@Gingerlily said in MSB: The meta-discussion:
I think the people who really dislike MSB and think it is a net negative will not see this thread so they will never comment @Arkandel. There are many people in that camp who still MU* and/or still talk frequently to other people who MU* but there's not really a way to get their input here, so the thread will likely conclude at least in part that MSB is a good thing.
For sure. But the thread isn't supposed (or at least I didn't mean for it) to be about patting ourselves in our collective backs; it's about taking as honest a look as we can at what we do here.
There are people who dislike MSB for completely honorable reasons. They want their gaming experience to be about only the fun parts, or they'd rather not peek behind the mirror, or simply think we're full of shit; I have nothing against those folks, and I'd never try to convince them otherwise. To each their own.
And there are people who don't like the fact we might speak less than kindly of their actions here; well, perhaps they shouldn't be acting in a way that might be spoken of that way. That's not on MSB.
But you know what? There is a third kind of person who will not post on this thread. I was surprised at how many people with a lot to say and share came out and did so over PMs here who had barely posted once on the forums. In fact one said they never had (and I had only met them over a MU* we both played), but wanted to share how they were being treated on the game they were still on. It's not because they feared retaliation, just... they didn't want the attention, the extra hostility. But they wanted to chat about things with other people in the hobby because who else would understand the weird shit we say and do in the hobby?
I think that's an important outlet as well. Most of us have seen some weird stuff, right? Whatever underbelly online gaming has is really tough to translate into the real world, isn't it? You can't just go to a RL friend who's never played here and explain it - it's one of those things you need to be part of in the first place to understand.
MSB does that, too. It provides the sense of community - your buddy might not understand why the hell you'd be upset some 'staff member' of some weird niche hobby game was nasty to you, but folks around here would. At the very least you can share with the rest of the class and see if there was something to be legitimately annoyed or frustrated by.
I know you and I (the you being Ark again) have discussed at length and in some detail your opinions and my opinions and that was kind of where I ended up then too. I support many of your theories as to why it is or has the potential to be valuable, but am not sold enough to buy stock.
Sure! But that's the thing too. We don't have to agree to get along. I think it's the key to a forum like this, or maybe even the hobby overall.
