So yesterday on N4G, a rather fiery topic hit the front page regarding Crysis 2 running in subHD on the PS3. As you can imagine, it was a "lively" thread.
Over the course of that thread, a poster brought the 360's resolution with this particular title into the debate and how "sad" it would be if the PS3 was alone in its subHDness. I disagreed with this, as it has been known for some time that the 360 SKU was running in subHD resolutions as well.
A rather excited poster, "T" (likely a duplicate account as they joined a few months back and have done nothing but relentlessly troll) replied that I was wrong. To that, I linked the Digital Foundry article that showed that the 360 too, was subHD. The discussion degenerated from there into a riot of epic, fanboy proportions. Feel free to follow the thread here:
http://n4g.com/news/708210/...
Over the course of the day, my comments were applauded. I received a bubble (bringing me up to 5) and THREE "well saids". Now imagine my surprise this morning when I logged into N4G and had been stripped of TWO bubbles, had all my "well saids" removed, and had my final comment marked as a "personal attack".
Now the issue is not about the bubbles themselves, getting upset over digital status like that isn't something someone grounded in reality should worry about. What I am confused about is the flippancy and general disregard for certain offensive, bigoted or trollish remarks (the number of times I've reported people on this site for saying "f*g" or "n*gger" and nothing happens), and a totalitarian policing of others. I'm also concerned that a mod can take a generally well received and stated comment and REMOVE its accolades, even when it does not violate any ToS, simply because they do not like what is being said. If one comment is deemed offensive, it does not negate the other non-offensive comments. That is not moderation, its an abuse of power.
The real problem is that this is no longer a community-driven site, it is instead a fanboy cess-pool (getting rid of the open zone was a TERRIBLE idea) that is devoid of any constructive thought, comments or sensibilities. The community bubble system is an illusion. Much like Metacritic, the general consensus matters little, the WEIGHTED opinions matter far, far more. Beyond C-Rank though, I suspect that even a long-time contributor with a high C-Rank carries significantly less power than a Mod. What has been happening lately, are mods ignoring the general consensus altogether and bubbling or de-bubbling as they see fit, effectively corralling the opinions and posters that they do or do not want to hear. Yes, mods are necessary, but they can not moderate without REASON.
While I do not advocate this behaviour, it is little wonder that we have so many duplicate accounts and childish comments around here when the community is really just mimicking the actions of those few bad apples who hold positions of power within the site. I'm sure that there ARE good mods somewhere - in fact I know that there are - who silently toil away behind N4G, but my encounters with them have been sparse at best.
I'm curious to hear others opinions on the issues of mods, personal encounters (good and bad), and the effect of disseminating the open zone.
Edit: I'm not disregarding my general snarkiness by the 3rd post I'd made to the gentleman who felt the need to persist in arguing a dead issue. What I am essentially trying to focus on is why some voices are censored whereas others run unchecked.
Update: It seems that the other individual involved in the disagreement was finally moderated - a day later - for "trolling". However the two "well saids" have not been reinstated (or the associated bubble) by whatever mod REMOVED community opinion. That is the real issue and its an abuse of power.
With Microsoft closing studios, fewer new exclusive releases are expected for Xbox.
Not sure it ever was. It's upside was day 1 releases from 1st party. Few and far between plus it is just a rental service where you don't pick. It is fairly cheap for now that's a bonus. I think the beat deal in gaming is gamesale on reddit , and watching amazon
"Suddenly", my gosh are people so slow on the uptake.
I've been saying this for years, its just a rental service nothing special, and you don't get to pick what the rental catalogue is nor how long it lasts. Anything can be taken away from you on a whim, even while you keep paying.
You know what the best deal in gaming is? BUY your games on disc / cart, OWN THEM, play them as much as you want, and no one can take them away from you.
Tapes and cartridges from the 80's still work to this day, and people can still enjoy them without having to pay any additional fees. That sounds like a far better deal than a corporate rental service.
I'll probably download 4 of the games they announced coming today over the next month for £9. Seems ok to me.
But then, I tend to play single player games and i rarely revisit so a "rental service" suits me. Pretty much everything I play on PS is via PS+ extra.
It was always overrated. It only ever appealed to a certain subset of gamers anyways, which are the type who don’t care about owning games and are content to just experience them once and move on…or people who wanted to play CoD without buying it. It never seemed that glamorous to me, and I’m not at all surprised it has turned out to be unsustainable for MS.
Nexon has released its financial statement for 2024's first quarter, and it looks like FPS The Finals isn't proving the hit the studio was hoping for.
Supergiant Games' Studio Director, Amir Rao, has said that he's worried about some unbalanced boons in-game, with nerfs coming soon.
We need to start a bring back the Open Zone petition ;)
I wasn't around when the Open-Zone was (so I don't know myself what exactly you're referring to there) but I agree with everything else you have said completely. This place really could do with some changes.
Have you tried PMing the mods/talking to them? Perhaps they can give you some clarity/reverse the actions that may have been wrongly done upon you.
I like moderators because "community driven sites" aren't without flaws. For example, we all have a general idea of trolling but nobody considers it trolling when people always troll every COD-related article (E.g. "who cares about this POS, K3 is all I need")
Unpopular games, despite having its fans, gets trolled on usually with the approval of the community. I've seen it many times here, and I'm not exactly a fan of community-driven sites if minority opinions are undermined regardless of if I'm in that minority or not. That's where the mods step in.
Now, imagine that situation reversed and you have the problem of community driven websites. (A Killzone article with Halo fanboys or COD fanboys trashing the article and pretty much going off-topic/trolling Killzone news)
Communities tend to have popular attitudes, and thus moderation is required.
As for moderation abuse, I've had people tell me about them getting attacked/targeted by mods. Not only on this site but nearly every site with moderators has this issue. I think sometimes it's to do with lack of clarity and people feeling that they were wronged against when maybe perhaps they had sufficient reason to be moderated. Problem with this is that mods can't moderate every offensive comment and thus moderation seems selective, almost as if some particular users get moderated more than others (and they probably do).
Also, when you have absolute strict moderation it becomes impossible to comment without somehow breaking a rule. All of this I assume is based on the discretion of the mod who must rely on his/her understanding of the rules and the degree of an offensive comment. Not every comment can be deductively assessed.
It's a sticky topic but I hope you find your answer. I think it's best to talk to a mod first too if you haven't already. Good luck, buddy
I feel your pain. If you look at me you will see I have one bubble. One was taken because I told a person to stop lying about PSN in a article about Xbox Live AND PSN (sited for TROLLING) and the other because I said Kotaku can't be trusted with thing involving the PS3. There are dozens of trolls who always are in PS3 articles especially and you see them with 5 and 6 bubbles. One of them, FailOverHero trolls constantly but always has 3 or 4 bubbles in his possession. I have had one bubble for months and no matter how many bubble ups I get or agrees I get it never changes.This site IS a mess.