Poll: the vocal minority - how does it affect you?

[nick2150]

Hi everyone I have a question for you all

After the whole mass effect 3 debacle it occurred to me that my opinion has been permanently effected by the outcry from everyone/the vocal minority about the ending. I dont know how small or large the group of people was that had the complaints they did, but that's not really the issue. The issue for me is that my opinion was altered before I even played the game, and I can't tease apart my opinion from the consensus generated by the internet. Also, Iv'e seen peoples opinions shift from on the fence to actively opposed to the ending; some people even choosing to dislike the ending without playing it themselves. And now I can see the same thing starting to happen to Prometheus.


My question to you is do you think that the opinions of this 'vocal minority' starts to bleed through to effect more and more people? I genuinely believe it is a biological mechanism to synchronise personal opinions to the strongest ideas and opinions and to reach a consensus as it helps society function.

thanks for your feedback!

EDIT: By the way to clarify the questions,

1 means that your personal opinion is modified by these opinions

2 means that your opinion is not modified but the small minority should be ignourd because they dont give the genuine overall opinion because happy people are less likely to make their opinions known

3 means these people dont effect you at all and it doesn't matter what they do, the game/film/book whatever wont be effected by all the vocal minority

4 there is no such thing as the vocal minority, Its everyone's opinion, that's why its so prevalent.

 

[Jarek Mace]

I wouldn't have called a minority.

OT: Of course they do, those who aren't vocal often don't have an opinion on their subject and this is perhaps one of the first introductions they have into it, so it's the only side of the argument you know.

 

[bobmus]

You'll want to change that thread title - 'effect' and 'affect' have different meanings...

OT: More often than not I think a vocal minority should be ignored, but the moment it's no longer a minority, we should sit up and pay attention.

 

[Vault101]

I don't think is this is really bout "vocal minority" I think this is more about how others opinions affect yours

 

[nick2150]

You'll want to change that thread title - 'effect' and 'affect' have different meanings...

done! (always struggle with that one)

OT: More often than not I think a vocal minority should be ignored, but the moment it's no longer a minority, we should sit up and pay attention.

how do you differentiate between it being a small group or a large group though? The Internet skews things a little.

I don't think is this is really bout "vocal minority" I think this is more about how others opinions affect yours

I was just using the term as a cover all as it seems to be the way people tried to explain away the mass effect 3 debate. I suppose my point is that in this age of instant idea sharing, how do you stop yourself getting swept up in an opinion (usually negative) that may not have been your own had you been given the opportunity to come to the conclusion yourself?

 

[Vault101]

I was just using the term as a cover all as it seems to be the way people tried to explain away the mass effect 3 debate. I suppose my point is that in this age of instant idea sharing, how do you stop yourself getting swept up in an opinion (usually negative) that may not have been your own had you been given the opportunity to come to the conclusion yourself?

when I first played ME3 I kept thinking "what the escapist would think"...I was picking out all the flaws even though I didn't care or I didn't want to

but then I simply forgot, and I got swept up and enjoyed it, even if the game was flawed I still got everything I wanted out of it

 

[Sixcess]

"Most players don't post on forums so those that do are not representative of the majority."

I hate that argument - which comes up a lot, especially in MMO forums. The people that post on forums may be a minority, but they are also a majority of the people who care enough to bother posting in the first place. If a large percentage of your forum users are saying something is bad then the chances are that it is bad. Are you listening, Bioware?

It doesn't influence my personal opinion, but it irritates me to see it dismissed as 'the vocal minority.'