We all need to chill. Some of us (although not everyone) are taking this FAR too seriously. Slander of other candidates, promisies of content that might not even happen, ardent fervor for the good points without admitting the bad… we need to chill for a bit before we get utterly mad if our chosen candidate loses.
If anyone is wondering who I support BTW, were the choice mine I’d choose some other 4th candidate. One works for snek people, one wants to cause total chaos, and one is pouring gallons of honey down a well which I don’t need to tell you all is probably a bad idea even ignoring the total waste. I wish I could put forward another candidate who WON’T destroy London with a stupid action.
[quote=Kylestien]We all need to chill. Some of us (although not everyone) are taking this FAR too seriously. Slander of other candidates, promisies of content that might not even happen, ardent fervor for the good points without admitting the bad… we need to chill for a bit before we get utterly mad if our chosen candidate loses.
If anyone is wondering who I support BTW, were the choice mine I’d choose some other 4th candidate. One works for snek people, one wants to cause total chaos, and one is pouring gallons of honey down a well which I don’t need to tell you all is probably a bad idea even ignoring the total waste. I wish I could put forward another candidate who WON’T destroy London with a stupid action.[/quote]
[li]
I thought everyone already knew this, but yeah-I wasn’t as active in the forums last year, but this year it seems pretty intense for some reason. I’m voting based on candidate coolness as much as anything.
Ultimately the elections are just picking which character gets to star in some extra content, with no wrong choice among them. It’s good to remember that.
I think some people don’t realize that actively trying to persuade others to your side can be offputing and intimidating. This isn’t a high school debate where your goal is to crush opponent’s arguments and cover up problems with your own.
[quote=Hattington][quote=Kylestien]We all need to chill. Some of us (although not everyone) are taking this FAR too seriously. Slander of other candidates, promisies of content that might not even happen, ardent fervor for the good points without admitting the bad… we need to chill for a bit before we get utterly mad if our chosen candidate loses.
If anyone is wondering who I support BTW, were the choice mine I’d choose some other 4th candidate. One works for snek people, one wants to cause total chaos, and one is pouring gallons of honey down a well which I don’t need to tell you all is probably a bad idea even ignoring the total waste. I wish I could put forward another candidate who WON’T destroy London with a stupid action.[/quote]
[li]
I thought everyone already knew this, but yeah-I wasn’t as active in the forums last year, but this year it seems pretty intense for some reason. I’m voting based on candidate coolness as much as anything.[/quote]
Was worse last year. Even imitating politics isn’t really a good recipe for level heads.
[/li]
Don’t take all the inflammatory rhetoric and debating too seriously. Most of us are just having a chuckle, and I think we were under the impression everyone was playing along. We should probably make it more clear, I guess, because in hindsight perhaps it’s a little easy to see it as being entirely genuine. Most of us are entirely civil when not quasi-roleplaying. Except for me, because I’m actually every bit the tremendous ass I pretend to be. edited by Isaac Zienfried on 6/30/2017
[quote=Isaac Zienfried]It’s like you guys hate fun or something.
Don’t take all the inflammatory rhetoric and debating too seriously. Most of us are just having a chuckle, and I think we were under the impression everyone was playing along. We should probably make it more clear, I guess, because in hindsight perhaps it’s a little easy to see it as being entirely genuine. Most of us are entirely civil when not quasi-roleplaying. Except for me, because I’m actually every bit the tremendous ass I pretend to be. edited by Isaac Zienfried on 6/30/2017[/quote]
Oddly enough, even fictionalized arguments that last several pages can be incredibly stressful for people who don’t enjoy arguing. Especially those of us who perhaps don’t share political opinions with our families and see their own terrible arguments mirrored in those around us. (like my damn aunt’s Facebook page for the last year or so) It’s EXTREMELY DIFFICULT not to be reminded of unpleasant things when even fictional elections come up.
There’s a reason that "politics" is not generally a polite topic of conversation. It rattles nerves very easily!
And it is actually deeply frustrating to see arguments that last just a bajillion pages and when someone says maybe we should chill, the reply is "We’re just having fun and didn’t mean it!" Because clearly whoever suggested people chill was really not having fun.
Thing I learned from last year: If you are like me and would rather pull out your own fingernails than hear another goddamn election debate of any kind, stick to threads like this one right here that focus exclusively on mechanics and content and completely ignore the rest of the forums until it’s over. If you are incurably curious, just mouseover the threads in Unread Topics and stop reading the second it’s obvious it’s another debate.
[quote=MidnightVoyager][quote=Hattington][quote=Kylestien]We all need to chill. Some of us (although not everyone) are taking this FAR too seriously. Slander of other candidates, promisies of content that might not even happen, ardent fervor for the good points without admitting the bad… we need to chill for a bit before we get utterly mad if our chosen candidate loses.
If anyone is wondering who I support BTW, were the choice mine I’d choose some other 4th candidate. One works for snek people, one wants to cause total chaos, and one is pouring gallons of honey down a well which I don’t need to tell you all is probably a bad idea even ignoring the total waste. I wish I could put forward another candidate who WON’T destroy London with a stupid action.[/quote]
[li]
I thought everyone already knew this, but yeah-I wasn’t as active in the forums last year, but this year it seems pretty intense for some reason. I’m voting based on candidate coolness as much as anything.[/quote]
Was worse last year. Even imitating politics isn’t really a good recipe for level heads.
[/li][/quote]
Yowch. Words fail me, this has always seemed like one of the less belligerent online communities out there (especially compared to the ones I normally frequent).
But yeah, like other people said I’ll be very surprised if even our respective candidates’ opportunity cards change signifcantly whoever wins.
[li]
I believe you’re completely missing my point. I did say that, yes, we could probably stand to make it more clear that this isn’t serious, and shouldn’t be seen as particularly personal or anything other than a bit of indulgence in argumentative urges or whatnot.
Some people are having fun playing the determined campaigner, designing leaflets and distributing letters. Some people are organizing donation efforts to scratch that administrative itch. And some of us are playing the hotheaded or sarcastic debater because we can’t do that in real-world issues for fear of it destroying relationships, and thought this was a less fragile place for it.
I do get that it can be exasperating, though. By all means, it shouldn’t take up the entire forums. When we bring our crap into other threads where it doesn’t belong, people have every right to box us about the ears for it, and we’ll apologize and clean up our mess. But it’s a little irritating, I have to admit, to be chastised for indulging where it was assumed to belong.
I feel to some extent that debate is to be expected, though there’s clearly a line to be crossed. When involving in an election, even a fictional one that still relates to real world ideals and politics, disagreement is bound to happen. Even the kindest forum I’ve yet to see isn’t immune to getting rattled, unfortunately. And to some extent, that’s okay. A sharing of ideas can be good and moderate debate is enjoyable to some people when done with a respect for others, such as cutting debates down in size and not getting hung up in public conversation. It’s the resulting hostility and obsession with the game’s meta that gets to me. I can’t say I’m as bad off as MidnightVoyager (I’m sorry about your aunt, btw, my family puts me in a similar situation too), but eventually the stress of the debate gets irritating. And I get it, it’s politics. It’s in a fictional world where bats sell alcohol and death is a literal pastime game, but politics is politics, and you can’t expect a group effort like this not to get involved with the nitty gritty of it. But what sucks about it is that it siphons the fun out of it, you know? I love having friendly arguments, but they can get so hostile or extensive on here that it becomes draining to be involved. I don’t mind getting involved with the election, it’s what we’re supposed to do, but it’s also meant to be fun. I don’t think most of the people are meaning to take it too far, but it’d be nice if players could take an hour or so to recollect themselves and then return to the forums so that conversation doesn’t steer itself back to insults and genuine anger. But hey, at least I’ve yet to see any physical threats this year! edited by Sir Joseph Marlen on 6/30/2017
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I never intended anything I posed to come off as such.
You’re hardly alone in having frustrating relatives and acquaintances. But we all handle it differently. Some of us get stressed at any reminder, and some of us leap at the chance to play a vigorous bout of fake-fighting. If real-world politics is war, I see this as paintball. But perhaps some people got hit who weren’t wearing protective gear, and that’s to be avoided.
Oh yeah, I really tried to keep up with it last year and it just disabused me of any notions that I enjoy debate, so I’m altogether staying away from it for my own and everyone else’s good. It’s so easy to gradually slip into something hostile when someone misreads tone that I’d rather not take the chance.
This year is much better because it is more clear where there is unlikely to be debate, so I don’t have to look at much of it while trying to find out where the new content is, how to work with it, and if there’s any interesting lore involved that I might not know. In fact, here’s another nice thread that has details on lore and the like without veering into debate, for whoever would like that sort of thing!
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I never intended anything I posed to come off as such.[/quote]
I don’t doubt it. I think everyone is trying to have fun here, whether they debate or only look for game mechanics. I just think we (myself included) can get carried off in our fun and say stuff that comes off as insulting or annoys people who aren’t here for that stuff. While a few comments seem to be actually mean spirited, most of the issues I’ve seen come off as people getting flustered or saying something they don’t mean but someone else not being in on it. I’m not hoping for all this back and forth to end, just that we remain courteous in discussion and keep a level head about it. Either way, the election is nearly halfway over, and things tend to calm down soon afterwards. Hopefully in the meantime, we all can get what we want out of the election without anyone being too badly bothered.
I suppose an apology is in place then, since I can hardly say I haven’t gotten carried away.
I was originally in it to rejoin the community after a 5-month hiatus I took after a nasty fight in the IRC.
I initially just wanted to do infrastructure, forum headquarters and google documents, but in categorizing election snippets I started to notice many players were mistaken in what they thought was factual.
Now, all of you seem to avoid political debate with family members, but I absolutely love doing it so my attempts to point out flaws and misconceptions probably quickly escalated into zealous gibbering.
I’ll be the first to admit I’ve spent the better part of the last week lurking here, my free time has increased dramatically now that school’s over and I’ve unwisely spent it here where my frustration with the election just started kind of festering into fake-roleplaying, real-headaches. This frustration is mostly propagated by how patronizing and snide people can get on here. Seriously, what is up with that?
I’ll be taking a break from this for a while, I’ll still check in every now and again, but I’m not sure if I’ll keep up with the election anymore. There’s just no fun in fighting a losing battle.
I assume that those who are generally upset by debates indeed try to stay away from the dedicated to it. But:
People start more and more such threads, and post propaganda in threads unrelated to the election.
Some of us really enjoy debates, and enjoy exchanging view points with others. But a small vocal minority express themselves in the debates using vicious rhetoric, belittling and patronizing others and their choices.
[quote=Infinity Simulacrum]I suppose an apology is in place then, since I can hardly say I haven’t gotten carried away.
I was originally in it to rejoin the community after a 5-month hiatus I took after a nasty fight in the IRC.
I initially just wanted to do infrastructure, forum headquarters and google documents, but in categorizing election snippets I started to notice many players were mistaken in what they thought was factual.
Now, all of you seem to avoid political debate with family members, but I absolutely love doing it so my attempts to point out flaws and misconceptions probably quickly escalated into zealous gibbering.
I’ll be the first to admit I’ve spent the better part of the last week lurking here, my free time has increased dramatically now that school’s over and I’ve unwisely spent it here where my frustration with the election just started kind of festering into fake-roleplaying, real-headaches. This frustration is mostly propagated by how patronizing and snide people can get on here. Seriously, what is up with that?
I’ll be taking a break from this for a while, I’ll still check in every now and again, but I’m not sure if I’ll keep up with the election anymore. There’s just no fun in fighting a losing battle.
Again, I apologize.
IS edited by Infinity Simulacrum on 6/30/2017[/quote]
Rest assured, you did well.
Passion and dedication are always better than stasis and inertia.
I truly enjoyed your posts over the forum. And devotion of your to organizing your cause was splendid!