Genuine Question Here

[Theodric]

Maybe at this point it would be better to shut down the forums.

I disagree.

I've made many friends here over the years, particularly individuals I would not have ordinarily encountered in-game due to being on a completely different server and region.

It's by no means a perfect place, though as far as places to discuss the game are concerned it's arguably the best of the lot.

Nobody needs to leave the forum and it doesn't need to be shut down.

It also strikes me as rather strange that there's recent attempts to lump people into 'sides', especially when quite often many of those being pushed into either 'side' are completely unaffiliated with one another.

[IkaraGreydancer]

I disagree.

I've made many friends here over the years, particularly individuals I would not have ordinarily encountered in-game due to being on a completely different server and region.

It's by no means a perfect place, though as far as places to discuss the game are concerned it's arguably the best of the lot.

Nobody needs to leave the forum and it doesn't need to be shut down.

Then I'd have to ask. Why are certain viewpoints shunned off here in regards to the game? We all understand here that we're not going to always see eye to eye but there's a looming issue where more positive views are treated as lessers/game ruining. It's why I bring up the concept of separation

[Theodric]

Then I'd have to ask. Why are certain viewpoints shunned off here in regards to the game? We all understand here that we're not going to always see eye to eye but there's a looming issue where more positive views are treated as lessers/game ruining. It's why I bring up the concept of separation

Who knows? At the end of the day you can be entirely polite and reasonable, even offering to agree to disagree or work out any potential misunderstandings before they escalate only to still be treated with utter contempt and/or passive aggressive tribalism.

The game attracts players from all over the world from many different countries, cultures, belief systems and personality types - not everyone is going to be any given poster's particular cup of tea and that's just the nature of reality and society in general.

The first step should be to try and agree to disagree and if that doesn't work then the ignore function exists as a last resort. There's always going to be individuals or even groups who bear grudges and assume the absolute worst about anyone that they clash with, though there's ways to mitigate it without anyone having to 'leave'.

It's just a case of carefully curating one's interaction with the forum.

[Fawkes]

It also strikes me as rather strange that there's recent attempts to lump people into 'sides', especially when quite often many of those being pushed into either 'side' are completely unaffiliated with one another.

Well there's no way to prove that, unfortunately. If a person made a large number of posts siding with an obvious forum troll then it's natural to assume they're in cahoots. And they'd obviously deny it either way. Nothing strange about it, that's just the nature of forums plagued by a troll with like 20+ alts (or a group of 20 people with an agenda, or somewhere inbetween, who can say).