Originally posted by jtcgs
The best part of this site is that someone can reply with a blatant troll WITH a direct attack and his post will sit there, but if you reply that he is a troll...the ban hammer hits you, your post is deleted...while the troll and attack sits there.

in my experience direct attacks are removed pretty fast overall

Negative posts require supporting arguments and a lack of "attack words" I like to call them.

Most people who post negative opinions don't do that.

What are attack words?

Things like "dumbed down" and "casuals" and "console generation" and other such phrases that are very thinly veiled insults towards other gamers/posters.

There is a BIG difference on this website to these moderators between saying -

"I thought that the control scheme and choice of on-demand available skills was both lacking and overly simplistic, any attempt at depth merely felt like tedius button mashing versus true tactical control."

and

"The devs dumbed down the controls and ability bars for the console generation, the sequel will probably one have one button you mash your thumbs against repeatedly to dispense loot."

Originally posted by jtcgs
The best part of this site is that someone can reply with a blatant troll WITH a direct attack and his post will sit there, but if you reply that he is a troll...the ban hammer hits you, your post is deleted...while the troll and attack sits there.

The original post being a troll is only your opinion, the Mods obviously disagree, but your direct attack is a direct attack. Therefore you get the ban and the post remains.

Originally posted by jtcgs
The best part of this site is that someone can reply with a blatant troll WITH a direct attack and his post will sit there, but if you reply that he is a troll...the ban hammer hits you, your post is deleted...while the troll and attack sits there.

That's a common policy, across every mainstream forum I've known, from games to hardware junkies to electronics.  You're supposed to report the suspected "troll", instead of responding ... which reduces the thread to gooey slop.  When someone responds to a troll, someone else will respond, then another, and everything gets unmanageable shortly thereafter.  Then come the insults.  Next thing anyone knows they are talking about the transition of Barbie outfits between the 70's and 90's.

Originally posted by essaidi
Seriously never been a member of such a community I can't say a game looks ugly without getting a warning from you guys, its your site and your decission, but makes a lot of sense to me now why so few even uses your forums when you can't act like anything but a fanboy, or you will get warnings, I'll probably get a warning for this one as well.. But to be serious I don't care... If I think a game has a graphic that looks like it was made in 1950 I'm going to say it....

You'll find the sight rife with employees ( with multiple accounts ) of the site that stir and move conversation to maintain traffic. After all site like this charge advertising based on traffic , so it's in their interest .

You'll also find that employees or agents of the companies themselves posting surreptitiously, promoting their products or dismissing/panning the competitors products. It's all part of the game.

There are ordinary people here also with opinions and points of view, some like to post others view it as a sport on how to aggravate and inflame others only to report them. You'll find that the site tends to favor posters from the companies that pay to advertise here. Part of how the world works. Unfortunately there are no rules for full disclosure for the companies that run these sites and posters. Enjoy the banter , participate at your own risk , critic if you dare and who you dare , but be prepared for a time out if you critic too harshly the wrong person.  

Originally posted by MightyChasm

It was a joke bub.  But I think you illistrated one part of the problem on these forums, people take everything far too seriously.  

Ah, see It's hard to tell here when someone is joking or not, thanks for clarification! :D

So what did computer graphics look like in the 1950s?  I didn't start coding until 1977, and they were pretty bad back then.  Lots of text on a teletype mostly.  Video terminal if you were high tech.

You know the really sad part is that once upon a time mmorpg.com was  a highly respected review site.

Now its just a joke wrapped in denial and deception.

Originally posted by RefMinor

Originally posted by jtcgs
The best part of this site is that someone can reply with a blatant troll WITH a direct attack and his post will sit there, but if you reply that he is a troll...the ban hammer hits you, your post is deleted...while the troll and attack sits there.

The original post being a troll is only your opinion, the Mods obviously disagree, but your direct attack is a direct attack. Therefore you get the ban and the post remains.

 Actually, when a thread is going on track and 2-3 people are responding in kind debating a topic and someone replies to a long post WITH bulletpoints on his refutes with "stop complaining like a little girl and go play WoW"...there is little doubt about the troll attempt...and replying with "we are having a discussion here can you please troll someplace else" really shouldnt be a bannable offense. But that is the occasional derp level of the site depending on who has their finger over the ban button that day.

Originally posted by XAPGames

So what did computer graphics look like in the 1950s?  I didn't start coding until 1977, and they were pretty bad back then.  Lots of text on a teletype mostly.  Video terminal if you were high tech.

 

http://techland.time.com/2013/01/25/what-computer-graphics-looked-like-in-the-late-1950s/

Originally posted by AG-Vuk

Originally posted by essaidi
Seriously never been a member of such a community I can't say a game looks ugly without getting a warning from you guys, its your site and your decission, but makes a lot of sense to me now why so few even uses your forums when you can't act like anything but a fanboy, or you will get warnings, I'll probably get a warning for this one as well.. But to be serious I don't care... If I think a game has a graphic that looks like it was made in 1950 I'm going to say it....

You'll find the sight rife with employees ( with multiple accounts ) of the site that stir and move conversation to maintain traffic. After all site like this charge advertising based on traffic , so it's in their interest .

You'll also find that employees or agents of the companies themselves posting surreptitiously, promoting their products or dismissing/panning the competitors products. It's all part of the game.

There are ordinary people here also with opinions and points of view, some like to post others view it as a sport on how to aggravate and inflame others only to report them. You'll find that the site tends to favor posters from the companies that pay to advertise here. Part of how the world works. Unfortunately there are no rules for full disclosure for the companies that run these sites and posters. Enjoy the banter , participate at your own risk , critic if you dare and who you dare , but be prepared for a time out if you critic too harshly the wrong person.  

The term is Astroturfing.  It's been loosely in and out of the news.

EA Viral Marketing Exposed, Big Buyout On The Horizon?

published: 2012-03-27 21:15:06

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-Viral-Marketing-Exposed-Big-Buyout-Horizon-40885.html

It was such a problem in industries promoting a product, from electronics to beauty creams, that Astroturfing was made illegal (fairly recently the FTC guidelines were modified to include forum/blog advertising with false pretext & not identifying their relation to the endorsing company):  Astroturfing violates the FTC Endorsement and Advertising Guidelines, under section 255.5 (http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div8&view=text&node=16:1.0.1.2.22.0.5.6&idno=16).

Furthering that, a smear campaign got Facebook in some big doodoo a couple years ago.  I guess astroturfers nowadays are careful to reveal differences between products and not specifically smear a competitors product or its designers (ie: that game sucks, developers for that "other" game are retards, etc), or instigate arguments & downplay another game outside of a comparison context (under the guise of educational discussion).

So does it still happen on 3rd party websites / forums?  Probably, though not legally.  Can companies like Blizzard and EA astroturf their own official forums?  Can any company?  Their own forums - yes.  3rd party forums - NO.

That said, it's also highly unethical to spam forums with how great a game is, without telling everyone first that you also are affiliated with the manufacturer and / or the product.

Some companies participate in this practice, but not legally (in the USA - I'm not sure how Europe adopted these laws).

Originally posted by Karteli

Originally posted by AG-Vuk

Originally posted by essaidi
Seriously ..... it....

You'll ..... person.  

The term is Astroturfing.  It's been loosely in and out of the news.

EA Viral Marketing Exposed, Big Buyout On The Horizon?

published: 2012-03-27 21:15:06

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-Viral-Marketing-Exposed-Big-Buyout-Horizon-40885.html

It was such a problem in industries promoting a product, from electronics to beauty creams, that Astroturfing was made illegal (fairly recently the FTC guidelines were modified to include forum/blog advertising with false pretext & not identifying their relation to the endorsing company):  Astroturfing violates the FTC Endorsement and Advertising Guidelines, under section 255.5 (http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div8&view=text&node=16:1.0.1.2.22.0.5.6&idno=16).

Furthering that, a smear campaign got Facebook in some big doodoo a couple years ago.  I guess astroturfers nowadays are careful to reveal differences between products and not specifically smear a competitors product or its designers (ie: that game sucks, developers for that "other" game are retards, etc), or instigate arguments & downplay another game outside of a comparison context (under the guise of educational discussion).

So does it still happen on 3rd party websites / forums?  Probably, though not legally.  Can companies like Blizzard and EA astroturf their own official forums?  Can any company?  Their own forums - yes.  3rd party forums - NO.

That said, it's also highly unethical to spam forums with how great a game is, without telling everyone first that you also are affiliated with the manufacturer and / or the product.

 

Some companies participate in this practice, but not legally (in the USA - I'm not sure how Europe adopted these laws).

To that, I'll just add that US laws only apply directly to people living in the US , and US companies and Subsidaries in the US. That being said the entire purpose of corporate lawyers is to find ways around the rules to benefit the client. The old saying, where there is a will, there is a way.

one thing i have noticed is some posters use the "with all due respect" approach to some forums.. seems some feel if they say a couple nice comments towards a game it gives them carte blanche to bash the game in every thread.. but again i don't really see an issue with posting constructive critisism on any game as if people didn't these forums would be a pretty boring place with not much discussion at all... everything would be

BOB: Game x is the BEST

JIM: i AGREE best ever!