Gathering Storm

[Enigma_Nova]

I guess I'd have to be there to understand it.
This gives me an opportunity to learn something about life!

[Solomwi]

I'd like to throw my hat in for membership consideration.

[notyoueither]

OK. You are on the list of prospective new members.

[DeepO]

Originally posted by Enigma_Nova
Well, I guess that if you want to get emotionally involved with not only your Civ but also your Teammates, that might make sense
But getting emotionally involved with your Civ is a rare obcession, and Teammates are one degree of separation further out.

Still, I'll take your word for it that it can happen. I just don't see how.

Emotional attachment? You bet. You even feel emotional attached to other teams sometimes. The first few weeks, you might think this is just a game, but after a few months this becomes part of your life. Especially for turnplayers...

There was a time when I could draw our complete map by hand, each tile improvement and bonus-perfect. Not because I've got a photographic memory or obsess over such things, but simply because you spend so much time tweaking that same game it becomes your own. Stormia was our land, not some island in some game we were randomly playing.

Such a vivid memory of your land can come quite handy at night, laying awake in your bed, half-dreaming on how to get that last shield squeezed out in time for the big plan

BTW, emotional attachment is also what makes the public forum such a dangerous place: one badly worded comment can quickly turn into personal vendetta. Try reading up on the first year of PTWDG I to see what I mean. Trolls are not appreciated, and the line between friendly jousting and trolling is very thin.

DeepO

[Beta]

Originally posted by DeepO

Emotional attachment? You bet. You even feel emotional attached to other teams sometimes. The first few weeks, you might think this is just a game, but after a few months this becomes part of your life. Especially for turnplayers...

There was a time when I could draw our complete map by hand, each tile improvement and bonus-perfect. Not because I've got a photographic memory or obsess over such things, but simply because you spend so much time tweaking that same game it becomes your own. Stormia was our land, not some island in some game we were randomly playing.

Such a vivid memory of your land can come quite handy at night, laying awake in your bed, half-dreaming on how to get that last shield squeezed out in time for the big plan

BTW, emotional attachment is also what makes the public forum such a dangerous place: one badly worded comment can quickly turn into personal vendetta. Try reading up on the first year of PTWDG I to see what I mean. Trolls are not appreciated, and the line between friendly jousting and trolling is very thin.

DeepO

Damn. A few well-placed sleeping pills and Vox may have won.

And I concur 110% with your post DeepO.

[Aro]

DeepO,

And, E_N... Be nice!

[Aro]

Originally posted by Beta


Damn. A few well-placed sleeping pills and Vox may have won.

And I concur 110% with your post DeepO.

Beta, you're looking like nye!

[Enigma_Nova]

Originally posted by Aro
And, E_N... Be nice!

I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.

[Aro]

It's up to you, dude.

[notyoueither]

E_N, I ask you to consider this well.

GS has had a very difficult time managing relations with other teams in a past game. Public forum behaviour and how it was perceived by others was a part of that. Simply who our members were was another part.

A more recent game (that GS was not a part of) has been halted after a problem with behaviour by a member of one team was resloved, but the spirit of the players for that game had been sapped by prior recriminations, again on the public forum.

With those things in mind, I have to wonder if GS would be the right place for you in this game. I feel safe in saying that not many members of GS would like any from our team to be a source of public discord in this game.

[Beta]

Originally posted by Aro


Beta, you're looking like nye!

Not any more.

New addition to the family. Border Collie mix.

[Enigma_Nova]

I'm a cuddly lovable plush spam teddie, not a sower of chaos, resentment and destruction, damn it.
Oh, and the Border-collie is cute. Desire to destroy Sarantium has decreased by up to 20%!

[NicodaMax]

These are certain "rules" I like to keep in mind while playing CIV....and generally in real life too.
Its from a post I made in the Civ4players site. Adapted from an Email I received, its suposed to be from His Holiness The Dalai Lama (the words, not the email)

1. Take into account that great games and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R's
Respect for self,
Respect for other's and
Responsability for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderfull stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take inmediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time playing CIV every day.
9. Open arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Play a good honorable game. When you look back on it you'll enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in the forum is the foundation for your CIV Demogame experience.
13. In disagreemente with fellow players, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to acheive immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach CIV playing with reckless abandon.

That summarizes my attitude I guess (and hope). "And that's all I have to say about that."

[Golden Bear]

Nicoda, you have touched me with your words. Point 3,
"respect for self,
respect for others (I fixed that), and,
Responsibility for all your own actions."
... is a great summary for Demo games and for all of life.

The "responsibility," part gets dropped from discussions almost always. I live by it, however. You can do whatever you like, but do not be angry if you pay the consequences for your actions.

We ought to carve these in stone for all games here on 'Poly!

You deserve the Gold Star of the Golden Bear for elucidating this so clearly!! As Babylonian team members can tell you, this is an important award (to us anyway ) And, .... you are the first non-Bab team member to earn it. bow and give homage.

[Enigma_Nova]

The Dalai Lama's beliefs, while highly valued as being ideal, don't strike me as being Evil, Macavellian, Practical or Insidious enough to have use in the modern world.
They also do not adress the purpose behind why a man would have the belief, or why he would have its opposite (though this is probably because The Dalai Lama knows that compared to him, his followers are idiots).

Originally posted by NicodaMax
1. Take into account that great games and great achievements involve great risk.

Or suitable amounts of asskissing, fortune or nepotism.

2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

Unless you would lose more by gaining the lesson - knowledge is power, power corrupts, and if ignorance is working then if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

3. Follow the three R's
Respect for self,
Respect for others and

Dead wrong. People have disrespect for the reason that removing the crappy parts of a system is how the system evolves. If you disrespect your greed, that lets you become more charitable (or vice-versa, if you disrespect your squandering, you become more financial).
Disrespecting people works on two levels. On the base, people respect themselves and disrespect those who disagree, so differing ideologies will clash and (in theory) the strongest wins.
On the upper level, the moral virtues we have allow us to identify inefficiency or evil, and allow us to shun or destroy it.

Disrespect is perfectly justified, IMO. Which is good, because I have a lot of it.

Responsability for all your actions.

I don't believe common folk are responsible for their actions, and even enlightened folk probably aren't either.
Your actions are based on decisions you make. These decisions are influenced by your emotions, beliefs, the people around you, and the situation.
The latter two are usually beyond control, and the first two, while in a person's control if they concentrate hard enough, usually aren't.
In addition, to change your emotions and beliefs, you need to make a decision. It's a circle, that starts with you sumping your emotions and beliefs from the environment when you were a child.
We -are- made up of substance that obeys the various laws of physics.
Self can exist without Freewill - point a camera at a TV screen that takes input from said camera and you have the basic mechanism of self-awareness.

While everyone exercises limited control to improve themselves, or the world around them, I do not consider people responsible for their actions, and I consider punishing people for the amorality of their beliefs and actions to be cruel and unjustified.
On the other hand, since you can't force people to believe or feel things that are beneficial to your empire, it's entirely moral to execute them en-masse so that the beliefs and feelings you want become dominant,
and since people are basically predictable machines with no soul (in my opinion) I have no qualms about publicly torturing one to affect the others.

Yes, I know my beliefs differ from those you find conventional,
but though evolution makes the masses feeling, it also makes people who are able to invent new ideas to lead.
Since the world has 6 billion people in it and no specific need for new leaders, I don't do much - but my beliefs are just as needed for society (in small quantities) as yours are (in large quantities).

This is why representative democracy doesn't work - people find their kin (followers) popular, so you get a charismatic but ineffectual follower as your leader. Leaders should be based on how well they lead and how much they desire to lead, IMO.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderfull stroke of luck.

True.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

Only applies to people who would have more to gain by breaking the rules than by using that mental energy to asskiss effectively.

6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great relationship.

But as soon as the little disputes pile up so that the relationship is no longer great, cancel it faster than Jerry Springer cancels happy couples.

7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take inmediate steps to correct it.

inmediate

8. Spend some time playing CIV every day.

9. Open arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

Only applies to people with some natural skill at assimilating new ideas, feelings or values. For those without such faculties, refer to 1. and 5.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

True.

11. Play a good honorable game. When you look back on it you'll enjoy it a second time.

An alternative is to be proud of the skill and evilness with which you executed your lies, manipulations and skullduggery. If you are content with being evil there's no need to be good. >=)

12. A loving atmosphere in the forum is the foundation for your CIV Demogame experience.

No it's not, you moron! You're a disgrace to this game, get the hell off the forums. :P (Just kidding)

13. In disagreemente with fellow players, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.

Unless 'the past' involves epileptic siezures, heart attacks, children, or other such problems that persist into the present and future.

14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to acheive immortality.

The forum will show the downside of this for me when they reply to my treatise on disrespect.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

Because hammers spent on an ICBM are more effectively spent on airplanes, tanks and subs.

16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.

Does going for a vacation to two nearby but different locales on new years' eve and day count?

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

Such a relation is impermanent and unstable once your emotions change (and they do). The Dalai Lama made a mistake when he assumed his students to be as capable of love as he is - but then again, it's good to be critical and not regard even a famous philosopher's ideas as always right, especially when you're much more adept at understanding new ideas than you are at asskissing.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

But what of risks you took which yielded nothing? You'd need a multiplier for risky successes as opposed to safer successes.

19. Approach CIV playing with reckless abandon.

Recklessly abandon THIS!
Enemy troops have been spotted near your capital