Posted by Klaak on June 17, 2000 at 20:21:20:
In Reply to: Something that deserves reposting: Ponderer's "This Game, This Life" posted by Oft-Arbiter(VIP) on June 16, 2000 at 14:17:17:
> Posted by The Ponderer on August 12, 1999 at 04:38:04:
>
> The CF experience, so grand, so engulfing. I'm sure it has ruined a life, a relationship, or maybe just a semester. We become so engrossed in making the experience enjoyable, so fulfilling that we often forget about the real world. What happens though when the experience expands into the real world? What happens when we begin to embrace EVERYTHING CF, the forum, IRC, ICQ relationships, the soap opera that is CF?
>
> I'll tell you what happened to me. CF itself was made a lot less fun. When you begin to form relationships outside of the game, when you begin to realize and take notice of the other relationships between people who play the game, the game itself suffers.
I think I have to disagree with this part. I've personally enjoyed CF alot more since I was pointed to #carrionfields. There's alot more to CF that's not very easy to see when you stay solely in-game, that you realise the existance of from OOC. Somethings are so hard to see that it takes years of playing to even find out about, let alone know how to do. In IRC you can sometimes find out that something exists, yet you know nothing about how to do it, where to find it, or what comes from it, merely that it does exist. A good example is that when I first came on IRC, I had no clue that Hell was actually a place in Thera. I learned that it existed, but still knew nothing of it, but it gave me something to look for in-game. Situations like this can take a long time to even be aware of, but for the ooc relations.
> Like it or not there is a monstrous web of relationships out there that is getting people special favors. I'm not going to sit here and say that these favors are a result of nepotism and the like, but what I am going to say is that these favors happen. It might just be because one player who knows another player knows them well enough to know that they won't screw it up. They won't take advantage of, abuse, or ruin the favor. However, knowing that this takes place takes from the game. You examine it and realize that it's not necessarily excellent roleplay or skill, but ooc relationships that leaderships, quests, titles and so forth are based on. Not all mind you, but just enough to make it less enjoyable.
This much I think I would have to aggree with. There is some of that happening, though not as much as some people would like to believe. I'm positive that there are people who see something they didn't get, or couldn't do, and out of jealousy shout CHEAT, and convince themselves that to get anything worth having, you have to cheat, and that's just not true.
> Then there's IRC. You spend a lot of time here and you begin to realize that the CF playerbase(at least those that go to IRC) is a sorry bunch of people. Monstrous egos, delusions of grandeur, jealousy, cheating, and name-calling abound.
Where IRL do you NOT find this? Humans are good and evil and a mixture of both. That's going to be true no matter where you go in the wolrd.
> Maturity sits in the corner and weaps at its lack of power.
Be careful saying that because there ARE some rather mature people in the IRC chat. <---This statement also goes for my above reply.
I also wouldn't say they sit there weaping in the corner at their lack of power. It's more like sit quietly in the corner with two solid walls behind them to lean against while the immature sit there and blow out all their wind trying to assault the mature among us, and then when the immature are exhausted, the mature step out and deal one solid knock-down blow for the kill, then step back to the corner to wait for more.
> People begin hating other people. They begin to scheme, waiting for that person to name one of his chars so that they can jump on the opportunity and ridicule and degrade them for any little thing they've done in the past.
You make it sound like anyone who goes to IRC is going to be corrupted and start doing this. The only people who do that, are the people who would do that anyway, reguardless of where they were or what it was in reguards to. Not everyone's hearts and minds are filled with hate and contempt.
> Read the forum and realize that not only is the playerbase immature, but they're also a whiners. Whining goes on endlessly. Whether it be because something isn't going their chars way, or because the player is trying to use some hightened form of morality to degrade a certain cabal, player, or immortal. Again, people wait for opportunities to harm another player, assassinating their char, posting a log of the char going against its "belief" system.
Again, this is the nature of REAL-LIFE, not CF. And again, REAL-LIFE is not all bad and scheming. Not all the playerbase is a bunch of whiner, or trying to degrade or assassinate others. Also, what you call whining is sometimes just someone working out their frustrations with something. I'd be willing to bet it's often due to stress in their life at the time, and it's just gotten too much for them so they vent. CF being a place for relaxation, and this being just as much a part of CF as the actual game, the venting just comes out here and in IRC.
> Sit back and look at this closely
I have.
> enough and you begin to hate the game.
Not if you don't want to.
> You begin to despise the other people that play it.
See previous comment.
> You begin to wish you'd never even started partaking in these ooc forums of discussion.
I don't, and I know for a fact that other's don't as well.
> You begin to yearn for the blissful ignorance that is simply playing the game and leaving it at that.
Personally, I'd much rather be informed than ignorant. Ignorance leads to failure whereas information leads to control and success.
> I encourage all of you to cut ties with at least one form of ooc forum. Whether it be IRC, the forum, or the relationships you've formed.
>
> I think you'll find much more enjoyment when playing the game.
I think you should do whatever you have to do to make the game more enjoyable for YOU. After all this is JUST a GAME, and it's meant for you to enjoy, and relax, and take you mind off the real world for a while. It's NOT here for you to get all anal about and give yourself a hernia over. Just do what you want to do to have fun, so long as that doesn't include intentionally ruining it for others.
And HAVE FUN already!