State of the MNC Community

Hey guys, I think it's time I bring this to everybody's attention.

I have been around enough internet forums for a long enough time to tell you guys this - NOTHING destroys a community faster than constant bickering/arguing about nonsensical stuff. I have been regularly posting on various forums since 2004. I've even been a moderator at IGN's forums. My favorite board there (the IGN Community Board) is dead as hell for this very reason (hence why I am no longer a mod there).

Why is everybody fighting with Oxyteam? What are they doing to piss you off? They won't play with you? Boo freaking hoo...go play with somebody else. They aren't the only good players on the forum, and they aren't being serious about their team to begin with. It's all in good fun. Let it stay that way.

Oxyteam, stop responding to people bitching about you. You don't have to defend your ego. It's the internet. Nothing they say to you will matter 10 days from now. When you find yourself typing up 3-5 big paragraph messages defending your position, it's honestly where the beginning of the end starts. You've been doing great for the most part, but I'm starting to see early signs of response, so I'd like to go ahead and addess it now.

I bet people will come in this thread to defend themselves or talk about how it's the opposing party's fault. Stop. It doesn't matter whose fault it is. I'm telling you, with 100% certainty that this type of stuff is going to kill these forums here. I've seen it happen multiple times.

Stop defending your ego. Stop fighting with people. Stop taking things so seriously. It's not that big of a deal...it's a video game. Have fun. I've had a few people that I liked just randomly stop talking to me as well. It's okay...I'm still breathing, I'm still able to eat, and Monday Night Combat is still fun.

Rawr.

I'm going to speak freely for a moment, neither against or for Oxyteam or the various people ripping on them. It isn't really fair to judge the members of Oxyteam as a group. Most of them are friendly and polite. They're definately some of the most prominent users, and they've made some pretty significant content contributions (machinima, their current community playdate thing, Hudson's tank videos). If we're going to talk about Oxyteam, it should be about the group as a whole and not the actions of the individual members. They tend to wax one anothers egos a lot (they are friends, after all), and people seem to regard them as some sort of elite group of superheros or something. It is retarded that Oxyteam makes forum posts announcing that new members have joined their group. It is even stupider that the rest of the forums actually pays attention to this at all, going along with it.
I've seen something exactly like this on a forum I visited years ago. On that forum a group of friends made a group, called The Boat (for whatever reason). Everyone on The Boat had been a popular and well liked member. However, they derailed dozens of threads into The Boat circlejerks. Eventually they were regarded as celebrities as sorts by some of the newer members, and their word became damn near law with the userbase. The admins got fed up with this and banned them. Because they had been the most popular and well liked members, many of the other members quit when they realized all of their friends were booted. The community crumbled and the forum became a shell of its former self. Obviously Oxyteam isn't that bad yet, and I really don't think they need to be banned for forming a group, there is definitely some similarities.
For all of the crap people give anonymous sites like 4chan, they at least prevented forum politics.

Also, this topic should be locked before it devolves into a flame war. Which I guaruntee it will.

Forum observation fail on my part since i didn't know many people were fighting with oxy?

I know that;

Shammas and deadeye made posts not everyone liked, Hudson (and others? Can't remember) started after them for a while because of it, and a bit of a feud started there.

Since then though I saw things cooling off? I dunno I haven't payed much attention. Drama's been down as of late as far as i can see.

I agree 100% with everything said in this thread so far.

We've toned down the whole "announcing new members as an infomercial" aspect after our last thread received such a mixed reaction. We generally listen to feedback if it makes remote ammounts of sense.

I'm actually really unhappy with how some people responded to stretch in our recent playdate thread. I think it's fine for us to give short reasons why we are doing it, but I thought the walls of texts were a bit much, and personal attacks just turn off people in general.

As for myself, I know I'm bound to have been hypocritical/over the line on more than one topic since I have a four digit post count. I'm sorry for those. I fanned a lot of the drama with deadeye and Shammas but deadeye and I are on speaking terms now, and Shammas only really bugs me on the forums (even though he never says anything personal to me, and our private messages are very civil).

But yeah, Oxyteam, GP, and whoever else all could use a nice tall glass of chill the f*** out IMO.

Good post.
I think we should all kiss and make up and go raid the gamefaqs forum.

The only thing about all of this that I disagree with is locking this thread. If someone is really going to come troll this peacefulness, they should be banned as they're clearly looking for drama.

Super props to everyone that's posted thus far here. Unbiased truth is wonderful.

EDIT: And Rhine, it's not that many people ARE fighting with us. People were annoyed with our last post and yelled at us (which was well deserved), and we've tried to rework our image a bit. That's aboot the extent of it with a few exceptions.

So in. (Kisses hudson)

Hudson, would it be too much to ask if I said I'd like a little tongue?

OMFG, why is your username in all caps? Gawd, that is so stupid. Also, your previous posts do not interest me. Go grow a mohawk and dye it green, nub

Ya'll need to shut your liberal hippie mouths.

Good posts all around.

Especially Jen's.

Let's be honest. A lot of the "oxy hate" comes from people who were either rebuffed to join or get dropped from parties when all oxy people want to play and need a spot. It's not PERSONAL, but the bitterness on the part of the rebuffed is obvious at times.

Oxy is harmless fun and as a group, we are like floofy kittens. The real people ruining the MNC community are the people who take this game and themselves way too seriously and just BITCH ALL THE DAMN TIME or run their mouths about how great they are or start threads that they KNOW will turn into flamewars about 3 pages in.

cant trust oxyteam, they all use aimbots.

but seriously, i think the developers need to either tighten down as moderators or let some trusted members fill the role. a forum i used to frequent had no flaming/trolling whatsoever, and was FULL of (semi)intelligent posts/topics and it was mostly due to the fact that the moderators where a little more strict than your average moderator. if that could be the case here, i think a lot of problems would clear up.

I nominate you as a mod. Anyone who can sport that sig should be a moderator.

lol.

Yanno what? This Snarf person seems to be a cool guy. Good points all around. I'm tired of coming to the forums and seeing nothing but bickering and I'm tired of being irritated myself. Can we all just do one giant group hug? I like hugs and I'm sure everyone else does too.

*hugs everyone*

No more fighting. <3

i think jen would agree that "hugs" arent the most non-violent way to solve everything here. (how many do you have now, by the way?)

I was just going to suggest murdering everybody who argues, but I suppose hugs could work too.

OxyTeam, even if it's a joke, will continue to draw a lot of flak and lot of adoration since it's the loudest* group in a small forum. However, I think there is a strong group of independents - for want of a better words - like Illijen, Ian, Futtbuck, Edward Coug, TOMMcBINARY etc. and some other less vocal groups like McShammas's group. who give a sense of balance.

OxyTeam has been getting a bit wordy lately - no need to explain yourselves lads, it's just the Internet. Just keep quiet and finish your montages.

Snarf, whatever happened to Team Ramrod?

*That isn't an insult, by the way.

I sold my xBox to my brother, who lives 20 minutes away. Also, everybody who I play with already is in some other team, which they invited me to (I already forgot the name, lol, but one thing is for sure - it isn't a better name than Team Ramrod).