Been scouring several forums over past few days probably like everyone else keeping eyes peeled for any news regarding fate of catalyst. Including the forums of our sister line classic battletech. A much more moderated and self described level headed forum. Many of the posts seemingly point to the fact that we here at DS are a crazed over reactive lot. Lots of reasons given for this ranging from the paranoid aspect of our game to green Mohawks and facial peirceings. Now I'm not so sure about all that and I think theres more cross over fans then they give credit for but amongst all this back slapping and inside jokeing I came across a statement that I'm still grinning about. So to paraphrase the statement.

Why are people over on dumpshock so worked up all the time? Well if you had a computer from the 80's crammed in your head you'd be jumpy too. "Ive been waiting for this e-mail to send since November."

My apologies for not giving credit for the statement and if someone wants to link original feel free, didn't have time to dig back through pages to find it.

Old story: A heavy hand telling people what goes and what doesn't (for example by making threads disappear even when every other site involved in CGL games was reporting it) leads to anticipatory obedience.

One could call it censorship too. Of course not over on the CBT boards, where a posting like that would likely be deleted . .
In this dicscussion alone, there have been 2 deleted threads and several deleted postings in the one not deleted thread.
Because rumors on the internet are not welcome.

Also: Two dwarves walk into a Bar.
One of them says:"two shorts!"
Bartender replies:"i can see that"

Before we turn this into a "Dumpshock vs. Classic Battletech forums urine fight" or something, just remember two things, fellas.

One, the OP started it to tell a funny joke (albeit in a rambling way) about Shadowrun fans having '80's era computers in their heads. Let's not ignore the humor and focus on some silly internet rivalry. Especially because, by doing so, you're just proving them right with the whole "over reactive and under moderated" thing, so you look kind of stupid.

Two, one forum (this one) isn't official and as such is more lightly moderated, the other forum (not this one) has official company logos and writers and links and stuff all over the place, so it's only natural that the mods be a little more heavy-handed in trying to keep it clean, on topic, and running smooth.

I'm getting older I think it's a rule I have to start rambling.

I'd agree, rambling comes with age.

As was the custom back in those days. That and hanging an onion from your waist.

I hear the body is the last thing to go, if only I could remember what was the first.

The CBT board is an official company site/forum, and Dumpshock isn't. It's that simple. The mods have a responsibility to keep the CBT forum clean and civil as it reflects directly on the company. They're definitely not going to let rumors or private information about the company remain posted on their forum.

Doesn't make it any better in my eyes.
These rumors that they complain about turn out to be true and truer in this case.
They complained about rumors of the C&D from freelancers to CGL in regard to pulled books/copyright.
And look, CGL released another press release that basically said:"yes, it's true, but we're working on it"
Someone actually said that they hat the fact that one site takes rumors and makes them up to be the truth.
I can understand that. Or i COULD understand that, if it really only WERE rumors.
But right now, it seems as if that page is just really good informed.
If rumors turn out to be truths, people should stop complaining about it being rumors posted on the net.

So you can't see any reason why a game company -- or, rather, any sort of company -- might want to be the ones to share that information, to decide how it gets shared, how it's phrased, when and where it's released, and exactly what's said, instead of just letting rumormongers have a field day?

Of course i can. Still reeks of censorship to me. Rumors should be met with official information to questions asked.
Open dialogue. Kinda like what Jason has been doing this whole time. Someone to talk to, someone to ask questions.
So there are 2 Press releases, but these are PRESS RELEASES. They are basically officially condoned rumors.

Press releases are officially condoned rumors? That's a...different viewpoint.

One that I'm surprised to find on a Cyberpunk forum, where the expected norm viewpoint is "corporate press releases are officially issued lies".

I didn't realize these were in-character posts.

I'm reminded of a computer commercial from a few years back where some kid in his bedroom goes into this long shpiel about how the internet is fun and games and that businesses should stay out I'm not doing it justice but then it pans to the comedian from Rescue me and he basically tells the kid to shut up and go to bed. Funny as all hell. The time's wouldn't sell ad space for an add slaming on them or speculating how they were going out of business or sumizing to why X editor or Y writer left the company. Rumors quickly force an official source into a point of diminishing returns. A rumor doesn't have to be even remotely true where as a press release has to be essentially true.

On that same note some of the stuff flying around here has been patently rediculous speculationa nd fear mongering. Corpse, not cold, not actually a corpse etc etc.

This just proves that however good they think their elite Nekokami/DEST/Rabid Foxes/Elementals are, no one is as good as ferreting out paydata as a shadowrunner. And they are just jealous.

Ack! You need to make sure you get on the distribution list for these memos.

Eh? DS isn't some corp board with memos. It is more like Jackpoint where if you post something really inflammatory or untrue, we pit your credibility so hard you are never going to find work in this town. Ever.

Speaking of pitted credibility, are you still playing 3rd edition these days?


formerly blakkie

Not much. Sometimes for old times sake but mostly 4th nowadays.

You know, I didn't realize you were blakkie. Huh.

And I'm not sure who's bitching about which board here, but lets not, please? The CBT boards have a specific function and tighter regulations as a whole, but it's also a much different community, for good or for ill. Our community is... Well, our community is as diverse as the playing styles for our game.

In BT, there's pretty much only one way to really play. Giant Robots shooting each other. Over there, the only real debate seems to be Clans vs Inner Sphere Here, we have differences in style (Pink Mohawks vs Black Professionals), Genre differences (Johnny Nuemonic vs Matrix vs Jason Bourne vs Warriors vs Looney Tunes), we have an ungodly amount of rules differences, both in editions (3rd vs 4th, generally, with a couple 2nd ed hold outs and one or two 1st editioners kicking around) and mechanics. We're a fractious lot, and the game is something different to almost every single player, and that shows through with the posters.

Plus, we tend to attract people with a more anarchist bend to their personality. This means when things do get out of control, they get wildly out of control and we mods have to wade in, bats and fists flying to regain some order. It gets ugly.

Personally, I liked it better when we spent all day arguing about rabid woodchucks and peanut butter vsvegemite. But those days seem long, long past.

Bull

Shows how old you are, i don't remember any of these ^^

I'm glad you said "seems to be," because it shows how little attention you pay (or how rarely you visit there, at any rate).

The two forums -- just like any sort of gaming forum, really -- are a lot more alike than they are different, and you acting like Dumpshock is so much more complex and meaningful is just as silly as Stahl acting like Dumpshock is so much more free and the CBT forums are run by the Nazis.

A forum's a forum. Fanboys are fanboys. There are disagreements over fluff versus rules, min/maxing versus spirit of the rules, edition versus edition, playing style versus playing style, art versus art, rules options versus rules complexity, rules reality versus rules fun, official megaplot storyline versus home-brewed realities. There are long time fans kvetching about things the new kids don't remember, there are geeks telling war stories about impressive convention missions from days long past, there are roving gangs that love or hate certain authors with burning passion. Any of that sounding familiar?

There's just as much of a community balkanization over there as there is here, just as much as on the Privateer Press boards, just as much as on Warseer, etc, etc. The biggest difference is that some of these boards have different expectations of their community because they're an official board, really. Other than that, no one is any more complex than the other, and trying to act like either one is somehow special -- whether it's the CBT cracking jokes about the DS crowd, or the DS crowd showing just how non-overreactive they are by overreacting -- is just silly.

We're all just geeks on the internet talking about games of make believe.

Yeah, try as I might, I've never really managed to penetrate the BT Geekdom. Probably because I've never had the opportunity to really get into the Miniatures game. The few times I tried back in the day is something that showed me BT's fan-base was having serious issues in the latter days of FASA... Every time someone offered to show me how to play, they would show up with a stack of books 3 feet high, start talking about clan this, inner sphere that, tech levels, time periods, and how I had to make my own mech. I did this a couple of times, it took way too long. All I wanted to do was drive a giant robot and fire missiles and lasers

So yeah, I'm not that familiar with it, beyond what I see online and at conventions. Which is that they seem to go in the direction of Miniatures gamers, which tend to be more focused on very individual, specific things rather than with the game as a whole.

Bull

This sort of factionalism just rubs me the wrong way, because at the end of the day we're all just geeks, and the reality is there's a tremendous level of overlap from game to game and community to community. In this instance, it's particularly irritating because we're all just geeks that are talking about the same game company. All our money's going to the same place, we're all still concerned with the health of the same business, we all want the same company to stay afloat and keep making games for us, but for some reason there's still an "us vs. them" mentality. It's pretty silly.

If you're looking to start in with BT, now's a great time, by the way. Their starter box is one of the best deals in gaming (and the 25th edition one is just around the corner), but -- even cooler than that -- you can hit up their downloads page and download a free pdf of every single book from the starter box. You can get the core rules, a quick breakdown of the fluff, etc, etc, all for free.

It can get overwhelming after that point -- but the truth is that so much of what you "need" to be able to play varies from gaming group to gaming group. I know guys that still use pennies and nickels to represent their Mechs, use the core 3025-era technology, and still have a great time. Conversely, there are "SOTA" groups that snatch up every single TRO, have all the advanced rules, and all that stuff. What level of complexity you use is really up to you (and the folks you game with)...and getting the core rules for free, and getting as good a deal as they're offering for the starter box (24 minis, hex maps, record sheets), is pretty sweet.

If you and a buddy each kick in $20, you can score the starter box and stumble through it on your own, have a good time, and see if you want to dig deeper and get involved in the more complex rules, at least.

@Critias:
Godwin would like to have a Word with you.

@Bull:
You sound like you would enjoy playing megamek.
Basically the board game ported over into a java app.

I know what you mean. I've moved on again, too, with what rules system to use for SR but I'm currently considering sitting in on a VOIP SR 4e version Shadowrun game, "for old times sake".

Hope things are treating you well and you are enjoying what you are playing and not just having to settle.



I've mentioned it before here, I believe. But I don't post here a lot these days, not since I pretty much globally change my internet "handle" to my real first name, and I didn't put it in my sig. Quick glance says less than 250 posts. That has to be what, maybe 5% of my posts here in the last 8 years? So it'd be easy to miss.

I think that's more than a bit unfair. There's quite a bit more to BT than that. There's also quite a bit more to the forums than that. Just about as much diversity as you'll find on these forums, in play styles and genres, you can find in BT. That's what always made both of these games stand out, I feel. This kind of mentality seems to encourage what you said you wanted to avoid.

I realize that, and I clarified by pointing out that I'm not really up on BT nor do I post there. At first blush, that seems to be the case though, and the fanbase that I interact with at conventions and locally seems much more cohesive than the SR Fanbase.

Good to know you guys bicker as much as we do I was getting jealous there for a minute!

Bull

A-fucking-men. A rising tide raises all boats.

Sure, but nevertheless it is interesting to see how a little bit of regulation makes people fall in line by themselves.


Which is probably the worst way to deal with internet rumors.