Why does Patrick act surprised by Internet comments?

I feel like every follow up article about a topic he writes (skull girls, women in gaming, etc) starts with him condescendingly talking about the poorly educated masses and their comments. Perhaps he doesn't mean to come off that way, but it does sound insulting whenever people disagree with his point of view - no matter how the comment is written.

I think it would be wise for him to remember a few things:

1. It's the Internet. Anonymous people say stupid things.

2. The people that are reading these topics aren't always well versed on the topic and are generally in a younger demo. Cut 12 year old Joey some slack.

3. they're video games. We can be passionate about games, but at the end of the day, they're just games.

4. Take that attitude for peers in the industry and those in the industries the topics are about, but not for the "armchairs".

Don't get me wrong, I like Patrick, his writing and his appearances. This is not an attack on him personally or the content he produces. It's more a request for the reaction to those stories. I don't think I'm alone in this, but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

I think he's picking the easiest way to start off his articles. It might not be the best way, but it's a really simple segue to go from "well, I didn't expect this!" to the article itself. Though I think it'd be better to intro with something else, I don't know shit about writing proper articles so yeah.

I don't really think it's insulting or offensive, but I gotta say that when Patrick writes a response to these internet comment stuff I feel like there's really no point to it. It's nothing new and it feels a bit self-serving and defensive. Also it kinda encourages some people to be even more defensive about it.. like that one commenter in the Skullgirls article saying 150k is still ridiculous (which I agree) getting so many comments of "did you even read the article??"

The most dangerous thing you can ever do is acknowledge the insanities written on anonymous message boards.

Isn't our demographic older than that, though? Cut 12 year old Joey some slack on GameSpot, but give ol' Joey some shit on Giant Bomb. It'll toughen him up.

He comes off as someone who's so opinionated and that he will iterate those opinions to you like they're the most important thing. You'll notice that for instance in a Bombcast or a Quicklook you can tell when someone like Vinny has a alternate opinion to something but will relax and let other speak, letting others have the stage to say what they want. It's considerate. I don't ever sense that with Patrick. It's really annoying because I don't really care for his content or anything really and his personality can be rather grinding. The articles come off super wankery sometimes where it's like "Here's the well-mannered opinions of some game developers and women, but as this is fair here's also a couple of nit-picked blurbs from some kids on a forum or whatever".

It's like he loves settings off fires and every now and then he'll pop up and throw a can of hairspray in there and then run away again. It's funny the first time, but come on!

Having another article start off responding to the comments from the previous is a dick move because he knows he has the largest platform and therefore the last word.

I'd quote Video Game King, but I'm on my phone and you can't reply or quote people still >:(. Anyway, yeah, 12 year old Joey, if he comes to GB at all, probably comes exclusively for the video content. It's why the video comments are full of despicable users with the default user pic who only make a comment like once every week or two. I'm pretty sure the average age on the forums and in article comments is at least SLIGHTLY higher than 12 year old Joey.

His comments were directed at NeoGAF not GB users.

I think Giant Bomb is generally older than 12 year old Joey. We've had several age polls and it seems like the vast majority of people here fall between early twenties and mid thirties. Obviously it is easy enough to lie on those polls, but I don't see why you would.

But I agree that acknowledging the inanity of comments on the internet it neither productive nor worthwhile. Sometimes it's okay to call people out, but that doesn't mean that it will accomplish anything.

You're all (criminal) scum. That's why.

Or 5. People have different opinions than him. We should probably add that option, since it's the most correct.

you took a thread about one thing and assumed it was about another, that's your problem.

also patrick gives people plenty of room to talk. you just choose to notice when he does speak up.

Patrick hasn't been on the internet that long because he's like, what, 12 or something?

I dunno, in the case of Skullgirls you want to give people the benefit of the doubt because man, that Gaf thread struck some new record for internet stupidity.

Just don't read the articles anymore.

Fucking seriously.

@scooper: Are you saying Patrick is a troll?

Nah I'm kidding man, I actually agree fully with you. I really like the way (like you said) Vinny has an opinion but will listen to others and maybe even change his mind. It's a sign of maturity. Patrick's behaviour comes off as ultimately immature. Ryan and Jeff are both as opinionated as Patrick, but have the maturity to not 'drum home' their opinion till everyone else succumbs to the battery.

I think that Patrick goes a lot of good work for this site, but he often comes off as far less of an actual journalist, and more of an editorialist. He frequently tells only one side of an argument, which is pretty much the last thing that anyone who considers themselves to be a journalist should do. Even editorialists can tell both sides to a story and then pick one. Often, Patrick seems to refuse even that basic courtesy.

he needs to shave i mean fuckin jesus christ

it looks drawn on

Quoting for truth.

I will add, folks remember neogaf is a very closed forum. Its not like GB. The main barrier of entry on Neogaf is the buisness email portion that people with college emails slide in with.

So with this very high barrier of entry for the likes of me and he rest of us. Neogaf is safe haven for the pro's of the games buisness to talk to each other.

So to have many people from lows of college kids studying game makeing to people working in game makeing to start throwing stones at the skullgirl devs over the very logical pricing of making a character. Is the shocker.

WELP CASE CLOSED

Give it time.

His faith in humanity has not been entirely destroyed yet. Give it time.

I cancelled my sub-renewal after his antics became too much for me. I'm willing to re-sub if he calms down and actually writes news instead of copy/pasting links and white-knighting "feminists" in articles.

FLAMESHIELD ON

I have to go with that because man, too many people are living under rocks to see the full picture and aren't fully understanding the situation properly.

Because he thinks he is better than everyone and that we all must agree with him or we are pigs with our heads buried in the ground and don't deserve to live because we don't agree with his agenda.

Because he's still very young and comments get to him. He's a human.

The internet hasn't ruined him yet.

so many false statements in this thread i don't know where to begin.

i'm sad that a thread that is cordially and constructively critical of patrick (in a manner that is perfectly acceptable if aimed at any other member of the bombcrew) can't help but dissolve into ridiculous exaggeration and tired insult. he's quite deferential; jeff is about 100x more bullheaded than he ever is, yet he's perfectly acceptable to you rabble. also i think it's entirely fine to take even statements born of the internet at face value and call them out. they're supposedly inviting some sort of discourse, and patrick (contrary to your beliefs) is entirely open to discussing various subjects, even if it is pretty much a dead end. and i think the beard has promise.

To be fair, Jeff doesn't write one-sided articles about heated topics such as sexism, and then reduce the opposition essentially to assholes tweeting that *insert female name here* should get back in the kitchen.

If Patrick wants to be the social issues guy, that's fine. But if he's only giving one side of the story, then I'm not going to be surprised when I see people hating on him as they do.

For my constructively critical opinion of Patrick, see the first post I made in this thread.

Also, when has "real" journalism ever been "fair and balanced"?

Reading this thread made me want to shove a screwdriver into my brain.

no one asked me to but im gonna write down some things i've thought about patrick for a while

i don't know man he comes off as pretty soap-boxy to me on a lot of sensitive issues (which i generally agree with him on to some extent) and i think he doesn't handle them with the kind of gentleness that they deserve. sometimes he kind of blasts opinions out in a way that makes me wonder if these are in fact his own original opinions or recitations of views which he has adopted from someone else or views that have been entirely influenced by the zeitgeist.( it seems this way sometimes as he explains game genres,mechanics etc. as well.)

that said, though i sometimes find him and his occasional monologues a bit frustrating he seems like an alright guy, brings a lot of games to the table that would otherwise never be covered on this site and writes some very interesting articles.

yeah, Patrick lets people have their word in. If you want to point to someone who just shouts his opinion then puts his fingers in his ears and wont let anyone have a word in edge wise, listen to Brad in any end of the year podcast, 2011 especially.

Bullshit. If you think that you can blanket everyone opposed to the logic used in Patrick's articles concerning sexism as misogynists, that's no better than blanketing all people who call themselves feminists as engaging in misandry.

Or do you really believe that...

"Perhaps the biggest failure of Aliens: Colonial Marines is the amazing lack of females." ?

For an expanded argument that I just posted in another thread, keep reading:

*Why do internet commenters complain about Patrick so much?

Cos it's cute and innocent, like "I'm 12 and wat is this"

@milkman: Do it and film it. You'll be famous.



but dead.

@nekrokreuz said:

I think $150k is still a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a fictional video game character, knowing where the money goes doesn't stop it being ridiculous. Same thing goes with a lot of other things, I think. Knowing how Kobe Beef is produced doesn't stop them from being ridiculously expensive to me. (Like Patrick said in Worth Reading I think we "have every right to think it’s unacceptable that game development has become so expensive today".) It's just how I feel in the end.

That aside, it's the attitude that I have a problem with. Just because someone has that opinion, people jump in and imply that they are too lazy to read the article before commenting. It doesn't matter if they're right; there's really no point in replying that person if they actually didn't read the article anyway. Replying to those comments doesn't really add to the discussion and just make people become offended at one another. Patrick makes some good points in this week's Worth Reading (like Dave Lang's tweet etc.), but he could've done it without pointing a finger at NeoGAF, I think. I know everybody means well but sometimes I think we need to be more tactful.

I hope this clears my opinions on the matter a bit more.. no offense intended to you in particular.

Basically this.

My problem isnt with patrick per say but that the articles he writes are too inflammatory. I applaud him for wanting to start real discussions about things, but its like trying to foster a discussion between a lion and gazelle. I couldn't defend the industries ability to use booth models(dont get me started about calling them booth babes) as perfectly fine because it works for them to market that way, and because there are women who are willing to do that job, without being browbeaten about how I am a sexist piece of trash, no matter how much explaining to the contrary i did. In most cases there is at least ONE argument for the other side that needs to be heard and considered, but that tends to not happen. I think the tone of his articles tend to exacerbate that problem. Although I'm sure he is trying his best to get the community honestly discussing things.

It defeats the purpose of having articles intended to foster discussion between two sides on the internet because in the vast majority of cases people just want to either have a big party about how they are in the right, or get out their megaphones and yell at the other side about how wrong they are.

Why aren't players given the option to play as a female soldier in Counter-strike, Call of Duty and Battlefield?

I don't see how that makes it any better.

Puberty can be a confusing time.

Hard to shave with your wrong hand when you got a broken collar bone.

@milkman said:

This comment could pretty much apply for any thread about Patrick or women/sexism in games over the past few months.