Ok, I now have my keyboard and I can start giving my views on this matter. I also had some time to mull over a response so here goes.
I would like to first start off with the individuals of this clan. As a policy we do not allow kids in this clan, we also frown upon very young applicants. As a result of this policy, most of the members of this clan are older individuals who have real jobs, families, wives, girlfriends etc. yet we all yearn for that little break away whereby we can still entertain that “inner-child” and play some computer games. Basically, we all have lives outside of grrr, but yet we also want to go back and play the games. Adult non-gamers does not always understand this dilemma we face which is why it is not strange for somebody to say, listen, I am not going to play in the league because of xyz. I can only imagine what shit you will get into if you try that with say FiB.
The result of the above is that we all play a balancing act; we need to balance the needs of the family, children, jobs and real life commitments with that of our own desires to play computer games. For most of us, getting an hour or two away from the other stuff and play computer games, that is the “me-time”, which is really precious time indeed. It is because of this preciousness of time in my mind that we all want to get the most out of that gaming time that when things go wrong during this period, frustration levels very quickly escalate. It is because of this value associated with this me-time, which student clans and school clans doesn’t understand. As a result, you will not be able to enforce a policy of strict practice times, or you have to do this and that or else you are kicked from the team into this clan. As was mentioned already, if I want to stand in the corner on the map, looking at how the leaves blow in the wind while singing kumba-ja, then screw anybody that tells me differently, because that is exactly what I will do. This is obviously balanced out with trying to be competitive which I will talk about later.
The above can be summarised as follows. For most people in this clan, gaming time is very precious time because it is not as if we are substituting gaming time with studying time or doing some essay or something pointless, we are taking that time out which we could have spent with family or deal with other real life stuff.
I think somebody made a comment about the fact that BF4 should have brought the clan together and instead it has moved us further apart. I will state the very obvious, BF4 is not an enjoyable game. The game was rushed out into the public domain to beat COD. The game is in all fairness still very much a beta game and it will remain a beta game for at least 6 months still. EA executives knew that the game will fail which is why they sold millions of personal shares shortly before the release of BF4. They only did that after they generated a massive hype about the game prior to release thereby inflating the share price and pocketing big time in their personal capacity by selling their shares at this inflated prices just before releasing the game and the share price plummeted after not living up to expectations. It is because of this that EA is now facing 2 class action law suits. Bottom line, this game is a piece of shit that is not yet ready for release and EA knew it.
Combined the aspect of the value we associate with gaming time, with the PoS game being released, the fact that grrr, by our very nature, wants to be good at whatever we do, tensions was bound to rise and eventually explode. Some of us have called it before the time and just stopped playing the game, others, really wanted to make it work (such as Hubris) but no matter how much you try, you will not be able to turn a piece of horse shit into a shining diamond. That is exactly what BF4 is, a PoS and as a gamer, and a clan member who was really looking forward to it, am extremely disappointed at this state of affairs to no fault of ours. I was not present when the incident occur on H-Day, but by reading between the lines I think I have a good understanding what happened which brings me onto my next point, grrr members tuning each other.
Grrr has a rigorous application process, we don’t suffer fools lightly, and a person that eventually makes it passed the induction process really is a special breed of individual. I want to touch on the tuning part a bit, and I will give you guys some examples.
- If somebody say, “I am a ninja, regular humans can’t do anything against me” then for fuck sakes, it is like painting a big red target on your arse and begging for some tuning.
- If somebody says in his application process when asked what he will offer the clan, “oh, I have 5TB of porn for you” again, for fuck sakes, how much more of an invitation do you need?
- If Dryman and Russian are able to derail an invitation for steak into what technique is the best to give a blow job, then again, for fucks sakes, you will be tuned!
- If somebody call himself “BadAss” and can barely type 3 words per minute, again, it is like “here doggy doggy, come and tune me!”
- If I give advice on what the best gaming CPU is that is in contradiction to what 95% of professional hardware reviewers say, then hell, I am expected to be tuned.
The above is just a bunch of people that came to mind, but that list is endless and will include most of us. It is like our clan exist of contortionist that already have one foot in their mouth and just need that little bit extra help to get that second foot in there too. As part of our initiation process, I think we can all very quickly determine whether or not said person will fit in this clan or not. Most often than not, the applicant himself would have figured out if he will fit it or not long before we did.
I have no problem whatsoever with the tuning in this clan. I think it is done in good spirit, I think some of the banter is actually quite intelligent, and I also understand that not all clans or people will be able to tolerate it. Despite the banter, I don’t doubt for a second that should anybody in this clan ask somebody that it was a bit far, that not only will you get an apology but probably something more as well. Hubris could have said in a calm voice, "guys I am having issues with this server, please stop giving me shit about it, I've been trying the whole day to resolve it" and I think everybody would have stopped their bitching.
I like the camaraderie in this clan, despite the banter and the tuning, if anybody and I mean anybody in this clan ask for anything, be that a real life issue, a gaming issue, or anything, and I mean anything, that they will without a doubt get the immediate support of everybody in this clan. That for me is the true meaning of friendship and what makes this clan awesome. I will really hate to see anything in this regard change, be that on the bantering and tuning side, or be that on the helping / friendship side.
Which brings me to my next point, there is a difference between bantering and tuning somebody and just being a plain asshole. From my understanding of what happened on H-Day, I believe it was no longer just tuning but just being a plain dickface about it. I don’t know who started it, I don’t know what words was exchanged, but from my understanding it was way out of line and totally uncalled for, and with that, I have a serious problem.
We have all lost our cool with a game before; this comes back to the first point being that we all value our gaming time highly, and that when we play we actually want to achieve something. If a game start to impact your real life, and start to compromise your moral values (i.e. you are becoming an asshole) then it is really time to reconsider whether or not that particular game is really the way in which you intend to spend your precious gaming time with.
I have stripped my moer with BF4 a long time ago, I don’t see playing that game as any fun and as a result I have moved on to other games (Dota2 is one of them). The nice thing about this clan, I am not the only clan member who is enjoying Dota2 and within a couple of days after mentioning that I am playing it, we have a number of guys jamming Dota2 in another TS channel. That is really nice of this clan. Some people enjoy PlanetSide2 (never tried it), but again, there are enough other grrr guys there that makes it an enjoyable experience to play it. Achieving good value for money/time which is really for me the important bit of gaming.
We are not a one game clan, it may have started out as a single game clan, but we have evolved past that a long time ago. Forcing people to play a particular game, or to play it in a particular style, will just get you a nice big fat middle finger in return. Saying that, grrr has always been competitive, and we always do well in competitions and that is fine as well because those guys competing enjoy it but they also appreciate that in order to play well (and thus enjoy it), they need to put in the extra effort, they need to learn to play together etc. I would say that the people who fits that category, i.e. want to play premier league and pwnd everybody, is unfortuantely (or fortunately) the minority in this clan. This is simply due to other issues in real life taking on higher priorities. It is not a bad thing, and it should not be seen as a bad thing either if somebody moved from being uber-competitive-premium-league-ass-kicker to a social-what-the-fuck-does-this-button-do player.
The point of all this is the following; what has happened on H-Day is not excusable, my understanding was that certain people was out of line, and that is just wrong. However, I think it was something that was gradually building up and it was just a matter of time or some lines would be crossed. Saying that, I don’t believe blame can be assigned to any single individual as there were not just one or two people on that channel at that stage. We are all grownups and I would have expected at least one or two other people that was party to that channel to step up and diffuse the situation before it got to where it ended up. Make no mistake, I like Hubris, but I also think he personally could diffused it before it got to where it ended up. Hubris tried his utmost best to please the guys but for some it just was not good enough. Hubris should simply have said after asking nicely to chill down a bit, “dude, if you think you can do a better admin job, then be my guess… if not, shut the fuck up and suffer with everybody else trying to play this PoS game or get yourself another game to play but stop bitching and moaning.” if that does not work, then just mute the motherfucker that still continue bitching and moaning in TS. Nothing will get a bitching moaner blood pumping more than being muted...
Ps. To everybody telling me I should start playing BF4 again, please, just kindly go forth and multiply yourself.
PPs. The assholes involved on H-Day, and who took it too far, man up and appologise to hubris assuming you haven't done so already. But for fuck sakes, it is a game and if you don't enjoy the game then get play something else to play.
PPPs. I can do with some Planetary Annihilation cannon fodder....
So yeah, that is my views on this topic.
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