Ah, but Gaf does allow much of what Squilliam addressed in his OP.

And you should have seen how Gaf ripped into (and still rips into) Dennis Dyack over the Too Human debacle.

I disagree.

All consoles have something for everyone, and a myriad of different games in different genres.

A game, however, is a single piece of software on one of those consoles, and we have the right to dislike them. Under the current system, saying "HALO 3 IS OVERRATED SHIT" will get you banned, and that's as far as it should go.

Fair enough.

Poor Mr. Dyack. He really does need to just get back to making good games and stop talking about making good games.

What's Silicon Knights doing now, I wonder....

Slitting their wrists?

I would prefer to hear "trying to get in good with Nintendo" since I have reason to believe that supervision under Miyamoto is a lot of what made Eternal Darkness so great, but really, just about anything would be good to hear at this point.

I'm glad Microsoft bore the brunt of the Too Human disaster, but will they ever be able to find a publisher again?

being someone new to forums, i really was not sure what you can and can not say, being a gamer i just love playing games its the way i can escape from at times a life of kayas. also i play on both platforms and like and dislike something about both. so in learning how to word things in forums has been a challenge. so to all that read this, and if i have affended you by something i have said or my opinion, i apoligize. that was never my intent to piss people off. so from now on i am trying to be less abrasive. so to those i angered i hope you can except it was not meant. really how people including myself in the past that would get so worked up about what people think. there are so many bigger issues in the world today, i have seen them first hand.

Agreed... so no, Im not supporting this

I'm with the idea in theory and I think it could actually serve to improve people's contributions to threads if they are actually forced to criticise in a somewhat constructive way. The thing is I'm not sure that some people would even know how to do criticise in a civil manner and I wouldn't like to be the one that has to enforce it.

I support this post. 

I also support the right to make logically supported, forthright, possibly inflammatory opening statements, but in general do not make them myself because the presence of reason and logic is usually not enough to prevent people of a different mentality (read: fanboys) from ignoring the substance of the post and getting riled up by the opening remark, thus driving the thread off-topic.

I think actual enforcement of forum rules regarding post content (i.e. there has to be some) should suffice and that a new rule isn't really necessary, but I support the spirit of the OP.

I don't support this. With so many rules, it may be easier if we make a list of things we can actually talk about.

I do agree that the trolling is getting out of hand, but your solution won't help.