Nice comment KeroseneClimax.

I suppose he covered it all.
=)

There's nothing to add.

That was beautiful, thank you

Good read. Good read man.

Amen, brother.

"That is the smartest thing I have ever heard anyone say about anything, ever."

Truly a week in one comment.

Absolutely dead on Kerosene.

I was all ready to submit this for multi-tap this week too, and I think he deserves some recognition, if only here in comments:

[kotaku.com]
by Cruithne at 09:22 AM
"Know what the best lesson I ever learned about internet discussions?

When you see you've been mistaken or wrong, apologise immediately.
No need to grovel, just say that you were wrong and offer an apology, it doesn't cost anything, and believe me, people think so much more of you than they do when you argue a losing point for fifty posts."

He said everything that can be said. It's high time somebody said it, too.

"For all the people who may want to jump down my throat, ask yourself: Is he talking about me? Could he have a point? If I'm not guilty, why do I want to slam him? Answer that before hand."

This right here should be Internet Gospel. Beautiful.

Good show, Mr. KeroseneClimax! I was thinking the exact same thing when reading that particular thread.

I'm glad someone else said it. The gaming community has a lot to prove to the mainstream crowd. Game developers by themselves can't make games accepted by the mainstream; we have to make that effort as well. If we're going to act like a bunch of morons, then games will never be accepted and it'll just be one vicious cycle.

Maybe a form of limited commenting would thin out the comments? Like, you can comment 5 times a week, but if you have a star you can comment as much as you want.

Everyone else is an idiot. I didn't bother to read everything, but the majority of us feel the other way, so he must be wrong. I rock. The pope is ugly. I'm ugly. Somebody should hit him for MASSIVE DAMAGE!
...Where's my star?

Okay. Did I manage to break every rule there? Good. There's an example to not follow. Never do that

But seriously, great comment. You've always been one of the best commenters here on Kotaku.
Though I still find it funny that your avatar is a picture of a Buxom Jill Valentine as you're trying to argue seriousness.

@talisein: 5 komments/week would be about where I'm at now, thanks to school... if something like that goes into effect, I dunno what I'll do in the summer!

You guys think we'll have more Ban Mondays, and maybe more than one Ban Hammer?

To think that I had skipped this article when it was posted...not because I saw how many comments were posted and knew it had to have been a bunch of racism and bigotry, rather because I saw how many comments there were and was feeling too lazy to read all of the comments. Then again, the reason I skipped that article is one that more people need to follow. If you aren't going to read all of the comments and the read links, don't comment. It would save a lot of people a lot of trouble. There are so many times when problems could be avoided by people actually reading before commenting. I wouldn't be surprised if at least half of the arguments on this site come from people making false accusations based solely on the fact that they neglect to read the linked page and pull the quotes out of context. Besides that, we'd have a lot less repeating of things and people asking questions that are already answered.

@daibondo: @dowingba: Either you two need avatars or one of you has to change your name. Those names are too close.

but, to actually respond to this, people are people. even if they are immature, rude, or what have you, i don't think there really is a totally realistic way to handle this (well, except for the ban hammer, of course) unless people "grow up". there's also the whole issue of "respecting each other". at what point do we say that someone has gone too far? even if they say something that many of us believe is grossly inaccurate or wrong, do we have a right to silence them? it is, after all, their opinion. i need coffee.

@talisein: How do you get a star anyway? I want a star :( Great commentary by the way Kerosene.

Well said.

Thats why i try and avoid discussions that go above 100 comments.

Not much more I could add to that comment.

The comments on that story sounded as annoying as those people that scream into microphones during a game, yet somehow, the message they said somehow, against all odds, managed to sound worse.

@WreckTheLaw: I agree with the apologies, I've pointed out when people were wrong, seen their apologies, and thought nothing less of them. I've apologized myself when I made an error; hopefully I've been forgiven and not thought of as some idiot.

Great comment, and exactly why I didn't bother to join the discussion in any substantive manner. There was already roughly 400 posts of ignorance by the time I got to it, and at that point it would be like shouting at a brick wall. Feel free to disagree with N'gai, but if you're not gonna bother with a reasoned response to a serious matter, don't comment. You just end up looking like a jackass.

@talisein: I really like that idea.

I think it's a little sad though that such a dumb opinion by such a respected person has caused such a stir.

Great stuff man. There could be some things to add but you did a well job of pointing out most of it.

As an avid fan of Kotaku and gaming in general, I sincerely hope this is a turning point for this site. Respect to Kerosene for accurately summing up what we've witnessed on Kotaku over the last few days.

I too decided not to leave any comments on either post. Video games are meant for us to get away from the crap we have to deal with day in and day out. And even though I love this site I think Kotaku should have known better in what would happen when the original story was published.

Also, I should like to mention KeroseneClimax made an excellent point, and that I hope most of us kommenters are in the same side of the Swimming Pool of Respect.

Very nice comment Kerosene. I think that pretty much covered all the bases for that article.

Well said! I was cringing at those exact posts you quoted when I read them the first time through.

We all need to abandon the bigotry battleship and board the friendship frigate.

Exact same reason I've stopped commenting regularly. I'm glad he took the time to bring this to the forefront. Well said, KeroseneClimax.

@KingDavid73: A++ Will buy from again!!

@WreckTheLaw: Aw thanks man.

There is another rule that works at a political blog I'm a member of.
It's a pretty simple rule, but the best ideas are usually the most simple.

It's called play the ball, not the man.
When there's a topic for discussion, you discuss the topic and not the person whose comment you disagree with.
Personally, I was sickened and ashamed by some of the comments made about N'Gai Croal they had no place in decent company.

i think (or rather i hope) things will get better once the "changes" that were talked about earlier take place. i love reading the comments here as much as (in in some cases) more than te post (no offence to any member of the Kotaku staff). i have seen great comments and not so great ones in my relatively short time on Kotaku, but nothing like the ones that have been posted on pretty much any post regarding RE5. i hope that with the new changes being looked at that i am not one to go, but either way, i still hope to see a better way to either filter or flag certain commenters other than just poor old Witz doing the job of 5 people.

@LittleBigPlaneteer: BY having a lot of followers or having Brian (either of them) or other editors notice great stuff in your comment.

@dowingba:
;)

I dont want to slam you, but I believe you are wrong.

Wow, thank goodness I completely missed that post.

Some of those comments that Kerosene are deploarable. People using the uniqueness of N'Gai's name as a means to demean his argument? Weak

The anonymity of the internet gives a hell of a lot of strength to some people. The worst part of all this is that most of the knucklehead comments were posted by people who almost certainly didn't read the article.

I've only been visiting Kotaku for about 6 months but I've learned one thing- if a particular post has 200 or more comments, its best to avoid. Either its filled with 50 posters repeating the same corny joke or has been filled with inane/offensive comments.

@male roof blower: Dowingba was first. He gets to keep his name.

@LittleBigPlaneteer: The secret is to 1. Never ask for a star.
2.Know the secret to getting a star.
3. Once you know the secret, comment without seeing the colors green, beige, or pink.

@PlayerX: To do that, we'd have to get rid of one of our most beloved features- the "K".
K has too many negative connotations the world. We'd have to become "Commentators" instead of the grammatically incorrect and misspelled "Kommenters".

@PlayerX: No, no, no, no no! Bad idea. Any intelligent conversations would also be stopped. Imagine-somebody's about to deliver a comment that will change the world. He hits submit-and BAM! It turns out he's over his limit. We all die. For example, imagine if Kerosene didn't have a star yet, and he got that comment. He was already well over 5 comments. It's just a bad idea.

@talisein: I don't know how good of an idea that would be. Yes, it would prevent a lot of stupid things from being said, but it would stop a lot of great things from being said. I think that if the stars begin to mean something more than just "this commenter usually says smart things" than the stars will start to be handed out too much and will become meaningless. It seems odd, but the fact that the stars are meaningless gives them more meaning. If stars allowed you to post more often, the editors would be inclined to give out more stars because there are commenters like me, who while I don't have a star, I post often. However, while I post often, I don't post things that would offend other people and if I do get in an argument with someone, it is more than just "you're dumb, no you're dumb", it's more of a debate with each side presenting an idea and defending it and being willing to admit when wrong. I really think that whatever solution the editors work up, they are going to try to make it not punish everyone or all but a select few. I feel that if we limit comments, it will be much harder to build the friendships that many people have formed on this site.

what a fuckin idiot

/sarcasm

Very nice post. It kinda makes me feel guilty despite not saying anything overly negative about N'gai. If anything, there is a great lesson to take from his post, and maybe we can all think a lil' before we rush into a comment.

Wow, a great post. Consider yourself followed KeroseneClimax.

Not that I am trying to excuse the behavior of the commenters who filled the RE5 thread with nonsense, I do think this is part of a pattern the gaming community has.

Take the reaction of some to the Obama references to videogames. A harmless comment about parents needing to be responsible iwth children gets treated as an attack on games. Now you have N'Gai making a well thought out argument about the RE5 trailer and how it can be seen as offensive, you have the biggest reaction I have seen in my short time posting here.

I think it is a mixture of racial resentment and the fact that games have been scapegoated often. Get those two issues that people have such emotional investment in and smash them together you end up with the worst behavior you can imagine.

I am in no way shape or form excusing them. I just wanted to throw out my thoughts on why all this went done the way it did.

please excuse all spelling and grammar mistakes, I am tired.

I feel infused with morals after reading this comment.... Damn, being a 'good' person makes me hungry.

Hey guys, lets go bash the skulls in of some cows and have steak for dinner?

sounds like a delicious slaughter to me, the perfect way to commemorate my self-righteousness!

Here here. Your 4chan comment rang too true, as there has been a massive upturn in the number of those people invading the site. I do NOT want Kotaku to be a 4chan. That is a nightmare, as in part last night proved.

@KingDavid73:
and steer for calm waters.

I asked myself what you've requested of me and the answer is, no, i'm not one of the people you're talking about. However, just because i'm not, doesen't mean I shouldn't disagree with you.

So you say you're tired of people being stupid on the internet? Well, join the club man. Alot of us are.
But do we all post a huge comment on a Kotaku news story, telling everyone how tired we are of it? No, we don't all do that. Some of us just chalk it up to one thing: People are stupid. It's not just people who play videogames, or black (african american, if you prefer) or any other race of people, we're all just as stupid as the next man. But that's off topic. Alot of the commenting on the N'gai interview was unnecesary. That's true. But i'm sure a few made good points.

I showed my best friend, who is black himself, the article tonight and asked him what he thought. He dislikes Croal for saying some of the things he'd said. I too dislike them.
It's unfair to pick on a japanese game developer about some of the problems you might have about africans being portrayed a certain way. That's not right. They aren't taught in schools the same humility about slavery that we are. They didn't enslave an entire race for hundreds of years. Which kinda brings me to my next point: You're upset about slavery? That's totally reasonable. Many people I know are also upset about it. But the thing most people choose to overlook is the fact that every civilization across the span of history has enslaved other races. This isn't anything new. It's actually pretty old. Why is it that a black person is allowed to walk up to me, a Korean-American and tell me, "Slavery was your fault." because I look white. Why is that okay for him to say? That seems like the general attitude to me.

I agree with what the japanese producer of RE5 said himself. "Africa is the birthplace of man" so they wanted to show the origins of the virus. This isn't racism, it's story design. Personally, if anyone should be blasting any game for stereotypes and racism, it should be the new 50 Cent game. How is that not any more racist than Resident Evil 5?

Let me ask you a question. Is it racist if Tyler Perry makes movies that make honest, hardworking black people look like they're all ignorant animals? I think those movies, and the BET channel are the most racist thing in the entire world. But personally,

It really only boils down to: What do you see when you watch the Re5 trailer? Africans being portrayed unfairly? Or a fun game. If you see the latter, maybe you should stop playing videogames.

I argued my point without saying fuck, i'll say nothing more. But i'd also appreciate it if Mr. Croal would kindly stop talking about this kind of thing. It really only creates more racism where, in my opinion, there is none.

Some very good points...

Very good comment and I'm glad it was said.

@KingDavid73: best use of alliteration in a blog post? I think so.

@Polywhirl: No harm no foul. I added an avatar. I just didn't before because I use a very very uncommon resolution and the button to upload one was kinda invisible for me. I figured it out though (tab button ftw!)

My post got mentioned... erk.

@Iceking5:
Exactly... and the compassion cruiser will take us all to victory.

Great comment. I totally agree.

"Many people here need to grow up, because as an African American male, looking at some of the responses to N'Gai Croal comments were nauseating."

Now - don't get me wrong, this comment was generally very well thought out - except for one thing I have to ask, respectfully of course:

Where people saying racist things in that thread? Because I'm unclear as to why you were especially nauseated as a black male.

Great comment and all, I was just confused at this point.

If sacrificing my own commenting privileges would in some way improve kotaku for everybody then I will gladly bite that bullet. Kotaku was so much more fun when I was just reading it in 2006-2007 than when I began adding my own 2 cents in late 2007. Around that time comments were reaching 100+ consistently when only months before 50+ was a big deal. Yeah, I hope kotaku finds a fair way to reduce commenting to pre 2008 levels... whatever happened to mongoosekun? i loved that guy =/

@RaepGoblin:
Don't, man.

were ^*

Wtb edit button.

*Starts slow clap*

Sorry some one had to do it. Amen though sir, Amen.