*Sigh*... Sometimes, I feel that the human race is entirely too random for its own good.
I am a member of the PVKII forums, a source mod centered around three teams from varying eras. I joined up so that I could send a message to the development team informing them that they had incorrectly labeled a certain weapon in the game. Long story short, they still haven't changed it and I'm still registered.
Now, the PVKII forums weren't a particularly happy place to be back then. It's gone downhill from there.
All the worst parts have been emphasized, and all the best parts have moved on. The place is a madhouse, and it hates itself furiously.
I was inspired to make this post for a few reasons, two of which are related to PVKII, the third being utterly unrelated to anything. I will put that one at the bottom of the post.
The first, main, and biggest reason is
this post.
If the world ever excepts this as humor, I will wander away and live on a goat farm in the mountains, somewhere far from the rampant buggery that will be human "civilization". And that's not even the first time he's done it.
Hmm. It appears someone has locked the thread. Well, yay. The last thread wasn't locked, and the discussion carried on for a few pages.
The second would be the postings of the user "ParaSwarm" in
this thread.
Why do I feel particularly wronged by one person's overinflated ego? Because I happened to talk with the guy before, and he seemed like the only sane fruit from the bunch.
We talked about how the PVKII forums were going sour, how certain users were bigoted assholes, and other such topics. He seemed like a nice enough guy, with his head set relatively straight on his shoulders. I introduced him to Dwarf Fortress (although I don't think it's actually taken hold just yet).
It's a viewpoint like his that makes me fully appreciate just how nice it is to have a game philosophy of "losing is fun". We take pride in our most spectacular losses, and nobody pays much attention to the slaughtering of an entire world in adventure mode, or the repelling of three successive sieges in fort mode. We emphasize the times when things go so incredibly wrong you can only laugh at them, and treat the massive displays of skill as simple day-to-day business.
ParaSwarm is an administrator to a relatively popular server that runs PVKII. He has previously come under suspicion from the server's owner for driving people away with his excessive killing of the other players.
When the (somewhat rare) occasion where I am good at a game comes up, I make no mention of it. If a newer player challenges me, I try to impart as much knowledge as possible, and then give myself a handicap so that they have a chance to use what I've just taught them.
KDR's (Kill to Death Ratios) mean nothing to me. The only time seeing a KDR will change my opinion of a player is when they keep checking it during a game. My opinion will not be moved towards respect.
Is it really necessary for people to strive so hard for personal glory? I recall the times I played Battlefield 2 online, and everyone on my team killed each other in order to get in the fighter jet. No cohesion, just a bunch of guys killing their own team so that they personally get the big guns.
He's also done some other things which I do not particularly agree with... But there's no need to bring them up.
And the third reason is the fact that somebody put a screenshot from a different game into the Gamespot 'Sins of a Solar Empire' image collection.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/sinsofasolarempire/images.html?tag=tabs%3Bimages&page=3It's in the January 10th section. A bunch of bowmen fending off some sort of medieval siege. I have no idea what game that comes from, but it looks kinda cool. If anyone knows the origin of that peculiar picture, do let me know.
There's no real reason for this thread to exist, I just happened to have a lot on my mind, and I felt the need to let some of it off. Do forgive me my arrogance, and whatever other personality faults were expressed by the writing of this post.