Blog trolls

The big disadvantage of that Boing Boing link is that it got read by lots of people outside the sphere of MMORPG players. And obviously if you don't play a MMORPG, most of my blog entries seem silly and nerdish to you. There are perfectly good blogs on nearly every subject under the sun, for example  breeding goldfish, but unless you are a goldfish breeder yourself the information in them is arcane and not very relevant to the majority of humanity. How big Azeroth is doesn't interest anyone not playing World of Warcraft. But if you are playing and compare the player density of lets say Hellfire Peninsula just after BC came out with the player density of a typical Vanguard zone, you'd realize that size, or rather "players per landmass unit" is a rather important aspect of MMORPG game design. Too small a world is bad due to players stepping on each others toes, too big and the place becomes too lonely for a multiplayer game.

 

Issues like that are only relevant in the very limited context of MMORPG game design, or as a bit of trivia among players of that particular game. Ever stumbled into a conversation at a party between two or more people sharing the same hobby, one which you happened not to share? Boooooring, and you don't really understand half of it. Why does this perfectly healthy guy in the funny trousers talk about his "handicap", and how do "birdies" and "eagles" fit into that? The big advantage of blogs over party conversations is that the blogosphere is a lot bigger than the average party, and you can simply move on to the next blog and hope it is more up your alley. What I don't understand is that some people feel the need to write negative comments into the blogs they don't get. Or even write a blog entry just to say that they found my blog through Boing Boing and find it hilariously nerdish. I found especially ironic the anonymous blog troll who advised me and my readers to "get a life", given that I wouldn't consider writing that comment to be a good use of "life". Why can't people accept that each of us has his little hobbies, which are dear to our hearts, as strange they might seem to others?