Appeal to Popularity

[Sabre]

and review requirements.

Yesterday it was my birthday (Woot!) and I heard an interesting interview about the human mind, one of the subjects it covered was conformity. Oddly, those who see themselves as non-conformists tend to conform and go to extremes to show how dedicated they are to a social group then others.

Why do I bring this up? On another forum I made a post about the Bioshock 2 DLC. Having never played Bioshock I couldn't form an opinion on the game, but the insidious nature of the DLC combined with the cash in like nature of the sequel was the point I was discussing. Unfortunatly the post had to be deleted because the so called open minded types lept onto me and burned the post with trolling and claims that I'm an idiot for daring to say a bad word about Bioshock. During this they quoted metacritic and compaired e-penis's to see whos was bigger. Despite being the non conformist crowd, I was seeing exactly what the podcast had described hours after listening to it.

On a sort of related note. One guy claimed to be "a professional games journalist and reviewer" despite the only work I could find was a couple of posts on his blog with a couple of reviews. Not what I would consider professional, but at what point do you become a professional games industry guy. For me it's when you get paid to do it, not a certain amount of time since your first work.

[Asper Sarnoff]

Happy belated birthday!

I've been thinking trough this subject quite a lot lately. On how people try to conform and adapt themself to fit into the social roles they'd like to be into. Often by picking on those who fall outside the social group he/she wants into.

One example I've taken note of several times is how teenage boys seems to use the word "gay" as an insult. Why would they do that? Simple, because one who doesn't view homosexuality as something negative, will be automaticaly viewed as one himself, and bullied for it. Group pressure, and a wish to fit into a role, or avoid one less popular, will make many people conform and change beyond what their own conviction says.

[Star Fox Runner]

In my opinion, everyone has conformed to SOMETHING, whether they realize it or not. You can remain open minded to things, but there will always be something that you stick to that forms your identity, whether it be by group pressure, or of your own choice.

[Sabre]

In my opinion, everyone has conformed to SOMETHING, whether they realize it or not. You can remain open minded to things, but there will always be something that you stick to that forms your identity, whether it be by group pressure, or of your own choice.

That was the point exactly. It's the people who think of themselves as none conformist who are the worst offenders allegedly. There's an old saying

"You'd be none conformist too if you were just like me."

When people do conform to a group, they have to see themselves as more dedicated to it. For example,

"I'm a starfox fan who has all the games."

"Oh yeah, well I have all the toys."

"Oh yeah, well I'm a true fan because I better understand the-"

and so on.

Happy belated birthday!

I've been thinking trough this subject quite a lot lately. On how people try to conform and adapt themself to fit into the social roles they'd like to be into. Often by picking on those who fall outside the social group he/she wants into.

One example I've taken note of several times is how teenage boys seems to use the word "gay" as an insult. Why would they do that? Simple, because one who doesn't view homosexuality as something negative, will be automaticaly viewed as one himself, and bullied for it. Group pressure, and a wish to fit into a role, or avoid one less popular, will make many people conform and change beyond what their own conviction says.

I got a razor. Unfortunatly, a week ago I decided to grow a beard, mainly because my razor was crap.

Anyway, yes. That tends to not happen much here, but I understand it's big in america and online judging how often people are called gay hackers in online games. I first notice3d this when I was teenager. In school people would brag about how many women they had last night. At first, it was dumb, then irritating, but by the time I left it was hillarious because the 1up-ness had gotten extreme. 5 Lesbians made out, then were turned straight by his machoness and there was probley a donkey involved somewhere. For me the high point was when a guy proved he had wild sex (a day after the fact) by using a hoover to give himself a perfectly round 'love bite' that was apparently invisable yesterday.

[Mr. Krystal]

Okay guys. Again with the playing on the razor's edge between appropriate and inappropriate. Let's not go there, ok?

On Topic:

If you join a group about a given subject, or where a subject is popular, you can expect people there to like it. People are not stupid enough to hang out in places where they won't be appreciated, unless they are trolls of course.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Why do I bring this up? On another forum I made a post about the Bioshock 2 DLC. Having never played Bioshock I couldn't form an opinion on the game, but the insidious nature of the DLC combined with the cash in like nature of the sequel was the point I was discussing. Unfortunatly the post had to be deleted because the so called open minded types lept onto me and burned the post with trolling and claims that I'm an idiot for daring to say a bad word about Bioshock. During this they quoted metacritic and compaired e-penis's to see whos was bigger. Despite being the non conformist crowd, I was seeing exactly what the podcast had described hours after listening to it.

That's why I left several online communities, they were modded and ruled by a bunch of stuck up elitist colostomy bags...

That was the point exactly. It's the people who think of themselves as none conformist who are the worst offenders allegedly. There's an old saying

"You'd be none conformist too if you were just like me."

When people do conform to a group, they have to see themselves as more dedicated to it. For example,

"I'm a starfox fan who has all the games."

"Oh yeah, well I have all the toys."

"Oh yeah, well I'm a true fan because I better understand the-"

and so on.

I agree with you there, I hear similar crap in the Goth communities, online and in person...these [wannabe] goths preach about tolerance, individuality, and open mindedness, yet most of them are the most stuck up, immature, stupid, elitist, vain, pig headed, condescending, hypocritical, social climbing, yuppie, trend-whore scum I have ever met.

They preach about tolerance, yet they themselves make fun of non goths, emos, or goths that they don't know or understand just because those goths aren't part of their little social snob circle, calling them the "fake goths" (ironic, huh?).  These idiots are always partying at the clubs and every club event, every night, buying the best drinks like Absinthe, buying more expensive goth clothes from shrine store and places like that, buying or pirating the latest goth music albums, and partying with their rich daddy's money...

(Now fortunately, goths are not really like this, otherwise I'd hate them...)

Basically, I don't care if I'm popular, online or in real life.  I am who and what I am, even if it's an outcast, a misfit, a nobody.  Good.  I'd rather be a sincere misfit, than a phony, popular big shot, any day...

[Kursed]

That's why I left several online communities, they were modded and ruled by a bunch of stuck up elitist colostomy bags...

I agree with you there, I hear similar crap in the Goth communities, online and in person...these [wannabe] goths preach about tolerance, individuality, and open mindedness, yet most of them are the most stuck up, immature, stupid, elitist, vain, pig headed, condescending, hypocritical, social climbing, yuppie, trend-whore scum I have ever met.

They preach about tolerance, yet they themselves make fun of non goths, emos, or goths that they don't know or understand just because those goths aren't part of their little social snob circle, calling them the "fake goths" (ironic, huh?).  These idiots are always partying at the clubs and every club event, every night, buying the best drinks like Absinthe, buying more expensive goth clothes from shrine store and places like that, buying or pirating the latest goth music albums, and partying with their rich daddy's money...

(Now fortunately, goths are not really like this, otherwise I'd hate them...)

Basically, I don't care if I'm popular, online or in real life.  I am who and what I am, even if it's an outcast, a misfit, a nobody.  Good.  I'd rather be a sincere misfit, than a phony, popular big shot, any day...

I'd rather be Kursed than a ridiculed Krystal.

[ThePointingMan]

On Topic:

If you join a group about a given subject, or where a subject is popular, you can expect people there to like it. People are not stupid enough to hang out in places where they won't be appreciated, unless they are trolls of course.

Not true at all... I wish it where so, but it's not.

You know how in school there's supposed to be none of those group things, you know the popular peoples, the jocks ect ect, I find it similar to that way, Only more like, you got those people that wanna be friends with everyone but talk behind everyone's back depending on who they are talking with, and make a lot of their talk about how someone else is so stupid, I mean they got other stuff to talk about, but from my personal eve's dropping experiences, there is usually really low levels of anything in their conversations, of course that's just me, they seem to be having a "blast," so whatever, it's like their conversations are a few years behind, mebbe. Then you got the... group of friends crowds, smaller, but you know each other, and commonly found in the exact same place every lunch period. You know what to talk about with everyone.

Once my teacher, who is supposed to be teaching us English, but would rather make us do collages and talk about opinions, made us do a project on non conformists, the question was, what is a real non conformist, and I did my whole project on the fact that there are no non conformists.

[Steve]

True gamers don't care about other people opinions, they play games for the sake of playing them, enjoying them and just beat the challenge, if there's any (get into the story/do super runs, things like that). Crossing the thin line between being a fan of a game and being stupid is what most people in the internet do, and you get confronted by "omg, wtf is wrong wit u dud?, u dun like halo? u gay man" and things like that, heck I was the subject of a witch hunt here a while back ago cause I said I wasn't so much of a fan of StarFox but I enjoy the game anyways. If you are a Fan of X game, then you should respect other people's opinions, if someone goes "well I don't like this game" and  he gets flamed/attacked, then that's dumb. And downgrading yourself just because a troll goes  "omg, this game suckz" then it's even more dumb.

If I had to be selective, I'd say, there are only 3 types of gamers, true gamers, fans and idiots, with idiots taking most of the pie chart (I'm not going to deal with sub categories cause there are many). I really get a kick out of reading most of the posts on IGN, the constant console wars, and people claiming they have the best systems, they just love to think they are the ones with the upper hand . This applies on real life too, people getting to dang obsessed with what they believe is "popular", at the end, it's always the same, people that like things, people that dislike things and people that don't care, and of course, the true nature of humanity, which can good, bad, or just ignorance overall.

[X-Gamer]

True gamers don't care about other people opinions, they play games for the sake of playing them, enjoying them and just beat the challenge, if there's any (get into the story/do super runs, things like that). Crossing the thin line between being a fan of a game and being stupid is what most people in the internet do, and you get confronted by "omg, wtf is wrong wit u dud?, u dun like halo? u gay man" and things like that, heck I was the subject of a witch hunt here a while back ago cause I said I wasn't so much of a fan of StarFox but I enjoy the game anyways. If you are a Fan of X game, then you should respect other people's opinions, if someone goes "well I don't like this game" and  he gets flamed/attacked, then that's dumb. And downgrading yourself just because a troll goes  "omg, this game suckz" then it's even more dumb.

If I had to be selective, I'd say, there are only 3 types of gamers, true gamers, fans and idiots, with idiots taking most of the pie chart (I'm not going to deal with sub categories cause there are many). I really get a kick out of reading most of the posts on IGN, the constant console wars, and people claiming they have the best systems, they just love to think they are the ones with the upper hand . This applies on real life too, people getting to dang obsessed with what they believe is "popular", at the end, it's always the same, people that like things, people that dislike things and people that don't care, and of course, the true nature of humanity, which can good, bad, or just ignorance overall.

Words of Wisdom right here. I 110% agree with you. Although I get ticked off when someone makes an accusation of a game (like you said "this game suckz") without a solid or actual reasonable reason. I respect other people's opinion, its just the unreasonable ones I have a problem with.

[Sabre]

True gamers don't care about other people opinions, they play games for the sake of playing them, enjoying them and just beat the challenge, if there's any (get into the story/do super runs, things like that). Crossing the thin line between being a fan of a game and being stupid is what most people in the internet do, and you get confronted by "omg, wtf is wrong wit u dud?, u dun like halo? u gay man" and things like that, heck I was the subject of a witch hunt here a while back ago cause I said I wasn't so much of a fan of StarFox but I enjoy the game anyways. If you are a Fan of X game, then you should respect other people's opinions, if someone goes "well I don't like this game" and  he gets flamed/attacked, then that's dumb. And downgrading yourself just because a troll goes  "omg, this game suckz" then it's even more dumb.

If I had to be selective, I'd say, there are only 3 types of gamers, true gamers, fans and idiots, with idiots taking most of the pie chart (I'm not going to deal with sub categories cause there are many). I really get a kick out of reading most of the posts on IGN, the constant console wars, and people claiming they have the best systems, they just love to think they are the ones with the upper hand . This applies on real life too, people getting to dang obsessed with what they believe is "popular", at the end, it's always the same, people that like things, people that dislike things and people that don't care, and of course, the true nature of humanity, which can good, bad, or just ignorance overall.

Replace Halo with Competative Multiplayer and I get that alot.

I don't what you mean by 'true gamer' as that could come off as no true scotsman. I'd say you have Hardcore gamers, casuals, and idiots. I really don't like people who see games as a fasion accessory. A few times I've had people openly laugh in my face because I don't play all the latest new releases.