There is a very nasty undercurrent to net discussion that largely comes from the lack of response to behaviour that grew up around 4chan and similar sites. Usenet and forums with stable IDs and poster identities have self-policing mechanisms and cultural barriers to asshattery (I have one ID I use across all English forums I visit, and this usully makes me consider what I post); while I suspect the extreme asshattery is due to people being allowed to splinter themselves into several anonymous sub-personas which they feel are sufficiently disconnected from their traceable selves and consequences.

The good news is that 4chan and a lot of this computer game stuff is basically dumb kids, and whatever they say can be safely discounted as irrelevant. I know from experience this is hard as hell to just shrug it off even if you know it is one dumb stalker; your animal self still gets the fight/flight reaction. And I am very happy I am old enough to cope with this stuff; God knows how kids manage.

The worse news is that this kind of bullying has extended to other demographics, both as a source of entertainment, and as a way to abuse and silence people who become 'fair game' for one reason or another.

Do famous/popular authors run into this type of problem too?

ooooooh yeah.  But it's a different, far more personal level of creepyness.

I have friends who are in the videogame industry. They have horror stories that would curl your hair. Or straighten it.

Quote from: JeremyR;683357And people spend $60 on a game these days, even more so in the case of MMORPGs. People can be upset when they don't feel they get their money's worth.

I think the problem today is that game companies feel they can ship any old piece of crap and deserve $60 for it.

A company is not entitled to be able to make millions of dollars selling games. If they can't earn it by making products people want, then they have to understand that people will be upset with them, and eventually their business will suffer.

If we go back to, say, Mass Effect 3, the "fans" did get what they paid for; an end to the Mass Effect saga, another 40-hour game (There's not even many of those around these days!), and a reportedly quite good multiplayer mode on top! That's an amazing deal compared to most games these days, with short campaigns and tacked-on multiplayer that's abandoned in a week when everybody goes back to Call of Duty.

The issue was that it wasn't exactly the ending they wanted it to be. Bioware could have handled it better (Maybe plotting out the entire series in advance...), but absolutely should not have caved on the ME3 ending; it's their game, it's their story.

Similarly with Jennifer Hepler's discussions about combat; there's an interesting discussion to have there (The actual shooting in recent Bioshock : Infinite ruined it for me, here was a great world that looked really fun to explore, but for the majority of the game the only verb I have to interact with it is "kill"), and allowing someone to go straight to the story would force developers to up their game regarding that. But no, the "games must be all about fighting all the time" crowd gets upset if anyone wants to play their games in any other way.

I am so blessed! No one gives a crap what *I* write!

-clash

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;683367The counterpoint to that is that people should do a little research before they buy games, rather than impulse purchasing and then offering death threats when they don't feel like they got their money's worth.

Acceptable response to buying a game and then not liking it: "I am never spending money on that guy's crap AGAIN."

Unacceptable response to buying a game and then not liking it: "You cheated me with this crap, so I'm going to come to your house, cut off your cat's head and stuff it in your mailbox, you prick!"

Personally, I make few impulse purchases, and when I do, I suck it up if it's not worth it because it's on me for not doing the research first.

Yes. I don't care how bad the game is. Not a justification for death threats.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned YDIS yet.

Quote from: noisms;683490I'm surprised nobody has mentioned YDIS yet.

Because I didn't know either, here's the link for anyone lost: http://yourdungeonissuck.wordpress.com/

Jesus. That is some whacko shit right there.

I honestly cannot think of a sector of human society where there is no representation of people who go psycho at the drop of a hat. Not even ETSY artisan and gardening communities. When grandmas flip their shit over crocheting v. knitting or flower breed heritages I cannot think of a safe place.

This is the human condition. Modern technology has just made us vastly more interconnected to witness more of this shit. Sux, but until our sun goes red giant, c'est la vie.

All I need to add is it takes but one asshat customer out of thirty pleasant ones to completely ruin that day. We fixate on the negative as a species. That's a behavior we need to consciously work on.

Quote from: Melan;683406There is a very nasty undercurrent to net discussion that largely comes from the lack of response to behaviour that grew up around 4chan and similar sites. Usenet and forums with stable IDs and poster identities have self-policing mechanisms and cultural barriers to asshattery (I have one ID I use across all English forums I visit, and this usully makes me consider what I post); while I suspect the extreme asshattery is due to people being allowed to splinter themselves into several anonymous sub-personas which they feel are sufficiently disconnected from their traceable selves and consequences.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/

I generally note that people on Facebook/G+ are less trolly than on sites where identity is anonymous.

I only use about two logins, this and 'kyoryu', and I try to keep as reasonable as I can.  Not necessarily to 'protect' my identity, in my case I think it's the reverse - I normally try to be reasonable, so I don't see a need to use separate identities.

Quote from: robiswrong;683564I generally note that people on Facebook/G+ are less trolly than on sites where identity is anonymous.

The PA strip is a classic, but I am not sure about this one. In Hungary, a lot of blogs switched from registered nicks to Facebook comments hoping it would cut down on flamewars, and it turns out that a shitton of people are willing to act as total fuckwads with name, picture and place of employment listed for all to see. In fact, FB comment walls tend to be significantly more spiteful and content-free, and they come from people like your Mom or uncle. Maybe that's because they allow participation from people who have never, ever even heard of netiquette, or something like that.

Quote from: noisms;683490I'm surprised nobody has mentioned YDIS yet.

Guarantee that's run by a SA goon.

Quote from: Archangel Fascist;683608Guarantee that's run by a SA goon.

I don't really know anything about SA but whenever it comes up I'm always glad I don't.

Quote from: Archangel Fascist;683608Guarantee that's run by a SA goon.

Nah, if I remember correctly, YDIS is ran by a much more charming fellow. Isn't it our old pal _cunt_, I mean, _kent_ running it?

Quote from: Melan;683583The PA strip is a classic, but I am not sure about this one. In Hungary, a lot of blogs switched from registered nicks to Facebook comments hoping it would cut down on flamewars, and it turns out that a shitton of people are willing to act as total fuckwads with name, picture and place of employment listed for all to see. In fact, FB comment walls tend to be significantly more spiteful and content-free, and they come from people like your Mom or uncle. Maybe that's because they allow participation from people who have never, ever even heard of netiquette, or something like that.

Although Google+ can be pretty caustic as well, and that seems to poll more towards experienced net users than Facebook.

I suspect that real change in culture is that in the past publications had editors who just did not choose to print this stuff, but now that layer of selection is dead.