Anyone who has posted at a large videogame forum knows what I’m talking about. When gamers gather in large quantities a special brand of negativity begins to arise.

When gamers stop talking about positive aspects of titles, stop talking about their anticipation and more about their frustration at a delay, and gamers who just flat out flame titles with little justification.

I hate to point fingers (no I don’t), but anyone who has spent a month at Teamxbox can attest to this. A positive is always countered with a negative, which is countered with another negative, which is then overshadowed by some more negativity and a little bit of flame bait.

And unless you’re playing one of the “in” games you’re stuck weeding through countless bash posts to hear one relevant comment. Example: Sega GT Online. When that game came out dozens of people bashed it that had yet to even play the game.

For some games you can literally just look at it and say “Now THAT’S going to be garbage”. But gather up enough gamers in one spot and suddenly any game that isn’t the next Halo gets the same treatment.

It got me to wondering, are internet gamers just too informed?

It’s a ritual. We hope online, check out the latest news, screenshots and movies, and like most gamers will do, immediately begin to make comparisons.

“Halo 2 is better than Killzone”
“Doom 3 has horrible AI”
“Half-Life 2 will be the best game evar!

The eagerness at which people jump to conclusions online is downright sickening. A game doesn’t have to be released in order for gamers to pass their final judgment.

And I’m quite sure even you have looked at a game and passed judgment before playing it. I know I have. (unless it’s Mortal Kombat 6 – damn that’s gonna suck!!!)

I’m a gamer like everyone else and I have my opinions like everyone else. After all, it doesn’t have to be a videogame, it can be anything.

We pass early judgment on movies, sporting events, television shows… anything that can be pre-judged is pre-judged.

But fortunately most people can keep their mouth shut. I for one hate it when people wear their opinions on their sleeves.

Unfortunately they are usually the first gamer to respond with a negative comment. Even if the thread was meant to praise a game somebody has to step in and post (and most often, repost) why they think game is or will be utter garbage.

But what if internet gamers didn’t have the wealth of knowledge that we so humbly take advantage of?

Do you think it would cutback on fanboys?
Reduce negativity?
Allow gamers to be more open-minded, able to accept flaws easier, worry more about what a game is doing right opposed to what it is doing wrong?

If Kikizo takes off and has hundreds of posts a day it will face the same problem. Unless the place is heavily modded internet trolls will flow.

Until the old members leave and look for a much smaller forum where the negativity isn’t so bad.

The One, The only One
- The Lotus One

P.S. MK6 will suck! ^_^

I agree that smaller groups tend to breed more positivity, but you just have to learn to deal with the idiots.

I' ve been posting regularly at GameSpot for a while now, and while you have to wade through tons of fanboy trash and the like, you DO find gamers like us, who wish only to talk about the hobby they love. For example, there is a System Wars forum over there, designed entirely to keep the fanboys in one place. It' s like a shepard herding the diseased flock into another area to keep the good pastures green and healthy. This tends to work well in the General Games Discussion.

However, it' s AWFULLY depressing just reading the topics and responses in the System Wars forum. 90% are blind fanboys, as you could guess, and it' s just one all-out flame war. Bash this, bash that. You know, there' s only one thing I hate more than a fanboy: a NEGATIVE fanboy. The days are long gone when someone would crow about the great games on their system of choice, saying how great this is and how great that is. Suddenly, it' s all swung to the negative. If you' re a GC fanboy, you don' t continually gloat about how great the system is...instead, you bash the Xbox and PS2 incessantly. This is a nasty trait that got out of hand in SW at GS.

So a few people, older members who just love games and find the entire SW thing depressing and annoying, created " System Wars 2." There' s 1/4 as many people in there, and half of it is off-topic. Most people know each other, and while the occasional fanboy sneaks through, the mods weed them out quickly. Better yet, they delete all posts and responses that fool may have had during his brief stay.

Arguments surrounding this entertainment venue are bound to arise. But then again, that' s the beauty of opinions. At leaast there' s no massive flaming.

People who are true gamers and just play what is fun for them are being stifled; stifled by a generation that only cares about the negative, and believes anything that' s tossed their way. It' s why games like Enter the Matrix and (inevitably) Rise to Honor, sell well. They' re not terrible games, but they' re not a patch on the truly great games. Uninformed gamers are sometimes irritating, but uninformed gamers with an attitude are even more irritating.

I think the best thing to do is to keep a core set of members who know each other and can kind of keep an eye on things, even if they' re not mods. How? Ignore the trash; i.e., don' t feed the trolls.

I' m crying right now. But, seriously, your right. I only post here because of that reason. I also am begining to think that the free game is a bad idea, Kikizo' s forum is growing rapidly. Yes, I want the site to grow, but not the forum unless it is positve.