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I'm a bit worried.....

PeteBull

Member
"I wish that discussions here were moderated a bit more to promote balanced viewpoints and discourage personal attacks"

I feel like all the dissenters here are hung up on this one sentence from the OP. Most people can agree with the rest of the OP about the discourse getting worse.
Balanced viewpoints can be many things, in the 80-90s moderates had exact viewpoints that by today's leftists standards are considered all kinds of unacceptable.
I say moderates but i can even show u CNN material from the 90s that promotes all white men dev studio here


Now imagine what today's CNN would do in that vid- questions about diversity, why there is no women in the team, why all the ppl are white straight males and other meaningless yet extremly negative questions with agenda behind it.
 
It's either that or just don't go in that thread and try another.
This action leads to my ignore list 'battle royale' example a few posts above.
TBF, only the most obvious news of events that clearly play into/invite culture war stuff, get those types of responses at a high rate (or at all). If it seems like it happens more than in the past, well the industry itself is in large part to blame. 🤷‍♂️
So you (and quite a few others here) are saying that the industry is to blame for how this forum's community currently runs itself? Then, aside from your few examples when it doesn't happen, when that stuff starts leaking into the other threads in the form of shitposting or worse, is the industry also to blame for that as well?
 

Fahdis

Member
I'm here. A bit late but here. An equal opportunity hater. How can I be of service OP?

Sexy Excuse Me GIF by Pit Viper
 

Boglin

Member
If the shoe were on the other foot and the gaming industry were run by extreme conservatives who began overtly injecting their politics and values into their games' narratives( such as pushing religion, anti-gay rhetoric, etc), then I think GAF would be just as vocal against that dogma as they are against the woke. When I grew up I was making fun of the right for their moral pearl clutching about video games. Now I'm doing the same towards the left who have much more leverage to push their ideology in games than the right ever did.

However, I do think people are currently hypersensitive to what might be considered woke and occasionally are charging at windmills. Hopefully it'll go away when things eventually balance out.
 
I'd agree with the OP's premise if the year was 2015.

The problem is that it's 2024 and the woke insanity has reached critical mass. Both in movies and videogames, 2024 is a bombastic year. I am fed up with arguing about it, but I am even more fed up that everything in Western media has been infested by this pest.

Even so, I'd let it slide if those people weren't so annoyingly aggressive. The discourse certainly has become unbearable.

As for being tolerant, no, I won't be tolerant of people who call me names for liking things they don't like and vice-versa.
 
NeoGAF, more or less, has freedom of speech. At least in the sense that if you have an opinion about something, you're welcome to express it and defend it. In my experience here, even the most terrible opinions are tolerated as long as they're well articulated and not overly antagonistic. Case in point, OP believes that GAF should have more strict moderation - and that's an opinion I don't personally agree with.

If this place truly were an echo chamber, as OP claims, then his opening post would be nothing but LOL emojis. Instead, he's got a lot of thumbs up, hearts, thoughtfulness, and strength emojis. Someone gifted OP gold. In an open forum like this one, the way to combat becoming an echo chamber is to actually post dissenting opinions, and back them up.

I completely agree with this one.
 
It's hard to argue OP doesn't have a point after looking at the first few responses. All OP is asking for is "civility" of some sort and some "acceptance" of opposing views. These are reasonable requests and he wasn't specific with moderation suggestions or any solution like that. People are allowed to be jerks without being banned/threatened. We still want them to improve to not be jerks. I also think the baiting with the political stuff (woke vs. anti-woke) is very obvious and intentional. People polarize themselves to one side of that debate and refuse to try to understand where the other side is coming from. I still think everyone (including OP) wants to be able to dunk on others' opinions without fear of banning.

This. This whole thread is confirmation of what the OP is talking about. I left the other site a couple of years ago due to it being an echo chamber and now I can gradually see seeds being planted on GAF to be the same way......just at the other end of the spectrum.
 

A.Romero

Member
I like this thread.

I've been part of NeoGAF in some capacity for quite a long time. I really enjoy this forum and can tell the difference in quality of dicussions compared to pretty much any other social network. I can also see that after the schsim a few years back, GAF's identity leans more in opposition to the other forum which is OK. I like the fact that moderation tends to be assertive and members are generally not assholes.

I have no problems regarding radical posting and I think the last renmants of extreme positions were cleared when the politics forum was destroyed (which I believe was the best decision possible).

I wish discussions weren't so focused on console warring (personally I don't understand that) but technical discussions and sometimes the industry discussions can be really good, at the level they can't be found anywhere else.
 

Edgelord79

Gold Member
I have a hard time disagreeing with the OP. It’s usually the same people echoing these things. I just ignore them. All you can do and it works.
 
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JayK47

Member
I'm sick of hearing the statement "I hate wokeness in games as much as the next guy, but some of you take it too far." Pretty much every game franchise I love has been turned to shit and I guess I complain too much or too hard about it. Well, I have a lot of free time to bitch about it since I am not buying or playing these games. I am now at a point where I am far more entertained reading about and complaining about how awful gaming has become rather than just playing what used to be fun games. But they are not fun anymore. They beat you over the head with an agenda. I remember when the media used to say games were too violent and kids should not be playing them. Well now they are too preachy and pushing just awful ideology and misinformation and now I am the one saying kids should not be playing these games. Damn.

I guess I can still mostly go back and play old games. But what happens when the old games get so damn old they may not even be playable? Scary times.
 

F3112006

Member
I completely agree with the OP.

Who gives a shit if i can call my character he/she/them/they, its an option, or if one of the side missions focuses on a non binary character? If the game is good i dont give a shit.
 
I'm sick of hearing the statement "I hate wokeness in games as much as the next guy, but some of you take it too far." Pretty much every game franchise I love has been turned to shit and I guess I complain too much or too hard about it. Well, I have a lot of free time to bitch about it since I am not buying or playing these games. I am now at a point where I am far more entertained reading about and complaining about how awful gaming has become rather than just playing what used to be fun games. But they are not fun anymore. They beat you over the head with an agenda. I remember when the media used to say games were too violent and kids should not be playing them. Well now they are too preachy and pushing just awful ideology and misinformation and now I am the one saying kids should not be playing these games. Damn.

I guess I can still mostly go back and play old games. But what happens when the old games get so damn old they may not even be playable? Scary times.

And the same disgusting industry allowing dei and wokeness to take over also just won a court battle over game preservation ...it's my biggest fear as well being console gamer with an absolutely massive digital library of games. That one day they'll be forever removed from storefronts with no recourse to even be able to download said games.

The industry is a hell hole now, despite there still being good games and an insane amount of choice. It's the business end of things, the politics and agendas, and anti consumer/gamer practices that are so out of control and worse than ever.
 
There's no nuance to be had with Woke, it's the exact same shit over and over again that always sinks whatever it touches.

Years ago games could have mild woke elements that wouldn't ruin it, but as time goes it kept getting ramped up and ramped up, now it's at an intolerable level and either the industry drops it like a bad habit or it will sink the industry.
 
I think many if not most of the anti-woke diatribes expose a weakness in white males that I am disappointed to see. It counters the narrative of strength and confidence that they like to portray. This post will probably be moderated - again due to over sensitivity.

If anything it will be moderated for being racist bullshit since you don't even know the race of the people making these anti woke "diatribes". Interesting also how you suspect it will be moderated...is that because you know how utterly stupid the generalization you're making is?

Everything about that post screams out exactly what the problem is with woke extremists like you. Irrational, extreme leftist thinking and an obsession with divisive qualities that people have no control over, like skin color and sexuality.

Your woke ideology is absolutely ruining gaming. It's negative bullshit that can't get beyond superficial biological differences communist ideology. It's class warfare forced into our beloved medium. Weak and greedy publishers have felt forced to go along with this absurd agenda or else suffer the consequences of media attacks by like minded individuals such as your racist self.

Sadly, its been to the detriment of developer talent and writing quality. One gets to a point where we don't want to roll our eyes anymore when year after year we see our favorite franchises and developers going down the drain. We've realized just how obnoxious and damaging it is and at that point we have lost all tolerance for even the "small issues" shoved into our favorite games.

Hopefully it won't last forever but gaming will continue to go downhill for most gamers outside of your group of zealots, until the tide turns and people regain their senses.
 

lmimmfn

Member
I'm sick of hearing the statement "I hate wokeness in games as much as the next guy, but some of you take it too far." Pretty much every game franchise I love has been turned to shit and I guess I complain too much or too hard about it. Well, I have a lot of free time to bitch about it since I am not buying or playing these games. I am now at a point where I am far more entertained reading about and complaining about how awful gaming has become rather than just playing what used to be fun games. But they are not fun anymore. They beat you over the head with an agenda. I remember when the media used to say games were too violent and kids should not be playing them. Well now they are too preachy and pushing just awful ideology and misinformation and now I am the one saying kids should not be playing these games. Damn.

I guess I can still mostly go back and play old games. But what happens when the old games get so damn old they may not even be playable? Scary times.
I only watch TV shows and movies from <2017 unless I know newer stuff isint woke, the same for gaming.

There are plenty of excellent movies, TV shows and games prior to that that are excellent.

Don't purchase/invest in woke shit as you'll just make it worse for yourself.
 
I think the OP a nice reminder to not explode at every little thing that you disagree with.

That said, I like it here because you aren’t moderated to hell and can freely express opinions.

No one on GAF is getting banned because they liked/bought/enjoy Harry Potter for example.
 

lmimmfn

Member
I think many if not most of the anti-woke diatribes expose a weakness in white males that I am disappointed to see. It counters the narrative of strength and confidence that they like to portray. This post will probably be moderated - again due to over sensitivity.
White males? That's a bit racist and sexist no?
I think you're in the wrong forum mate!!!
 
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What's nice about GAF is being able to post your opinion about something without the fear of being permabanned.



GAF may seem one-sided because a lot of members are of the opinion that woke culture and DEI are completely destroying creativity and, as a result, the games we love and are passionate about. That sort of says a lot considering members here seem to be from all over the world.

If someone here were to post that they're all for DEI, agenda pushing, woke culture, etc. I don't think they'd get permabanned for it. They may get LOL reacts or something but I don't think there are any mods here that would immediately ban them for a differing opinion.
Yeah out of all the gaming forums I've tried, GAF seems the most fair. From a Steam users first for over a decade to gamefaqs for a few years and now to both Neogaf and Resetera. Everyone has a voice and you can like or dislike whatever you like as long as you don't go hostile with users which seems fair. I don't even see GAF as the other side of Era because GAF seems more of a middle ground and doesn't seem like a echo chamber at all. While Era is and it's among the worse ones since it's a echo chamber for the insane that sees the crazy views that have as facts. With the exception of some reasonable members here and there. Seen a few members there that somehow still got banned even though they seem very left but because they disagree with somethings slightly, they still managed to get the ban.

And besides the most extreme stuff here is nothing compared to Era since in here at most it'll just be like "okay that was a bit much" or "I don't think it's that woke" while in Era it's like "Okay these people are completely insane but can't question it" or "WTF do these people really think like this?" etc. I'll say 4CHAN would be the other side of Era that is just as bad since people there can say absolutely what they want and be as hostile as they want at all times. Gamefaqs used to be great but is now more like a Era Lite. Steam and Reddit are huge but it depends on which forum as they don't feel connected like how Gamefaqs, Neogaf, and ResetEra is.
I remember when the media used to say games were too violent and kids should not be playing them. Well now they are too preachy and pushing just awful ideology and misinformation and now I am the one saying kids should not be playing these games. Damn.
Yeah it was mostly the religious folks that have problems with some violent gory games but you know what I'll take those old SJW easily any day over the insane stuff we got now. At least the religious ones that hates violent and gore will just look at the game with disgust and say it's bad or sinful and that's about it as they were still sane folks just very strict. While the current SJWs are just completely twisted and insane and want to force the crazy stuff they think as fact on you.
 
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OP is correct.

Wish we could just talk about video games without turning it into a culture war. Good to see the silent majority out here asking for civil discourse in gaming.

This is our hobby, why are we letting tourists takeover the conversation? We just want to talk about games, enjoy games. If you don't like a game or the direction a studio is going in, vote with your wallet.
 
I don't mind both sides. I am for freedom of discussions and expression. And I think that this forum compared to many others is more open and gives the members more freedom of expression. Maybe the mods shouldn't allow multiple threads for the same topic. But also no one can deny that Concord's threads have been entertaining.
 
Can't you find something else to talk about?
Is this song the only one you sing?
Makes you look better when you put things down?
Value your opinion!

I'm fed up 'cause all you want to do is criticize.
 
White males? That's a bit racist and sexist no?
I think you're in the wrong forum mate!!!
Imagine replacing "white males" in this statement with something different. Moderation is tolerating it, probably because it directly references the subject of this thread. Pretty sure if you'd make this exact post but with something other in there instead of "while males", you'd get into trouble. Rightfully so, it's pretty offensive racist bullshit.
 

PeteBull

Member
I think the OP a nice reminder to not explode at every little thing that you disagree with.

That said, I like it here because you aren’t moderated to hell and can freely express opinions.

No one on GAF is getting banned because they liked/bought/enjoy Harry Potter for example.
And same thing goes for super leftists games, like fricken dusborn, concord or super recent DA:V, we have ppl who bought those games here on site(some did it out of curiosity to check how bad they really are even ;p) and thats perfectly fine, we might make a joke about it, but no1 will tell other person what to play or not to play, aka what to do with his/her hard earned cash/valuable time.

Ofc some basic accountability has to be there- aka u wanna support such propaganda- fine, just dont claim there is nothing there, no agenda, its just " different angle", "lighting","creative direction", "artists expression" or coincidence, that stuff looks the way it actually looks in the game :)
 
If woke-haters are not moderated enough then neither are pro-wokeness people either, therefore its a fair forum. Purple forum is insane, you cant say anything without being permanent banned unless you agree with everything everyone else is saying. I dont see any hate here, people voting with their wallets and have every right to say we dont need any of that shit in our games, we just want to play games, relax and have fun. If we just keep silent, they will walk over us and you can already see what happens when that is the case. In the beginning it was an innocent minority, now its a full on crucification, however now all those movies, games are so bad that they cant even hide behind "its because of woke haters". They straight up are releasing trash.
 

PeteBull

Member
If woke-haters are not moderated enough then neither are pro-wokeness people either, therefore its a fair forum.
Yup, thats the difference, when in doubt just ask the clowns to describe what is a woman w/o using the very word and their whole ideology goes out of the window =]

Thats why sane ppl never ask for more moderation, we acknowledge the power of arguments and inteligence of our fellow gaf-bros, u can easily explain stuff based on reality and biology, no need to take stuff on faith(and i say it as a christian catholic person, the difference is here in Poland we had plenty jokes about pope even when we had polish pope and we all laughed so hard hearing them ;)
Believe into something is one thing- being insufferable zealot who wants to convert every1 around him to that pov is another- every intelligent person will easily understand one isnt same as the other.
 

Psychostar

Member
OP I agree with your post. A lot of the responses I see on threads lately mirror the same behaviors being critiqued. Gaf has always had a wide range of commenters and I think that's great, but the DEI stuff seems to be bringing out the trolls out of the woodwork in full force lol. The topic is truly cursed, whether you are for it or against it, unfortunately the responses that people display are often in poor taste.

I'm glad you raised some awareness. Let's keep Gaf the lovely enthusiast gamer site it is and remember why we started posting here to begin with. The quality of threads is declining as everyone falls pray to these topics.

The less attention/engagement you give a topic, the less fuel you give people to burn you with, making it harder for 'journalists' to create articles spawned from these forums designed to waste your time for clicks.

GG, GL HF.
 

PeteBull

Member
OP I agree with your post. A lot of the responses I see on threads lately mirror the same behaviors being critiqued. Gaf has always had a wide range of commenters and I think that's great, but the DEI stuff seems to be bringing out the trolls out of the woodwork in full force lol. The topic is truly cursed, whether you are for it or against it, unfortunately the responses that people display are often in poor taste.

I'm glad you raised some awareness. Let's keep Gaf the lovely enthusiast gamer site it is and remember why we started posting here to begin with. The quality of threads is declining as everyone falls pray to these topics.

The less attention/engagement you give a topic, the less fuel you give people to burn you with, making it harder for 'journalists' to create articles spawned from these forums designed to waste your time for clicks.

GG, GL HF.
Totally diseagree, check for example DA:V preview and review threads here on gaf, all those sellout professional journos praise that shitty game to heaven and back, no1 warns and shows reality of how it actually is(skillup review did but he is freaking youtuber, not journalist)
Here preview thread, actual journalists who had gamers interests in mind would have warned us instead of making preview of a game literal ad for it- ofc they "have to" do it, their living depends on it, same publisher who sends them preview/review code buys out ad space at their site :)

That is the reason we shouldnt be quiet about it, as players, when nasty stuff happens we arent only allowed but are obliged to call it out.
 

Psychostar

Member
Totally diseagree, check for example DA:V preview and review threads here on gaf, all those sellout professional journos praise that shitty game to heaven and back, no1 warns and shows reality of how it actually is(skillup review did but he is freaking youtuber, not journalist)
Here preview thread, actual journalists who had gamers interests in mind would have warned us instead of making preview of a game literal ad for it- ofc they "have to" do it, their living depends on it, same publisher who sends them preview/review code buys out ad space at their site :)

That is the reason we shouldnt be quiet about it, as players, when nasty stuff happens we arent only allowed but are obliged to call it out.
I agree with your take but we can be better at how we communicate this, wouldn't you agree? Personally this is the issue I have with the complaints - It is not that they are being made, as if we buy things that we find ourselves not enjoying, we ideally would like to help others avoid making the same purchasing mistake so that these companies are informed that this is not what we want in our games as gamers. My issue and reasoning stems from the quality of the posts being produced in relation to the topics. The vast majority of complains sound like this: " No like. Unga Bunga."

People should raise awareness to an issue, but lately it feels more like politics where people blindly just pick a side and don't delve into the details.

I watch all of Shill up's videos and tend to agree with most of his takes. Austin and him are both reliable sources for real games coverage and make my drive home in traffic from work an enjoyable one. They provide real criticism, and that's what I think OP is talking about - It's at least what I am talking about.
 

UnrealEck

Member
OP is correct.

Wish we could just talk about video games without turning it into a culture war. Good to see the silent majority out here asking for civil discourse in gaming.

This is our hobby, why are we letting tourists takeover the conversation? We just want to talk about games, enjoy games. If you don't like a game or the direction a studio is going in, vote with your wallet.
Have you seen the new Dragon Age yet? You can't avoid the gender marxism. It is overt and right in your face constantly lecturing you. It is so over the top in ridiculousness that it should be mocked.
I get most games don't do that but it's still in a lot of them somewhere and people's concern is that it'll get worse.

We do vote with our wallets but as it's a discussion forum we also discuss why we voted a particular way.
 
Have you seen the new Dragon Age yet? You can't avoid the gender marxism. It is overt and right in your face constantly lecturing you. It is so over the top in ridiculousness that it should be mocked.
I get most games don't do that but it's still in a lot of them somewhere and people's concern is that it'll get worse.

We do vote with our wallets but as it's a discussion forum we also discuss why we voted a particular way.

It was easy to avoid it. I haven't played it and I'm not going to buy it.

How can someone lecture you from a product you didn't buy?

If you didn't buy it, how did they lecture you?

It seems you're so focused on rage and anger, that you spend so much of your time on products you don't buy.
 

UnrealEck

Member
It was easy to avoid it. I haven't played it and I'm not going to buy it.

How can someone lecture you from a product you didn't buy?

If you didn't buy it, how did they lecture you?

It seems you're so focused on rage and anger, that you spend so much of your time on products you don't buy.
It's not easy to avoid it if you're playing the game. It is in the character creator and it is in multiple key character dialogues.

I am clearly a Dragon Age fan and wanted to see a proper Dragon Age game. This is why I am disappointed in their gender marxist lecturing.

I keep seeing people now moaning about people discussing their hobby on a discussion board dedicated to discussing the hobby.
 

Zug

Member
I agree with you OP, I feel that overtime people are becoming more and more manichean especially in the US.
But black and white thinking is easy and weak, and is not a way to address or talk about issues.
 
If woke-haters are not moderated enough then neither are pro-wokeness people either, therefore its a fair forum. Purple forum is insane, you cant say anything without being permanent banned unless you agree with everything everyone else is saying. I dont see any hate here, people voting with their wallets and have every right to say we dont need any of that shit in our games, we just want to play games, relax and have fun. If we just keep silent, they will walk over us and you can already see what happens when that is the case. In the beginning it was an innocent minority, now its a full on crucification, however now all those movies, games are so bad that they cant even hide behind "its because of woke haters". They straight up are releasing trash.
For real, not sure how much more fair they want when it's already very fair and reasonable.

Basically the extreme anti woke crowd would be -> they hating woke, dei etc stuff but they still won't mind woke folks in the forum as long as those folks don't push their crazy views on everyone else and expect everyone to share them.

Meanwhile the extreme on the woke side would be - > what you disagree with my views even slightly?! Than ban cause you're a nazi, bigot, racist, sexist, genocide, serial killer ahhhhhh etc etc. And even a lot of the non extreme ones are already like this or close to this.

If it was a place where anyone could start cursing and threatening others freely like 4chan then yeah it could definitely use more moderation. But this place is far from that. The current Neogaf is the perfect balance and anymore restrictions would turn it into gamefaqs which is a lite version of resetera at this point.
 
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Pfroebbel

Member
It is easy. The harder and more offensive this Agenda is pushed the more people are not ok with being forced in this bullshit.
Sadly the media and the Game Devs are stacked with this Agenda pushers and even if they are a minority. This few (but too many) force everyone in their bullshit.


I will never ever use any Fantasy Pronouns.
 
Imagine replacing "white males" in this statement with something different. Moderation is tolerating it, probably because it directly references the subject of this thread. Pretty sure if you'd make this exact post but with something other in there instead of "while males", you'd get into trouble. Rightfully so, it's pretty offensive racist bullshit.

That's what 80 years of indoctrination can do.

The world is filled with useful idiots, and individuals suffering from aphantasia are around 5 to 10% of the entire population, though that percentage may be a low-ball considering most people may live relatively normally until well past middle age without figuring out that they have no internal monologue and whatnot.

There's been a strong push-back since last year that's been piling up like a snowball rolling on a snowy mountain. Problem is, that it won't stop.
 

Puscifer

Member
I personally just find GAF better because the moderation team allows different types of opinions on here. Sure, I do sometimes wish that the discussion around here would just be about the games, but that's the cost of free speech I guess. Like in real life, you have to be able to ignore the annoying ones or just block them, its just words anyway.
True, and it's not like GAF even entertains extremes on both sides, the ban hammers been applied to both in equal measure and the ever growing list is proof of that. There's definitely tough discussion and outright mockery but hell, if you can't handle the bantz it's easy to remove yourself. I lurked for years before making an account and I think the worse it ever was was when they had politics that attracted the worse of the internet but they course corrected.

Appreciate this place, there's not many like it left.
 
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