Over the last few months I've spent a bit of time lurking in these forums, and I've seen a disturbing amount of vitriol being spewed around the place.

I came to FFG from two decades in the Games Workshop hobby, so I'm accustomed to a certain amount of whining from prats on teh interwebs, but a lot of what I see here seems pretty unjustified.

Until the release of X-Wing miniatures I was only vaguely aware of FFG, but since then my respect for the company has only grown and grown. I'm not a simpering fanboi, but I really like what they're doing.

I think my main issue is with the sense of entitlement from a subset of the forum users.
"Its two expencive!!1!"
"Y arnt you releasing more huge Empiriel ships!?"
"ffg r just liek gw- only in it for teh money! wat about the customers!!?!1!"

My affair with GW fizzled out over the last decade, like a girlfriend you live with, but just aren't that into. It started off OK, but your friends don't like each other, you don't like the same movies, you just start drifting apart. It was a combination of factors that led to this - pricing, game direction, business practices - but I still love some of the IP they've created over the decades.
BRING BACK EPIC! Ahem.

To the haters - FFG is a business, their function is to make money for their owners. It's great that they do this by creating products I want to buy, but it's still the bottom line. If they make too many bad calls in pursuit of that, they'll pay for it. But for now, they're kicking goals again and again.
To the price-whingers - it's a hobby! You don't need that Lambda-class shuttle. If you have to choose between buying that or buying food, then you probably need to think about another hobby. Like jogging. That's free. And good for you (as long as you watch your stride and avoid heel-striking). Granted I've just come out of the abusive relationship with GW, but I find FFGs prices to be pretty fair and generally good value (this is despite the "Australia tax" I must pay simply because I live in the southern hemisphere). Compared to any other game/minis hobby, it's not too bad. You could play (for example) X-Wing, probably competitively, and certainly for fun, on a budget of $20 a month. That's less than my ice-cream budget, and WAY less than my coffee budget.
Also, compared with Grandma Wendy, the prices here are downright cheap. I bloody dare you to buy a small starter force of Imperial Guard. Go on. Oh, you don't have a thousand ducats just laying about? OK then.

So, thankyou to Fantasy Flight Games, for making cool toys I can play with. Keep up the good work, and don't give me cause to leave you for another. Or else!

TL;DR - You don't have to be a drooling fanboi/grrl, but you also don't have to be a cock.

Relax, play games, have fun

And here I was, thinking this thread would be about how impolite the community has gotten lately.

Constipation can only be cured by a gallon of prune juice...Sit back and enjoy the rush of relief...

It's being a "cock" to expect them to give us epic pieces for more than one side?

Considering that side is the one that used capitals the most?

Considering it looks like they've delayed it so they can try and milk us for a $100 Armada starter first?

Go back to lurking, you were good at that.

It's being a "cock" to expect them to give us epic pieces for more than one side?

Considering that side is the one that used capitals the most?

Considering it looks like they've delayed it so they can try and milk us for a $100 Armada starter first?

Go back to lurking, you were good at that.

Maybe you should give lurking a try, with some practice I bet you would be good at it.

It's being a "cock" to expect them to give us epic pieces for more than one side?

Considering that side is the one that used capitals the most?

Considering it looks like they've delayed it so they can try and milk us for a $100 Armada starter first?

Go back to lurking, you were good at that.

Maybe you should give lurking a try, with some practice I bet you would be good at it.

And what was the invalid point I made?

Many people are legit bummed, HE is calling them *****, and I'm bad somehow?

It's being a "cock" to expect them to give us epic pieces for more than one side?

Considering that side is the one that used capitals the most?

Considering it looks like they've delayed it so they can try and milk us for a $100 Armada starter first?

Go back to lurking, you were good at that.

Maybe you should give lurking a try, with some practice I bet you would be good at it.

And what was the invalid point I made?

Many people are legit bummed, HE is calling them *****, and I'm bad somehow?

The difference is that ***** will feel personally offended by this and start spewing vitriol at FFG, calling them GW-wannabes and money-grubbers, sometimes even spreading that to people who are not bummed about the lack of Imperial huge ships.

Non-***** will say, "No Imperial huge ships? What a bummer. The new faction looks cool, though," and go about their day.

Sorry guys, the can didn't have a label - I didn't know it was full of worms.

Thanks JaggedLittleFel, your input was insightful! I do generally prefer lurking, arguing with people on the internet is almost always a waste of everyone's time.

Personally I regard these huge ships in X-Wing as being like Titans and Baneblades in 40k - outside the intended scale of the game. So I'm not emotionally invested in those releases. I hadn't realized others had so much riding on it either...

Still, there are more positive and constructive ways to tell the company that you want [insert unit here], than shouting about what ********* ********* ******************** **'s FFG are.

Peace, love and good gaming!

Speaking as one of the Fix our Tie Advanced and gives us an empire huge ship, I would , politely say. We, as those who wish those things, don't give FFG grief because we haven't gotten that yet, we just wish to see such. I would also amend your statement saying we always complain of wanting more empire huge ships and say we want at least just one empire huge. It is an important difference.

www.youtube.com

I've been lurking these forums too, as I come from a small gaming community and thought the larger community could help my understanding of the game. But I've been seeing consistent flaming, factions of people and generally a unkind community. I'm sure it's just keyboard Cowboys, and most people who play this game are being betrayed by a vocal few but speaking as a new player, these forums can be off putting.

If you really want to grow the community of this game, lighten up. Stop hating on each other. Just my two cents.

I've been lurking these forums too, as I come from a small gaming community and thought the larger community could help my understanding of the game. But I've been seeing consistent flaming, factions of people and generally a unkind community. I'm sure it's just keyboard Cowboys, and most people who play this game are being betrayed by a vocal few but speaking as a new player, these forums can be off putting.

If you really want to grow the community of this game, lighten up. Stop hating on each other. Just my two cents.

Honestly this is a fad of recent months. Typically this is a good and friendly board, with a few overly voracious posters. If you have any questions about the game and want answers post up in the Q&A section. We always try to help out with those.

There has been a lot of hate recently and I have now put the common perpetrators on my ignore list on the whole. The treatment of some new posters is appalling, the Emperor Palaptine fiasco being a spectacular low.

I'm not trying to defend people who are deliberate jerks or trolls (usually it's obvious), but there are a lot of threads that go like this:

OP: "I disagree with what FFG is doing, and am disappointed due to X, Y, and Z. This is my opinion."

Posters: "You're just afraid of anything new, FFG is immaculate and infallible!" "There's no way your opinion is at all valid! X-Wing is so good it's impossible to release something that hurts its playability!" "Why would they ever release more Huge ships? It's so totally obvious that was a one-shot thing! Go play Armada, geez!" etc, etc.

It's perfectly fine for people to be upset by lack of faction symmetry in Epic, where it existed in all the other releases. It's also fine for people to worry about whether a new faction with help or hurt the game in the long run. It's also fine to voice an opinion that certain products are too expensive.

Mostly I see a lot of FFG apologists and fanatics that jump on people who are just trying to have a discussion.

TL;DR - You don't have to be a drooling fanboi/grrl, but you also don't have to be a cock.

Relax, play games, have fun

I agree that people don't have to be increasingly rude about it, but voicing opinions is what this board is about. And those opinions include the negative ones. It's obvious that while they don't post here, FFG does read these forums. Voicing concerns is the only way we can tell FFG we have concerns.

I've been lurking these forums too, as I come from a small gaming community and thought the larger community could help my understanding of the game. But I've been seeing consistent flaming, factions of people and generally a unkind community. I'm sure it's just keyboard Cowboys, and most people who play this game are being betrayed by a vocal few but speaking as a new player, these forums can be off putting.

If you really want to grow the community of this game, lighten up. Stop hating on each other. Just my two cents.

Yeah I'm new to xwing and this forum. Have played other games and have been on many similar forums for years and have never known anything like it. But there's still a lot of good, helpful, members. Just also a large amount of ppl with too much time on their hands potentially putting new comers off.

Speaking as someone who has only recently returned to looking at the forum I have certainly seen a marked 'difference' since the last time I was here with any regularity. This point is emphasised by the fact I don't see any of the other early forum participants posting (where are you Rodent?) here any more. The forum I first joined was a friendly, mature, genuinely helpful group of guys... What I see now for the most part (there are a few exceptions) is the kind of behaviour (and mauling of the English language) that caused GW to close down it's own forums many moons ago. You just have to be selective in the threads that you read, and stop reading them when the inevitable arguments/hate filled rants/abuse starts to kick in. Which it inevitably does. Shame really.

BRING BACK EPIC!

Major thumbs up for that!

Frankly, it was a lot better and nicer community when it was smaller. Inevitably, the more people come on this forum, the more likelihood that there will be some noisy blowhards taking up an undue proportion of the forum space with trolling and vitriol.

It has gotten more contentious lately, unfortunately.The noise to signal ratio has gotten way out of proportion.

Thumbs up for an excellent post Just Chris. I heartily agree. Pretty much identical eperiences with GW and on the whole i've found this board on the last two or three days ive been here though to be fairly civil.

I've had disagreements but everyone I've 'debated' with has done so pretty politely.

But erudite and amusing OP

It's being a "cock" to expect them to give us epic pieces for more than one side?

No, but making a post in the tone/manner that you just did, most certainly is!

the Emperor Palpatine fiasco being a low.

Are you kidding???? That guy deserved it. He comes in says that he doesn't like a ship much, says he is willing to debate, yet he has a closed mind takes everything as an offense, and starts relating places in the Bible, and personal life to how he is right. You really need to re-read that whole thing.

I used to think that the X-Wing community was a different, better group than those I had found elsewhere, particularly with GW games. The last couple days of self-entitled, spoiled brat rage over perceived slights that don't actually exist and over self-delusional things they think they deserve have changed the way I view this community. Most of the people are still cool, but the lunatic fringe has grown more vocal and venomous, which is a little depressing.

yea, instead of letting it go (reference intended), fringers are rubbing it in peoples faces and spreading the negativity. Lets keep this mature people.