[Bananadine]

My description of the distinction between these groups was sloppy--let's say, there's activity focused on the game, stuff that couldn't happen the same way if it were a different game. And there's activity focused on the people who play the game, which could happen in any forum. The former is essential and rare, and the latter is commonplace, and it is bad to fight for the integrity of the latter at the expense of the former.

It's certainly not true that, in order to survive, every multiplayer game must lean on a "community" that's capable of standing on its own without the game. The world is big, and there are other ways.

One could claim that the only practical way for this particular game to survive is to be associated with a fairly open community--one that's open enough to statistically guarantee that standard-type forum fights will sometimes occur. Maybe that's true.

But I'm not saying there shouldn't be fights. I mean, if there were a friendly genie listening, then I'd definitely say that, and the genie would stop the fights. But you, reader, are just a single person, not a genie, and not a community. So I'm suggesting that when you are in a position to decide whether to get into a big ol' argument about the rules of a forum or about who has or hasn't displayed proper respect to whom, you would do well to consider how easy it is to find arguments like that, and how hard it is to find the other nice stuff that the forum is supposed to be about. And after saying that I think I have to shut up about the matter, because I really am here to play games. Chat on, those who must chat!