Metzen Interview about Fandom and Toxicity

[Granyala]

http://www.wowhead.com/news=286290/c...d-toxic-fandom

I believe people need to hear what he says. The man has good arguments that should be noticed.

[Tarba]

--- snip ---
No good story since war3

[rrayy]

It's going to fall on deaf ears. The whiners and complainers are going to continue to be toxic because they don't care. Their mind is made up.

[Relapses]

For anybody looking for a tl,dw: Metzen is embarrassed by nerd culture and its inability to differentiate between reality and fiction.

Can't say I blame him. Just look at the Teldrassill thread. Grown ass men calling each other out like children because they... play Horde. It's pathetic.

[Skulltaker]

http://www.wowhead.com/news=286290/c...d-toxic-fandom

I believe people need to hear what he says. The man has good arguments that should be noticed.

The biggest issue with toxicity in fandom is that those who make valid and well worded criticism are thrown in with the 'haters', which leads to more frustration.

[Primemrip]

--- snip ---
No good story since war3

This is too good.

[yjmark]

For anybody looking for a tl,dw: Metzen is embarrassed by nerd culture and its inability to differentiate between reality and fiction.

Can't say I blame him. Just look at the Teldrassill thread. Grown ass men calling each other out like children because they... play Horde. It's pathetic.

lol - that's so true. BUT, it's also a sign that Blizz writing has hit folks in an emotional state, which means they are doing something right The whole point of art is to generate an emotional response. And the forums are gobbling it all up. Way more than anything before.

[Sluvs]

Well, he is right. People were complete jerks to the authors and developers without even understanding how the process of creating the game work.

[Relapses]

lol - that's so true. BUT, it's also a sign that Blizz writing has hit folks in an emotional state, which means they are doing something right The whole point of art is to generate an emotional response. And the forums are gobbling it all up. Way more than anything before.

Creating an emotional story is fine; BfA definitely has generated hype unlike any expansion before it. But when people are calling each other sociopaths because of the faction they choose to play... I don't know. There's a line to be drawn. It's a fucking story.

[Granyala]

lol - that's so true. BUT, it's also a sign that Blizz writing has hit folks in an emotional state, which means they are doing something right The whole point of art is to generate an emotional response. And the forums are gobbling it all up. Way more than anything before.

Aye, that's the point of pretty much any entertainment: to play with people's emotions.

Sure, I was pissed at the writers for destroying Darnassus, after all it was their decision to bring the story to that point.
But people need to stop to disrespect and tear apart artists just because they develop into a direction they disagree with.

[A Chozo]

He's right when he says that people shouldn't harass writers, authors and devs like that.

But the criticism towards the storytelling of War of Thorns and the Battle for Lordaeron is still valid. The delivery of the burning of Teldrassil simply lacked the personal quality of the Old Soldier cinematic, and it could've been solved by giving some written lines of dialog to more NPCs.

People praise Old Soldier and hate on War of Thorns exactly because of the different quality between both stories.

[StaeleAilar]

I mean in one sense he is right. However he was one of the biggest perpetrators of turning wow fans into toxic players. Just look at the way for the most part the "die hard horde fans" respond to anything that is negative, or any opinion that is negative by streamers/community members. It's always met with something about the alliance being "cucks" or some such.

Years ago weren't there violence issues with horde fans causing problems at some convention.. he contributed to that with his constant lok'tar ogar crap at every blizzcon and treating half of the players who paid his cheque like crap underneath his boots.

That's just my opinion.

[Granyala]

They definitely should have incorporated more from "A good War" and "Elegy" into the actual game.
Reading both helped a lot but I'm afraid most people won't do that.

[grexly75]

It's going to fall on deaf ears. The whiners and complainers are going to continue to be toxic because they don't care. Their mind is made up.

This is the unfortunate reality of this community, there are a crap ton of toxic elements in it.. I think to those types of people the saying "they should take a long walk off a short pier" comes to mind.. Heck I would really love to let loose on some of the more toxic elements on this forum but I hold back a lot..

[Mirishka]

It's going to fall on deaf ears. The whiners and complainers are going to continue to be toxic because they don't care. Their mind is made up.

Pretty much this. There's no podcast out there that's going to change people like we see here. Most of them are desperate for attention or the approval of like-minded people, or so mindlessly arrogant that they have actually convinced themselves they could make a better game than companies like Blizzard.

[Granyala]

I mean in one sense he is right. However he was one of the biggest perpetrators of turning wow fans into toxic players.
Years ago weren't there violence issues with horde fans causing problems at some convention.. he contributed to that with his constant lok'tar ogar crap at every blizzcon and treating half of the players who paid his cheque like crap underneath his boots.

I think he has been a bit naive and maybe played on peoples feeling too much. I mean they wanted the divide, they wanted faction pride etc.
Ultimately though, it's not his fault that some few people can't separate fantasy from reality.

I watched a few Blizzcons and while "For the Hoard!!1"was common, I never felt treated with disrespect just because I was a Alliance player.

[EbaumsTipster]

The point isn't to get angry people to change their minds, it's to get other people to see how harmful the angry people are being.

If people are ignored or shunned for their unhealthy behavior, there is a good chance they will change out of desperation.

[grexly75]

For anybody looking for a tl,dw: Metzen is embarrassed by nerd culture and its inability to differentiate between reality and fiction.

Can't say I blame him. Just look at the Teldrassill thread. Grown ass men calling each other out like children because they... play Horde. It's pathetic.

After reading that small snippet from the interview it makes me think of how I jumped on the hate bandwagon a bit.. And after reading it I now know what a complete idiot I was for jumping on that bandwagon, and I am ashamed of that.. It is just unfortunate that a lot of the others do not reflect on it for a moment..

[rda]

I have nothing against Chris Metzen and yes, nobody should ever cross any lines and the critique of works should remain the critique of works and not translate into, say, "I am going to kill you".

But these days every time I hear somebody talking about the need to never cross lines and be polite on the Internet, it seems to me that we are hearing this because there is nothing else worth hearing. Yeah, yeah, people shouldn't cross lines, agree. Why are we talking about this again? Did someone cross any lines somehow especially violently in this case? No. Then why? I don't think "raising awareness" like this is useful. I never see anything particularly interesting emerge from endless talks on such topics, they are only maybe good for anecdotal stories and even those are similar to each other.

[yjmark]

Creating an emotional story is fine; BfA definitely has generated hype unlike any expansion before it. But when people are calling each other sociopaths because of the faction they choose to play... I don't know. There's a line to be drawn. It's a fucking story.

Oh, I completely agree. I was not trying to justify those responses. Was just trying to point out a silver lining People who over react and start threatening writers, lashing out at players for their faction....they need professional help.... Unfortunately, the internet does not have a "crazy' filter :P