concept for some?
People hold strongly to their convictions. Critical opinions about media can almost cross over to moral convictions. And then there's the added bonus of people identifying with what they like at a core level, leaving certain takes and criticisms about what they like to be untenable. People are like this about music and other things too.

I used to be attached to certain genres and types of games in that sort of way, but as I've gotten old I've become more fixated on the mechanics of game in a critical way. I find it stimulating to look at both the flaws and merits of all games now whether I enjoyed the experience or not.
 

killatopak

Member
Emotional attachment to games.

A negative opinion on a game may seem like a personal attack since it directly contradicts your thoughts on the said game. It’s an indirect way of saying you’re wrong.
 

mdkirby

Member
It’s just tribal behaviour. Same stuff is much more obviously apparent in sports, but it’s the same driving factors.
 

IAmRei

Member
on my first decade in internet, i never see lot of hatred, or maybe i'm just too young or my knowledge is not so deep about it. i only see fanboys in real life, and although they are annoying, they mostly never spoke online because they mostly dont dwell online much as much as today. but in about a decade ago, i saw lot of person easily bash people without feeling responsible, online. and ever since people started to bash each other, especially on social media or forum that allowed to bash each other as long as the forum may had small fortune because traction of page views they received that can be converted to ads or bucks. and these days, people bashing each other more. if i can tell much, it is nature of internet and human is chained upon it. we, human, easily to distracted and maybe attracted to some wuzz. and those tactic, fueled website with some pageviews or "bucks". in my opinion, we are being like this, half part of the fault is also coming from media for so, to fight each other. while we fight each other, they got more bucks, and we only got "growing hate to each other".

for some reason like this, i left social media, years ago.

it's better to left uneccessery fight and keep to love what we love. whenever i find something unpleasant, i left to find other place. i'm glad there is a button to ignore or hide, mute, or something else just for me to enjoy what i like and skip what i don't.
 
Meh....some people think their opinion is superior to others or even think it is a matter of taste. Just gotta....

Steve Harvey Wow GIF by NBC




Politics and sports forums/discussions are worse



Exactly. I spend a little time on a sports forum and those guys are constantly being assholes to each other, even if they root for the same team. I go there and think "damn....GAF ain't bad at all".
Yeah GAF is very tame compared those two fields. Even the console war during the PS360 era was mild compared to the shit I've seen in politics. Then we witnessed politics creep into sports and entertainment and a lot of folks like myself just completely checked out and then the big corpos all wonder why they can't bring in new fans/revenues.

I've seen a lot of the younger folks just not be interested in sports or movies anymore which, in some ways is a great thing to happen, but is completely opposite to the generation I grew up in.

The youngsters get a lot of shit from us but honestly, in my experience a lot of them are not aligned with the blue haired folks they are often portrayed as, and they give me hope that better years are ahead of us.
 

RickMasters

Member
Petty, weak and small man-children freely subjecting themselves to tribalism.
It being anonymous also goes a long way, you get to be a cunt without any consequences.
social-media-made-yall-way-too-comfortable-with-v0-3s5nc73bvzua1.png
I agree with this. I think most people are far more tame than their tone may suggest online. It’s that anonymous factor at play. They feel safe talking reckless behind a keyboard. I don’t like it.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
It's not gaming. People get heated with any topic they're passionate about. It's because people have big egos and they feel threatened by conflicting arguments. When people feel threatened they usually get combative. Ergo, become assholes.
 

Allandor

Member
It's not gaming. People get heated with any topic they're passionate about. It's because people have big egos and they feel threatened by conflicting arguments. When people feel threatened they usually get combative. Ergo, become assholes.
No that's so wrong you i*****

[/Ironic] ;)

Exactly that. And an extra problem with social media, you always find people that are with you (whatever the direction is) and so they will amplify this.
This will also happen in the real world, but there you are in a much smaller bubble with much less "amplifiers".
 
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-Zelda-

Banned
Social media was a mistake, aside from less than 10 people that I know in real life on facebook, this is the only place I dare post anything, and even that gets me nervous sometimes. As to sports and politics, I never go there. Best to leave that one in a ditch.
 
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KungFucius

King Snowflake
Some are so invested in their plastic toys that they put down the other side. Maybe if they had more games to play they wouldn't have time to troll threads reference things they hate. Every other poster acts like they own 99% of stock in Sony, Nintendo, or MS.
They bought the one they worship and must defend it at all costs. You like gamepass? Enemy.
 

The Fuzz damn you!

Gold Member
On a personal note, I am certain that some people consider me as an Xbox fanboy or whatever stupid status (paid shill or whatever they come up with). Truth is I don't give a shit about MS or Nintendo or Sony (I only really care about SEGA, so I will let you guess the extent of my suffering for the last 20 years, I didn't even make it in the 40 hours stat of Starfield lol). But I am annoyed by the constant, ridiculous bashing we get around here.

Who is “we”?

There are a lot of great responses in this thread. For my part, I do get a little fired up at times, but my general approach is the opposite of cinema’s here. In real life and online, I refuse to let my personality be determined by the people I despise. At the very least, if I’m going to fire off invective, it will be reasoned and principled invective.

Mostly.

I hope.
 

Humdinger

Member
I think part of what happens is that when we enter the world of videogames, we enter a very tiny world. We get hyper-focused on this tiny world. We lose touch with the bigger picture.

I also think it's a male thing. We want to compete and one-up each other. It's easy to fall into that online, where there is no face-to-face reality.
 

King Dazzar

Member
People get bent out of shape over anything. It can be the most trivial of things too. I remember years ago people going mental over what's the best anti virus software. Insanity when you step back and look at it.
 

Rat Rage

Member
Even I am guilty of this more than I like, though I try to keep it under control. More than any other group I have had to be a part of online, too many of us only exist to tell the other person how wrong they are. You like Metroid Other M? You suck and should never be heard from again. You like Final Fantasy 13? Your opinion is bad and you should feel bad. You think TLOU 1 is better than part 2? Bigot sandwhiches! You think old god of war is better than new god of war? Boy.......

ok, but seriously. What is it about being gamers and being online that makes so many of us assholes who seem hell bent on jerking themselves off over what they like, while tearing others down over other Gamer opins?

Personally, I can't stand TLOU2, but you know what you don't see me do? Bashing people in threads about the game for liking something. Live and let live I hear some folks say. Why does it seem that this is such a foreign concept for some?

You are way too sensitive. If you don't like or can't handle other opinions, just leave the internet and only get in touch with like-minded people. It may make your life easier.
 
I feel like it's two things, one the dying down of game enthusiasts/enthusiasm online combined with console warring. On the internet, people tend to be more exaggerated than irl, so it's more common to come across trolling and disagreement and all that stuff
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Politics is an absolute poison on society. It divides people into mobs and has a tendency to only serve those in power.


People brandish political bullshit on their clothes, vehicles, and homes as though they were sports teams.

Literally at each other’s throats over wealthy politicians than don’t actually give a damn about any of them or the country. They just want to keep themselves in power.

Videogames are no different. It’s just the “teams” are hardware makers.
 
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SHA

Member
Some are so invested in their plastic toys that they put down the other side. Maybe if they had more games to play they wouldn't have time to troll threads reference things they hate. Every other poster acts like they own 99% of stock in Sony, Nintendo, or MS.
Kids, they eat sugar and then scratch all our backs with infinite stamina, it's wasted anyway.
 
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