It's a problem with all video game communities--or is it?
I'm not going to say there aren't douchebags in any video game community, but in the end we are exaggerating how many there are. I've been walking around with the "competitive video gamers are generally douchebags" mentality for a while but I'm now in charge of a for-everyone smash club at my campus. We're getting pros and newbies together and they're having fun with almost no bad blood anywhere. We got a comment about pros liking Final-Destination-Fox-only
once, and we got a bad comment about a newer player
once. Having gotten back in with the competitive scene I've found most of them to be really chill guys. Smack talk happen? Sure; when you're friends are also your competitors some comments fly around and you get over it and realize its mostly just forum-intimidation. It's not all that serious, even when the people who say it
think that they believe it (after a little playing they get over it).
I really like this video by NinBuzz that shows just how mellow casual and competitive smashers are--or at least are coming to be:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLqFo7N5TZc
To me it seems like mainstream thought is tending towards a very self-defeatist type of mentality, where negative concerns tend to exaggerate problems beyond what they actually are.
So, I mean, if you want to leave because of a few people being jerks, go for it, but I hope you'll realize that the wide majority of people aren't that bad (even when it seems all of those people will gravitate to posts like these to make problems, ha ha)
Not meant to be any sort of hardcore philosophizing but just meant to encourage you guys. Don't let what a few ******* say get to your heads.