Limiting theft by limiting creation

Remember Melee and Wizard, and The Fantasy Trip?

I modded the traveller skills and weapons tables for the melee and wizard rules and characters. That made things SO much better.

Yeah, our main Traveller GM pretty much had gutted part of the game system and substituted his own for it. I don't know if it was from another game or not, as I was just getting into SOMETHING OTHER THAN AD&D at the time. <.<

Later on, someone tried to run a Traveller game using the core rules from the small books, and it didn't work out so well. I think they cleaned up a bit when they made the big sourcebook version some years later. I have it somewhere in storage.

Nobody has to settle for membership in any group. They remain in that group through their own choice, 100% of them. This is very much a straw man argument on your part.

You're arguing that they can just walk away and do nothing. Many do not want to do that, and therefore settle for a non-ideal group.

No, they can CHOOSE to walk away, and do SOMETHING ELSE. OR they can CHOOSE to walk away and do "nothing". Why do you ALWAYS have to assume the worst possible choice is the ONLY possible choice (and argue that it isn't even a choice)?



Again, you completely missed the point.

They still CHOSE to remain, to SETTLE for a "non-ideal" group.

How would you know when I had gotten out enough?



Exactly. So delayed gratification people will put a lot of effort into _doing the wrong thing_, but won't change immediately because a little more effort might be necessary.



Yes, that's because you have the ability to bring in a group. Once I did ask a sim owner about that, and I offered to do what I could, but nobody ever turned up to the sim and anyone else was already in their own RPs, so I couldn't do anything.



Nobody even really understands exactly what choice IS.



You're the first person I've ever met in SL who has said that. Pretty much EVERYONE I've ever asked about it - and it isn't a small number - has said that talent cannot be taught nor learned.



That's where talent lies.



Everything starts out small and insignificant, but it doesn't necessarily start out in the shadow of something big and significant.



Yes!



It's not "that everyone wants". Probably, of those 75% of people, every single one of them has a different idea about how it should ideally work.



So you can "work around" another person's choices?



Well, in that case the AI would have to continue, but modifying the user's typing instead of replacing it entirely.



As I said, there's a thread on rpg.net where someone posts how great he found rpg.net for roleplaying a ninja, and it turns out he was going regular clubbing and calling it an "undercover mission". I've met other people who say similar things, usually along the lines of "I _am_ an X, whatever I am doing".

Because they want to do what they want to do. And it's not right for their choice to be "do it someone else's way, or don't do it".

That's right. They WANT to do what they WANT to do, and CHOOSE to do so.



Beyond the fact that it has NOTHING to do with being "right", IT IS NOT THEIR ONLY CHOICE.

Talarus wrote that delayed gratification doesn't mean you don't observe, learn, and act. You responded with:

Delayed gratification doesn't mean "you don't act". It doesn't mean "you don't change".

Nope. I'm not arguing anything of the sort. I'm saying those who are not happy with their membership in a specific group are welcome to walk away from that group and either find or form another group that is more to their liking.

Once you have joined a group there isn't a Linden Lab employee standing next to your computer with a gun to your head ordering you to remain in that group or die. You are not forced to stay in that group. There are absolute no ties whatever keeping you in that group you have "settled for" that are not of your own making and of your own choosing.

By remaining in a group, you do choose to be there. By remaining in a crowd where you feel you are being ignored, you choose to remain there. By leaving one of those groups or crowds and doing nothing, it is your choice to do nothing.

You can continue to pretend to be the victim to justify your reasons for choosing to do nothing, or you can take some proactive steps and create your own place in the world. Earlier you asked a question of how long do I do this? The answer to that is simple. For the rest of your life, same as the rest of us, including Talarus and Argent.

After you have actually acknowledged that things exist outside of your worldview.



You're not listening, again. (See Argent's response as to why)



I don't have any more ability than you or anyone else does to bring in a group. I would simply try, regardless of the outcome. Failing that, if it was important to me, I would still try again, after changing something, likely learned from the previous failure(s).



If nobody = everyone else but you, then you're probably right.



You misunderstand. Talent is a natural ability that someone has. The vast majority of talents are untrained. That means you have to train them for them to develop, and that requires both learning and practice. The vast majority of humans have similar capacity to develop just about any kind of talent ever expressed by another human being. There will always be a few superlatives in each type and category of talent, but the vast majority of humans can be happily competent and functional in most any of them.

For example: I am not an artist. I "can't" paint or draw. Well, no, I haven't been taught or trained to paint or draw. If I learned and practiced, I am certain I COULD paint or draw. It isn't for a lack of talent, but a lack of refinement of said talent. I may never be a Picasso or a Da Vinci, at least with a paintbrush, but I do believe I could do decent to nice work, if I set my mind to it.

I don't buy into the dogma about how people "can't do X", because they lack "talent". The vast majority of the time, the talent is sitting right there in them, waiting to be discovered; they simply haven't practiced or learned enough to refine it YET. Another example: When I was in high school, I was graded harshly by an overbearing twit of a composition teacher who basically told me I would never be able to write anything of substance because my papers were "so bad". It wasn't until college where I had an AWESOME composition professor that I actually learned the truth of the matter that gave me a reason to TRY to develop the writing talent that he saw in me.

As such, for those who tell you that you can't do X unless you have "talent" to do X, to hell with them. TRY ANYWAY. Why let someone else dictate your life and ruin a shot at happiness because of their own limited (and often grossly incorrect) beliefs?



If so, it is in the same genes the vast majority of humans have.



So? Step out of the shadows.

Nothing is ever so large and significant that it casts a shadow over the whole universe. If that were true, there would only ever be one of anything.



You said "everyone wants" something better than that for which they are currently "settling". If they can all quantify what it is they want which they aren't getting, and agree to it, then either the game owner can change it, or someone can go make another game which provides it.

Everything is a trade-off. The only place where you live your dreams is, well, in your dreams. Reality forces you to cut corners from your dreams. Sharing with other people forces you to cut corners from your dreams. That said, there is obviously a limited amount of corner-cutting that is tolerable to you, and another amount of it which is likely tolerable to any-size group of people. If the current "game" is not optimal for the group, and someone comes up with one that is, one that cuts less corners for everyone involved, then they can/should try to make it happen.



Easily! As far as virtual worlds go, their choices aren't my choices; if I choose not to subject myself to them, they have no effect on me. I'm not talking about choices which control their domain, either (like ignoring/banning me).



Well, I wish you (or whomever) the best of luck in its development. In the meantime, I'll just stick to the old-fashioned way that works just fine, and has for tens of thousands of years.



So? If his activities aren't your bag, do something else with someone else.

Oh, I do. But I won't accept the argument "it might be that way for you, but it isn't for others". That can be applied to pretty much _any_ argument; and, if it's that way for me, then chances are it's so for a number of other people too.



I think you're misunderstanding, though. Person A wants instant gratification, but person B will delay by 3 months. Both of them try to achieve something, and both (unknown to them) are actually using a wrong approach that will never work.

Person A immediately notices the absence of gratification, and might consider changing. Person B, on the other hand, wasn't expecting any gratification until 3 months pass, so they will wait 3 months before considering a change.



You do have more ability than I, certainly.



No, NOBODY understands choice. Philosophers have debated the questions of choice and free will for thousands of years and nobody has resolved anything; scientists have no idea how choice even _could_ exist, given that the brain is a physical system. Most people's meaning of the word "choice" is driven by political self-interest rather than any actual understanding.



Which has the problem that once one superlative person has moved into the field you're interested in, you can't compete, no matter what you do.



Many do, and many of those play SL. I also notice that you didn't mention this point on any thread where this claim about talent was used to block my requests for help.



You can't. Everyone's paying attention to the existing large place, because.. there's a crowd there.



No, because every one of them has a _different answer_ to what they want that they aren't getting.



.. Unless you're the "cool kid" who's running the sim..



And sooner or later the someone elses run out.