my enterpretation of the "men as parts" would be that we, as vs. players should get back basics. meaning, playing the game because it is fun, not because we can make money off of it. it is like playing basketball because you want to play in the nba. although winning a 10k would rock, I still have fun trying to build a deck to make janktastic cards like fall of oa work.
anyway.

I was asking for London back then, but you could throw in 1998 if you are feeling it.

Thank you sir, that's what I was getting at.

And I guess the context of the quote in the movie is very relavent to my point. I will give a couple more days to see if anyone wants to write up any more on the assignment before I explain.

So picking on someone is a test of their ability to be humble? Sad day. Sure, we all get picked on. Sure, it would be a much better world if we didn't. The kid who has been ridiculed all his life barns a Big Star Hater and finally gets to ridicule someone else? Huzzah! This is a community, and ridicule does not have a place. Especially when that ridicule is couched in trendy hate. Sarcasm does not translate well on a message board. You asked me if I was gonna rant last week, and today I am ready.

I like humor as much or more than the next guy, But. Certain lines of conversation tend to fracture the comraderie that we built up here and I will point it out when I see it. I may be completely wrong, but the "hater clique" and Spoilergate have brought some bad feelings here that were not here before. I am not trying to convict anyone of anything, I am not trying to push anyone out. I am trying to remind everyone that we are all in this together and we should make it the best experience we can. Together.

not only this but as a community we allow people to be celebrities by doing things that they love (playing cards). this is exactly the same as a sport. the only diffrence is that while baseball is beloved by the mass public tcg's are labeled as "nerd games." this should be a place where everyone is welcomed.

though it may, cuturaly, be on par with sports. there are many similarities with peoples attitudes. some people have just been craped on there hole lives. then, for whatever reason, they gain a reputation and they eat it up. the problem comes when that becomes their identity and belive they are better than everyone else.

what causes people to do this? i dont know. im sure that we could deconstruct it down to their mother and father, but it doesnt matter. what has to happen is for the people who love the game to unconditionally love it.

vs isnt immune to news. watching the evening news (or reading the morning paper) we see the same things that are on our beloved cards. heroes and villians, the best and the worst. what we dont see is the people in the middle who want to make something of them selves. this is what they see, therfore mimicing what they see, for better or worse.

here i am writing more bad and contridicting my self.

sorry

As a matter of fact, it is. That's not a new thing. If you're humble you'll take insults more lightly, and if you're arrogant you'll take insults much, much more sharply. After all, you're oversensitive, we all know it. :laugh: Just kidding, I would never want to risk insulting you, in fear that I may get a PM about it later.

Honestly, I don't think it would be a much better world if we all didn't get picked on. Come on, we're talking about happiness here. If I pick on you, and that makes 5 people happy and 1 person unhappy by not as much as the 5 people were made happy, and, in fact, everyone does this, there's a net gain in happiness. It's just basic math. (Maybe that's why you don't get it. :p )

To be fair, for all I know, this whole thread was made by you as one big, sarcastic joke. Every single person on here could be joking, and I could've overreacted with my humor.

But, honestly, even if that was the case, then any loss in my personal happiness when revealed that a prank was pulled on me would immediately be overwhelmed by the pure gain in happiness from everyone else for participating. I'm surprised you haven't figured all of this out by now. If we create happiness, why should it matter how the net happiness is gained (within reason, obviously)? It's not like I discriminate people.

Oh, and this all started because I said xpx losing was sad. That was blatant sarcasm, as I knew I had an auto-loss if he won. In fact, we had discussed that. The next time I'm thinking of an inside joke, I'll just lessen the possibility of being quoted and mock the person one-on-one.

Come on, Stu, you're not even being funny with your responses. It's like you're trying to be a downer. Enjoy the situation as it is and make us ####ing laugh. Do your own thread justice instead of #####ing about the state of things. Before long, your bitterness and your hatred of people that are bitter and hateful will replace the fun-loving Stu we all know, love, and/or hate, as popularity demands!

You may be right, although sometimes even I cannot follow your logic.

You are saying:

5 laughs>1 humbling insult

I am saying it should be this on a community forum:

50 lurkers unafraid to post ideas>5 laughs

This is what I felt like talking about and that's what it sounded like. I think we need more ambassadors of the game and less crap talk on the boards. Period.

This is a great quote, and I actually remembered to use the edit button to add it:

I couldn't agree more.

Stu,

I have to take a shot at the context. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance it was believed that the 4 humours (blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile) determined a person's personality. Hence, a man was the sum of his parts, a.k.a. his humours. To borrow from Cuddon's The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theories, "[d]ramatists devised characters based on the theory of the imbalance that occurred between the bodily fluids. Comedy of humours (q.v.) developed characters wo were dominated by a particular mood, inclination or peculiarity." Also, see Richard Burton’s “Anatomy of Melancholy”

I think that threads like the suggestion that UDE leaked MXM clearly displays a group of people who are of a particular mood or inclination (I think card players in general are synonymous with peculiarity {see the pic of En-Kur and his X-Mas tree as an X-ample}).

Someone who is green with envy or in a black mood or red with rage suffers from an imbalance of parts. Anyhow, a man of balanced humours (parts) would be what you are asking us all to be rather than be men ruled by an imbalance of parts. AT least I think that is what you are calling for.

p.s. Coincidentally, The Globe was built out of the timbers of Burbage's The Theatre. I suppose we could argue that the basis for one deck, much like the basis for one Globe, springs from the timbers of another deck

Ridiculing someone is never acceptable. It's just plain wrong.

In other news, I feel much better now that I've managed to read about phlegm and bile in the realms.

Right before lunch, too. :cry:

People are never 'happy' at the expense of others. They may derive some short-term pleasure from knowing they have been spared the jab, but happiness never comes from taking something from others, like trying to tear down their self worth.

so in your consequential theory it would also mean that instead of one person winning 40,000 in a pc everyone should get an equal amount maximising happyness. this isnt math logic its an ethical system that has too many holes.

insluting somone is very personal. we all know groups of people where we are free to "pick" on them, this is because we know the person and where their limits are. to play this fine line is where people hurt and what happyness is not about.

Ok, here's my shot.

Each one of us, from the casual lurker (myself) to the most awesome robot-obsessed hippy (Stu), to those that mod this site (Kam) make up this community. We are all parts of a whole, and interlocked with every post written, or simply read. We all contribute in some way to the overall aspect of the bigger picture.

When you type "WTF noob?" You affect more than that person, you affect everyone that reads your oh-so inspiring prose, maybe disgusting them, maybe giving them a chuckle, or even making them think that is the way one is supposed to act on an internet forum. Then everything they type affects others, and the links just keep being added to the chain.

It's the same thing with the game itself. Every time you see someone play, you might learn a new trick, or you might teach someone else a hot combo, and they take that with them to their next game. The game, or the "meta" belongs to us, for we are all the parts of it.

Anyway, that's just what I think.

-B

You give me entirely too much credit.

That being said, I fully agree with profparm on this one. What we need around here is thicker skins. Seriously.

Stu, you've always had a problem with letting us fight. Need I remind you of this disaster that also stemmed from your close-minded worldview of absolute peace and love? Yes, the X-Men spoiler thread was filled with hatred, bile, and scorn, but it also debunked a heated rumor and therefor accomplished something. It ended in victory for VS players everywhere.

You can preach all you want about some imaginary army of lurkers who are terrified into silence by our comments, but I refuse to help those who refuse to help themselves. A little backbone goes a long way, people.

And by the way Stu, nice job on remembering to use the edit feature. You get a smiley face. :)

Good. It's comforting to know that I'm not the only person who enjoys humor, even at the expense of others.

And, archerave, the whole notion of it is that, yes, everyone would have to engage in plan "Pick On Somebody" in order for it to actually maximize happiness. Then again, I don't exactly have a problem with that.

As far as it being an ethical system, the closest one to it (or at least my proactive method of going about it) is Ethical Egoism, which, while instinctually incorrect, is extremely hard to explain WHY it is truly immoral.

As for CFB, if happiness isn't some short-term pleasure, what is happiness? It's not inherently eternal. You can't say, "Well, I really enjoyed a good joke at no one's expense, therefore I am will have long-term pleasure forever." I've always thought of happiness itself as a short-term pleasure, but I guess you're looking at it as being something else. Could you please inform us of what?

As for the 50 lurkers > 5 laughs, first of all, if there are 50 lurkers, and they actually grow a sense of humor (assuming they don't start with one), then why wouldn't there be 50 laughs? I guess the way I'm looking at it is 50 laughs JUST FROM LURKERS > said 50 lurkers not bothering to post. Besides, in order for this to take effect, you have to censor one person to allow another person to post. If there are these 50 lurkers, I think we could go through and find more than 50 people on this website that make fun of others. I guess they shouldn't be allowed to express themselves on here, in favor of the lurkers maybe deciding to come out. Maybe.

Then again, I shouldn't go into the whole "expression" thing with you. We've had that argument before, I believe (although it might've been with Gator). I believe in free expression, and you believe in expression regulated by rules that are made up by you.

"We are men of parts' is a double entendre - parts, as in the anatomical - we are all created of the same machinery - but also parts as in parts in a play. 'All the world's a stage' is a Shakespearean ideal, and each man has heir own part in life.

We (as in the Realmers) have our parts as well. Those parts are within the community - be it as a celeb player, a wiseass know-it-all like me (although Biz gives me a run for my money;) ), the random casual player, or the fresh-faced Vs. noob - we are all pieces of the Vs. puzzle. Every one of us is an essential aspect of the continued halth of the game, and we must respect everyone's individual role within the community in order for the community to flourish as a whole.

We are all organic creatures, but each one with several roles to play in life. In order to keep the Vs. fire burning brightly, we can't afford to lose sight of our role within the Vs. community or the curtain will fall and the show will get canceled. Even Shakespeare had to deal with an audience and the critics...