A Reminder to the Community

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Link to Discussion: Everyone, the team has been discussing patterns we’re seeing after some of us have seen users understandably complain about the negativity that seems to derive from a handful of users. I think a few things need to be clearly stated:

First and foremost, this site and forum were created for Xbox fans after seeing the rampant negative, sometimes false, narrative drilled across numerous media/social sites. As such, while we welcome everyone, the Xbox fanbase needs/needed a home that Xbox can be discussed without being subjected to the same Anti-Xbox sentiment repeated ad nauseam on those sites.

That isn’t to say that we want to cultivate a cult-like environment, that some other sites seem to desire, and feedback/criticism of Xbox is always welcome when it’s in good-faith and not repeated ad nauseam. Despite what some user accuse the forum of (a “cult”) there’s far more evidence to the contrary: that we can have discussions that clearly criticize the players in the gaming industry and where we hope our feedback is adhered to. In fact, it’s often the criticism Xbox fans have for and to Xbox that have garnered some of the best initiatives. What isn’t welcome are ad nauseam arguments repeated every week about “no games” talking points (reminder that last year saw nearly a dozen XGS titles released, whether they released on multiple platforms doesn’t change that they were developed, funded, and published by Xbox studios) or diminishing the impact that COVID has had on the world and this industry, as examples. Similarly, because some seem to hyperbolize any of these types of posts, let me make it clear with an example of bad-faith, concern trolling, or whatever else you might want to call it. If someone has a pattern of repeating the same negative Xbox talking points whilst managing to find the opportunity to bring up completely unrelated, often disingenuous points about Sony, for example, we’re going to start looking at those users unfavorably and taking action.

I’m tired of seeing the same few users rile up a negative circular argument that derails the threads, followed by comments about how much this board sucks because of said users or DMs asking if the forum’s “safe” for them today because that person doesn’t want to get bombarded simply for thinking Xbox didn’t kill their parents. This may sound hyperbolic, but some of the bad-faith, cherry-picked arguments are getting ridiculous; I don’t care about narratives, I care about objective data.

Finally, I’ll say this, as this site was built as a haven and source of dedicated Xbox news for Xbox fans; if all you can do is blindingly praise Sony and criticize Xbox, perhaps this isn’t the forum for you. Like any other service, this isn’t a democracy and these are our rules: respect them or forfeit your rite of participation.

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:+1:

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Here, here.

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Personally I’m not sure where I fit into this. I am one of those who are not afraid to criticize Xbox, whilst still being a huge fan. I sure as hell don’t shill for Sony though, so I guess I’m safe?

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Constructive criticism is and will always be welcome.

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Good to hear, sometimes it’s easy to get carried away so it’s good with reminders like this though.

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I completely agree and apologize for being an asshole at times or if it seems like im favoring PlayStation over Xbox which for this generation is simply not the case. While I do love the majority of Sony’s first party published titles and do believe that they’re the best in the industry for what they are and do especially since I am a single player story driven gamer but everything else Sony has done in regards to PlayStation 5 and in general, simply sucks and has been disappointing. In fact, if it wasn’t for Sony’s first party published titles, there would have been no reason for me to buy and own a PlayStation 5.

As for Xbox, im loving the Series X and including the $800 console bundle, I have invested exactly $1340 since January 4th when I received the Series X compared to the $735 I spent on PlayStation 5 console bundle and $120 for Miles/Ratchet totaling $855. The gap is already a decent size and will continue to increase as the years and generation progresses.

Point is that if I wasn’t a fan or liked Xbox, I wouldn’t have invested all that money into the Xbox eco-system. I know I may come across as an Xbox hater or PlayStation lover which is hilarious to me but nevertheless, that’s not my intention at all. I simply want to see Microsoft deliver better high quality first party published titles that I actually want to play and while others may take it the wrong way, the simple fact and truth is that for me, they miss more times than hit which is not my fault. Because of this, I get frustrated and annoyed because it always seems like every time they may “nail it”, they don’t in this regard.

With that said, that is my only negative with Microsoft and Xbox because everything else they have done has been excellent from Game Pass to Backwards Compatibility (BioMutant is a perfect example) to getting games in Game Pass day one to acquiring ZeniMax to acquiring other studios and who knows what else in the future but as great as all of this stuff is, the main aspect I care about the most because I see it as the most important, is the one that they haven’t hit on yet.

I’m still the most hyped and excited (despite it probably not appearing as such) for Xbox and the eco-system that I have been in literally over a decade and I will be more positive and whatnot towards Xbox in the present and future as I do like this site a lot (and way more than I ever liked NeoGAF or ResetERA) and obviously, don’t want to be banned or kicked of the site. That honestly would suck.

Sorry for the long post and again, apologies for the negativity and repeating the same stuff over and over. I give you guys my word that ends now.

Anyway, hoping for an awesome E3 as im looking forward to it and overall, very hyped for it all and yes, that includes the Microsoft/Bethesda showcase which hopefully, we’ll get the exact date and time of this week.

Just wanted to post what I wanted to say.

  • Peter
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There’s nothing wrong with preferring PlayStation. It’s not a pre-requisite of being on this forum that you need to prefer Xbox.

The above message is more about how things are discussed.

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I know but thanks for saying that. For clarity, as of now, it’s only their exclusives that I prefer. :slight_smile:

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Our issue on Reset had nothing to do with who preferred what console.

It was that you couldn’t discuss anything Xbox without it being shitposted and concern trolled into oblivion with little to no moderator intervention. Hell, people were even being banned for “reporting too much”. It became a joke.

You can prefer PlayStation or Switch and still talk Xbox (or anything else) like a normal human.

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Thanks so much for this post and banner. I absolutely love this this site and everything that you guys do along with the awesome community, and this is exactly how I was hoping things could be addressed given how I have felt at times recently reading through stuff. And yes I have a PS5 currently even though it doesn’t get turned on too often compared to my Series X :slight_smile:

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Okay. I understand completely. That’s what I don’t want to happen here and is why I joined XboxEra in the first place.

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Ah a good reminder.

I do want to reiterate the importance of being able to constructively criticize Microsoft and the Xbox. The problem with other places isn’t just the constant negativity, it is also that when everything Xbox is spun to be end of the world negative you can’t even get an honest discussion about improving things that need to be improved. It is ironic that much of the discourse about the Xbox has actually had the opposite effect those spreading the negativity intended. I don’t think Microsoft goes all in to making large studio purchases without the constant narrative of “Xbox has no games” being spread.

There also needs to be a fair treatment of Xbox competitors positive and negative so that the successes and failures on that side can be used as a lesson learned.

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Excellent stuff.

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A forum is about opinion and information exchange. Moderation should only take place if there are insults, threats or misleading information (clear lies) or obvious drive-by posting, constant derailing and/or trolling, bringing the same (hidden) agenda in every thread (which I count as derailing but I wanted to list it for its own).

Meanwhile, let people have their point of views in a respectful way.

That is what makes this place better than what we currently see with other forums.

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People need to chill a bit. I get why they might feel disappointed, but that’s not a valid reason to attack people, etc.

Why can’t we just enjoy video games?

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Xbox is the best!

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While I’m in for hard modding action (let me just take those gloves off…) I wish the community has some self reflection on what some threads have turned into. Mostly point towards the XGS thread and currently the E3 thread.