Yes i do think it would be cool at any circuit if they would have multiplayer side events. Even having some decent prizes would be nice.

having a small multiplayer format would really help out casual players who are sick and tired of playing or playing against the same teir 1 decks.

So here's a new wrench to toss in the gears...

You're all analyzing this from a Western philosophical standpoint.

By Buddhist standards, being alive is in and of itself pain and suffering. The whole point is to achieve enlightenment, which will snuff out the little candle of your being, and set you free. Therefore, happiness is kinda irrelevant.

I've never been a big fan of buddhist thought though. One thing I do like is Bushido - The Way of the Warrior. It's a Japanese Philosophy that encourages people to think of death every day. Similar to how we think of the phrase 'Carpe Diem!' in latin (It means 'Seize the Day!' for the lingua-impaired).

At every moment we should be holding death in our mind. This should cause us to do everything with more passion, because every single moment can be our last, so why not live like it. If we accept death as something that is a part of life and not something to define our life in a negative way, then there is no reason to be afraid, and it is easier to examine what makes us happy in life.

So, to bring it back to the topic, would you be content and satisfied if you were to die mid-game playing vs? I think the answer to that is the answer to a lot of different questions - about life, about happiness, and most importantly, about ourselves.

Certainly death must be considered regularly, but to give it undue importance in day to day life is to ignore what it means to be alive. Studies show that the mere thought of death creates negative mood levels. Though this isn't to be avoided at all costs, to constantly invoke negative moods and behaviors leads to negative and bad action.

If we do everything with more passion, we'll do things with less reason. We'll lose the ability to judge between right and wrong action, forcing us to make more wrong decisions, which in any given situation could be catastrophic. Catastrophic decisions certainly do not make for a happy life.

If the most a person has accomplished in life has been to attain victory over others in a card collecting game, it is a hollow life indeed. Only a good life can be fulfulling, and ultimately happy.

Since Stu is such a big fan of quotes, here is one of Nietzsche's I enjoy that has some bearing on the discussion:
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'The greatest weight. -- What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: "This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence - even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!"

Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? ... Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?'

from Nietzsche's The Gay Science, s.341, Walter Kaufmann transl.

Oh snap. That's good. And so is that demon trip.

Either way, yes. I should be gaming. Or sitting here shooting the #### about gaming. It makes me happy and I could die right now... or re-live this life a thousand times and still dig it. I have always been that way, as long as I can remember. I have never been afraid of death, I have always felt satisfied with my life and my accomplishments, and I have always felt that I would not want my life to be any other way.

This, folks, is happiness. :grin:

The question is where did stu find this happiness?

I am happy with my life. I would live my life a million times over again. And while we all have things that we'd like to do different, I can't argue with the end results. I find my peace from a certain all-knowing being that always provides and takes care of me. I can have peace knowing where my life and death is going.

Now, hopefully, this all-knowing being wants me to win $40k. As that is the only way I can win, because I have to win a whole bunch of dice rolls. :devious:

This happiness found me. It is the one thing that I would never presume to take credit for.

And where exactly did Nina find you?

What God hath joined together, let no man put usunder. It doesn't matter where.

Don't you mean Seize The Day?

Or as Google so helpfully points out, "To Pluck The Day."

-Mike

Lets add a wrench to the works...

If you only play one game...are you truly a gamer?

I've met many folks who call themselves gamers, but when pressed to list what they play they can only come up with one game that they play regularly...and a long list of games that they "used to" play.

If you only play VS...you are not a gamer. You are a VS. player. If you only play Magic, then you are a Magic player.

If you regularly play and enjoy a variety of games, whether or not there is a prize for winning; then you are truly a gamer and, for me, thats where happiness and gaming coexist.

And if you play with yourself? That always makes me truly happy.

Savage: Wow, I don't even remember playing a Doom/GCPD deck. However, I, personally, love it already. I might have to revisit that idea the next time Golden Age comes around....

ryno: I have an idea. Let's go with a monastic life where we search for happiness within ourselves, isolating ourselves from a society as a whole. My question is this (as I honestly have no idea): Do they ever play games in these monasteries? If monasteries have so much as a chess board, a pack of playing cards, or a basketball court, then I'd say that gaming is justified if you look at it from a monastic (read: somewhat Taoist, though not necessarily) lifestyle.

As for Death, he's just another player in the game. I think it's called "Tag". In other words: run.

Orumceck: No one is limited to such minor things as "won in a card game". Honestly, I wouldn't think about what I accomplished after I died, but, rather, what I helped others become and how I affected other people. If me helping a friend with his/her organic chemistry and, way down the line, they cure a disease where they wouldn't have passed without my help, hey, I feel happy. If me helping someone learn a lesson in humility such that they may one day remember that pride is, in fact, a sin by beating them into the ground for a good portion of about 20 games (at least 15), then more power to me.

If I die in the middle of a card game, my biggest accomplishment won't be that I would've won that card game, but, rather, that I've obtained so many good friends and fun conversations for the sake of said game.

Torch: See, everyone loves Nietzche! Personally, I think I would enjoy that fact. Currently, my belief is that I will simply be put into the ground when I die, nothing more, but I definitely prefer reliving a life with evil tendencies than the other options for people like me.

Stu: It's amazing that you can claim to have invented the internet but not claim to be the source of your own happiness.

Gator, Orumceck, and others, I'm sure: Okay, it seems we have multiple people content on dieing right now. Why, exactly, is the mass euthanasia thing a bad idea then?

dbeman: I roleplay AND play VS. If I would roleplay but I don't have a game at the moment, do I suddently transfer from a gamer to a VS player? What if I also currently play some computer and/or video games, in addition to VS? Do those count?

I have a Warhammer army, but haven't played in about 6 months. I would still play if I got the chance. Do I count this on my list of games I play towards whether or not I'm a gamer?

I think being a gamer isn't as simple as classifying how many games you currently play and claiming it has to be multiple. It's not simply a label. It's a lifestyle.

P.S. Please don't google "Rian Fike" unless you have a bakery fetish. It'll make you throw up. But...in a good way.

That's why I can die in peace. I invented a good way to throw up.