Bring Back SamWystan!
Day 1,506, 21:18
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Published in USA 
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by
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by Satya Yuga
As I mentioned in the comments of my previous article, Do We Really Need the Midi-Pyrenees?
Eliminate the two-tier system. Eliminate any barriers to entry that prevent Joe Player from enjoying this game as much as the "elite". Being on IRC and the forum, shouldn't be a requirement to play this game and shouldn't be a requirement for Joe Player to support resistance wars. if you examine the game mechanics as set by the Admin, you'll see there is no login button for the eusaforums or Rizon nick register requirement before they are able to push that "Support" button.
BUT SamWystan SAID IT BETTER!
America Is Dying. Only You Can Save It.
Last night, Iasov called the stuff beyond the game the "metagame". I think that's an accurate description of it. But it's all fake. It's only real because you give it consequence. We call this the "social imagination". Things that are perceived as real are real in their consequences. If you recognize the right of the FEC to sort through candidates and blockers, if you recognize Congress' right to do things beyond what the game has given them power to do, if you recognize the President's cabinet, you perceive them as real, and give them weight. If you spit in their eye, and say, "screw you, you're just a player, my word is as good as yours," you can accomplish anything. There is no limit. The only limit is the mediocrity of your own imagination.
-- SamWystan
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Bring Back SamWystan!
Well said. RIP Sam
Voted
voted
I miss Sam, he inspired me to write.
I remember these words now that you reprint them. Funny, they make perfect sense to me know. Guess I had to go through the "metagame" experience. My friends in the MU stay in touch with IRC and/or PM's. I'm setting up our forum right now. I started a party for us to allow them to play the game as they like.
I now have two main rules regarding eRep:
Rule #1 - RL > eRep
Rule #2 - Do whatever you find to do that is fun.
If anything you're doing here breaks one of these rules YOU ARE doing it wrong.
Wow! Number of readers >> votes. Peeps, they be selfish. No wonder the media module is dying. If I take the trouble to visit and read an article, I vote for it. You would think this was an election for office and that you were duty bound to withhold your vote because they aren't part of your clicke. You don't have to agree with what they spout, just recognize that they took the trouble to publish.
^ OK, I'll be stupid and say it. I thought that's what voting for an article meant, that you agreed or approved of it. Guess I missed that memo.
Maybe I'm just more generous than you. 🙂
Votes are my way of saying, "I appreciate that you took the time and trouble to write. Please keep the media module alive and do it again."
Now subscribing is saying that I agree or approve.
I've always favored the concepts proposed in this article, mainly SamWystan's quotation. Forums and IRC/Telephone/Messanger/AIM/Yahoo, etc. can also be important. Forums allow for some breath of discussion, sometimes in an ordered and functional way. Country Administration is a system, it can be ordered in function or completely off the cuff.
I lived in Ireland where 90% of it was off the cuff. They seem to be going rather well now, comparatively.
The game's combat module has changed, now to make a powerful citizen/county players must log-in more frequently. This would lend itself to more in-game articles, thesis, and communication. The problem inherent in the current system is that PM's can be doctored and communication construed. Articles are the meat in any future communication, unless they're unlawful.
Chris does what I do 80% of the time. I know the shit writers in this game and I usually don't bother to read their content to give them their desired vote. BUT I don't insult them about it, if you have nothing nice to say say nothing at all. Generally anyone can agree with my aforementioned post. This is where the internetz come in, out of left field, then abolish your perceived connection with the "in-game". Sometimes it happens surprisingly fast.
10/10 would read again.
This X2:
"Rule #1 - RL > eRep
Rule #2 - Do whatever you find to do that is fun.
If anything you're doing here breaks one of these rules YOU ARE doing it wrong."
Recall the eRep chat function. Good idea, but it was a bust - the elite players boycotted the function and the admins took it away. It was much easier to use than the IRC, but we can't possibly have something like that which is simple and accessible to the public.
If you spit in their eye, and say, "screw you, you're just a player, my word is as good as yours," you can accomplish anything. - Agreed.
A fitting tribute to a great influence, I too miss Sam.
Good point regarding the chat feature, yet orgs still float around a year after they were ' Removed '
It doesn't look like IRC is for me
Lysander's shout and my comment says it all:
"Lysander Spooner II wrote:
I just removed #uswpchat from my mirc autoconnect options. I wasn't paying attention when ElmieJr said my name in channel, so he kicked me. So, why idle there?
Clarissa Olson Bear: In the rare case I'm on IRC, I use mibbit.com. Trying to get us newbs on IRC, yet kicking users from channels. I can see how that can help with retaining us in this community. 😛 ElmieJr sounds like a BIG FAIL to me."
>Dissing on the imaginary metagame
>Citing the incredible power of imagination
Being uninvolved with the metagame in this incarnation of eRep effectively kills the only attractive feature of this game, the community and interpersonal interaction. Of course there are the media module and PMs and shouts to communicate within the game itself, but game mechanics articles and blase war reporting are interesting for about 4 sentences. What would we have spent 2011 talking about if there weren't two huge metagame constructs, each controlled by a secretive council, locked in mortal combat?
Please folks, I know this is the way we "talk" about things now. I direct your attention back to the top of the page and ask you to re-read Sam's words. This is after all the point of the article.
Sam never allowed words to become weapons meant to kill. He used them as tools to build, even if there was a tearing down first. Of course he had a dour wit that I just adored. He made his point, that's for sure, but often he made you laugh while doing it. Sarcasm is a lost art in eRep.
@Clarissa Olson Bear, IRC or the forums are not the problem. You just need to find the right places to be. If someone tells you that "you HAVE TO be there!" that is probably not the right choice.
ElmieJr is not a "fail", just caught up in RP. It's sad that a lot of players don't even realize they are RP'ing their asses off just being themselves. It's a common misconception that you are not RP'ing while playing a browser game on-line with thousands of others, using a pretend world that only exists in pixels on your monitor. People need to realize that they own no companies, have no "strength", are not rich or poor, do not cause damage on enemies and a biggie, do not hold elected office. One action of some guy in Romania (IRL) would end it all. If the owner said "good night eRep" and took the server off-line it would be over. The next time you proclaim someone to be a "fail" because of some action they took here just remember, they are only a character in a pretend game. It's only real if you get together outside eRep on those evil IRC channels and forums.
(LOL, as I wrote this the server went down and I got the headless chicken page! 2funnie)
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