delinquent wrote:
Oh, I understand where you are coming from here, but I suggest that the majority of current online... profiles(?) are less involved than this, due to the size and nature of the web nowadays. I concur that many older players have somewhat heavily invested part of their lives in this "community" but that with the fewer number of people and the increased difficulty in accessing the net back then made the consequences and risks of being so heavily involved much smaller than today. I think that at this time, those who are newer to the online world should be somewhat apprehensive about becoming so immersed as the risk is that much greater. In other words, acceptance of the desensitization of electronic profiles. Naturally it becomes a lot different when one begins to meet other players personally, online or by other means, but I do suggest there is such a thing as being too involved. That, I believe, is what evokes such emotional attachment.
tl:dr It's a wonderful thing when people meet over miles of copper cable and computer trickery, but there is such a facet as too much of a good thing.
Edit: I put a barrier up because I have learnt to do so from past experiences. I won't go into it, but expense was great, both monetary and physically.
I think you are missing the point that sine is trying to make. So, I am going to make it a different way.
One of the things that drive some of us old people nuts about the way that many younger approach this is how you draw this separation between "internet life" and "real life" that seems to allow you to behave in "internet life" in a manner that you would never behave in "real life". I think that we can all agree that "internet life" is separate from "real life" in that you can experience things that you could not in "real life". But, if you think about, you will see that "internet life" really is just another extension of the social experience of "real life". Yeah, I just said that "internet life" is just another social experience of "real life".
When we compartmentalize "internet life" as some fantasy land experience, then we can justify doing all kinds of things that are really bad, mean, and at times downright evil. Now, I know a lot of you are gonna say "this is just a game, who cares?". But, one you are interacting in the game and on these forums, you are interacting in a community that one could compare to going to the local gym and playing basketball. Yeah, it's a game, but even with trash talking et al, there are still basic social rules and conventions that one follows to maintain order and peace in the community.
So, we can honestly draw the analogy that the incident that is referred to in this topic could be compared to going to another basketball teams place that they stored messages that was not at the gym, and burning some of the letters team members had written. I think all of you can see that doing so is wrong, and could be punishable by law as the unlawful destruction of property. And doing this by convincing a member of the team to let you in the house does not by any means justify said behavior.
Where in the heck do we get the idea that somehow doing this on the Internet is somehow ok?
Is it not just as hurtful to the victims?
I also would like to say that it is awesome to see that mYm members and leaders are taking the high road to move toward forgiveness and ending this stuff. If I had any concerns about mYm trolling vs trash talking, well I think that in this case, mYm leaders and members have really shown some decent character in this.
The only reason I am even bothering to make this post, is that I really do tire of people thinking that doing bad things because "it's just a game" is really annoying, and rather makes me angry to see. My simplest response is that "It is just a game, let's just have fun and not be mean and act overly stupid to ruin the fun for others". In Immortal Dynasty, I recently declared a set of "official rules" here they are, just to show you what I really mean.
1. Have fun and help others to have fun.
2. If you don't know what to do or have questions about things, refer to rule number 1.
3. We are a tag wearing clan, if you go around without tags we will just assume that you have left the clan.
That is all the rules we need. Anytime we have had a member do things that seem to violate rule number one, we just decide on the basis of that what to do.
Let's just keep this game about having fun. We all have lives that are challenging enough, none of us play this game to make our lives more miserable than they might already be. Let's just have fun people.
