Ever had the feeling that everyone hates you? It's no surprise, really. This feeling is especially true for bloggers, writers, critics. Internet writers get hundreds of bashings from the general anonymous (and not-so-anonynous) internet population, ranging from the simple "U SUCK" to a bit less indirect "F*** U." For instance, you can spend 48 straight hours playing some horrible excuse-for-an-MMO and give it the well-deserved crappy rating or verdict, only to find that everyone -- from gamers and developers, beta testers and other critics -- jumps down your throat. Then, you spend 48 more hours playing a game deserving of an astoundingly impressive review, and the people still hate you, call you a "WoW fag" and other bashings. Of worthy to note, other comments would even contest the size and virility of your genitalia just to prove how wrong or biased your judgment was.

How do we do it? How do we deal with this kind of hate, as a writer?
Well, this may also apply to every other critic or blogger out there, simple -- we eat, sleep, get drunk, play more games, and write drafts of our next articles or posts. A lot of times, honestly, we actually learn from reader feedback, especially when it comes to the fanboys or fangirls, purists or completists of a series, anti-gaming groups, WoW-clone believers, third sex haters and lovers or the spammers. The thing is, though, we usually don't learn anything of value for us to pick up a follow-up or write some better article in the future. Sure, there will be one or two seriously criticizing the article, from spelling and grammar checks to content validation. And that's something we, the writers, look forward to -- comments with content.

A certain percentage of the reading population don't fully grasp what a "review" is, what a "critic" is. We, the people writing for the gaming media, don't always stress the fact that personal opinions are what reviews are based -- because it's obviously common sense. What else would a review be if not an opinion? Law? Dogma? A constitutional amendment? The thing is, when we write a review, we gather the information right before us, write it down and think carefully of how it passes up to what we think of as "standards." Each one of us has our standard, our way of defining what's good and what's not. So when you read a review, you take up what you can use from it, and make up your own mind. That's the deal. If I'm reviewing a game, I can't say, "oh but some guy dressed as Robbie the Rabbit might disagree with me, so never mind what I said!"

Regardless, I'm sure that the writer-reader relationship will continually be a love-hate-"and more hate" relationship. People will still consider us writers sexually challenged or differentially-oriented whether the review is a negative or a positive one. For instance, one writer may give a good grade on World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Guess what, comments will storm out, saying how the writer is a "WoW fag" or a "WoW fanboy." Or perhaps, some reviewer would give a low grade on a side-scrolling MMORPG, and he gets accused of being biased towards Maple Story. Let's face it, there's an audience for everything. And true to quote, "You can't please everybody." To add, "...at least, I can please a select few, and that's good enough for me!"

The point is, we're going to keep doing what we're doing, because for some reason, the people keep on coming back.

So read up, people, and get your hate (or love) on. We're here because of you.