WickedThought

(If you are all good kids, I’ll make t-shirts.)

(Thanks to matt_snyder)

Power Windows (a Rush fansite) had a great AFD bit.

New Rush Song!
(to the tune of New World Man)

These songs are good! These songs are great!
Because Rush is God incarnate!
They are the holy trinity (I can scientifically prove it!)
They’re wise enough to rule the world (I wish that they’d just do it!)
It’s a Neeeeeeeeew Ruuuuuuuuuuuush Soooooooooooong!

As Jared has pointed out, RPG.net is now banning people for two weeks for even talking about the prank/ban.

Hillarity ensues!!!

___

I should note to anyone listening that I may have misled people with my last post. I am not in the least bit angry about any of this. I’m laughing my ass off.

First off, I could not care less about being banned from RPG.net. But now, I’m a little angry.

This was posted in the Trouble Tickets forum:

This whole business is beyond the pale.

Understand that what you do on your own websites is your own business. If you do something there that causes discussion here, well, that’s inevitable, because you’re both relatively big names in this community and so whatever you do, it’ll cause discussion here. However, in this case you went beyond that. You deliberately used rpg.net resources in order to further the deception that Memento Mori had been stolen by a third party, without informing moderators and admins. This was outright trolling, and would be rewarded by a permaban if it wasn’t for previous contributions to this forum.

At one point, RPG.net moderators spent time quashing a rumor that Mr. Wick had died in a car crash, which was eventually identified as a vicious hoax. That hoaxster was permabanned. To have Mr. Wick turn around and use the same method to promote a new RPG is particularly offensive.

We are suspending both of you for six months. We are willing to drop the length of the suspension to three months, provided you’re willing to make a public apology, to be stickied at the top of Roleplaying Open for one week and the top of Trouble Tickets for the duration of your suspension. If we see evidence that this apology is less than sincere, the suspension reduction will be negated.

This is most assuredly not an April Fools prank.

Edit: Neither John Wick nor Jared Sorensen have provided us with a valid e-mail address, so they won’t be receiving an e-mail notification of this suspension.

A few things.

As I said, I fully expected to get banned from RPG.net for participating in Jared’s prank and I accept the consequences for doing so. RPG.net is a private website and they are fully within their rights for banning me for assisting in Jared’s prank. As a card carrying member of the Libertarian party, I believe everyone has the full rights to do what they want with their individual business and be willing to face the consequences of doing so. RPG.net has acted on their rights to ban me. Participating in RPG.net is a priviledge, not a right. I’ve had that priviledge revoked and fully accept the consequences.

1) “Neither John Wick nor Jared Sorensen have provided us with a valid e-mail address…”

This is interesting because I was notified about being banned from the Forums for my “personal attacks” with an e-mail sent by Moderator Curt Thompson. I have the e-mails. Thus, they must have my e-mail addy because they’ve already notified me about being suspended once.

This comes across as at least a little petty. I mean, I know they’re pissed at me, but if they’re gonna try acting all professional-like, the least they can do is tell the truth.

Also, by posting it in Trouble Tickets, both Jared and I are unable to see the post: we can’t even know how to “fix things” with RPG.net. It was only because zigguratbuilder posted the thing in Jared’s journal that we even found out about it. Therefore, we are unable to even react to it in any way. I’ve already sent a private e-mail to RPG.net to see what their response may be.

2) Invoking the John Wick is Dead Hoax

That was a malicious and hateful act aimed directly at my head. I appreciate RPG.net banning the guy who posted it. Nothing about Jared’s April Fool’s joke was malicious. And, it was not directed at anyone but himself. The JWiD Hoax was directed at me. The April Fool’s joke was Jared talking about himself. Very different circumstances.

3) A Public Apology

As I’ve stated elsewhere, an apology from me would not be anything remotely resembling sincere. I will not say something I do not mean. Also, as another user mentioned, I will not have myself “paraded around Jerusalem” as an example for others. “Get down from the cross, we can use the wood.” That’s demeaning, petty, and condescending. And, frankly, I expected better.

4) Breaking the Rules

Finally, I do not see any listing of any rule we may have broken. “Trolling” is a highly subjective term and while I still believe RPG.net has the full right to ban me for any reason they see fit, I’d at least like to see the specific rule I violated.

Here are RPG.net’s forum rules. I do not see any rule Jared or myself violated. According to the post above, we were guilty of “trolling.” This term does not occur once in the RPG.net rules document.

___

This all seems a little over-reactionary. Lying about my “valid e-mail address” after sending me a 3-day suspension over e-mail, making the improper analogy about the JWiD Hoax, and making this address deliberately impossible for us to see is downright petty.

Shame on you, RPG.net. Shame, shame, shame.

You have been banned for the following reason:
April Fools

Date the ban will be lifted: 10-02-2006, 05:00 AM

___

RPG.net has (perhaps rightly) banned myself and my partner memento-mori from their forums. The reason? Well, for me, it was participation in Jared’s highly brilliant prank. For Jared, it was creating his highly brilliant prank.

Damn. I guess we’ll have to get those Wicked Dead forums up quicker than I thought.
And that Wickedpedia.
And a whole bunch of other stuff I’ve been putting off.

Hm…

Thanks RPG.net!

PS: Please note the parenthetical “perhaps rightly.” It should probably be more prominent than a parenthetical statement.

On April 8, The Amazing Blue Oyster Cult will be in Riverside, California.

I must go.

Wanna go with me?

(Please note that this is a Friends-Only Entry.)

Main Entry: 1prank
Pronunciation: ‘pra[ng]k
Function: noun
Etymology: obsolete prank to play tricks
: TRICK: a obsolete : a malicious act b : a mildly mischievous act c : a ludicrous act

“I thought it was funny.”
— Andy Kaufman

There is a temptation to say, “If you didn’t get it, you won’t get it.”

There is a temptation to say, “If you’re angry, that’s because you can’t take a joke.”

There’s even a temptation to say, “Even Oedepus didn’t see his mother coming.”

(Okay, that last line was about the only good line from the movie last night and it has nothing to do with anything that happened. Honest.)

Jared pulled a prank. I was a minor part of it. For the better part of a month, he lamented about legal problems with Memento Mori Theatricks and people responded with heart-felt sympathy and offers to help.

And the whole time, Jared followed the only rule a good prankster should follow: he only told people who asked him if it was a prank.

It was the first thing I asked him. Okay, that’s a lie, it was the second thing I asked him. But, when I asked, “Is this a gag?” he confessed right up front. “Yes,” he told me.

Because that’s what you do.

April 1st was rushing up and he was being more than cryptic about the whole thing. He told people, “Don’t over-react, just wait and see what happends.” That exact language over and over again. And, if someone asked, “Is this a prank?” he confirmed it.

Now, here’s an important caveat: those of us who figured it out aren’t smarter than the folks who didn’t; we’re just more familiar with the way pranks work. We aren’t smarter, but we may be a little more savvy.

Anyway, if someone asked me “Is this a prank?” I would have directed them to Jared. Nobody did. Nobody.

I played a small part in the hustle. I threw a ranty tirade over at RPG.net to distract from the question. It worked. But now that the prank is revealed, a lot of people are pissed. A lot of people are also chortling, but even a Moderator over there started dropping F-bombs at folks. I guess he didn’t appreciate being fooled.

But then again, who does? I mean, it’s a prank. By the very definition, it’s a “cruel joke.” I’ve been the victim of pranks before and I’ve felt that anger. I sympathize. But I do not apologize. Apologizing would be insincere. I don’t feel sorry about participating in Jared’s prank. I enjoyed every minute of it. To apologize would put me in the same camp as Janet Jackson, sitting in front of America, tears in her eyes, telling the world she was sorry for revealing her breast.

Come on, Janet. We know you did it. You know you did it. Apologizing just makes you look insincere about the whole thing.

And for those who demonstrated legitimate emotion and concern, please do not feel like that emotion was wasted. When the “John Wick is Dead” hoax went off, I got a ton of phone calls from people I hadn’t heard from in years–all for Jennifer, of course–offering condolences. The internet overflowed with, “Goddamn, that’s a fucking shame,” sentiments and I felt awful about having to tell people I was actually still alive. Frankly, it was the first time anyone had said something nice about me on the internet for a long time.

(And after this little debacle, it may be an even longer time.)

But those emotions were genuine. And trust me, Jared talked to me about it. “People are gonna want to lynch me,” he told me. “Some of them,” I said. “But they’ll get over their anger. And others will pat you on the back and say, ‘Damn, you got me.'”

Now, there’s another rule that folks should know about. By participating in such a ruse, you have to make yourself open to the same. I’ve always been a good sport about pranks and have been the subject of more than my fair share. I love a good prank. And by participating in this one, I’ve communicated to the world that I’m a fair target.

Give me your best shot.

So, no apologies, but if you are pissed about it, I do offer my condolences. I know what it feels like to be on the other end of a prank.

Anyway, that’s the explanation. And, in the wake of writing this, I feel like the guy who has to explain his joke to someone who didn’t get it. And it isn’t even my joke. But, I played a part in it, so here’s my little explanation.

For those who didn’t get it.

Memento Mori Theatricks is gone.
But The Nasrudin Institute will fill in the gaps.

… and then keeps walking.

Someone linked Gareth M. Skarka’s blog to Fark.

To be fair to Gareth, he makes some very valid points in his blog and I think they are worth reading and discussing. But DAMMIT! We’re all missing the fucking point.

For me, roleplaying has always been about cooperative storytelling. It is the human interraction that makes roleplaying different. That, and the fact that we are walking in the hero’s footsteps, not just telling the story, but being the story.

But I’ve been hearing more and more that games like World of Warcraft, Neverwinter Nights, and other MMORPGs are stealing away the paper roleplaying audience. Why?

Here’s why. Because for the vast majority of gamers, World of Warcraft perfectly simulates the roleplaying experience.

All the bitching I do about games like D&D being nothing more than overly-complicated board games is vindicated by the comments left after Skarka’s link. You can find them here.

Here’s the bottom line folks: people get the same emotional experience from World of Warcraft, Everquest and Neverwinter Nights as they do from roleplaying games. Why?

Because their level of involvement is exactly the same.

Your D&D character doesn’t need a name. He may as well be Fight-Or.
Your D&D character doesn’t need a background. He’s an orphan with no family, no friends, and no past.
Your D&D character doesn’t even need a gender. Let’s use the Rich Dansky “thon” to denote your character’s gender. That is, your character doesn’t have one.

Fight-Or. The Thon Fighter. That’s all I need to know about my character to enjoy the D&D experience.

And the people who are leaving the paper RPG industry for WoW are doing so because their nameless/genderless character in WoW fulfills them. Fulfills them even better than D&D ever did because the computer does all the math for them; because the game has graphics; because they can turn on their computer, find a party, and play all by themselves.

WoW > paper roleplaying for these people because their only experience with roleplaying is the empty, soulless experience of playing the world’s worst roleplaying game: Dungeons and Dragons. The game that isn’t a roleplaying game; it’s just an overly-complicated board game.

This has been your Friday rant.

Study fails to show healing power of prayer

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A study of more than 1,800 patients who underwent heart bypass surgery has failed to show that prayers specially organized for their recovery had any impact, researchers said on Thursday.

In fact, the study found some of the patients who knew they were being prayed for did worse than others who were only told they might be prayed for — though those who did the study said they could not explain why.