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Originally Posted by The Tweaker

I generally enjoy rpg forums, but I am not so sure about this one lately. It was cool at first, but I am getting increasingly tired with all the endless discussions about guns, bullet caliber, inches of armor, realism (duh!) and whining about BRP-not-being-anymore-like-the-Runequest-I-love-so-much.

And who twisted you arm to read those threads? Most of the threads where people are discussion details are clearly marked for what they are. So what do you expect when you go there. That those threads are the most active is less a sign of how negative the forum is but more like how the people who don't want to discuss those topics aren't posting much on other topics.

Look at how many of the idea threads that people started that haven't been touched in weeks. No one's posted squat in the western thread, the Planet of the Apes thread, Taslantia, or any of the other "idea" threads.

Then people who don't want to hear negative stuff don't post positive stuff themselves, but come to threads like, oh, this one here, to gripe about negativity. This thread here is a classic case. It was started as a split off from another thread by soltakss to discuss those things that he didn't like about the new BRP.

So anyone who comes into this thread and complains about it being negative is really pretty dense. It would be like going into the Roman thread and complaining about the thread being to Rome-centric. Duh.

Same with the firearms threads.

If someone doesn't want to know what player's reactions to something is, they don't have to go into that thread and read it, do they? If they do go in there, then they have no right to get upset about the reactions, no matter how much they might disagree with them or consider them trivial, nitpicking or whatever.

Should we put a warning on the threads-"This might contain something you might not want to see"? No one put a "medium pistol" to anybody's head and forced them to read that thread. No one made anyone come into this one and read sotlakss's reservations about MRQ.

I don't agree with soltakss opinions all the time. Heck, I probably have the one-line record for disagreeing with him, but I can't fault the man for having them. I might disagree with them, openly or privately, but it it bothers me then it's my own damn fault for going into a thread he started and reading them.

If people don't want to read anything negative then they should join a religious cult where everything is spelled out for them, and stay award from anything where more than one person can express an opinion.

If the vast majority of people's reactions to BRP have been positive, and only a handful have been negative, then getting upset because that minority does wish to express themselves is actually more "whining" that I've heard from the critics.

"Oh no, a small number of people said something I don't want to head in a thread that I didn't have to look at, so I'm going to pick up my toys and go home."

Originally Posted by The Tweaker

Now, I understand everyone is entitled to an opinion, and I am willing to admit that some of the discussions have been actually useful and informative, but I am beginning to see how all the negativity from some posters risks alienating new fans (including me). I simply cannot understand all the criticisms leveled against a product which hasn't even been published (in its final form, at least) and all this is reinforcing my belief in that BRP's worst enemies are its own fans (well, some of them... generalizing is always bad).

No. Chasoium has been BRP's own worst enemy. It is because there are still fans buying up and playing old product that the game hasn't sank into oblivion decades ago. It's been all the mistakes and missteps made since the Avalon Hill deal that have hurt all the BRP games more than the fans. Fans by product. No one else does.

Controversy and criticism doesn't mean squat as long as the books are selling. Look at MRQ. Quite a larger number of RQ and BRP fans hate MRQ, including a sizable percentage of the membership here, and the MRQ forums have been far most negative about MRQ than this place has ever gotten. As many of the members here know. Yet as long as Mongoose can sell MRQ product the criticism means squat.

I think a good deal of the conflict around BRP stems from it attempting to be the ultimate collection of BRP rules. No matter what what it went, it wasn't going to appeal to somebody.