The Mysterious Guest1 wrote:I'm just wondering... could any of you get any more pathetic? WOD was a game. That's all. The people there were cliquish, and weren't all that open to "outsiders". Having played for almost 2 years, I should know. 90% of you just logged on to "chat" in the bank anyway... at least most of the time. So 1. Find a new shard and continue on or 2. Find a chat room, since that's all you really did anyway. Both are readily available 24/7. Not too hard to find any.
Can I also take a moment to mention how pathetic I find this whole shard wedding thing to be, too? I mean, come on. How many of you are married in real life? How many are "married" in-game? How many are married in real life to the one you're "married" to in game? How many of you devote as much time to your spouses and children as you do to your new characters' skills, buffs, etc.? Maybe if you spent more time in the real world, and less time playing a stupid game, you'd have better family lives.
Take a good look at yourselves, people. If you can't concentrate because you're at work and WOD is closing tonight, you have gone beyond pathetic. You need serious psychiatric help.
Listen to all the crappy, whiny, pathetic music you want to. Shed as many tears as you want. WOD is going away, and I say good riddance. I've wasted enough hours there already. Difference was, I treated it as a game, much as I'd play any computer game.
Hmmph. Game's over. Deal with it.
First of all, will the record please show that I am not "Guest1" - as enlightening as his post was, (and a similar-themed one I was about to make) I cannot claim credit for his logical, but harsh words.
The reality of life is that any of us hate the truth, and at very worst we refuse to believe it, though we may just get upset when we hear it. When things are told to us harshly, without consideration of our feelings, we immediately feel threatened and defensive, and lash out in kind. It's a basic human mechanism to think that when someone gives us something so directly obvious, that it has to be an evil thing. That's what the news does; that's what politicians do. They tell us things so obvious and hurtful (sometimes) that they can't possibly be a good thing.
I find it ironic as the the double-sidedness of human nature. People who claim WoD is dead refuse to fight for it, but can't let go. People who said they quit and were done, come back with dramatic goodbye posts. The reality is that to anyone who made a heartfelt goodbye post yet took no actions to prove that in any other way, denied the truth of what WoD really means to them.
I cannot cry for WoD, because I can honestly say that I didn't care for it. I say this because it is what you want to hear. There's not a person who believes that I cared for WoD or anyone in it, and so I will admit to that mistruth. It doesn't concern me what others think, and maybe instead of being on the defensive, maybe I can encourage discussion. As to the merits of WoD, I learnt a lot about social nature, I learnt how stupid people (including myself) could be, and I saw that among the many, there were a select few I treasured.
What I take from WoD is things that I will always have, because they were inside myself. Had it been any other medium, from a social tennis club to The Sims Online, I imagine the effect would have been the same. Thus, it is not WoD I treasure at all, but the experiences I had in the time that it was a running shard.
When people say they miss WoD, I imagine they miss the people. I imagine they miss the effort they put into those virtual relationships that held almost no fear of potential hurt, because nearly everyone was a potential friend. And when anyone who may upset the delicate illusion that had presented itself over the family culture of the shard, they were driven away with such fury that it often sent the entire shard reeling with after-effects.
WoD was built as a haven for the people who fear rejection - and who doesn't? It's a terrible thing to think that there are heartless, selfish and cruel people who will not only have the same sentiments as us, express any objectionable opinion 'we' dislike. And Gods be damned if they do.
I pity anyone whose social life is so atrocious that the death of a video game is such a fundamental blow to their psyche. Always, always when I present such forceful opinions to the deeper nature of the game, I am challenged with "Marius, it's just a game, lighten up." And now here, when those amongst us realise that this is not so, they turn around and claim the opposite.
I make these accusations without fear of reprisal; I know that WoD has always been what it has for the select few who do not stand out - WoD is ideal for the faceless mob who can shirk responsibility, yet at the same time claim to be a body of unique individuals. And ultimately, that's what it came down to: everyone follows mob mentality and posts heartfelt posts about how their life is over and the world is ending, and yet none raise a finger to accept responsibility and take action to keep WoD alive.
And in fact, they immediately shirk such responsibility as it always has been, moving it to a scapegoat they can later feel better about. "Well, what are you going to do about it Marius?" and at the same time, forbidding me to do so. WoD was a place of clear roles - to have a player move beyond his station, whatever his capacity, was forbidden, unless he expressly showed he was able to be controlled by the Admin.
This is not speculation (a funny 'buzzword' people like to throw around) as the admin said it themselves, in so many words. What I find funny is that Rod and Ciara had so many problems with any admin they employed, so it makes me wonder if the WoD spirit truly exists at all, but then I realise it does:
..so long as responsibility is not given to any member. Many cry, and I find this humourous. One one hand, I am deeply disliked for speaking out and making points about what WoD needs to survive, endlessly making suggestions about things that are clearly dragging it down, and only now do people say "Oh, I wish we'd done something.. what can I do?"
The first thing you can do is listen.
But what point does it have now? What goals are there? How many will read this post and immediately start trying to prove me wrong, feeling both they and their sacred WoD ideal is threatened? For that, I will patiently sit and reply, as always and shake my head.
If you take anything away from this game, ty and take away that you are accountable for the choices you make in the world, and your contribution and the amount of responsibility you take on ultimately decides not only who you are, but what you are accorded.
For me, I was Marius the Black, and my political agenda was to challenge the core beliefs of this shard and the people in it, and find out if I could bring to light problems that no one was willing to speak up about. I tried to challenge every belief taken for granted, based on my observations (and wait for all the posts about "you were wrong Marius, WoD is great") of a shard in it's decline.
I can never say that I 'told you so', because I never felt that what I suggested was taken on, either by players or admin. My major testimony to that is the library, which could have been so much more, but now is nothing. Gone.
Am I bitter about this? Slightly, because it was visibly a great big failure in my eyes, but at the same time, I took on a course of action and managed to achieve my goal. I believe, perhaps foolishly, that this accorded respect of me in my peers. Perhaps I was wrong.
I wasn't at the WoD goodbye festival for two reasons. One, I was moving house, and secondly I chose not to go, once the opportunity presented itself. I choose not to make the reasons known for this, because I know that WoD is not equipped to deal with personal situations.
I'm sure that many people will feel vindicated and heroic since now that they have no responsibility and nothing to lose, by 'standing up to me' and throwing down my ideas as mere cruelty. I find that ignorance one of the greatest hurdles to befell WoD, because WoD was like a child that nearly everyone loved to cuddle, nurse and give attention, but when it came to the 3am feedings, changing the diaper and cleaning up the spew, ultimately there were only four people doing that, and even they ultimately shirked their responsibility.
Give up on WoD, because it never had a chance. Take the experiences you had and the friends you treasured and cherish those as sacred. WoD, itself was doomed to fail. And only when you lose something you take for granted, do you truly realise how valuable it is.
I'm grateful to say that despite how much resistance I faced in this last week, I can wihtout a doubt say that I tried to work hard to make this a better place, to improve what I saw as weaknesses and contribute as best I could. To all the others that did this, I thank you.
Certainly, I wasn't alone, without a doubt! WoD owes its existence to a select few, who did not build the best UO shard by far - but managed to develop a gathering of 500 people and somehow bind them together. That achievement is legendary, I think, in a world where none of us (in general) have never met, live across the world - yes, I mean outside America!
- and have a varying range of values, beliefs and ideals.
-M
