In every game--and I mean EVERY GAME--I hear the infamous words, "chill, dude, it's just a game."

Is it?

I mean, sure, we could just dust off our hats and go on to the next match, or leave to a different place in the cyberspace and be all whoop-de-doo. But is it just a game?

It's probably a real damn shame that it's come to this. What might possibly be worse than gamers who play too hard are gamers who play too soft. They have no sympathy to fellow gamers, and so can't relate when the rest of us have a bad day. They think it's so easy to just walk away from the controller, like it's a switch that goes on and off. But it isn't. At least, not in the literal sense.

We gamers have emotions, surprisingly, so we have the irrational right to spittle and scream at our monitors and televisions. We will get into fights about in-game stats, have insightful conversations about the mechanics of the game, and dismiss audaciously stupid ideas that would never work. As players, we have a stake in the game, even if it isn't legally so, because we are customers, and the customer is normally right, tyranny of the majority and whatnot.

It's probably an annoying probe at the mind: "if you don't like the game, don't play it." But I do like the game. It's probably a great game, let alone a good one. But no game is perfect; no game is God in disguise. So, who is it up to but the player to point out the flaws, the faults, the defects, the glitches? The developers? Surely you jest.

And if you're as unsympathetic as you seem, why are YOU even playing the game to begin with?

Well, yeah, but aren't there things that bug you?

Well, that's what the forums are for! That's why there's an option to type your opinions! We, as the constituents of a microcosm in cyberspace, and we have the right to say, the right to review, the right to criticize!

So, then, how could it truly be just a game?