The Legend of the downrepper
Once upon a time there was a wonderful place where mostly older people went to talk about days gone by and games that were so old that they needed to figure out how to make them work on modern hardware. We will not get into the fact that most of those games sucked back then, and look far worse compared to today's graphics and capabilities, because a few of those Good Ole Games were truly gems.
The curators of this wonderful place decided that they were barely covering maintenance costs for their buffets, well mostly is was those who serves at the castle...yes the servers cost quite a bit of money, so they needed to reach a broader audience. Thus many younger people were invited to join the land. These younger people lived across a vast ocean it would seems because the way to get them here involved sailing...sails...sales, that's it! Most of these younger people found their elders to be kind, and generous and all was well.
But soon a few of the more greedy of the younger players figured out that they could take advantage of this generosity and get a lot of free games, both Good Ole Games and new misty keys...or were the keys steamy? Hard to tell, but I digress. These greedy members began to hang out in the shadows, much the same as the ninjas of times past. Soon they became so used to getting all of the free games or keys ( though the chests that those keys unlock are not often found in this place) that they would get angry if someone else got a game here or there.
Soon any player who won a free game or obtained a key would find that their very kindness was rewarded with evil. They would post a kind thank you to indicate that they had been chosen as a stalwart keeper of a key, and find that their thank you note was hidden and looked down on so much that their very reputation was tarnished. This spread to another thread of fabric, the take one leave one topic. Greedy players would leave worthless keys in exchange for those that were far more valuable so that they would trade those keys with people that were not from around here.
As time went on this evil manifested itself by replacing the poor, who used to seek alms just to make their daily bread with nothing short of beggars, asking not for sustenance, but for riches and keys that they could take to other realm s and exchange them for great wealth and power. Many of the older members disappeared, stricken with a sadness that could not be replaced. Some of them faded into shadows, others flamed out entirely. The legendary hippo, has been rumored to have returned to his gifting pool, but no one has sent it directly. Others have decided to fight back with the mystical power of MAHAYO and other such thoughts as simply spreading positive vibes to every post in the kingdom.
MAHAYO works in the sense that no longer can a ninja simply take what you have left without at least identifying himself, but the vagabonds, known thieves, and worse are still able to take far more than they give. spreading good cheer sound great as well, but falsely increases the reputation of even those who are hanging under the bridge, like trolls. Some people have told the curators of the castle that they need a new world to live in, a world where you are judged by the content of your posts, not by how someone else interprets that content. But alas, the very trolls have increased the size of the curators coffers, even if it is simply because there are more beggars in the streets that for some reason people are still giving things to.
Some day this story will have a different ending.... someone with a crystal ball...or magic eyes, or I dunno a packet sniffer, can say holy shit we are not plagued with a pack of trolls, but two or three who have falsely created alternate versions of themselves to obtain keys, games, gifts, and also to spread out their own negativity across a wider army, while simultaneously downrepping the shit out of the rest of us. A halo or an icon can be added to the avatar of all who have supported this kingdom, so the leaches can be properly identified, and treated appropriately. But alas, when a tell this tale, I am usually told that I am too uptight and I need to relax. So I wait for the time when I am hailed instead of reviled as the trolls. I wait for the time of NOMGITHOL
Post edited May 14, 2014 by iphgix