“We are right to expect quality and error resolution. We are right to be angry and upset and want a better process. But we don’t have to be insulting.”
And some folks feel personally attacked by the request not to be insulting.
Emotion. That’s the factor you need to take into account if you want to understand them. Few of us are completely immune to that factor.
It is, however, something we can learn to control. Something I feel we indeed should learn to control. Breaking windows and setting fire to stores is not constructive feedback, it only escalates the situation, and more people end up getting hurt.
No, we’re not your teachers or your parents. We are your fellow gamers who care about the community. We want to help you find better, more constructive ways to get over these trying times, as well as ways to stop hurting your fellow players and the community.
I feel no need to step in and defend Funcom. They screwed up. However, I am part of this gamer community, so I feel it is my business to do whatever I can to guide it into not hurting itself in its angry thrashing. Basically, I’d like to stop the situation from escalating into where the company needs to let slip the lawyers of war.
We should all be grown-ups here. Maybe we should act more like that, too.