"Everyone's so open and friendly" is a lie

[linayar]

Cult-like behavior does effect people negatively, so it's worth some level of criticism.

Sure, but are you ascribing that behavior to (and therefore criticizes) to those individuals or the community as a whole? Because it seems, there are people who would do the latter.

When people say this game has a great community, do you think those behaviors are what they're applauding? If not, then any exception you may point about the community is just that, exceptions.

So, yes, we can agree that people can take anything (like or dislike toward something) too far, and people can still say this game's community is great or nice or the best, and they wouldn't be contradictory statements.