Personally, I make colored post-its for all my karma points, throw them on my bed, then roll around in them.

vladykins @ 4/2/2016 16:16

Personally, I make colored post-its for all my karma points, throw them on my bed, then roll around in them.

I do the same thing, only I use raw ginger and maple syrup.

Wow

Spoiler	+
Buffy Viewing Active User List One minute ago vladykins Viewing Active User List One minute ago

Just as I suspected. This one is definitely more advanced than the rest of you.

Every pile of shit has a top, amirite?

Primate @ 4/2/2016 17:22

vladykins @ 4/2/2016 16:16 Personally, I make colored post-its for all my karma points, throw them on my bed, then roll around in them. I do the same thing, only I use raw ginger and maple syrup.

Pickled ginger and we have a date!

Buffy @ 4/2/2016 17:23

Wow Spoiler + Buffy Viewing Active User List One minute ago vladykins Viewing Active User List One minute ago Just as I suspected. This one is definitely more advanced than the rest of you.

Every pile of shit has a top, amirite?

Buffy @ 4/2/2016 17:23

Wow Spoiler + Buffy Viewing Active User List One minute ago vladykins Viewing Active User List One minute ago Just as I suspected. This one is definitely more advanced than the rest of you.

Hey! I resemble that remark ...

vladykins @ 4/2/2016 16:07

Buffy @ 28/12/2015 0:20 I'm sorry but half of you are really dumb and half of you are really jerks. Knowing these guys as I do, the Venn diagram has a lot of crossover, which means that while half of us are really dumb and half are really jerks, there are some who must be neither (because everyone knows that Ahoda fits in both).

If I died today, I have a feeling you guys would call it a national holiday.

:(

So I’ve read through the whole thread and now have a greater understanding of the dynamic here. I can greater appreciate some of the reactions I have seen off and on (and am guessing that when I popped in and signed up for ATTWS, there was probably a post in the mod forum about “another GLBer”. I also can understand that what I may have taken as gentle ribbing of IM317 was instead more of a “WTF have you unleashed on us”. The fact of the matter is that the GLBers and FEers come from two different backgrounds, but we are also similar in a lot of ways. As has been noted previously, much like FE, the GLB mafia folks are all friends that have stretched back for some time; in some cases ten years now. I’m crafting this post so that FE denizens can better understand where GLBers come from while we work to better understand your perspective. Hopefully this will clear some of the air, take down some of the animosity, and reduce the calls for “GHBers to go find someplace else to play mafia”. ;)

GLB is a football MMORPG. Essentially, you make players in the game, build stats with them, etc. You work to get your players on teams, the teams have the abilities to craft plays and tactics ahead of each game, and then the games are simmed. Limited graphics show your player as a dot doing things. Since D1 of GLB, we’ve all joked about the dots- how do dots catch without arms? What happens when a dot falls down? While some take the game very seriously, anybody who has been there for any amount of time has to have a sense of humor because really, we’re staring at dots. (I was even on a team that had the mocking name “The Men Who Stare At Dots” after the movie came out). But the game itself was OK; it was the people that kept you coming back. Some would become the “heels” of the game (like the team Cobra Kai, who would win a game and tell you they “swept your leg”). The amount of trolling, arguing and general mayhem in the forums was entertaining, especially when you would talk smack about teams.

Anyway, there was a group of folks who loved the game who called themselves the GLB Addicts (for obvious reasons). They created a mock mob set up, with a Don at the top of the org, and capos, bosses, and other shit all the way down. Some of us who were in that forum started running mafia games in the forum, a few of them being folks who you now find in this forum: im317, ahoda, Primate, Dadd, DMF, RG, and many others. When im317 made reference to me as “Don”, it’s because, for a time, I ran the GLB Addicts, which at its peak had around 600+ people in it. So I can appreciate the position of the admins here in dealing with these “upstarts” who seem to come in and create havoc, as well as the desire to protect “your own”. Which, again, is why I’m typing all this. ;)

So, after playing together for a time, we learned that there was another group in GLB playing mafia (jayadamo got us hooked up). So we spread to these other forums, expanding and grabbing up characters like TIB, Cajungirl, IP, Strom, and a host of other folks. The games got bigger, the games got way better, and we had a good period of experimentation with set ups. Some of us come from tabletop RPG backgrounds, so we like the stories and puzzles involved in a good set up. In addition, many of the folks play GLB and mafia to blow off steam, so a lot of joking around, crude in-jokes, and downright hilarious setups occurred. In the end, we spend a lot of time harassing, trolling, and joking with each other; these same jokes may seem rude and crude to somebody not privy to it all. I know FE is much the same way.

Why do GLB folks have an issue with the Last Action page? We’ve always harassed each other in our mafia games about focusing on the game; using “meta gaming” instead of puzzling out the game was always frowned upon. We understand that FE sees this differently, but it is the perspective we at GLB have always had. Some also have a wicked sense of humor when it comes to defying authority (as Don, I can tell you I was on the receiving end of this), especially if someone appears to have lost their own sense of humor regarding this. Thus, JJ/Buffy taking her reputation/karma seriously was just asking for it to get dropped (and Nofo taking negative rep seriously is just asking to be +1d). None of it is done out of spite or anger but instead to try to lighten things up- because most of us have to be very serious in their lives. GLB and, by extension mafia, are opportunities for us to let our hair down, crack on each other, and have a good time. If I call Ahoda a piece of shit, he knows I’m doing it out of love and I expect him to call me worse in return. ;)

In the end, we’re not here to shit in your granola, but to help everyone to have a good time, either limited to the mafia board or across the whole board. We want to be entertained *and* be entertaining. With this in mind, here is some specific true “intro” info about myself:

- I’m an economist in Sodom on the Potomac. I focus on tax issues, often related to non-profits and insurance, but have done work across a lot of industries
- As the GLBers will note, in mafia, I play flavor like it’s going out of style. In a well-crafted game, I feel flavor should add to the puzzle that needs figured out. This sometimes leads me to craft off-the-wall theories about the game set up. Sometimes this works out, sometimes it doesn’t. Occasionally, as scum, I craft huge fake theories to obfuscate the fact I’m scum. So a common GLB joke is “here comes vlad playing flavor again”.
- With the above in mind, I also like to craft mafia set ups that are different from the norm. I set up a Lovecraft themed game where Timmah was the avatar of Cthulhu: essentially, anyone who visited him got “recruited” into his cult and had to post in the language of the Great Old Ones the next day. When the mafia GF tried to kill Timmah, he got recruited, so he was removed from the mafia forum and moved to Timmah’s. This lead the remaining mafia member to try to figure out why the GF was out of the forum but still in game. I also recently ran a Feudal Japan game that was told would function well here at FE with more people. The roles were all custom-made for the game so that nobody could rely on the usual mafia roles and say “I’d expect the ninja could do X”.
- I don’t take much on the Net seriously. I’ve been on since ’93 (and on BBSs before that) and so the Net is still a place to relax. So most of what I say is sarcastic. You can tell when I’m serious, because the paragraphs start coming out. But I can be spr srs in one post in a thread and immediately “taking the piss” the next.

I’m hoping this all lends some perspective, some greater understanding, and an opportunity for us all to relax and hold hands. I’m not holding Ahoda’s: I know where its been.

ahoda @ 5/2/2016 5:32

vladykins @ 4/2/2016 16:07 Buffy @ 28/12/2015 0:20 I'm sorry but half of you are really dumb and half of you are really jerks. Knowing these guys as I do, the Venn diagram has a lot of crossover, which means that while half of us are really dumb and half are really jerks, there are some who must be neither (because everyone knows that Ahoda fits in both). If I died today, I have a feeling you guys would call it a national holiday. :(

Vlady would come to your funeral... Wearing Bike shorts.

TLDR

vladykins @ 5/2/2016 10:02

So I’ve read through the whole thread and now have a greater understanding of the dynamic here. I can greater appreciate some of the reactions I have seen off and on (and am guessing that when I popped in and signed up for ATTWS, there was probably a post in the mod forum about “another GLBer”. I also can understand that what I may have taken as gentle ribbing of IM317 was instead more of a “WTF have you unleashed on us”. The fact of the matter is that the GLBers and FEers come from two different backgrounds, but we are also similar in a lot of ways. As has been noted previously, much like FE, the GLB mafia folks are all friends that have stretched back for some time; in some cases ten years now. I’m crafting this post so that FE denizens can better understand where GLBers come from while we work to better understand your perspective. Hopefully this will clear some of the air, take down some of the animosity, and reduce the calls for “GHBers to go find someplace else to play mafia”. ;) GLB is a football MMORPG. Essentially, you make players in the game, build stats with them, etc. You work to get your players on teams, the teams have the abilities to craft plays and tactics ahead of each game, and then the games are simmed. Limited graphics show your player as a dot doing things. Since D1 of GLB, we’ve all joked about the dots- how do dots catch without arms? What happens when a dot falls down? While some take the game very seriously, anybody who has been there for any amount of time has to have a sense of humor because really, we’re staring at dots. (I was even on a team that had the mocking name “The Men Who Stare At Dots” after the movie came out). But the game itself was OK; it was the people that kept you coming back. Some would become the “heels” of the game (like the team Cobra Kai, who would win a game and tell you they “swept your leg”). The amount of trolling, arguing and general mayhem in the forums was entertaining, especially when you would talk smack about teams. Anyway, there was a group of folks who loved the game who called themselves the GLB Addicts (for obvious reasons). They created a mock mob set up, with a Don at the top of the org, and capos, bosses, and other shit all the way down. Some of us who were in that forum started running mafia games in the forum, a few of them being folks who you now find in this forum: im317, ahoda, Primate, Dadd, DMF, RG, and many others. When im317 made reference to me as “Don”, it’s because, for a time, I ran the GLB Addicts, which at its peak had around 600+ people in it. So I can appreciate the position of the admins here in dealing with these “upstarts” who seem to come in and create havoc, as well as the desire to protect “your own”. Which, again, is why I’m typing all this. ;) So, after playing together for a time, we learned that there was another group in GLB playing mafia (jayadamo got us hooked up). So we spread to these other forums, expanding and grabbing up characters like TIB, Cajungirl, IP, Strom, and a host of other folks. The games got bigger, the games got way better, and we had a good period of experimentation with set ups. Some of us come from tabletop RPG backgrounds, so we like the stories and puzzles involved in a good set up. In addition, many of the folks play GLB and mafia to blow off steam, so a lot of joking around, crude in-jokes, and downright hilarious setups occurred. In the end, we spend a lot of time harassing, trolling, and joking with each other; these same jokes may seem rude and crude to somebody not privy to it all. I know FE is much the same way. Why do GLB folks have an issue with the Last Action page? We’ve always harassed each other in our mafia games about focusing on the game; using “meta gaming” instead of puzzling out the game was always frowned upon. We understand that FE sees this differently, but it is the perspective we at GLB have always had. Some also have a wicked sense of humor when it comes to defying authority (as Don, I can tell you I was on the receiving end of this), especially if someone appears to have lost their own sense of humor regarding this. Thus, JJ/Buffy taking her reputation/karma seriously was just asking for it to get dropped (and Nofo taking negative rep seriously is just asking to be +1d). None of it is done out of spite or anger but instead to try to lighten things up- because most of us have to be very serious in their lives. GLB and, by extension mafia, are opportunities for us to let our hair down, crack on each other, and have a good time. If I call Ahoda a piece of shit, he knows I’m doing it out of love and I expect him to call me worse in return. ;) In the end, we’re not here to shit in your granola, but to help everyone to have a good time, either limited to the mafia board or across the whole board. We want to be entertained *and* be entertaining. With this in mind, here is some specific true “intro” info about myself: - I’m an economist in Sodom on the Potomac. I focus on tax issues, often related to non-profits and insurance, but have done work across a lot of industries - As the GLBers will note, in mafia, I play flavor like it’s going out of style. In a well-crafted game, I feel flavor should add to the puzzle that needs figured out. This sometimes leads me to craft off-the-wall theories about the game set up. Sometimes this works out, sometimes it doesn’t. Occasionally, as scum, I craft huge fake theories to obfuscate the fact I’m scum. So a common GLB joke is “here comes vlad playing flavor again”. - With the above in mind, I also like to craft mafia set ups that are different from the norm. I set up a Lovecraft themed game where Timmah was the avatar of Cthulhu: essentially, anyone who visited him got “recruited” into his cult and had to post in the language of the Great Old Ones the next day. When the mafia GF tried to kill Timmah, he got recruited, so he was removed from the mafia forum and moved to Timmah’s. This lead the remaining mafia member to try to figure out why the GF was out of the forum but still in game. I also recently ran a Feudal Japan game that was told would function well here at FE with more people. The roles were all custom-made for the game so that nobody could rely on the usual mafia roles and say “I’d expect the ninja could do X”. - I don’t take much on the Net seriously. I’ve been on since ’93 (and on BBSs before that) and so the Net is still a place to relax. So most of what I say is sarcastic. You can tell when I’m serious, because the paragraphs start coming out. But I can be spr srs in one post in a thread and immediately “taking the piss” the next. I’m hoping this all lends some perspective, some greater understanding, and an opportunity for us all to relax and hold hands. I’m not holding Ahoda’s: I know where its been.

Well, color me surprised. Who would have thought that Mr. Vladykins would want to convince innocent children to follow a path that leads only to a life of crime, disappointment, and destruction? I'm being sarcastic; this is exactly what we've come to expect from him. I will start this discussion by arguing that his profiteering and power mongering will destroy our sense of safety in the places we ordinarily imagine we can flee to eventually. Then, I will present evidence that he keeps trying to deceive us into thinking that free speech is wonderful as long as you're not bashing him and the headstrong, mephitic cads in his plunderbund. The purpose of this deception may be to open new avenues for the expression of hate. Or maybe the purpose is to subordinate principles of fairness to less admirable criteria. Oh what a tangled web Vladykins weaves when first he practices to deceive.

Vladykins is too counterproductive to read the writing on the wall. This writing warns that much of what he writes is excruciatingly hard to read. If Vladykins actually wants to write something meaningful, he should stick to the basics: Declare an argument; make supporting statements related to the topic; and draw a conclusion that isn't off on some wild tangent from the original hypothesis. For instance, rather than make the factually unsupported claim that Vladykins's demands enhance performance standards, productivity, and competitiveness, it would be better to argue that Vladykins's intimates actually believe the bunkum they're always mouthing. That's because these kinds of ludibrious, shabby astrologers are idealistic, have no sense of history or human nature, and they think that what they're doing will somehow improve the world sooner or later. In reality, of course, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to detect the subtext of this letter. But just in case it's too subliminal for some, let me thrust it into your face right here: Vladykins thinks it's good that his bromides promote favoritism's traits as normative values to be embraced. It is difficult to know how to respond to such monumentally misplaced values, but let's try this: He has the nerve to call those of us who create bridges between marginalized people and then extensions outward to broader constituencies “conspiracy theorists”. No, we're “conspiracy revealers” because we reveal that I, speaking as someone who is not a blasphemous junky, am flummoxed as to why Vladykins would want to alter, amend, abridge, and censor the record to point the finger of responsibility at others. No mystery, however, veils the causes or consequences of Vladykins's most puerile writings. Specifically, over the years, I've enjoyed a number of genuinely pleasurable (and pleasurably genuine) conversations with a variety of people who understand that Vladykins's failure to enlighten the mind of Man and improve him as a rational, moral, and social being is so obscene that it's hard to fathom just how wild Vladykins is. In one such conversation, someone pointed out to me that I have absolutely no idea why Vladykins makes such a big fuss over sensationalism. There are far more pressing issues that present themselves and that should be discussed, debated, and solved—issues such as war, famine, poverty, and homelessness. There is also the lesser issue that in no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law in order to build an inclusive, nondiscriminatory movement for social and political change. That would lead to anarchy. Instead, I advocate making the world safe for democracy, as doing so leads people towards an understanding of how every so often, Vladykins tries telling us how to live, what to say, what to think, what to know, and—most importantly—what not to know. Whenever he gets caught doing so he raises a terrific hullabaloo calculated to judge people based solely on hearsay.

In this land which has befriended pot-valiant sleaze merchants, Vladykins has conspired, plotted, undermined, prostituted, and corrupted, and—hiding to this hour behind the braver screen of foolish flimflammers—dares to contrive and scheme the death of every principle that has protected him. My prediction that he would infringe upon our most important constitutional rights came true so quickly, so brutally, so horribly, that even I was stunned by the magnitude and viciousness of it all. He is squarely in favor of mandarinism and its propensity to channel the pursuit of scientific knowledge into a narrow band of accepted norms that are based exclusively on his stuporous, passive-aggressive effusions. This is so typical of Vladykins: he condemns bigotry and injustice except when it benefits him personally. The devil not only finds too much mischief for idle hands to do, but increasingly in our contemporary world he causes benighted mooks to keep a close eye on those who look like they might think an unapproved thought. I used to think that loquacious loan sharks were the most spleenful people on the planet, but now I know that there's only one true drama queen around here, and Vladykins is the one wearing the crown. What's the difference between Vladykins's vassals and doctrinaire fast-buck artists? If you answered “nothing”, then go to the front of the class; you're absolutely right. Okay, I've written enough for one letter, so let me just finish by saying that Mr. Vladykins is offended by anything that might suggest that his accomplices have shared the rostrum with the most abominable yokels I've ever seen at recent symposia.

Primate @ 5/2/2016 11:08

TLDR

I even mentioned you! Don't you ctrl-f for your name?

Primate @ 5/2/2016 11:03

Vlady would come to your funeral... Wearing Bike shorts.

I fucking hate diaper shorts.

I'm so tempted to use the post-modernist essay generator now.

You should play Survivor vlad