Kestrel

The Library

You've gotta see her. Go insane and out of your mind.

"You're a Fake Geek!" and Sexism among Geeks/Nerds/Etc (us)

Really I think this can be summed up as "UR STEALIN' MAI IDENTITY IM NO ONE W/O MY GAMER-TAG!"

I really wanna call this problem 'American' and be done with it. I really do. Alas, it's not posted in spam. So...

So I'm coffeed up and finally ready to ask the question: How do you separate the people with legit interests from the people you consider 'fakers'

Basically the age-old question of "Are you really metal or just a poser?"

I listen to quite a bit of metal, but I don't identify as a metalhead, just a person who enjoys metal. I play quite a bit of video-games, but I don't neccesarily identify as a gamer. I think it's silly to say "We're the same label because we enjoy the same thing." I don't even like using labels, so posing to me is a genuinely retarded concept because you're giving form to your lack of identity by faking a lack of individuality. People are generally more than just a metalhead, or just a gamer. To identify as a single label is silly.

Generally though, I talk to people to see if we share interests. If someone calls their self metal and listens to nothing but Fallout Boy... Well, I'm going to switch the subject. We're not in the same music. I wouldn't call Fallout boy metal, but hey fuck enjoy whatever you enjoy. Same way, if someone wears a bioshock t-shirt, well let them. I have a t-shirt that says New York and I've never even been in New York. Who gives a fuck? I'm not stealing your New Yorker identity.

and how do you feel about sexism within communities like this one and similar, that cater to geek interests,

Retarded.

and what has your personal experience of some of this been?

Requesting 'fake girl-gamers' and asking girls for gamer credentials or them using their gender as a shield is something that is far past my MMO-time. I find it laughable from an outsider's perspective.

As far as my experience regarding treatment based on gender goes though... Exploitive to be honest. During the time I played MMO's as a teenager, I was quickly privy to the fact that if you could pull of the girl-act convincing enough (just say your parents don't want you to voice-chat with strangers) all you needed to do to get rich was to butter up with some random high level guys who stole their parents' credit card on a regular basis. Although the hilarious thing was that the higher level you got, people started guessing your gender by how custom/cute your outfit was. The moment I got to point X in my levelling career, a lot more people simply assumed me to be a guy. idk, for me it's been absolutely hilarious.

I've not been much of a hardcore raider (even as a teenager I told people I'd do whatever the fuck I wanted with my free time tyvm) but the times I did get in (with my non-golddigger, male characters) it's been sorta disturbing though how guys do a total 180 in their attitude (and also become far less competent players) when there's suddenly a girl in voice chat. Some guys act retarded over girls enjoying the same thing they do and it's very annoying, even for a dude, that everyone stops playing the game as they should just because suddenly everyone hears a higher pitched voice. I guess my most negative experience with sexism in that regard is not getting that piece of equipment I wanted because when this chick started talking we got wiped.

On the other hand you try telling someone, as a straight guy, that you enjoy Desperate Housewives and then go a week without uttering the sentence; "No, I'm not gay. Why would you ask that?" (really, try it. It's hard.)

I'd write more and reply to shit but time cuts me short. So to be continued... Maybe.

The Library

Valeric said
the simple fact that she'll end up potentially dealing 3-5 times more damage than other holders with a normal attack is a problem.

Yeah. Pretty much this. The 10 multiplier will have you kill things that you shouldn't be able to. It's unwieldy, sure, but what if you team up with say, Mime, Mime copies the armour and POW of Maria and is his annoying self to distract an opponent. Meanwhile Maria insta-kills it. Valeric's example of the first meeting with the golem, as well as the mother dragon, are opponents you're not supposed to kill with convenient strategies, or at all. Distract->backstab is a convenient strategy.

I'd say for the sword you'd make it a regular (no multiplier) sword with an active that's got heightened range and a 1.5 multiplier (if you keep the CD that high.)

Armour people usually haven't given modifiers for, outside of Xaltwind's magic damage armour, but I've counted people using it with 1.5 so far. Though I never mentioned that OOC :P

The (new) shield is cool, as well as the active. The elemental spells active, would have to work off of Maria's stats, I think.

Also you don't have to change this, but it's totally weirding me out that your character shares her name with my girlfriend ;p

The Library

It's come up often enough. I'll make a write-up at some point.

The Library

The reason I usually have people go for multipliers like 1.2 or 1.5 with hefty drawbacks (or in alpha's case 2 plus suicide gamble,) is because that keeps the base stats meaningful. If everything had a multiplier of 3 by default, why wouldn't we just triple everyone's stats and have the same thing with less math? Or the meaning of a stat defensively would have to be worth more than offensively. Right now, if both a defending and attacking party have a have a POW of 15, the relative amount of damage inflicted would be the same as if they both had 1 POW. So even at equal POW your weapons are quite deadly, because well, it's a sword, and swords are pretty good at killing. Or a massive sword that can be wielded like a normal one.

The Library

Yeah, those multipliers are bloody insane. According to the description, you get like a defence of 110 POW, which would make you absolutely invulnerable (at all times it's worn) against anything but magic for... Well, probably the duration of the entire RP. In addition to that you have a 33 POW attack, which is silly because at this stage it would fell everything in a single hit and then some. And that's not even counting the actives. So yeah ;p

Valeric said
I'm not dropping out. These characters are like two years old, no way I'm abandoning them ever. I have two other RPs I'm still keeping up with them. I only just noticed my mission getting updated a few days ago so give me a bit of time to get back into them.

I know man, dw. He was referring to Marrow ;p

The Library

Hah, sure. I'll look over it tomorrow or the weekend.

The Library

Nah, he's got a few things going on in his life atm. Though idk how it'll come down when it comes to posting.

When you make a roleplay do you like making several characters or just one?

I usually stick to the one, because of time-investments. I can go more but it sort of requires the RP to remain healthy for an extended amount of time.

The Library

His character was fine, I think. After all the changes I made the poor guy do, at the very least ;p But communication is vital for an RP. My general rule is that as long as you communicate why you're not posting, we're cool. I've found running after people and repeatedly reminding them to do something they've chosen to do in their free time is delaying the inevitable at best.

To be honest, I have a pretty good function for Eidren's death... Just assume he tags along with you guys for now...