R-E-S-P-E-C-T, that is what I'd like to see

Since deciding to walk away from m2e, I have said all along that there was no rage in my quit however, as of this morning, I can’t really say that.  I am a firm believer in people’s rights to have an opinion and voice that opinion, however there has to be a mutual respect for that to work.  Over the past couple of months I have seen that respect slowly eroding from both the Wyrd forum (which I no longer log onto for that reason) and on Twitter which for a long time has been home to a friendly, respectful group of gamers.

All too often at the moment, people seem too quick to categorise players as either a v2 crusader or a doomsayer like they are the only 2 options.  Sure, there are those people that do mindlessly approve of whatever is put out by Wyrd and aggressively put down anyone that has a negative opinion about any aspect of the game.  Equally, there are those that will quickly dismiss any development in the game as crap, possibly without even looking at it before making the judgement.  Both of those groups are dicks.

Stuck in the middle of that little sausagefest are a lot of gamers that are either on the fence or have chosen their side based on personal preference and rational decision making.  These people (for the most part) are not dicks and to them I say thank you.  Thank you for recognising the difference between having an opinion and telling people what to think.

And now to the point of my rage.  This morning I woke up to a message from someone telling me my concerns about the longevity of the game was ridiculous and that I should just shut up (the actual wording was significantly less pleasant!).  Firstly, I would like to point out that I didn’t force this individual to read my blog, not reading was an option.  Secondly, they weren’t in the closed testing so have been playing m2e for a maximum of about 7 weeks.  That’s right, somebody with 7 weeks of playing under their belt was emphatically telling someone with 6 months worth of playing experience that they are wrong about longevity.  For reference, a lot of my concerns didn’t present themselves until 3-4 months in.  This to me was a prime example of a crusader trying to force their opinion onto someone, this is bad!

Since walking away I have made a concerted effort to be respectful to people on both sides of this battlefield and I’d like to think that I’ve managed to do that.  It actually takes very little effort so there’s really no excuses for some of the behaviour that we’re seeing in the community at the moment (I must stress that this is from an annoying minority).

As a great comic book writer once said, every villain is the hero in their own mind.  In your mind you may be about to save me from missing out on something epic but the reality might be that you’re about to get your arse kicked by a dude in a Batman costume (or maybe Wonder Woman, depends on the day).