Curious question: Could someone tell what's the merit of still pointing out how bad one sees the actions of Alexman, Firaxis, Take2, etc.? That's not a rhetorical question - I really, honestly wonder. I don't understand what positive effect could possibly be achieved with this discussion. I've tried to think about possible reasons why people might want to continue it, but they all seem to make no sense. Here's the list I could come up with:
- "We want to change the way Firaxis/Take2 treat the fans".
Well, you won't, due to several reasons:
a ) A company won't change it's way due to a vocal group of perhaps two dozen people on a public forum, which is being opposed by an equally large group of people who thinks different.
b ) Even the group of critics is not at all in agreement about what the preferred treatment by Firaxis would be. Some demand more information. Some say they would have preferred no information at all. So even *if* Firaxis/Take2 decided to change their ways to fulfill the wishes of one group in a currently divided forum, they wouldn't even know what to do, because the wishes of the critics are contradictory.
c ) Flame wars are a legendarily ineffective method of convincing anybody of anything. If you want to change the way Firaxis/Take2 treat you, then it would be much more effective to work together with those people at Firaxis/Take2 who do care for you, strengthen their position, and make them advocate your cause within Firaxis/Take2.
- "We don't want to be made responsible for the fact that CFC now gets less inside information, our actions were justified"
This too doesn't make a good reason to continue the debate. Which actions were justified and which weren't is obviously disputed. No matter how far you take this discussion, you won't change the fact that several people *will* blame you for the expected future lack of inside information. You will not be able to change that, no matter how long you keep arguing. You'll just have to stand this criticism to your behavior, as well as Alexman had to stand yours.
- "The other camp won't give in"
Well, so doesn't yours, so if we take this as a good reason to continue the debate, it will go on forever. Even *if* other people continue to beat dead horses, then that's still a bad justification for joining them and beating the same carcass from the other side.
- "I am still angry at (whomever) and want to make this known"
Well, one might expect that whoever has an interest in this debate, knows by now who's angry and why. So the informational value of posts that repeat the same arguments over and over is very slim indeed. If you want to get the anger out of your system, there are probably less destructive methods available.
That's the reasons I could come up with why people might want to continue this debate. As can be seen, none of them work well. So have I missed something? IS there a good reason to continue this debate? IS there a possible, achievable positive outcome towards which we could work? If yes, please tell me.
The only thing that's worthy of a debate in *my* opinion is, how can we change our behavior at CFC so that Firaxians will *want* to come to us and share their information with us. That's something we *can* do, it's in our hands. Everything else isn't. But as long as the debate keeps focusing on statements like "Our actions were justified", or "Alexman has acted poorly", or "The others are at fault", nothing positive will ever emerge from it - that#s for certain.
