Recently an online game I play revealed much of their changes for the next patch. For the specific content that I like to interact with, it seems like theres a rather large (and probably not intended) change to this content that is not only a big "nerf", but also seems to go against the studio's design philosphy. I've made posts and comments talking about it, but the thing I keep running into is people just downvoting what I'm saying into obscurity. I have people interact and with people that are dismissive I iterate exactly why, which very specific information, its not just some small change... and what I get back is a downvote, and really nothing else. I literally upvote everyone that responds, no matter how antagonistic, simply because I want to talk about it and appreciate the interaction, but it seems like people when confronted with information that makes them feel like they had it wrong just reflexively downvote.
Its incredibly infuritating. So yeah, thanks hexbear for doing away with fucking downvotes, this shit seems so toxic and I'm glad I've always relegated reddit into mostly a space where I look up relevant info for whatever hobby, or information about products that I need.
That's more of a mixed bag for me. I grew up with Web 1.0 forums and liked that digital village atmosphere where you had a consistent idea of who you were talking to. Reddit in 2009 was like that, but a few years later it was so large that everyone became faceless. It flattened the experience when outside of small subreddits I couldn't pick out a familiar name. Power users can be toxic if they're given power or influence but here the most prolific users aren't trying to become powermods or forming cliques. We're still at that population level where it's just people posting for the sake of posting.
I miss it sometimes too. I made friends on old forums and mirc groups, although the lack of size and new faces tended to lead to their closures. I often think about the way centralization impacted online gaming as well. There was a very odd period where people didn't realize they could be anonymous dickheads, and segmented playerbases (on seperate servers, essentially) had a social imperative to not be dickish because you would have repercussions from the community. There were some really magical days playing everquest/ffxi/WoW and encountering the same people, fostering a sense of community. Everything is so faceless now, I really wish there was some way to get that back but it seems like you can't really get people onboard with that anyways.
In terms of forums its probably for the best, remaining an outcast in a forum where everyone else has built up a reputation/cliques is not ideal
When I played WoW vanilla-burning crusade, I was on this ultra-low population server called Zuluhed. There were less than 50 max level characters, to the point that we as a server struggled to clear Karazhan as other servers were starting to farm Black Temple. It was beautiful. I knew every other person who regularly played there by name. Without the numbers to do the endgame content we fucked around and raided capital cities. I've chased a second Zuluhed across subsequent games and forums without any success, but that's exactly what I want from an online community. A bunch of people seeing that there's nothing to win and still playing anyway.
I played on a very large server, but I specifically remember a gnome mage becoming my arch nemesis. He went as far as to wear shadow reflectors when we would end up in the same battlegrounds, and would spam emotes whenever he killed me. I hope he found that as enjoyable as I did, I thought our little tiff was hilarious.
Reminds me of my WoW days too. Used to play on a RP-PVP server as horde, there was this high-end raiding guild on the alliance side who basically acted as some fucking contras or something, they always tried to murder all horde no matter where we were, and usually with like 3-1 advantage, and then they corpse-camped you. These people were fucking good at the PVP too, combined with their gear I've been on a losing fight of 4-2 with them even if we were all the same level
Looking back it was pretty fun to go into Stranglethorn and notice from afar members of the guild and have to do some calculations if you'd manage to stay hidden from them to do your questing or if it would be better to just leave.