Comments about: ~1:28 - ~1:34
On Differing Opinions and Hostile Assumptions
(I'll pretend it's a title)
A lot of those arguments boil down to "You like something I don't like, therefore I hate you."
Obviously stupid and childish, but I think I just described half the Internet there. Most of modern online gaming culture anyway.
But that isn't always the whole story: some of the most-intense arguments of that nature stem from a long-running frustration.
For the sake of clarity, I'll use a personal example:
Games transitioning from being sold as Products, and being sold now as Services.
I don't like this trend. At all. I can criticize it, but I am utterly powerless to stop it. (I have my reasons, but they aren't directly relevant to my point here)
So naturally, a significant portion of the market begins to embrace that model despite these future problems. I'm left shaking my head and sighing.
So, armed with a dissenting opinion, I'm off to the Internet to voice my concern like thousands of other gamers.
As an individual member of the gaming community, I recognize that my opinion is tiny, insignificant shard representative of the whole.
Yet, it's often very tempting to rage against the masses of the community, because I know ultimately, that it's most of THOSE people who keep pushing gaming into a future where I will have to pay more for less and put up with more bullshit from the publisher just to play a fucking video game.
It's sometimes difficult to avoid thinking like this:
"The masses supporting games that support trends I don't like is going to lead to those trends becoming dominant."
Which, with enough time, bitterness and cynicism can very easily twist into "They like stuff I don't like, so I hate them for it."
(Kind of sounds like partisan-politics when you get down to it, doesn't it?)
THE POINT:
Part of growing up is accepting that some (most, really) part(s) of your life will inevitably change, and for most of us, it's by that part going to shit. Mostly because people are more assholes than angels. Internal competition under the veil of social cooperation.
So people are going to complain. A LOT.
Yet, I know that sitting around and mindlessly complaining won't get you the change you want (for better or ill). It's better to attempt rational, civil discourse than screaming your demands like a child.
And for that, you need to separate the issue from the audience wherever it's possible.
You need to avoid subjectivity where possible, yet still respect it no matter how absurd (as long as it remains strictly-subjective. True "opinions" cannot be wrong until objective proof contradicts them. Putting "I think.." in front of an obvious contradiction does not make it an opinion, it makes it willful idiocy).
I'll risk a platitude here: "If everyone screams their complaints, nobody is heard."
Hating another person just for having a differing opinion is "screaming". It's whining like a child who doesn't understand, and most keep screaming their demands because they don't WANT to understand: they just want to be heard.
So in that, I definitely agree that (from the podcast) the forums, and gaming culture in general, could use a lot less mindless screaming, and learn how to better disagree. At least with the latter, you can walk away understanding more about the situation other than "That guy was a screaming asshole".
(*Sure, I could have wrote a pithy one or two line reply here, but where's the fun in that?*
Besides. I'm currently strung up in bed with (I think) a crushing allergic reaction from something I breathed in when I returned home from a long distance trip. Eyes are puffed up a bit and I've been sneezing something fierce. Nothin' better to do.)