Seriously?
His advice is "be nicer people and foster a more positive culture online."
That makes him an idiot?
I'm beyond disappointed in your response, Erik. I'm disgusted.
Whatever.
What you see as me trying to buff up my "populist cred" (a load of BS so smelly it might come from the armpit of just the sort of gamer stereotype you and eyebeams are perpetuating) I see as you piling on the tired old cliche of "the customer is the problem" that I see parroted again and again by marginal RPG businessmen trying to explain their failures.
I'm just tired of it, basically. After having spent a weekend at PaizoCon surrounded 24/7 by hundreds of the most dedicated hard-core gamers I have ever met the whole article (and, frankly, your backing of it) just struck me as extraordinarily ungrateful to the people who pay your salaries.
Not all of the gamers at our con were paragons of personal hygiene or social skills, but then neither are all sportsfans, all trekkies, or all superfans of any kind in any industry.
I managed a sports memorabilia shop in one of the world's biggest shopping malls for about a year before joining the game industry, and that place was full of rude, opinionated, and just plain old jerky customers. I'd have to be a fool to tell those people "get the hell out of my store, I don't want your money, you are damaging to my business." More to the point, I would have been a giant douchebag to post a sign in front of the store that says "ATTN Sports Fans: You Losers Are Bad for Our Business, Bad for Sports, and Bad for Retailing," because it paints with such a broad brush that everyone walking into my store would think I was talking about them.
What he's talking about is that the WORST elements of the RPG community, as represented online, is sadly defining the segment for people OUTSIDE the community -- even in those areas where RPGers should be valued.
Basically, I think that's bull. It assumes that people OUTSIDE the community even pay attention to things like ENWorld and RPGNet, which is seldom the case. I can't think of a single book chain buyer, for example, who even knows what EN World is, or who I imagine has ever visited RPG.net.
Sure, RPG books get lifted out of bookstores, but that has more to do with the fact that they are largely aimed at teenagers and college age kids with incomes unable to match the asking prices for the books. I know a lot of buyers are a bit wary of RPGs for that reason, but I've never lost a sale because of it, and I don't think they equate their shrinkage problems with RPG fans being dicks online.
A direct quote from his closing:
"I would really like the tabletop RPG community to be at the center of roleplaying in all media, sharing their insights, but it’s not going to happen unless that center attracts."
Why?
Why is it important or expected that a tiny niche hobby should be at "the center of roleplaying in all media"? A great tabletop RPG book might sell tens of thousands of copies, which would put a computer RPG company out of business immediately. The quoted section above is a bit like saying "I would really like the people who make models of boats in glass bottles to be at the center of all worldwide ship-building activity, sharing their insights, but it's not going to happen unless that center attracts."
No, it's not going to happen until that tiny niche hobby can bring numbers that mean anything to producers shipping product that sells orders of magnitude higher than even the best-selling RPG products. It has almost exactly nothing to do with who has been perma-banned on RPG.net because they said something mean about Exalted, who wore the same T-shirt three days in a row at Origins, or what some dude posted on his RPG blog.
Sorry to "disgust" you, Gareth, but I think you might need to turn down your Internet Indignation Meter a few clicks.
--Erik