And I do see a lynch mob mentality in this, mostly because there has been enough news of this story where it was made clear where Adam was just trolling his friend but you've still got a vast majority of folks who seem to simply ignore this aspect. Makes it pretty obvious to me that many folks are just piling on (aka lynch mob).
I didn't ignore it, I just honestly didn't believe it. It sounds like the kind of excuse you say after the fact when you've gone too far.
"You're fat ... I was totally just kidding."
To me, it seemed much more likely that it was a view he actually holds on some level. Does he actually hate small towns? No, I don't believe that. But does he think that on some level, they are holding back "advancement," and he thinks they should bear some of the responsibility to upgrade on their own instead of the other way around? Yeah, it seems he really believes that. That was basically the crux of his entire argument. You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs, whether the "eggs" are vacuum cleaners not working without electricity, rural gamers being left behind, or spotty mobile service.
I'm not ignoring anything. I'm just not naive enough to believe
"just kidding!" without any further explanation. Do you understand that? I hope so.
As far as your lynch mob comments, a lot of people deny the entire premise of a "hivemind" on principle alone, but I don't. Crowd psychology is a well known phenomenon, as is peer pressure, tribalism, pack mentality with leaders and followers. All of these things are now huge elements of gamer culture after it moved to the internet. The lynch mob can turn on anything, for any reason, and it doesn't have to be rational. It can be hate for FFXIII that far exceeds any rational proportional level, it can be Kaz Hirai avatars and PS4 support, it can be lots of things. That's just how the internet works, and it's going to be part of gamer culture for good now. As someone old enough to remember what it was like to be a gamer before forums and blogs took over, I can identify with you on lamenting the mob mentality.
But the media has just as much of a mob mentality. A great majority of them follow each other on twitter. A lot of them like to try and marginalize and criticize NeoGAF. A lot of them rush to support each other all the time, even when it's not really all that warranted. A lot of them like the same kinds of games, and hate others. And the gap between what the media tends to enjoy and praise, and what hardcore gamers seem to enjoy has never been wider. In this sense, the mob of gamers is really kind of a product of the mob of bloggers. You say gamers commit to a narrative and ignore facts, but so does the media - and their narrative has an infinitely larger megaphone than any mob of gamers does. The two are intertwined, and the end result is a toxic gamer culture that sucks a lot of the fun out of gaming.
There are still moments of real discourse, individuals who think on their own, good reporting and games journalism, and gestures of support and concern for others. But mobs will always be a part of the culture now, and we just have to sift through it and not make the mistake of thinking they represent everyone. Because they don't.
. But yes, certainly not all. And some of them do come here to GAF but I sure don't lump all or even most of GAF into that category. Even tho I do agree with Cliff's lynch mob point about the net in general.