why do we love to hate?

[Vault101]

just take a look at those "worst game you own" and "games not worth playing" threads

I can pretty much garruntee you that you wouldnt get the same amount of responses from posative equivalents of those threads

we love to hate

we like to focus on the negative, on whats wrong, on whats sucks, on what used to be great but NOW sucks, on whos screwing us, on whos screwing them, or who they are screwing

why?

Im not saying "geeze guys..can't ya'll just be posative for a change?" what Im asking is why do we find anger and negativity more satisfying than posativity? I mean theres has to be somthing to it...otherwise people would nerdage about all things videogames as mcuh as they do

and heres a second question

is it possible to make a concious effort to NOT be negative and cynical? to enjoy things more rather than hate? I genuinly curious,

I mean lets be honest, how can people who claim to love gaming hate it so much?

 

[ChupathingyX]

and heres a second question

is it possible to make a concious effort to NOT be negative and cynical? to enjoy things more rather than hate? I genuinly curious,

I mean lets be honest, how can people who claim to love gaming hate it so much?

Of course.

I personally don't take part in those threads.

I find that talking about things that I like is more fun than talking about something I don't. Sometimes I'll pop in to make a small point and there are some instances where it's difficult for me to ignore, but for the most part I'll stick to the happy side of things.

 

[Zhukov]

Because few things are as satisfying as shaking your fist and yelling, "Fuck you!"

 

[Freechoice]

There's already too much positivity in the world. Fuckin' namby-pamby, hand holding, ecofeminazi horseshit.

We provide the antithesis and the balance against such overwhelming contradictions against human nature.

 

[Don Savik]

Back in the day my grandpappy told me a saying.

"Haters gonna hate"

what comes in the internet box comes out pure hate. Tis how the world works, youngin'

 

[Smooth Operator]

We love to love just as much as we love to hate, the only difference is love will keep people calmly strolling along while hate will quickly inspire raised eyebrows and counter hate, then suddenly the flames are on!

 

[Sixcess]

It's more interesting, both to read and to write, if you accentuate the negative.

Just look at Zero Punctuation.

I find I can write far more about games I hate than about games I love, and it's more likely to spur a response and keep the discussion going.

 

[Nazulu]

If I ever come across that way, it's not because I prefer it. I'm just really disappointed with most products these days. They are usually really poor one way or another, and frankly I just want to shoot it down because I believe that's what it deserves. You may see me as negative, I see it as fair.

Good games I'll praise, but I won't go right over the edge and call it perfect. Bad games, I will point out positives sometimes and even mention they should keep that in.

I love games, I believe they are capable of being the most entertaining out of all arts, but flaws are flaws and I will point it out when I feel like it.

 

[hazabaza1]

It's easier to find the negatives than the postitives, so people just focus on the negatives.

Spoiler: Mass Effect 3 Discussion, be warned

Look at Mass Effect 3. The first few days when people were playing it, loads of people were loving it, people were already calling "Game of the year" and I heard many a reference to a "Near-perfect game."
Then came the third day or so, and oh boy. The rage. These same people instantly forgot all the good that they were saying just a day ago because the ending was really bad for them. I'm not saying that they were whining, or wrong, or whatever, but that negativity just swarmed over all their positive thoughts.

 

[Dandark]

Hatred is a very strong emotion that can be created easily. We love to hate on things because it's so easy to hate something.

Look at EA, they have got so much hate now that even if they suddenly started speaking out against anti-consumer practices and making incredible games, they probably still wouldn't be able to flly recover from the hatred they have managed to get now.

Then we have something like Bioware, a company who people loved. Their fans loved them and they were a very popular game company. If you had started a poll to ask for a really good developer they would have had a good score. Now they are hated by many and they probably also won't be able to ever recover from it.

 

[Esotera]

Because the alternative is 20 threads on how great Skyrim/the latest game is, which is arguably more annoying than the ME3 threads were. At least there was some fun drama to follow in those threads.

And as a general rule, the whole purpose of the internet is to watch people get into absolutely pointless arguments and lose it.

 

[Fishyash]

It's easier to find the negatives than the postitives, so people just focus on the negatives.

Spoiler: Mass Effect 3 Discussion, be warned

Look at Mass Effect 3. The first few days when people were playing it, loads of people were loving it, people were already calling "Game of the year" and I heard many a reference to a "Near-perfect game."
Then came the third day or so, and oh boy. The rage. These same people instantly forgot all the good that they were saying just a day ago because the ending was really bad for them. I'm not saying that they were whining, or wrong, or whatever, but that negativity just swarmed over all their positive thoughts.

This is my take as well.

You will have a harder time talking about what you like about something that what you hate about something. That's why I tend to respect people more if they have as deep an insight on why something is good rather than why something is bad.

 

[Dryk]

Positive things are harder to pin down. I'd imagine it's also the same reason heads get put on pikes, so people can point to the game and say "SEE THIS? DO YOU SEE THIS? DON'T EVER DO THIS OR THIS COULD BE YOU"

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

It is easier to focus on negative than positive but this is just the internet being misanthropic and a place to voice their opinions. I know every forum has a prevailing view that is better than another forum but we're all equally as shit as each other in that respect.

Also the drama everyone loves a good drama, argument and devil's advocate people just don't like admitting they like to argue with the butt headed stubborn people. Besides, we have to shake things up a bit every now and then yes?

Captcha: oh, you
Not sure how I feel about that.

 

[w00tage]

just take a look at those "worst game you own" and "games not worth playing" threads

I can pretty much garruntee you that you wouldnt get the same amount of responses from posative equivalents of those threads

we love to hate

we like to focus on the negative, on whats wrong, on whats sucks, on what used to be great but NOW sucks, on whos screwing us, on whos screwing them, or who they are screwing

why?

Im not saying "geeze guys..can't ya'll just be posative for a change?" what Im asking is why do we find anger and negativity more satisfying than posativity? I mean theres has to be somthing to it...otherwise people would nerdage about all things videogames as mcuh as they do

and heres a second question

is it possible to make a concious effort to NOT be negative and cynical? to enjoy things more rather than hate? I genuinly curious,

I mean lets be honest, how can people who claim to love gaming hate it so much?

Hate is the wrong word. Angry, frustrated and disappointed are much more the right words for what I see. There is no one posting who "hates", even if they use the word (wrongly). For instance, I "hate" that social game companies hire psychologists to help them mind-screw people into continuing to play a game they otherwise would voluntarily quit, and for good reason - the game isn't worth playing further.

But the truth is that I'm more angry that mind-screwing people for money is legal and both shocked and horrified that it's resulted in many billions of dollars of rewards for the offenders. I don't see this as resulting in any good, and there's jack-all I can do because of all the money they have gotten, so I'm frustrated to boot.

So when I say I "hate social games", hate is just a shorthand word for that whole complex of feelings about the subject.

 

[Moagim]

People love drama. You can't create drama by talking about and agreeing about things you like. Hating things has a way bigger chance of offending some insecure douchebag who will explode with rage at you, thereby causing drama for the parasitic retard masses to feed off of.

Basically, they're all trolls.

 

[butternut]

Because a room full of people who agree completely on any given topic is a boring room.

I'd say humans are more defined by what they dislike than what they like.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

Some games aren`t just as good as you wish them to be. Those are the ones getting the complaints and even for those you liked the whole "what could be better" nitpicking is always worth a discussion (for most it seems, me included). I don`t see it negative. When i`m looking for information bitching is important and so is praise.

The only thing i don´t like is senseless bashing of unreleased ips or franchises.

 

[Folji]

Hate is that much easier to express than love.

Though it would be funny to see a war fought with hugs.

 

[Mr Pantomime]

Well, that simple, cynicism makes us feel better than other people. If we don't like something, we can pretend that its because we are part of an intellectual master race, letting the sheeple chew their manufactured cud, rather than a myriad of other, more reasonable causes. In turn, I get to feel superior to those cynics by talking down to them in an unashamedly pretentious manner.

Reminds me of something a Freud said, "The best way to win an argument is to scientifically prove that your opponent wants to fuck their own mother".