Posting on his personal tumblr, Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider explains why he shies away from the BioWare Social Network, which he says “has become increasingly toxic.”

“Spending too much time there starts to make me feel negative— not just about the games we make, but about myself and life in general,” Gaider writes. “That’s not a good feeling to have.”

Gaider’s sentiments echo a growing exhaustion many of us have concerning the sense of entitlement being voiced by many outspoken gamers. Volatility and hostility have become rampant in online communities. Posters forget that game developers, game reporters, game writers are people. Unfortunately, an erroneous sense of anonymity combined with a ludicrous sense of cultural betrayal whenever a game doesn’t cater to any given player’s every whim and want often results in the slinging of homophobic, misogynistic, and racist insults—all fairly commonplace in online communities populated by gamers—in favor of constructive criticism. In fact, Gaider pretty much nails online forums/comment threads on the head when he says

Eventually the polite, reasonable folks stop feeling like it’s a group of people they want to hang around. So they leave, and those who remain start to see only those who agree with them- and, because that’s all they see, they think that’s all there is. Everyone feels as they do, according to them. Once the tipping point is passed, you’re left with the extremes… those who hate, and those who dislike the haters enough to endure the toxic atmosphere to try and combat them. Each clash between those groups drives more of the others away.

Source: The Bittersweetest Thing