What is this guy's beef?

[Jerry]

http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=4

I have been cruising the message boards of RPG games, and this guy stood out. The self-proclaimed "RPG Pundit" seems to have a beef against "independent gamers" and rpg.net, but it is not clear to me why.
And what is this war that he keeps referring to?
Or is he just a troll?

[K]

As far as I can tell, he's just a douchebag.

The problem is that I can't tell if it's "Steven Colberg" style douche-baggery that's a parody or "Jerry Fallwell"-style douche-baggery that seems to just want to hurt people who neither know nor care about his opinion.

I expect the latter, since its neither ironic or particularly well supported (and by that, I mean that he's expressing his opinion without any support or hint of an "argument").

[Jerry]

No offense, but his paranoia reminds me of Frank's more outrageous (a.k.a. not serious) posts; having an "us versus them," "with me or against me" mentality, and that he acts as though he knows the right way to play an RPG. In a way, it reminds me of a post Frank made on the Paizo boards equivalent to "If you make ad-hoc rules arguments to interpret the rules to your advantage, then you aren't playing D&D, you're playing Magical Tea Party." Or something like that.
In short, he seems to getting in a rut about how people play/design their games on message boards; either acting as a troll, looking for kicks from peoples' reactions, or stomping around, angry that somehow, somewhere, some artsy type looks at the brutal aspects of D&D with disdain.

[K]

No offense, but his paranoia reminds me of Frank's more outrageous (a.k.a. not serious) posts; having an "us versus them," "with me or against me" mentality, and that he acts as though he knows the right way to play an RPG. In a way, it reminds me of a post Frank made on the Paizo boards equivalent to "If you make ad-hoc rules arguments to interpret the rules to your advantage, then you aren't playing D&D, you're playing Magical Tea Party." Or something like that.
In short, he seems to getting in a rut about how people play/design their games on message boards; either acting as a troll, looking for kicks from peoples' reactions, or stomping around, angry that somehow, somewhere, some artsy type looks at the brutal aspects of D&D with disdain.

When someone makes persuasive, but illogical and unsupported, arguments, then Frank pulls out the rhetorical hammer as well.

Lots of logical fallacies are persuasive, so dismissing people who rely on fallacies is the only way to push the argument further.

Remember, Frank uses rhetoric and logic. That guy is just using rhetoric.

[PhoneLobster]

He is a bit ah, conflicted I think.

He isn't all bad by a long shot, he hates the "real role player" crowd and that's good and he hates the Forge and good god that's good.

But he sort of works things around oddly moving from a reasonable starting point then pulling a one eighty to an unrelated conclusion.

I think this demonstrates it best...

I believe that a good RPG is one where there is harmony between the players and the GM.
All my talk about GM authority comes down to the fact that I don't believe that you get a good RPG out of making the players antagonistic to the GM, or thinking they have to somehow "trick" or "beat" the GM, or even have to somehow "protect themselves" from the GM. My strong belief in GM absolute authority is a call for "peace through absolute power" and all that jazz.

[Jerry]

Lots of logical fallacies are persuasive, so dismissing people who rely on fallacies is the only way to push the argument further.

But Frank doesn't seem dismissive. If that were the case, he wouldn't care that Lich-loved thought that he was wrong.
It seems that Frank is very sensitive to what people say about him and his ideas, or he plays the part very well.
Not saying that Frank is a whiner, he just has to not take message boards and gaming so seriously.

[Bigode]

Lots of logical fallacies are persuasive, so dismissing people who rely on fallacies is the only way to push the argument further.

Good point, but Frank mixes emotion and logic into a roiling stew, making extra effort to separate the two, and people don't like that.
But Frank doesn't seem dismissive. If that were the case, he wouldn't care that Lich-loved thought that he was wrong.
It seems that Frank is sensitive to what people say about him and his ideas, or he plays the part very well.
Not saying that Frank is a whiner, he just has to not take message boards and gaming so seriously.

Caring about what that retard said served 3 purposes: getting him (LL, of course it also backfired at the same time) timed out, digging faster through the Paizo employees' rubble, and showing the facts to other, less retarded people, who have some ability to tell logic staring them at the face.

[Jerry]

so what is up with the Pundit's obsession with RPG.net? Did he ever work there or something?
Also, is the Forge as cracked up as he makes it out to be?

[Nihlin]

Also, is the Forge as cracked up as he makes it out to be?

The Forge is a massive circle-jerk of coffeehouse scene kids. It's also produced actual good games that you can actually buy in a store - which is to say, people from that forum have written games based on principles espoused by forum members, then playtested and revised their games based on forum feedback and forum-member playtest circles, then actually published.

So, it's mostly annoying. However, the small subset of members who actually write and publish have produced some very good games. They've also produced a lot of shit, but hey, a success rate above 0% is pretty good in this industry.

[Psychic Robot]

I post there, occasionally. TheRPGPundit is mildly insane.

[Jerry]

I post there, occasionally. TheRPGPundit is mildly insane.

He's probably playing the role for fun.