Couldn’t agree more!

Many ppl online don’t seem enthusiastic and seem hardly impressed by anything while obsessed with critiquing and dissecting! Its obnoxious and sucks the joy out of everything.

I stay clear from all the noise and just experience and escape through the projects that i take interest in and formulate my own opinions on them in peace.

I find pessimists tend to post way more on the internet because they love circle-jerking and attacking people with optimistic opinions. Particularly in fandoms. It’s not just games; it’s books, TV shows, films, and so on. And I have my theory why: in short, it’s an offshoot of virtue-signaling culture.

What virtue signaling culture? It’s a status thing; people tout their own virtues (toward whatever crowd it is) and then attack people that have any hint of not being virtuous. It’s this fictional status increase via diminishing someone else’s status. Even though it’s all in their head! This is the same drive that has all these anti-fans...

Notice they’re not just nitpicking, or saying “I just don’t like this, it’s not for me”, but rather they’re positioning themselves on some higher horse and looking down. That high horse is usually source material or earlier seasons/films/books in the series. Or it’s just people warring over “my franchise of choice is superior to yours, fuck you and your inferior tastes and intellect!”.

Another thing I notice is how relentless these pessimists are, like they will crusade on for weeks! There are people out there STILL whining about the last season of Game of Thrones and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It’s not because they’re “true fans” so much as virtue signalers boosting this fictional virtue-status that exists in their head (and the heads of others of their ilk), by putting this stuff down, and anyone who says anything positive about them.

As an example of how empty their convictions many of these sorts are, Star Wars pessimists. They love the prequels now, but these same people attacked them relentlessly before they had something new to work on. Before the prequels, it was The Return of the Jedi they all hated. Now they consider that one as part of the sacred original trilogy, whose legacy they pretend the sequels are heretical toward.

And even if these pessimists are a small minority, they are so amplified because they will post a negative thing approximately 37 times more frequently than an optimist, and they’ll do it across multiple social media platforms. So, even if the pessimists make up 5% of the fanbase, it still feels like the vast majority. And they seem to have this energy that optimists most often lack... because pessimism has the advantage, that status bump in their head (I mean, fuck, I’m guilty myself in this very post. I feel fucking great writing negative things about these guys right now! J/K).

When these sorts can’t find any fans to attack, they’ll start launching attacks on the cast and crew (including directors and producers). They’ll talk as though they have some kind of inside information and political or cultural driven conspiracies. They’ll go on and on about media producers and installments they claim to despise, yet can’t stop discussing.

Couldn’t have said it better myself!

The way the internet sees, for instance, PS5 enhanced ports of PS4 games is with ridicule and anger, complaining whether that be about the price tag or the lack of “effort” on part of the developer. The way I see these enhanced ports, however, is with “That’s neat! Maybe I’ll have to try out the upgraded port someday.” Having the option to play TLoU:PtI/II with PS5 enhancements is a massive QoL benefit! It’s crazy how the internet is about to spin something that seems like an absolute win into a “this is a greedy business scamming consumers!!”.

The way the internet sees the launch of Switch 2 is with outrage at success b/c the price tag was more than they would have liked. The way I saw the launch of Switch 2, however, was with euphoria at finally playing MarioKart at 1440p 60FPS with HDR enabled.

But the internet will sometimes get to me… my passion for MarioKart World, Expedition 33, and Silksong, for instance, have all been hindered by the aggressively vocal community of people finding something to complain about. It also almost hinders my passion for all-time favorites of mine, such as Mario Odyssey, BotW, and TotK, but thankfully, I wasn’t too accustomed to the internet during these points in my life.

The internet is a very miserable place. :( Gotta just ignore it all at some point.

Unless you have noisy neighbors that constantly disturb your playtime or someone in your household that constantly interrupts you while playing I really don't understand what you're complaining about. People having different opinions than you about a hobby should not affect your enjoyment of gaming in any manner.

This is a great case for my theory model above. In short, these guys are virtue signallers. They don’t care about the price tag; they just want to appear as if they have more virtue and intelligence than others. I’ll explain below:

The model is as follows: they sit on their high horse because they’re virtuous and intelligent, and it feels good to them by looking down their nose at those who lack intelligence and virtue.

In this case. They like boosting themselves as the intelligent ones by loudly stating how they know the price of Switch 2 is too high for the market; while Nintendo and the Switch 2 customers are not intelligent enough to know this. They see themselves as virtuous by attacking the evil greed of Nintendo and the sheep who support it. The only justification they need is, “We’re right, so……”

(Just an observation, these sorts of virtue signallers rarely refer to themselves in the singular “I”; it’s always a “we” almost like they’re afraid to own the own opinion).

If it sells out, “it’s artificial demand,” but if it is well-stocked, “it’s not sales, it’s high supply.” No matter what, Nintendo is always wrong, whether they have supply or supply runs out.

But anyway, these arguments they bring up are patently absurd. If the price is too high for the market, it wouldn’t be selling well regardless of supply… Forget it obliterating the all-time sales record.

These guys have to know their arguments are absurd. But perhaps the virtue-signalling buzz, sitting up on the high horse and looking down on the (so-called) unvirtuous and unintelligent Nintendo and Switch 2 customers, feels better than living in reality.

When these opinions come from a person who has not as much as watched gameplay nor played the game for themself, who have simply heard things about how *insert degrading claim* this gaming product/company is, and go off on a hotheaded campaign to spread this opinion to the masses… these are the problematic people.

IDC if you found Mario Galaxy overly linear, or if you think Mario 64 hasn’t aged gracefully; I do care when you’re only contribution to internet discourse is based according to what negative talking points users on the internet have told you. And especially when you try to convince others how they should dislike the game too, or that it’s an “objective” flaw and not merely personal taste.

It’s hard to say what motivates them… as somebody who was once apart of this hateful mass (against Sony back in 2024, against Nintendo during the Wii U, etc.), my motivation was simply to kick at something while its down. It’s like joining in on a 100v1 fight where you’re on the side of the 100: It’s an easy win and you feel so good just letting loose on the punching bag, all while everyone else on the internet backs you up.

It’s kinda just tribalism mixed with bullying-behind-a-screen IMO.

No one forces you to read or listen to anyone else's comments. Just live your life man...

I’m working on it lol.

Don't get me wrong, everyone's entitled to their opinions 100% no matter how unpopular, crazy, or even uncomfortable or mean-spirited they may seem about a given entity - business, artistic, creative, entertainment, or otherwise. Everyone has a basic right to free speech and venting. If you feel strongly enough about something, then some edgelord's take online shouldn't affect your view of it/them regardless. Just carry on and let them wallow in their hate and negativity. And you can always counter with your own ideas. I do like the internet for being a major, easily and widely accessible tool in the marketplace and battlefield of ideas. But the problem is the internet (and esp social media) gives lots of morons and toxic people a bullhorn too and makes it a major tool for bullying, harassment, threats, demeaning rhetoric, etc.. It's when it devolves into these negative actions on individuals themselves is when I take issue.

Plus there seems to be this desperate attempt by many trying to outdo each other for clout by being as edgy or hyperbolic or outrageous as possible online in order to break from the clutter and get that "attention dopamine" on the internet to give themselves some (often desperately needed) artificial meaning, power, or purpose - which usually doesn't lead to terribly positive things.