TheMadAsshatter

Word Crimes

I can only think of one thing that I truly hate to hear, that being "could care less" when it's supposed to be "couldn't care less". Fuckin' hate it.

Sword Art Online: Rising Phoenix

Finally got another post up. Sorry for my inactivity.

Sword Art Online: Rising Phoenix

Exile stayed quiet for a while, formulating his own opinions. It sounded a lot like Crepus's plan was essentially everyone else's; pick an area for mobs then grind the hell out of them. Not that it was a bad plan, and to be honest there probably weren't any better ideas, but it seemed a bit too generic for Crepus to be making a big deal out of it. Then there was the matter of the group having been "hand-picked." Exile figured Crepus knew what he was doing, but SAO went online less than a day ago. How would he know who was good at what in that period of time, let alone who would be best for something like this?

As everyones' friend requests got sent out, Exile accepted them, almost without thinking about it. Crepus stood up and began to lead the others out of the tavern. Exile followed as Crepus took them through the streets of the Town of Beginnings and into the outside world. A friend of his who was in the beta test had told him a bit about the area, so he was able to recognize some of the landmarks, though his knowledge didn't extend farther than that. He knew the road they hadn't taken led to another town, but he knew nothing about this much grittier road leading into the forest. He gripped the sword on his back in case some animals decided to attack them, but that didn't seem to happen at any point. The walk was relatively peaceful, and quiet. No one seemed to care much about small talk, which sort of surprised Exile, though maybe it was because the shock of knowing you were trapped in this world was still setting in for most players.

When they arrived at the mouth of a cavern, Exile couldn't help but be somewhat surprised. "Not sure if you noticed, but caves tend to be a bit too dangerous for beginners like us, even with seven players," he said to Crepus, taking a moment to sit down and take a look at everyones' stats. At that moment, a thought occurred to him about what the GM had said. "You know, those news stories the GM showed us could have been faked," he said to no one in particular. "Think about it. Technology has come a long way. We're all wearing helmets that take our minds to this virtual world, one that's almost indistinguishable from reality. Who's to say that he didn't create those stories to scare us?" he asked.

I had this idea today...

Cool idea. I'd definitely be onboard with that, but now I have to wonder what section you would post it in.

Post Your Pikcha

Speaking of shooting, I went shooting myself earlier today with my beautiful AK.

pic

Gene Simmons Declares that 'Rock is Finally Dead'

I. Fucking. Refuse.

First of all, I'll echo what Darog said and say that Gene doesn't get to be the authority on what music genre is dead. Fuck him, he's a sellout anyways! Second of all, FUCK YOU, ROCK'S NOT FUCKING DEAD!!!

*Crawls into a corner and starts quietly sobbing*

No Fucking Way

That's pretty cool, but let me know when they find Jimmy Hoffa, then I'll be impressed.

ETU - College is Hell, quite literally.

Jake took a sip from the punch as Asher introduced himself. He hadn't expected questions so quickly, but Jake supposed this was a new thing for everyone here, so it didn't bother him. "Nah, I'm in Lester, wherever exactly that is," he said jokingly. He didn't really know, nor care, where it was, as long as it was near the tower, since that's where security was. He wanted quick access to his Mosin, and judging from his schedule the ideal time to go shooting would be Saturdays, which was fine by him. He kinda wished he had brought his AK as well, but his dad voted against it, which was fair enough.

When Kirina introduced herself, Jake couldn't help but be surprised. "Really, you're Russian? That's pretty awesome. Приятно познакомится," he said. "I'm majoring in Physics; going for a master's degree. Figure that'll be a good thing to have in this day and age," he said. He glanced at his watch, making sure he still had some time to chat before the party, when it occurred to him that maybe Asher and Kirina might be up for it. "So, speaking of vodka, I'm going to a party with a guy I know from High School at Whitehall. If you two want in, I'm sure he won't mind."

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, he heard a crash near the main entrance. The main entrance which had been locked. Not that it was a big deal, but it seemed pretty convenient that whomever was in charge of this shindig would lock the main doors and then a loud sound happens to come from behind them. "The hell was that?" Jacob asked to no one in particular.

Morals and Videogames

This is something that I've done a lot of thinking about in the past few months, and reinforced by some of the themes shown in Sword Art Online, particularly the idea that how you act and what you put into a game character reflects upon your RL personality. This is something that I've thought a lot about, particularly after playing DayZ, and this can relate to any game where there are moral choices to be made. I'll start with DayZ, because it's purely player interaction rather than just NPCs.

I'll start my saying that DayZ is a freeform game, and that essentially means you get out of it what you put into it. I'm sure plenty of you have heard me rant and bitch about bandits in DayZ, and this has nothing to do with that, though it has helped me formulate some theories. DayZ being an open world game where you can do anything you want to, game mechanics permitting (with the exception of hacking and exploiting glitches), it kinda shows where your priorities lie when you have fun making the game harder for other players. I'm not just talking about killing on sight, there are worse things that can happen. I'll use my dad as an example; one time he was playing DayZ, and, predictably, he broke his legs on a staircase. So, with no morphine, no splint, over a kilometer away from a town with zombies to eat him to death, and no way as of yet to respawn, he started crawling around looking for something to either kill himself or patch his legs up. Not long afterwards, a player comes along and my dad is practically begging him to kill him. The other player stopped and looked at him, obviously showing that he knew that my dad was having a shitty day, and he fucking says no and runs the other way.

This is one of those situations where you really have to look at the behavior of the person in real life. My dad, having been crawling around for the last half hour, was quite obviously not enjoying himself. When he asks someone to kill him, a relatively easy thing to do, and, theoretically, a way to get out some aggression in game, and they refuse, it shows a very basic lack of respect for the player; it's below a lack of respect, it's just dick behavior because he wants to be a dick. Yeah, it's a game, an open world game where you can do anything you want, but when it comes to something like this, I can only relate it to griefing. This player, by intentionally leaving my dad to continue crawling around with broken legs, showed that he clearly just wanted to be a prick, for no other reason than exactly that.

The same can be applied to spawnkillers, specifically when it relates to people who are playing the game for the first time. Let's say you just got this game, you spawn in, and not even five minutes in, five minutes into a world you know nothing about and are eager to explore and discover, you get sniped. Let's say it happens again next time, and the time after that you run across someone who is armed and you ask them for help, noting that it's your first time playing and you've already been shot twice. They raise their gun and put a bullet in your brain, saying "Welcome to DayZ" in the process. Let's take a moment to look at the killer's motivation. They don't have much of a motivation other than "Hey, a player, let's kill him then taunt him with the typical welcoming phrase." There is no other motivation. They're a fresh spawn, so no gear; they're a brand new player, so hardly a threat; they just asked for help, so any vestige of thought that they are a threat is a fucking joke. At that point there is no reason to kill them other than either just to kill them, or to specifically make their gameplay experience less enjoyable; ie. griefing.

Maybe it's just because I usually play the hero type, but I feel like gamers have a responsibility to one another, no matter what game they're playing, to make it enjoyable to one another, at least those who take a game seriously. That's part of what I feel like the problem is with DayZ is that not many people take it seriously. There are some games that aren't really meant to be taken seriously, like Call of Duty, Battlefield, or really any other FPS, because the point of the game is to kill everyone on the enemy team. But in games that could be taken as RPGs, like DayZ or Minecraft, there is a certain level of sincerity that players need to put into their gameplay to get the full experience, and it's a damn shame when people come into those kinds of games looking to do nothing other than kill other players or turn the game dynamic inside out.

Going back to what I said about Sword Art Online, Kirito made a point of saying that any player's behavior in game is in some way a reflection of who they are. There are cases where this isn't true or doesn't matter, but in most cases I find it to be very valid. Just like an actor is never truly a character, but an actor playing a character, players in a video game put a bit of themselves into that videogame. If you're a nice guy in game, you're probably a nice guy in real life, and vice-versa. The only problem is those who fall into the "dick" category will rationalize it by saying "It's just a game, calm down, fag," or something along those lines.

Post Your Pikcha

Kyuki said
Went shooting today for the first time! Actually hit the target every time. :D

Awesome! Is that a Smith and Wesson M&P you're shooting?

Also, might I make a suggestion? Don't put the thumb of your off-hand over your shooting hand, at least not with automatics. That slide comes back with 25,000+ PSI, and it tends to do bad things to whatever is behind it. Instead, use your off-hand to cup the bottom of the gun. That's how I shoot, and I find it works pretty well.