Surviving Negative Fandoms And How Xenoblade Taught Me To Move Forward

Gaming communities can be a tough crowd. Our staff writer, Orpheus Joshua, writes about his past experiences with negative gaming communities, and how Xenoblade helped him move on.

[autobotdan]

Keep positive thoughts. This article is trash. Who writes this junk? Oh wait I am going into toxic negative fandom thinking...=0

[azariosays]

Nah you’re just being a nerd

[BrainSyphoned]

Synopsis: I have thin skin but it is everyone else's fault that I can't enjoy single player rpgs.

[azariosays]

I don’t think that’s the synopsis at all.

[CDbiggen]

Sounds about right. Just more whining.

[Fluttershy77]

All these articles of people talking about these really deep lifechanging experiences with their games... And I'm so jealous, I wish I had the same kind of feelings towards the games I play, cuz usually I just love them when they are fun and hate them when they suck

[Magog]

Try playing TLOU2. It's life changing.

[Fluttershy77]

I had fun with it

[gold_drake]

right? i mean my fav. game of all time is FF7, and i love it alot, but it ... didnt change my life. at all lol. maybe im just a heartless monster, who knows ha.

[smashman98]

It's one of those things where art and how it affects you is subjective. It also really depends on what you look for when playing a game. But all in all there's nothing wrong with just seeing a game as a game.

[CrimsonWing69]

Wow... slow day for news, I take it.

[jznrpg]

Good game but I don’t get surviving negative fandoms . It’s funny a statement to me. It’s easy to do in my mind , just ignore it .

[Cikatriz_ESP]

Is there a positive fandom?

[shammgod]

Not in 2021 there isn’t

[Unknown_Gamer5794]

I get where this author is coming from. I've noticed communities organized around other interests of mine are far more amicable groups of people that make it really easy to get along and converse with them about our topic of interest. For example, after years of deliberation, and largely thanks to the fondness I've had for the Persona franchise, I took up Tarot reading just over a year ago (and I now even found an unofficial fan-made Persona-themed deck on Etsy that's really high quality).

Tarot people seem to appreciate even the most minute comments when they post topics, and just enjoy discussing their hobby with anyone who shares their affinity for it. They will even accept people who hold completely opposing views regarding shuffling methods, reversals, decks and deck types, and even schools of thought regarding how mystical Tarot cards are or aren't. It's perfectly ok for someone to not resonate with a deck that's really popular, or to resonate with one that isn't, because Tarot is regarded as something everyone experiences in their own unique way, and if one deck doesn't work for someone, there are plenty of others out there that might.

Conversely, while there are clearly gamers who are an exception, plenty seem to dislike when someone even has the audacity to want to talk about their favourite hobby no matter what they have to say about it. They're prone to treating people like trash if they hold opposing views on anything, especially things like system preferences. If someone doesn't like a really popular game, or enjoys one that's less popular, good luck to them. Suffice to say, it's pretty obvious where I've been spending the bulk of my time lately, and there's a good reason for it.

Of course, I'm more than capable of enjoying things in isolation, and I'm at peace when I'm enjoying my games. Also, in all fairness, the problem may not actually be just gamers, but fandoms as a whole. I refuse to go anywhere near the anime/manga fandom, and don't see that changing anytime soon, so it's probably telling that I at least tolerate gamers. There's definitely overlap between that community and this one, especially when talking about Japanese games, but I try to limit how much I converse with that subsect of the gamer community.

But yeah, enjoy your favourite games bruh. No one can take that away from you, and if you don't get along with a certain community, leave it. If people are mistreating you, that's all the more reason not to be around them. You don't need them to enjoy your hobby.

[DefaultComment]

Seriously who writes these junk articles? It's a game It can be FFS! Sure it can become a beautiful experience or fond memories to treasure but that's about it, this is just as bad as an article 2 years ago about a guy that said "how god of war helped him to become a better father" ...that's pathetic... these types of articles shouldn't be in here.