What is this I don't even...

[Kallera]

most of the comments got deleted. People were calling her ugly, stupid bitch, etc.

definitely not the Final Fantasy fanbase's finest hour

No evidence that Abriael was the culprit of all this. You do know there are fans of this game who don't visit the forums or even the site, don't you? But again, the editor used a broad brush to cover an exercise of yellow journalism.

[Abriael]

most of the comments got deleted. People were calling her ugly, stupid bitch, etc.

definitely not the Final Fantasy fanbase's finest hour

Do you have any evidence of that?

I followed the article rather closely, and I didn't see *any* comment that said "ugly", "stupid bitch" or anything similar appear at any time.

It's very convenient to accuse a *whole community* of something like that without providing the slightest evidence, isn't it? Especialy when it allows you to sit on a fake moral high horse and completely ignore the valid criticism to your work.

Playing the victim is a rather common journalistic trick, and even if those comments did exist (thing that I have every reason to doubt, especially in any sizable percentage of the total), no writer worth his salt would brand a whole community out of the actions of few.

While rudeness is never nice, you don't go into a writing career without growing a thick skin. I have been called things that would make a league of legends player grow pale, and guess what? I learned from it, exercised self-criticism to understand if I wrote something nonsensical, and moved on, and for sure I didn't ever make blanket statements on any community because someone saw fit to insult me.

If someone goes into a writing career expecting only compliments, cheers and applause, he's delusive.

[ClausL]

I don't think blanket statements were made about the fanbase, actually the author admitted she likes Final Fantasy herself.

but you have to admit those hostile & insulting commenters were directed from the FFXIV board & this thread. it's pretty obvious from the early pages of this thread that it stemmed from here. and people encouraging each other to make an account on Penny arcade and give the writer a piece of their mind, in this thread.

so it does reflect badly on the XIV community even if a handful of people were responsible, that's how it works. and honestly that handful is indicative of a larger group, I'm noticing that kind of hostile attitude towards negative feedback is pretty common around here.

btw, I'm not sure why you keep saying the author is thin skinned. she actually defended herself pretty well in the comments section, and the article hasn't been taken down. she stands by her point regardless of trolls.

[Fadigre]

If you visited a game review website and found that an article posted an opinion about a game and found that the comments were ablaze with conflicting opinions; would you take the comments seriously?
What exactly is this attempting to achieve?

In 4 months time this game will have been released. This article will be lost to time and forgotten.
If by some bizarre twist of fate it somehow resurfaces in the future will it really mean anything?

She's just one girl. Who needs her any way.

[Kallera]

If you visited a game review website and found that an article posted an opinion about a game and found that the comments were ablaze with conflicting opinions; would you take the comments seriously?
What exactly is this attempting to achieve?

In 4 months time this game will have been released. This article will be lost to time and forgotten.
If by some bizarre twist of fate it somehow resurfaces in the future will it really mean anything?

She's just one girl. Who needs her any way.

Even in THIS thread statements like these are peppered all throughout the conversation. I don't expect the PA commentators to notice that, but the staff certainly read very selectively if they called us all a "rats' nest".

[Abriael]

I don't think blanket statements were made about the fanbase, actually the author admitted she likes Final Fantasy herself.

Oh you don't think?

"I know you think it's unfair to judge the community by its words or actions, but I think that's good evidence to go by."

"If, on the other hand, you make an account on sites you don't normally read just to attack an author who has written opinions you don't agree with, it just makes the community look like a bunch of assholes. "

And several others.

but you have to admit those hostile & insulting commenters were directed from the FFXIV board & this thread.

There's nothing to admit, as there's no evidence whatsoever that those insulting comments ever existed.

Even if they did, it's still no justification to judge a whole community by them, as no community is a hive mind with a single-minded brain, and every community on the internet has its hotheads.

Thinking otherwise is delusional, and where a comment comes from is inconsequential. What matters are its contents.

it's pretty obvious from the early pages of this thread that it stemmed from here. and people encouraging each other to make an account on Penny arcade and give the writer a piece of their mind, in this thread.

Actually no one on this thread encouraged anyone to make an account anywhere and go post there. You're grasping at straws so hard that you're going as far as inventing things and posting plain falsehoods.

so it does reflect badly on the XIV community even if a handful of people were responsible, that's how it works. and honestly that handful is indicative of a larger group, I'm noticing that kind of hostile attitude towards negative feedback is pretty common around here.

And here's the crux of the matter: You made an account here just to post a borderline trollish and absolutely nonsensical suggestion of "scrapping the PS3 version", and you're offended that people told you you were wrong. Sounds like you have a personal beef with the community because they didn't (rightfully) take you seriously.

Here's the thing. If you write something that doesn't make sense, chances are that people will tell you exactly that. Maybe you should consider that what you write simply didn't make sense, instead of thinking that everyone else is wrong.

btw, I'm not sure why you keep saying the author is thin skinned. she actually defended herself pretty well in the comments section, and the article hasn't been taken down. she stands by her point regardless of trolls.

In fact the author isn't thin skinned (she's just fairly incompetent and flamebaitish, at least for what that article is concerned). Her editor is. You may want to actually read and understand what is being talked about before commenting. It helps.

If you visited a game review website and found that an article posted an opinion about a game and found that the comments were ablaze with conflicting opinions; would you take the comments seriously?

I'd read the comments and judge based on their contents compared to the contents of the article. In this case most of the comments make a lot of sense, so I would form the opinion that the author of the article is being misinformative.

So would do anyone that has a brain of his own, and doesn't just take a journalist's opinion like dripping gold.

I'm not really sure what you think a comment form at the bottom of an article is for, exactly?

[SkyeWindbinder]

Heck, I never even wrote anything on the comments section on her "editorial". I was too amazed at how poorly it was written to say anything about it. lol

I think the popular accusation made by people who are defending this woman's terrible lack of writing skills is that people "can't take criticism of a game they like". Well I can't speak for everyone, but I will say that I, for one, am an adult and can take it when someone says something not too favorable about a video game I like. But it doesn't change the fact that the woman didn't seem to even know what se was talking about half the time, while seemingly intent on praising GW2 the entire article. I've seen plenty of reviews written about FFXIV and all the reasons it's not a good game, yet this is the only one I criticized (EVER). That should speak volumes.

[Mudd]

Yeah lately I'm starting to wonder about some individuals that get into this industry. How they've been educated, what kind of writing background they have... some seem so improvised and unable to make a point without being fanboyish and sensationalist or without using improperly placed hyperbole that they make my head want to slam on my desk repeatedly...

Who needs to be reasonable when being sensationalist is what draws in the most attention.

[MrKupo]

Lol, I honestly went over there to give her some criticisms on her writing (what professional actually writes the word "ass" in their preview article?) but as soon as I found out I had to sign-up, I found that I didn't care enough to do even that. Remember that there are communities on Reddit, Facebook, and even Google+ as well that could be culprits, assuming that they aren't fabricating their accusations.

[Yolteotl]

Most of the negativity was based on the fact that she apparently doesn't know much at all about the history of mmo development, wrote an editorial before she even knew how the controls worked in the game, and formed an opinion of the quality of a game during a stress test. Because of this she states that GW2 was innovative in a concept that originated with Warhammer Online, didn't know how to use the map so hated it. If her or her editor had spent 10 minutes fact-checking instead of opinionating her post wouldn't of spiraled out of control.