Thursday, May 30, 2013

A Brief Rant

Welcome back to the Chaos Corner, my fellow Chaos legionnaires! It is really hot in this part of the Eye of Terror, and it looks like its going to stay hot through the weekend. I may have to do some modeling in order to stay cool!

I am here today for a rant. Something very big has been bothering me these past few days. Yes, I am sure many of you are going to say "No Duh", but I am very tired of the trolling, bitterness, and outright hostility on the web. It has gotten completely out of control. What should be constructive criticism and concerns has turned into outright insanity, almost a pathology. Some people on the Internet have become so bitter, so hostile, that they are in fact, damaging the causes that they believe in.

Take, for example, the Wraithknight. Now, I'm not talking about the look of the model or price (one is aesthetic opinion, the other is a valid economic concern). What I am talking about is people condemning it as a "non-viable" option of the army. That the rules suck and it isn't useful ( or even the See The BOLS Article). Wait... what?! The rules AREN'T EVEN OUT YET. How can anyone debate the combat usefulness of it when the rules are not out yet? That is absolutely crazy. I'm used to people talking about the Meta and all after the rules are out, but BEFORE? Others are screaming that the Eldar are broken- again, what?? The book isn't out- how can anyone know that it is "broken"?! The whole thing just reeks of anger and bitterness. How can you condemn without knowing the details? It is beyond me.
This sucks... how do I know? I don't even have the 'Dex yet, but I know.

We don't know much of anything about it yet...
Then, there's the XBOX ONE issue. Last week Microsoft had a showing of it, and many people are
already calling the system a "failure". Wait- a failure? Based on what? A brief intro to the system? They showed practically nothing- it was just meant to whet people's appetites before E3 and all that jazz. How can anyone say it is an "epic fail" before anyone has even seen it up close? Before they have shown much of anything?




I could go on. People condemning Man of Steel, Wolverine, The World's End, sight unseen. Now, one could say "the trailers look bad" or "I am not a fan of Snyder's movies"- those are valid. But to be so hostile and negative with no provocation is just crazy.

What's next? Will the trolls say tomorrow that 7th EDITION breaks the game? Or that the NEXT Chaos codex is overpowered?

The solution to this is simple:


People need to chill the f**k out.


It has become simply monotonous. The constant blaring of anger and pettiness is just overwhelming. People who profess to love X Y or Z spend their time ripping it apart. And then there are the haters, trolling everywhere just to ruin people's day. I am not a fan of Warhammer Fantasy, but I do watch their releases and I found the recent Warriors of Chaos and Elves additions to be rather bland or uninspiring. However, I did not go onto BoLS and say so and attack people that did like them. Why would I do that. Lots of people love Fast and the Furious- I have never gotten into that series, but I wouldn't complain or criticize it just to be negative. That simply makes no sense.

Are we just nitpicking everything we enjoy to death?
And it hurts. It hurts the fans. It makes them look petty and mean. Why would anyone listen to the just concerns and constructive criticism of fans when so much of it sounds like angry trolling? I will be the first to admit that GW has problems, but I also want them to fix it so they succeed. I love 40K- I want to fix it, not tear it down. I don't want my army to always be "the best"- I want a challenge, a fair fight. I don't want to WAAC or break a Codex or make a meta net list. Can't we just have fun?


I just know that 9th Edition Chaos Marines will be broken! Callin' it right now.
So, that ends the rant. I just want to have positive exchanges between fans and enthusiasts. We can agree to disagree, and still be friendly about it. Let's stop being so judgmental, and certainly not judge things before we can actually get a close look at the finished product. That's just my 2 cents.

Until next time...

4 comments:

  1. Well said! Thank you. It's the same reason I don't play at my LGS (the group there spending every time I walk in just disparaging the hell out of anything anyone else likes to do), why I don't make judgements on things that I generally didn't appreciate as much as I expected, and specifically why I've tried very hard to make my blog an 'island of positive' in the 'sea of negativity'. I feel that ENJOYING stuff (even if you only enjoy it a little bit) is enjoyable. Emprah knows I have alot of negative opinions about things, but my opinions are just that- mine! Let others bask. I'm happy to simply stew. Wish more people got that. Great post!

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  2. We must have been on the same wavelength or something this time- I had not seen your blog post rant in a similar vein about gaming and trying to make it fun, the way it should be. I agree 100 percent Jay!

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  3. Very nice rant ... heh heh ... is that an oxymoronic statement I just made? To borrow from your observations of what is troubling W40K hobbyists, I have noticed it applies to real life as well. People tend to disparage something they do not like or understand. Moreover, hating seems to be cool especially with the anonymity of the web.

    For example, once an ex-boss asked me why I was applying for some days-off to which I replied that I just wanted to take a short break to recharge my batteries and was thinking of painting my miniatures. She looked at me as if I was an alien from outer-space and advised me not to let the big boss know that I was doing this or my leave will not be approved. She taught it was ridiculous that I was not utilising my time off on a vacation somewhere far away and was wasting my time painting miniatures. I kid you not - this is a true story. In general, people tend to have this superior-than-thou attitude where they feel that they know what is best and your opinion is well ... stupid. Heh heh ... this is turning my own little rant. Sigh. Rant over. =)

    Oh btw, nice post!

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  4. That's too bad that your former boss was so belligerent. I would never tell people at work about it myself, as I know I would get a lot of ribbing (I get mocked for reading a history book, believe it or not... an I work in an academic field!).

    My problem is, that we as gamers and enthusiasts should be better than that. We should be able to not be so damn negative all the time, as we have all endured things like you have mentioned above. Others want to rain on our parade, must we also attack ourselves? I like Chaos ("Man, Chaos is SO broken"). I am going to buy Eldar ("Oh, so you just play flavors of the month") and so on. Surely, we can be better than this, as fellow gaming "nerds"?

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