No, i won’t be able to do daily quotes. But this one bears repeating:
In fact I am officially done with rant blogs in any fashion. – Belghast, Tales of the Aggronaut
If i have gained something from these last few days (or is it a week already?) since reading about Massively’s possible shutdown, i think it is a sense of positivity and community. Most people were so supportive, it was great to see. And it made me realize: maybe we’ll be better of without all the negativity that surrounds us as a community and the genre as a whole? I mean, it doesn’t matter if you prefer Darkfall over World of Warcraft or vice versa, we share the same love for the same genre. Or at least, we should. So this sentiment of Belghast is something that speaks my mind right now.
Sometimes i’d love to join the big guys- it’s so great to read how they’re playing games together and it just sounds like so much fun. It must be great to share gameplay experiences with likeminded people who not only share the love for the games they play, but also voicing their opinions and/or discussing about our hobby.
As for the quote and the blogger it’s related to: yes, i kicked him out of my Feedly, too. It wasn’t just his opinion, but also how he stated it and that most of what he wrote was just plain wrong (as far as i can tell- have to believe the other side of the argument, but i do).
Let’s just stay positive; i have the feeling the bad news from last week isn’t the only bad thing we’ll experience this year. I’d love to see us leaving 2015 stronger than now. Smaller, more tight-knit. More positive.
Party Business 
I’ve felt like this too even before finding out about the shutdown of Massively (et al). There’s far too much cynicism and negativity in MMO discussions, especially since the high-profile ‘failures’ of 2014. I blog because I’m happily playing these games not because I want to endlessly hate on them. I’d be happy to be part of this “no more rants” trend if it becomes one!
I have to say, when 2014 started, i was hoping for both games (TESO and Wildstar) to succeed. I guessed they wouldn’t be the best fit for me, but i thought the genre needed a success story again. Alas, it didn’t happen. Although i think TESO’s doing reasonably well.
Archeage is another matter- i thought it would be a good fit for me, but it didn’t work out. But that this game was going to be a niche title was pretty obvious.
As i said further down, it’s not that i’d like to see everybody kumbaya-ing and holding hands, but, well, there’s a difference between constructive criticism, maybe even blowing off steam and being a derp.
Well, there are rants and there are rants. A good rant can be an over the top thing of beauty, a cathartic event that helps both focus the problem one is having and dissipates the anger that it is building up.
But if we’re going to ban negativity… well, after eight years of blogging, I find that negativity is often in the eye of the beholder. I had a guy on Reddit who was very mad at me because he thought I said The Elder Scrolls Online was going to go F2P because of a post I wrote back when they announced their revenue model. I asked if, in a world where everything was going F2P, if ESO had something special that would allow it to succeed with a monthly subscription requirement.
Merely asking the question made me a hater in this person’s eyes, and I foolishly tried to explain my position, which was immediately dismissed.
I do not think I write a particularly negative blog. I often frame downside items as questions to be discussion points rather seem like condemnations. But I get reactions at times… sometimes quite surprising to me… about how I must hate this game or that.
Of course you can’t ban negativity. But i think, for instance, that there’s a difference between, let’s say, telling people why one dislikes a game and stomping on the whole genre as well as the community, all the time. There is something like an “ad hominem” in blog posts. There are people who wish for games to be shut down, people who are happy to see sites like Massively go, people who think that everyone’s doing everything wrong.
Saying that a game possibly is going free-to-play at some point isn’t the same. Actually, when i read this paragraph from Belghast, i thought it is more likely adressed to people like that one you’ve encountered.
I think we need to move away from that and become more…inclusive. I think this year, and maybe the following, won’t be very good years for MMORPGs and maybe it’s time that we wish those who still make those games, write about these games and actually play these games well. That’s the vibe i’ve got from the last days and Belghasts post, not that criticism isn’t allowed anymore.
I feel like there is a significant difference between having a down post or a ranty topic… and spending the majority of your time posting rants and negative commentary. Every one of us is going to make the occasional post that comes off ranty, because it is human nature to build up enough steam that you need to blow it off. You can find plenty of these throughout the history of my own blog. That said I try hard to mostly present the positive side along with the negative side.
So while I wouldn’t say lets ban negativity… I would say I try not to frequent those for whom that seems to be their only means of communication.
I am with some of your other commentators: there is a time and a place. The incident in question certainly had neither on its side and that’s before we get to questions of necessity. I don’t mind negativity as long as it is constructive. I’ve seen MMOs long enough that I think I have earned a right to be skeptical and frequently I express that.
No one ever earns the right to openly attack others or to try and demean those who don’t believe the way you do. I think there is plenty of MMO pie to go around so that we all get an edible slice fit to our own personal standards. The game’s don’t necessarily reflect that yet, but despite my skepticism, I remain hopeful that they may some day!
well that’s me out then too hahaha… although hopefully like wilhelm says there are different levels of rant.
Nooo, of course not! Oh my, did i sound so much like all i would want is all positive? I could just stop reading blogs, then, and read press releases from the companies instead. 😉 I thought you had many, many great points, for example, concerning Firefall.