Quote from: Captain Rufus;309857It is interesting I had this game situation discussion with another group of folks and gotten a totally different vibe and response.  Heck one of the folks I was chatting with was playing an IRC game while playing an MMO AND chatting on IRC.  Some of us can do this.  Others not so much.

I don't mind what my players are also doing when I'm running an internet text-chat game - I can't see it.  Heck, half the time I'm dealing with a 2-year-old running around the house while I'm trying to GM Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh.  Having players sat at the game table while playing computer games, fiddling with their MP3 player, reading a book, or making a model, though, would be very distracting and unpleasant.  OOC chat is fine if it's broadly game-related, or about getting beer/food/etc, but not about extraneous matters.

Quote from: Captain Rufus(...)

Dude, way to write a few thousand characters to say nothing.

Quote from: SunBoy;310072Dude, way to write a few thousand characters to say nothing.

Attaboy ! Way to be a prick in one line.

Quote from: Captain Rufus;309814I don't believe in the Geek Social Fallacies mainly because its mostly bullshit.  I deal cards at a casino.  Dorks do NOTHING any better or worse than "normals".  Trust me.  The behavior I see there makes even your average creepy gamer thread seem nancy.  We nerds are people too, and do the same dumb shit.

The fact that you think geek behavior is normal because it matches casino goers is, like, mind-boggling. You're comparing people who exhibit obsessive behavior and marginal social skills to .... people who exhibit obsessive behavior and marginal social skills.

It's not solely the responsibility of the GM to make sure the social context of the group is compatible with gaming -- everybody's got to do their part. Nobody should really have to be asked.

To be fair, so you don't just think I'm dumping on you,  I think it's excellent news that you and the GM talked through the situation, and hopefully you all can come up with something that'll work out well. LARP-style seems to be a positive way to go; if the GM for whatever reason wants to hold long private conferences, the rest of the table should have the opportunity to do something game related, or people will keep tuning out.

Rufus,

QuoteOriginally Posted by Captain Rufus
...I don't believe in the Geek Social Fallacies...

  The point of GSF is not to say that they are true or not to say that every Geek does this every time. It's that you need to be aware of these sorts of pitfalls and not to fall into them.

  The author is basically trying to say, you can't make everyone happy. And if you try to make everyone happy, you will make everyone miserable.

  Anyways, I would besure your group is cool with bringing a model before doing so. Also, its OK for a player to say, "Hey, I think its game time" or "Guys, let's listen ot the GM, I think they are trying to tell us something" That's called leading by example. And it is usually seen as a good thing.

Quote from: boulet;310106Attaboy ! Way to be a prick in one line.

I could do it better.

Quote from: boulet;310106Attaboy ! Way to be a prick in one line.

Thanks, but that wasn't some of my best one-line-prickness work.

I mean, come on. The guy says in the OP: "I think my GM is an arshole, what do you think?". We say "Nope, he just sucks, you were an arshole. Here's some suggestions, as asked". Then he goes "The GM is my friend; you're all bad people, and don't know how to play with friends". And I'm a prick? Well, maybe, but I'm a brief prick.

Quote from: Aos;310126I could do it better.

Bring it on.

Quote from: SunBoy;310176Thanks, but that wasn't some of my best one-line-prickness work.

I mean, come on. The guy says in the OP: "I think my GM is an arshole, what do you think?". We say "Nope, he just sucks, you were an arshole. Here's some suggestions, as asked". Then he goes "The GM is my friend; you're all bad people, and don't know how to play with friends". And I'm a prick? Well, maybe, but I'm a brief prick.

What happened to "nothing"?

Quote from: ticopelp;310180What happened to "nothing"?

??

ETA: Oh, I got it. Well, it was about the last post. It was a pretty long-winded low-calories post. So I was being a prick. I don't deny it. Think of it as petty revenge.

I wasn't calling the GM an asshole.  I cannot say I was thrilled with him at the time I wrote the initial post, but 2-3 weeks of off and on again insomnia will make anyone a bit extra irritable.

I did mention this thread to the GM yesterday.  He is now convinced Internet forums are the most horrible thing ever.

Of course, if I would stop telling him horror stories about the Net (I figure I learn horrid things online and the suffering should be shared.) he might find some good stuff, but its better to terrify people.

Or at least more amusing.

And we talked about going LARP style.  He is worried the rest of the group might not grok to it, even though the style we would do is basically the same as a sit down, cept you pull cards instead of roll 10 siders and have to get off your butt for some of the game time.  (Which to me is a PLUS.  Moving around is good.)

And I will so compare gamblers to gamers to everyone else.  Cuz humanity is all the same really.  We all dumbass shit so the trick is to accept its silly, try not to fuck anyone else over, and laugh at it all.

Captain Rufus, I really hope you won't take this as an insult, because I don't mean it that way. But I'd like you to consider the possibility (just the possibility, also feel free to just decide I'm full of shit) that you have some socialization difficulties. Hell, most people do, it's just that we think about the stuff that's hard for us to do and try to see if we can approach it a different way.

The Internet can't replace a peer group. When I look at the stuff you've posted in this thread, a lot of it seems to be looking for us to excuse or justify some of your behavior and actions, stuff that people IRL don't seem to like. We didn't really do that, and I think that made you uncomfortable. What I'm trying to say is that we can't do that, it's not our place. I'm trying to say that I wish, as a person who only means you well, that you'd consider socializing more in person with folks. Maybe that includes gaming, maybe not, but I just get kind of an unsettling gut feeling that you're trying to use forums and/or tabletop gaming to get that ineffable "something" out of socializing, but not seeing that the socializing itself is something you have to participate in.

I'm not saying you have some kind of disorder just because you make model kits during games, or talk to folks IRL about gross/stupid stuff you found on the internet that's intended to horrify them and that they don't seem to want to hear, but I'm just saying that it may point to there being something missing in your IRL socialization, and that when people are reacting to you in ways you didn't expect, it's always good to take a deep breath and think about what part you may have had in that miscommunication.

Good luck and good gaming! And again if you want to take this as a flame (which it's honestly not intended as), I'd rather you ignore it than attack back.

Quote from: Sweeney;310404The Internet can't replace a peer group. When I look at the stuff you've posted in this thread, a lot of it seems to be looking for us to excuse or justify some of your behavior and actions, stuff that people IRL don't seem to like. We didn't really do that, and I think that made you uncomfortable. What I'm trying to say is that we can't do that, it's not our place. I'm trying to say that I wish, as a person who only means you well, that you'd consider socializing more in person with folks. Maybe that includes gaming, maybe not, but I just get kind of an unsettling gut feeling that you're trying to use forums and/or tabletop gaming to get that ineffable "something" out of socializing, but not seeing that the socializing itself is something you have to participate in.

I've got to say, Rufus, this does have a ring of truth to it, especially in the light of your comment about how you didn't really take part in any of the OOC conversation even during the pre-game meal. If you come to a session intent on Gaming and Gaming Only and don't want to engage with your fellow participants on any other level then it's only going to make bad experiences more likely.

Quote from: Captain Rufus;310242I cannot say I was thrilled with him at the time I wrote the initial post, but 2-3 weeks of off and on again insomnia will make anyone a bit extra irritable.

You know the "sorry, I am suffering from insomnia" defense is used as often as the "sorry, I got Asperger" defense on the internet in RPG forums. Both are true about the same numbers of time, the number is very close to Zero.