posted 03-01-99 05:56 PM ET     

There are over 11,000 submissions in the various forums here. Many are constructive and many are useless, yet a large amount of these writings are devoted to civil behavior, posting in the wrong forum and posting constructive criticisms.

All I am here to say is that no matter how stupid you may think their emails are, dont cry about it like it is a personal insult. I have strong suspicions that by the quality of the letters written here that most are adults over the age of 21. You should be ashamed at yourselves for being so emotional in response to letters you disagree with or simply don't like. I would hope that you teach your kids about sticks and stones. Well if you do, then practice it. So much crying and whining because someone insulted your favorite game and didn't back it up with logical reasons. Wow, horrible. Waaaaaaaa!!

Who the heck cares? Read something else. Does that honestly ruin the quality of the game for you because someon rips it? If you like it, that is enough.

Some stupid idiot started a thread with Blah, Blah, Blah. No biggie I thought. But there were 100 responses to it! Now that is a giant group of dweebs there. Blah, blah, blah shouldnt be in this forum, but once again. Who cares? Read something else.

Frankly I enjoy hearing most of what is said here, and if I don't ,I disregard it. As you all should be doing - also know as IGNORE. Instead you act like a bunch of teenage girls in a secret club. "ooh, he posted an article about CTP here". "If you don't like it, go somewhere else". "Oh my, they insulted Sid and Brian, we must not stand for that" and other such immature responses. Many of you need to devlop some thicker skin. This type of whimpering behavior is most distasteful coming from so-called adults.

And yes, you can all rip me as much as you like. It is your right and I don't mind at all.

Let the flames begin.

posted 03-01-99 10:04 PM ET            

Methinks your argument is a tad hypocritical...

posted 03-02-99 12:38 AM ET            

Ok, this is like the 10th bajillionth time this has come up on these forums.

I'll try to address it in a manner consistent with what we've experience here for months:

I would make the rather humble assertion that most of the people posting on these forums have little opportunity in their daily lives to discuss the matters that are typically discussed on these forums. The oportunity to actually discuss these types of things at all with other people that are capable of discussing them at all, is an oportunity that many have aparently taken.

Although there are some posters who truly get somewhat immature at times (I would estimate the largest group posting here has an average age of about 17, not early 20's), this can be tollerated if one has a modicum of maturity oneself

Quite frankly, I don't think it's out of the question that a large number of the pre-university crowd here doesn't get it's chance to discuss such intellectual topics normally at all. If I was in their shoes, I certainly would jump at the chance to actually have the chance to challenge your own viewpoint and discuss things like this with other people.

There are also those of us on these forums (such as myself) who just never loose appetite for having interesting political and philosophical discussions and I hope have the tollerance necessary to put up with what level of immaturity does exist here.

This brings us to the next point about the types of people who enter these forums. There is another entirely different breed of person who enters these forums and they're the people who are just too prosaic to understand what's going on and find it annoying that anyone would even bother to discuss things in the first place. As strange as it sounds... These people apparently find the very fact that people are having intelligent conversation...offending...

Posters like Red Dog and Domk come immediately to mind (for those of you out there who remember those particularly immature and prosaic types).

As the personality theorist and psychological researcher Carl Gustav Jung once put it:

"A man's hatred is always concentrated upon that which makes him conscious of his bad qualities."

So:

Calm down, take a deep breath, don't let the immaturity bother you so much (whining about whining isn't terribly productive anyhow), stay and chat if you have anything to share about your experiences playing SMAC, problems with the game, or just want to debate politics and philosophy.

Thanks.

posted 03-02-99 12:48 AM ET            

;-) means being sarcastic. Also, so does ;-) without the "-", but on this forum, that's converted to the winking face. aka:

Also (without the spaces):
: ) =
; ) =
: D =
: o =
: ( =

posted 03-02-99 07:41 AM ET            

Insane urge to pick down the shelf again that 'GEB, an EGB' (Goedel, Escher, Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid).

Hmmm, the point of pointlessness....

Question is, was the Mind conscious of being meta-referencing himself?

Oh, discussions about methods (of discussion (...) ) are always much tastier and self-indulging than those about points!

Sorry for the auto-mind-erotism....

posted 03-02-99 07:47 AM ET            

How long could I just go on (in my Mind)

posted 03-02-99 04:58 PM ET         

I see many people get on here and rip SMAC. They dont understand it, dont' like it, can't get a feel for it, think Sid is a jerk, whatever. It is their right. To get personally insulted is rather childish. I never understood why an insult merits an insult in return.

And no, I dont even have SMAC. By reading these forums, it gives me a feel for whether I want it or not. To be honest, people like me should be praised for voting with my dollars and not throwing good money after bad games thereby rewarding lousy game manufacturers. And here is another little tip. I learn far more about a game from the people who dislike it than the people who like it. I don't know why, but it seems to be the case. People like me want to here about CTP right here in fact because it is so closely related and I know nothing about it. By reading some of the few comments made about CTP, I have interest in a game that originally I didnt have.

I guess the bottom line is that by flaming all the people who dont like it, dont belong or whatever, many of you do a giant disservice to the gaming community.

I'm not going to kiss Greg's butt like you all love to do, but I have nothing against him and my original post obviously had nothing to do people like him who post constructive and instructive suggestions or comments.

Further, to spell it all out. You twits out there who feel that cricizers and naysayers should leave the forum are dead wrong. They ARE the lifeblood of any forum. You want the sweet but can't stand the sour, or something like that.

PS

I want to buy SMAC, but I am concerned that it would run slowly on my computer. I play games very quickly and that might put me off although the game itself sounds very good.

Flame On!!!
for all you FF fans out there.

posted 03-02-99 05:11 PM ET         

How many of you have seen a movie and was asked about it afterwards? Many times my reply is that I didnt like it but couldnt really say why. Well computer games can be just like that. I can think of many that I simply hated but couldn't put my finger on why. I just know that it wasn't fun. And that is the point. If it isn't fun, then it simply isn't fun. A long time ago I posted some simpleton remark on Compuserve about the 2nd Elder Scrolls game. Can't recall the name. I played it and didnt like it. Damn, you should have seen the insults come flying afer I made that remark. Not everyone knows why they dislike a game, it is a feeling in many cases. I , a prospective buyer, want to hear from those people just as much as any of the others and in some cases more so.

Nuff said.

posted 03-02-99 05:11 PM ET            

What sort of system do you have? I've seen reports from people claiming it runs well on a P90...

"I play games very quickly and that might put me off although the game itself sounds very good."

I don't understand. Do you mean you move about very rapidly while playing games, or that you tend to get through games very fast? I garrr-on-teeee, you'll have a time of it dealing the crushing blow to the factions in SMAC on Ironman level. I just got the game 2 days ago, and couldn't even beat it on Talent. I had to drop down to specialist, and am now finally peering victory in its meaty eye.

posted 03-03-99 03:04 AM ET            

as for your interest in CCTP because of the posts made here, keep in mind that all those post are based on what?? that game has not even been released yet. i question where they are getting their conclusions from. not to dis' CCTP, it may turn out to be a fine game (or not), but how can someone compare a released game to one still in the production stage.

posted 03-03-99 06:41 AM ET            

Personal experience; demos, full, patch, all the same in comparison terms.

Home:
PII 333, 128Mb, ATI Xpert@work AGP 8Mb (card).
Win 95 OSR2b

Worksite:
P133, 32Mb, ATI Rage II (on board).
NT 4.0 workstation SP3.

At home: not really jiffy, but pretty reactive (can lightheartedly Save, Exit & reload in IronMan).

@ Worksite:
M o r t a l P l o d d i n g

posted 03-05-99 03:07 AM ET            

That's the main drawback of the typed word. There's very little room for NUANCE, unless you write a novel. I plead guilty to the crime of taking more offense than necessary on more than one occassion, simply because I didn't get the nuanced emotion that a voice can offer. That's my main bitch about email and forums in general... good, reasoned discussion can be too easily misinterpreted without knowing what frame of mind the writer was in.

Now THERE'S a billion-dollar internet start-up waiting to happen -- a way to express nuance in email/forums without or or .

It's almost impossible to be a gentle smart-ass without being seen as a raving, angry lunatic. Hey, I know!

That said, a LOT of humor in a post that might be construed as plainly angry (or whiny) can help elucidate (ooh, big word) how you really feel about a topic, without looking like a meanie.

That said, why did the Cloning Vat chicken cross the road?

To get out of that vicious chicken-funnel!

Now screw off!