Before this goes any further, I want to clear up a few things. I don’t hate Tobold. I only know him about as well as some of you, which is through reading his blog over the last few years and email back and forth occasionally. I don’t intend to destroy, tear down, or discredit him or his blog. What would I gain from that, considering I enjoy reading what he writes?
Tobold and I have different style of writing and communicating. We don’t debate in the same way, we don’t share the same sense of humor, and different things ‘trigger’ us. We also have very different tastes in MMO games; we see value in different features/systems, and what’s slightly green to him looks kinda blue to me. I’m UO, he is EQ. I’m PvP, he is PvE (stolen from Randomessa, thanks).
I’m overly sarcastic, argue to argue, and at times even manage to write before I think (it’s a gift). I exaggerate sometimes to make a point, usually for the sake of comedy, but sadly sometimes this derails the point I’m actually trying to make. I blame the internet for that one. I’m passionate to a fault about silly stuff (that would be MMO games), and while I never take what’s written on this blogs or others as a personal attack at ME, I do care about the perception of “SynCaine”, especially when I feel an unjust shot is being taken. My e-rep must be defended, and I have my own personal style in defending it. (I find it funny, other opinions may differ) (My perception of ‘unjust’ might be different than yours as well).
I’m not perfect (yet), nor is Tobold. We both make factual mistakes when talking about games (try to write as often as we do and always get everything 100% correct), sometimes those facts bother one of us more than the other. What I view as critical he might not, and a big deal to him might be a minor fix to me. It’s also common that something might look as a positive to him, while I view it as a negative, or vice versa.
What I DON’T want to see happening is either of our blogs changing because of a disagreement, or the blogosphere as a whole becoming less entertaining because someone’s feelings got hurt. No one wins in that situation. Tobold removing comments from his blog would be a shame, not because I want people to continue attacking him, but because that comments section was often a great source of ideas and discussion. Even his switch to moderation has had a negative impact on that (IMO), and again at the end of the day we (blog readers looking to be entertained) end up screwed.
So in an effort to stop this from escalating further and causing more damage, I want to say that I apologize for offending you Tobold, because I know you get triggered by certain things and rather than debate you, I know I can instead derail you with my style of writing. I have a habit of poking someone with a stick until they snap, and more-or-less that’s the case here. You are easy to provoke in that way, and taking advantage of that fact was a poor move on my part.
Instead of this silly ‘war’ continuing (blog wars can only happen on Friday btw, for just this reason), hopefully we can both step back, calm down, and continue any debates of carebear vs pwnzor issues that arise in a more civil manner? I’ll try to filter out any direct shots at you and stick to the topic at hand (which requires a herculean editing effort mind you!), and you try to take what I and other internet trolls write without taking it so personal, so you don’t need to filter your blog or remind people about the TOS, deal?
Hardcore Casual 
Fuck me now your turning Emo
I am not!!! :tear:
The impression I get is that this post is dripping with sarcasm. I really wonder why you have such a strong fixation with Tobold. I guess the blogosphere is a very strange and insulated world.
sarcasm? surely not.
I thought it was heart felt and it brought a tear to my glass eye.
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Give that Tobold has taken to discussing you in “fruit” language it will be interesting to see if there really is a way back for you two.
The only valid response from Tobold:
“SynCaine can eat my ass.” That would make the rivalry all the more entertaining for the rest of us.
How long until everyone tries to convince themselves that you are, in fact, the same person trying to boost readership?
Since I cannot post a comment on Tobold’s blog, due to his disabling anonymous comments and requiring some kind of ids to even reply to the post asking about if he should continue to allow comments on his blog, I am going to post my comment here :)
The comments are what makes any blog worth reading, so disallowing comments on Tobold’s blog will kill entertainment value of his blog significantly. If that happens, Syncain wins and Tobold’s blog will bore me into oblivion.
I was thinking the same thing as Mr. Tree. What if they were the same person? They would boost traffic to both blogs. People would visit both blogs multiple times a day to see the comments. I think I need to start a blogging war myself.
Tobold and SynCaine the same person? Naaaaaaaa
the more likely thing would be Tobold and Gevlon being the same person imo.
As for boosting popularity I dont think either has to bother doing that, both blogs are popular as it is simply due to the quality of writing on offer (completely different styles included).
*hugs everyone on the internet*
Reconciliation is good. :)
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Tobolds blog (IMO) is basically a representation of the cancer that has become the MMO community. His narrow-sightedness and brazen WoW fanboism has blinded him to the rich potential of the genre. The all roads lead to WoW mentality just rubs me the wrong way i guess. The audacity to wright a “review” after only a few hours of open beta gameplay, and then to wright a game off completely based off that experience? Seriously why even make a post about given game if your not going to give it a fair chance. And now with this whole disabling of comments nonsense, he just comes off a thin skinned and entitled. The only reason i read his blog was to check out his pop shots at you.
After his latest ‘Told ya so’ on Fallen Earth Im kind of gonna agree. His opinion is bigoted.
I agree that comments are core for blog styles like these ones.
However, Malstrom, he can get away with comments disabled. Recommend that guy to anybody, he messes with gaming (industry) so well.
All nice and dandy and it’s really a good thing you guys try to reconcile. I’d only like to correct one factual mistake:
Tobold is NOT EQ. He wrote several times that he didn’t make it to the level-cap there because the game was too unforgiving.
SynCaine that gaydar you loaned me is going haywire on this post
TLDR = “Grow a thicker skin Mr. Sensitive!”?
Yeah, that’s kind of what I got out of it.
Are you trying to say that you’re a little bit country?
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an attempt to save readers/hits