Ok folks,
I have been getting spun up over Publish 98. Some of you have too. After twenty years of life, the UO fanbase has been distilled down to the most ardent supporters. Some of us like PvP, or PvM, or Deco, or Event Item collecting, but ALL of us share a passion for the game or we wouldn't have hung on this long.
When a change is implemented by the dev team, it feels personal sometimes. I have been disappointed in the list of 20th rewards. I have been disappointed in the mastery changes and pet reverts. I am still disappointed in the uneven stance on scripting (I personally don't care, I just want a consistent stance).
At some point today, I asked myself, Why do I bother? If this game causes me to spend even 30 minutes stressing over a change, it has ceased to be a form of relaxation and entertainment that I feel is salubrious.
I thought about Stratics too, and the recent disposition towards the negative aspects of UO development and management. I'm not making a statement that those concerns are unfounded (they certainly are), but just noting the trend.
In an attempt to take my mind off the subject (and put Stratics out of sight for a few minutes), I browsed over to one of the other forums I frequent. There I found an update to their user rules that was spookily prescient of my mood:
Early Retirement Extreme Forums - Active topics
Which was in turn based on this website:
The Core Rules of Netiquette -- Excerpted from Netiquette by Virginia Shea -- Albion.com
So here is how I have broken the rules. I write this as an example for all of us, a chance for a little personal reflection in the face of our uncomfortably Stockholm-like relationship with UO:
Rule 1: Remember the Human
Mesanna is a living, breathing human. Bleak goes home and laughs and cries and poops just like the rest of us. Norrington is not, in fact, in any way an 1800s aristocratic Captain, but instead someone who gets indigestion and heartburn and the occasional sore throat. Kyronix gets laid sometimes, and feels happy. Sometimes he doesn't, and that makes him sad. Just like all of us. It is so easy when we only see pixel avatars of each other to forget all this. To forget that de leet ed or Scribbles, or gods help me, even Drakelord, are actually fragile sacks of bone and water. So try to remember it. It isn't easy, especially when you are so passionate about something that you give it some small piece of your life for decades. But try. Try to remember before you hit 'Submit'. I have disregarded this all too often recently, and it made our dialogue less productive.
Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life
Sadly, this is one I haven't actually broken. I am, in real life, just as critical and ornery and outraged about certain things on a regular basis as I am on Stratics. You often read in inspirational venues that "passion" is a virtue, and to search for your passion in life. Well what if your passion is having a righteous sense of indignation? That isn't helpful. That isn't good. And that is what I do all too often.
Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace
Face it folks, if the Internet were a physical city, Stratics is the IHOP in that gentrified suburb that no one under 40 lives in now. UO is the run-down Chuck E Cheese across the street. This stuff is old. In Internet years, this place, and UO, are the equivalent of that Motel 6 on the old state road that died when the interstate came through 60 years ago.
While things should be maintained, and we should be careful to not make excuses too often, we can't escape the fact that this $H!T is old. It breaks. Sometimes folks don't know how to readily fix it.
Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth
The reference to bandwidth is cute, especially to those of us ( a lot of us!) who started on dial-ups. But the issue of time is relevant. I often make claims in posts about some issue or another without providing any supporting material. I ultimately have to make three or four more posts to back up my point. That isn't conducive to constructive dialogue. Some folks here are really good about posting chat excerpts, or screenshots, or links. Do that. Support your argument. Try, at least, to shift away from those all-encompassing generalizations that we make in the heat of the moment. This has been especially predominant lately.
Rule 5: Make yourself look good online
If the only threads I comment on are those I disagree with, I build a virtual identity around me that is destructive and unproductive. Folks will see my avatar, remember that I'm an angry SOB, and scroll right past my comment. I have been more and more guilty of this. I need to comment on posts where a player, or a dev, or a mod, SOMEONE has been helpful. Or made a valid point, even when it hurts my own argument. I can't be right all the time. I can't speak for everyone else's playstyle. My overactive sense of justice doesn't abrogate my responsibility to listen to the other side.
Rule 6: Share expert knowledge
Again, total failure here. I have REPEATEDLY known an easier, more efficient way to obtain an item or goal in game than what I see being discussed in a thread, and because of the users participating in the conversation, I withhold the information. The motto I should have above my monitor should read, "Be More Like Bealank". She never fails to assist a player, in game or in the forum, and always shares her (very expert) knowledge. I should be emabarrased that I do less.
Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control
"It was a pleasure to burn." A memorable line from a memorable book, and one that is not as unrelated as it may first seem to the topic at hand. For every Stratics poster attempting to douse a heated debate, there are three others coming behind them striking matches as fast as possible. I usually have an acetylene torch, cutting through friend and foe alike. Obviously at least some of our behavior is influenced by the issues we face with General Chat. Before I post, I SHOULD ask, does this add something constructive? What I in fact USUALLY ask is, is this written for maximum flame?
Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy
This is the only one I can't think of a single infraction for any of us. So kudos! We at least are not doxxing folks here, so well done, that!
Rule 9: Don't abuse your power
Tell the truth, when you first read that, did you think of a name right away? I thought of three. Immediately. And that is really unfortunate, because if I'm honest with myself, I mean really honest, I know essentially nothing about the situation around all three. I (and maybe you too) am so sensitive of an abuse of power that I often jump to conclusions. I make statements that imply more than I can support with factual evidence. It is one of the worst aspects of my UO persona. And THAT is an abuse of power. As a long time player, and at least for several years, active member of Siege Perilous, what I say and do and write has a cetain unspoken power that can be radioactive in effect, poisoning the opinions around me slowly over time. And sadly, while I am very guilty of this, I'm not alone. Many of us unconsciously do the same. If you could dissect the jellied brain of Siege and study the different parts, you'd find this tumor throughout, infecting all groups, all guilds, all attitudes. You have power in what you say, use it wisely.
Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people's mistakes
This is hard. To feel cheated, or betrayed, or angry at how a situation is handled, these are natural reactions when I feel strongly about something. I love UO. It reminds me of so much happiness from years gone by. So if something happens that rubs me raw, like a change in a Publish, or being excluded from a shard activity, I don't react rationally. I hold everyone involved in the game to almost unbelievable levels of expectation. Few people have survived my company in UO this many years, because when these moments happen, I go full reptile. THREAT, FIGHT, FLEE! my lizard brain screams. Only those few who have somehow maintained the standards above, a rarest of achievements, and thus never met my ire, are unscathed. For every Spiffykeen or Bealank (bless you both, saints in hooded robes that you are), there are a hundred Drakelords or Bo Bos or Merlins who I just never forgave for some slight in the past, real or imagined. But I have to try harder. If this little ecosystem we've carved out in cyperspace really reflects my internal self, I've got to learn how to forgive others. It is just a videogame after all. If I can't let stuff roll off my back, I need to stop playing, because I'm not getting any younger, and I'm sure as hell not getting any healthier. So I'm sorry folks. I've made some mistakes in my UO life. Bear with me.
I encourage each of you to remind me of this thread the next time I post something inane, or inflammatory, or unjust. Spam GC with the reminder the next time I'm insinuating the EM is being influenced by a specific guild. Call my ass out when I go supernova over some underpaid, underappreciated person's inability to immediately inact code changes.
I probably won't like it. But I'll deserve it.
And then send me back here to this post, and I'll try again.
-- Hephaestus of Legends, Calavera of Siege, a getting too old for this stuff sack of bones and blood, and erstwhile UO fan.
I have been getting spun up over Publish 98. Some of you have too. After twenty years of life, the UO fanbase has been distilled down to the most ardent supporters. Some of us like PvP, or PvM, or Deco, or Event Item collecting, but ALL of us share a passion for the game or we wouldn't have hung on this long.
When a change is implemented by the dev team, it feels personal sometimes. I have been disappointed in the list of 20th rewards. I have been disappointed in the mastery changes and pet reverts. I am still disappointed in the uneven stance on scripting (I personally don't care, I just want a consistent stance).
At some point today, I asked myself, Why do I bother? If this game causes me to spend even 30 minutes stressing over a change, it has ceased to be a form of relaxation and entertainment that I feel is salubrious.
I thought about Stratics too, and the recent disposition towards the negative aspects of UO development and management. I'm not making a statement that those concerns are unfounded (they certainly are), but just noting the trend.
In an attempt to take my mind off the subject (and put Stratics out of sight for a few minutes), I browsed over to one of the other forums I frequent. There I found an update to their user rules that was spookily prescient of my mood:
Early Retirement Extreme Forums - Active topics
Which was in turn based on this website:
The Core Rules of Netiquette -- Excerpted from Netiquette by Virginia Shea -- Albion.com
So here is how I have broken the rules. I write this as an example for all of us, a chance for a little personal reflection in the face of our uncomfortably Stockholm-like relationship with UO:
Rule 1: Remember the Human
Mesanna is a living, breathing human. Bleak goes home and laughs and cries and poops just like the rest of us. Norrington is not, in fact, in any way an 1800s aristocratic Captain, but instead someone who gets indigestion and heartburn and the occasional sore throat. Kyronix gets laid sometimes, and feels happy. Sometimes he doesn't, and that makes him sad. Just like all of us. It is so easy when we only see pixel avatars of each other to forget all this. To forget that de leet ed or Scribbles, or gods help me, even Drakelord, are actually fragile sacks of bone and water. So try to remember it. It isn't easy, especially when you are so passionate about something that you give it some small piece of your life for decades. But try. Try to remember before you hit 'Submit'. I have disregarded this all too often recently, and it made our dialogue less productive.
Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life
Sadly, this is one I haven't actually broken. I am, in real life, just as critical and ornery and outraged about certain things on a regular basis as I am on Stratics. You often read in inspirational venues that "passion" is a virtue, and to search for your passion in life. Well what if your passion is having a righteous sense of indignation? That isn't helpful. That isn't good. And that is what I do all too often.
Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace
Face it folks, if the Internet were a physical city, Stratics is the IHOP in that gentrified suburb that no one under 40 lives in now. UO is the run-down Chuck E Cheese across the street. This stuff is old. In Internet years, this place, and UO, are the equivalent of that Motel 6 on the old state road that died when the interstate came through 60 years ago.
While things should be maintained, and we should be careful to not make excuses too often, we can't escape the fact that this $H!T is old. It breaks. Sometimes folks don't know how to readily fix it.
Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth
The reference to bandwidth is cute, especially to those of us ( a lot of us!) who started on dial-ups. But the issue of time is relevant. I often make claims in posts about some issue or another without providing any supporting material. I ultimately have to make three or four more posts to back up my point. That isn't conducive to constructive dialogue. Some folks here are really good about posting chat excerpts, or screenshots, or links. Do that. Support your argument. Try, at least, to shift away from those all-encompassing generalizations that we make in the heat of the moment. This has been especially predominant lately.
Rule 5: Make yourself look good online
If the only threads I comment on are those I disagree with, I build a virtual identity around me that is destructive and unproductive. Folks will see my avatar, remember that I'm an angry SOB, and scroll right past my comment. I have been more and more guilty of this. I need to comment on posts where a player, or a dev, or a mod, SOMEONE has been helpful. Or made a valid point, even when it hurts my own argument. I can't be right all the time. I can't speak for everyone else's playstyle. My overactive sense of justice doesn't abrogate my responsibility to listen to the other side.
Rule 6: Share expert knowledge
Again, total failure here. I have REPEATEDLY known an easier, more efficient way to obtain an item or goal in game than what I see being discussed in a thread, and because of the users participating in the conversation, I withhold the information. The motto I should have above my monitor should read, "Be More Like Bealank". She never fails to assist a player, in game or in the forum, and always shares her (very expert) knowledge. I should be emabarrased that I do less.
Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control
"It was a pleasure to burn." A memorable line from a memorable book, and one that is not as unrelated as it may first seem to the topic at hand. For every Stratics poster attempting to douse a heated debate, there are three others coming behind them striking matches as fast as possible. I usually have an acetylene torch, cutting through friend and foe alike. Obviously at least some of our behavior is influenced by the issues we face with General Chat. Before I post, I SHOULD ask, does this add something constructive? What I in fact USUALLY ask is, is this written for maximum flame?
Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy
This is the only one I can't think of a single infraction for any of us. So kudos! We at least are not doxxing folks here, so well done, that!
Rule 9: Don't abuse your power
Tell the truth, when you first read that, did you think of a name right away? I thought of three. Immediately. And that is really unfortunate, because if I'm honest with myself, I mean really honest, I know essentially nothing about the situation around all three. I (and maybe you too) am so sensitive of an abuse of power that I often jump to conclusions. I make statements that imply more than I can support with factual evidence. It is one of the worst aspects of my UO persona. And THAT is an abuse of power. As a long time player, and at least for several years, active member of Siege Perilous, what I say and do and write has a cetain unspoken power that can be radioactive in effect, poisoning the opinions around me slowly over time. And sadly, while I am very guilty of this, I'm not alone. Many of us unconsciously do the same. If you could dissect the jellied brain of Siege and study the different parts, you'd find this tumor throughout, infecting all groups, all guilds, all attitudes. You have power in what you say, use it wisely.
Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people's mistakes
This is hard. To feel cheated, or betrayed, or angry at how a situation is handled, these are natural reactions when I feel strongly about something. I love UO. It reminds me of so much happiness from years gone by. So if something happens that rubs me raw, like a change in a Publish, or being excluded from a shard activity, I don't react rationally. I hold everyone involved in the game to almost unbelievable levels of expectation. Few people have survived my company in UO this many years, because when these moments happen, I go full reptile. THREAT, FIGHT, FLEE! my lizard brain screams. Only those few who have somehow maintained the standards above, a rarest of achievements, and thus never met my ire, are unscathed. For every Spiffykeen or Bealank (bless you both, saints in hooded robes that you are), there are a hundred Drakelords or Bo Bos or Merlins who I just never forgave for some slight in the past, real or imagined. But I have to try harder. If this little ecosystem we've carved out in cyperspace really reflects my internal self, I've got to learn how to forgive others. It is just a videogame after all. If I can't let stuff roll off my back, I need to stop playing, because I'm not getting any younger, and I'm sure as hell not getting any healthier. So I'm sorry folks. I've made some mistakes in my UO life. Bear with me.
I encourage each of you to remind me of this thread the next time I post something inane, or inflammatory, or unjust. Spam GC with the reminder the next time I'm insinuating the EM is being influenced by a specific guild. Call my ass out when I go supernova over some underpaid, underappreciated person's inability to immediately inact code changes.
I probably won't like it. But I'll deserve it.
And then send me back here to this post, and I'll try again.
-- Hephaestus of Legends, Calavera of Siege, a getting too old for this stuff sack of bones and blood, and erstwhile UO fan.
Great read.
