There was an article the other day about Microsoft saying there were sold out at retailers. People began posting pictures of stacks of Xbox Ones on shelves and links to places were the Xbox One was available to buy, these comments were all marked as 'trolling' and people were bubbled down. After a while these comments were unmarked and the bubbles were returned, which is great and the right thing to do. But it makes you wonder, in what reality is that ever even consider trolling in the first place?
Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's trolling. Period. Gaming seems to have gotten to the point were anyone who points out something about something they are not in direct support of is considering trolling even if it's the truth. I constantly hear people saying "you need to be neutral for people to take your opinion seriously". So let me get this straight, I have to be insincere to my feelings, thoughts and opinions to be taken seriously when talking about gaming?!?!? The best part is, this rule doesn't apply to anything else, sports, politics, faith, music, food, people really anything, except gaming. Nobody ever says to you "You like the Miami Heat, so you have to like OKC or else I can't take you seriously". No, more often you hear people say I hate the team, that player etc.
So why is gaming so affected when other areas of life get a free pass? I have no idea. But I do know this, people use the word trolling and fanboy as a way to escape a conversation or debate that they have no argument to counter. We are essentially protecting the weak minded, while punishing those who bring the problems w/ whatever it is to light. Am I saying no one trolls or no one is a fanboy, no I'm not. IMO trolling is saying this like "Xbox/PS4 sucks" and things of that nature, there is a big difference between that which adds nothing to the conversation versus the example I gave previously in the first paragraph.
Imagine if something like say....politics worked like that. You can't. Why? Cause it would make you sick. Things/ideas are meant to be challenged, it's literally what drives are progression as a species on this planet. Look at the PS3 for example, all the critisism it took (which was a lot) made the PS4 the system it is. Look at the Xbox One for example, if no one challenged MS they would be telling you what you do w/ your media right now. This is not a fantasy of a fanboy, this is the truth.
Now I'll give you an example of something someone (because their mad) would consider trolling and me being a fanboy. "The Xbox One sold a million in NA in 9 days, but the PS4 did it in 24 hours. The PS4 is outselling the Xbox pretty much everywhere." Here's another "The Xbox One is less powerful than the PS4". Some people read that add get that fuzzy feeling in their chest. But does that make it incorrect? No, it doesn't. Is it my fault the PS4 is more capable and is outselling the Xbox One pretty much everywhere? No, it's not.
About being neutral and supporting all systems, like a real gamer. I own a 360, I have since it launched in 2005 and honestly the first few years on the 360 were great. BUT in my eyes currently after MS X1 reveal, supporting them is not an option at this point. How is me supporting a company that just tried to take away my rights as a gamer a year ago and constantly lies to me, make me a real gamer? If anything I feel like it's the exact opposite. If you don't feel the same way as me, that's fine. But, it doesn't mean I have to feel the way you do and it doesn't mean I'm not allowed to talk about it. That would be what you call censorship.
I use to post a list of the PS4 specs vs. X1 specs. This made people very angry. 98% of the replies were personal attacks, the other 2% were stupid analogies about cars. Regardless of this being factual information (which was now proven w/ multiplats) people would say I was trolling. I wasn't (with those comments atleast). I was providing information Xbox fans just didn't want to hear/believe, again that doesn't make it trolling.
Summary
Things need to change and quickly this is not a good path for gaming to take. Accept factual information from all sides and listen to them regardless of the username. Don't be afraid to support what you like and don't be afraid speak what you feel. Facts are facts and no ammount of crying, disagrees, bubble down votes or personal attacks will ever change that. Be yourself.
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
Thankyou. Another person of the few logical gamers to speak up, well said and gratz.
You are wasting your time.
The literal definition of trolling is being a prick online to purposely piss people off because you can. That's the definition in 2 places, those being wikipedia and urban dictionary just for their different perspectives.
On N4G trolling has an all encompassing, blanket definition that is "anything that anyone on the site can have a negative response to."
And in actuality, it doesn't even have to be someone on the site either. It's literally anything that anyone can have a negative response to. Without going into details, I can guarantee with 100% certainty based on personal experience that N4G has its own definition of trolling.
Don't bother trying to have any kind of discourse about it, don't bother trying to advocate for some kind of objectivity about it, it's a subjective blanket definition that you'll never pin down.
"Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's trolling. Period."
Very well said. Too bad nobody here will listen to it and continue doing what they do as always...
"There was an article the other day..."
I believe some of this was actually site moderation. On my Costco article I remarked that it didn't look sold out to me and was flagged for trolling (with under 30 degrees on the article and 2 reports from the admin. One of which was for using an interrobang in the title). I also got flagged as "off topic" and lost a bubble for saying I thought Krieg (from Borderlands 2) should have been part of the season pass, in an article about how he doesn't stack up to the other characters in certain respects. Yeah, I know what I bought with the season pass, but I don't think saying I don't think he is worth the money that way or another way is off topic. The admin still tried to explain how I was wrong.
This is an ongoing issue I've actually noticed with the site as a whole. Sometimes arbitrary choices and rules are enforced on people that really limit site growth, community interest, demotivate others and ultimately just annoy people. Like I saw an article comparing how right and how wrong Pachter was on his predictions (spoilers, he wasn't completely wrong in terms of sales number), but the article was taken down by an admin for being "analyst news" and he cited that both articles it was drawing on were already on the site. Now, I think it's frankly stupid for an admin to write off an article talking about his accuracy and how trust worthy he is, but still allow people to use his predictions / comments. I also had my news article about GameTrailers saying during the live stream that they would have preferred Geoff as the only host. This was taken down as "not being newsworthy", though the same admin explained how someone getting screwed on eBay was newsworthy (yet it happens every day and the only context in gaming was that he bought a gaming item).
"Just because you... "
You don't have to be neutral (it helps though), but you do need to limit what information you give. For instance, I saw a lot of sites call out Super Mario 3D World for getting beaten by Knack sales. This is a fact, but that doesn't mean it needs to be stated. There are a lot of logical reasons why Knack outsold Super Mario 3D World, between being 1/3 exclusives on the PS4 (really 2 since Resogun is free with Plus, which everyone that can use the internet with the PS4 can get for free), tons of sales, being one of a few platformers on the PS4 and SM3DW ultimately suffered from people spending money on the Xbox One / PS4 or delaying their purchase of the game. In this sense, I don't think bringing up this "fact" really portrays anything factual, since you're more so implying that Mario has fallen behind a gamer critics think is a 6/10, than one game beating another game.
How can we expect factual information, true objectivity (meaning, you observe the truth even if it paints one side in a very bad light), and honesty when the entire industry of game writers (I've simply stopped using the term "journalist") lacks those very same things.
When IGN uses 720p footage from the PS4 version of CoD in their comparison and then remarks "yeah, there's really not a huge difference between X1's upscaled 720p and PS4's native 1080p", how do you expect the gamers who read that site to act?
When you have people like Sessler and Gies (Polygon) and Leadbetter (Digital Foundry) making repeated and intentionally-false statements about the PS4 in order to paint the X1 in a better light, how do you expect their readers to behave?
When you have game writers (again, why use the term "journalist" anymore?) completely dismissing the differences in hardware between the two consoles and simply parroting the official PR lines from a certain company, how can we expect intelligent thought and discussion?
When you have game writers telling gamers to pretty much "shut up and sit down" when Xbox One's DRM came to light...
When you have game writers not just insulting but making direct, written ATTACKS against other people in the game industry (Beer vs Fish; the stupid uproar about "sexist Dragon's Crown", etc)...
Seriously, what can you expect? The internet gaming community was infected long ago by a certain company that loved to boast about sales, that loved to cite Metacritic (when it was in their favor), that loved to openly mock the competition, that loved to make grand claims like "first to 10 million wins". The internet gaming community was infected when this same company poisoned the well with endless marketing terms like "hardcore" and "casual" in order to divide gamers against one another. It was this same company that played a significant role in destroying any semblance of "games journalism" and instead just turned them into an external branch of the game industry's PR departments.