Photo credit: Mother superior first introduced me to this calendar series available here.
First a word from the deep end of the pool…
When Brian “Psychochild” Green speaks we listen – even if it’s a comment on another blog. So that’s why we didn’t want anyone to miss his comment on the issue that has stirred up the proverbial hornets’ here, but made over at The Ancient Gaming Noob (another of our must reads) you can read the entire article here. Most important is comment 23 by Brian Green.
And now…
Hello from the shallow end of the pool. Anyone who knows me will knows the next entry on our page will carry the title it does when a reader says, “Perhaps next time, you could drop the pretense of making a substantive point and just stay in the shallow end of the pool.”
So hello from the shallow end of the pool.
This reminds me of two lines from the National Lampoon parody Deteriorata by Les Crane:
“Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls would scarcely get your feet wet.”
So let me cast adrift my two graduate degrees and wade into the shallow end of the pool that is remarkably empty – for all the accusations we here at No Prisoner’s No Mercy hear flying around the internet you would think it would be jam packed with people.
Just this last weekend Fran and I were talking to someone she is helping with a web site. When it came to the subject of generating traffic I said, “That’s easy, just insult Eve Online.” The same holds true for just about any mmo of course. Then again, that is only to be expected. After all, when is the last time you saw “the happy fun time good news report” instead of the mayhem that usually fills the pages of any news source (including news papers if you are still living in the Stone Age). Whether it is the tone or escalating number of responses regarding any given issue, it is usually true that hell hath no fury like someone who’s (fill in name of game, sports team or politician here) has been scorned. If you fail to agree with someone’s point of view you will usually find yourself in the midst of some version of the dozens – each party struggling to have the last word as they attempt to paint who they see as their opponent in a light that would make even the Mona Lisa look heinous by comparison.
When the taunts are between players you will usually find them to be something along the lines of “if you don’t like (fill in the name of a game mechanic here) then go play (fill in the name of a game that said “taunter” despises). Ah but when the taunts involve players and developers things reach a whole new level. Usually taunts of this type are precipitated by an event that is so obvious that you would have to find isolated cultures living above the snow line somewhere in the Himalayas to find someone who couldn’t foretell the event. It is then that taunts are bandied about such my favorite, given as an example, by Paul Barnett when he was a guest on the show:
“I TOLD YOU THE SUN WOULD FINALLY EXPLODE” – Paul Barnett
There are two interesting aspects of all this. The first is something my grandmother once related to me. She told me that she could say anything she wanted about Hal (my grandfather) but no one, and she meant no one, had better let her catch them saying anything bad about him. The same is true for (fill in name of political party, politician, game, or sports team). Even more interesting is the other facet of this phenomenon. In any given conversation, on any subject, if you just listen and nod your head in agreement the person who began the conversation will come away telling themselves how intelligent you are because you agree with their opinion. Unfortunately, there is one more important aspect of all this…
It would make for one the most boring web sites and podcasts ever attempted.
What is more, we have found that professional developers would only take such a podcast or website seriously if they were desperate for the attention of the gaming community. Grand dad would have put it this way…
“Right or wrong, say it loud and stick to your guns.”
This of course must be tempered with the last half of one of our favorite W.C. Fields Quotes, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again – Then quit…” (here comes the important part)
Don’t be a damn fool about it.
See you online,
Julie Whitefeather
[Posted by The Webmaster for Julie Whitefeather]