EVE General Discussion

But then i came on the forums, it seems like people troll, be hostile towards players for absolutely no reason, lots of immaturity, lots of hate. On some help threads ive posted and read i see people who just comment on how stupid that person must be not to know that, and other similar things akin to that. Almost the complete opposite of the people in-game. Could someone mind explaining this to me?

(No offense intended to the nice people here, there are lots of you here too)

The forums are not an accurate representation of the playerbase - CCP has said in the past only a small percentage of players even look at the forums. You have to understand that a certain pathology dominates which keeps the majority of normal reasonable people out.

I don't think the Eve forums are that different from most other game forums or the comments section on most websites. Look at the bottom of any news article even from venerable news organisations and the comments are mostly dominated by idiots, extremists and conspiracy theorists, trolls etc.

In most spheres of life there is some sort of hierarchy or system governing how much credibility people are given. For example you know you should probably give at least some credibility to what your university lecturer says because he's been vetted by staff at the university and is likely an intelligent individual with experience and knowledge in their field. You know that colleagues at work who have 20 years experience in the same industry are more likely able to offer you better insight regarding your work than the raving lunatic stumbling around the streets outside the office. Real life provides clues as to who you are dealing with and whether you should listen to or if it's worth engaging with them.

Total anonymity online removes that metric of credibility and allows people to say things and behave in ways they wouldn't in public. It creates a race to the bottom where extreme opinions and behavior dominate and this drives out the normal people that want to talk like adults. Also the dunning-kruger effects means people of low ability/understanding are much more likely to express themselves than those whose opinions are tempered with knowledge/experience.

Basically the level of conversation and maturity displayed by people goes down the toilet leaving just the few people that are willing to swim in **** behind. The stench puts off anyone else from joining in.

If you hang around for a bit, you'll see most of the shitposting come from the same few guys, mostly pushing one agenda or another or following some pattern of posting crap/trolling. Just like most of the people you meet in real life probably seem decent and reasonable, most eve players likely are too. The forums are mostly where the dregs and the marginalised weirdos hang out and shouldn't be confused with Eve-players as a whole.

I really don't get why people waste so much time fighting on forums but to each his/her own.

It's turned into a competition of who is the most edgy / biggest prick with same people popping up all the time.

Bores the **** off me

Forum is a different mini-game.

If EVE were to die, the forum would still prosper.

I expect this thread to continue to be, and grow into an even better demonstration of the OP's observation that the forums are littered with hate.