Look. Brendan is probably the most laid back, non-judgmental guy I've ever ran across in the internet. If you can't see you your use of terms like "real gamers' or "that's ok for newbs" comes across as pretentious, then either you are trolling, or you're Sheldon from Big Bang Theory and are completely oblivious to social interaction etiquette.
In his defense, it's certainly possible to read the "real gamers" comment as being about "flesh and blood" as opposed to "not lame gamers", if you look at the comment again. Don't get me wrong - I took it as "not lame gamers", too, and it's a phrase that's loaded enough that people should be careful with it.
As far as the whole "anti-dungeon" mentality, that's pretty prevalent in wider RPG circles. A lot of gamers look at the lame dungeon games they played when they were 12 and mis-associate the lameness with the dungeon rather than them being 12. Cool? Not really. But pretty damn common, and I'd rather take a few minutes to explain how a *good* dungeon works, rather than attacking the guy.
I mean, I look at it like this - there's a lot of knowledge on this site about how the real old-school stuff works that's not generally available. I'd like to see more people experience that, and if someone comes in with a common misconception, I'd rather them walk away with a more positive perception.
No, so far just been called 'pretentious' and a 'troll' - and this from a moderator, no less.
I like the analogy of the race car and jeep: think that clarifies things nicely- mind if I borrow that for an article I am writing on this topic? I'll cite you, if you like?
If it's helpful, sure. I don't see the need for citations, really. I mean, if it's for a professional piece in a magazine or something, maybe, but if it's a blog post or something somewhere don't worry about it.