So someone disagreed that it was a good game.  And your point is...

So from a downvote what do you infer, in words?

I look at it as "I disagree with this" your position of "harsh" speaks more I think to how you view yourself than it does to anything else.

I dont understand what you are saying, but I will go back on topic and I say I would love it if they change the voting system

Yeah that kind of thing is unnacceptable, there's nothing to disagree with, people downvoting a comment like that to oblivion are simply upset fanboys. This thread seems primarily centered around topics that aren't like this though,

I don't see a point in changing the voting system though. Without votes you may as well just create a thread for every piece of news and remove comments from the news articles completely, without voting it just turns into a thread, so what's the point. :P

I mainly stick to commenting on Nintendo articles but sometimes on Steam, PC articles.  I can't resist commenting on Windows Store articles though trying to get a few laughs.  Making fun of the Windows Store is an easy way to get upvotes.

What I am saying is this: there is a difference in implication and inference.  The impllication of a downvote is that someone doesn't agree with/like what you said.  The inference of the downvote on the part of the poster is what creates a greater negative than that.

What I infer from your posts is that you feel like people are harsh when they disagree with you and that it hurts your feelings.  That is how you receive the message not necessarily the message being sent.  If you want people to respond with why they disagree instead, I have a feeling you would actually see more harsh things than just a thumbs down on your opinion.

It doesn't? Sure they're not taking the time to write a comment but that's a hundred people either agreeing that the game is good or agreeing that the game is bad. If someone says a game is good and gets a +100 votes and another person says it's bad and gets -25 votes, which opinion seems more popular and thus carries more weight?

Also I've never seen anyone get downvoted for asking If a game is good or not...

keep up votes, I don't think we need down votes, and we should have this feature in the forum as well.

The voting tends to work itself out. Stupid comments (generally those from people who obviously only read the article title) and most shitposts get hidden, while the rest remain visible. Or is this in direct reaction to the comments in a particular news article?

Nope I have never felt like it hurt my feelings, but sometimes the best discussions and facts are hidden because they have -8 because the comments hold information some people don't like, its not objective, not just on my own comments but on comments many other valuable contributers make. When you have karma and you are eligable to give karma positive and especially negatively there should also be someone from VGChartz to review these karma choices.

There are many website who utalize this very well, like tweakers.net with a nice -2 to +3 vote where you can give your opinion on how valuable the comment is, but giving a -1 or -2 does imply its not a good comment and doesn't contribute to the news item, if you give that ratings its reviewed, if the comment proves to be valuable anyway the person giving the negative karma will be notified.

Since we dont have good moderation, negative karma should be removed, the comments with a higher karma because of the upvoted will be on the top of the list regardless and truely offensive or bad comments can always be reported.