Rules question: personal attacks on game designers

[CapnZapp]

sniffs, sniffs, "do I smell a personal attack on @CapnZapp"? Hmmm..? @Sacrosanct?

My advice is to just not respond to that sort of taking it personal derailment

(I do observe that my response here was on-topic and that he seems to derail his own thread just fine)

 

[Umbran]

@CapnZapp...

That is the most responding non-response I have seen in a while. Please don't get the idea that the passive-aggressive stuff isn't noticed.

 

[LordEntrails]

I don't think game designers should be put into any group. Why don't we just have a rule already that no personal attacks on anyone, whether they are poster or not?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I'm not talking about criticisms of games (which I think should never be quashed), but actual personal attacks on the designers themselves. For example, Mearls and Crawford have frequently been called liars, lazy, incompetent, stupid, intentionally sabotaging the game because they want it to fail, etc.

Should we assume that no game designer is a liar, lazy, incompetent, or stupid? Or are we just not allowed to call it out?

Not every game is gold, and it's useful to the community if we can pinpoint the reasons why a product is less-than-great. Sometimes, that reason will be because of designer incompetence. I'm not sure how anyone benefits from pretending otherwise.

 

[Morrus]

Should we assume that no game designer is a liar, lazy, incompetent, or stupid? Or are we just not allowed to call it out?

Talk about the work, not the person. Similarly, we don't let game designers call you a liar, lazy, incompetent, or stupid, either.

 

[Umbran]

Sometimes, that reason will be because of designer incompetence. I'm not sure how anyone benefits from pretending otherwise.

I am not sure how anyone benefits from indulging in ad hominem arguments and the misconception that we can divine personal flaws of authors from their works.

The Golden Rule applies here.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Should we assume that no game designer is a liar, lazy, incompetent, or stupid? Or are we just not allowed to call it out?

Not every game is gold, and it's useful to the community if we can pinpoint the reasons why a product is less-than-great. Sometimes, that reason will be because of designer incompetence. I'm not sure how anyone benefits from pretending otherwise.

That goes back to the statement you quoted in my reply. Criticizing the game Vs the person, and Morrus and Umbran reiterated.

 

[CleverNickName]

Anytime I see some post
‘This designer is lazy!’ ‘No work ethic!’ Etc. I know that poster isn’t someone worth paying attention to.

So yeah.

I personally find describing designers who did something in a way you didn't want them to as "lazy" or "stupid" to be pretty obnoxious; I think it's important to try to criticise the work, not personally insult the creator.

When you call people names behind their backs, you are saying more about yourself than about anyone else.

There was a pretty good video flying around the Internet a few years ago from Ze Frank. It was called "An Invocation for Beginners" or something like that, and it had a line in it that I thought was pretty good. So good that I memorized it, in fact. "Let me remember that the impact of criticism is often not the intent of the critic, but when the intent is evil, that's what the block button is for."

@cmad1977 , @Morrus , and others in this thread are right--not every opinion is worth your consideration. When I'm reading opinions on the Internet, I'll sometimes stop in mid-sentence and just scroll away when people get crass and off-topic like that. Because people know when they are being crass and when they aren't, and yes, it IS off-topic, unless the title of the thread is "Let's Talk About Someone We've Never Met."