I think that Denis is actually a very cool dude and I don't really get most of the ridicule he's getting, especially since a lot of it is VERY personal. It's freakin' PR-talk, that' how it is, it will always be there and I thin kwe should jsut ignore that part. His explanation on 1Up Yours was very interesting on the other hand and I think he is absolutely right. He said it again in the interview with Brad, the whole NeoGAF thing is less about his game or even NeoGAF, but more about the way humans and human societies use technology for communication.
We, as a society, have not yet adapted to the incredibly fast development of the ways we communicate. Just imagine (the example Denis also used) someone invented the watch in the Middle Ages. Just over night, everybody could afford a watch. Before, people were living according to the sun etc. Now there is this abstract concept of time, that everybody tries to adhere to. This time, an hour, a minute etc. does not really exist like that. So, what would that've done to society? I don't know, but it would not have been an easy transition, that's for sure. Up until now, humans have evolved paralell to the techonlogical development. But, I think, starting with the industrial revolution, technology has been developing faster and faster and society just can't keep up. We have hardly been able to cope with the results of the industrialization, just now are we thinking about energy, environment, social responsiblity and productivity in a proper way. We have slowly adapted to the industrialization, but in the mean time, when we were not yet properly adjusted, we have destroyed our planet, depleted most of our ressources and had regimes like Stalin and Hitler. If we had adapted faster, a lot could have been prevented, I am sure. There is no need for communism in a socially resposnible society.
With the Internet-thing Denis talked about, it's just the same. We, as a society and as individuals, have not yet learned how to treat this new way of communication. Oh yes, we (or at least some of us) think we have already mastered it and I think, that we, postign on this very board, are already on a good way to adjust to this new form of communication, but overall, this process is going too slowly. I think we need to educate children in schools how to properly use the Internet. Hoe to properly communicate using this medium. This what Denis meant. A lot of people do not realize, that even though we don't see or hear each other, what we write here, is something we could have just as well said to each others faces. This is just as real as face-to-face communication. It is lacking a lot of the connotations and that makes it even harder, but what it especially is lacking for some people is this sense of being real. If you insult someone on a message board, you really do insult someone and hurt his/her feelings. Things you do and say have implications IRL, jsut like Pakorn said. We, as a society, have to learn how to deal with that. right now, GAF is a good example that shows, it's just not working yet.
Something I found very interesting as well was what Denis said about the "penalty" for loosing his little bet. He does not care at all if his NeoGAF-Tag reads "Owned by the GAF", he might never return to the side. All the other posters there do really care about their Tags and might actually feel like they really lost something. That's just absurd and illustrating what Denis talked about.
tl;dr: Denis is nice dude and I agree with him.
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