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I'm writing this in response to the most recent NA drama involving Summer's Rift, as well as the ban I recently received on this website.
In the past week there has been a good deal of controversy surrounding the American team. I won't go into any details, partly because as an outsider all the information I have is hearsay, but more importantly because they are irrelevent to the thesis of this post - that the North American Dota scene is extremely unhealthy for the vast majority of those involved.
For as long as anyone can remember, NA Dota has been defined by disfunction. Most players do not possess the skill and/or connections required to join a competitive team, and the ones that do know all too well how things go. Teams form and disband in the blink of an eye, their turbulent time together marked by ego-driven flamewars and the inability to effectively communicate about nearly anything without someone getting offended. These fragile mentalities and poor social skills combine with a massive lack of funding to create a community in which nobody feels safe, and the players have no one but each other to inflict their frustrations on.
Which brings me to my ban. For those who aren't aware, the General Discussion thread on this website exists for users to post about pretty much whatever they want. Common topics include general gaming discussion, music recommendations, real life occurrences, and Gosi. Flaming is tolerated to an extent, so naturally, moderating such a thread while (kind of) adhering to traditional TL posting standards is a slippery slope. I applaud the efforts of the mods who take it upon themselves to regulate this thread - namely TheEmulator, Jinxed, and Firebolt, the latter of which being the individual who finally handed me a well-deserved ban for my various transgressions.
I've said some pretty awful things to people in GD. I will always maintain the position that I never flame anyone who isn't already firing away themselves, but its undeniable that when my Demons are rustled I quickly lose all but the most base senses of decency. I would like to take this time to apologize to anyone I may have offended over the past few months...as well as examine the true source of these kinds of sentiments.
Why do people flame online? There's no single answer, but I believe that more often than not the root lies in the offending party's own insecurity. I know this is true in my own case, and I believe it to be true among the NA Dota scene as a whole. Most of us want nothing more than to make a living off this game we all obsess over...and most of us fail. So we flame. We flame each other when we lose, we flame each other when we win, we flame and flame and flame some more because so many of us are so utterly dissatisfied with our own lives, and we're all convinced that if we could only catch the right breaks, we'd ascend to that golden pantheon of nerds who have managed to legitimize their obsession by URNING REEL MONEY. That's what I want, that's what the rest of these NADOTO flamemonkeys want, and I fear that, unless we give up our hopeless romantic dream, we are all doomed to burn in these fields of fire.
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Self reflection gives a 5 from me
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28055 Posts
Gave it a 5 and no it's not because you gave me a shoutout.
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I can't help but read this in a satirical style
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Valid points, however a rule of thumb I have always followed is do not get so engulfed in what people say on the forums about you, your team, an organization, etc. It really comes down to, people on the internet flame, try to get negative responses out of readers, or just want attention. So something I do is ignore and move on. There are soooooo many times I want to say something and prove someone wrong, but I then ask myself is it worth it? If yes, then I post and will ultimately get banned or warned. If not, then I go about my day and know that I avoided a negative consequence.
Just rambling, 5 stars.
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I missed you olivia wilde
good blog although I woulda 5/5'd just for "demons are rustled" lol
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you summarized it perfectly when you spoke of the NA scene, but lost me when you concluded with why people flame?
why do we do anything? there is no why, it's rooted in human nature and the lower end scale of why people argue. difference is what breeds disagreement, and you see it in all of it's many forms and communicated in all of it's many vehicles. that is the root of why people flame.
i could easily direct the question right back at you in the form of, why do people bitch and moan in the most peaceful era of human history? why are we so sensitive that the small minor things outweigh every single thing that is good? and why do we focus on it so desperately when it is so irrelevant? like a pebble in a shoe.
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SoCal8886 Posts
On May 21 2015 09:43 teddyoojo wrote: Yeah I'm not buying it
lel neither do i. i'll be glad to be wrong though, but i doubt he'll ever stop attacking p6
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disfunction is spelled with a y bro like dystopia and dystrophy and dysphagia and dysthymia and dysentery and dyson vaccuums andddd dykes and i cant think of any more
1/5 i didnt get a shoutout this time
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10/5 would have been easy but i didn't get a shout out .. so i'm just giving you 5/5 cause you lowered your head mate even though i don't know much about the details behind your ban
Why do people flame online?
anonymity mate and maybe cause there's less consequence flaming someone online .. people are like nicer IRL
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5 star u mentioned my name
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Northern Ireland22201 Posts
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I think you hit on part of it, people who are insecure tend to be the people who yell and do other things to trya nd cover up their insecurity but thats probably not the only reason
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First of all, I like your style of writing mate. Well to the point, nice sentence structure and stuff. You should join the news team
As to your blog, I'm not entirely sure I would agree with what you said.
It sounds like you're saying, that everyone with insecurities flames. That's not exactly true, although a majority of dota players does seem to do so.
I for one: - don't flame (I did when I was younger, during my SC:BW times. That's a loooong time ago though) - don't aspire to be a pro player. and I do have quite a few insecurities,
Maybe it has to do with age. Younger generations/players seem to be a bit more aggressive to me, at least online. Furthermore there is a difference in generations generally:
In the past you were required to start work much earlier in life. As a result you would identify (and gain confidence) through your job. Nowadays kids go to school longer, go to university and generally don't have to "grow up" as early as they used to. This resulted in a shift in which for a longer period of time someone identifies through their hobbies and activities (sometimes well into their late twenties).
So for someone who is a passionate gamer, being good at this hobby is everything. If someone says they're not, they will start getting angry, because it is one of the most important part of their lives.
I'm in my early thirties, I have a job that pays very well, a girlfriend I love very much, a nice house/car and whatnot. I would have never ever achieved that, if I had tried to be a professional player. Back then (SC:BW) there was almost no (non-Korean) Progamers, so you aspired to become good, but not a pro. Maybe that led me to work towards different goals than youngsters today, because I always saw gaming just as a hobby. And maybe because of that I never got massively angry in general, as well as at people flaming me.
Not even sure what I'm trying to say here. I'm just rambling about my theory, that (especially young) gamers nowadays are much more offensive than they used to be 10-15 years ago.
You might be right afterall (screw what I said earlier up there). I think my point is that while younger gamers identify through their game, instead of their profession. A lot of insecurities about themselves develop. (In my opinion with a steady income, a car and your own place comes a lot of confidence.) Maybe that's the source of flaming.
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