The Forums of the Mad

My thoughts on the often predictable behavior and reactions of illogical Commentors, Forum goers and even Journalists and Writers when things are different then they imagine them to be, and what It really means to have an opinion

"*gasp* Is that n4g?" I say to my little bro in a joking tone, while he surfed the web on his SmartPhone as I hovered over his shoulder. I had abandoned the site during the Pokemon x/y backlash, and hadn't seen it since.
"Yeah" he replied. "It's awful"

"Huh? What is?" I asked, though I already knew.
"The response to the Nintendo Direct. People are angry about it. They're are in denial."
As I had guessed. It wasn't but 35 or so minutes before I was ranting about a ridiculous article on Wired accusing Nintendo of displaying "vaporware". He was probably curious what the rabid fanbase of the aggregate site thought of the presentation as well.
"They're mad that Nintendo had a good showing, saying that it was all nothing but rehashes and remakes. One guy even said that all they announced at all were rehashes and HD conversions"

But of course they were. This ridiculous, un-intelligent lip flipping and BS is why I left.
But why is it important enough to bring up here?

In my mind, We all love video games here, and I imagine that people on other such sites do as well. Many of us are completely encapsulated by our virtual worlds. So of course, it isn't surprising that we would take it seriously from time to time. For me, I love to follow the industry, trends, sales and peoples opinions and reactions. And it infuriates me that, even within the spectrum of open mindedness and vastly differing opinions, voices and stances... That someone can be completely and utterly wrong, and delude themselves and others into contorting reality.

An opinion... wrong? Yes, a persons self gathered stance can be incorrect when made up of half truths, lies and groundless assumption. And if you take the time to look at what you are so passionate about enough to comment on in the first place and use logic to understand it, to see how it truly is through your own eyes, then you are "right" in your mind even if there are other "rights" that clash against yours. That's what an opinion is, after all... a gathering of information brewed by your personality.

This subset, however, so vocal and aggressive in placing their stance for others to see doesn't always appear to do this. The information is already stored up in their heads in bits and pieces of fallacy and fact. The answers are made from a set material, either too stained with "lies" or weak assumption to be anywhere near reality. Illogical, inconsistent and boisterous, they crow from their rooftops things they appear to me to know little to nothing about.

And people are listening. How can they not? They are loud, over-reactive and, in the case of some places like n4g, in control. There are even those sitting in higher positions like the aforementioned article on Wired, though admittedly the writer wasn't nearly as bad in his analysis as I imagine the n4g flock were. Places of even greater influence to a wider audience of people, many of whom may be easily affected.

What's worse, many fail to ever see reason. To accept fact and logic for what it is, and to admit their previous stance was wrong. Instead, they close their ears and scream the same things they have already said louder and louder.

It upsets me. It grinds my gears.
It scares the HELL out of me.

That misinformation, irrational hate and bias can be broadcast to have the self fulfilling desired effect of its Criers. To tarnish their targets or brighten their deity, it doesn't matter greatly which. Just the fact that it can, no matter how small it may appear. Yet, all the same convincing some such person of the truths and realities nearly impossible. And while I'm sure I am giving to much credit to such "xenophobic" minorities, I have always had this worry that such acts will damage not only a company I love, but an industry I adore.

But, in the end I guess it matters little. Even if these uninformed ramblings do have any grand effect, it would be impossible to stop it by acting against the offenders. So I'll just ignore it where it festers, and stick to having actual discussions within communities where logic makes sense. Where it means more to have a disagreement with someone, because it matters less that I think differently than someone with another legitimate opinion of their own. And who knows. Maybe, even if inadvertently so, that will help make up for the rantings of fools.

"Well, that's not surprising" I replied to my brother. "That's why I left in the first place."
"Though I do wonder if my absence has made it worse(to jokingly stroke my own inflated ego). If I made a difference there."
"It wouldn't matter" he replied. "They wouldn't have listened anyway."
"Yeah. I know."

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