JohnA1nut wants a random chat off-topic thread, so here it is. On that subject, if you meet someone at a gaming convention, and they claim to be the head of the art department for a well-known game company, would you call this person a con artist?
Random Chat
(1037 posts) (14 voices)-
Jhiaxus
MemberAt a convention, the mailroom guy who does artwork on envelopes is the Head of the Art Department. The gaming industry doesn't produce rich people, it's a lot of toil for not a lot of money. On the off chance they are, I bet they aren't making a whole much more than most of us, the title may be all that they have.
Mon Sep 20 2010 12:20 pm # -
Tadeusz
Member"I am the President of High Forest Games & Books with two product lines. One line is d20 combined world setting/adventure such as 'Temple of the Dying Sun' and 'Land of Lislan' and more. The other product line is Multiverser related products where we have a couple worldbooks with a lot of fascinating worlds." Quoth moi.
"Wow," Said the worshipful fan. "So how much do you make on these products, and do you have an office with a view?"
"Hey look, the consuite has new homemade spaghetti and meatballs. Gotta go before everyone else eats them all. Bye." Quoth moi as I rush off leaving a bewildered fan behind.
Mon Sep 20 2010 1:58 pm # -
JohnA1nut
MemberYa know what MJ? I just realized. When I said that you could become a biologist, you said that it wasn't who you were, and who you were was a musician. Wrong. Who YOU are is a game designer, husband, and father of five. The divergent version of you who IS a musician probably never had children. He would probably be mildly amused that someone suggested the idea of fatherhood to him. To him, the music is what's important. That version of MJ Young never knew the joys and sorrows of fatherhood. He is no more "You" than the molecular biologist would be. It might be a path you could see your life taking, but it still wouldn't be the man sitting at his desk reading this. Besides, you do realize that what you're saying is that not even God could have steered you that way. I think it's quite narrow-minded of you. Sorry, it's another thing that won't get out of my head, and this IS a random chat thread.
(Doing Therapy)
Mon Sep 20 2010 5:16 pm # -
JohnA1nut
MemberTwo
On that subject, if you meet someone at a gaming convention, and they claim to be the head of the art department for a well-known game company, would you call this person a con artist?
Oh yeah Kyler. Did you know that you can get a job down at the docks putting bait on fishing hooks for squeamish kids? And after you do this for a while, you earn the esteemed title "Master-Baiter." (If you don't get the joke, try saying it out loud a few times)
(Doing Therapy)
Mon Sep 20 2010 5:21 pm # -
obviously I get the joke, it's a slight deviation from another. i would not hesitate to add "musician" to MJ's long list of accomplishments, though I would also add several others that you seem to have omitted. This post has been edited by the poster for content.
Mon Sep 20 2010 5:29 pm # -
JohnA1nut
MemberOh yeah, certainly. I'm just saying though that, you and your brothers wouldn't exist in the world where he was a successful musician. I'd like to think the five of you had a significant influence on who your father became. The musician version is no more him than the molecular biologist would be. I mean, think about it MJ. Your wife is a nurse, correct? What had a greater influence on you? Your music, or your sons? Really, seriously. Think about that. The molecular biologist met Janet when you were both doing residency at a hospital right after college. You had the same 5 sons, who were never born in the musician timeline. Which had a greater influence on you? I bet the molecular biologist is a lot closer to who you are than you realize.
(Doing Therapy)
Mon Sep 20 2010 5:49 pm # -
Glantri
MemberJohn, you seem to be treating a divergent self as just someone who has the same name.
A divergent is a version of yourself where one critical point in your life simply happened differently. There is no one singular instance that would send MJ's life down the path of a biologist.
This point has been made more than once, a divergence from the story has to start from the story itself. Without rewriting MJ's mental interests (which is seems biology is not one) you would not have that outcome, and if you rewrite that then it's not a divergent self.
Mon Sep 20 2010 6:08 pm # -
JohnA1nut
MemberThis point has been made more than once, a divergence from the story has to start from the story itself. Without rewriting MJ's mental interests (which is seems biology is not one) you would not have that outcome, and if you rewrite that then it's not a divergent self.
That's the part I think I've missed. Don't get me wrong, I just think this is fascinating. I'm not arguing, I'm more in awe and wonder at it. It just kind of gives new depth to the power of God, at least in my mind.
As far as rewriting the mental interests, that's what the depth of God's power does. God could have influenced circumstances in MJ's life so that music never came on the radar screen. Hypothetically speaking. He falls out of a tree when he's five and breaks his hand. He will never have the dexterity to play any musical instrument. Maybe the doctor even tells him that. He's a bright boy, he understands. This pushes music out of his mind. Having faced the pain and fear of breaking his hand, everything he is so squeamish about in this life is nothing. His hand still works just fine to hold a scalpel, and he is a little bit more morbid and curious about life.
It's more a deep, philosophical debate about the power of God than an argument or anything of that sort, which is the point I think all of you are missing.
(Doing Therapy)
Mon Sep 20 2010 6:21 pm # -
Jhiaxus
MemberBeing someone who fervently believes that God helps those that helps themselves, and that we are all given free will, I believe it's our own choices, that any one of them made differently can cause a different change of events to happen. The only person I blame or praise for it, is the person making the decision.
Mon Sep 20 2010 6:35 pm # -
JohnA1nut
MemberWell, there's also the random element of chance. What if you had rolled all failures when I said I was going to pulse the MP? He never knows I tried anything, and we get the base in one piece. Completely random circumstances, and it would have influenced both me and my character differently.
(Doing Therapy)
Mon Sep 20 2010 6:40 pm # -
Jhiaxus
MemberTrue, but I don't need to consider that, since the story is in the past, and we are dealing with a fictional you. I don't need to dwell on what might have been on that. If it was me running my characters, sure I do dwell on it for a short time, but then I focus my attention on the here and now so to speak.
Mon Sep 20 2010 6:54 pm # -
JohnA1nut
MemberDon't get me wrong, I do think there are limits. I had a girlfriend who is 5 foot 3 and has never weighed 100 pounds in her entire life. (She's weighed double digits her whole life) If you were to tell me that there is a divergent version of Wendy who is a bodybuilder, I'd probably laugh in your face. There are limits, I just think those limits are much broader than most realize.
(Doing Therapy)
Mon Sep 20 2010 6:55 pm # -
well, I fell off the face of the earth for a while, so forgive me, John, but I'm sure that even if there are only ten minutemen, it only takes one shot at a point blank range for lead poisoning; with medicine being where it is in such a world, that could mean slow death, or worse (in a verser's case), amputation; like I said before, though, I don't know quite where you're at, and little Ky would have very little trouble taking out as many as twelve minutemen in a round or two without getting shot once (though dice luck definitely plays a factor, I don't care who you are).
Mon Sep 20 2010 9:48 pm # -
Tadeusz
MemberKyler's right. One of my most absolutely lethal worlds had the player go up against ten Spanish musketeers with a flying wooden galleon. I always thought this was an easy world for newbie players, and the two or three times I ran it, the players got killed Real Quick.
Jhiaxus, its a part of the fee, a decent chunk. They charge a part for doing the job, and then you can add on what you want as a profit, and then based on your decision of profit, they add on more. Its cool.
And for those with interest, I've put up a rambling report on my convention visit in the Articles section.
"Havenfall"...was a fairly simple world. Humans get into space. Humans and other aliens get socked hard in a war with another species. Humans and good guy aliens send some of their number to flee. Humans flee in giant spaceships to refuge planets (the 'ark' of the name), and one crashlands as some of the bad guy aliens do a few attacks. The circular (actually a half sphere) lake you fished out of is the remnant of a near-miss attack with a very powerful light based weapon from near orbit.
The alien planet absorbs the humans, other aliens. The humans leave the high mountains for some place where the air is thicker. Tech collapses.
A thousand years pass. John arrives on nearly empty refugee starship that crashlanded.
Mon Sep 20 2010 10:29 pm # -
He falls out of a tree when he's five and breaks his hand. He will never have the dexterity to play any musical instrument.
Too little, too late. I was already established as a singer by the time I entered kindergarten. Instrumental music was always secondary, and I probably would have parlayed my singing into composing without the instruments--I started composing because at 12 I had only one friend in the world, and he wrote music; but I had already made several attempts before that, and it was only seeing how he did it that made the difference.
Not being an instrumentalist might have pushed my career more, because I'd have focused more on the vocals, which were already good (All State Chorus, first tenor, twice in high school), and the theory, which was pretty good too. Not having the ability to play a musical instrument, I'd probably have become a composition major and gone into conducting.
One of my problems in life has been diversification. I was just thinking the other day that I ought to spend an hour a day on the voice plus an hour a day on each of at least three to five instruments (definitely guitar, bass, and keyboards, probably flute and sax), and I don't have an hour a day to spend on anything. Take away the option to diversify into instrumental music and you've made me focus on voice and composition, limiting my vision to a more focused musical future.
I can imagine being born Amy Young more easily than I can imagine being a molecular biologist.
There is one turning point in my life which does stymie my thinking, because it is completely opaque to me. I do not know how old I was--younger than five, old enough to walk--when I was hospitalized, bedridden, and wheelchair-bound with acute nephritis (a strep infection of the kidneys). I have no direct memories of that, but only memories of later dreams that recalled those events. I suspect that this was a significant contributing factor to my athletic inability as a boy, which was a significant contributing factor to my social ostracization. I suspect I would have been very different had that not happened, and I cannot see what might have been.
I would not, however, have become a molecular biologist.
--M. J. Young
Tue Sep 21 2010 1:35 am # -
absolutely, if you have the time for it. I could also start entirely over again with my current me. I changed quite a bit, so it's easier for me to act like me now instead of me then. My empathy increased a lot, which is hard to downplay. I leave it up to you. Both have about equal appeal to me. I'm not sure if you still have my character sheet. So whatever is easier for you :)
Tue Sep 21 2010 4:15 pm # -
Jhiaxus
MemberAs a second to playing two versions of myself, the one MJ is running is much more confident in his abilities, has his own code of honor and now that he is spending time with his wife faithful, he worked out the fun in the spy world. When he started he was defiantly looking for something to ground him.
The version Eric is running, just keeps wondering why in every other world, his friend and fiance don't come with him. It definitely causes problems and questions. Why didn't she come with him, is she unsure, is he unsure, why would he be brought to a world alone with 4 gorgeous women? Is Odin trying to tell him something? Combine that with him up until now, having problems completing tasks he has set apon, in his mind, he's never good enough, never powerful enough. This version is more fun to play, as sometimes I don't know what he will do till I am typing it out, and he is still working through the issues the one above has worked through. This one also started out being a lot more of an arse than the first, and there has been more of a paradigm shift with him than the one above.
Tue Sep 21 2010 6:34 pm #
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