That "I've been accused of being too forward" and "threat of criminal charge" makes me imagine that he's been full on awkwardly creeping people out without realising how or why. A little bit rapey! My brother has got a friend who recently made the local paper because he accosted a sober girl while drunk and tried to kiss her. I know the guy isn't all that bad, he never would have hurt the girl, he's just very to the point and honest, and has a really poor ability for reading the situation -- and yet, I can understand why he had to hand himself in - because people can be very scary when they approach people in certain ways. I'm not even going to read that thread, I'd probably find it three parts depressing, two parts hilarious.
This goes back to page 380, but I didn't want to not reply:
dude, i'm not even putting you on when i say it's been that way for at least as long as my account's been around, which is what, seven years at this point? i mean, shit, one of the reasons i took breaks from there so frequently (and part of why i ultimately left) is because the place is nine parts poison for every one part positive discussion.
i don't want to suggest anything here, but are you sure it's not just nintendo's present circumstances which might have your Jameses out of sort?
Its certainly a little bit like wading through treacle when you're reading a thread about a game you're interested in and every other comment is a slightly out of date joke or something. Having said that, while Nintendo's present circumstance is almost certainly more dire than when Gamecube launched, I felt as though Nintendo threads back then were far dumber than they are now. 'Kiddy' arguments and all that. People look back on that period with some fondness now, it seems.
It feels like now is a perfect storm for shitbrains who have something to prove, and somehow feel attacks and negativity are the best form of defence. Nintendo have fallen from their most successful generation in recent memory, Microsoft have been kicking ass with 360 but look to be losing the PR war, and Sony fans have spent an entire generation recovering from the $599 embarrassment.
The next gen threads are what make really hard reading these days. Perhaps because I'm not particularly invested in either, but I do frequently lurk them with the expectation that
something might get me excited... Here's a prime example just posted: Phil Harrison makes a comment at Eurogamer Expo in London - he's always asked about teraflops, but doesn't feel it actually matters. To me its an innocuous comment hidden among a larger interview with both him and PlayStation's Fergal Gara. Because Xbone objectively comes in at lower flops, he would say that, and for a community of supposedly intelligent enthusiasts, you would think that would be common knowledge by now and that people would understand the PR motivations for saying that. But no.
"Guys it doesn't really matter
honest" durrr hurrrr hURURRR 5GB GDDR5. Am I supposed to be kicking back in my office chair LAWLING so hard that I suck my own balls into my gut and start crying? These petty little posts that add nothing, dripping with the lowest form of wit -- am I supposed to feel this is incisive commentary or something? What I'm actually thinking when I read these threads is "Phil is right. It doesn't matter. None of this matters. That post didn't matter, it was stupid, it ate up time in front of my eyeballs and I am scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, to try and bypass idiots and find something interesting here... oh... nothing? Maybe I'll visit OT"
Maybe it'll be nice in a year or so when things have settled a little bit and people are less insecure and snipey. Good for people if it entertains or humours them or whatever