Here's what I know - this is a website filled with a diverse collection of passionate hobbyists. Most people joined because they were passionate about video games and the industry at large. I know I joined because I felt like my personal friends weren't very passionate or knowledgeable about gaming and it was enticing to have a board filled with seemingly like-minded people where we could conversate about the hobby in both a positive and critical manner.
Once you go down the rabbit hole, it becomes apparent that the forum, whether it be the gaming board, off topic, wherever - it's very reflective of the general population off of the forum - you get both positive, well educated people as well as people who aire on a wilder side and tend to have a negative skew. GAF definitely has a prominent position in the industry where both members and lurkers come from studios working on the games we discuss as well as people like myself who are hobbyists and simply enjoy discussing the hobby with similarly educated individuals who know details of the industry, the hobby and the people within it.
While I think it's unfortunate that developers sometimes feel targeted or attacked by members of the forum, I think it's important to remember that at the end of the day, this was a forum started by a guy who loved talking about games and pop culture as a whole and was later populated by individuals with a similar passion and their own unique opinions. If you drop any few people at a round table, the discussion, while likely to be held in a civil manner by educated individuals, will wind up breeding conflict and differing opinions. Much like in general society, people convey their opinions passionately and sometimes defend them with extreme and perhaps unnecessary behavior - that's human nature. We're passionate about our passions, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
When you break it down, we're just a community of people from different walks of life, of all genders and religions, all with an uncommon education on topics we're all incredibly passionate about. For whatever reason, our little board drew the attention of the people creating the items we often agonize and scrutinize over and like with any creative medium, it is very hard to cope with criticism on something you have put your heart and soul into. Of course there are those of us who tend to be more extreme while expressing our thoughts on matters presented to us often with limited information, sometimes with incorrect information, but more often than not, those who cross lines of decency while expressing their opinions are dealt with by the moderation team.
It's hard to determine exactly who or what set off the strongest emotional response for the creative director of this game - but if history managed to repeat itself, it's safe to say that if anything was unreasonably unfair or unnecessarily vicious, the moderators most likely dealt with it accordingly.
I can only speak for myself when I say that my time on the forum has shown me both extremely positive and shockingly negative experiences, both of which I hadn't expected to see years ago when I had signed up for the site. What I know for a fact though is that the positive experiences the forum has fostered has far outweighed whatever negative experiences I encountered and in almost every case of a negative event, it was dealt with fairly and swiftly by moderators and the actions performed by negative individuals were often condemned by the majority of the members who had also bore witness to it.
NeoGAF is a diverse place of passionate people, sometimes that can breed tension or negativity. It's hardly a secret that passion can create friction. But for the countless hours I have spent on the site, either participating directly in discussion or simply by spectating, I have seen more kindness, generosity, knowledge and commitment to accuracy, morality and decency than I have in any other community online or otherwise. I don't keep the site open on my phone 24/7 for nothing. I just wish that the individual cited in the OP could have been privy to all of the positivity I regularly encounter as an active member instead of the occasional negative spells.
