To be fair, the "PanO can't have nice things" kinds of threads aren't inherently bad. It's the people who come in to tell PanO to "get over it" kinds of posts who drive the hostility there.
I disagree with this statement, but I fear derailing this topic with a discussion of a contentious subject, so I will simple state that I disagree. As for the OP, I feel like this forum is pretty mellow, with some fairly reasonable and evenhanded discussion for the most part. Yes there is some negativity, but it seems like 80% of it comes from a handful of very prolific, and aggressive posters. I feel it distorts the perception of issues. How to make it fun again? Not sure, the only thing I can control is how I myself engage. I try to be positive, think before I type, and try not to fall for the troll bait. To all the poster's out there I offer this passive-aggressive platitude, 'I wish your life to be as pleasant as you are.'
Man. I came into this looking for a poll on distilled beverages and got serious conversation. the answer is Orujo de Galicia btw
They aren't inherently bad for sure. I can only describe my perspective on this topic and tell you why I don't participate in these arguments online despite having a rather strong opinion personally. I evenly split my game time between Ariadna and PanO. Despite being a relative newcomer I gained lots of playtime in a healthy meta over the last year and I went to ~15 tournaments and participated in 2 ITS leagues and I usually place in the top 3, except two terrible slipups in the second half of the season. My performance is roughly the same with all factions I play besides USAriadna; I absolutely suck with those. If somebody brings up the topic of PanO needing a buff (which doesn't equal more diversity) in a face-to-face conversation I normally reply with a nicer variation of "Git gud" because I perform equally good with both my factions and I know the way how Infinity is usually played in the northern half of Germany. But in a face-to-face conversation it is much easier to explain strategies, tactics and mindsets as a followup and the person I talk to is probably not offended when I voice my critique with a smile on my face. On a forum it's completely different. I don't have a clue what the other people face in their local metas, how experienced they are, what gaming etiquette they follow, what table setups they use, how good their grasp of the rules is (just last month I had a tournament with a really nice fellow who was a competent player, but the central person of his meta taught him some Infinity basics so wrong when he started, that I was shocked about his misuse of some essentials), how flexible their army selection is or what cultural and lingual difficulties exist. So why on earth should I berate or belittle a person I don't even know for not sharing my opinion. :-) That's the main reason why I don't post at all on the topics in question despite being quite opinionated (which doesn't equal qualified) on most Infinity related topics.
I wasn't aware that mandolly gaming was a thing for religious fundamentalist dogma - I didn't get that memo. I was buying infinity minis before I played the game (as something to assemble and paint) and probably still will when the game is something I no longer want to play (I am being realistic - I started gaming 30-odd years ago, and I'm not still playing what I played back then, and in future, there will come another to replace this one.). The two though linked, are not the same thing to me. One allows you to exercise creative flexibility, the other allows the playing of that thing within a certain "sandbox". In much the same way that certain groups all play in the same sandbox, but all insist that their chosen rules version is the superior one (v1, v2 and v3 - which is closer to v1, but they all focus on what is different, not on what they share) and I choose not to play in that sandbox.
Yeah, you and I aren't particularly screwed, because we have enough vanilla YJ and now-separate JSA to provide both factions for a game. The guys who only played JSA or only played Imperial Service might not have even noticed, except for the fluff. What about the newer YJ players that had a mix of models and now no longer have enough of either YJ or JSA for a game? They lost their army entirely, got it turned into two half-armies that need a couple hundred bucks worth of new models to make either half viable again. The YJ players that used Oniwaban with primarily vanilla and/or Imperial Service units? They're down at least one unit. Maybe two if they also used Aragoto. Three if they also used Raiden. The YJ players who bought a Shikami and had it pro-painted in YJ colors (just like the first-released Shikami. Seriously, WTF, CB!), only to finally receive it in the mail the day after the announcement that JSA had seceded and the Shikami was no longer legal to play? Those guys flat out lost things. It does not help that CB made a terrible decision about how to tell people this. All they needed to say was that "It may be a rough year for vanilla YJ, but wait till you see what's coming in 2019." One freaking sentence. 5 seconds of airtime. Would have greatly reduced the hate&discontent(tm). Uhm, the Church Militant and the Black Friars would like to talk to you about Our Lord and Savior Bostria.
Well, maybe not. I submit Maeloc as the official spirit of the forum. It is a cider, which may not be technically a 'spirit'. Meh. In the "Fan Zone" section of the forum ( I still want to call it Fussion, sigh) you'll find a very friendly and pleasant spirit. Maybe check out a few of the painting and terrain threads, and the fan art threads. Post your own work. (I did on the previous forum, and in the DataSphere, and still do on Dakka -- because Dakka isn't moribund or threatened with closure or whatevs.
In honesty, I think that discussion groups, regardless of topic, are predominantly described not by the general population, but by the members who possess loud voices and large lung capacities, thus the most visible minority will unfortunately colour the public image of a forum regardless of the balanced and well-meaning majority. I would say that as a member of this and the previous forum for however many years, it is by-and-large a good place and definitely the least-toxic wargaming community I have personally experienced. As other posters have said the pure-text nature of internet discussion can lead to the intent of a post to be lost, and what is deadpan sarcasm to the author may come across as a genuine grievance to the reader when all the nuances of meatspace interactions are not present, but hey, all our posts sound great in our heads right? As for forum spirit: Jim Beam Red Stag
If there's ever a time when deliberately misquoting another post could be acceptable, it'd be when you're opening the door to more whisky. Nicely done. Any of the Islay singles do it for me, and we could even have a new forum flame war if I say I also like it with ice. Now THAT'S heresy, especially for a guy with my name! (I mean Lachlan Scott, not Wolf!)
You want blasphemy, let's have at it. I think that whisky with coke is not that bad. Here, I said it.
Topics not to talk about on the Infinity Forums: Playing by Intent Whiskey In all seriousness though, the nicest thing about drinking big-brand whiskeys like JD and JB is the reactions you get when you tell serious whiskey drinkers you really like drinking JD/JB
To be fair I think what cazboab meant is that Red Staq is more like fruit liquer rather than whiskey/bourbon. But that is my guess.
<starts throwing anything to hand into dumpster> Sure, mix cola with a rye whisky and it’s almost drinkable! <casts eyes about for gasoline>
Wait a minute, Andre82’s always good value at a dumpster fire, and I haven’t argued with the boy for months now... <yells> Hey @Andre82! I bet the reason you’re not in this thread yet is that you spend all your drink money on girlie cocktails and shandy! ... and can you remember to bring the matches, please mate?
