Seasons
This is a forum or general chit-chat, small talk, a "hey, how ya doing?" and such. Or hell, get crazy deep on something. Whatever you like.
Posts 3,868 - 3,879 of 6,170
Posts 3,868 - 3,879 of 6,170
Mal, if it's free, I'll learn to love it. 
And Bev, re-reading some of the things I wrote, I can see that they read more strongly than I intended. I normally say "it's a substitute for real life" rather than the effort line, but for some reason I didn't think that would play well this time.
I'm impressed by the efforts of the Blizzard team in making WoW and turning it into an industry beyond a mere computer game. Obviously it is a good product. Five million users can't all be wrong, and if they're willing to pay for the privilege it's there choice.
And you're right about the whole "it's real life if I do it" thing to. I just worry a little when people respond to the question "Hey what're you up to tonight, wanna come out?" with "Nah, I've gotta stay home and level my character." That sort of addiction is something I've only ever really encountered in WoW users. (Granted, maybe it's the geek version of "Sorry I'm washing my hair that night" and I should just take the hint
Secondary sidebar: Valve (the creators of half-life, half-life 2 and many of its mods) do not make any additional money beyond the sale of the software as far as I'm aware.
Going back to the other stuff, any comments about time wasted hiding from real life I can just as easily direct back at myself. I spent the better part of two years doing very little with my spare time apart from playing Team Fortress Classic, a game that was old before I started playing it. For someone who has enough unpublished writing and unfinished stories to sink a Japanese whaler (actually that doesn't sound like such a bad use for it) it really was a terrible use of my time.
This brings me indirectly back to some of that identity on the net thing from twenty or so posts back that I wanted to get into. The thing I wanted to talk about goes something like this:
I've been a member of this community. I've always enjoyed the forums here for it's intelligence and general good humour.
Typical PF forum dialogue:
PF User: Let us have a discussion, at some length, staying on topic, running to many pages, about Quantum Mechanics and the nature of all things Quantum. Let this discussion become a heated, thriving debate, but let there be open disagreement without resorting to name calling at any stage.
PF user 2: And then once we have reached an untenable impasse, let us simply agree to disagree and move on to similar discussions of identity, Plato and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Etc, etc (This isn't a dig at the anyone by the way. These discussions impress me [when I can follow them] and boggle me [when I can't].)
Now I am also part of the Team Fortress Community (what's left of it) in my part of the world. There I have a different screen name (one which, harking back to my previous post, oddly enough does have a great deal of personal significance. I have also enjoyed the forums there too, but compare and contrast if you will.
Typical TFC forum dialogue:
K|lLERz0R: kk, lookin 4 a clan to scrim us next Sat. Any takers?
R1CKO: Yeah, me and the boys will.
village_idiot: We'zar gonna distroy youse. Youguys are teh suxor.
R1CKO: Just like your mum v_i
K|lLERz0R: lol
Granted it's usually a little more clever than that, but you get the basic idea.
The weird thing is, I fit in fairly well in both places. If two people, one PF person and one TFC person who both knew me were to meet in real life and bring up the subject of internet acquaintances, both could describe their version of me without for a second suspecting that they were talking about the same person.
So I guess my point on this one is that issue of the different versions of ourselves we put forward. Both are me, neither is me etc, etc. The one other thing I found also was the issue of transition from one to the other. When I first started coming back here I found myself doing the keyboard equivalent of biting my tongue (crossing my fingers perhaps) holding back on more cutting remarks that I might have used on the other site. Does anyone else find this? This switching of personas? Kind of like a teacher (and yes I speak from experience here) going from dealing with kids to dealing with adults.
Anyway, this post has gone on far too long (I've had to click "I'm still here" twice) and have really overused brackets. And if at any point I approached a point I sure didn't see it. Those of you who have read my ramblings have my sympathies.
And Bev, re-reading some of the things I wrote, I can see that they read more strongly than I intended. I normally say "it's a substitute for real life" rather than the effort line, but for some reason I didn't think that would play well this time.
I'm impressed by the efforts of the Blizzard team in making WoW and turning it into an industry beyond a mere computer game. Obviously it is a good product. Five million users can't all be wrong, and if they're willing to pay for the privilege it's there choice.
And you're right about the whole "it's real life if I do it" thing to. I just worry a little when people respond to the question "Hey what're you up to tonight, wanna come out?" with "Nah, I've gotta stay home and level my character." That sort of addiction is something I've only ever really encountered in WoW users. (Granted, maybe it's the geek version of "Sorry I'm washing my hair that night" and I should just take the hint
Secondary sidebar: Valve (the creators of half-life, half-life 2 and many of its mods) do not make any additional money beyond the sale of the software as far as I'm aware.
Going back to the other stuff, any comments about time wasted hiding from real life I can just as easily direct back at myself. I spent the better part of two years doing very little with my spare time apart from playing Team Fortress Classic, a game that was old before I started playing it. For someone who has enough unpublished writing and unfinished stories to sink a Japanese whaler (actually that doesn't sound like such a bad use for it) it really was a terrible use of my time.
This brings me indirectly back to some of that identity on the net thing from twenty or so posts back that I wanted to get into. The thing I wanted to talk about goes something like this:
I've been a member of this community. I've always enjoyed the forums here for it's intelligence and general good humour.
Typical PF forum dialogue:
PF User: Let us have a discussion, at some length, staying on topic, running to many pages, about Quantum Mechanics and the nature of all things Quantum. Let this discussion become a heated, thriving debate, but let there be open disagreement without resorting to name calling at any stage.
PF user 2: And then once we have reached an untenable impasse, let us simply agree to disagree and move on to similar discussions of identity, Plato and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Etc, etc (This isn't a dig at the anyone by the way. These discussions impress me [when I can follow them] and boggle me [when I can't].)
Now I am also part of the Team Fortress Community (what's left of it) in my part of the world. There I have a different screen name (one which, harking back to my previous post, oddly enough does have a great deal of personal significance. I have also enjoyed the forums there too, but compare and contrast if you will.
Typical TFC forum dialogue:
K|lLERz0R: kk, lookin 4 a clan to scrim us next Sat. Any takers?
R1CKO: Yeah, me and the boys will.
village_idiot: We'zar gonna distroy youse. Youguys are teh suxor.
R1CKO: Just like your mum v_i
K|lLERz0R: lol
Granted it's usually a little more clever than that, but you get the basic idea.
The weird thing is, I fit in fairly well in both places. If two people, one PF person and one TFC person who both knew me were to meet in real life and bring up the subject of internet acquaintances, both could describe their version of me without for a second suspecting that they were talking about the same person.
So I guess my point on this one is that issue of the different versions of ourselves we put forward. Both are me, neither is me etc, etc. The one other thing I found also was the issue of transition from one to the other. When I first started coming back here I found myself doing the keyboard equivalent of biting my tongue (crossing my fingers perhaps) holding back on more cutting remarks that I might have used on the other site. Does anyone else find this? This switching of personas? Kind of like a teacher (and yes I speak from experience here) going from dealing with kids to dealing with adults.
Anyway, this post has gone on far too long (I've had to click "I'm still here" twice) and have really overused brackets. And if at any point I approached a point I sure didn't see it. Those of you who have read my ramblings have my sympathies.
Corwin, It's hard to offend me. I was defending from attitudes I've seen many places. To be fair, I don't play WoW and the reason I know about it is because good friends who started playing Wow would have me over and play at the same time, so yes, they were obsessed a tiny bit.
I think you have some great points there. It also kind of ties in with the theory of personality issues in Personality (that I really should have brought down here to post--sorry). There are some core values or aspects of personality that may arguable be fixed of fairly consistent, but may characteristics and behaviors are situation specific and heavily influenced by peers.
On the other hand, you are right about certain habits carrying over when a person is slow to switch gears. I usually teach older students, and yet I still have a tendency to try to treat everyone as my student when I don't think about it. This gets worse if the other says or does something that puts them in the student category in my mind. I don't meaning any way to sound condescending, it's just a bad habit. All the life's a classroom, and I want to be the one making the lesson plan.
I think you have some great points there. It also kind of ties in with the theory of personality issues in Personality (that I really should have brought down here to post--sorry). There are some core values or aspects of personality that may arguable be fixed of fairly consistent, but may characteristics and behaviors are situation specific and heavily influenced by peers.
On the other hand, you are right about certain habits carrying over when a person is slow to switch gears. I usually teach older students, and yet I still have a tendency to try to treat everyone as my student when I don't think about it. This gets worse if the other says or does something that puts them in the student category in my mind. I don't meaning any way to sound condescending, it's just a bad habit. All the life's a classroom, and I want to be the one making the lesson plan.
Just like your mum!
(Sorry, that wasn't directed at anyone, I'm just practicing, trying to broaden myself!)
(Sorry, that wasn't directed at anyone, I'm just practicing, trying to broaden myself!)
I think broaden would be the wrong term to use there 
I usually teach older students, and yet I still have a tendency to try to treat everyone as my student when I don't think about it.
Yeah, I've caught myself doing that in conversations I've had lately and there are times when I just want to slap myself. I teach junior secondary kids, so when I do it I imagine it comes across even more condescending.
I teach college students, and find that my attitude varies by both class and student. I do have a "lecture" mode that I drift into when asked questions, but it's not really condescending...more...a tendency to go into much more detail than a non-student might want.
*sighs, having just read through pages of quantum physics and philosophy*
I leave for a while, and the mean IQ of the website increases exponentially. Figures.
I leave for a while, and the mean IQ of the website increases exponentially. Figures.
Irina, does that mean you felt that way from me? Then I am sorry. It wasn't intended. I don't even teach live classes anymore (though I still teach). Maybe I can't blame teaching then...anyway, it wasn't intentional.
No no no no no nonononononono!! I mentioned them specifically because they were criticing themselves along that line.
The only person I might have felt patronized by around here is Psimagus in our Quantum Theory discussion, and that was only fair, because I patronized the %^$&^%#@!*&^!! out of HIM! I hope there wasn't any collateal damage!
Anyway, I have a very thick skin from reading "Irina Khalidar" transcripts. Recently some reincarnation of Jack the Ripper attacked her. "Hangup" chose that moment to fail and so he abused her for pages and pages and pages. I think I'll write a bot about macrame, or maybe interior decoration.
The only person I might have felt patronized by around here is Psimagus in our Quantum Theory discussion, and that was only fair, because I patronized the %^$&^%#@!*&^!! out of HIM! I hope there wasn't any collateal damage!
Anyway, I have a very thick skin from reading "Irina Khalidar" transcripts. Recently some reincarnation of Jack the Ripper attacked her. "Hangup" chose that moment to fail and so he abused her for pages and pages and pages. I think I'll write a bot about macrame, or maybe interior decoration.
» More new posts: Doghead's Cosmic Bar