A Moment's Pause, Reflection, and Sadness
Entry posted by VIdiot the Great
191 views
Recently, a very ugly period of CN history is being rehashed. The events leading up to the NoV v. Continuum war.
KaiserMartens announced that he's essentially leaving the game. Can't say that I recall ever speaking with him. Slayer99, to no one's surprise, also made an appearance in that thread. Anyone who was around at that time will probably recall the threads, the accusations, the recriminations that accompanied that particular war. For me, it marks what is potentially the beginning of the end of my own CN career.
Why?
I'm not sure how comfortable I am playing a game with people that are only too willing to go investigate a player's out-of-CN existence. To me, it's really really creepy. People following you around, seeing what sites you visit, seeing what you say off site. Compiling information. Spying.
But I guess the sadness comes at what happened today. I had drafted a biting response to a post on the OWF, which is ostensibly OOC, and then I paused. I thought 'man, my poor alliance will pay a hefty price if I do.' I didn't particularly care about my little imaginary nation, but I'd hate to see my friends' hard work spoiled over my post. That makes me very sad. Sad at myself. That I would invest time and thought into a game, yet be unsure if I could actually say exactly what I thought of something in an OOC post.
Anyway, it leads me to believe that my time may be shorter here than I previously anticipated.
I guess I didn't realize that when I signed up for CN, I was opening myself up to having folks research my OOC person. Possibly with an eye towards using that information IC. Frankly, I'm not sure how we can accept such things as a community. We come here, we exchange information IC and OOC as well. I've made some good friends here. I've met some really great people and had some fantastic and spirited debates. Maybe it's my personality, but I've always felt that competition on the field is great, but once you leave the field, it's time to get a beer with your adversaries.
I never thought of my adversaries following me home to peek in my windows to see if there's something they can use to their advantage in next week's game.
If anything, I hope some of you think about that. Think about what type of community you want to have here. This can be a great place to lose ourselves for a while, or it can become even creepier.
So the next time the whole OOC/IC debate comes up, think about this: would you want someone stalking you in real life to see what you do when you're off the clock? I sure don't, and it has nothing to do with me doing something wrong. It has everything to do with a belief that a game's a game, and that's all it is. If it continues to be this way, I may have to go find a game that doesn't require background checks.
Just some thoughts I had today. I'll probably have another treaty discussion up in the next few days.
1 Comment
Recommended Comments