Posted July 21, 2018
Fairfox: liek teh general forum, i mean...
imma interested.
is it games
is it politics
is it general every day hubbub
is it mix of thangs
?
do you feel you has liek-minded approach with others
do you bond
do you feel outsider
?
Sigh... not even gonna read the comments b4 typing tbh... quick glimpse almost got me to hit EJECT already... imma interested.
is it games
is it politics
is it general every day hubbub
is it mix of thangs
?
do you feel you has liek-minded approach with others
do you bond
do you feel outsider
?
Online communities give me something I don't get IRL.
At a surface level that is simply a level of intellectual engagement that is otherwise... hmmm... let's say unsustainable.
At a more emotional level there is ofc the aspect of identity and feeling like belonging in a common hobby community (pun / aliteration intended).
More context is that, in truth, I don't really contribute much. Those more quixotic days are over.
At any level that's because I'm older now. So I neither give as many fucks about it, nor do I really have as much time to give - other priorities be they joyful or mournful.
So now that the stage is kinda set, let's answer you. You're basically asking why GOG, and in GOG why general forum.
The game specific forums are a barren wasteland and as I recall have always been such. I will lurk in them occasionally at best but as my playing time is also reduced (see above for I'm older and other responsibilities yadah yadah) I don't think I have clicked to game specific forum in some years (likely hyperbole).
So the general forum is the only game in town (hehehe). Despite which I will say I do go to the handful of other language fora on occasion and they seem tonally quite different. But they came around much later than the main General which is the core around here for sure and the one I'm used to.
Then, it's games and old games that brought me here ofc. Via abandonia I think. HOTU before that. Games Domain before that. I lurk very heavily to start with (which can be several years) - my lurking being a generational aspect I think. I don't just remember the days without the webz, I also had formative experiences in other fora which burned me on the engagement / participation model that is inherent online.
(it's amazing to think way back and compare to what were my first really heated "messes" - flame wars in the lingo? - in online fora - skipping the ones with heavy personal overtones it is particularly instructive to think of the 9/11, WMD, Iraq war period and how despite the incredibly higher stakes - like, corpses level of seriousness - somehow it feels like recent spats a la GG managed to get only more toxic... anyway...)
Politics in a very broad sense is what actually and typically pulls me in to participate more. The funny think is that my "brand" of politics is very individual (I would say ethical - by which value driven rather than purely goal oriented) but despite several levels of identification with liberal (in the US sense) causes (postmodern, personal is political, god is dead, death of the author, yadah yadah) I am very, very, extremely, opposed to most of the policies / prescriptions derived by most folk with similar.... hmm let's say ethos. I would probably say similar soul ofc. (it's not that I am particularly religious, just that the language for values/morals usually comes from those religious domains)
These two poles will represent the majority of my contributions. With the political / community angles likely to dominate since I both see them as fundamentally more important and where I can contribute "better" (in a Ricardian comparative advantage sense ofc). But again, that's mostly in the past now, despite irregular pangs of conscience / habit that pull me back here.
PS: replying to you fits the political/community pole, because duh
So let's wrap this up with the more challenging part - I tried to be fair to that emotional undertone of your curiosity in the previous but you might need to read between the lines some (or much, or not at all - I tend to overestimate / underestimate a lot of things about other people)
I almost never feel that I have a like minded approach with others. Although to be fair that is less so with games. With games I have several pet peeves / favorite subjects around: completionism, game preservation, entertainment economics, customer entitlement, IP, ludology vs narrative, etc... where I fit in. Maybe never with a majority but well enough. Politically and community wise however - well... :) My sensitives might be close enough to the majority but I am... hmmm let's say sufficiently true to myself... that I hardly ever manage to align when it comes to policies and actions. So yeah, clearly more outsider than anything else - which ofc is only reinforced by my conscious lurking. It's not like I particularly mind being an outsider though. There is a certain mystique to go with it which can be leveraged.
It does interfere with the bonding though. Oh boy does it. And that for me is the worst balancing act involved in online existence, in GOG, but not only.
1 - continued interaction (even if that is lurking) breeds familiarity, appreciation and respect. Even love if one is honest with themselves. Now... don't get dirty boyz... I know, I know... difficult with all the smut around but that is so much NOT where I'm going with this.
2 - for me in particular since I come around to some extent to find a level of engagement that I can't find IRL (hmmmm... it's just harder honestly... not like impossible but between language barriers and intellectual / introspection / rhetorical skill barriers... pfffff) said bonding can be particularly seductive in a "grass is always greener" "covet thy neighbor" sense.
So yeah, ofc I bond. I think anyone that says otherwise is lying to themselves because we humans are social animals. Do I really want to bond is the question. And that I don't know? The yearning is there, but the pulling back that is justified by other priorities is also there.
Whether it is selfish of me to use you all to get what I want, or selfless of me to give what I can regardless... idk... it's ultimately your responsibility to sort me where you want in your lives, and I'll carry on until I don't.