Positivity doesn't just spring out of nowhere. Sure, there's going to be more negative sentiment than positive (work in customer support roles long enough, and you'll find that unhappy people are angrily noisy, whereas happy people are quietly content), but it's how you manage that negativity that makes the difference. If a customer has a gripe, the very first thing you do is assure them that you're sorry, you understand why they're unhappy and assure them that you're working on it - that's half the battle there; customer service 101. Just saying 'we're listening' doesn't cut it, because as any cop will tell you, that's usually the last thing one spouse said just before the other one made them eat a shotgun. You never, EVER let negativity fester, because it goes from being a gripe, to a grievance, to a rant, to a mission and finally to an absolute -blam!- crusade. And misery loves company, so before you know it people will line up to join those ranks because if nothing else, they can then share with people who understand how they feel. I don't feel sorry for Bungie in the slightest for the state of these forums, because it's a mess entirely of their own making, nor do I sympathise that morale there is 'at an all time low', because it's been that way on these forums for years and they've just turned a blind eye to it. As for the current situation, that's entirely on Bungie, nobody else needs to feel guilty for being tired of it all, nor should they just close their eyes to it and hope it goes away; if people hadn't done that in the past, it wouldn't still keep happening.

Though I agree with you, I think you took it to an unnecessarily dark place just to illustrate a point.

I don't think it is an [quote]unnecessarily dark place[/quote] - I'm just illustrating that if it's handled properly, negative community sentiment can be a big fat nothing burger rather than an ongoing and serious issue. If smaller companies like Hello Games can take community sentiment which is (and I apologise for the understatement) 'actively hostile' and [u]completely[/u] turn it around in under two years to develop a game that people point to and say '[u]that[/u] is how you should treat your players and manage your game', then a company like Bungie should be able to do it in their sleep. But unfortunately, sleeping on it is the only thing they seem to have done, and now it's out of control. And they have no-one to blame but themselves.