I'm talking about forums built around specific genres and those genres alone. For the purpose of this thread I am complaining about RPG forums specifically, like RPGWatch or RPG Codex.

So... is it me or are they infuriating? They are filled with people who LOVE that genre, yet seem to hate every game in it except for a few. Also they act like they HATE ever other genre, or the influences of any other genre, as if people only play one kind of game. Hey... maybe these people do, what do I know?

In any event I think I am through with them forever. I can't take it anymore. I can't take making a comment about looking forward to a shooter or adventure game and being told I'm an idiot, or being told that liking an action RPG is the equivalent of patricide.

Done, I say! DONE!

I always got the impression RPGWatch was ok. I never post there but I regularly browse the forums. But RPG Codex? Yeah that place is insane. I can't fathom what motivates people to go there and behave the way they do.

I always thought it was more of a problem with RPG fans than genre-specific forums in general. Are there forums for other genres that have the same problem?

Dunno about exact forums, but it never gets old to see a CoD fan bashing Battlefield or MoH, and the other way around.

I thought so too but I have been messing around over there lately and it's pretty much the same thing, just with less outright vitriol. I read something the other day which I thought was really true. Someone talked about how most sim gamers still like arcade racers and flight games, they just clearly separate the two. RPG fans are not like this for the most part, they actively despise RPGs that do not fit their RPG paradigm. I think there is a lot of truth in that.

That said I am guessing this kind of thing happens on ever forum really, people think their taste is superior and act on that. Human nature. RPGs might be the worst though.

Street Fighter Vs Mortal Kombat is alive and well. Brings a tear to my eyes seeing new gamers having exactly the same schoolyard arguments I did.

Well your first mistake would be taking anything from places like that serious.
RPG games are more complex to other genres, so it's developed a kind of "PC master race syndrome".
Another thing is that the golden age of RPG games is gone and the genre is fusing with other genres while making it more casual for a wider audience. Even the 4th ED D&D went the more action oriented way.

So all in all it's an infuriating day and time for the fans of the genre that's now all about "decline".

I understand what you are saying, which is why I rarely ever participate in the forums any place other than here. I use the above mentioned sites RPGWatch or RPG Codex for the news and such and find them to be great sites in that regard.

That's a shame. I'd really like to find an RPG forum that isn't full of angry lunatics. That's a great point. I guess KavazovAngel's example with shooter fans is much the same thing. I suspect you're right that RPGs might be the worst though.

I think you're spot-on here. Same thing with all the "RWAR PC GAMING!" posts we see. When you feel your hobby or preference is in decline and less popular you get defensive. I do it myself from time to time. Some people get insanely defensive though, and enthusiast forums are going to show the worst of that.

Don't you think the naming of these forums is quite revealing? I mean, RPGWatch? RPGCodex? There's a quite dogmatic ring to it already, if you ask me ... ;)

Well there's your problem right there, you're visiting the deepest darkest shithole on the internet this side of 4chan.

This makes sense. The main other place I've seen this kind of attitude is in Adventure gaming circles. The places in which LucasArts adventure fans congregate, for example, are filled with abject HATRED for Sierra and anything that company ever made. That does actually seem to be one-sided though, as Sierra fans don't seem to generally have that same antagonism. Probably because the cut-off date(when Sierra shut down) is farther back than when LucasArts did, and as a result the Sierra fans are generally older? I have no clue.

This describes just about every gaming forum ever, and every "nerd" community in general. I've heard too much about RPGCodex to ever want to go there, but I saw the same thing in Reddit, Facepunch, and the Minecraft forums. >:(