Hell, this is becoming quite a little series, isn’t it?

Occasionally, it just seems necessary. Something that I can get off my chest, lest it bubble over and spill on top of whatever poor, unsuspecting fan happens to push the wrong button at a convention someday.

Personally, I’m surprised that I’ve managed to keep it down to one article installment per month.

So, what’s got my hackles raised this week?

The Internet.

Specifically, that variety of gamer found there, frequenting the forums of various RPG-related websites. The Internet Gamer Elite.

It never fails. At least once per month, and unfortunately, often occurring with more regularity than that, one of these gamers will post something that not only pisses me off, but also makes me question why I work in this field at all. Sometimes it’s a gamer, sometimes it’s a fellow creator, and sometimes it’s a retailer or distributor…but it’s inevitable. Somebody will say something.

In the old days, you were insulated from this sort of thing. The only gamers you met from outside your local area were at conventions, where everybody is pretty much on a high, and good feelings abound. That’s sort of the blessing and the curse of the Internet, in a nutshell. Yes, you have access to the ideas of gamers world-wide. Yes, you have the information of countless libraries at your fingertips. But along with that, you have to be exposed to the basest form of gaming life—some yutz that will confirm every one of the unpleasant stereotypes of the hobby.

It can get pretty bad. You’ve all seen the flame wars. D20 vs everything else. Evil Manufacturers Out to Rule the World. Designer X is the Antichrist. The superiority of the Gamist/Narrativist/Simulationist/Whateverist style of play. It goes ever on.

It is perhaps worse for those of us on the creative end of the business—we’re often on the receiving end of these things. Worse yet, sometimes this stuff comes not from John Q. Mamma’s-Basement, but from the very people who share your business. For me, it’s relatively easy to marginalize the effect of some thoughtless comment from a fanboy. We’ve all experienced run-ins with this sort, and it’s easy enough to move along. However, when the same sort of comment comes from a someone whom you’d expect better from, it becomes harder to ignore. When it comes from someone upon whom your livelihood depends, like a distributor or a retailer, it is capable of shaking your resolve to the core. You seriously begin to question whether or not you’re in the right line of work.

In the past week, I’ve seen retailers spewing vitriol about a friend of mine, simply because they didn’t make ENOUGH money during the Pokémon boom. I’ve seen distributors give me their opinions on a product that indicates that they never even looked at the materials I’ve sent them—leading me with the sole option of canceling one of my creations. I’ve seen posts by gamers, telling me how I should do my job, to avoid the stupid mistakes that they wouldn’t have made. It’s been a rough week.

On the other hand, it’s not any better when you get positive commentary from the gamers of the Internet. The simple fact of the matter is that the folks who are on the forum boards, and are posting their opinions, and telling you what they think, represent a miniscule minority of the gaming public. Listening to them, even in the positive sense, can send you down a dead-end street, where you end up trying to cater to the tastes of an increasingly fragmented and shrinking audience. Not a good thing.

So what’s the solution? Some peers of mine have suggested taking the occasional “Internet vacation”…where you don’t read any of the forum boards, and simply don’t participate in the Internet gaming community. Not sure I can do that—I work alone, since I am a freelancer, and going onto the boards lends me the sense of community in my work that a normal office job would provide.

What then?

Well, column entries like this one can certainly help….

This week’s recommendations—I’m reading COWBOY CAPITAL OF THE WORLD: THE SAGA OF DODGE CITY by Samuel Carter III and I’m listening to MEDDAZZALAND, a CD by Duran Duran.

See ya in 7.