The Asylum Game: An Open-Ended Adventure

[VaudevillianVeteran]

Ah, you were always a good lad, subject Fury. *Pats head and gives penny* Go get some toffees~ XD

 

[Fury Is Me.]

HAaaa!~ *Stares at the penny, amazed* Tanks, subject Vee!~ *Runs off to go buy toffees*

 

[Sassafrass]

Awww, thank you subject Vee~~~ X3

Bit OTT thar, subject Fury. XD

Indeed, subject Max. XD
And yeah, isn't that in Freeside?

 

[Lost In The Void]

Subjects Sir John is making me giggle with his immediate hostility

 

[Roxas1359]

Subject Lost, well that's how he's always been. Well from what I've seen.
Subject Sass, no it's west of Freeside.

 

[Fury Is Me.]

Yees it was, subject Sass. XD

 

[Lost In The Void]

Subject Max doesn't stop me from giggling, anyone wanna see the arguments and response?

 

[Sassafrass]

Siwwy, subject Fury~ X3

Subject Lost, YES! ...Yes. :3 XD

 

[Roxas1359]

Subject Lost, nah knowing him he's probably using the argument like: "This is how they pay for the site since it's larger now" or "If you don't like these forums then why did you buy the Publisher's Club membership". His arguments can be easy to read out once you lurk around enough and see how people structure their arguments; which is one reason why I won't be going into debates with you, New Classic, or Therumancer much.

 

[Lost In The Void]

Subjects I give you mine and his arguments

Hello LITV here with another rare but always interesting visit to the Pub Club. As always if I am to make a thread I want it to stand out and since this question has been bugging me for a while already, I figure I would post it up here and see what you're opinions are.

The Publisher's Club has been up for about half a year now and in that time this place, much like off topic before it, has garnished a few "regulars" so to speak. While this is to be expected of any real social environment, the exclusivity of the posting members and their conversations has gone beyond a closeness that even many groups share, that of course excluding such groups as the Furries, or PRIATE before a whole mess happened there.

The question I am asking though is, what has this proven of the accusations of the members who were against the Publisher's Club in the first place. Have the members in this forum retreated from the initial forums instead choosing to post in this one instead? Have the members who paid for this forum obtained the right to doing this instead? Is the Publisher's Club Forum a real forum, or has it devolved into nothing more than a glorified chat group?

I, of course realize there are exceptions to these accusations, the occasional thread that pops up that truly may be a true epic; those of course are the ones I'm more inclined to actually post in on these forums.

While the above questions are ones I have heard by others, I'd like to devote these final paragraphs to my own concerns instead. My questions to the Publisher Club's members are as follows: What makes this forum any different from a more exclusive Off-Topic board? Why post your threads in here rather than obtain a larger amount of answers by exploring outside of the Pub Club? Is it because you'd rather have the answers of those who you know? Are you trying to avoid "trolls"? I use italics because I haven't seen a true troll in these parts in forever and the Escapist community abuses that word to the point where it doesn't ever mean anything at all.

Really so far, in my excursions to this forum, is that I haven't seen a true reason to keep this forum going. Where a true exception to that rule is Virgil posting a link from another part of the Pub Club to get some more beta testers was a great idea to utilize this part of the site, much of these threads could fit and in fact might be better off in the Off-Topic or Gaming Discussions.

So in conclusion lets run a fun little experiment. Imagine I am the controller of this site and I have made these observations. Answer the questions that you can and make a solid argument as to why this forum should remain open, I'm truly interested to see what the ideas are. Is this truly another board that defines itself as separate from the rest of the boards, or is it as the French in the title says "An Upper Tier?"

I paid $10 to get a custom forum title, that's pretty much it.

But I am glad for this forum. If you're asking if it's superior to the other forums, I would say it is in some ways. It's certainly more intimate and the level of abrasive posting is at a minimum. We've had a couple of "misunderstandings", but we got past that. But this is the only section of the site where I'm treated respectfully, so I will stay here and return that respect. Sometimes I go out in the main forums and I wonder why I did, because people don't put any thought into what they say out there. Yahtzee-parrots, console/company fanboys, hippie loudmouths...sometimes I'd wish they'd all shut up.

This forum provides something the other forums don't, stability and mutual respect. I'll gladly continue to pay for that privilege.

I paid $10 to get a custom forum title, that's pretty much it.

But I am glad for this forum...

I notice a few things in the wording of your post I'd like to address as part of my argument. The first is the addition of intimate to the forum. I can notice two things about this "intimacy" the first being that the community is close where in itself is an excellent thing to an extent, there is a point that it becomes tiresome to those that aren't 'regulars' so to say. An example would be the immense amount of 'flirting' that occurs with some of the Users. While I'm all for comments that are coy in nature for a few posts, an example would be in your own thread "Not Dressing up for Halloween" I believe it was, where the flirting got annoyingly long and personal in nature and I agree with Susan that it should have gone to PM. I've noticed this in a few threads I frequent and have come to the conclusion that if that is what an intimate community entails, then it is something that shouldn't be encouraged to continue.

By all means continue to be close, but don't assume that something that personal is going to be accepted by all. In fact that could mean that you yourself could be being disrespectful to the rest of the Users who just want to read and respond to a thread and not wade through tons of these messages. Again I am not saying you are doing this in particular, but your wording suggests that this intimacy is what is causing it.

The next area would be using "We" as a term of the Pub Club. This, frankly is plainly wrong. The Pub Club has not had issues on a whole, the Users that correspond within the Pub Club have had issues, and not all the Users have even gone that far. Now this might seem like nitpicking, but its a slippery slope until elitism, something this site has a problem with on the normal forums, becomes rampant. How long does it take until the rest of the forums are lesser in nature as seen by some users.

Why do you assume that I have any regard for the general populace of this site? Why would you further assume that I take their feelings into account? Why does it matter to you how we choose to conduct ourselves here? Susan would have put her foot down if it was becoming a problem, it wasn't. Most importantly, why should I not make use of the pronoun "we" if I don't feel like a part of this place? I certainly don't apply that to the general populace, I refer to them as "Esc".

I'm not elitist. I don't deny anyone the opportunity to fork over some cash and hang out here. But the majority of "Esc" isn't going to do that, and I don't mind at all. It's they're choice. My view of the general forum populace is just that, mine. You can accept it, deny it, ignore it or make it into origami wedding cakes for all I care. It will still be my opinion.

 

[Roxas1359]

Subject Lost, ah yes the good old "it's my opinion so shut up" routine. Many times I've seen him use that in the regular forums. He does that because I feel he is so insecure and unsure of how to handle and maintain his stance on something in a debate for too long for I've seen him use that excuse a lot.

 

[VaudevillianVeteran]

Not at all, ya young'n. *Waves at subject Fury* X3

Can you get me one, subject Sas? :3

 

[Lost In The Void]

Subject Max I plan on debating more once more people post their responses so I can get more out of the way in one post

 

[Sassafrass]

I can get you a couple, subject Vee~~~ :3

Subject Lost, this is the best part.

It's certainly more intimate and the level of abrasive posting is at a minimum. We've had a couple of "misunderstandings", but we got past that. But this is the only section of the site where I'm treated respectfully, so I will stay here and return that respect. Sometimes I go out in the main forums and I wonder why I did, because people don't put any thought into what they say out there. Yahtzee-parrots, console/company fanboys, hippie loudmouths...sometimes I'd wish they'd all shut up.

Well, maybe if he stopped calling out all the above when he see's them...

 

[Lost In The Void]

Subject Sass XD that's all I can say to that XD

 

[Roxas1359]

Subject Lost, I wish you and New Classic luck with that. Your right in which you say that elitism is a problem on this site, but from my observations it is a lot lower this month than last since many users left after the whole incident last month. That's not to say the site is totally free of elitism because that is blatantly false but unfortunately it will never completely leave here because it unfortunately becomes a part of some users as time goes on. They feel they are above the rules and get an overinflated ego and then when they get in trouble they'll throw a fit because things did not go there way. Then we sooner or later they get banned their large fanbase then goes into a rage and leaves. Just in time for a new user to take the place of the previous user who had their ego enlarge too much for the process to start again. I call it "The Cycle of Egotism/Elitism."

Subject Sass, yeah it's hilarious at how he does not see the irony in his post. Those things that he has contempt for because of the complaining is almost exactly what he is doing only in another forum. I call that the "Denial" stage where the user's ego has gotten to where they don't see that they are in that spot of elitism to where they themselves judge others as if they are better. In my "Cycle of Egotism/Elitism" it is still possible for them to realize this if they were to receive the shock that they were doing this like what happened to Furburt who at first adored the fame of the site but today loathes it. Such a shock though can make the person not go what happened to Furburt but to what happened to Portal as I've seen which is the loss of their popularity causes them to hate new users and claim they are ruining the site.

 

[VaudevillianVeteran]

I agree with you, subject Max. It's sadly inevitable, I love this site, but seeing those idiots and this elitist crap sometimes makes me feel solice that I've settled down here where it's not as frequent nor huge.

Yay! Thank you, subject Sas~ :3

 

[Sassafrass]

Seriously, when ever I see a comment from someone saying I love/hate *Insert company or game here*, he's there, quoting them to tell them off about to, subject Lost. XD

Subject Max, all we need to do to get rid of the ego problem is kill Souplex. XD But I'm in agreement, the site does have its odd moments where elitism and egotism runs rampant, leading to massive melt-downs.

 

[Roxas1359]

Subject Vee, that's where the third one comes in. Portal Maniac called it the "Neonbob side" in how Neonbob is here and rarely goes out of here to which apparently to him "no one cares about his posts". My rebuttal to Portal though was that while it may have not been important to him it was important to another user by chance. And out of all I've seen this forum, the Forum Games and RP section I mean, is the least crowded with elitism. While I might not trek far out from the normal spots of posting I'm sure there is possibly less elitism in some areas because those who love the attention won't stay in RPs or games if they are not the center of attention to which they then go to either A) The other forums where they can be revered or B) User Groups. Now while that seems paradoxical to the previous point I made it still invokes a sense of truth in that it does indeed happen. It happens to all but once we-Ourselves- realize, or if in the matter we ever do, we hopefully stop.

Dang it Subject Lost you got me into an analytical mood again! XD

Subject Sass, it'll never leave as I've said it'll always be a part of the site. And when the melt-downs occur all you must do is sit back, relax, and laugh at the person throwing a hissy fit on the internet. Right Subject Lost? XF

 

[Sassafrass]

Aye, I was shocked to see Portal act like that towards a new guy in the last compo we had here, subject Max. And to be honest, with Furburt, he started to get the ego thanks to user groups and being well known for being very outspoken but then when he was called the worse thing to happen to the site, he sort of had his eyes open. Sure, he had followers but they were definitely outweighed by the haters. And I certainly don't understand the venomous hate Jack and Calumon gets at times, while I'm on a rambling. Yes, it can be annoying at times but that is why the Ignore feature was implemented.

Not a problem, subject Vee~ *Passes hats made from the cast of "The Hills Have Eyes."* :3