That's what someone posted on a forum I was reading today to excuse his disrespectful posts. (I assume the poster was male, but that may not be the case. Doesn't matter either way, I just needed a pronoun.)
With that sentence he's removed any interest I have in reading anything he has to say.
Clearly he had an issue with a game I'm interested in and even did some work on, but this post really isn't about that. It's about this: If you comment on a game, then say something like this, how is it possible for me as a designer to know what you really want? How can I take you seriously? How am I to know if you're actually offering criticism (and hopefully the constructive kind) or just bitching? Will you warn me? Will the bitchy parts be in all caps or italics so I can ignore them since they don't actually contain any information I want or need?
As a creative type, I'm always interested in giving my audience something they'll enjoy and I'm always interested in their feedback since I always want to make the next thing better, but with that phrase he made it impossible for me to take him seriously. I get it, you don't like the way the game turned out because it didn't match what you felt it should have been. I understand that emotion, that disappointment, but I think going on a forum and bitching about it doesn't help anyone. Especially when you undercut your own argument by saying you're just bitching.
Here's the deal; in these, the days of the Internet and public forums that are read by many, many of the people who actually make the games you buy and play, you don't want to be the guy no one listens to. No wait, I want to revise that: In these the days of the Internet and public forums that are read by many of the people who make the entertainment content you consume, you don't want be the guy no one listens to.
We have this wonderful technology that allows us to talk to each other about the products we love -- and to contribute to them like never before. You have the ears and eyes of the people making your games, novels, movies, whatever. Why would you waste the opportunity to take part in the process, the feedback loop that all creative types thrive on, just to be bitchy? I know, everyone is a unique little snowflake. It takes all kinds. Yada yada yada. But if you have a passion for something and you want the best for it, the way to bring that about is to be as reasonable and rational as possible. Someone -- Not you, by the way. You didn't actually contribute anything to the creation of that product. -- but someone spent hours of their life to make the thing you spend $30 and then "bitch" about to no end. The least you can do is extend the courtesy of treating the creator with respect until he or she proves unworthy of that respect by, say, treating you with no respect.
Oh, and I'm not saying you don't have the right to bitch about something, you absolutely do, but don't expect me to listen to your useless whining.
For those of you looking to break into the industry you're passionate about, you greatly improve your chances by being a decent human being online. For example, the guy who posted the sentence I've been going on about is interested in writing for games. What do you think the likelihood of him getting a helping hand from me or any of the others that worked on the game he's been bitching about is? It's not that I hate him, hell, I don't even know him, but the way he presents himself online makes me not want to know him. If I received a submission from him I'd drag it right to the recycle bin, not because I don't think he'd be capable of writing something of good quality, but because I'd know he's not someone I'd enjoy working with. It's that simple. He might be the next Shakespeare, but I'll never work with him because he's already proven to me he's a pain in the ass -- and that I don't need. So, don't be that guy.
I have some other thoughts on this that have to do with crowdsourcing and truly collaborative projects made possible by the Internet, but I'll save that for another post.
