hahahahahahahahaa good idea, hopefully it'll keep the temptation away.
 

You actually come out of this looking much better than Syn does. I'm glad to see the BS-fest end.
 

I think this is a great move. I welcome your return to objectivity, since that is by far the most appealing quality of your blog. /applaud
 

You could have omitted the last sentence :).

Otherwise I welcome your decision.
While I like blogs commenting each other, stark disagreement that gains a personal momentum is always disappointing.

Happy Christmas!
 

Thank you. I felt the pointless war detracted from your normally high brow articles.
 

That was a good post by Genda. I echoed similar sentiments on his blog a while back.

The lack of objectivity hasn't bothered me that much. After all, it's his blog, so I'm reading his viewpoint. And he's never been objective.

What has bothered me is that his arguments have devolved into either

a) ad hominem attacks where he critizes the poster (or the game) rather than the point itself

or

b) argumentum verbosium - a rhetorical technique that tries to persuade by overwhelming those considering an argument with such a volume of material that the argument sounds plausible and superficially appears to be well-researched

Those are basically the only two tools Syncaine has had in his toolbox for a while now to win any argument.

So in my opinion, it's not objectivity that Syncaine has lost because he never had it.

What he's lost is the ability to create rational and logical arguments to support his position.
 

How did Scott Jennings become such a sacred cow. How come folks were quite prepared to put up with Syncaine's Rants until he dared to criticise Lum the Mad?
 

Why are they called "blog wars" anyways?

Are bloggers under the assumption that someone is going to "win" in a scenario where all the players have an equal say in the matter of games?

It's almost as if there are self proclaimed "intellectuals" of the blogosphere, who are hell bent on stomping out dissenting opinions through the use of character assassination, and then claiming some sort of hollow victory in the end where everyone will don Cardigans, sip the celebratory wine and wax poetic about games from atop their high horses.

Bloggers really need to get over themselves and rememeber that one needs to be forever objective, and sometimes subjective about issues surrounding our preferred interests.
 

I'm still going to read Tobold and Syncaine's blogs. They each have their faults and certainly both have their longeurs, but generally I enjoy them both.

I vaguely remember reading Scott Jennings when he was doing his "Lum the Mad" site, just before Mythic headhunted him. I was playing DAOC at the time. As I recall it, he was a fairly take-no-prisoners commentator then. I'd guess Syncaine's comments are water off a duck's back to him. He certainly hasn't deigned to comment.

Anyway, it'd be nice to get back to posts about stuff, rather than about personalities.
 

Mostly, for me, because it crossed the line from folks arguin' the point over dinner to taking to task someone actually in the industry who, you know, does stuff - doesn't just develop mmo's from his armchair.

And takes him to task in an ungracious, villifying, personal way.
 

Anyone who has played mmo games longer than 10 years realizes that Scott "Lum the Mad" Jennings claim to fame is the very thing that people are calling Sycaine out for. His opinion on matters is no more valid than anyone else's. Lum the Mad of the present is no less acerbic than Lum the Mad of the past. Sometimes you do need to read between the lines to notice though. It's still there.

Tobold, this is the fist time posting to your blog, but I have to respectfully say that you are being a little passive aggressive about this Sycaine thing. You must realize that you are just as biased as Sycaine towards the games you hold dear, and I have often seen this bias in your writings. Now before you write me off as a troll, let me say that you are a very good writer, and I enjoy your blog.
In terms of ending the blog wars, why cut out the opinion of someone who has an alternate point of view? Both of you have interesting points of view.

Scott Jennings in his day, has given better than the entire rantosphere of the Internet. He is no sacred cow, as mpb said and I think he would be a little disappointed to have people think of him as such.
 

personally I find this blog a lot more interesting when it's about your own opinions, and less so when it's about whatever "outrageous" thing Syncaine or Gevlon said this week.
 

Good decision. Ignore him. I prefer when you mention credible bloggers, rather than weak ones.
 

I think this will only bring good things for you Mr. Tobold. Having a disagreement with someone is one thing. Letting a whiney baby with a mean streak in him get to you is another thing entirely.
 

I really feel you should reconsider removing Syncaine from your watch list. As much as I do think his arguments were not as well worded or crafted as they should have been and that he devolved a few times during the course of the war he still provides a contrast for you to look at.
Syncaine needs you as well whether he would admit to it or not as you act as a sort of accountability check on him.
In any case at least consider adding him back, even if you don't actually post about him again.
 

Sorry, Syncaine stays off the watch list. I'm not an emotionless robot, I get angry when I read the insults and nonsense he is blabbering. I can only keep not writing about him when I'm not reading what he says.

Not a big loss, since he gets those 20% of Darkfall sales he stopped posting interesting stuff anyway. Every post is just about how great Darkfall is, and how everybody who doesn't appreciate Darkfall should go and die in a fire. That is not the sort of "contrast" this blog needs.