Snarks and Ladders

This isn’t really the usual fare for this blog. It might be more suited to my gaming blog, but let’s face it, there I am just preaching to the converted, while here might have a minute minute chance of getting some discussion going.

I was reading a post on Jezebel today about fitness and gaming, specifically something that Fitocracy has brought into being on their own website. I’m not going to go into details, because a) I am more than sure that you can all read already, and b) the boy won’t get off my damned laptop, so I am forced to type this on my iPad. I don’t care what anyone says – the iPad is the worst device in the universe for blogging. In fact, any tablet would probably suck ass when it comes to this.(** if you happen to be interested in my views as to why this shit sucks, scroll to the italics at the bottom. Or feel free to ignore. Whatever).

Anyway, the whole ‘gamers will only enjoy working out if we make it like a game’ attitude pisses me off immensely. In fact, the attitude most people have toward gamers in general pisses me off more often than not. Gamers are belittled, and the more ‘geeky’ their gaming pursuit, the more they are ridiculed by the public. Which is why playing the xbox is considered cool, while playing WoW will result in you forever being seen as a gaming addict, regardless of how much or little you actually play. And if you happen to be into table top gaming, well, most people will probably just find you to be outright weird.

I’ve heard enough gamer jokes to fill a lifetime. I’ve been asked if I still live at home (no, I don’t). I’ve been asked if I shower (obviously, yes), and by people who can’t actually see me, I’ve been asked how I feel about my weight problem (because all gamers are fat and going to die of heart attacks any second now, you know). I’ve been asked why I don’t find something better to do with my time (often, amazingly, by people who admit to watching at least 4 hours of TV a day… Because apparently that’s a better way to spend time). I’ve been asked if I’ve ever had a boyfriend, how I expect to find someone who is interested in me if I spend time in front of a computer, and when I am going to get a real job (guess teaching doesn’t count!)

Gaming isn’t the only thing in any gamer’s life.. We have other interests. So when people think that they have a great idea to get all us fat, slovenly, smelly gamers off the lounge and out of Mum’s basement, because we apparently don’t have anything else in our life? It pisses me off. If I decide I want to get fit, I don’t want to tie it to my gaming. If I decide I do want to link it to gaming, I’m probably smart enough to do it on my own. I don’t want anyone assuming that the only way I’ll succeed at something is to make it just like a game.

But, hey, what the fuck would I know? I’m just a gamer. A female at that. A breed that apparently knows nothing, and can be won over by making everything like a ‘quest’ or ‘objective’. The most annoying thing is, I can see how it could work. Fitness is very goal oriented. And it would appeal to some gamers. But it smacks of that disgusting ‘fat male gamer’ stereotype, and for the good of the gamers, and the industry, that is a stereotype that needs to be gone. Especially since it has no basis in fact.

Now, if you were interested, this is why I hate the iPad for blogging. I know a lot of people love it, and it is useful in a pinch, but it is horrible to use for this. Typing is a nightmare if you type with any semblance of speed, correcting spelling sucks, moving around on the page is a slow process, and linking to anything is bloody annoying as well. Using images is just frustrating, so I don’t even bother. And back to typing… Well, it’s uncomfortable and strange.

Warning: yeah, this is a gaming post.  yeah, you may not care – but who says you have to care about any of the stuff that I write anyway?  Just click ‘mark as read’ and move along

Also – HOLY WALL OF TEXT BATMAN!

I moderate a forum for WoW bloggers, amongst the other random things that I spend my time doing.  It’s usually a pretty straightforward, easy job. I approve new users, occasionally steer conversations back to an appropriate level, but as a rule the people who join are nice people who just want to help one another out.

The moderator list appears to be quite extensive.  We have something like, oh, 8 moderators, 4 administrators… unfortunately, the only moderator who is really at all active is me.  While this isn’t usually an issue… it does present some concerns occasionally.

The other day, someone registered for the forum that I had doubts about.  They weren’t a blog, for starters.  And their site definitely wasn’t about building a community.  In fact, it was more about naming and shaming than anything else.  Sure, that has its purpose (and I may have actually used it once, regarding a certain lazy moron), but it isn’t really what our little forum is all about.  So, I was of two minds as to whether I should approve them or not.

Unfortunately… we don’t have any other active mods that I can hash this shit out with!

Well, they are now approved.  I don’t like to say I was ‘forced’, because I most certainly was not, but you know how it is when someone says ‘I was just wondering… why was this not done?’ etc etc.  So, well, I felt bad (because I have been feeling bad about the whole thing for a couple days now), and I added them.  However, I didn’t like the implication when it was said that OTHER people had not been approved.  Because they had.  Occasionally, it takes a while.  If I am not around for a week, because there are no other mods, nothing gets done.  Some days, well, I just don’t feel up to the rigours of my internet chores.  So fucking sue me.

And if the implication wasn’t that I was lazy, then it was that I had been discriminating against people, and only approving who I felt like.  So not true.  If I approved the guy who can’t use god damn punctuation, then I’ll approve most everyone.  Unless, of course, you are a troll or something.

Or maybe there was just no implication at all.  Maybe I read too much into it all because the whole forum thing is starting to piss me off.

– I don’t mind moderating.  Really.  But I would love to NOT BE THE ONLY ONE.

– If I AM the only person actually, you know, working on the damn thing… y’think I’d be bumped up to being an admin at some point.  Of our current 4 admins, only ONE of them is a WoW blogger.  One who doesn’t have a great deal of time to look after things anyway.  There is a lot of shit that needs tidying up… and I can’t do all of that as a moderator.

– A lot of the old heads in the community no longer use the place.  I guess that’s because, well… the community is changing.  We don’t NEED it so much anymore, because we pretty well know what we are doing, and things like twitter and chatrooms have replaced much of the forum’s purpose.  It makes me sad though when I see all these new people registering, and they will rarely get feedback or comments off the old heads.  You know what sort of things made my fricking god damn day when I started blogging?  Comments from the old heads, from the big bloggers who I respected.  That, I would guess, is one of the things that actually kept me blogging.  Aren’t you all glad that happened?

– And, because I am human… even though I KNOW it doesn’t matter, and I don’t explicitly want it… there is absolutely no recognition for doing this.  None whatsoever.  Which, y’know, is fine… just occasionally irksome when you see people tooting their horns about other shit and getting pats on the back.  But, hey, I’m a selfish bitch who wants her own fair share of back pats, and I’m not going to deny it.

I feel like that particular community is breaking down.  Part of it is that it has gotten bigger than what we can all stay in touch with.  Part of it is the community becoming more diverse.  I guess another big part is the attrition that community is currently seeing.   I’d like to see the community booming again like it used to… but I can’t do it on my own.  I think it really has to grow again, from the bottom up, with the new people.  And some days, I really just feel like packing it in.  The current state of the forum, for example… makes me want to cry!

/end wall of text.