Edit in response to a few of the below comments: Just to clear something up - I don't feel that anyone's comments or responses to what happened the other day were in any way disproportionate or inpatient. This post is in response to my own actions and to warn against becoming the type of community which almost constantly says "this game/community was good before [insert timeframe here]" which is what I see a lot in gaming forums for other games etc. I think that considering the chaos which erupted last week, people responded in a measured and mature manner.
Consolegate (as I wholeheartedly hope it comes to be known) was a telling event for the Guild Wars 2 community. I don't think I'm being too presumptive to say that those of us who have followed the game for the past few years and watched the community grow from the dregs of those of us left over from the dwindling GW1 community to the bustling metropolis of bloggers, news sites, youtubers and great hordes of forum-dwellers are at once ecstatic and terrified of what our humble little posse has become.
One of the downsides of the long development process coupled with ANet's free release of information is that a fervour has built up around this game like no other I've ever known. Players can easily get overexcited; I've touched on the subject of over zealous fans in the past on here before (and felt the backlash as a result). One misinterpreted comment can be picked up by over-exuberant individuals and sites hoping to get the next big scoop first, and the misinterpretation is perpetuated till the whole of the community is in a frenzy of excitement, anger and confusion.
One lesson I would preach would be patience on both parts. Easily excited fans need to wait for more info before jumping to conclusions (and so do a few of the news sites). But the perhaps more restrained among us also need to be patient with the others: I felt guilty for deriding fellow fans who (though misguided) were only being excited about the game they love.
I love the guildwars community because we are warm, welcoming and fun. And events like this can lead to a community becoming jaded. I've always believed the whole "this game/community ain't what it used to be" road is a dangerous one to go down. I hope that in four years, this group of fans will still be as friendly and accepting as it is now.
ps. I've chosen not to go into any of the content which was released yesterday - GuildMag's aggregation page is the place to be for the new info. Go go go!
I don't feel guilty for criticizing people who behave like bratty children. How else do they learn that behaviour is wrong? Patience, sure, but the criticism is necessary.
ReplyDeleteConsolegate (love that name) wasn't just about the console problem, but about a never ending cycle of hysteria combined with the zealous fans putting media off covering the very game they're trying desperately to promote.
ReplyDeleteI can understand not wanting to deride fellow followers of the game, but I feel like ignoring the problem all together and not expressing vexation is not useful.
For my frustration that was expressed last week, yesterday seemed to go surprisingly well. I spent most of the day observing Guru and relatively few of the posts were angry blind lashes at reviewers or game mechanics - most were reasoned, considerate and moderate.
Days like that restore the faith.
Yeah, I don't really see a problem with calling people out for terrible behavior, either. It's one thing to be excited or disappointed...it's another to see the sort of reactions we saw there. I didn't see any callouts that were like "you're all a bunch of whiny children and you should be ashamed and you're all terrible and ruining the community"; the ones I did see (my own included) did include a lot of patience and restraint in calling out the horrid behavior we saw last week.
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