Be There Then

OPERATING IN A PARALLEL WORLD

Have you ever actually tried the New
Age imperative, "Be Here Now" and
failed? The reason you failed is
because you are already Here Now.
There's no way to get Here from
Here.

Actually the real trick is to Be
There Then...to operate and live
successfully in another world...
unless you prefer the level of
violence and treachery here in this
one, in which case, you need not
ever perfect the skills necessary
to Be There Then.

If on the other hand, you'd like to
learn how to Be There Then, you'll
need to develop certain very definite
skills, and one way to learn them is
to utilize a specific class of videogame.

The videogames we play and recommend
lend themselves to the methodology
of reaching into an entirely different
dimension and operating a character
there from here by a system of remote
control.

Operating a character in a different
dimension or world is not an easy
task, and it is hard to realize that
the world in which the character
resides is very real to that character
if not to you at first.

Eventually you come to cognite on
the fact that when you operate a
character in another world, whether
virtual or actual in your estimation,
you are doing something very real and
that there are consequences that are
very real in the target world.



Some of those consequences will
certainly reflect the situation in
your present Home Universe, and some
of the effects of that other world
will certainly reach you regardless
of where you think you live.

In much the same way that you can
learn to drive a car or fly a plane
using simulation gear, you can learn
to operate in other worlds using
a variety of virtual simulation
worlds such as Team Fortress 2 and
Diablo 2. In our GODD environments,
the simulation is even closer to
the actuality you will experience
as you traverse space and time and
learn to voyage through the veils
and boundaries of this space-time
continuum we call "our universe".

Learning to remote operate a
character in a different world or
environment can help you to overcome
your natural reluctance to lose
the slim margin of control you are
convinced you have over your
present environment.

Notice that I did not say you had
actual control, but most folks are
convinced that they do exert some
control over their lives until
something happens to open their eyes
to the fact that they don't now and
never did have control over themselves
or their lives.

While control is not the issue, it
is the primary force that keeps you
imprisoned in the Home Dimension,
and it is a result of the enforcement
of the Beta-Brain, which was imposed
upon you shortly after you took rebirth
in the universe you call Home.

Learning to operate in other worlds
opens many doors of perception
and shows you that it is possible to
live in other, quite different,
realities and survive. There is no
skill more important than learning
how to operate in many worlds...and
actually many worlds at once!!!

Another way of learning this is to
play our new TABLETOP game, Dungeon
Party, which you can see more about
on-

www.dungeonparty.com

or, you can join us Saturdays and
Sundays on stickam.com/idhhbtv from
6:30-8:30am PST for live online
gameplay, for more information
click here-

www.idhhb.com/official_inner_circle_workshop.html

Admin Overkill

GOREBAGG RANTS ON ADMIN ISSUES

Are you an admin on a TF2 server?
Do you sometimes long for the good
old days when you could actually
play instead of resolving issues
with pubs???

Maybe you are suffering from
OAS...Over-Admin Syndrome....

OAS is a result of admins trying to
exert too much control. Just what is
"too much", anyway?

Let's examine the situation calmly
and without prejudice.

1. TF2 is a game. A friggin' game,
folks. It's just a bunch of pixels.

2. TF2 is a PG-13 rated game.
Have you ever really listened to
the built-in soundbytes of the various
classes, especially the scout?

3. There's a LOT of violence in
TF2, and you will note that the demo
man wields a booze bottle, there's a
jar of pee you can throw on enemies
and more.

4. There's a voice comm channel
which can be either team talk or all-
talk. That means that anyone can at
any time let loose with a curse or
two when they get frustrated, and
the game is meant to be frustrating
so it's fun to play over and over
again.

5. There's an unrestricted text
comm as well, both team and general,
and there are no "blockers" naturally
occurring in the game to defeat
attempts to write words not
considered okay by the admin group
on a server.

6. Most of the serious admin
problems are related strictly to
disrespect of the game, the server,
other players and/or the admins who
serve the server and keep the game
honest. That means cheaters and
disruptors need to be kicked and
banned if they seriously disrupt
the game or actually threaten the
server's ability to deliver services
to the public.

7. "Bad" language is very very
subjective. Nobody really knows which
words are "bad" on a server until they
are specifically defined, and no two
groups of people agree on which words
are not okay...that having been said,
there are two schools of thought here:

a. It's nicer to have a server
where foul and obscene discussions
are not occurring and where female
players and kids can have some safety
from obsenity and downright sexual
aggression.

b. Have you ever served in the
Armed Forces? Well, I have, and one
thing I can tell you for sure is
that some words which are considered
offensive in public are peppered
very freely in conversation, and
especially in combat, where stress
relief is vital. When some people
play, they express themselves with
"curse" words. Keep in mind that
those Anglo-Saxon words were once
quite acceptable in public, while
words we consider today to be
very acceptable were considered
very gross and totally obscene,
such as "plow" and "furrow". The
word "heck" is acceptable as a
substitute for "hell", although
"heck" is short for "Hecate" the
goddess of the witches...So where
does that lead??? Keep in mind that
psychological warfare is a
well-studied art -- we are reprinting
Paul Linebarger's classic
"Psychological Warfare" textbook
because it is an important aspect
of combat. Taunting is part of TF2
and is built into the game, so why
not allow verbal taunting, to egg
someone on the opposite team to make
a mistake by using the Dark Side of
the Force -- ie; getting angry???
Are you torn on this issue? If so,
search your feelings, Luke.

8. There are players with "issues"
that are not actually destructive to
the game, such as the inability to jump.
Jumping is a skill that is learned with
time and the repeated use of a mouse
button -- I go the extra mile and find
myself a 3-button mouse that can allow
me to jump more easily, but a "tab"
jump is just as easy WITH PRACTICE.
The net result is that on some
servers, engineers can no longer
place teles on the "ramp room" or
courtyard stairs to prevent scouts
and spies from zooming past their
sentry guns...why??? You are not going
to believe this...because some players
can't jump over them. Suppress the
giggles for a moment and consider
their plight...it's solved simply
by having a school or a server which
offers jump training, just as we used
to do with rocket jump training for
soldiers in TF1 and TFC. We have
schools for admins, so why not for
ordinary players?

9. There are a lot more issues
that an admin really does need to
resolve and act on...however, the
paperwork for admin actions increases
the larger and less monitored a server
or clan grows. With unmonitored and
even with skilled and highly disciplined
admins, the potential for abuse grows
and grows...so we then have the need
to implement a huge amount of
paperwork, screen shots, condumps
and more to justify each and every
action taken as an admin. Simple
TRUST is not possible when there
are too many admins to monitor
successfully. If the goal of a clan
or server is to foster unlimited GROWTH
at any cost, paperwork will be the
inevitable result, making the clan
or admin team something like a
government. If you play TF2 to get
away from governing, as I do with
a huge staff and thousands of clients,
you will appreciate the least amount
of paperwork possible.

10. When you have to recruit
hundreds of admins, there must be
heavy penalties for abuse, and heavy
restrictions on them.

11. Hundreds of admins who are
recruited at the rate of dozens per
day with a totally unrestricted
growth rate means hundreds of not
necessarily highly disciplined people
with admin powers. Having seen a number
of training classes for admins with
people running amok, killing each other
and grabbing intels and flags while
teachers are trying their best to
explain the duties and technical
skills of admin, I am convinced that
there's a lot of tolerance built-in
to the system to allow for total asshats
to abuse players until they get caught,
which might be never.

12. Hundreds of admins who are not
highly motivated except for the status
they get as admins will mean that they
have to be kept "happy" as admins,
which means THEY HAVE TO HAVE SOMETHING
TO DO. Usually admins don't have to do
very much, unless the server directors
create "make-work" for them to keep
them active, alert and feeling useful.
This all-too-often encourages over-admin,
in much the same way that customs
officials like to exert their small
power over people who would
ordinarily not be under their
domination. This itself can eventually
lead to some serious abuse and
absurdities over "control issues".
In my opinion, some servers give their
admins a ridiculous number of control
issues to deal with, simply to keep
them interested and feeling useful,
and in some cases, encouraging that
domination syndrome from a small
amount of power over others.

13. My personal take on all this
is to run my server with this in mind:
unless there's a serious and profound
effect on the server, game and other
players, admins are not to interfere
with the gamers or gameplay. If
someone is disrupting the whole
server and is being a total griefer,
then heck, yes, kick and/or ban the
player and let them find somewhere
else to go. There are indeed some
players who thrive on being banned
and who actually brag about being
banned on thousands of servers.
Very well, kick and ban them, but
you're going to have to do a lot
of kicking and banning if
you manufacture offenses just to
give admins something to do.

14. One more issue -- we do not
allow "invasion" of our servers,
which means people infiltrating from
other clans and servers in order to
recruit members to fill their servers.
Everyone wants their servers fully
populated, but fair's fair, and I
feel that infiltration is NOT a fair
practice...so players coming in to
"snipe" our server population or our
clan members are quickly banned...not
kicked, not warned, just banned,
period. I feel that sniping clan
members is MUCH more offensive than
any language or placement of
inconvenient teleports.

There, I've had my say. If I've
offended anyone with this rant on
admin practices, I wouldn't be
surprised...anytime anyone talks
honestly, they can't help but offend
someone somewhere. I sincerely hope
that this little dissertation helps
some folks who are overburdened by
Over-Admin Syndrome. It can only
happen when the policies of GROWTH
AT ANY COST are applied...and those
are the same tactics and practices
that exist on corporate levels. TF2
is my way of briefly escaping the
corporate world in which we all
live. I surely do not want to bring
the world of used-car sales, Amway
Recruiting, Ponzi Schemes and
Tupperware Parties into my gaming
world.