BigKid.com.au

horribly wrong? hmmm depends on your point of view..

heheh i just got DSL , and i read fast so i did 28 of the (now) 49 pages
was just about to post the /gu immortalisation….but someone noticed already grr lol

hot damn i loved Montys/the bards adventures and i chuckled at fansy - tho i dont play eq i do game and i do understand where this is coming from..

but this is THE shit! i feel like gaspin and wheezin like the /gu comic LMFAO

Page Eight! Dick F**n Tracy! hahaha monty… i wonder if this is going to be another “classic gaming moment” a la ‘all yuor base’, and if we’ll be hearing “you page eighted dude!” forever and ever afterwards amen ….

if you casual bigkidders havent looked at it already just do page 1-8 and pg 22 thats about the sum of it…
this guy DEFINITELY had no chance to survive make his time! LMAO

if there was an award for funniest gaming moment/thread/comment of the year this one would have to have a nomination and be (my so far)fave for the oscar… ROTFL still
thanks once again for the entertainment!

The EQ equivalent of the Mrs Doubtfire dinner scene.

What. A. *TRULY*. Dumb. (censored).

Don’t even play EQ, but what a pixel perfect illustration of the schizoid nature of the internet. Priceless.

I actually found it all a bit disturbing. As Allie said, it’s a pixel perfect example, but I think not just of the internet - of human psychology. The guy had his “nice, noble, upstanding” character he hid behind and got all his affirmation from (the constant appeals to his flawless reputation and nobility were creepy self justification - I think he actually believes it). All his frantic lying and maneuvering came from a desperate desire to maintain his position in his guild once he realized what he’d done could be traced. He obviously has an enormous amount of self esteem invested in EQ and what people there think of him.

Someone should study stuff like this :) I’m sure there’s a thesis in it. Notice that it all could not have happened if not for the anonymity of the Net (the beautiful irony is that playing with that is what lynched him in the end), and part of the horror for him is the removal of that anonymity.

It all adds weight to my conviction that what you do online is no different morally to what you do in “real life”. Just because for the moment noone knows who you are, does not absolve you from responsibility for you actions.

to quote “ROTFLMAO!”

That was TRULY wonderful.

Very amusing and scary at the same time. I wasted a good deal of time reading up to about pg 14 (lucky I was at work), in the end does the guy get banned for scamming? Anything else interesting happen in the next 60 pages or so?

Gawd…I just laughed and shook my head at the extent people will go to save their online rep in a computer game. My thoughts throughout reading the forum reminded me of Shatner’s Saturday Night Live Star Trek Convention sketch speech…

Get a life, people!

I don’t know about you but I play games for enjoyment and a bit of escapism, not a life-replacement. Unfortunately, we will see this more often as technology gets more advanced and accessible.

Very entertaining saga that one. I think that board would be a great resource for all psychology students to be able to study the mind of the 21st century sociopath.

Part of the reason why I think it was such a hillarious saga is because there were no real victims (as in real life crimes), and the perpetrator tied himself up within his own web of lies. This is a model case for what already is a crapload of fraud and deceit in the virtual world, and it does raise some questions like : How different are the online and virtual personas of netizens? Does being able to live out those nasty impulses in a virtual community decrease or increase the chances of you releasing them into the real world? In this case I think the lines got blurred, but in most cases I think it’s a matter of debate.

I remember back when I played Ultima Online, the care factor for ensuring a non dysfunctional community by Origin Systems floated around zero percent… and that was part of the appeal for me. I’m not talking about being ripped off in trading (which just plain sucks), but the players who were solely in the game to PK or thieve to create anarchy really made it interesting for me. Way back in the old days, going to the low level dungeon - Despise - was a heart pounding exercise. You never knew quite when a band of pks was going to be guarding the entrance, or whether they would be there when you got back out with your hard earned bounty. Trying to outrun and hide from them was terrifying and insanely involving. (For those who haven’t played, UO had an invaluable skill called Hiding, which was being able to vanish right in front of another player as long as you just stood there). I used to sweat like mad after successfully hiding.. standing as still as possible, hoping they didn’t see where I hid, watching them cast walls of flame all around the place in an effort to flush me out.

A lot of players in UO had accounts with both upstanding and nefarious characters. I remember near the very end of my addiction, I finally turned my character evil to help wean me off UO - by that time strict penalties had been introduced for being a bastard. After I left, the touchy-feely crowd took over, and they virtually gutted Ultima Online of the enjoyable PvP elements to make way for people who played UO as their second job - solely to do repetitive tasks that raise their stats.

Anyhow, that was the way I saw EQ (I have several friends on EQ life support), and after reading this account it’s probably still the way I see it. Most of the online games out nowadays create Utopian style player interaction environments, and while a lot of people do like the security of being able to whine to a GM to get those who don’t play nice booted, the outcome is the excision of a highly unstable, and therefore exciting element of the game.

I guess some people would say that’s the reason why in most PvP games there’s now an on/off switch for PvP, but seriously, life doesn’t work like that. The reason hangliding, sky diving, and even surfing are exciting is because you don’t have the on/off switch. There’s always the risk something might go wrong and that’s what make them thrilling.

So my advice to people who make MMORPGs is to keep an element of player risk in the game. Not necessarily trading scams and kill stealing, but at least allow players that friction which happens in every day life. The adrenalin rushes I got from fleeing PKs in UO have never been matched by any other game to date, so until then I’ll wait before surgically attaching myself to another online world.

You’ve just highlighted the single biggest problem with MMO’s (IMHO).

It’s not about the game and the fun and the adventure. It’s about the hand holding while you get your next piece of useless crap.

And it finally helps me work out why I played UO for over a year, but only played EQ and AO for a couple of months.

The value in UO was on adventure and fun. Running from a horde of murders (or indeed turning to fight them) fills you with adrenaline and creates excitment (I too remember hiding in the middle of a dungeon hoping the PKs didn’t flame me out). The penalty for death from memory wasn’t game shattering and the ability to be a ghost added fun to being dead.

Having a hissy fit and dobbing to the nearest GM creates a pointless leveling and loot treadmill.