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Question for long time gamers..why do you post negatively about games?

For those that do: Why do you post negative posts about games (especially mmo types)?

 

I know every type of gamer will answer and that's fine but as someone who used to post heavily in game forums (and still read them) it seems that people are more negative these days (and this is based on 20+ years of game forums) in game and out.

If you don't post negatively feel free to post why you think many do.

 

For me (I've done my share of negative posting) I used to do it because I felt strongly about something and wanted to talk about it. I eventually learned to be more even-handed in my opinions as I have aged but I find that I need to know why folks are compelled to post negative posts, ie : why 'this game' won't make it   ...why this group of people are wrong...what I dislike about 'this game'.

 

My reasoning for this thread is that at times reading a game forum about a game you like can be fun but not when it is filled with folks who seem to need to dislike something intensely and need anyone else that plays or not know about it.

 

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Comments

  • madazzmadazz Member RarePosts: 2,107

    Forums were only established 19  years ago, no more, no less. 19 shalt be the correct number thou shalt admit, and the number of the years shall be 19. 20 shalt thou not count, neither count thou 18, excepting that thou then proceeded to 19. 20+ is right out. 

     

     

  • JhustynJhustyn Member UncommonPosts: 109

    Its a good question really.....I have posted my fair share of negative posts about games......but..I think I have found myself finding a few good words to say about a game every now and then too......

    Its probably got something to do with were just getting older and have developed more patience.......Its the "now" generation......I would suspect that patience in younger gamers is just as thin as ever......its probably not good to generalize age groups etc.....but.....Its just something I notice from personal experience...the older I get...the more patient I am...Anyway....I hope that wasn't too negative...... :)

  • jonrd463jonrd463 Member UncommonPosts: 607
    Someone's gotta provide balance in the face of fanboyism.

    "You'll never win an argument with an idiot because he is too stupid to recognize his own defeat." ~Anonymous

  • MuruganMurugan Member Posts: 1,494
    Originally posted by Jhustyn

    Its a good question really.....I have posted my fair share of negative posts about games......but..I think I have found myself finding a few good words to say about a game every now and then too......

    Its probably got something to do with were just getting older and have developed more patience.......Its the "now" generation......I would suspect that patience in younger gamers is just as thin as ever......its probably not good to generalize age groups etc.....but.....Its just something I notice from personal experience...the older I get...the more patient I am...Anyway....I hope that wasn't too negative...... :)

    That makes no sense, if you were more patient then you wouldn't have to resort to flaming.

     

    To me flaming is both a symptom of the newer generation that knows only social media/online communication and is therefore more apt to "flame" anything they dislike (whether or not they have really given it a chance or not, a sign of their impatience and short attention spans); as well as a symptom of the jaded individual who no longer has fun doing activities he used to find enjoyable and seeks to spread his misery to others wherever they may be.

     

    The latter has existed since the dawn of the internet, and before then (though they were obviously shunned/ignored by most of society prior to being given a voice on the internet).  But I think the prevalence of flaming today can be blamed on this new generation (though they have obviously converted many older people over to the full time occupation of online forum troll).

     

    I think you know you have it really bad when you are no longer content to just troll forums like these but are going around posting negative comments on news stories on other websites where you have to create an account just to post your snarky comment.

  • Beatnik59Beatnik59 Member UncommonPosts: 2,413
    Originally posted by jonrd463
    Someone's gotta provide balance in the face of fanboyism.

    So true.

    __________________________
    "Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
    --Arcken

    "...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
    --Hellmar, CEO of CCP.

    "It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
    --Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE

  • KazuhiroKazuhiro Member UncommonPosts: 607
    Usually, it's as simple as the game deserved the negativity/criticism. As to why it's more common now, several reasons, there are more people playing mmos, hence more people to complain, and because mmos have gotten lower and lower quality over time, making for more reasons to bash their increasingly lower quality.

    To find an intelligent person in a PUG is not that rare, but to find a PUG made up of "all" intelligent people is one of the rarest phenomenons in the known universe.

  • duggyfr3sh123duggyfr3sh123 Member Posts: 95

    as someone who has lurked and posted on this forum for more than 10 years, that's what this place is for. it's funny man, don't be swayed by the people exalting EQ, DAoC, AO, SWG, etc...they hated them all fiercely back when they were relevant and hated the directions they were all going in. that's all this forum is, hate and complaining and negativity. anything that isn't hated is mostly ignored. any game that has a high amount of customer satisfaction and success is hated the most.

    some games deserve it, but the posters here go way overboard to the point where complaints are no longer legitimate. honestly? this community is a haven for the mmo drifters without a game to play and they really make it their mission and purpose to latch on to something to hate. this literally is their MMO.

  • AlBQuirkyAlBQuirky Member EpicPosts: 7,432


    Originally posted by jeddak
    For me (I've done my share of negative posting) I used to do it because I felt strongly about something and wanted to talk about it.
    Pretty much this.

    I feel strongly about MMORPGs and feel they have strayed from what they used to be. The masses agree with the new direction and it is great for them, but sucks for the players who played MMORPGs for different reasons than fighting and end game, like me.

    When I am looking to single player computer games to last longer than MMOs, it is backwards to me. I guess if I rearranged my thinking I could just leave MMOs altogether. That little glimmer of hope just will not go away...

    - Al

    Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.
    - FARGIN_WAR


  • maplestonemaplestone Member UncommonPosts: 3,099

    If I may answer the question with a question: why post negatively about gamers?

    (the answer is likely the same)

     

  • DrakynnDrakynn Member Posts: 2,030

    Forums are meant to be discussions and debate so negative and positive arguments should be allowed and in fact encouraged.Especially an open forum like this one.

    However where this really breaks down is when you get extreme positive and negative arguments from people who believe they are absolutely,black and white with no shades of grey,with no possible counter argument feasible or credible right.

  • MuruganMurugan Member Posts: 1,494
    Originally posted by Drakynn

    Forums are meant to be discussions and debate so negative and positive arguments should be allowed and in fact encouraged.Especially an open forum like this one.

    However where this really breaks down is when you get extreme positive and negative arguments from people who believe they are absolutely,black and white with no shades of grey,with no possible counter argument feasible or credible right.

    I disagree with this.

     

    If someone enjoys something deeply enough to not have any issues with it, they have no obligation to admit to "flaws" others see in it.

     

    Take your wife for example (if you are married) or your girlfriend/whatever, you may be unwilling to agree with others how ugly, fat, stupid, and whorish she is.  Now I'm not saying any of those thing about your wife, but if you post about her on the internet someone will.

     

    There is no such thing as "fanboyism" and "white knighting" only trolling, those are just words people use to justify their trolling.  Now people can have a discussion from two viewpoints on an MMO (one positive, one negative), even if one person passionately enjoys it.  The other person has a responsibility to buffer their criticisms with reasoning to avoid insulting the first person, when people do not do this they are seen as trolling. 

     

    Of course some things like saying "___ is shit" or "___ is crap" or F2P is a total scam (something I say a lot), should be considered trolling regardless of any reasoning given.  Because these are grievous insults unsuitable for civil conversations or debates between two rational adults.

     

    Except in the example I gave because F2P is a total scam and if people only realized that then the world would be a better place, and the games I play would be better (this of course is the same justification trolls use when bashing MMO's such as ARR, if only it didn't exist and wasn't liked by some then Mortal Online would ahve been the amazing sandbox utopia it was promised to be).

  • treelotreelo Member Posts: 70

    It's simply the nature of the world we live in today.  Large portions of society are free to express themselves in whatever way they see fit.  The problem being that large portions of society are poorly educated (or just stupid), childish, vindictive, and selfish.  When MMOs first hit the field, everyone was just happy to have something new and exciting to play with.  Rage was directed at players, not games.  Your average gamer has changed significantly since then, and so have the games they play.  Fewer reasons to interact socially within a game leave people with only one obvious place to vent their frustrations, the internet as a whole.  Easy access to knowledge has made everyone an expert, which somehow makes them more qualified to make the ridiculous claims they do.  Eventually the next game-changer will arrive and things will settle down for a while as we all stare in awe at what has been created for us, until that gets old too.

    There is nothing wrong with criticising a game, it should be encouraged even, but the manner in which it is done makes all the difference.  The problem here is that those who know how to critique a game properly, or are in the best position to do so, have been around long enough to hear their cries go unheard too many times for them to care.  That leaves you with just the morons writing vacuous walls of text, or the idiot trolls who don't care either way.  When I do feel inclined to comment on a game, I try to offer both sides of the story unless the game has no redeeming features.  If that's the case, I often don't bother at all.

    It will get worse before it gets better, and it's already pretty goddamn bad.

    image

  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    Originally posted by madazz

    Forums were only established 19  years ago, no more, no less. 19 shalt be the correct number thou shalt admit, and the number of the years shall be 19. 20 shalt thou not count, neither count thou 18, excepting that thou then proceeded to 19. 20+ is right out. 

     

     

    LMAO ok there Monty Python,shall we release the Holy Hand Grenade ?

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • DrakynnDrakynn Member Posts: 2,030
    Originally posted by Murugan
    Originally posted by Drakynn

    Forums are meant to be discussions and debate so negative and positive arguments should be allowed and in fact encouraged.Especially an open forum like this one.

    However where this really breaks down is when you get extreme positive and negative arguments from people who believe they are absolutely,black and white with no shades of grey,with no possible counter argument feasible or credible right.

    I disagree with this.

     

    If someone enjoys something deeply enough to not have any issues with it, they have no obligation to admit to "flaws" others see in it.

     

    Take your wife for example (if you are married) or your girlfriend/whatever, you may be unwilling to agree with others how ugly, fat, stupid, and whorish she is.  Now I'm not saying any of those thing about your wife, but if you post about her on the internet someone will.

     

    There is no such thing as "fanboyism" and "white knighting" only trolling, those are just words people use to justify their trolling.  Now people can have a discussion from two viewpoints on an MMO (one positive, one negative), even if one person passionately enjoys it.  The other person has a responsibility to buffer their criticisms with reasoning to avoid insulting the first person, when people do not do this they are seen as trolling. 

     

    Of course some things like saying "___ is shit" or "___ is crap" or F2P is a total scam (something I say a lot), should be considered trolling regardless of any reasoning given.  Because these are grievous insults unsuitable for civil conversations or debates between two rational adults.

     

    Except in the example I gave because F2P is a total scam and if people only realized that then the world would be a better place, and the games I play would be better (this of course is the same justification trolls use when bashing MMO's such as ARR, if only it didn't exist and wasn't liked by some then Mortal Online would ahve been the amazing sandbox utopia it was promised to be).

    You make some valid points but still I disagree in kind

    Enjoying something deeply should not blind one to it's faults,it's just that for that person the enjoys the positives so much that the negatives to them are in not a game breaking issue.Lying to oneself  or blind fanaticism should never be excused.For instance I enjoyed the hell out of Warhammer Online for a year never blind to it's faults and only leaving once those faults became too numerous or onerous.

    Fanboism is just one example of blind fanaticism as his Hating on a game blindly.To sides of the same coin.Trolling is not either of those things because the Troller  doesn't really believe in what they are saying but  laying out bait to attract fish.There can be no rational and adult argument between any of the above mentioned because they are not arguing rationally or even listening.

    Also my wife is not fat or ugly!!!! hehehe

     

  • TheocritusTheocritus Member LegendaryPosts: 9,751
    If I like a game or things about a game I post positive, and if I dont like a game or certain things about a game i post negative....I dont see why I should say "Aion is the greatest game I ever played" if I really thought it sucked and I'd rather have people post what they truly feel about a game instead of sugar coating it.
  • MuruganMurugan Member Posts: 1,494
    Originally posted by Drakynn
    Originally posted by Murugan
    Originally posted by Drakynn

    Forums are meant to be discussions and debate so negative and positive arguments should be allowed and in fact encouraged.Especially an open forum like this one.

    However where this really breaks down is when you get extreme positive and negative arguments from people who believe they are absolutely,black and white with no shades of grey,with no possible counter argument feasible or credible right.

    I disagree with this.

     

    If someone enjoys something deeply enough to not have any issues with it, they have no obligation to admit to "flaws" others see in it.

     

    Take your wife for example (if you are married) or your girlfriend/whatever, you may be unwilling to agree with others how ugly, fat, stupid, and whorish she is.  Now I'm not saying any of those thing about your wife, but if you post about her on the internet someone will.

     

    There is no such thing as "fanboyism" and "white knighting" only trolling, those are just words people use to justify their trolling.  Now people can have a discussion from two viewpoints on an MMO (one positive, one negative), even if one person passionately enjoys it.  The other person has a responsibility to buffer their criticisms with reasoning to avoid insulting the first person, when people do not do this they are seen as trolling. 

     

    Of course some things like saying "___ is shit" or "___ is crap" or F2P is a total scam (something I say a lot), should be considered trolling regardless of any reasoning given.  Because these are grievous insults unsuitable for civil conversations or debates between two rational adults.

     

    Except in the example I gave because F2P is a total scam and if people only realized that then the world would be a better place, and the games I play would be better (this of course is the same justification trolls use when bashing MMO's such as ARR, if only it didn't exist and wasn't liked by some then Mortal Online would ahve been the amazing sandbox utopia it was promised to be).

    You make some valid points but still I disagree in kind

    Enjoying something deeply should not blind one to it's faults,it's just that for that person the enjoys the positives so much that the negatives to them are in not a game breaking issue.Lying to oneself  or blind fanaticism should never be excused.For instance I enjoyed the hell out of Warhammer Online for a year never blind to it's faults and only leaving once those faults became too numerous or onerous.

    Fanboism is just one example of blind fanaticism as his Hating on a game blindly.To sides of the same coin.Trolling is not either of those things because the Troller  doesn't really believe in what they are saying but  laying out bait to attract fish.There can be no rational and adult argument between any of the above mentioned because they are not arguing rationally or even listening.

    Also my wife is not fat or ugly!!!! hehehe

     

    You understand of course because all the things we might view in an MMORPG as faults are subjective, that a person has no responsibility to disregard something they actually like (or the person who dislikes it).  However, while a thread that says "I dislike X for these reasons:"  Is reasonable one which simply says "This is shit" "this is boring" etc. is trolling.  Trolling doesn't have to be something you do not believe, it is simply posting in a negative manner in order to insult others' opinions therefore usually getting a reaction.

     

    "This game is shit" "this game is boring" "this game is too easy" "this game is dumbed down" "this game is a scam"

     

    It would be difficult to not see each and every one of these comments as not being an insult to you personally if you enjoyed that game. 

     

    Meanwhile someone who posts in defense of everything in a game and professes to love it is only "lying to themselves" or practicing "blind fanatacism" if you can prove that they don't genuinely enjoy it.  You can disagree with them and give them reasons why, but their professed enjoyment is not insulting behavior.  If the person who disagrees cannot reconcile the simple difference in opinion even after they have stated their reasoning they can just dismiss the person as being a "blind fanatic". 

     

    However, that is not a very civil way to end a discussion.  When a compromise or agreement can't be reached by two viewpoints those parties should amiably agree to disagree.  If they have stated their reasoning they will have given said person something to think about, and other readers of the thread will benefit from the interaction.

     

    How it usually works on this forum is someone posts a thread titled "this game is shit" (more or less) gives vague statements about how everything is boring, bland, crap, too easy, a grind, a clone, not up to standard).  Fans of the game come to its defense and try to state why they enjoy it (because they have just been accused of liking a boring, bland, crap, faceroll, grindfest, clone) they are promptly called white knights by the OP and random trolls, and the thread devolves into nothing but personal attacks.

     

    People who read the disaster later gain absolutely nothing from the experience, and wonder what they are doing wasting their time on the internet as people often seem incapable of acting like adults.

  • free2playfree2play Member UncommonPosts: 2,043

    Forums are notorious for spinning and misquoting.

    Also people are very bad at seeing things in extreme black and white.

     

    I could write a review about any given game, point out 5 good things, 5 bad things and the 5 good things will get completely ignored and cut out of quotes while the blood hounds feed on the negative.

     

    My question is, why do the forum users do this? Feed on the negative?

  • DamonVileDamonVile Member UncommonPosts: 4,818

    Would there even be a point to forums if no one posted anything negative ? How long would a thread really go on if everyone agreed or only argued that something is even more awesome than the op is making it out to be!

    We come back because people disagree and we like to argue our case. Sometimes you like a game and argue the positive side. Sometimes you think it sucks and don't want devs thinking they should make another one of these steaming piles of crap.

  • ShadanwolfShadanwolf Member UncommonPosts: 2,392

    Simple. Real simple.

     

    I feel lied too

    I feel duped

  • RazeeksterRazeekster Member UncommonPosts: 2,591
    Some party has to be critical to face the hype that seems to overwhelm certain games when people have barely zero info on it (EQN *cough-cough*).

    Smile

  • Squeak69Squeak69 Member UncommonPosts: 959

    personally I think it is because games are not as good as they used to be. ya ok I know grapics are better, and engines are better and all that jazz.

    ut most of the games comeing out these days seem more about making money then about making a damn good game, and because of this people especially us older gamers simply fill like they are not what tey used to be.

    F2P may be the way of the future, but ya know they dont make them like they used toimage
    Proper Grammer & spelling are extra, corrections will be LOL at.

  • grafhgrafh Member UncommonPosts: 320

    I post negatively because i feel the need/right to do so.

     

    With the massive amount of resources being pored into mmo's nowadays, they deserve the negative reviews if it is deserved. Granted most times i state that its an opinionated post, but sometimes its actually factual. Take for instance starwars the mmo. The game was story driven, fun, and awesome until you reached max level. Then there was nothing to do. You come to realize that some classes were OP, End game was flat and not challenging, and pvp was far far from perfect. I felt a need to express my distaste, and to warn fellow gamers of what they were getting into before they bought the game and invested wasted hours. 

    All that money poured into that game and it sucked imo. Who wouldnt feel upset and cheated. So i posted in hopes that people stayed away, and the company realizes the error of their ways.

    If we as gamers dont complain about games that we feel cheated on, then we will never see Great quality mmo's again. They will just keep putting out crap.  

  • Sith2112Sith2112 Member UncommonPosts: 43
    Originally posted by jonrd463
    Someone's gotta provide balance in the face of fanboyism.

    Ok - that is just plain worthy of a 2 thumbs up.. :)

     

     

  • GeezerGamerGeezerGamer Member EpicPosts: 8,855
    Originally posted by jeddak

    For those that do: Why do you post negative posts about games (especially mmo types)?

     

    I know every type of gamer will answer and that's fine but as someone who used to post heavily in game forums (and still read them) it seems that people are more negative these days (and this is based on 20+ years of game forums) in game and out.

    If you don't post negatively feel free to post why you think many do.

     

    For me (I've done my share of negative posting) I used to do it because I felt strongly about something and wanted to talk about it. I eventually learned to be more even-handed in my opinions as I have aged but I find that I need to know why folks are compelled to post negative posts, ie : why 'this game' won't make it   ...why this group of people are wrong...what I dislike about 'this game'.

     

    My reasoning for this thread is that at times reading a game forum about a game you like can be fun but not when it is filled with folks who seem to need to dislike something intensely and need anyone else that plays or not know about it.

     

    Well,

    in the past decade, I have watched games turn to s**t. MMORPGs were fun when they were designed with 6 figure populations. But then something unexpected happened. WoW brought millions of players into the genre. Unfortunately, many of them weren't really MMORPG gamers at heart.  So what have we now?

    An industry chasing after a golden goose that doesn't exist. Millions of MMORPG gamers who will play their game for many months if not years. But many came from RTS, console and RPG games among others. But they didn't want the difficult and slow pace of what MMORPGs were at that time. So now, in an effort to grab the 7 figure populations, the industry has turned it's back on those who were among the MMORPG populations before WoW. 

    It's gotten worse not better.

    I'm not saying they both can't exist. But I'd like to see a developer step up and go back to the grass roots of MMORPGs and make a new one using the same design philosophies. 

  • SengiSengi Member CommonPosts: 350
    Originally posted by jeddak ... I need to know why folks are compelled to post negative posts, ie : why 'this game' won't make it   ...why this group of people are wrong...what I dislike about 'this game'. ...
     
    That is called criticism, and it is a good thing. The one who loves games the most criticises them the most, because he always sees what could be better and what is holding them back and he cares about the broader ideas and the future of the genre.  
    That says a lot about a lot professional game reviewers that never give a low or even an average score. 
     
    Over the years the gaming community has matured. (Although there are exceptions. :D ) The number of games coming out each year has increases, people know more games and the whole demographic has become older, so naturally games have become more picky and more critical. 
     
    The mmorpg genre in particular has stagnated during the last years to the point of being in danger of collapsing. The developers had to learn the hard way that making the 20th wow-clone wont work. People on the forums have rightfully grown enraged and bitter. 
     
    Developers should embrace people bitching on forums. Always remember the ones that complain the most are you biggest fans.
     
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