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."