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- Alabamamania
finnracer
We allow people to voice their opinion, within the confines of our Acceptable Use Policy. Within reason, we allow both the good and bad, and everything in between to be said about the game. If we only allow the adulations and praises be spoken, then we aren't a real community, and it patently is not fair to squelch those opinions, save for duplicate threads, or those which break the rules.
On the other hand, it's typically easier for people to default to complaining, rather than complementing, a product or service, if there is little or no incentive to do so. Emotionally, people will run to the Internet to voice a negative opinion, just as in the past, people would tell their neighbors, friends, schoolmates, and co-workers, about whatever did them wrong. The reasons are that negative opinions generally float around longer, and that typically such an experience will be transmitted to others between 7 and even 60 times, from just relaying a bad experience to one person, whereas usually a positive experience is only relayed a handful of times. I think it's due to a Betrayal of Trust for which people generally want to keep good news to themselves, and keep whatever benefits arise from those experiences close.
I think there's a lot of people who expect their games and their realities to be perfect, but they never are. The Gran Turismo series have also never been easy games, unless you take the path of least resistance every time. Even so, one can make the game almost as difficult as they please. Many people on our boards aren't equipped to deal with the vicissitudes of life and mistakes/errors that invariably occur in their teenage years, which comprises a large number of our users. Then again, a video game is usually viewed as a relaxation device, something that entertains and shelters us from the imperfections and harsh realities, and even that isn't going right...someone's gonna pay!
With all that said, our vision for the site is one where we'd prefer and promote a more positive light to be shed, as negativity can breed more negativity and a general feeling of apathy, which isn't the healthiest way to sustain a community. But on the other hand, we are quite permitting of one's opinion, yet we can't let it overwhelm our boards because it's not constructive nor helpful in most cases, whereas helping others (in some way) is honestly what what the community spirit that keeps GTPlanet running, while many boards have vanished or foundered over the years.
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