"It's not what you know...
"... it's knowing where to go to find out what you don't know."
Words of one of my grade school teachers that I otherwise don't remember anymore. At the time, this referred to other people, dictionaries, and encyclopedias (damn I feel old thinking about that). These days, it holds more true than ever, with the ridiculous ease of access to vast quantities of information. I frequently use Google to hunt for solutions to problems, and Wikipedia as a quick reference. Of course, given how easy the internet makes spreading information, I also try to take everything with a grain of salt and look for multiple sources on anything that is important or in doubt.
But I find myself with a pet peeve related to all this, too.
Being wrong usually doesn't bother me much. But when I look and come up with an answer that turns out to be incorrect, that can tick me right off. Strangely, it seems to come up most in gaming, of all things.
I had an online Exalted game pretty well ruined for me because I went through all the material I had (the core book) and came up with a backstory that the Storyteller later said "eh, that wouldn't really work" to. I was thoroughly annoyed 1) that it came up so last minute and 2) that the picture I was able to paint of the setting from the main sourcebook was apparently rendered seriously incorrect by later books I didn't have access too. Seriously, that pissed me off more than it should have, and fouled my mood about the whole campaign.
Not infrequently, I face little episodes of this with Furrfaire. I may try to do something that tashiro can think of on the spot, only I end up beating my head against a wall trying to figure it out because I don't know just were to look, or the information is hidden between the lines. He might make an off-hand comment that makes me think "really?" I go looking for verification and can't find it anywhere that makes sense to me, but he can pull the reference out without issue. The simple fact is he knows the current system and setting pretty much inside and out, but for anyone else it can be mystifyingly vague unless they happen to stumble upon just the right wiki link or board post.
And to that, I say "Blargh!"
Words of one of my grade school teachers that I otherwise don't remember anymore. At the time, this referred to other people, dictionaries, and encyclopedias (damn I feel old thinking about that). These days, it holds more true than ever, with the ridiculous ease of access to vast quantities of information. I frequently use Google to hunt for solutions to problems, and Wikipedia as a quick reference. Of course, given how easy the internet makes spreading information, I also try to take everything with a grain of salt and look for multiple sources on anything that is important or in doubt.
But I find myself with a pet peeve related to all this, too.
Being wrong usually doesn't bother me much. But when I look and come up with an answer that turns out to be incorrect, that can tick me right off. Strangely, it seems to come up most in gaming, of all things.
I had an online Exalted game pretty well ruined for me because I went through all the material I had (the core book) and came up with a backstory that the Storyteller later said "eh, that wouldn't really work" to. I was thoroughly annoyed 1) that it came up so last minute and 2) that the picture I was able to paint of the setting from the main sourcebook was apparently rendered seriously incorrect by later books I didn't have access too. Seriously, that pissed me off more than it should have, and fouled my mood about the whole campaign.
Not infrequently, I face little episodes of this with Furrfaire. I may try to do something that tashiro can think of on the spot, only I end up beating my head against a wall trying to figure it out because I don't know just were to look, or the information is hidden between the lines. He might make an off-hand comment that makes me think "really?" I go looking for verification and can't find it anywhere that makes sense to me, but he can pull the reference out without issue. The simple fact is he knows the current system and setting pretty much inside and out, but for anyone else it can be mystifyingly vague unless they happen to stumble upon just the right wiki link or board post.
And to that, I say "Blargh!"
I second your blargh. And the ideas that supported the emotion. I've always had that problem, actually. I know some people don't, but it's one of the main reasons why I've seriously decreased my online rp since Southerncrossz
ReplyDeleteFaire's rules aren't the most transparent out there. Layers upon layers of convoluted attempts to cover all potential contengencies. KISS was not followed.
ReplyDelete