Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Well, I can try to explain my thinking in all this.
I would say that the strongest basis upon which I judge posters is intent... and that content is a moderately close second. It's the sometimes difficult-to-measure difference between complaining about a Wing Commander game because you didn't like it and complaining about it because you want attention.
The second part is the content -- that's the difference between making an intelligent argument as to why Wing Commander III is a terrible game and just telling everyone that it 'sucks.' Now, I'll say right out that you're wrong and I'm going to argue back at you... but you deserve respect and certainly won't be banned for having that opinion.
At the same time, you won't be judged negatively for *not* knowing something. We can't all afford obscure ports or to buy consoles to play one game... and many if not most of us don't want to in the first place. Reading tie-in books or manuals or hint books or old advertising sheets may not be your cup of tea. In short, I'm not going to compare you to myself. In any other setting I'm a huge idiot for buying a PSP to play EA Replay and nothing else, and I would like for people to recognize that I know that.
What this fellow did, though, was engage in something terrible, something I'd consider a cardinal sin -- willful ignorance. I wouldn't insist that he buy an Xbox and play Arena... but I would ask, no demand, that he be smart enough not to judge without that experience.
His actual complaint is an awful labyrinth of stupid, exactly the thing I want to belive we're all better than. He wants to know the story from the free manual but will not read it himself because he doesn't like the game he's never played (and, taking that one step further into infinity: he doesn't like the game because it doesn't have a story, which is presented in the manual which he wants to read the story from but will not read himself because he doesn't like the game he's never played because it doesn't have a story which is...)
Now, I've been around the internet block a few times. I've seen all sorts of communities... and I think ours is one of the best *because* of the expectations given above. So very many groups are simply unpleasant teenagers screaming catchphrases and nigh-illegible curses at the wall... and we're not. I'd rather have a group of a hundred intelligent fans than sixty-zillion average ones.
(And I don't consider that necessarily an exclusionary philosophy -- everyone should know that I'll work my hump off turning any individual person into part of the group -- if they're willing to let that happen.)
I would say that the strongest basis upon which I judge posters is intent... and that content is a moderately close second. It's the sometimes difficult-to-measure difference between complaining about a Wing Commander game because you didn't like it and complaining about it because you want attention.
The second part is the content -- that's the difference between making an intelligent argument as to why Wing Commander III is a terrible game and just telling everyone that it 'sucks.' Now, I'll say right out that you're wrong and I'm going to argue back at you... but you deserve respect and certainly won't be banned for having that opinion.
At the same time, you won't be judged negatively for *not* knowing something. We can't all afford obscure ports or to buy consoles to play one game... and many if not most of us don't want to in the first place. Reading tie-in books or manuals or hint books or old advertising sheets may not be your cup of tea. In short, I'm not going to compare you to myself. In any other setting I'm a huge idiot for buying a PSP to play EA Replay and nothing else, and I would like for people to recognize that I know that.
What this fellow did, though, was engage in something terrible, something I'd consider a cardinal sin -- willful ignorance. I wouldn't insist that he buy an Xbox and play Arena... but I would ask, no demand, that he be smart enough not to judge without that experience.
His actual complaint is an awful labyrinth of stupid, exactly the thing I want to belive we're all better than. He wants to know the story from the free manual but will not read it himself because he doesn't like the game he's never played (and, taking that one step further into infinity: he doesn't like the game because it doesn't have a story, which is presented in the manual which he wants to read the story from but will not read himself because he doesn't like the game he's never played because it doesn't have a story which is...)
Now, I've been around the internet block a few times. I've seen all sorts of communities... and I think ours is one of the best *because* of the expectations given above. So very many groups are simply unpleasant teenagers screaming catchphrases and nigh-illegible curses at the wall... and we're not. I'd rather have a group of a hundred intelligent fans than sixty-zillion average ones.
(And I don't consider that necessarily an exclusionary philosophy -- everyone should know that I'll work my hump off turning any individual person into part of the group -- if they're willing to let that happen.)
