well from what i just read on another thread that when ninpie joined he was 13, so considering his birthday might be later in the year that adds up right. though the 41 homeless dude who uses power from a locla lamp store on his 1990 mac does sound more realstic and believable

I agree with most of what you've said, though sometimes it is necessary, and even proper, to call a spade a spade.

If there is one interesting side-effect to the rise of the internet, it's that now almost everyone knows what constitutes a "strawman". Even my cat knows, and he rarely uses the internet for anything except pron. Because of that, many of the people using strawman arguments are doing so with full cognizance of their actions.

If you say "I think videogames are nifty" and I respond with "OMG videogames are violent, you want to shoot people dead, you're a murderer," are you going to politely tell me why my argument is inane? Even though we are both likely aware of that from the start? Or will you go to your handy gif arsenal and--

Bam.

Sure, you could go down a path of your opponent's choosing and turn the thread into a mess of off-topic sophistry, but why?

Call it what it is and move on to someone that deserves a valid response.

Well I give up. If you're straight then I'm the queen of England.

Prove it! pictures or you're lying. You can be a hairy 40 year old with manboobs for all we know. :P

To the Original Poster, So glad to see that I'm not the only one completely fed up with people of the nature you described. I too am an old school gamer from the days of Atari on through to the present. Thank you for representing the gamer in all of us, they way we should be representing ourselves daily....with some intelligence and respect.

@pokoko - True enough, yet, the old adage holds true, the whole "don't feel the trolls" concept. If I find a bizarre or immature response, I simply ignore it and don't validate it with a reply. I find this makes the offending poster more irate than responding at all, because they are then unsure if you even read their post. While ignorning someone may not prove to be the most mature thing, it's a pretty good time saver.

Back in the old version of vgchartz, back when it was kinda cool and not full of ads, someone had made an "ignore tool" (maybe one of the old timer's here can remember who it was, I apologetically forget who made it). It was great. With one click, all of a certain user's posts were filtered out of every thread. It made for a peaceful visit to VGchartz.

@zero129 - Oh, I don't doubt that. This will be my 3rd round of the "console wars" experience (not including handhelds). It gets so old so quickly, people forming into "teams" or "armies". I remember the GC/PS2/XB era, it wasn't fought on forums, but on newsgroups accessed via your email client (outlook, eudora, etc). I've found that the only ones who win the console wars are the people who spend 0% of their time arguing about who has the better console and instead use the time to actually play games on their preferred system. Yet, I'm fully braced to take a leave of absence again as the threads go back and forth berating the "enemy" fanbase.

Yes, it's true, as everyone starts taking their sides in the new console wars, I'll be the old guy telling you kids to get off my lawn. =D

I get to act like an adult all day in real life.

I also started gaming in the days of pong, asteroids, and combat.

I personally think this is an appropriate place to shed some stuffy adult shackles.

I admittedly FAIL your challenge.

I'm not going to post pictures of myself on the internet, that's for FB.

Anyhow, we are really derailing this thread.

I was going to say every single word in your list, but that would make me a strawman fanboy that fails miserably.

Exactly.

Just trow them some rumours about "the size" of any ram, and they'll be fighting like kids. Apparently it's in men's DNA, the need to compare sizes.