Chronicles of The Flame Wars

[Arganaut]

Prologue:

Once, in a time long since past, fans of various stripes or colors were far separated by great amounts of time and even greater distance. The opinions of these fans, as diverse as the fans themselves, remained with their respective fans. Certainly, there would be times when a small cluster of people would come together and discuss, or argue, over their fandom, but these incidents were both isolated and few...

It was a time before flame wars...

A time before trolls...

A time before people called each other 'ass-hats', '***s', or 'douchebags'...

But then, one day, in the 90s... a monolith arose. A great being with connections so vast, its speed so great and its communications possibilities so untapped, that it brought about a new age of information exchange...

This monolith, was called 'The Internet'. And though it brought together people whom were harmonious... it also brought together people whom weren't... fans of many, greatly different stripes... too many... and too great...

The Internet sparked off a series of conflicts that go onto this day... a series of battles that have tested the strength of the brave, and shown the cowardice of the weak. Many have fallen in these battles... many more became disillusioned...

These are the chronicles of these people... these are:

The Flame Wars

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A fun idea I had a while back while I was sitting around at work. As noted many times, we're all very lucky to have found Viridian Dreams Forum, a place where the exchange of fan beliefs and ideas is often peaceful and understood. Viridian is probably one of the more tolerant forums out there.

Of course, we all say this because, most likely, many of us have been in less civilized forums, and have partaken in quite a few arguments resulting from that less civilized tone.

I suppose the reason I wrote this up was so that we could share the stories. Give a perspective to the new guys who haven't ever been apart of''flamer' conflicts before. I'd figure there's a few funny, or even plain sad, accounts that we all have dug deep into our subconscious, so let's see if we can't get a thread going based on that...

And yes, bonus points if you can write these up like a war story/biography. That'd be greaaaaaaat.

[Dechstreme]

I have never, in my life, ever been part of a shipping war....

ANd knowing what I know of the Internet....

Well, actually, I have been part of at least a minor border skirmish....


... And as I had discovered a fascination for the Detective Conan manga, discussing the different things that happened and past plot points in the stories with my friend, I never thought that we'd ever be on opposing sides in a fight. A shipping fight. For the eponymous Conan Edogawa, AKA Jimmy Kudo, and the two candidates for his heart, one Rachel Moore, his childhood friend, and a girl that loves him, and that he bears feelings for... And one Anita Hailey, the creator of the drug that made Jimmy back into a grade schooler, and also a victim of said drug. Although I saw their interactions to be more among the lines of intellectual peer and friendly rival, my friend saw... more.

Ever since then, we've found ourselves on opposing sides of an absurd conflict that has gripped the hearts and minds of many a fan, and even more fools. Me, on Rachel's side, defending the pure and honest feelings-

FictionReader98:HEY!! THAT'S A BIASED STATEMENT AND YOU KNOW IT!!! PURE AND HONEST FEELINGS!?! NEED YOU FORGET THE NUMBER OF TIMES SHE HAS TRIED AND/OR THOUGHT ABOUT BEATING HIM TO A PULP!?!

Dechstreme: SHUT UP AND LET ME FINISH!!! As I was saying....

-pure and honest feelings, regrettably tarnished by her insecurities and worries, that have already been witnessed by the world, and my friend, on the side of Anita, taking certain ambiguous details in her interactions with Jimmy as a sign of something deeper.

FictionReader98:What is ambigious to one is meaningful to another.

Dechstreme: Stop interrupting me, your spelling of ambiguous is atrocious.

Our battles are heated, neither side conceding defeat. And all too often we have allowed ourselves to fall into the grip of the inner beast known as "The Fan-boy" wherein all pretense of civility and dignity are tossed aside and we engage in a manner most befitting of animals rather than rational beings.

FictionReader98:I dare you to define 'rational' in a way that applies to all!!

Dechstreme: *punches reader in the face* Now, where was I?

As of now, we are in an uneasy stalemate. We try not to bring the topic into the light of the day to avoid the needless skirmishes and pain caused by being on opposing sides of this battle. Yet, it's an uneasy peace, a fragile one, that may break apart at any given time. I pray that it never comes to that.

FictionReader98:You're just saying that because you know you'll lose

Dechstreme: *activates Lightsaber*

It would bring nothing but pain, after all.

[serbii]

Summary of my time in CLAMP fandom:
-There is no such thing as platonic love
-CLAMP are fangirls of their own creations
-There are too many identical twins
-Does it count as an Oedipus complex if you love a clone of your mother when your father is a clone of yourself?

Fangirl: OMG Did you see the way Kurogane looked at Fai Squeeeee~
Fangirl 2: <3
serbii: Hey guys, Sakura died in this chapter, can we discuss, you know, this chapter?
Fangirls: * INCOHERENT RAGE! HATE HATE HATE HATE!*

[gman391]

No?

I admit I've been pretty lucky. This is my first forum I've been active in. I have no tales of shipping battles.

I do have reviews telling me to make my stories NaruHina or else does that count?

[doc.exe]

Curiously, I have never been in a shipping war. I have watched them from afar, hidden in a bunker to prevent the atomic blasts from killing me. But actually participating in one, never.

I have always been very tolerant of everyone and their taste in pairings, and while I do ship, I try to be rational (at least as most as it's possible with the subject) and admit that the chances of some of my preferred pairings being canon is null.

On the other hand, console wars, franchise wars and "what do you mean with X character/game/movie/series is not awesome?" wars, yes, I have been in all of them.

Probably it would be better to extend the topic to any kind of flame war.

[Arganaut]

Curiously, I have never been in a shipping war. I have watched them from afar, hidden in a bunker to prevent the atomic blasts from killing me. But actually participating in one, never.

I have always been very tolerant of everyone and their taste in pairings, and while I do ship, I try to be rational (at least as most as it's possible with the subject) and admit that the chances of some of my preferred pairings being canon is null.

On the other hand, console wars, franchise wars and "what do you mean with X character/game/movie/series is not awesome?" wars, yes, I have been in all of them.

Probably it would be better to extend the topic to any kind of flame war.

This is actually a good point. I'll go ahead and extend the limitations of this thread to be just about any flame war you've ever been apart of, or were unwittingly dragged into (as poor serbii can seemingly attest to).

[Farmer_10]

I've generrally had the good fortune of only associating myself with the more civilized forums on the wild plains of the net. But there was this one time:

We were in the planning stages of a fun little forum game, where we split the forum in two different factions and go to war with each other. A glorious battle of Magic versus SCIENCE. No real rules, simply report a specific set of skills and resources and stick to them exclusively throughout the battle. Nobody saw it coming.

A thread was started to discuss who should referee these exchanges of fictional and exagerated might. The one who initiated the thread nominated himself, due to past experience. I look back and wonder: Could I have done something? This question will forever haunt me. Another member, one who had been at odds with the aforementioned poster, protested the nomination on the grounds that he was a "crap referee" the last time they played this game. And thus the fecal matter struck the oscillating temperature regulation device.

The thread erupted into a series of childish namecalling and threats. I stayed out of it for the better part of four pages, but I was looking forward to the game (they gave me full command of the Mecha brigade) and didn't want this souring the experience. I appealed for some semblance of civility, but this only resulted in the Jackass who started all this turning his ire on me. Luckily it was at this point a Mod jumped in and agreed with me. I thought the matter resolved then and there.

The fool proceeded to apologize for two sentences and then ended his post with a transparent back-handed insult aimed at his two most vocal protesters. A few more pages of namecalling later, he got banned. We had our game, and I got to pretend I was piloting MEGAS XLR with Laggann for a head. But in the end, did we learn anything from this?


No, not really.

[Disconnected]

I have been lucky enough to never be in a serious conflict on the internet, I have however been witness to the aftermath of a few.

[Dechstreme]

I think it would be fine if you narrated a bit about the things you saw, even if you weren't personally involved in them.

[doc.exe]

Brief summation of my time in the Console Wars, back then in the Dark Ages of the Internet, in the long past years of... DUNDUNDUN... 1998-2001.

I was young and naive back then. Just a boy who had recently discovered this weird place called the Internet and the concept of forums. My very first forum: A Spanish one dedicated to videogames and anime. It no longer exists nowadays. The memories...

I was a Nintendo fanboy back then. How could I not be one? I grow with those games, with those systems. The very first game I ever played in my life was Super Mario Bros. 3 in the NES when I was only 6 years old. I owe to them my love of videogames in the first place. And at the end of 1998, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was the very pinnacle of gaming. The best game in history and the best thing I had played in my short life. And what about Mario 64 and Golden Eye 007? Those were the best games in existence, nothing could compare to them, nothing. And the N64 was the best system, the fun machine, anything else was crap, period. Anyone who thinked differently was obviously wrong, at best they were misinformed or ignorant and just needed to be exposed to the truth, at worst they were retards or heretics and should be burned at the stakes...

I was childish and inmature back then...

As you can guess, me and other Nintendo fanboys were at war with the Sony fanboys. "Who are these idiots who claim that the PlayStation is better? What makes them think such stupidity? We were here before them! They know nothing about games, nothing! Nintendo is the king, Sony is just a shameless usurper!"

The arguments and debates about games and franchises were constant and heated. It was not strange for them to degenerate into flame wars. One side loved to mock and troll the other at any chance they had. Some of the arguments make sense. Some of them, not.

"And what if the CD's have more memory and are cheaper than the catridges? The FMV's are impressive, yes, but the load times are horrible! And what if the PSOne has games that look more mature while the games in the N64 look childish? Blood and guts alone don't make for a good game! And what if they have Final Fantasy VII or Resident Evil? Square and Capcom are obviously traitors and Nintendo doesn't owe them anything! YOU DON'T THINK THE SAME AS ME?! THEN YOU ARE A !"#$#$%%&*/&(-(@)(/* !!!!"

When one side was unable of convince the other of its point of view, insults and flames were frequent. And in my blind fervor and devotion for Nintendo, I didn't notice how much the company was failing...

I was a fool...

"And what if the N64 has so few games launched every year while the PSOne's library is increasing in size constantly... Or that there are no good fighting games or RPG in the N64... Or that the popularity of the N64 is slowly fading while the PSOne is in asccension... And what if I can not longer play Megaman games in a Nintendo system, despite my everlasting love for that franchise... Oh! My god! What have I done?"

It finally dawned on me on the winter of 2000. My family and me were visiting some cousins on the side of my mother during the winter vacations. My cousins had a PSOne and many games for it. I finally get the chance to play some of the games I had mocked openly on the boards despite not having even touch them in my life. Some of the games I played: Wipeout, Time Crisis, Rival Schools, Megaman X4, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Metal Gear Solid... Oh! My god! Symphony of the Night! Metal Gear Solid! So good games! So many hours of pure and unadultered joy that I have denied myself. Just because of blind and stupid worship for a company, a financial construct that cared primary for money rather than for my wellfare. It was not worth it. How could I have been so foolish!

My brother received a PSOne as gift later next year for doing well in school. I oficially became supporter of two systems then, a decision I never regretted. And I quit the console wars, it was not worth it. From then on my devotion was to games and only to games, and primary to games, never again to companies or systems. While the very first system of the next generation of consoles that we got was a Game Cube, and I struggled many years to finally own a PS2 as financial crisis hit my family and there was not enough money available for games anymore, I have never again let my fanboy side obscure my judgement and prevent me from enjoying good games regardless of console or company. Not to mention I found ways to enjoy games on the PS2 despite not owning the system (it served to have friends and cousins that actually owned one )

I still have devotion for the franchises of Nintendo, Zelda and Metroid in particular. But I no longer have blind devotion for the company, and I have become increasingly critical of their actions and decisions as time has passed. Currently I own a Wii, primary because Zelda: Twilight Princess was a launch title while the games that interested me for the PS3 (like MGS4 and FFXIII) were many years on the horizon (not to mention the price was a bit too high). In the meantime, I have had the chance to play some awesome games for it, like Infamous and Uncharted.

It saddens me that, unfortunately, things have not changed in the front of the Console Wars. Go to any forum of any videogame site (or just watch the comment section of any article at random) and you will see the same type of childish arguments that they got when I was a teenager. Gamers (many of them adults, no longer children, no longer teenagers) whose blind and fanatical devotion to a company or system prevents them from realizing that every console has something worth to offer, and who are purposelly denying themselves of many hours of pure unadultered entertainment and joy because of that. So tragic, so sad...

...Such is the tragic history of humanity.

[Disconnected]

I think it would be fine if you narrated a bit about the things you saw, even if you weren't personally involved in them.

I honestly don't remember much other then wondering what the hell these idiots where on.

And as for games and their systems I have never been one to stick entirely to one to the exclusion of all others, though I do primarily play on the PC now days.