JASON W0RTHING
The Devolved
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Posted - 2010.07.05 05:52:00 -
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Liang Nuren and Akita T are both upstanding members of our community and a regular posters in Missions and Complexes and Market Discussion, respectively. They are some of the most knowledgeable and helpful members of these forums.
However, I observe a ridiculous number of ill-informed posters get into arguments with them and other posters like them. They nearly always end up looking ridiculous, hideously ill-informed, or just plain stupid by the end of these debates. In order to prevent more posters from succumbing to one ore more of these fates I would like to petition you to think before starting an argument, so as to not waste their (and our) valuable time.
In all the MMOs I have played there have been players who fill a function similar to Liang and Akita. They are the knowledgeable ones, the veteran players who have years of experience as well as numbers, intelligence, and a well-burnished reputation on their side. Arcanaville, Auron, NuklaerVII, and many more all fill this crucial role. Arguing with these individuals is 99.99% of the time a completely fruitless exercise. They simply know more than you. Most of the time if they say you are wrong, you're wrong, end of story.
If you choose to argue with them you will be summarily trounced by numbers, in-depth descriptions of game mechanics, and intricate analysis of game balance. This was the case with Arcanaville's famous essay Enhancement Diversification and You and Auron's treatise Why Spellcaster Damage Can Never be Viable in PvP. While these individuals are happy to break down what they know and their thought process in coming to their conclusions for the community, it can be frustrating to have to do this EVERY DAY.
Now, I'm not suggesting that you never argue with people who appear to know more than you on the forums but you should take these steps first.
1. Familiarize yourself with the topical experts of your game. This will prevent you from accidentally tripping into an argument where your are almost certain to lose.
2. Don't argue about any issues that you do not have EXTENSIVE in game experience with. If you don't do missions don't get into debates about missions, if you don't PvP don't yammer on about nerfing this ship or that, same thing with markets, mining, plexing, and corporation management. This is pretty basic.
3. Have numbers on your side. This is a biggie, said community members are usually very happy to completely change their POV and admit they are completely wrong if presented with the correct evidence. Know your spreadsheets.
4. Be willing to admit you are wrong. If you know you are wrong don't continue arguing, just admit you are incorrect. Upstanding community members tend to be much more gracious if you are willing to admit that you made a mistake.
5. Discuss all differences of opinion civilly. Threats, insults, and attacks on a poster's RL character will almost always lead to losing the immediate debate and being diminished in eyes of the community as a whole.
Hopefully this will save a few people from embarrassment and lead to a few less 7 page threads on topics that have already been extensively covered.
I picked Liang and Akita because they are frequently dragged into arguments with idiots (lol). I know there are a significant amount of other players who fall into the "Experts with an active posting history", I'm not trying to leave you out. 
 Originally by: CCP Shadow
What is thy bidd -- Wait. This thread, I have an irresistible urge to lock it for "being related to neither crime nor punishment."
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