1. People like to win arguments, and will twist and turn to do so.
2. Alot of time's you will be engaging with fanboys, they care not for logic and reason, only proving that thier console is best and winning the 'console war'.
3. This is the internet.

All you can do is weed out the good from the bad. It's still possible though, so don't be discouraged. It's just alot harder.

People are stubborn, and fail to admit when they're wrong until they've become completely cornered.

Because some people have nothing better to do then piss random people they dont know on the interwebz off.

In the case of IGN, Gamespot, Youtube, WoW Forums... Etc... its outta control, but atleast VGChartz has Order.. .. .. which is also slowly losing is robust nature of the new stealth trollers thats been poping up lately...

Because this is the internet, and people suck.

Many of the posters here are emotionally invested in their console of choice to an extreme degree. It is difficult to have a rational discussion about any topic in which someone is so emotionally invested; the emotion overwhelms logic.

Older than the average, I reckon, but I certainly hope not too old to participate.

I think you've nailed it right there.  Some people refuse to see reason, or even to consider and contemplate a contrary viewpoint, and arguing with those people is just a huge waste of time.

Because pepole who are rational are first and formost, are rational, thus they know that discussions in the internet are actually pointless, and so most of the time won't bother writing a good, long and well-informed reply unless it is a subject that is very important to them.

So, idiotic, flaming fanboys like me fill the void with our cursing, flaming and trolling.

Age of posters. Teens who already have the world figured out and can't be wrong. To prove their "point" they'll argue endlessly. Worse yet, if you leave the thread, they'll follow you into others to show you how right they still are. Amsuing to read, irritating to engage.

It's not all that strange really. Here's an instance.

I'm using VGChartz 2.0 as an example, not to smite it, but because I won't offend any specific userbase by this.

"Title: VGChartz 2.0 caused the site population to drop a lot"

Person #1: No, it didn't. Can you prove it?

Khuutra (just an example):Well, if you want proof, here's some. *Writes a long post with lots of numbers, that is detailed and explains pretty much everything that is needed to be said on the subject*.

The reaction from the thread creator (and people who agreed with him): Oh darn, he just proved me wrong! Well, I'm not going to accept complete defeat, so I'll try to get the debate onto something else.   That's a natural reaction. If you don't want to admit being wrong, you twist the debate, and ignore the clever person.

Person #1 and the people who agree with him: Well, Khuutra just summed up everything I needed to say on the subject. There's no need to keep elaborating on that part, so I'll discuss with the thread creator on the somewhat different thing he just said.

And then there's the people who don't really agree with anyone, and thus refrain from posting.

Thus, nobody replies to the genious (in this case Khuutra), but everyone agrees with him and realizes what he says.

However! As it is not being discussed, people forget it. So the next time the same subject pops up, everyone has forgotten Khuutra's clever words.

Does that answer your question?