Magic and Negativity

[Thomas David Baker]

So the other day I watched some draft videos by David Ochoa on channelfireball.com.  They were good - the guy is not a natural entertainer or anything but they were informative/interesting.  The comments (of which there were many) contained a slew of criticism and bile.

As well as criticizing him for how he drafts and talking and explaining things ("Between his incessant yammering, bitching, moaning, and complaining he is the only channel fireball guy I hope loses.", "Okay, he takes FOREVER to choose something, wiggles his mouse over the whole damned screen, and talks AND repeats everything way too much. Sorry Ochoa, I will not be watching your videos anymore.") they also attacked his drafting ("two gnaw runic repetition two curses two assistants. all pack one. guess what deck was open…", "I think I saw probably the best Zombie Mill deck ever go by") and his playskill ("Kind of annoying to watch someone play that is supposed to be pro yet makes the same dumb plays that people who have been playing for 2 weeks make. Seriously. Thanks for the FREE content but maybe less talk and more thinking about what you are playing. It’s pointless to explain what you are doing when you are just making horrible plays and bad reads. Focus more on the matches and don’t worry about talking the whole time.")  And this is when he lost in the final of the draft due to bad draws!

(Dark Ascension spoiler ahead.)  Now I'm reading the thread for Maro's latest article in which he gives some hints about Dark Ascension and reveals the flier that transforms into a Mind Control if it connects.  The entire thread is about how Maro is wrong about story and how it's worse than Mind Control and how Dark Ascension looks like another crappy set that some guy is going to "sit out".  What?

So, I know there are dicks on the internet and that a kind of relative anonymity allows immature and socially retarded people to act like they know everything from the comfort of the cliche mom's basement.  But seriously, attacking the playskill of a multiple GP Top 8 competitor and the design skills of the head of Magic design following what might well be the best set ever?  Come on!

Is there anything we can do about this?  Is it specific to Magic, or worse in Magic?  Or should I just stop reading comment threads?

I installed the excellent Comment Snob for Chrome the other day and now  YouTube comments are no longer awful - although they are mostly hidden - I wonder if I should write a rule or two for dailymtg and channelfireball?

There seems to be such a sense of entitlement in Magic players it is just incredible.  Am I just listening to the wrong voices?

[Thomas David Baker]

Oh my God.  Now I am reading the comments on the new mechanics article:

"In other news, apparently Dark Ascension has Human tokens.  Innistrad didn't, and I really, really really, really,really liked that fact.  Not much is more insulting than telling a person that they don't matter in the grand scheme of things, that they're not important or special or unique; having every Human in the set be a card gave the Human Tribal cards in Innistrad a feel that I thought was just absolutely perfect.  Human Ally and I think Human Soldier tokens have existed in the past, but they aren't found in Innistrad and I think that has to have been deliberate; the change in Dark Ascension is probably due to there being different people on the team, and I find myself hoping that the sales figures for this set turn out to be a bit less impressive than Innistrad's, specifically so the person in question will be regarded as having made a mistake."

This isn't even negativity, this is just being a bit mental.  OK, I get it, I need to stop reading the comments.

[Mark Walker]

I don't think it is unreasonable to suggest that the very nature of the game can attract just this sort of person. This is a complex game that requires a higher then average level of intelligence to play well, (and the belief that one is of higher than average intelligence to play at all). The sheer number of rules and interactions alone is daunting unless someone devotes a reasonable amount of time to learning. 
Also, the fantasy flavour also directs the game towards the "nerd" demographic, generally defined as socially awkward, and when they are socially active, tend to be so with other like minded individuals. This in no way defines all magic players, but certain traits are obviously seen when attending larger events and therefore sample sizes.
Lets not forget also that this is a competitive game, so we now have, (generalising horribly), socially awkward, intelligent people whose intent is to beat their opponent, (and prove they are more intelligent than they are).

 Combining this with the general anonymity of the internet and it is not really surprising that such comments are seen. 

(I would like to add that I have met some real dicks playing Magic, but I also have met a lot more decent people when playing IRL, at the Games Club). 

[Dan Barrett]

"There seems to be such a sense of entitlement in Magic players it is just incredible."

This is what constantly causes me to question why I bother playing, the things some other players feel they should have/get out of an article/the game are just ludicrous. But then I have a fun time with folks like those who post here and forget about it for a while. But yea, Magic does attract a percentage of socially-inept, maladjusted, or just plain insane people.

In general, internet comment threads where people can hide behind pseudonyms are bad. Hence comments on CF are much worse than the Facebook-enabled ones on SCG. I would almost never bother with the official site's comments and those on mtgsalvation, your best bet for thoughtful discussion is to find a good small community - such as here, goodgamery, etc.

[Philip Dickinson]

comments on all websites are terrible, welcome to the internet. also magic players are the worst, which compounds things. brb writing a lil script that changes all comments beneath a certain threshold to a picture of my face