Have we been trained to Now Believe? Lead to Jump In?

[CommonMan]

I think to a certain extent, a couple of the PS3 games have become "unbeatable*" (* = except by another PS3 game) in the eyes of many gamers here. The general attitude is sort of a "rest on your laurels" type of attitude. In general the differences for an average human being on an average television are going to be so subtle between the high-end games that suddenly everyone has become a super-human with x-ray vision, a tech expert on AA and lighting effects, and the rest of us "need glasses" or need to "lulz get a good TV".

The graphics battle has bled over into our own personal interactions, where a subset of the population has not only a greater number of posters but also a quantifiable (via reviews of course, they matter when they support what you're saying, otherwise they're "garbage") advantage graphically on their system. The bar of decency has changed, and when everything you say is backed up by the majority of your peers, it's harder to self-censor. You get into the habit of badmouthing people, somtimes unintentionally by virtue of escalating emotions in a thread, and since there aren't any people to call you out (or enough, and their voices get drowned out by the people supporting you) you feel comfortable saying what you might not otherwise.

All of this adds up to an artificial graphical bar decided upon by the majority, and the bar then can move to encompass whatever that majority decides it will. These are fundamental human interaction truths, and very difficult to get around. This is why people such as CGI and JaggedSac who are able to put aside these problems are fairly well respected in spite of their known affiliations, as they have risen above base behavior to treat the rest of the community with a modicum of respect that we all deserve.