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[NAV]

It's because Toady asked us to maintain our chill composures and we listened.

[Runaway_char]

Dude, its a game, not your super cool special secret club.  The hell is a "true nerd" anyway?  I've honestly seen more people identifying themselves as "true nerds" be bullies and exclusionary assholes than any dudebro or "normie".

I think the main reason the boards don't need moderators is cause Toady is both insanely dedicated to the community and also a really nice person - that rubs off on the people who choose to stick around.

[Eschar]

Dude, its a game, not your super cool special secret club.  The hell is a "true nerd" anyway?  I've honestly seen more people identifying themselves as "true nerds" be bullies and exclusionary assholes than any dudebro or "normie".

I don't think CaBL is saying that he chooses those 'clubs' himself, as his post is not discussing people who call themselves 'true nerds' but those whom their personality shows to be so. There is certainly a difference between them, and CaBL is arguing that DF's automatically sorts a large portion of people by virtue* of its complexity.

* ...That's a virtue, right?

[Runaway_char]

Dude, its a game, not your super cool special secret club.  The hell is a "true nerd" anyway?  I've honestly seen more people identifying themselves as "true nerds" be bullies and exclusionary assholes than any dudebro or "normie".

I don't think CaBL is saying that he chooses those 'clubs' himself, as his post is not discussing people who call themselves 'true nerds' but those whom their personality shows to be so. There is certainly a difference between them, and CaBL is arguing that DF's automatically sorts a large portion of people by virtue* of its complexity.

* ...That's a virtue, right?

While I get that, my disagreement is with the idea that people drawn to difficult or complicated games are inherently nicer and more welcoming - you only have to look as far as the Dark Souls community to see the opposite.

[Eschar]

Dude, its a game, not your super cool special secret club.  The hell is a "true nerd" anyway?  I've honestly seen more people identifying themselves as "true nerds" be bullies and exclusionary assholes than any dudebro or "normie".

I don't think CaBL is saying that he chooses those 'clubs' himself, as his post is not discussing people who call themselves 'true nerds' but those whom their personality shows to be so. There is certainly a difference between them, and CaBL is arguing that DF's automatically sorts a large portion of people by virtue* of its complexity.

* ...That's a virtue, right?

While I get that, my disagreement is with the idea that people drawn to difficult or complicated games are inherently nicer and more welcoming - you only have to look as far as the Dark Souls community to see the opposite.

That... is a very good point.
Though I have tended to assume the opposite for a while, because of my interaction with Bay12 and with people in general who love exploring complex stuff.

Food for thought.

[Runaway_char]

After thinking it over more, its possible that the inherent non-competitive nature of dwarf fortress, especially the "Losing is Fun" philosophy, prevents a lot of the dick measuring fights for nerd cred that causes drama and toxicity in other gaming communities.  So maybe it is the nature of the game that keeps the forums asshole free, who knows.  Definitely food for thought!

[CABL]

I was semi-serious, actually. But yea, DF is a game for dedicated people. Also, despite what "wat r u, casul?" players of Dark Souls say, DkS is a relatively mainstream franchise, if we measure by the audience size and sales.

After thinking it over more, its possible that the inherent non-competitive nature of dwarf fortress, especially the "Losing is Fun" philosophy, prevents a lot of the dick measuring fights for nerd cred that causes drama and toxicity in other gaming communities.

*CABL rubs his temple* That is... That is actually a really good point. Communities of the games with singleplayer-only, or sometimes even just a focus on singleplayer, tend to be polite. Paradox community, while being overzealous about defending some bad practices of PDX, is a really polite and helpful community. ... But then again, Paradox games are pretty damn niche.

[Urlance Woolsbane]

After thinking it over more, its possible that the inherent non-competitive nature of dwarf fortress, especially the "Losing is Fun" philosophy, prevents a lot of the dick measuring fights for nerd cred that causes drama and toxicity in other gaming communities.  So maybe it is the nature of the game that keeps the forums asshole free, who knows.  Definitely food for thought!

This is definitely part of it. It's also a thinking man's game, which leads to a decidedly more genteel community. Note how infamous someone like Obok Meatgod is, whereas his sort of antics would be a sad fact of life in most other places. Contrast with Space Station 13, which has a playerbase downwards of 3000 and at least two popular ERP servers (one of which is dedicated especially to vore,) and another one full of aspiring Klan members.

[pikachu17]

Dude, its a game, not your super cool special secret club.  The hell is a "true nerd" anyway?  I've honestly seen more people identifying themselves as "true nerds" be bullies and exclusionary assholes than any dudebro or "normie".

I think the main reason the boards don't need moderators is cause Toady is both insanely dedicated to the community and also a really nice person - that rubs off on the people who choose to stick around.

To be fair, he only said "true nerds" in the TL;DR section.