There will always be fools who guide the blind.

There are many trends in gaming in the new decade: the resurgence of the console era, albeit somewhat different than in the late 80's; developers becoming more conservative and restrictive; the catering and spoonfeeding to a more casual crowd; the over-saturation of worthless DLC; the lack of real support and updates in an effort to perfect released games. But for now, I'll elaborate on a trend, nay, an illness that pervades the industry to the point of becoming commonplace and acceptable. Oh wait, that goes for everything above... What about bringing inevitable oblivion? Nope, that too. Forget it, let's move on and talk about the downfall of FORUM SUPPORT.

It used to be that online forums were a great place to ask others for help on similar software or hardware. It was a communal place to share ideas, solutions and experiences. Even the most eccentric of users could post their strange setups and discuss their troubleshooting methods. Even if lost in a sea of other more popular posts, one day, his journal will become the foundation of established how-to-guide sticky thread.

But alas, those days are no more. The modern forum consists of relentless torrents of needlessly defensive fanboys, overeager to defend their latest possession of novelty, despite their believed attacker having never spoken a word of negative criticism. Asking if others have tried to resolution-hack, modify game files, remove headbob or mouse acceleration, or adjust field of vision or depth of field results in your first five responses ranging from "I don't hav dis problem. Why r u complaining about it?" to "Why would you want to change that?" Welcome to the counteractive gaming generation. Instead of trying to search for a solution, people instead pretend that there was no problem to start with, and try to convince others the same. Unfortunately, this method, because of it's overwhelming popularity successfully converts more and more gamers. Ultimately, due to peer pressure, we'll all be suckered into believing that games are perfect and any problems are inherent to ourselves.

I recall having sought advice from the internet for almost every game I've played, but it has been almost entirely the past few years when the internet stopped helping me with my problems. When I queried the mouse acceleration problems in Dead Space 2, I found only a few posts of gamers still grasping for hope of online help. They were barraged by comments of others who BELIEVED they never experienced the issue, and then told to suck it up and deal with it. Or when I looked up how awkward the combat and cover was in Mass Effect 1, a game based on the normally-smooth and easily modifiable UT engine, I also received no help. Just 5 years ago, I'd have gotten a set of console commands in a flash to modify whatever I wanted. If not that, then at least a consolidated community voice asking for a standard of quality to be delivered.

What's appalling is the level that this self-degrading stupidity has developed. Case in point: a reply to a thread created to address FOV and motion sickness issues with Minecraft.

I don't understand why people get motion sickness from games.

I don't understand why people get motion sickness.

Come to think of it, I don't know what people mean by vertigo.

Crazy heights and movement have never bothered me... Well, you know, unless there weren't something to keep me from falling.

Source

Wow. Well I don't understand why people don't understand things. I guess that means it is nonsensical and thus, impossible for people not to understand, right? Fucking retard. How does his lack of understanding contribute ANYTHING to the thread, other than to derail another man's plight and curb common interest into attacking the original poster's vulnerabilities? Worse, Minecraft is an independently developed game, and supports many mods, so the game is quite customizable, even as an understatement. For this sort of narrow-minded egocentricism to even be not immediate grounds for disbarment is insulting. Here's a Dead Space 2 thread, where I criticized some of these dumbasses for their misinformation. Same sort of deal. Only a minority realise the problem, while others blindly tout their false beliefs.

This sort of limited perspective cripples the industry, causing the developers to cut corners, knowing that the lobotomized fanbase will serve as a self-defensive mechanism to defend the games from any shortcomings of the developers. Thus, they become even more careless, leading to further infection of gamers with this false belief. Imagine if I walked into a wine-enthusiasts fair and told them that everything there was amazing and without even the slightest flaw or possibility of improvement. I'd be wrong, but if there were enough voices like mine, we'd be able to pressure everyone else into succumbing to this new lowered standard. We'd set back development and progress for decades with terribly flawed opinions.

Alas, these people are fools, and in the perfect world, they'd be obliterated, but unfortunately, we'll have to settle with ignoring their short-sighted pacification while we are consciously dragged into the ruin of gaming.