Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Well, you see, there is a good example of there being no one 'CIC'.
Let me ramble a little more--I have some theories and some ideas but they haven't come together yet (... and I'm bored at work!).
I may be wrong, but I have always felt like I've been sold as the boogieman here--as if people are told 'oh, LOAF hates Saga, therefore everyone at Crius hates it, don't bother going there'. I want to express that that isn't the case and that even if it were ever true it hasn't been for many, many years.
I think there's an unfortunate history--when we were younger we all (and I especially) liked to fight about these things. We were kids who were passionate about Wing Commander specifically and who had grown up in the 'wild west' version of the internet... where serving in horrific Usenet flame wars was a badge of honor and where everything was a little bit more intellectual than emotional. Back then, you could have a tooth and nails argument with your friend in the morning and then chat about the new game happily that night. It was a strange culture... and, again no fault modesty, I was always very, very good at arguing. I can take a questionable stance and I can fight it to the death--I'm great with the language, I'm great with selling to the crowd, I'm great at all that. So I guess I hope you know I recognize that and that it makes it a little harder to trust me later on.
So, over the years it has been a hard thing to give up in this age of social networking and general access, even though it was not something that brought any real pleasure. It's a strange problem, really. There are four or five threads going on right now in the general chat that are *amazing*. They make me so happy to get to poinst to them--the one about working on the WCPedia, discussing Flint and Rachel's childhoods... the Heart of the Tiger one that was just started. But what thread is everyone (myself included) coming here to see, everyone wasting their passion on? This one, because it's sexy and gossipy and all that. I have a mess of Privateer 2 videos I should be transcribing right now and I know that would be so much more productive and enjoyable than this... but it's addictive, this sense of conflict. And it's something I want to get past so we can all work on Wing Commander instead.
Anyway--because we fought years ago I think it was hard to move forward and no one really wanted to take that leap. Which was a shame for all parties involved because when we joked about the dark screenshots that was a real criticism, not some hope that we were "nailing" a project we hated. Do you know what I mean?
A few other points:
- In re-reading my posts it seems like I'm 'going after' Tolwyn regardless--I want to step away from that. I do not know him very well, save that he is a Wing Commander fan and that should be good enough for me. I would be happy to talk with him about his project here or anywhere else. If there is a fence to be mended, let's figure out a way to do that and work together?
- Here's a bad point, which falls into the gossip column that is getting this thread so many page views. I received a bizarre, quasi-threatening, schizophrenic e-mail from Psych last night about this thread. It's one of the craziest things I've seen, veering from trying to explain oddly specific points about this thread (Viper81's team bio was supposed to be a joke that someone posted?) to absolutely crazy rants (apparently we hate Psych not because he spent years bullying posters here but because he was an athlete in high school? How would we even know that? Why would we care?*). My reply was that I wasn't interested in talking about any of this--he decided to leave the community and I'm not interested in any more behind the screens maneuvering. I'm happy to chat with him in public about this, if he is interested. (* - by the by, I must add that I hate /myself/ as much as I hate Psych for this, since I was the one who let him do this because I couldn't stand to shut down an 'old friend'.)
... but, moving forward--I wonder if we could get to know each other better? I would LOVE to learn more about the German Wing Commander community and I would finally I think welcome the opportunity to tell you more about myself. If we get to know each other as friends then I think it is much harder to misunderstand things, to fight about things that do not matter and so on. I just want to express somehow that I'm more than some guy who has been angry about Wing Commander--I'm a whole person like you are.
AND NOW
Lars brought up the update with the Saga cruiser, which brings me to a question I had about it. The update mentions lost concept art of the ship... so I'm curious what that is? That's the kind of discussion I'd like to have when there's Saga news, I guess. I pride myself as a Wing Commander historian, so that's the sort of thing that interests me.
(Okay, one last disjointed thought that probably fits in above. I mentioned that I know it's hard to trust me because I'm a slick talker... but I also want to point out, based on something said above, that I don't have some massive goal here. I came to this thread because a friend was worried about posts he saw at WingCenter and I hope we're going to make something positive come from all of this... so I need to express that I'm not looking to get more posters to visit the CZ or more hits for the front page or anything like that. One thing I hope you will learn and believe about me is that I'm an incredibly solitary person at heart. It is honestly an occasional fantasy of mine to be the last Wing Commander fan, still dedicated to writing the wikipedia and updating the news even though no one else will ever see it. I think this is a chance to fix some old mistakes and to make some friends and learn some new things and help each other... but there's nothing more than that to my desire.)
Let me ramble a little more--I have some theories and some ideas but they haven't come together yet (... and I'm bored at work!).
I may be wrong, but I have always felt like I've been sold as the boogieman here--as if people are told 'oh, LOAF hates Saga, therefore everyone at Crius hates it, don't bother going there'. I want to express that that isn't the case and that even if it were ever true it hasn't been for many, many years.
I think there's an unfortunate history--when we were younger we all (and I especially) liked to fight about these things. We were kids who were passionate about Wing Commander specifically and who had grown up in the 'wild west' version of the internet... where serving in horrific Usenet flame wars was a badge of honor and where everything was a little bit more intellectual than emotional. Back then, you could have a tooth and nails argument with your friend in the morning and then chat about the new game happily that night. It was a strange culture... and, again no fault modesty, I was always very, very good at arguing. I can take a questionable stance and I can fight it to the death--I'm great with the language, I'm great with selling to the crowd, I'm great at all that. So I guess I hope you know I recognize that and that it makes it a little harder to trust me later on.
So, over the years it has been a hard thing to give up in this age of social networking and general access, even though it was not something that brought any real pleasure. It's a strange problem, really. There are four or five threads going on right now in the general chat that are *amazing*. They make me so happy to get to poinst to them--the one about working on the WCPedia, discussing Flint and Rachel's childhoods... the Heart of the Tiger one that was just started. But what thread is everyone (myself included) coming here to see, everyone wasting their passion on? This one, because it's sexy and gossipy and all that. I have a mess of Privateer 2 videos I should be transcribing right now and I know that would be so much more productive and enjoyable than this... but it's addictive, this sense of conflict. And it's something I want to get past so we can all work on Wing Commander instead.
Anyway--because we fought years ago I think it was hard to move forward and no one really wanted to take that leap. Which was a shame for all parties involved because when we joked about the dark screenshots that was a real criticism, not some hope that we were "nailing" a project we hated. Do you know what I mean?
A few other points:
- In re-reading my posts it seems like I'm 'going after' Tolwyn regardless--I want to step away from that. I do not know him very well, save that he is a Wing Commander fan and that should be good enough for me. I would be happy to talk with him about his project here or anywhere else. If there is a fence to be mended, let's figure out a way to do that and work together?
- Here's a bad point, which falls into the gossip column that is getting this thread so many page views. I received a bizarre, quasi-threatening, schizophrenic e-mail from Psych last night about this thread. It's one of the craziest things I've seen, veering from trying to explain oddly specific points about this thread (Viper81's team bio was supposed to be a joke that someone posted?) to absolutely crazy rants (apparently we hate Psych not because he spent years bullying posters here but because he was an athlete in high school? How would we even know that? Why would we care?*). My reply was that I wasn't interested in talking about any of this--he decided to leave the community and I'm not interested in any more behind the screens maneuvering. I'm happy to chat with him in public about this, if he is interested. (* - by the by, I must add that I hate /myself/ as much as I hate Psych for this, since I was the one who let him do this because I couldn't stand to shut down an 'old friend'.)
... but, moving forward--I wonder if we could get to know each other better? I would LOVE to learn more about the German Wing Commander community and I would finally I think welcome the opportunity to tell you more about myself. If we get to know each other as friends then I think it is much harder to misunderstand things, to fight about things that do not matter and so on. I just want to express somehow that I'm more than some guy who has been angry about Wing Commander--I'm a whole person like you are.
AND NOW
Lars brought up the update with the Saga cruiser, which brings me to a question I had about it. The update mentions lost concept art of the ship... so I'm curious what that is? That's the kind of discussion I'd like to have when there's Saga news, I guess. I pride myself as a Wing Commander historian, so that's the sort of thing that interests me.
(Okay, one last disjointed thought that probably fits in above. I mentioned that I know it's hard to trust me because I'm a slick talker... but I also want to point out, based on something said above, that I don't have some massive goal here. I came to this thread because a friend was worried about posts he saw at WingCenter and I hope we're going to make something positive come from all of this... so I need to express that I'm not looking to get more posters to visit the CZ or more hits for the front page or anything like that. One thing I hope you will learn and believe about me is that I'm an incredibly solitary person at heart. It is honestly an occasional fantasy of mine to be the last Wing Commander fan, still dedicated to writing the wikipedia and updating the news even though no one else will ever see it. I think this is a chance to fix some old mistakes and to make some friends and learn some new things and help each other... but there's nothing more than that to my desire.)