As anyone who reads my posts will know I can be fairly critical of the missteps of all three console makers but I tend to come out on the side of Sony more often than naught, firstly as I couldn't believe the utter hatred and contempt I viewed on these forums regarding Sony's ambitious new console and felt many where missing the point. It was as if Sony execs had personally kicked every single 360 fans dog or been witnessed beating a sack of live squirrels wrapped in the American flag. Where was all this coming from suddenly? Second, because as the PS3 evolved I found that after months of sitting unused in favor of my 360 my PS3 had slowly become my console of choice.

I was surprised as anyone when I finally discontinued my subscription fees to XBL gold and left the chattering, racist, homophobic 12 year olds behind to game online exclusively on the PSN, despite having been told time and time again on this site and in these forums that the PSN was vastly inferior, that the PS3's graphics were terrible, that no one wants Blu-Ray and that the PS3 causes testicular cancer. 8 months later using PSN I still can't really figure out why that is but that's another topic. Why my shift was surprising is because I was, and still am, a huge Xbox fan. Last gen the X-box was by far my system of choice. I played Halo regularly, geeked out like everyone else when Halo 2 and 3 came out (still have a Master Chief magnet on my fridge) and recommended the 360 for 2 years to anyone who would care to listen. But I didn't dislike the PS2 or Gamecube nor do I dislike the 360 now. I never engaged in the online console debates because I had something I liked about all 3 of them and thought the mindless bashing of each system stemmed mainly from ignorance.

This gen was different. I was happy with my 360 but excited about the PS3 and Wii when they launched. I couldn't wait to see what was brought to the table and I was as excited waiting for these consoles as I was waiting for the 360 to launch. However, something was different when these consoles came out. People weren't excited about the new consoles. Far from it. They felt threatened by the new consoles; suspicious and fearful. What if these consoles catch on? Will the Japanese come and take my 360? They can't do that! They'd better not succeed! The forums were filled with misinformation, lies, and slams at the consoles, companies and anyone who committed the sin of not gaming exclusively on the X-box 360. I have heard it argued many times before that to game on anything other than the 360 is un-American. MS is a shining beacon of all that's right in good in the ole US, past business practices be damned!

The forums have calmed down a bit within the last few months as the 360 falls to 3rd place in worldwide sales and Sony and Wii fans are more able to band together and not be as bullied as they were a year ago, but the pro-MS camp is still there, still shouting the same tired opinions and gaming "truths" at the top of their lungs like it's their own personal crusade to put down gamers of other systems while the rest of the world looks on with a bemused sense of wonderment at the US gaming market and the 360's fall worldwide to the Wii, and now the PS3.

So as it becomes more apparent that the analysts predictions are correct and the PS3 will soon overtake the 360, my thoughts turn to the legions of X-box fanatics that I've had the pleasure of verbally sparring with over the last couple of years. I recently read an article on PC Advisor that asked the question "Is the PS3 finally the world's best console?" and the answer was a resounding yes! It got me thinking of the fans that troll the news forums. What will become of them? How will they deal with more and more titles like MGS4 being released, outshining anything they've seen on their consoles. What will they do when their whole believe structure is brought into question? I'm not worried about the average X-box fans. We, me included, will be just fine. The status of the 360 in terms of global sales ultimately won't stop us from enjoying the hell out of Fable 2, Gear 2, Alan Wake, etc, but the X-box fanboys will be in a tougher spot. It wasn't enough to just play the games and enjoy them; it was a cult that should be followed without question. With that taken away from them, when they can no longer argue "We've got all the games, our games our better, our online is better, no one cares about Blu-ray, etc" what will they do? Will they still clog up the forums and yell that games on all other systems suck, regardless if they've ever played them or not? Will they instead argue their console is way cheaper than the PS3 (I'm assuming another 360 price cut towards the end of the year)? Or will they quietly fade into the night and just be content to play the great games they've been blessed with?

Like fans of a defeated sports team, will they bide their time until their team rises again. And then if it doesn't? If Microsoft's Shane Kim has his way and there isn't another expensive 360 consoles but instead some sort of digital distribution hub in it's place? What then?

I wonder, what happened to all the Deadheads after the Grateful Dead called it quits? That must have been quite a hole that was left. Perhaps we should arrange counseling services in advance.

Another user on this fine site recently pointed out that in the past I've been critical of the Xbox 360 in the past. Here was my response.
"Overtly critical? I don't think anyone should have to pay extra for online play and I'm disappointed by my own rrod problems. Other than that I've had nothing but praise for the 360 console, time and time again. How is that being overtly critical?
Here's a little experiment you can try to see where I'm coming from. Try going to two separate news threads on this site, maybe regarding sales numbers. On one post "Almost 12 million PS3's sold. Nice job Sony." On the other post "Almost 18 million 360's sold. Nice job MS!" Wait a day and see which is thumbed up and thumbed down. Also, be prepared to receive hate mail in your inbox regarding the Sony post. Welcome to my world, around here. If it weren't for other gamers, emailing me encouragement, telling me they're afraid to post anything because they know they'll be harassed I would have stayed retired when I said "Nuts to this site," months ago. People go through posts from weeks and weeks ago, looking for anything where I was even slightly off topic, or could be construed as flaming to try to have me censored from this site, and all I'm trying to do is help provide balanced debate on a site I love."

This, my friends, is apparently a fine example of "trolling" and will have you suspended from the site. Trolling, which I had always assumed was living under a bridge waiting to ambush the odd Billy-goat is now a label that the majority can give to anything that makes them feel slightly uncomfortable and that leads into my current topic. What is currently wrong with the gamer community?

Anyone who surfs the internet game community sites knows that this problem is on the rise. The sheer volume of ignorance and stupidity on game sites today is truly staggering. Fans of one console or another can effectively shout over top of each other, quoting opinion as fact, twisting numbers in ways that would make statisticians blush from the shame of it all and generally making anyone that doesn't kowtow to the majority's opinion feel unwelcome as gamers. This isn't politics!

Rabid console fans have existed since the days of the Atari 2600. I remember debates in my school yard about the merits of the Nintendo over the Commodore 64 (also, there seemed to be some confusion as to Dee Snyder's gender in my schoolyard. He's very obviously an ugly dude, but that didn't change the fact that kids would argue fanatically that he was indeed an ugly woman). What linked us all together was our shared love of gaming, and we all knew the words to "We're not gonna take it." No more.

Currently if you dare question majority rule, expect to be censored. Gaming forums are no longer a center for even remotely informed or intelligent debate but have been reduced to a virtual schoolyard playground, complete with all the bulling that goes along with it. But the bullies aren't kids that are a foot higher than their peers smell bad and have a mustache in grade 4, the bullies on our forums are younger gamers who run in packs. Speak ill of Microsoft and expect to be harassed on every single post you make, whether it's talking about looking forward to a game on your Wii, whether it's on a Sony news storey talking about how you like your new dualshock 3 or whether you're vocal about your concerns with the 360's slide to 3rd place in worldwide monthly sales.

So what happened? In my view the answer is simple. Control was handed over to the 12 year old gamers who generally feel the sun rises and sets on Microsoft's Redmond HQ. I realize through my own experiences playing online and posting on games forums that the problem is with the majority of immature game fans who flood these sights. These children simply don't have the current mental wherewithal to engage in the higher level of brain function that is required for intelligent debate, and it's not their fault. We don't let children under the age of 18 vote and the reason is most of them can't grapple with the issues. The average underage gamer isn't proficient or analytical enough to weigh arguments and respond logically. That's something that can only be learned through time and the realization that the world does not revolve around just you. So why would we give these kids tools to censor a larger community? We wouldn't hand over a fueled chainsaw to Gary Busey and expect the end result to be positive.

Knowing the enemy to logical debate in the news threads on this site, what can we do? Censoring children won't teach them anything, as much as the though of smacking kids on the top of the head when they say something ignorant does bring a smile to my face (I'm allowed to think it!) the logistics of creating a system where "You must be at least this old and this smart to post," is impossible. The solution? To help foster legitimate gamer debate on these sites is to take away ridiculous community censoring controls, like the thumbs up/thumbs down mechanism that Gamespot employs. Censorship should not be as easy as a knee jerk click of a button to an article and the current community has shown itself irresponsible in the use of the tools they've been given. Little Jimmy doesn't need a tool where he can just click at anything that makes him feel bad and that bad thing will just go away. And for that matter, adults don't need that either. Sheltering yourselves from opposing viewpoints will never allow intellectual growth.

The existing method of allowing people a feedback where they can notify moderators of inappropriate postings is sufficient. Let's get back to discussing the hobby we love. And see if we can't remember the lyrics to "We're not gonna take it."