Susan Arendt:

While none of us particularly enjoy reading through posts where readers fantasize about caving in our skulls or impaling us because we dared to like a game that they hate (or hate one they love), such posts don’t really have the impact the authors hope they will. They don’t make us rethink our positions on anything, they don’t drive us to abandon game journalism, we don’t suddenly understand how wrong we’ve been and mend our ways. We just call you an asshole and go about our business.

Arendt is the managing editor of The Escapist, a gaming magazine Web site, and what spurred her to write this blog post is the recent abuse heaped on Dragon Age developer Jennifer Hepler – much of it vile, abusive, misogynistic garbage. Arendt has, of course, faced some of the same.

Arendt is right, for the most part – if you wanna disagree with me, go ahead. But being a dick about it makes it really easy for me to ignore you. In the words of the inimitable Wil Wheaton (the actor who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation), don’t be a dick.

(Via TUAW’s Chris Rawson on Twitter)