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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RodneyThompson" data-source="post: 3482334" data-attributes="member: 3594">That's certainly a part of it. One of the reasons why I've always preferred talking to people on the Holonet (my boards) vs. the WotC boards is that, until recently, the Wizards boards were just more hostile because the WizO's hands are so tied. At the Holonet, we set the rules and are a "private club" type environment; the WotC boards have to allow more crap because to do otherwise would be a big detriment to WotC customer service. Since the Holonet has no such fear (bad PR might lose us respect, but not any money) we can be a bit more strict with the kinds of attitudes we allow. We can admonish people who don't play nice without having to wait for them to flame someone. It may seem a bit heavy-handed, but it certainly had led to a much more friendly and productive community than you see on many official message boards.In regards to the topic as a whole, I'm very lucky that the Star Wars fans, even when they get upset, remain by-and-large polite to deal with. I don't blame a lot of designers for not coming to message boards because, at the end of the day, it sucks to get repeatedly "kicked in the junk" and have to keep your own emotions in check. Anyone ever work retail as a salesperson or customer service rep? I used to work at EB Games and by the end of the day I had endured dozens of angry, vitriol-spewing customers while having to remain polite even when the customer was being irrational. You know what? I'll never work retail again after that. I'll do manual labor before I work retail again. Totally ruined my view of the retail industry. It's the same thing for visiting a message board. Not only that, but a lot of times it's what we can't talk about, what we can't say, that would silence the screamers. There's a lot of misinformation out there about the gaming industry and various companies' practices (not just WotC's), but the industry folks can't say anything about a lot of it because A) it could be harmful to another company, which is likely composed of their friends, and B) it would make the designer look like a "mudslinger" and could quickly spiral out of control into an internet argument. Anyone remember that old image from SomethingAwful comparing arguing on the internet to the Special Olympics?Now, I know some people would say, "Aw, just ignore the screamers," and that's all fine and dandy, but it can be tough to do. Game design, for everyone, is a labor of love. It's putting your creativity out on the page, taking a very fundamental part of you (your own inspiration) and putting it on display for everyone to see. When a violently angry person spews vitriol at your work it can, a lot of times, feel like a personal attack. I think it's easier for me to stick around message boards, through thick and thin, because I started out as a web/message board junkie and came to game design through that, instead of the other way around. For some people, game design came first, and the internet second, so becoming acclimated to the hostile environment (and make no mistake, any game designer that has ever visited a message board has encountered hostility toward them or their work) can be challenging. I dunno. People keep crying that "the silence is deafening" out of WotC, while pointing to ex-WotC employees and employees of other companies as examples of companies who do web presence "right," and I think a lot of that is unfair. Even though I read these boards every day, this is my first post outside of Star Wars topics in...months? Hell, I'm worried that just posting in this thread about a totally different topic is going to make me a target just because I work for WotC. A lot of the time, it's not worth the emotional abuse you suffer, and even if 90% of the people are totally rational and calm, that 10% (who embrace hyperbole and knee-jerk reactionism) ruins it for everyone else. Sad truth, but it applies across the spectrum of life.</blockquote>

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