Journal of Other Forum Analysis (Volume II, Issue 2)

[Potato]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/its-time-to-admit-it-china-is-the-new-world-leader-of-game-development.1364641/page-9#post-148148716

 User Banned (2 Weeks): Inflammatory Racist Generalization

I don't like Chinese games; in most of them it feels like something is missing, like they lack soul. They're beautiful but feel empty to me. Of course, there are exceptions — Dave the Diver is really good!

Somehow, a bunch of typical Chinese knocks offs produced using western tech selling a few million is enough to qualify China as the world leader? 

[Potato]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/its-time-to-admit-it-china-is-the-new-world-leader-of-game-development.1364641/page-9#post-148148716

 User Banned (2 Weeks): Inflammatory Racist Generalization

I don't like Chinese games; in most of them it feels like something is missing, like they lack soul. They're beautiful but feel empty to me. Of course, there are exceptions — Dave the Diver is really good!

Discussing video games on an alleged video game discussion forum is not allowed.

Dave the Diver developer (mint rocket) is a subsidiary of Nexon. 

Nexon Co., Ltd. (formerly Korean: 주식회사 넥슨) is a South Korean video game developer and publisher specializing in live service games. It develops and publishes titles including MapleStory, Crazyracing Kartrider, Sudden Attack, Dungeon & Fighter, The First Descendant, and Blue Archive. Headquartered in Japan, the company has offices in South Korea, the United States, Taiwan, and Thailand.[7]

[benji]

Yeah, there's going to be so much sexual harassment from awful people with this promotion.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/so-today-is-trade-anything-in-at-gamestop-day.1375093/#post-148538080

What did he mean by this…

He was right. People are trading in pussies:

[benji]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/netherland-mcdonalds-unveils-an-ai-generated-christmas-ad-that-somehow-looks-worse-than-coca-colas.1376053/page-2#post-148618258

The death of art is so ugly and boring.

It's a McDonald's Commercial.

Elon doing it better as always:

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

SOON

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/anyone-got-any-tips-for-going-on-a-cruise-first-timer-here.1376737/#post-148639135

There's a free self-service soft serve ice cream machine on the ship.

If *anybody* sees you on that ship, it should be with an ice cream cone in your hand. You just walk the decks in a circle around the ship, while you are doing whatever you're doing, and hit up the ice cream machine again on each lap.

That's what I do at any rate.

[benji]

Ugh, men ruin everything when it could be wholesome wlw instead.

[Chumbawumbafan69]

Based on that image I think it is wholesome wlw.

[Taco Bell Tower]

Need an opinion from Gameboy Nostalgia 

[benji]

The only vice that I perceive in the universe is Avarice; all the others, whatever name they be known, are only variations, degrees, of this one; it is the Proteus, the Mercury, the basis, the vehicle, of all the vices. Analyze vanity; fatuousness; pride; ambition; duplicity; hypocrisy; dishonesty; break down most of our sophistic virtues into their component parts, and they all resolve themselves into this subtle and pernicious element, the desire to have. You will even find it at the bottom of disinterestedness.

Now, would this universal plague, this slow fever, private interest, ever have been able to take hold if it had found no sustenance, nor even the slightest dangerous ferment?

I believe that no one will contest the justness of this proposition: that where no property exists, none of its pernicious consequences could exist... .

It is therefore certain that this moral principal, “Do good in order to receive good,” precedence among men over the other maxim, “do not do to others what you would find distasteful if done to you.” Now, if you were to take away property, the blind and pitiless self-interest that accompanies it, you would cause all the prejudices in errors that they sustain to collapse. There would be no more resistance, either offensive or defensive, among men; there would be no more furious passions, ferocious actions, notions or ideas of moral evil. If any were to remain, or if some vestige of it were to re-emerge, this would only be the result of the merest accident, one of the smallest consequence. Minor oppositions of will, and obfuscating ever so slightly the light of reason among the opponents, would, far from weakening the domination of natural beneficence, only cause men to have a greater sense of its importance. In a word, there would be only a few small discords in society; it would quickly recover its harmony, and proceed to do far less to trouble this harmony than it would do to prevent it from fading away

I do not have the temerity to pretend to reform mankind; but I claim at least courage enough to be able to speak the truth untroubled by the outcries of those who bring truth into question because their concern is to deceive mankind, or at least to let it remain entangled in the errors by which they themselves had been duped.

Sacred and Fundamental Laws that would tear out the roots of vice and of all the evils of a society:
I. Nothing in society will belong to anyone, either as a personal possession or as capital goods, except the things for which the person has immediate use, for either his needs, his pleasures, or his daily work.
II. Every citizen will be a public man, sustained by, supported by, and occupied at the public expense.
III. Every citizen will make his particular contribution to the activities of the community according to his capacity, his talent and his age; it is on this basis that his duties will be determined, in conformity with the distributive laws.

In accordance with the sacred laws, nothing will be sold or exchanged between citizens. Someone who needs, for example greens, vegetables or fruits, will go to the public square, which is where these items will have been brought by the man who cultivate them, and take want he needs for one day only. If someone needs bread, he will go to baker and get the quantity that he needs for some specified period, and the baker will go to the public store to get the amount of grain that he needs for the quantity of bread that he has to prepare, whether for one day or several. Whoever needs an article of clothing will get it from the man who makes such articles, while the clothing-maker will get his fabrics from the man who manufactures them, and the manufacturer of fabrics will, in turn, get his raw material from the public store, where it will have been brought by those who cut or gather it: and so on, for all things that are to be distributed to heads of families, for their use and that of their children.

If the nation helps a neighboring or foreign nation by sending it some of its goods, or is helped in this way by some other nation, this commerce alone will be by the method of exchange, and will be carried out through the intermediary of citizens whose transactions will be public; but scrupulous care must be taken to see to it that such commerce does not introduce private property of any sort into the republic.

All precepts, all maxims, all moral reflections, will be derived from the Sacred and Fundamental Laws, and always with respect to social unity and sympathy. All exhortations will emphasize the happiness of the individual as inseparably linked with the common good, and people will be encouraged to have the esteem and friendship of their fellow citizens and chiefs as the object of their endeavors.

There will be absolutely no moral philosophy other than that within the system of laws. The observations and precepts of this science will rest exclusively on the utility and wisdom of these laws, on the satisfactions that come from ties of blood and friendship, on the mutual service and regard that unite the citizens, on the usefulness of work, on love, on the all the general and special rules of good order and perfect concord. The study of this science will be common to all the citizens.

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

jk some old white dude: Étienne-Gabriel Morelly, Code of Nature (1755): https://www.marxists.org/subject/utopian/morelly/code-nature.htm

[HaughtyFrank]

"Sorry I wasn't sure how much flour to get, I'm all out of bread today"

"Alright, no problem " *starves*

[Snoopy]

I guarantee Nep would be on the phone to the cops faster than a furry to a new playground if squatters moved in next door

[HaughtyFrank]

User banned (1 week): Making a troll thread. Prior bans for the same behavior. Threadmaking privileges revoked.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/more-zelda-movie-set-leaks-from-new-zealand.1377025

"We have fun here" strikes again.

Also while doops is a dumbass who'd bring bluesky drama to Resetera he was also pretty prolific with OTs and review threads. And not like RE mods have a problem with bluesky drama anyway, so they just shot themselves in the foot again

[HardcoreRetro]

Ugh, men ruin everything when it could be wholesome wlw instead.

Why is only one of them asian? The fuck is this shit? How am I supposed to jerk off to this!?

[kaleidoscopium]

Doops now crying on bluesky about the ban lol 

https://bsky.app/profile/yodoops.bsky.social/post/3m7krrc6gsc2j

https://bsky.app/profile/yodoops.bsky.social/post/3m7krn4jtac2j

https://bsky.app/profile/yodoops.bsky.social/post/3m7kql5dk6c2o

https://bsky.app/profile/yodoops.bsky.social/post/3m7kqhpkvus2o

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/former-president-joe-biden-receives-chris-abele-impact-award-for-historic-leadership-on-lgbtq-equality.1374832/page-2#post-148559668

 User Banned (3 Months): Transphobia, antagonizing another user

IDK why you are quoting me.

His domestic and foreign policy positions are obviously different.

That has nothing to do with his work on LGBTQ+ rights. If you want to complain about his positions on other policies find a different thread. There are plenty of threads for I/P discussions and this has nothing to do with it.

It has everything to do with it

What you are to coward to say is you value western LGBT lives over other LGBT ones in the global calculus

Grab your nuts/hoohah and own your politics.

————
"He allowed trans people to join the death squad! Hooray!"

"He brought in Gay/Lesbian/Trans people to run cover for his genocide and lie about his physical capacity to hold office! Hooray"

Straight up marks in this hoe. Sad work dawg

[HaughtyFrank]

Grab your nuts/hoohah and own your politics.

[filler]

[Taco Bell Tower]

Doops now crying on bluesky about the ban lol 

https://bsky.app/profile/yodoops.bsky.social/post/3m7krrc6gsc2j

https://bsky.app/profile/yodoops.bsky.social/post/3m7krn4jtac2j

https://bsky.app/profile/yodoops.bsky.social/post/3m7kql5dk6c2o

https://bsky.app/profile/yodoops.bsky.social/post/3m7kqhpkvus2o

You can tell by the capslock posts 

[Taco Bell Tower]

Grab your nuts/hoohah and own your politics.

Banner worthy.

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/new-cover-for-resident-evil-requiem-leaked-via-the-ps-store.1376884/page-2#post-148648984

Shame Capcom couldn't reveal this on their own terms and Dusk had to ruin it for all of us, for what reason exactly?

And it's funny how it's always some damn store leaking it, lol.

Welcome to the Internet.

[Jansen]

From constructive

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/why-everyone-is-wrong-about-chinas-social-credit-system.1377406/

I saw this video pop up in my recommendations and I think it does a really good unbiased job at breaking down the Chinese social credit system and dispelling a lot of the crazy rumors around it while also confirming what is true about. I'll give a TLDR below but I highly recommend people watch the video as it captures a lot of the nuances around it that I probably won't in my text descriptions. And yes he does cover Xu Xiaodong.

Spoiler: "TLDR" (click to show)(click to hide)

• A lot of the initial articles in the west that came out were either complete ministrations or fundamental misunderstandings of how the system would work. For example the author of the ACLU's article updated the article to say that they regretted how they initially wrote the article and that there was some misunderstandings about what the system actually was.
  
• While there is a social credit system, for the vast majority of the populous it's nothing more than a typical credit system. China got credit/credit cards much later than the west and needed a similar credit score system which is one of the motivations behind it. A persons "behavior" and "loyalty to the party" have no barring on it.
  
• A big primary motivation for the system was due to a series of corruption scandals from politicians and business. So it was created in response to the public demanding more accountability. So this system would allow public accountability to avoid situations where someone running a shady business could just create a new business to avoid dealing with the public fallout of the old bussiness.
  
• Alibaba did try to pitch the social credit system that we in the west thinks exists to the Chinese government but they turned them down. Alibaba then used it for their own customers but it was purely opt in and only applied to the site itself and it's affiliates. Basically a gloried rewards program.
  
• The Chinese government usually creates broad policy initiates then leaves it up to the provinces and local governments to actually handle the implementations. There was a small city in China which took the most overzealous interpretation of this and actually did implement the draconian version of social credit. This is where 99% of the stories we hear about social credit came from. The Chinese government did step in and put a stop to it.
  
• In regards to people not being able to do things like access high speed rail etc.. that does happen but only in a very specific circumstance.
  
  1. If you're sued in civil court
     
  2. lose
     
  3. The court finds that you are able to pay the damages
     
  4. You refuse to pay the damages
     
  5. Then you will be put on blacklist that prevents you from doing things like buying high speed rail tickets or private schools for your kids. The idea being that you shouldn't be purchasing high ticket items like that if you owe someone else money. Simply paying off the damages will immediately remove you from the list.
     
• There is no crazy surveillance system tied to this. China is heavily surveilled but that isn't tied to the social credit system at all.
  

[Jansen]

This is a mess of quotes but I don't really feel like fixing it so 

Mods, I beg you to stop doing what you are doing regarding a Mega64 video about Zelda.

if not being allowed to do joke threads with misleading titles is a rule I hope this is consistently enforced when someone does the "half life, 3 screenshots" joke for the nth time during the game awards

If using the tag "parody" isn't enough to let everyone know it's parody, what is the expected format for parody threads?

Posted by Slayven.

I think that sometimes the site is a little too self serious and that joke threads should be allowed. It's fine

post a joke thread about real-world current affairs, especially around politics/wars/etc., then yes I get clipping someone



but to ban someone posting a joke thread about a videogame movie which readers will know is a joke the very second they click the thread and see "Mega64"?



i'd strongly urge rethinking your site policies/handling of such situations because that's a serious dampner on the general vibes around this forum

Also, doops thread was literally using parody tag, so what gives with that ban? Or are mods in here thinking that people really can't read simple tags (which would mean they're completely useless then).

Those jokes stopped being funny after 2009 too

Seconded.



That was a gross overreaction.



Doops makes a ton of good content and removing their ability to contribute to this place feels petty.

I agree, often mods will say they want more fun stuff and more positive stuff and then will stamp out anything fun or a bit silly like this, and why? To protect the kind of poster that will be annoyed they clicked on a thread that was misleading? To protect people who will post a reply before even looking at the OP / first replies?



This site would be better if we let those posters step on rakes every so often and let everyone else have a bit of fun from time to time

At this rate we're going to have people thinking Aaron and Todd are legitimate gaming journalists when the end of the year video hits

The recovation of threadmaking privileges as well when doops makes loads of attention-raising OTs for small indie games that otherwise might not have gotten Era eyeballs... so seems to me a simple joke (using the joke/parody thread tag no less...) has resulted in a decision that is an objective net negative to this community and discussion 🤷‍♀️

How petty do you have to be to report a parody thread?





People actually thought this back on GAF and it was so funny. They were so annoyed at some of the awards.

Look, prefixes and tags exist to help people search, sort, and filter the forum. They're not meant to be the be-all indicator of the thread's content. When someone posts a Mega64 parody video and then titles the thread like it's an actual leak, that's a problem. It's not asking too much to simply put [Mega64] at the beginning of the thread title. Otherwise, it looks like blatant trolling.

I don't disagree in a general sense but seems like unless this was happening a lot, couldn't a warning and a title correction be enough? Not personally sure why a perceived first offense was a banning and thread making privileges revoked. The heavy handed action I think is what is creating the reaction.

What is the material difference when the very first bit of text in an OP (via the video's title) is Mega64?



What is the negative impact on this site/community caused by the 0.5 seconds of belief/confusion it takes for the thread to load after being clicked?



If one does genuinely believe those 0.5 seconds are substantively damaging to the fabric of this community, what is the criterion used by moderators to decide that an entire ban plus threadmaking privilege removal is the correct course of action rather than a simple thread lock or title change?



Is it considered that the community at large might actually be fine by being fooled on occasion if it meant a poster who makes frequent and valued contributions to the forum is able to keep doing so?



What is the leap here from user action to staff reaction?

Doesn't the ban banner clearly indicate there's a history of similar behaviour? It's going to be more than warnings if the person is just going to ignore and carry on doing what they've previously been actioned for.

to be fair they made the same thread again then mod whined crossed multiple other threads



not trying to judge personally what should have happened one way or the other, but it didn't go down quite like that



Edit - I was confused about who we're talking about, see below

It wasn't a first offence, it's their fourth for the same behavior in a little over a year. And that is if we don't count the times they posted a thread on something without checking to make sure it was real or not.



We do want people to have fun and be silly and all that, but it's like Transistor says. They can appeal for threadmaking back in a little bit, it's not permanent.

revoking thread creating privileges of one of the best thread creators because they made a parody thread and marked it as such because they thought that was the right way to do it... crazy









you both are talking about a different user. we are talking about [USER=70863]doops.[/USER] and this thread https://www.resetera.com/threads/more-zelda-movie-set-leaks-from-new-zealand.1377025/



 [USER=32570]Xwing[/USER]'s ban makes more sense, but no one is challenging it

I'm aware it's the doops thread, as I said, I initially thought it was xwing's thread which was why I was confused, so I had another look at recent threads showing ignored content, and soon saw the thread this was about.

Agreed. Doops puts in a lot of work to to bring indies Ive never heard of (but gone on to buy and love) so removing his threadmaking is just... bad. Nothing like actively hurting discoverability of games because someone doesnt get a obvious joke.

Eh, I think the ban is a little silly considering the tag was used. I think it's easy to think marking a thread as 'Parody' would be all that's expected, and if not a title change and message is enough to make that clear. That said, it seems like the position on this is set judging by the above.



Removing threadmaking privileges of someone who consistently makes OTs for lesser known indie games is short sighted though. These are a boon to the forum and pouring water on that in the wake of a kerfuffle over parody tags/titles seems heavy handed imo.

Just looking at the amount of OTs they make alone I'm not sure banning them for something that seems so minor is right. Like yeah users shouldn't get preferential treatment just because they create content for the site but they seem a consistently good OP who has had their thread making privileges revoked for… what? Posting a joke tweet with the parody tag applied but not making it clear in the title as well that it isn't 100% serious? I dunno that just seems harsh at a glance.



The only time I can remember them getting in any trouble for thread making was the Borderlands 4 OT a while ago and I felt that was too severe a reaction as well, should have been more of a slap on the wrist and "stop that" instead of jumping right to bans for someone that's consistently a good poster (in my view) - and it was, in fairness, eventually lessened in severity back then. Like maybe I just missed the other instances but I genuinely can't recall seeing any.

Putting [Mega64] isn't the be-all indicator of a thread's content either. Not everyone is aware of them and even if they are, there's a chance you might think they have a special scoop.



At the end of the day it's a harmless joke, a warning is fair but revoking thread privileges permanently from a prominent community member doesn't solve any issues from what I can see.



Is there a reason you can't add the [Mega64] to the title and proceed from there?

I mean



Why would one have a reasonable expectation of a legitimate scoop from a parody-tagged thread?

How did doops' thread act like it was an actual leak? It was a video sourced directly from Mega64, posted with the parody tag.



And, adding "MEGA64" to the title doesn't change anything if you don't already know who they are. Unless there's a mind-numbing pop-up click-through disclaimer somebody will be fooled either way.

Once again, this was the fourth time we have actioned them for this in a little over a year (and I'm leaving out the times they posted threads without checking to see if what they posted was real or not). If this was a one time thing, we'd just change the thread title and maybe send out a user alert saying to be more careful next time. However, this was the fourth time and not the first time. What are we supposed to do when a user keeps breaking the same rule again and again and again?



Also, the threadmaking privileges are not gone permanently. It is a temporary punishment which we actively try and avoid unless a user continually makes troll threads or breaks rules around thread creation.

I've seen many threads over the years of The Onion articles and videos getting threads where it's only revealed to be them after opening said thread



part of the joke is opening up the video and seeing Zelda kill a horse while it tries acting straight faced that it's real



if that kind of grace can't be afforded to a Mega64 topic without 5 warnings and disclaimers them you might as well ban Mega64 from fucking era





is it that much of an ACTUAL problem?

this isn't the fourth time. this is the first time they've made a thread with the label parody, because that logically seems sufficient enough. if it isn't, that is on mods to clarify and take the 3 seconds to update the thread title.



to keep calling it a troll thread is weird. its a parody... a JOKE. its mega64... like c'mon.

Exactly what this forum needs less of, discussion of cool lesser known indie games. At least we're safe from the scourge of Mega64 threads now.

I dont think complaints about it being misleading should matter that much. Its a joke. Literally who cares if you were misled for the sake of a joke about something that doesn't matter? It's innocuous

Doops posts *a lot* of threads, but notwithstanding this incident, honestly this is the first time I've seen anyone have an issue with their threads, so maybe I just missed the other stuff?

[Mega64] would have been totally meaningless to me, personally. It's really hard to understand why the parody tag wasn't sufficient, or why doops is being treated like they were acting in bad faith.



And yeah it's literally just a harmless joke. "Make more fun threads" "no not like that"

refer to Transistor's post I suppose.



The tags are for sorting and filtering, not for providing contextual information to users.





Respectfully, that is not what the ban message says, so you might want to change that to avoid further confusion.



This is also my confusion.



The fourth time... making a harmless joke. Nobody was materially misled those four times, just momentarily "got" which they then proceeded to laugh off.

Their threads just aren't for me. The only reason I mentioned that is because I do remember similar threads from them, so part of the ban reason given (prior bans for the same behavior) didn't really surprise me much, personally. I'm not sure, but I imagine doops is a well liked user here, and I feel sometimes people may forget certain instances, or be more lenient with people they like. Even I'm guilty of it, I'll sometimes see a user I generally like and/or often agree with get a ban and think "that seems dumb", then think "if I didn't know or like this person, would I still think that?". It's impossible to be 100% objective of course, but it's important to remember our own biases, both positive and negative.





Agreed.



Though I am glad to hear their threadmaking privileges haven't been permanently revoked in this case at least.

It was a harmless joke, didn't even appear in any way to be am intentional troll. The action taken over it feels so excessive.

Going by why happened this past year, ERA staff assumes the worst of their posters, so the staff reaction isn't out of the ordinary.

Unless there was a policy change I missed couldn't everyone be threadbanned for "ban litigation" just for coming here to discuss the ban? Just to highlight how that policy stifles discussion even though I think people should be able to discuss concerns and disagreements around bans

Honestly wondering about that as well. Can't really think of a thread that qualifies as parody that also wouldn't likely be labeled as trolling or a reaction thread

Obviously they decided to brigade the constructive thread but bitch dubs won't do anything about it

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/former-president-joe-biden-receives-chris-abele-impact-award-for-historic-leadership-on-lgbtq-equality.1374832/page-2#post-148559668

 User Banned (3 Months): Transphobia, antagonizing another user

IDK why you are quoting me.

His domestic and foreign policy positions are obviously different.

That has nothing to do with his work on LGBTQ+ rights. If you want to complain about his positions on other policies find a different thread. There are plenty of threads for I/P discussions and this has nothing to do with it.

It has everything to do with it

What you are to coward to say is you value western LGBT lives over other LGBT ones in the global calculus

Grab your nuts/hoohah and own your politics.

————
"He allowed trans people to join the death squad! Hooray!"

"He brought in Gay/Lesbian/Trans people to run cover for his genocide and lie about his physical capacity to hold office! Hooray"

Straight up marks in this hoe. Sad work dawg

I'll never understand why they don't permanently ban transphobic users.  NepNep can't back him up either since she's non-binary. 

[Snoopy]

Some old footage of music purist, White Power Morrigan harassing an Asian -

[Jansen]

Doops is FREE 

After a deliberation internally, we have decided to lift the ban.

  

Bitchdubs literally making the wrong choice every time

[Mediocre Lager]

Y'all are in here showing y'alls whole asses

[Jansen]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/kotaku-netflix-considers-warner-bros-games-to-be-pretty-much-worthless-wb-games-wasnt-a-factor-in-the-warner-bros-purchase-amount.1377484

https://kotaku.com/netflix-warner-bros-games-batman-harry-potter-deal-2000651695





Well shit.



Imagine seeing a publisher ship a game that sold over 30 million copies within 2 years and going "...so?"



https://bsky.app/profile/del.art/post/3m7avl5ryn22l

Yes acknowledge the elephant in the room 

[TylenolJones]

Doops is FREE 

After a deliberation internally, we have decided to lift the ban.

  

Bitchdubs literally making the wrong choice every time

Bdumbs too much of a coward to apologize with his own account

[yetanotheraccountholyf]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/netherland-mcdonalds-unveils-an-ai-generated-christmas-ad-that-somehow-looks-worse-than-coca-colas.1376053/page-2#post-148618258

The death of art is so ugly and boring.

It's a McDonald's Commercial.

Elon doing it better as always:

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

SOON

yeah okay put me in #teamresetera on the ai debacle. this halftime ad stuff is like a parody but 100% serious