I don't think it's appropriate for the mods/projects section unless it's 100% called for (ie: the mod creator is a dick and doesn't listen to anybody ie: me 3 or 4 years ago).Decay wrote: Legion says this principle will not be extended to the rest of the forum. I think smack talk in all the forums would be just as useful. It may even bring up the quality of topics and mods/projects in the same way "the competitive spirit" is promoted with smack talk.
Can we bring this to the table?
There's really no way to be useful if you're "smack talking" someone's work. There's such thing as being a snappy critic, but I wouldn't really call that "smack talk".
To me, smack talk would be "yo this mod sucks, you shouldn't have made it" with no other reasoning given. And that's usually never called for, ever. Unless it's something that Doomguy2000 or whatever his /idgames name is made. You know, something made to intentionally frustrate the person who plays it.
Now, yes, realistically I expect people to express their feelings a bit subjectively when it comes to giving feedback. I mean, that's what makes us players. We all have things that we enjoy and things that irk us. For example, "this part of the map looks like crap because you used a million different colored textures" is a perfectly acceptable type of comment. Being intentionally insulting, however, isn't.
Bringing personal matters into the mods/projects section is also uncalled for unless it's a specific complaint about the gameplay of the mod itself. Everybody knows exactly what kind of mod they're about to see when they click a thread titled "Friendship Is Magic Skins". They're gonna see a skin pack filled with ponies. Bottom line. There's no need to verbalize one's distaste for bronies in that project thread, whether it's the majority opinion in this community or not. If it's not relevant to the quality of the mod itself, it can be kept to a PM.
