Actaeon

My apologies for using Pearl Harbor as an example. It's just what got me thinking. I'm with you and Franklin on this one.

... With Kel's disappearing act, you're looking a touch D.I.D. there.

FDR told us (well, our parents... or grandparents) that December 7, 1941 would live in infamy. Well, seventy years later, December 7 gets about as much fanfare as December 8 (1980), November 22 (1963), and marginally more than April 4 (1968). That is to say, not much at all.

 

This leaves me wondering about our perspective. Dates are one thing. The wholesale tendency of American society to value the future over the past is another.

 

As usual, I'd rather open the floor to broad discussion than rant and ask you to respond. Some of you are from countries with a long sense of history. Some of you are Americans that roll your eyes at the way we behave. Still others might see this era as so fundamentally different than those that came before that the old lessons are irrelevant.

 

My question is this: is it possible to learn from the past, be content in the present, and look forward to the future?

... Is it strange that Jeff's momentary presence in the "Who's Online" box has me all excited and curious?

Karma! That's what they called it. And newbies did. And I remember comparing member numbers more than absolute join dates. Until Aran's stats came out, and a whole new... measuring contest began.

 

Good thing we're past all that.

Before the UBB turnover, we were able to rate each other on either a four or five star (or smiley... my memory for such things is not the best) system. Post count was still the dominant factor in social status, but your stars were taken into account, too. And time in the community, I suppose. I imagine that's diminished as the relative stay of most oldbies grows closer.

To question the value of being the biggest poster is blasphemy. Shun the non-believer.

Now that we're addressing future comers and not just this one, already sold poster...

 

Most of us are here because Jeff is a great storyteller above all else. The Geneforge series epitomizes that. The whole setting is thought provoking and addictive. It's why we still dream of "Blades of Geneforge", even though it wouldn't be very lucrative, and why I hold out hope for a Geneforge AIMhack.

I still think we should have a stickied version of this thread.

I'm a fan of Geneforge. Tyranicus will get around to posting the Nethergate picture soon, I imagine. The company was founded on Exile and its remake, Avernum. Avernum itself is being remade, and will be coming out for Macintosh this month.

 

They all have their advantages. We all have our favorites. Hopefully, you will, as you said, get around to playing them all.

In theory, such data could have the opposite impact. "99 posts?", an unnamed member might say, "And I haven't really said anything. I should dial it down a notch."

Mine was in the Geneforge 3 anticipation thread. But it didn't provide NEAR the post padding it did for Iffy. It is also possible I am still in that period.

Since the the last Ermarian update (2007, I believe), Randomizer has posted 5,983 times. Alorael has posted 5,437. I believe that qualifies as catching up, though it would take about eighty years to close the gap.

 

http://endeavor.ermarian.net/member/335

http://endeavor.ermarian.net/member/6785

Give Randomizer some credit. More than 10,000 posts in a little less than six years.

So... they're catching up. Perhaps Aran would be willing to use his analytical resources to judge when, at current posting rates, you would be surpassed, and by whom?

I have trouble imagining something the complex applied to one of Jeff's games, as he tends to focus more on plot than engine. That's not to say it's not an intriguing concept... I think there are some first person shooters that do something of the sort, but I'm afraid my computer would have a fit trying to run such a thing.

 

As it is, I rely on tabletop RPGs to go beyond the limits of what Jeff can do. So far, it's worked fairly well. Otherwise, I'm sure someone will get around to it in computer form eventually, if they haven't already.

I think "The Abyss" might still be taking characters.

 

Edit: Scratch that. Sarachim asked for final submissions several days ago. Maybe there will be another when one of the older ones wraps up.

I made a bid to send the thread in a productive direction, using the content (not the style) of the original post as a jumping off point. However, I imagine that there's still a high potential for further conflict, so I could understand the logic of a lock, too.

Here is where I started for information. I'm new to the system, too, so that's about all I have. I'm sure the others will be along to help you shortly.

Do you mean something along the lines of "The Deck of Many Things" in D&D? Personally, I think a game with unpredictable spikes and dips could make for interesting game play and add replay value. Perhaps in a setting where something is fundamentally wrong with reality, and the fundamental physical laws are liable to change up on you at any moment. (...This has probably been done.)

I don't need Aran to figure out that even gaining on Alorael, much less catching up, requires at least 2000 posts a year.

That may be my favorite post since an Avernite Christmas.

Since Thuryl, or rather Lilith, HAS a custom title, you don't actually share your current title with anyone, right? Although I would enjoy seeing your post count next to an Initiate title.

What a lovely system.

Only five thousand more posts and they'll be obligated to change up the titles again (though I imagine the next game will probably do that first).