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Threshold · 04-14-2004, 07:22 PM

KaVir, is this really what you've been reduced to? You were once one of the most interesting and well reasoned posters on any mud community or usenet forum, and now you resort to cheap insults and personal attacks. That is a real shame.

I have said repeatedly that long ago I decided to just use "RPG" because that acronym carried no baggage, no trendy elitist meanings, nor anything else that could be controversial.

Aside from all the other points I have made, I think "RPI" just sounds silly and I'd never want to attach it to any game I made. Please stop acting like my opinion on this matter has anything to do with wanting to use this acronym myself.

And when the next trendy acronym rolls around a few months from now, I won't be interested in using that one either. If that acronym is created by an elitist group of people who want to claim they own it, I'll disagree with that one too.

This issue is not about me or my game, it is about a small clique of selfish people trying to act superior to others. They have invented an extremely arbitrary set of concepts that are no more about role playing than choice of chip set or operating system.

I am not arguing inconsistently. You are just not reading what I am posting. I am not arguing about what an acronym should mean. I consider arguments over the precise meaning of such acronyms to be pointless and unnecessarily divisive. I am arguing about WHO decides what an acronym means. I am saying that the meanings of acronyms like RPG, RP, PK, and even RPI get decided through use and not by declaration.

Consider it a corollary of : "Fighting the battle for nomenclature with your players is a futile act. Whatever they want to call things is what they will be called."

The difference between RPI and other acronyms is that RPG, RP, PK, etc. are not acronyms where a small group of people claim they are the sole arbiters of what makes something an RPG, an RP game, or a PK game.

The two things I object to most are:

1) A small group of people who act like they have the right and the power to CONTROL an acronym. They don't.

2) The attributes they have chosen are so arbitrary and irrelevant to actual role playing that it is the height of absurdity to claim such attributes are vital to any type of role playing. If someone said you have to run Red Hat Linux to be a PK mud, I'd be critical of such a comment as well.

Aha... more personal attacks. Oh, how far you have fallen. I read your posts now and they remind me of myself in my angry, flame war seeking, law school days. I am sure I am not alone in wishing we could hear more of the "old KaVir" and less of the new one who traffics in vitriol and venom.

I am a professional game developer and I am running a business. I would never be interested in using a vague, arbitrary term like RPI that is NOT widely known and would do nothing but confuse 90% of the people I would hope to recruit to my game. We recruit most of our new customers from OUTSIDE the mudding community because we want to expand the hobby.

Furthermore, I am not threatened by a couple of hobbyists trying to lord something over other hobbyists. Such cannibalism and in-fighting disturbs and saddens me but does not threaten me.

I do, however, think such behavior is bad for the mudding community which happens to be something I care about.

04-14-2004, 07:22 PM	#35
Threshold Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Home MUD: Threshold RPG Posts: 1,260	KaVir, is this really what you've been reduced to? You were once one of the most interesting and well reasoned posters on any mud community or usenet forum, and now you resort to cheap insults and personal attacks. That is a real shame. I have said repeatedly that long ago I decided to just use "RPG" because that acronym carried no baggage, no trendy elitist meanings, nor anything else that could be controversial. Aside from all the other points I have made, I think "RPI" just sounds silly and I'd never want to attach it to any game I made. Please stop acting like my opinion on this matter has anything to do with wanting to use this acronym myself. And when the next trendy acronym rolls around a few months from now, I won't be interested in using that one either. If that acronym is created by an elitist group of people who want to claim they own it, I'll disagree with that one too. This issue is not about me or my game, it is about a small clique of selfish people trying to act superior to others. They have invented an extremely arbitrary set of concepts that are no more about role playing than choice of chip set or operating system. I am not arguing inconsistently. You are just not reading what I am posting. I am not arguing about what an acronym should mean. I consider arguments over the precise meaning of such acronyms to be pointless and unnecessarily divisive. I am arguing about WHO decides what an acronym means. I am saying that the meanings of acronyms like RPG, RP, PK, and even RPI get decided through use and not by declaration. Consider it a corollary of : "Fighting the battle for nomenclature with your players is a futile act. Whatever they want to call things is what they will be called." The difference between RPI and other acronyms is that RPG, RP, PK, etc. are not acronyms where a small group of people claim they are the sole arbiters of what makes something an RPG, an RP game, or a PK game. The two things I object to most are: 1) A small group of people who act like they have the right and the power to CONTROL an acronym. They don't. 2) The attributes they have chosen are so arbitrary and irrelevant to actual role playing that it is the height of absurdity to claim such attributes are vital to any type of role playing. If someone said you have to run Red Hat Linux to be a PK mud, I'd be critical of such a comment as well. Aha... more personal attacks. Oh, how far you have fallen. I read your posts now and they remind me of myself in my angry, flame war seeking, law school days. I am sure I am not alone in wishing we could hear more of the "old KaVir" and less of the new one who traffics in vitriol and venom. I am a professional game developer and I am running a business. I would never be interested in using a vague, arbitrary term like RPI that is NOT widely known and would do nothing but confuse 90% of the people I would hope to recruit to my game. We recruit most of our new customers from OUTSIDE the mudding community because we want to expand the hobby. Furthermore, I am not threatened by a couple of hobbyists trying to lord something over other hobbyists. Such cannibalism and in-fighting disturbs and saddens me but does not threaten me. I do, however, think such behavior is bad for the mudding community which happens to be something I care about.