Aarrgh! (was: Re: DM: New warriors, help!)

From: thogek@seismo.gps.caltech.edu (Thomas Kiefer)

Date: Wed, 27 May 1992 00:53:52 +0000

All of you as tired as I am of this stupid discussion can skip this one.

In article <1992May26.174405.1907@ccu.umanitoba.ca> umsister@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Sisterson) writes:
>Oh, ya, one more thing.  T. KIEFER, not everything you hear is
>what your going to want to hear.  So take it easy and don't blow
>a fuse.  Your lucky if anybody answers your questions.  No body
>should have to change their view on life just to answer your
>question the way you would like it to be answered.  You may call
>people who want to win 'tunnel visioned', but the I think the
>opposite is also true.  You should take your own adivce and not
>be so 'tunnel visioned'.

Aarrgh!  One more time...

(1) I didn't "want to hear" anything in particular.  Any answer to my
    question was appreciated.  My complaint was that I was getting
    responses to my posting that ignored my question completely, and
    gave me "suggestions" that I had specifically said I wasn't
    interested in.  Why did these people bother to post and send
    "answers" which I had already stated in my first posting were
    "not useful"?  (I intended to play this character and was looking
    for suggestions on strategies/tactics.  The "dump him" responses
    were not useful.)  I am (still) sorry if I seemed to jump too hard
    in my pointing this out; I meant to clarify (tho perhaps did so
    bluntly), not to attack.

(2) I never asked anyone to "change their view on life" or anything
    else.  I posted a question I figured most players wouldn't care
    about, hoping SOMEBODY might find it interesting.  If no one had
    answered, I would have been a bit disappointed, but that's fine.
    Instead, I got a few responses telling me what I should do --
    answers I had specifically said in my first posting would not be
    helpful, from players who didn't seem to understand that my approach
    to Duelmasters might be different from theirs -- suggesting that I
    "change my view" about playing this character and retire him.
    (Admittedly, most were not forcefully put (at least John included a
    disclaimer), but that was what they put.)

(3) I never called ANYONE "tunnel visioned."  What I said (and you can
    go back and read this since you obviously didn't the first time) was
    that a certain method of approach to DM -- a perfectly reasonable
    approach as is any other, as I said -- happened not to be MY sole
    approach, simply because it felt too restrictive (i.e. "tunnel
    visioned") to someone who likes to try many more different things
    than that one approach would allow.  By the same token, some who
    play by that approach might find my approach to the game too
    unfocused or wasteful of time and/or money.  My play of DM includes
    some of that (win! get to Primus!) approach, some of the experiment-
    with-what-I-get approach, and whatever else looks like fun.

Perhaps I did blow a fuse in jumping like that, but everything else in
your (Sisterson's) paragraph above suggests that you didn't read very
well the thread you refer to.

I don't mind people not answering my questions.  (Everyone is entitled
  to respond to whatever posts they feel like, or none.)
I don't mind that many people view and play DM with different emphases
  than mine.  (As I have said, this is one of the many things that
  keeps DM interesting.)
I DO mind people telling me how I should play, what THE priorities are.
  (And I tend to overreact when I think this is being done.)
I DO mind people misquoting and misrepresenting whay I say or ask.

And I am sorry this STUPID discussion has blown up so much.  Maybe I
should have just posted:

Consider others' points of view,
                 and don't TELL them what to do.

I'd like to think a Law of Personal Interaction.  Think that would have
been enough?

+-----------------------------------+
              |   thogek@seismo.gps.caltech.edu   |
              +-----------------------------------+

P.S.  I realize that I must sound awfully grumpy by now, but if you had
posted a question, and everyone except Garth and Trump posted or mailed
responses that sounded like "why do you bother? get a clue?"... I think
you'd be pretty annoyed, too.  If these weren't the intended sentiments,
I wish someone had made it clear sooner...

P.P.S.  Enough of this crap on the net, people.  You wanna keep flaming
me, discover E-Mail.

References

DM: New warriors, help!
umsister@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Sisterson)
Tue, 26 May 1992 17:44:05 +0000