My Sim’s Super – Your Sim Sucks! Page 4

By SimHQ on September 4, 2006 in _commentary, hide

Another word that gets tossed about in an insulting way is “fanboy” (or it’s variations “fanbois” and “fanboyz”). The implication is that the intended target is stupid, a stooge and has no sense of reason. He is blind to all objectivity, and is incapable of seeing all the glaring flaws that the enlightened non-fanboy sees so clearly. They just don’t “get it”.

Part of the problem is a natural human reaction to someone being critical of something you really like. It’s as though a negative comment about my favorite sim, implies there must be something wrong with me. After all, what kind of a person am I if I really enjoy and extol the virtues of a piece a junk?

Don’t say it — a junk yard dog.

Let’s use logic to illustrate. The deductive logic syllogism looks like this:

Major Premise >  Sim X is crap

Minor Premise >  You like Sim X

Conclusion >  You are full of crap

(Please, all of you logic professors out there don’t write in to tell me I’m the one full of crap because that’s not how it’s done. I’m just having fun with logic!)

And sometimes there is more going on here than what meets the logical eye.

What you may not know as a casual or semi-casual reader, is that Poster E and Poster F in my example have “history”. They have slapped leather over Sim X and Sim Y in every forum West and East of the Pecos. When one makes his appearance, the other is soon to follow. Their beliefs are deep and firmly held. There is no love lost between them. The topic of which sim is better is custom made for another adventure into Insultville. They are either unable or unwilling to stop this behavior, which is unfortunate for everyone. And each must get the last word to uphold their honor and status.

Then there are members who enjoy tweaking other member’s noses. They may actually like Sim X and not Sim Y for perfectly valid reasons, but they say so in a way that’s almost guaranteed to get somebody on the other side of the aisle to stand up and take umbrage. Which is just a fancy college word for PO’ed. You know, mad. The objective is not to further the discussion in a positive way as much as it is to get things cooking on the “high” burner. Whenever the fire cools down, they’ll turn up the burner.

Now, the burning question: What’s my solution for this?

As I pointed out in Rancor in the Ranks, I don’t have one. If I did, I’d have a nicer house and a new sports car, and you’d all be calling me Dr. 20mm on my very own psychotic TV show.

Uh, psychological show. Yeah, that’s it.

No cure, just a faint hope that the people who choose to post in these type threads do so without giving or taking offense. State what they like, state what they don’t like with some thoughtful analysis of why. Coming in and saying “Your Sim Sucks!” definitely expresses an opinion, but it doesn’t say what things are good (if there are any), and what things are bad, and why.

I have said before that I don’t mind arguments, heated arguments even, as long as they come from a thoughtful point of view and not an antagonistic one. The personal side should be kept out of the debate. Keep in mind that usually these threads are a result of someone asking for help. They are not being helped by trash-talking, insults, and downright rude behavior.

We should be encouraging new simmers, not running them away.

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