For a while now, I have noticed that this year alone, many rage-bait and hate content farms have been popping up, especially in video games. It’s not too surprising, since, besides rampant inflation and rising video game prices, creating negative content is much easier than creating positive content. I get it —the world is chaotic right now, and people are upset that they’re being priced out of their hobbies.
However, most of the rage-bait and hate content farms come from people who don’t even play the game or aren’t even in the fandom to begin with. This trend is very noticeable with the Nintendo Switch 2, which received a lot of hate primarily due to its price and a few other controversial decisions, such as game key cards. Yes, I think some of the criticisms are valid or compelling. If you dig deeper, it’s only filled with rage-bait and negative content, which makes you think, are their points really genuine, or are they just doing it for the money and are creatively bankrupt?
After seeing the discourse surrounding Pokémon Legends ZA, which was recently revealed to have sold about 6 million copies, in line with previous game releases, hate grifters and rage baiters (along with big influencers) are going full force in not only creating endless content bashing the game they will never play, but they also harass people who are just enjoying the game. With that, I felt the need to finally address my feelings on rage-baiters, hate-grifters and hate content farms and how it’s affecting the current discourse on video games.
Rage Baiters and Hate Grifters Using Misinformation to Justify Their Hate
Rage baiters and hate content farms commonly spread misinformation to justify their hate for something. However, when they do this, along with taking quotes out of context, they are used just to fit one’s narratives, invalidating their arguments. For instance, most Nintendo hate grifters are using a mistranslated quote from Miyamoto—”games eventually become obsolete when newer versions come out, but films remain forever”—to validate their Nintendo hate. After all, these haters claim Nintendo doesn’t want to make video games anymore, even though the quote is mistranslated and lacks context.
The same goes for the said patent that involves the player summoning a character and having it fight automatically. Those hate grifters say Nintendo is being evil as a result, since it will affect every game with a player character who can summon anything. However, this is not what the patent is about; it covers the implementation of the auto battle feature in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Basically, the hate grifters are bending the facts of the patent to spread misinformation and justify their hate.
Of course, this is in addition to bashing a game over and over again and spreading misinformation just to fit one’s argument, when they have no intention of ever buying it, to get people who are fans of a specific game or franchise to get angry at them and raise engagement and views —hence the rage-baiting. I think these people who engage in creating rage-bait and/or harass people who like something they don’t are full of it.
Sure, I didn’t like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet when they first came out. It ran so poorly and had so many bugs that I stopped playing it for a while. Eventually, things have improved for Scarlet and Violet with the DLC and subsequent updates.
After getting the Switch 2 shortly after it launched, I enjoyed Pokémon Scarlet and Violet more and decided to finish the game and the DLC, which was a good decision. I thought Ogrepon is cute, and the development of Suguri, Zeiyu’s younger brother, who becomes an outcast and eventually goes down a dark path due to all the resentment over how he was treated by the player character and his older sister, like Ogrepon, the Pokémon he looks up to. Even so, there are some things I didn’t like about Scarlet and Violet, such as the lack of clothing options, especially skirts and dresses.
After playing hours of Pokémon Legends ZA, I think it’s a better game compared to Scarlet and Violet for the fact that it’s fun, doesn’t have all the issues at launch, and the fact that the battle system is more interesting. Sure, some things could be done better in ZA, like the graphics, but they are not deal-breakers. By sharing my likes and dislikes about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and my liking for Pokémon Legends ZA, it shows that you can have an opinion and criticize a game if you know what you are talking about, not spewing nonsense or misinformation.
Regardless, without rational discourse, the arguments on the internet can become incredibly toxic. It’s because rage baiters and hate grifters who aren’t even fans of the franchise or even own a Switch 2, for that matter, are flooding the zone with all this misinformation and negativity. There are a lot of complaints about the “JPEG windows,” which is a non-issue since it’s mostly an optimization to let the game run on the original Switch. The graphics, along with how some Mega Evolutions look, are among the main points these rage-baiters and hate grifters repeat over and over again.
This trend is not only limited to Pokémon Legends ZA, but also the Switch 2 and Nintendo in general. How can you have an opinion about a game if you don’t even play it? You can’t, and it really shows that they don’t know what they are talking about. They are basically Francis from Super Paper Mario, who loves to go online and complain about games they’ve never played. Those grifters are basically that, which is no wonder the discourse is incredibly toxic, making it impossible to have a rational discussion, as these hate grifters are flooding the zone, drowning out any legitimate opinions.
Rage Baiters and Hate Grifters Harassing People who Enjoy a Certain Franchise, media or game for Engagement and Increased Overpolarization in the Fandom
As someone who plays video games for entertainment and mostly stays out of the discourse, I think the situation, especially with Pokémon Legends ZA, is incredibly toxic. Besides saying the same criticisms over and over again, these Pokémon hate grifters are even spreading misinformation and harassing people who are enjoying the game, saying things like calling them bootlickers and shrills for Pokémon or even Nintendo. It mostly comes from people who are “extremely online” and have nothing else to do but harass people. I don’t think this is healthy, and of course, it makes the whole situation even worse. Also, the haters hate to realize that you cannot control what people want to do with their money. If a fan buys the game, don’t harass them for buying it.
The funny thing is that, with all this hate, it brings attention to the game, media, or game console in question. Therefore, it causes people to check it out themselves to see how it is and find out it’s not as bad as those hate grifters make it out to be. Also, people might even buy it to spite those hate-grifters and rage baiters.
I think part of this is the overpolarization in society—not just in politics—which is a problem in itself. You have to be for or against something, not in between. If these people are not on your side, they are the enemy. For instance, if you like Pokémon Legends ZA, these haters will call you a bootlicker, a shill, a neckbeard, a fanboy, a person who enjoys playing slop; conversely, if someone hates the game, people accuse them of being a rage-baiter, a grifter, etc.
Because of that, there is no room for any middle ground: liking the game while sharing what he or she doesn’t like and what can be improved. That means no rational discussion of constructive criticism or of what one likes about a particular piece of media or the franchise’s direction can take place without the fear of getting harassed. While I do like Pokémon Legends ZA, I think it’s better than Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, especially since there are hardly any game-breaking bugs or performance issues.
While things have improved for Scarlet and Violet with the DLC and subsequent updates, the game runs better, especially on the Nintendo Switch 2, which is when I enjoyed it most. Even so, there are some things I didn’t like about Scarlet and Violet, such as the lack of clothing options, especially skirts and dresses. Moreover, some things could be done better in ZA, but they are not deal-breakers. Without rational discourse, the arguments on the internet can become incredibly toxic, especially with increased polarization and harassment as we have seen so far this year.
Rage Baiters and Hate Grifters using Other Games to Justify their Hate for a Certain Franchise and Their Fans
Also, those hate baiters are using other games like Digimon and Palworld just to hate on Pokémon, saying these games are better and Pokémon is inferior. However, I doubt they actually play these games they mention.
As for Palworld, it’s often mentioned by those hate grifters as a battle cry against Nintendo, since Nintendo sued Palworld for violating Japan’s stricter copyright law. I think they are within their right to do so as long as they are doing something with their copyright, especially given the pals in Palworld look too similar to some Pokémon. The mechanics of catching Pals in spheres seem a bit too close to Pokéballs in Pokémon.
That said, I have played the game, and while it looks like an interesting idea—a survival game where you build a base, catch pals, and make various objects and weapons—I think it’s mediocre and pure slop. It doesn’t have a real story; the environment and objects are basically a big asset flip that doesn’t blend with the rest of the stuff. Also, the Pals are unoriginal and just bits from another Pokémon put into a blender to create an unoriginal Pal creature. That is, besides the bugs where the character falls into the map, and the AI is dumb.
To me, Palworld is just dull and pure slop with no real story after playing 80+ hours. My feelings after giving it a try are unsurprising, since Pocket Pair, which developed the game, also made a game that involves AI-generated images. I detest AI image generation because it’s trained on images from artists without their permission. Sure, they say they won’t publish games that use AI-generated stuff, but they also published this game that involves the use of, you guessed it, AI-generated images. It just really shows the haters prefer “actual slop” from a company that developed a slop game involving AI-generated images over quality experiences like Pokémon, which sells millions of copies.
Rage Bait, Toxic Discourse and Hate Grifting being caused by being priced out of hobbies?
I think another issue that is fueling the hate content farms, rage-bait, and hate grifters is the fact that video games are getting expensive. While they are cheaper than in the 90s adjusted for inflation, wages have not kept up with inflation.
As a result, necessities like food, housing, and transportation have gone up, so people who aren’t making a decent living can’t afford things like video games. While video games are a luxury, I admit that, while I can afford them, they’re increasingly out of reach for some, especially for Generation Z and Alpha. While greed can be a factor, inflation also affects the costs of creating video games.
While the Switch 2 is cheaper than the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series after the price increases, PC gaming is not any more affordable either. Since the pandemic, GPU prices have gotten very high for decent GPUs. Even buying an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 does not guarantee that games will run at native 4K at 60 FPS. Most games coming to PC are unoptimized, requiring AI-generated frames and upscaling. Even with those, it comes with drawbacks, including increased latency and potential image quality issues.
In a way, a good chunk of this negativity stems from the hope that a game or console will be bad, so they don’t have to buy it. It’s not too surprising, since some of the negativity stems from voicing frustration that things are getting expensive and from scrutinizing whether it’s worth it. Sure, it’s understandable, but when hate-grifters and rage-baiters lie and make stuff up as a result of not being able to afford it, it, of course, drowns out legitimate criticism as mentioned earlier and makes their points unbelievable.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, I think that some people, especially the hate grifters and rage-baiters, really need to touch grass. If you create nothing but negative content, spread misinformation just to prove that you are right, and/or harass people, it really invalidates all your arguments since you are basically being an asshole. If you don’t like it, fine —just say so and move on, and don’t mention it again.
From the content rage baiters and hate-grifters who create it, and from their toxic behavior, they don’t care about the franchise or gaming as a whole; they are creatively bankrupt creators with nothing positive to say, filled with negativity, and therefore, none of their opinions should be taken seriously.
However, this doesn’t mean you can’t criticize or like something. It’s okay to share constructive criticism or opinions, as long as they are delivered constructively and rationally and backed up with actual sources and facts. We really need to bring back reasonable discourse if we want that to happen. If we want that, everyone needs to stop the bigrading, dogpiling, rage-baiting if we are going to have one. Sadly, I don’t think this will happen —at least not on social media.
With that, we need to ignore these rage-baiters and hate grifters, call them out for their lies, behavior and misinformation, and don’t watch and interact with any of their negativity slop. After all, the internet is not real life, and regular people are most likely enjoying the game, media, or even the Nintendo Switch 2 without caring about the online discourse. With Pokémon Legends: ZA being a success, selling close to 6 million in one week and perhaps selling millions more, it’s obvious most people are ignoring the vocal minority of rage-baiters and hate grifters.
What are your thoughts on the rampant hate-content farms, rage bait, and hate grifters problem in regards to discourse with media on the internet? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
@chikorita157 I think we all need to think harder about how we process what we consume. Don’t take any hate at face value, find out if it’s actually true. Don’t stoop to extreme views on everything yourself.
The amount of things regurgitated as facts today to drive hate that are easily refutable are staggering. That number goes up a lot with only a modest investment in self education.
Not to mention that any argument based on the idea that you need to hate someone (and this now runs the full gamut from trivial to the most important) is a poor one.
Most things are ok to disagree about. Especially things like entertainment (I think the Monster Hunter Stories series are better than PM, but I also play PM myself. I don’t have to pick a side and defend it).
Don’t fall for the hate, enjoy what you enjoy and normalize being nice.
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