CEVO Articles

This post was spurred by a comic by Tim Absath, who is the creator of the Ctrl-Al-Del Comic.

What is it about the internet and forums that seems to draw so much negativity? Why is it that so very few posts have complete sentences, and instead we have piles upon piles of “junk” posts of “Looloololol” or “rofl,n00b!” What type of contribution do these individuals bring to eSports? Who are these people? I’d like to share my ideas as to why so many forums, especially gaming forums, are this way.

Reason #1 - “Because I Can”

For any CEVO old schoolers who happened to browse our old, old forums system during Season 1 of Counter-Strike 1.6, they might remember a guy by the name of Avenger-X. Avenger-X, who was semi-infamous at the Natural Selection Forums, is my younger brother Bryce. One day he was laughing at how “up-tight” some of the Counter-Strike players could be as he listened to me work on Ventrilo. I had to agree with him in some aspects, but said most gamers on any game are the same way. Bryce wanted to prove his point at how easy it was to “rage” a CS player, so he went on the CEVO forums, created an account, and proceeded explain why his favorite tactic should be allowed for play in CEVO: the Tactical Shield.

In 4-5 paragraphs of pure comical irony Bryce laid out his argument of why the Tactical Shield should be allowed in CEVO. Within an hour, he had five posts “flaming” him for his reasoning, stating why they thought he was totally wrong. Bryce continued to give counter-arguments, purposfully choosing arguments that he knew any CS player would get mad over. Long story short, over 3-4 days he had over 100+ posts of completely enraged people trying to fight a never-ending argument. It was the largest thread ever for CEVO at the time. And all because he liked watching gamers try to argue with him. Towards the end, all logic had left the thread and nothing put trivial insults were being thrown back and forth. Why does this happen?

You usually have three different types of people: The Opinionated, the Trolls, and the Innocent. The Innocent are people who are usually just looking for help or normal discussion. They are completely oblivious to the harsh realities of the forums. They post something like “So what is the best strategy for this type of map?” or “Which weapon is better?” Usually the Trolls will be the first to respond. They start dumping replies like “lol, n00b, if u r askin dat u suck.” The Trolls are the people who will post 95% negativity. Their whole existence is to chime in on the “newbness” of others, regardless of their own knowledge. Almost never will they actually offer a useful bit of information or insight to a topic. Hopefully before the Innocent is drowned by pure useless anger and agnst, an Opinionated will come in and give their opinion, which usually is very strong, but at least pertains to the topic. If more than one Opinionated enters the topic, then usually they will bicker fiercely among themselves while more Trolls post useless commentary in the form of in-complete sentences and internet/gaming slang.

At this point, the Innocent either A) stops using the forums all together, B) eventually evolves into an Opinionated, or C) regresses into a Troll. The ratio, depending on which forums, the ratio between Opinionated and Trolls is 1 to 5. So why are there so many trolls?

Reason #2 - “eThuggery”

You can say just about anything without anyone knocking you out. All the trash talk that goes on in forums, chat-rooms, and in-game wouldn’t be nearly as harsh, demeaning, or racist if the things people said were to the face of the person they were talking to. But with the beauty of the internet, a person can hide behind the anonymity the internet provides and talk extreme trash with no physical retaliation (well, usually). So many times CEVO Executives have had to listen to complaints about players in IRC, Forums, etc. because some 13 year old can get away with being a complete jack-off without getting the living crap beat out of him.

What compels people to be e-Thugs? Well, for some people it can be downright fun. The idea of bothering or “raging” people just gives some kids a total rush. Another reason is there are people who can’t help but try to get back at an e-Thug, which usually is all in vain due to the lack control a person has over another on the internet. Just ask the clan myg0t. Their whole purpose is to torment others over the internet.

We understand that there are a lot of people on the internet, but why is the majority of forum posts, especially gaming forums, so negative?

Reason #3 - “But they are wrong!”

Writing this post reminded me of a comic from xkcd, a web comic with stick figures.

So many people just can’t resit. One of the rules of being a CEVO official is to not post on forum posts pertaining to gaming leagues, period. Doesn’t matter which league it is about, never post. This is also the #1 broken rule by new officials due to the fact that can’t but help “defend” CEVO. Over the last 3 years I’ve seen countless misinformed posts, even straight up lying, but it can be extremely hard not to write a counter-argument and hit “submit.” There is this inner burning passion for correcting the wrongs people post. We always have an official now and then “slip up” and post. We ask them to take it down and not do it again.

So many epic forum threads are just two sides of an opinion arguing endlessly on-and-on. While debate is good, when a “debate” degrades into simple and harsh personal attacks, it is pretty pointless. No one wins, and everyone just gets angry, frustrated, and pissed-off.

How to stop the vicious cycle

First of all, before you post your comment, post, thread, etc… follow these guidelines:

Don’t post if….

1. Your post is less than 4 letters. (Example: nub)
2. Your post doesn’t contain a complete sentence. (Example: uh, retarded?)
3. Spell-check would explode after examining your respose. (Example: dude, /part life k thx? u r nub)
4. There isn’t a single “real” word in your response.(Example: omg u r so b4d. rofl pwned)
5. You wouldn’t want to hear it on your honeymoon… (Example: Epic Fail….)

This would help save everyone from reading your trash on the internet. There is such a thing as constructive criticism, but those usually involve complete sentences. Well all know you want to get your post count higher than the next guy, but at the end of the day, no one really cares anyways.

If you find yourself arguing with a troll, or trying to resist posting, follow these guidelines:

Don’t post if…

1. Your friends would be embarrassed of you.
2. There wasn’t a two-syllable word in someone’s post, they are probably a troll.
3. You get angrier as you type.
4. Your post wouldn’t make a different.
5. Your IQ begins to drop as you type.

But to summarize why people are the way they are on the internet, Penny-Arcade says it best.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 4:25 pm and is filed under CEVO Featured Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.