That's silly, they weren't gonna change their mind anyway and they don't need to feel confirmed, they can just pretend/act as if they are, they got money and can somehow be jerks about it all they want. I have no way to measure if the trolling is more than the legit posts (do you?) but this is the internet, shit posting is a given, that they want to only focus on that to pretend it confirms their position is how they'd have acted anyway.
Of course when they didn't have Epic money the story was very different and they just focused on the positive support they got even though you still had the odd troll poster talking about how the game looks shit or whatever (which hey, it's an opinion) whenever media was posted as news.
What makes you think there's any scenario where they'd rationally debate criticism rather than ignore it and handwave it all as gger drivel? Did you somehow miss their initial announcement that read like a Tim Sweeney press release trying to preemptively shut down any criticism about it whatsoever, which they then doubled down on further with every new sentence out of their mouths?
It's how Epic's handled it since day 1 and every single dev and media mouthpiece has followed suit simply because they can't counter the legit criticism so they pretend it's not there as they recycle their talking non-points like it's just a launcher, just an icon on the desktop, the low fee, the poor indies it helps (on a closed platform that doesn't let them in unless Sweeney approves and they submit to the exclusivity deal, lol?) whatever (even though it also works against their own arguments, in which case Steam is also just another icon rather than the devil incarnate we need Epic to save us from).
I mean, you had a guy talking about how he's a single parent in a near 3rd world country yet has been a patreon subscriber to the extent he was able to and how he probably won't be able to buy the game when it launches on EGS due to the lack of regional pricing/currencies which Steam would have supported and the very devs, posters on gaf and elsewhere just talked about how it's his fault for being in a shit country/situation (never mind the increasing importance of emerging markets for the industry which Steam actively nurtures and Epic ignores until the legwork is done for them, just like with PC digital distribution) or as if he was asking for a freebie. Plus the REEEEE thing (as if they'd give someone criticizing them the benefit of the doubt). Yet the ggers are those against EGS, lol?
I mean, how hard is it to at least acknowledge even a single valid point like that and then pr speak how unfortunately they can't accommodate him and others due to the EGS deal which was the best for their own situation at this time but they hope he will still be interested in the game when they launch on other platforms/territories/reduce the price/become an EGS freebie or whatever without being jerks? It's not like his post got lost, they actually responded in that inappropriate, insensitive manner that would make anyone feel like shit if they cared about internet talk (as they pretend it matters when it's against them).
You're naive if you think they got defensive over shit posting, they instigated it themselves by their attitude. When all your arguments have been handwaved as irrelevant shit from the first moment with the same tired non-arguments, how do you even begin to rationally discuss anyway? They instigated the shit posting by starting it but it's never a legit excuse to ignore the valid points made by tons of people over this or other games or just EGS in general anyway.
Personally I used to easily scroll by shit posting on forums and site comments and just discuss with people who can do that as on here, but when the shit posting is the main topic coming out of the developer, the company, the media reporting it and all their fanboy posse on top, preemptively lumping everyone else as a heathen to force their own view as the one truth, it's hard to not get annoyed by the situation. I dunno how your first instinct is to be against the toxic gamers when the other side is far more prevalent as far as I can see. Which isn't an excuse to approve of gamer shit posting but it's even hard to know how much of that is legit and how much just there to provide a scapegoat, as insufficient as it is (or should be) to act as one anyway.
