Ahem.
An MMO is a multiplayer game and that means that the community (such as it is) is often part of the discussion because so many other individuals affect one another. When examples are brought up (and Miktar isn't the only one doing it, by the way), it's because there's something especially bad or more humorous than usual. This place would get pretty rancid indeed if it was nothing but quotes from Reddit or the Official forums, but it's not.
In this particular case, Miktar linked a snippet from Reddit where an individual was complaining about having to sit through dialogue for 15 minutes. For those who have done the first part of this Episode; did that
really take 15 minutes? Was it nothing but scrolling through dialogue or was there an interesting mechanic at play? Was it really less interesting than running up to objects and hitting "F?"
The joke is that this individual is basically saying "TL;DR" to what I think most of us would agree was a pretty cool way of telling the story, and it's funny to imagine him just clicking dialogue options randomly to speed things up and resetting that entire portion in his ignorance, like a kid who keeps pushing on a door clearly marked "pull." It's especially good timing because we were
just discussing on the last page how some folks miss the little storyline articles ArenaNet used to put out, but stopped doing because the community whined that they wanted all of the storytelling to be in-game. That makes it a little ironic too, because here the story is being told in-game (with a cool mechanic to boot) and without fail,
someone doesn't want all this annoying talking in their vidyagamez omg!
I don't think there was anything particularly malicious in Miktar's comment, nor in the string of absurd insults I slapped together for humorous effect (I'll go to the grave defending "shitlord" as funny), though obviously the tone didn't carry because Lunar thought we were both being petty and mean-spirited. He's not the only one, as I've received a couple comments from other GAFers who see it as a problem as well.
To me, it's in the same vein as Levyne always commenting that rangers are crap (which is funny because we know he plays a ranger), that Ash's fiance keeps him trapped at the bottom of a well (which we know to be untrue because he lives in an apartment and she seems perfectly nice) or that Xeris is an irritable old bastard who hates everything (despite being in his 40s and I assume holding no grudge with clouds). It's the same with Roxie being a drunk (she's obviously not drinking 24/7), Braxzy always being awake (he has to sleep sometime), and Kos's being a smelly, hateful Canadian (Canadians aren't all bad and I'm sure he showers frequently).
My point is that this is a
community thread for a
community-based game, and like the comments about unsubscribing or the game/guild being dead, it's one of those in-jokes that may be lost on people who maybe don't play too often.
Re-read the paragraph above, but ignore the parts in parenthesis; those all sound
incredibly insulting if you're not aware that it's good-natured ribbing amongst friends, developed over months or even years of playing together.
The problem is that this is not a
closed community and folks are wandering in and out all the time who may not get the punchline, and that there's always a danger of a joke going too far or being taken the wrong way. I think that's what has happened here, someone who doesn't know that Miktar was "just being Miktar" took offense, in the same way that I sometimes feel like correcting Levyne's comments on rangers because people asking for advice may not get that he's joking. Since Lunar isn't the only one who feels that way, Miktar might need to make it a little clearer that he's joking or only post the more obviously funny forum/reddit comments (in the same way that I generally don't dump puns non-stop for a half hour, especially if I'm the only one doing it). I don't think any party is right or wrong in this instance.
I think people just need to assume the best of people and not the worst, and I apologize if people think I was being mean-spirited. After two years of playing with the same people on a regular basis, it's easy to forget that not everyone is as familiar with each other as I am. It may also have something to do with the fact that I grew up with two brothers, so friends making jabs at each other is just something I grasp immediately (I can already sense Meg about to chime in with a "Boys are dumb!" comment).
Anyways, yeah... thems my thoughts on the matter, and this is the last I'll say on it for the time being. Back to Guild Wars 2.
