Serious question here folks, not asking why people have their camps, I really don't get why anyone would tie themselves to one company since it seems foolish, but people we're all gamers here, we can discuss things with fact and not jump in each others shit with baseless accusations.  Oh man he's defending something Nintendo he must be a Nintendo fan, now I must attack him because he is a Nintendo fan and his statement is worthless because he's obviously biased!

It gets frustrating going into forums, defeating statements with facts only to be called a Microsoft fan, or a Nintendo fan, or a Sony fan... I really don't tie myself down, you often see me on PSN, lately playing some awesome 3D Dot Game Heroes and I praise that game to high heaven, but then I come onto the forums and see a lot of fighting about Krazy Ken being called a genius, and people are offended that there are legit claims against that and take it as an attack on the entire Sony family, it's frustrating to have a discussion using reasons based in fact and people just try to say you're attacking the whole company when you've said nothing of the sort.

Look I feel we're all reasonable people but I feel a lot of unreasonable claims are thrown around in the gaming media which cause a lot of strife for the people that love gaming.  Many times you have things like Cliffy B being misquoted and an article made it sound like he was hating on Japan gaming, he wasn't he doesn't claim that, other people are just attention whores and love to stir things up cause it gets attention on them and their games.  I just don't see why the gaming masses can't see through many of these sorts of claims, we're reasonable people here but here are some tips.

1. If you see an interview from some high profile company but the name of the person interviewed doesn't seem familar to you, google it, find out the guys history, if its a team making a bold statement google that too, 9 times out of 10 the reason they made the comments were to get attention and serve their own purposes, you getting upset/agreeing with absurd statements makes you a pawn.
2. If someone tries to debate you on a subject, please don't go off the deep end, debate with reasons and facts, that's why we're here, sometimes it's obvious a person has a goal, but not everyone has subverse reasons for conclusions they state, and they'll back it up with fact if they don't.  If they do have subverse reasons, call them on the premise of their claim being crap and back it up with fact, calling someone a fan or fanboy makes you look worse cause you're trying to throw that out there to quickly make that persons argument null and void and it doesn't work that way.
3. Just use your head, if someone is posting something out of ignorance rather than because they're trying to troll or some such, point them in the right direction, not everyone is some lost blind fanboy, some people were just raised reading ignorant articles from "journalists" trying to get page hits and magazines sold, others just having a group that have secluded themselves from the truth and set up their own system of beliefs about gaming.  Prime example being my buddy Seraphic_Sixaxis, he came to VGC trolling up a storm, turns out he was just told a lot of wrong things about gaming, was a fanboy cause that was socially acceptable, but now he plays other consoles and tries new games and loves it, everyone needs an open mind.

I just see a lot of people having childish arguments, causing a lot of strife, and we wonder why the outside world thinks we're crazy and they won't take gaming as a form of media in the same lines as movies, art, books, and music.  Sure they may be ignorant in their own view of things like video games could never have beauty like that of art and music, but we shouldn't give them reasons to believe that, being more mature to each other would help a lot.

And it helps us grow a nice welcoming community here too

Thanks for letting me rant, you guys can rant too, hopefully some people take the things I said to heart!

I have been thinking a lot about this, and it frustrates me a great deal as well. I'm thinking about quitting with browsing the internet for anything gaming related whatsoever. But there are some cool people online as well that I'd have to give up on, so I'm not sure yet.

Yeah, largely a lot of the cool people that were here and part of this community when it was small is still here, we lost a few big people sure, but we also lost some big annoyances too, so we've made progress I'd say.  When the site hit it's second big surge in popularity we did pick up a lot of questionable members but I feel they come from the same group as Sixaxis, they were taught to be that way, tehy can also unlearn it, people are logical creatures and will try to find solid foundation when the beliefs they once held are irrefutably proven wrong and it takes a group of mature people debating and discussing in a mature manner to do that.

I feel we all can create an even more amazing community here if we put in a little effort haha

Man, it's the internet.  The VGChartz community is much better than most but still, when I enter a debate and the reply isn't "You're gay", I'm impressed.  Some people are going to see things differerntly no matter how well thought out, respectful, and flawless your argument is.

I think we are near E3 maxwell so emotions tend to get high in this time.

Very true, very true indeed, though we all have our frustrated days too, I've seen you threaten to leave many times haha, this is just my frustrations, except instead of wanting to leave I simply try to reason with everyone in hopes they listen.

Normally I'm right with you but I've been called a fanboy of all three companies, and I'm in no one's corner (or everyone's corner depending on perspective).  But even in person I have these sorts of debates, while on the other hand I am a Christian and get along so well with athiests and agnostics, and not once have I ever been in a heated debate about beliefs.

Yet I can't discuss how the 360 isn't God's gift to gaming to my military friends who think I'm a PS/Wii fanboy, on the other I have the friends that grew up with PS1 and PS2, and of course they're praising the amazingness of the PS3 even if they don't own one, yet I get called a Nintendo fanboy despite owning a PS3 lol and then I play games with my friends that own Wii's often like me they own an HD console too, we get along fine, and we usually talk about how absurd everyone else acts over gaming lol... I'm still trying to find a Wii fanboy in real life that will call me a Sony fanboy when I talk crap about Nintendo's bad policies on some things lol

It's just an internet forum. vgchartz is pretty tame compared to other internet forums. I think your making to much out of it.

HEEEEEEY!  I only left once!!

You've got frustrated and talked about it more than once though I remember begging and pleading on your wall that one time that you did leave lol

Let's not factual data interfere our discussions. (Unless it support my argument.)