Forum examples: the Elite

In this post, I will examine several posts from popular steampunk forums that demonstrate a degree of the elitism that is present in The Guild.

In directly looking at steampunk discussions of video games, I discovered a forum thread at brassgoggles.co.uk discussing video games that people "think" are steampunk, and why these people are wrong. Below are a few examples of posts in this thread (Click on the images to enlarge them):

The introduction post starts off as being relatively non-judgemental, emphasizing "I wouldn't say this is a bad game... but it isn't a Steampunk game." The post establishes an exclusionary tone, emphasizing that the game cannot be steampunk, even though it wants to be, suggesting some of the exclusion seen in the Guild episode. By not judging the quality of the game, however, the post manages to avoid the "snooty" tone suggested by the episode, suggesting that steampunk - while having a degree of elitism - is not always as extreme as may be suggested by representations. However, later posts in the forum were not quite as inviting, suggesting that some members of the community are less forgiving than others (click to enlarge):

Brassgoggles user woutar seems a lot less accepting than the post creator, arguing that "some (not that smart) people think that dishonored is steampunk." He suggests that an inability to know if something is steampunk reflects poorly on someone's intelligence, and directly insults people for their inability to properly identify steampunk. This example is much more indicative of the "snooty" behaviour shown in The Guild, suggesting that there is some evidence from within the steampunk community itself to support the depiction. Woutar's post is then followed up by a response by user George Salt (click to enlarge):

What is interesting is that Salt is not defending the intelligence of those who misidentify steampunk - instead, his main attempt is to argue that the game Dishonored is steampunk. Salt uses the idea of whale oil as a "McGuffin" that serves the same function as steam, and argues that the atmosphere of the game makes him believe it is steampunk.
While he is crticising woutar's views on Dishonored, he does not address the implication that people who do not understand steampunk are "not that smart." Instead, he explains what does make Dishonored steampunk, but then proceeds to explain how other games such as Guns of Icarus Online are not steampunk. In addressing only woutar's definition of the genre, without addressing his treatment of people who do not fully understand the genre, Salt suggests that woutar's attitude is acceptable, or at least that it is something that is not significant enough to dispute.
By criticizing games that "call themselves steampunk" without "being steampunk," all three of these posts reinforce the idea that steampunk is an exclusionary culture. However, the posts express varying degrees of elitism - from the forgiving, mild reactions of  Steamed_up_scholar and George Salt to the extreme judgement of woutar - which suggests that elitism in steampunk is a much more varied and complex issue than the blatant "snootiness" of The Guild, and therefore deserves greater consideration.

Source: http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,41762.0.html