Ah, forums. I've been on one or another since I was 12, almost always video game related in some major capacity. The things I was focused on though were rather.....illegitimate, so I mostly spent my time helping people with their piracy first, with discussion and criticism on games happening much later. It wasn't until about 4.5 years ago that I finally joined a community that prioritized game discussion more and console hacking less (although still prominently). Here's what happened to me:
I went from largely not caring about how any game company was performing to being able to crap on any one of the big three at any moment. I especially have become critical of Nintendo because of how many people I've seen defend Nintendo as if their personal honor was at stake. The amount of people I've seen invest seemingly every ounce of their free time into defending one company or one game is absolutely absurd. I'd argue that I'm fairly moderate overall, but I've been called a Nintendo hater a few times because I happen to call a spade a spade. I suppose in some respects I've become more radical, but only in regards to the communities surrounding games and game companies, not so much the games and game companies themselves.
I do give forums like this credit for igniting my interest in video game journalism. Without them, I'd still just be casually gaming without much care in regards to the industry as a whole.
