- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I honestly think that we Bungie/Halo fans need to work on our image. This became especially evident to me last night as I was reading the Update. That whole fiasco at Penny Arcade just shows how bad things really are. If you decide to wade through the pages of mass immaturity shown by both Penny Arcade members and visiting Bungie fans, you'll see what I mean. This is not a post flaming the Penny Arcade members and moderators. This is not a post complaining about Bungie fans. This is a post saying that we Bungie fans should become deserving of respect among other Internet junkies.
So what, then, is a good image to have? Very simply, our image should cause others to say that 'Bungie fans are civil, intelligent, reasonable, and polite.' So we should never be flamers or trollers. If you disagree with someone, go ahead and voice your opinion; but don't call them a moron in the process. If someone else has said something that's completely ludicrous, simply say 'Hey, actually this is the case. . . . Here is the proof.' Can you see the difference between that and "Shut up you bleeping moron! I've never seen a more bleeping idiotic person in all my days! I can't believe you could possibly bleeping think that bleepity bleep bleep bleep!' You're gonna get a much better result from the first option than with the second. The first will likely either put an end to the discussion if you've offered irrefutable proof in a logical, reasoning manner; or it will open the topic up for more civil discussion. The latter will almost certainly start a long, mind-numbing flamewar.
I understand that when someone says something completely rediculous, in your opinion, it may at times be difficult to remain civil and to reason with him intelligently. But if you don't, chances are it won't work (unless your entire intent is to insult and flame away), and you'll just make yourself look bad. And if you are able to exert self-control and are able to put together a valid point coherently, chances are people will begin to respect you.
That brings up the touchy topic of swearing (or cursing, whatever you prefer to call it). Whether or not you choose to use swearing in your language is up to you and your individual conscience. I personally don't swear. But always keep in mind the image it portrays of you. If the best word you can think of is an offensive swear word, it probably will do little to get your point across besides showing that you're angry. Just think of those on forums that you know usually get responded to negatively. Don't they usually use slightly incoherent speach with a lot of swear words spliced in (strangely, it seems to me that the swear words are most often spelled correctly)?
So, what do we do if the others we're communicating with start acting immaturely by flaming and trolling and etc.? Well, what are we supposed to do when somebody in real life starts yelling, shouting, flinging insults, pushing, and shoving? We're supposed to remain calm and walk away, right? Of course! True, this is many times difficult to actually do. But if we succeed, the other person will probably start feeling silly and will calm down. If they don't, they're likely to be cuffed and dragged off to jail for disturbing the peace, leaving you alone in peace. If you're the vengeful sort, remember that they'll probably feel pretty humiliated; and any bruises (physical and/or emotional) you've received will be paid for by that other person. The same is true on Internet forums. If the other continues to rant and rave as you remain peaceful and intelligent-sounding, he's likely in for some type of punishment from the moderators. You'll be left alone with the satisfaction that you came out the better of the instance, and others will begin to respect you more.
This isn't to say that we should all be wusses who never stand up for ourselves. On the contrary, our words will deal much more powerful blows if they're wielded carefully. Just like two people fencing. Sure one guy could start swinging his sword around madly and making fierce lunges, and he'll probably look pretty impressive if he pulls it off. But while he's tiring himself out, you can make one careful jab and hit your pre-intended sweet spot.
Now, even if what others think of you personally doesn't matter to you, how do you feel about how it reflects on Bungie and their carefully crafted community? When others talk about Bungie fans (and by extension, the name attached to it), do you want them to be saying things like 'Those Bungie fans are real morons. I hope those kids don't infect our forums.' Or would you rather prefer them saying 'Dude! Those Bungie fans are all civil, intelligent, reasonable, and polite. I hope some of them come over here. Better yet, I wanna become one of them!' Doesn't it matter to you how other people (and keep in mind that behind those sometimes silly screen names are actual people) feel about Bungie Studios and your fellow fans? If so, it's all up to us to craft that perception into something desireable.
One of the reasons I bring up how others feel is because this exact thing happened yesterday in the first page of the Bungie Update thread on the Penny Arcade forums. One guy pointed to a thread on one of our forums and said "The kids over at the Bungie.net forums arent the sharpest tools in the shed. I mean, just look at [u]this post[/i] [that was a link to one of our threads]. I hope they dont migrate." Honestly, after looking at the thread myself, I don't blame him for feeling that way. I'm sure the problem wasn't just the thread author's idea. Instead, it must have been the absolutely immature way that other members of the community reacted. As one poster commented in that thread, if someone had simply pointed out from the get-go in a logical and reasoning manner just why the author was wrong, the rest of that flamewar could've been averted. Unfortunately, that didn't happen; and the result was a very bad testimony of our own respectability to other forums
This underlines the fact that we need to make sure that we're civil not only when visiting others' forums, but at our home base as well.
So, to try to wrap all this up, what we all need to do is to watch ourselves; make sure that at all times we're doing things that would bring respect to the Bungie name. I comes down, really, to each of us as individuals.
I just hope I didn't forget anything important. . . .
Just my thoughts,
Poocho :)