So today I found out that Kotaku has totally revamped its commenting system. Apart from making people constantly chase comments that are ever shifting, Kotaku has also decided to give preferential treatment to "star" commentators -- everyone else will simply be hidden.

Great. More elitism in gaming. That's just what we need.

It's a bad idea. For a start, it totally ignores the concept that leaders of communities are promoted from the belly, not appointed from above. Additionally, it creates a disturbing cl@ss system where not everyone is treated equally. They are honestly saying: "These people are better than you."

So, I've stopped reading. I enjoyed posting there as the discussion could be enjoyable, but now it's just a mess to follow discussion that isn't "chosen". I like to decide who I give my respect to. No big deal; I'll move on. But it did remind me of the nature of communities. How many times have you heard someone try and elevate themselves above another by claiming that they were part of the community first? How many times have you seen a person's opinion discounted just because their post count isn't out of the single digits? Communities are often run by elitists with inflated egos who want to preserve a system that benefits them.

I remember way back in the day I joined the Penny Arcade IRC channel. Gabe and Tycho were never in it, but I figured it would be fun to talk to a bunch of like-minded people. However, I was promptly told through a whisper that I should stop talking and learn to lurk. It wasn't even a polite whisper; it was just the word "lurk". This community didn't want to foster new members or even encourage new discussion. To pay my dues I was to sit in the room, not talking, watching other people not talking. (I assume at some point I would have finally been deemed "worthy" of being talked to, but screw that for a joke.) It was how the community worked, with its heirachy, and they didn't want that disturbed.

Am I the only one that finds this a bit pathetic?

You may of may not have heard of the case of David Myers, a professor at Loyola University who managed to get everyone to hate him in City of Heroes. Did he manage this by being an obnoxious troll? No; he managed to do it by playing the game as it was intended. Unfortunately for him, the elitists in the community had decided that it should be played a certain way. Because what Myers was doing didn't fit with that, because it broke their heirachy and elitist culture, he ended up getting death threats. Nice.

Elitists in any community are a poison that slowly and surely prevents growth and expansion. But they like it that way; they want to be a big fish in a little pond. Just look at how everyone is reacting to the success of the Wii. It's sad, really. Ultimately, this whole Kotaku thing has been a bit of a reminder that this is how things operate and it won't change. I guess in the end the best thing to do is not to contribute, ignore the allure of Web 2.0, and to simply go about my business and maybe casually discuss some news with my friends. For now, however, I'll leave you with a little op-ed piece that I wrote for a gaming site that is now defunct. I think it's appropriate given my diatribe.

There I sat staring, mouth agape, at the situation in front of me: a vote about whether to kick me out of the Left 4 Dead game in which I was currently. I had purchased the game as part of Steam's weekend offer (50% off!) and I had only had the game for about 10 minutes. I had fumbled my way around, trying to get a grasp of the controls and what exactly the objectives where and thought that considering the game doesn't come with a manual via digital distribution I wasn't doing too badly. However, it wasn't long until the match I was in with my friend, whom with which I was trying to understand the gameplay, was populated by others. People who took the game very seriously, it seems.

"Please play properly!" I'm told very sternly over voice chat. I press Y and type: "I've only had the game 10 minutes." A reply tells me: "No excuses."

It's an experience that almost has me regretting my purchase. I am a gamer of over 20 years, so I am not exactly a complete scrub at gaming. However, these comments made me feel small and unwanted, like I couldn't be part of the experience because I wasn't good at the game straight away. It was then that a conclusion hit me: gamers are ruining gaming.

This might come as an obvious statement to many. One of the major complaints about Xbox LIVE is that the general population is mainly comprised of racist, homophobic teenagers who take no greater pleasure than screaming obscenities through their headsets. However, this situation was different. The people yelling at me were not obnoxious American teenagers but British adults – adults who took the game too seriously. Did I mention that already?

We're told to go down the hole in the floor together. It's a simple concept that I understand. Just as I'm about to go down the hole, I am ensnared by a zombie and killed.

"For **** sake! What did I just tell you to do?" I am again chewed out for not being amazing at the game – even in a situation where I kind of feel that there is nothing I could have done anyway. It makes me think about the Wii. Perhaps the reason the Wii has been so successful isn't because it's populated with shovelware minigames that the general population laps up because they have no taste. Perhaps the reason is because the console isn't associated with the diehard elitist gaming community. It's not about gamerscore bragging rights or "pwning n00bs"; it's about having fun with friends and family in the same room. It's something that gaming should be: fun. I think about my WoW guild, how a once happy crew that laughed when we wiped in an instance was getting increasingly testy, yelling at each other because not enough damage per second was being dealt, and level 80s were getting their characters audited. Audited? Seriously? The change has me seriously considering leaving.

I see a character jump from rooftop to rooftop and I am unaware how to do this. I ask. Big mistake.

"FFS!" is the reply I receive.

It's this kind of mentality that is holding gaming back and keeping it from becoming a true mainstream medium. When someone's had a hard day at work, they want to kick back and unwind, not be screamed at by others for having inferior skills or being told that their play cl@ss is insufficient and that they should change it to what is considered the standard. Even someone like me finds myself questioning why they are playing, and I've been playing games longer than I can remember.

I think about Nintendo again, how they are making money hand over fist, especially in America. I think about how many gamers have nothing but contempt for the Wii. I laugh at the thought that it is probably their contempt and absence from the Wii community that makes it so attractive to the general public. I think about the current economic crisis, and how so many gaming companies have recently folded or had major setbacks. I think about Midway. I wonder if the gaming industry can really afford to have elitist gamers chasing away potential players and, more importantly, customers. I myself wonder if it's a wise idea getting another online game if this is the kind of experience I am going to be exposed to.

I tell everyone that this will be my last round, and then I will leave. I feel too inadequate to play without some more practice and I don't particularly feel like getting screamed at.

"This is the last round anyway, you ****ing n00b." Great, I can't even leave without being harassed. It makes me wonder if I want to log in and play again, or whether I just want to stick to the campaign.

I log, and decide to climb into bed and read a book. But the thoughts are still salient, piercing my brain. Why were they so mean? Do they have some kind of social problems in real life that makes them take it out on everyone in the game? Do they feel big doing it? Is this cyber bullying in the virtual playground that I am experiencing? All I know is that it makes me feel like doing something else with my free time – and I expect that many others feel the same way. Online gaming community: I now consider it an oxymoron. My final thoughts before I go to bed are simply that if the gaming community wants to grow, if the gaming industry wants to grow, then this kind of behavior has to stop. Then I realize that these people probably don't want it to stop. They want the community all to themselves, their own little elitist corner of the Internet. 'A shame;' I think 'they're killing gaming.'