GRRR Squad Forum

Irish_Luck28 wrote:From a relatively new grrr member, i'll be honest, it is sometimes tough to understand your place, or where you can help out or even add value to the clan.

Maybe some threads or topics, setup like a kanban board that has some tasks or places where clan mates can help out. You aren't forced to do anything, but if you have some time and are willing, you can just pick a task off the backlog and help out with some clan related stuff.

We have alway just been a volunteer type clan, if something needed to be done some one just always stepped up and did it, a lot of times it was the same people but I think we have stuck to that philosophy and it is like lee said treat it like a GF.

There are not rules on what you can't do, if you want to do something, maybe check with the boss and then go ahead there is definitely no empire build here.

If you want to take over the website running for example just approach Phatso and Lee, if you want to start something new then just let it be known, everyone will soon say if you are doing something wrong.

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.

oh, forgot to mention, Tiertjie, now that is a wall of text... not that 5 words in a row, then press enter crap you did to make your post seem longer...

ps, Phatso, thanks for raising this point, but I think there is a distinct difference between tuning somebody and being a dickface about something. The H-Day incident was caused by being a dickface, me tuning Tiertjie as in the beginning of this point is not the same thing and should not be treated the same either.

Double post loser !!!Calling yourself "n perd" showhorse my ass

Hi Guys
The point has been missed completely and hopefully my non-member break in silence will rectify the matter. I do this only as my name has been mentioned and not for any other reason as I actually think the problem is elsewhere.
Grrr is about banter or I would not love you guys as much as I do and fuck ye, I call Russ a "laaitjie" and he knows I love him and so do all the others I give shit including Hubris and Droog, yes Dry, leave those fucking buttons alone
Here are the facts from the horse’s mouth. Whoever else had anything to say that night would be irrelevant (you know what I mean, for Jonny J)and it actually did not bother me at all. Also, not for me to bring their names into this even though it will be difficult to try explain without a name or two but here goes. This is to my best recollection of something of actual no issue or consequence but I will try to put this matter to rest:
The previous night Hubris said that he wished people, obviously referring to grrr members, would not use ‘the join on friend’ function as it fucked the server up. (I would like to add that it does not on any other server when I join on my grrr friends.) Anyways on this specific night I thought I would support his request, even though others were not, as I wanted to be supportive of his quest to do whatever he was trying to achieve. This even though the only reason I play is because I want to squad up with my buddies made over the last 8+ years. It is especially cool when you can chat to them too - even hear voices from the past with new nicks.
So I found the guys all on the grrr server and instead of clicking on the first member of grrr top of my list in Battle Log as I always do, I choose the server and joined it from there.
I get put in a squad with some grrr players and just as I settle in to some awesome fun after a shit day at the office I get moved to another squad of dudes (probably some young cod players I have no time for .)
I complained in TS (to no-one in particular as I was not aware that anyone had been working on the server or was actively doing any admin duties - my fault perhaps for not keeping abreast of all the forum news as I am just not that way inclined. I am not built for so much info and would rather just play). I said; "I have just joined the server and already I get swopped when all I want to do is play alongside some friends". Hubris then says to me in TS that I should stop being childish.
I said nothing and carried on playing in this squad of people I do not know. For some reason the server felt out of kilter as my squad of strangers and I together where getting ripped a new one and eventually these guys left. I said nothing. Eventually a (fresh cannon fodder) grrr member joined and ended up in my squad at which time I started checking the squads.
What was happening was everyone joining on friends where ending up in the same squad and at one stage it was me and one other grrr member in our squad and the other squads with between 5 and 8 people in each. The effect of that quite obvious as our squad was being ripped a new one.
Well of course I had to say something as whenever a non-understanding person from outside would join our server he would end up in this lame two man squad and not last long and leave again because the stack and abuse was just too much. Not a very good advert for us. Any ways, discussions had been taking place during game play about settings and so on for the server which I did not care much for and was not really listening to anyways, but Hubris then said to me again in the same tone as the childish comment of earlier when I said something was not right to then do the settings of the server myself : o
Well I am sorry but I lost it and climbed into Hubris and told him to just fucking use the same settings as all the other servers instead of pissing everyone off with stupid settings that where clearly not working and yes I used the word "fuck" multiple times as I lost my cool after having to take in-game abuse and being called names for no reason. Hubris rage quit and the guys kept on playing, everyone joking and even giving me shit for losing it, which I took in the same light, all fun and jokes. Eventually Hubris came back but at this point it was so bad in the squad I was in that, myself and the other grrr member who can identify himself too corroborate if he feels the need, where stuck. We could because of balancing not go anywhere and nobody could join us. Another grrr player eventually tried, but even though it showed him in our squad, to him too I might add, it did not to either of us 2, and he could not spawn on us or vice versa.
I said there was something wrong and did not expect to be told off a second time by someone who I thought better of and had intelligent discussions with prior and yes, this probably has no bearing on the matter as I see guys much younger than me as buds but for some “dude”, yes that’s what I call Hubris now in this discussion, as that is how I felt at the time, younger than my son calling me childish and then talking to me about doing stuff myself that I was at no stage even involved in, in that tone of voice in front of others was to me not acceptable . Perhaps I am not of Hubris’ intellect or not of his stature but that does not give him the right to treat me like shit. In private yes, by all means tell me I am a “doos” but if you treat me with disdain in public expect a public tong lashing and that is exactly what he got.
If Hubris has taken it personally or tried to use the incident for some reason or just over sensitive to a barking dog (me) when he was trying to tickle that sleeping dog’s balls then so be it but I am afraid I cannot at this stage see why I should apologise for eventually hitting back at someone who clearly had no respect for me.
I trust above serves to rectify the matter. Now can we please go back to the way I know grrr: friendly banter of sometimes unashamed crude levels online, but when we get together for a meet great fun and most of all serious caring for each other as that’s how I know you grrr.
To Hubris:
I love you, Buddy and I know you said you wanted to concentrate on real life more (which I agree with 100%). We miss you! Please come back. I promise that I will let you set the server in any which way that you want to

Aahahah ya but my fake wall of text was way better perd!

Nice post Skoups, you should give BF4 another go though.

Well thanks for explaining your side U2.

I don't really think this is about a he said she said thing. In the end as you said this was between you and hubris and if it needs further sorting out then its between you two.

I think also Phatso has a set idea how he would like things to be, and I think he also like a less lets say "hostile environment" than most.
The boisterous tuning in grrr can be intimidating.
I am interested to hear his feed back, and to hear from a Jono.

well, we can all play WildStar! and own the world!...Dota 2 is making Sou and Phatso to aggressive...soon we will have a thread raising money to pull them out of jail.

Before I get into my thoughts on this, I want to thank everyone who took the time to reply to this thread. Its always interesting seeing how people really feel and I am happy that guys stepped up and actually put their thoughts down.
To add to that, the last time I saw a constructive thread on any forums online has been too long. GG lads.

I just want to reiterate what my original intentions were for this thread. Needless to say, I am glad so many different thoughts have been captured here on a variety of topics.
· To clear the air about what happened in the argument between Mark and Stef.
· To let everyone know that it is still my objective for us to be like a family.
· For the ugly chirping to be toned down just a bit.

The altercation I believe is closer to being solved. I hope that Hubris does convey further thoughts, but at least we have a part of the story. I don’t want to get too involved in the disagreement because we know that these things happen and will continue to happen. It’s how you deal with the disagreement that defines whether it was solved or not, irrespective of the end solution.

I must make a few things clear guys. I do not want the banter and chirping to stop. As has been mentioned a few times, its part of what makes [grrr] [grrr]. I agree with that. What I do want is for people to understand that there is taking the piss and going full retard. Creating an environment that is hostile is never anyone’s intention, however the interpretation always differs between people.

Like mentioned, the occasional chirp is a part of online and this clan, and is often a term of endearment. Its when little to no value is derived that it needs attention. Please don’t change who you are if consistent dissing is who you are (which no one in this clan is), but understand that you are sharing an environment, an escape, a hobby, an alternate universe and an online family with other people. The flip side of the coin is for people to speak up if offended. This is not always the easiest thing to do especially when there are 15 people on a TS channel and all you want is 3 seconds to say something. But don’t let it manifest inside of you. This happens far too often where a small issue that can be resolved gets bottled up.. that bottle keeps getting filled up with horrible thoughts and when its pops up, its not nice at all.

I agree 100% that it takes different levels to get to different people. What you find offensive, I may not and so on. We do have an extremely resilient batch of people here. This clan isn’t for the light-hearted and each of its members are strong minded, talented individuals. But we are all different. Everyone’s threshold is different. And thresholds aren’t an exact science. Please bare that in mind everyone.

Keep on rocking guys, remember that when your backs are against the wall in the online world, the people that share this clan with you are the same people that will be standing by your side, ready to face anything that is thrown at you, with you.