We have established here in our Weekly Musing theme that gaming communities suck. There are many reasons for this: Trolls, Flames, Fanboys, etc.
The problem is, that's just how we are. We, as gamers, tend to be dicks about it. You don't know what "One-shot, greenbox" means? NOOB. Don't get it when I say "Ryu's overhead"? LOL SCRUB. Like the 360? RROD lul failbox... You think Killzone's better than COD? WELL F*CK YOU THEN, GO SUCK SONY'S (some manner of jumbled typing that nobody understands)
Yes, baby, it's awful, I know.
These people exist, and they don't go away. For each and every one of us who looks down on these people, there's one for us to look down on. And more.
I cite the Greater Internet Dickwad theory:
To put the above into detail, allow me to paraphrase the basics in a grossly verbose manner:
People have a desire to be assholes. Society says being an asshole is bad. Thus the desire to be an asshole is repressed. Upon removing accountability, we no longer care if society says it's bad. That's part of why people talk about 4chan as the single most concentrated hive of wretched scum and villainy this world has ever seen.
But goatse is neither here nor there. The point is, given the chance, many people in this world will lose control and become, to quote Gabriel, Total Dickwads.
As much as it saddens me to say it, you and I will not be able to stop this. We may not partake in this behavior, but that is a metaphorical drop in the metaphorical bucket of not-so-metaphorical dickwaddery.
The only way to stop it is to remove the required components. Fire requires Heat, Fuel, and Oxygen. Dickwaddery, according to Gabriel, requires a Person, An Audience, and Anonymity.
We cannot possibly remove the audience, nor the person, lest we destroy the community itself. Literally. It needs people to exist, and people become audiences.
That leaves anonymity. Is it really possible to take that away? Without any clear identifiers to differentiate one person from the next, it's tough. It's always possible for a banned dickwad to make a new account. Tie the account to an email address? He'll find a new one of those too.
Things begin to look bleak. Perhaps Dickwaddery is here to stay. We can't conceivably take away People, Anonymity, or the Audience, so what can we do?
Why, yes, baby, you're RIGHT! The Greater Internet Dickwad Theory DOES state that we need to have a "Normal Person"
This leaves us with one clear answer: Don't be normal. Normal people turn into dickwads. Refuse the temptation.
The problem is us, and that's not gonna change unless we do. Not "we" as in you and I, reader, but "we" as in gamers. All gamers. Until we all stop being infantile dickwads (No offense, baby) then our communities are gonna suck.
Quite simple, really.
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And I think the treatment of assholes should be pretty similar to the treatment of crappy games: if we just allow them to happen, we'll only have more of them. So, let's call them out for being shitty, and hopefully they'll learn that they can't get away with being sucky. Will we always have assholes and shitty games? Most certainly. But we can always do battle against them, if only to keep our heads above water.
I completely with the Dickwad Theory. Removing anonymity is definitely the most obvious solution to making online communities work, but the internet inherently makes that hard to do.
As Kauza said, though, Dtoid does an impressive job at policing themselves. Considering this website's growth in the last two years, though, I think we'll reach a hard-to-maintain ratio of dickwads:rational-thinkers... and not all of them will read the memo to not suck.
Again, great post and submission for the weekly musing.
No, I'm not talking about anyone in particular, Bulk.
And while I would hardly say that Dtoid sucks, Kauza, there are still people that most of us would rather do without. I would, however disagree on your point that letting it happen makes it happen more. There's a phenomenon known as "feeding the trolls" that I think illustrates my point.
And I thought it fitting that I reference Penny Arcade for PAX.