Geralt is just fine, thanks.

Really? So, if a person came up to you and threw a racial slur at you ... your first response is to deck them? And this is somehow the correct response in the first world?

Other people, entities (nations and what not) have suffered from far worse and their response was not to throw punches but to reason. I have a feeling that you live in the same world that I do but you have yet to figure out that some times it's just plain better to seek an alternative answer than to resort to violence or a shouting match.

I haven't seen too much of this fanaticism, it's present but no more overwhelming than the doomsayers predicting ESO's downfall.

My biggest concern is the people posting complaints or "suggestions" which don't fit into the design philosophy or MMO paradigm. Or the people who have no access to closed beta and wont take 1 minute to find a stream or youtube channel showing the current game build, and then complaining how the game doesn't have features already implemented in the latest build. Or the people who don't understand the purpose a stress test serves, and how it's not to balance classes or necessarily to fix small bugs.

I think the general fanaticism that I've seen is as a result of this type of ignorance, not to say there aren't people who think ESO is perfect; I just haven't seen any.

because you are Australian I will forgive you... to toxic?

I agree with this. While I dislike seeing someone's post edited in a quote (it's always been a pet peeve of mine), I agree with what you are saying. The issue doesn't boil down to fans vs critics. There will always be that. But what lies at the heart of this issue is the mode of communication.

If you are critical of the game, then naturally any argument posed against your can, and often is, perceived as hostile.

If you are a fan of the game, the same applies to criticism.

I've said it before and I will say it again. This forum is nothing compared to others. In fact, this forum is one of the most civil I have ever been a part of. Try WoW's forum, or any PvP game, or as mentioned above a political forum.

This forum is actually on the mild side of internet hostility.

It is humans being human.

This is a very apparent reason, especially within last weekends beta.

Let's get realistic guys, it's the internet, it's a video game, some people will defend with their lives, some will chant fail until the end of time regardless. They've made changes to try provide an excellent experience for MMO players and TES players combined, the most recent changes are evidence to this, there's only so much they can do before it all starts getting messy.

This is the internet. To insinuate that people act no differently here than they do in face to face conversation is ridiculous.

Joe does not care what some dude on the other side of the planet thinks about his opinion. But I can assure you that Joe will think twice about mouthing it to the guy standing in from of him.

And if you are stupid enough to call someone a racial slur to their face than you deserve to get punched.

It's standard on MMO forums, I think.

Someone had a good anology for what this forum is like compared to the rest of the BGSF.

District 9.

It's standard on ALL game forums.

Every single-player TES game had this kind of thing going on, especially right around release. So do the forums for all the other games, btw

Perhaps you are correct, but shouldn't you still wish to take the high road and at least have people leave thinking the community is at least good? Even as a fan of this game I think this community is terrible.

I've been a part of much better internet communities by far. Ones that, for the most part, take the time to respond civilly. I don't see that here, even when people make civil suggestions. I'm speaking to the people who respond in such an aggressive manner, if you're not one of them then I'm not speaking about you.

I probably could have explained that better but it still doesn't change the basic message I wanted to put forth.

It depends how they are criticising the game. If they are being respectful and presenting their case in a reasonable way, I will reply in a reasonable manner. If they are outright attacking the game, I will play devils advocate and attack them back.

That being said, I feel some people don't show Elder Scrolls the respect they should; they've been supplying us with some of the best games for years and haven't let us down once.. honestly, shame on anyone who thinks they can't pull this off.