Perhaps even ANGRY? Even though they aren't making a personal attack on you? (I guess it could be considered a personal attack, but I mean something that adversely affects you or someone important to you directly.)

I always thought of myself as fairly level-headed, but I have to admit, I do get annoyed by what I perceive as unfounded ignorance towards something I like. Like, I was listening to some recent episode of Rebel FM (I only listen occasionally, when they discuss a game that interests me (or when Robert Ashley is on)), and they were talking about Nintendo, and blood was just pouring from my ears. I was like, "How could they be so fucking stupid and ignorant about an entire library?! Their job is to play and write about games!! They seem knowledgeable about every other console! And their tastes are both elitist and overly mainstream, while still being abysmal! WTF!!"

But it doesn't always happen. If someone was to tell me the concrete reasons why they preferred one thing to another, I don't think I'd have any problem with their opinion. It's just that stupid, dismissive attitude that comes from ignorance, rather than personal experience. I seriously hate that shit. Especially when it seems to be the 'majority opinion', an accepted 'truth' among the community.

I can recognize that the stem of that feeling is some sort of synaptical malfunction, though, a lack of maturity, where even though I know that I shouldn't give a shit about what people say, ESPECIALLY if it comes from a position of ignorance, I get irritated, anyway. Emotion should never override reason. There is a legitimate reason to be irritated by dismissive ignorance in the press, though, since it's so widespread. It probably HAS directly influenced the games that the Wii has received.

Anyway, I also dislike a lot of things, many of them sacred cows, so maybe I should check my own behavior, but I'd like to think that I follow my internal rules and at least speak from personal experience with reasonable arguments.

So how's about youse guys?

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When it comes from ignorance... a teacher school said that I didn't suffer fools gladly, and that pretty much sums up how my brain reacts to certain 'opinions'. I'm not an angry or pushy person by any means, but YES when people have a strong negative or positive opinion about something that they clearly haven't put any thought into, then it drives me out-of-all-proportion crazy.

Hey, fellow crazy person.

I know it's irrational, but yeah. I have a low tolerance for stupidity and willful ignorance.

I get even angrier when I try to rationalize with these people and they simply twist my words or use circular logic to back up their "opinion".

Ignorance and stupidity can be offensive. I don't consider it irrational to be angered by it. It's quite normal.

But the lesson that took me quite a long time to learn (and that I am still learning) is that you can't reason with some people, especially on message boards, the best you can do is stfu and ignore it, otherwise you'll just be dragged into an argument that goes nowhere.

Just recently I got pulled into trying to explain to a Wii Lobby-ist the concept of intellectual property and why Nintendo couldn't just go ahead and put Goldeneye 64 on the VC. It didn't lead anywhere. The moron is still as ignorant as ever, and all I did was waste my time.

QFT about ignorant dismissals of things I enjoy. For instance, I know someone who deprecates video games as a waste of time and money every single time I see him (which thankfully isn't terribly often) and this infuriates me. I even explained to him that it's no different than any other form of entertainment, and that if you purchase games wisely, video games are on average cheaper than movies in dollars/hour of entertainment.

I mean, say Twilight Princess took you 50 hours to beat (a reasonable figure) and you paid $50 for it. Well, that's a dollar per hour of entertainment, as compared to a 2 hour movie for $20, which is $10/hr of entertainment.

Furthermore, I'd argue that I've gained more from video games than I've ever gained from movies as well. Sadly, some people are too narrow minded to consider a new viewpoint once they've made up their mind.

So, yeah, needless to say, although I'm fairly laid back overall, when someone ignorantly bashes something I love and enjoy, it's an entirely different story. I'd imagine this is true for most people.

I also have this reaction when people dismiss a whole genre of games I like. I know I shouldn't care because it is their opinion but still.

Ugh, same here. I guess it's stronger with Nintendo-related-stuff since I feel particularly knowledgeable about that subject and it feels like relatively few others are. So they spew out their phrases ripped from the "Book of Volatile Cliches"--it gathers dust, it's got waggle, it's for your grandma, the only good game(s) is/are Mario Galaxy(s), etc.

Honestly, it's the same way when I see half-baked views on religion floating around. I don't hate when someone's opinion of religion differs from mine, but when I hear lines from people that are completely missing the point and have zero thought or effort put into them, it's just aggravating. And it's even worse when they've got this condescending, holier-than-thou (hey, irony) attitude towards it when it's clear they don't know the first thing about it. I say live and let live--I'm not one to preach to others to find Jesus or anything, but the amount of blunt "internet ire" that faith catches is just friggin' unbearable sometimes.

Our interests are part of who we are. Even smaller things like video games--to some degree--shape the kind of persona we have and collectively define us. This is especially true with belief systems, like religion and politics. So when someone says "Republicans are gun-toting hillbillies" or "Democrats are spineless attention-seekers," people take it personally. They are being insulted, and their family and friends are too. Similar to if you said "all Christians/Buddhists/Shinto/Atheists are stupid" or something. All of this stuff is extremely insulting and hurtful to people, and always stems from ignorance and humanity's desire to be "right." But hey, as long as you don't insult their race, it's fine, right?

Disagreement is fine, discussion is welcome. The problem I have is when disagreements become uncivil and rooted in ignorance. Then--like so many GCNGB threads before it--there's no reasoning with the trolls of the world. They're set in their uneducated ways and won't change their mind no matter how many "list of good Wii games" you throw at them. They prefer to sit in their closed-off bubble of hate, blissfully ignorant to the way things really are.

Anyway, I didn't mean to bring this thread into the heavy territory, but I'm just sick of the pushiness, arrogance, and ignorance on the internet. It's a horrid place to be sometimes when so many people have the freedom to act however they like with no real repercussions.

File me under the " Only when they are speaking from total ignorance" category. Other than that it only comes down to preferences and that's something there is no objective right answer for.

But don't you think ignorance should be the most easily ignored? I mean, when he-who-must-not-be-named talks about a Wii game, it doesn't bother me, because he hasn't played it, so I don't care what he thinks about it. Hmm... that's an interesting thought. Why doesn't he bother me? Perhaps because he seems like an essentially harmless GameRankings bot?

@TriforceBun
It IS horrible. Lack of reprisal plus mob mentality is a nasty cocktail. It seems like most people, deep down in their heart, really just want to be assholes. That's why I like Negative World, where the only rule is 'don't be a jerk'. It's like a sunny oasis in the middle of a huge cesspool.

(It's also why I dislike NeoGAF. Their priorities are all wrong.)

I went in to a Gamestop to buy a Pheonix Wright game for my friend when one of the employees in back of me said Phoenix Wright sucks. I was about to turn around and raise a finger-pointing objection, but his co-worker beat me to the punch! It was just a fun joke, so perhaps this doesn't really fit in the topic at hand here.

I don't talk to that many people who dismiss video games at a form of enjoyable entertainment, so I really don't have a whole lot to say here. It does bug me when the gaming press or fans dismiss the Wii with a "just because" mindset, so there's something.

oh definitely... it's easy to brush people off if they're obviously uneducated in the matter or even bad at debate, but if they're obnoxious and going for low blows it's another story.

i've gotten to a point though where i get irritated by people deprecating anything they're ignorant of, even things i don't hold in high esteem. any act or creation of humans is art and will always hold some intrinsic value to some audience. just because something doesn't appeal to me and i can't necessarily imagine its worth from another perspective doesn't mean i have a right to bulldoze other people's potentially more qualified opinions.

however, this is not to say that i don't play devil's advocate on occasion and provoke people into defending something they're passionate about by feigning ignorant disapproval myself... XD

TriforceBun said:

Ugh, same here. I guess it's stronger with Nintendo-related-stuff since I feel particularly knowledgeable about that subject and it feels like relatively few others are.

Present company excluded, right?

I was going to come in an post, but you've all beat me to it with the answers provided. Pig-headed ignorance is aggravating, and when it's focused on video games, I get even more aggravated!

@Chozoman
Yeah, NW's got a lot of good posters here--it's like the IGN boards went through a troll colander and only the good stuff was left behind! There are also some good posters scattered around about the rest of the internet too, but it seems the ignorant/angry ones are always the most vocal. Negativity catches attention, after all.

I'm all for logical debate, but when it makes you feel that you would be better served shoving an acid covered spear through your eye, it just becomes pointless.

I'm only for fun logical debate. Arguing with willfully ignorant people or GameRankings bots isn't enjoyable (and doesn't merit logic), so I don't do it. It's just a waste of time and good humour!

Absolutely I do. Though I've gotten better and I work on it every day. Not to bring religion too much into it, but as a Christian I'm supposed to be (or more importantly, WANT to be) understanding, and often times I UNDERSTAND, but I also disagree and get mad. And I'm a huge hypocrite in that regard, so it's an area I'm trying to improve myself about.

I got really irritated yesterday while having a discussion with someone over this generation of consoles. He was talking about how long this generation would last compared to the others and what were the main effects of it. To cut it short, I brought in the Wii which obviously has had a huge impact on how Sony and Microsoft regarded their consoles and how to approach gamers differently but no, that wasn't good. We were to discuss THIS generation of consoles, which the Wii isn't part of according to him, therefore it has no place in the discussion. WHAT THE HELL!?! Not too long ago, he even admitted that he cannot stand playing Super Mario Galaxy because of the Wii controller and how stupid it is. Ugh, even if someone would hate the button layout, Mario uses the simplest of controls that anyone should be able to use without trouble. I had to stop myself at that point because I was just getting angry with him and his ignorance.

@VofEscaflowne

Was that person Daemon Hatfield by chance?

Nope although I do remember him talking about that on a podcast. What an idiot. But it's the guy that won Sony's reality show The Tester (yes I watched it ). I guess that in itself is self explanatory why he's a total douche.

I was at the doctor's once... and I was reading my Guide to Marine Mammals of the World, and when the doctor came in, he asked me, "Whatcha readin'?" and I just held the book up so he could see the title and he said, "Why are you reading something so boring?"

That infuriated me. I didn't say anything though. I just thought, "Why do you have such a boring profession?"

Ignorance is always hard to take. I have a few friends who are basically trolls in real life. Anytime I get into something they will straight up tell me it sucks. Easiest example was It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Because of a girl I worked with two years ago showing me the show I started watching it. Thought it was absolutely hilarious and started talking to my other friends about it. Well, despite never seeing it, they kept telling me how much it sucked and how unfunny it was. They would never example why they thought that, but would keep saying it until I finally decided to just stop talking. Once they saw the show, however, their tune quickly changed and they thought it was hilarious.

I used to carpool with that girl from work when we'd hang out with other co-workers and one day she nearly demanded I changed the CD. Because it was Pearl Jam and she thought they were one of the worst bands ever. I asked her why and her reasoning was pretty sound. She said she hated the first album and that was grounds for her to form an opinion. So in response I told her that John Mayer was killing the music industry because his first album was complete garbage. Apparently that did not fly well with her because she said "His later stuff is soooo much better!" and "You really have to check out his live stuff!!!". Of course, saying the same thing except with Pearl Jam netted "They still suck."