Hydra (and other) Writeups From Colin

[Colin Talvitie]

Hi everybody.

I've been keeping track of the various discussions about smack talking and the like. In some of those discussions, Colin's writings have been mentioned both as and as potentially .

For those of you newer players, Colin's been around since the IFL days and I think...though I may not have been quite successful...that I've toned him down since then. Some of his IFL stuff was pretty colourful (sometimes brutal) and it was intended to be so...from an IC point of view.

Let me say that from an OOC standpoint I am in no way writing with the intent to upset, piss off, make angry, give hurt feelings to or annoy other players.

Colin's angle in writing is to find the bad more than the good and to point it out. A character or team could be the best ever/near perfect and he'd still find something to pick on. That's what he does. He's biased that way which I think is pretty obvious. Many of the other writers back in IFL and even today take a different (read: nicer/kinder/more neutral) approach which is totally great! I'd love to see more and more writeups for dueling events from different IC points of view. Colin's there to add some IC flavour, nothing more.

To clarify, all the stuff from Colin is based IC and what Colin sees IC. I am not taking any kind of OOC dislike for anyone and aiming to super-bash their character(s) accordingly.

That all being said and even back in IFL, some people raised concern that Colin was being too mean to certain characters. In those cases, I tried to reach out and make sure that players of those characters were ok and see how they felt OOC. Again, I think I've toned him back since then but I may not always be entirely successful.

Long story short...if anyone as a player is upset OOC about Colin's writings especially something directed at their own character, please contact me so we can have a discussion. Again, the goal here for all of us is to have some fun and I sincerely hope that Colin's IC writeups/jabs are not causing anyone ill-feelings or sadness OOC.

I'm trying to have all the Hydra writeups done by Monday but I don't know if that'll really happen. I'll get as many as I can done before the tournament begins. I hope the tournament's successful and that everybody, whether you're participating, reading or just hanging around, has fun with it.

[Rakeesh]

Thanks for this, and I've been enjoying your write-ups so far.

[Bane]

I think you are handling this correctly. Just make sure people know OOC that you aren't trying to bash them, the player, in any way. IC, it may be a different story. As long as everyone is able to differentiate IC and OOC (which should be the case), you should not have to tone him down at all.

[Faerie]

I <3 Colin's write ups. I was cracking up last night reading them out loud to my husband (who doesn't play so just kind of looks at me weird with how funny I think it is).

Keep up the awesome work!

[Capt Sneggle]

This reminds me of what a lady I knew would say before she lowered the boom. "Well, I don't mean nothing bad by this but did you hear" She would then go and demolish someone's reputation, etc. She honestly felt by putting in that disclaimer she could say or do anything she wanted.

Truly malice wears a smile.

Make of this what you will.

[G]

This reminds me of what a lady I knew would say before she lowered the boom. "Well, I don't mean nothing bad by this but did you hear" She would then go and demolish someone's reputation, etc. She honestly felt by putting in that disclaimer she could say or do anything she wanted.

Truly malice wears a smile.

Make of this what you will.

Sneggle. That was a truly jackass post.

Make of that what you will.

[Lem DeAngelo]

I've always enjoyed Colin's write-ups. It would be boring if he wrote about how great we all are.

[Lydia Loran]

This reminds me of what a lady I knew would say before she lowered the boom. "Well, I don't mean nothing bad by this but did you hear" She would then go and demolish someone's reputation, etc. She honestly felt by putting in that disclaimer she could say or do anything she wanted.

Truly malice wears a smile.

Make of this what you will.

I think Colin player's post was the complete opposite of malicious, actually. They are trying to be open and communicate with the community about their intentions, which are NOT ill intentions. If they have written something IC about a character of yours that upsets you OOC you can PM them about that and I'm sure they'd be happy to amend that as they have presented themselves as a reasonable person.

[Andrea Anderson]

Great writeups as always, Colin-player! Was looking forward to these.

[Capt Sneggle]

G

What is the purpose of having a forum and then getting blasted for expressing an opinion?

[Candy Hart]

I adore Colin's write-ups.

[G]

G

What is the purpose of having a forum and then getting blasted for expressing an opinion?

You're kidding, right? When you express an opinion, you can expect a response to that opinion, especially when it's a negative one. Or did you think that no one was allowed to respond to you?

If your opinion is one where you're being rude, expect to be called out on it.

[Colin Talvitie]

Thank you for the responses, everyone. I am glad that the majority of you enjoy the write-ups.

To specifically address Capt Sneggle's concerns...IC is IC as far as I am concerned. If Colin's coming after someone In Character, nothing is driving what's written from my OOC opinion of that player. Colin will mock characters of players I am friends with and will mock characters of players I do not know. He's an equal opportunist that way, IC.

Colin is not a licence for me as a player to just go bashing other players. There's no OOC malice coming from my end. Again, if anyone thinks otherwise or has concerns about what's written about their character, I invite discussion so we can try and resolve those worries.

[PrlUnicorn]

This reminds me of what a lady I knew would say before she lowered the boom. "Well, I don't mean nothing bad by this but did you hear" She would then go and demolish someone's reputation, etc. She honestly felt by putting in that disclaimer she could say or do anything she wanted.

Truly malice wears a smile.

Make of this what you will.

Make of this what you will.

It is a sad state of affairs when the player of a sports writer feels the need to clarify that s/he is not his/her character. Sports writers write a mix of facts, trash talk, and opinion; that's what they get paid to do.

I think it's nice of Colin's player to post that statement, but it shouldn't be necessary. Unless one is very new to the forum, we, as roleplayers, should know the difference between in and out of character actions and behavior.

Sneggle, you're offering a bad example since it's quite clear that woman's intent was to trash someone. It's much like when someone says, "No offense, but" or "I'm sorry, but," and proceeds to offend others or be totally unapologetic.
---------------------------------------------
The only thing I saw in his articles that gave me pause was the misspelling of one of my character's names. That could be IC, could be OOC. I dropped a PM in case it's the latter. But, hey, if it stays up, it gives my characters a reason to poke fun at the sports writer for not getting his facts right.

[Rix Favre]

For you old TDL players, you might remember Bick Nakay. Colin's stuff reminds me of that, and I collaborated on writing Bick Nakay articles with someone else I won't name unless he wants to say so as well.

The goal was never to hurt feelings, but to make people laugh. We made fun of characters, including our own, and wanted to include everyone because everyone likes having their character written about, right? There was no malice and we were probably harder on our own characters than anyone else, and a lot of times we gave praise to characters too.

There was a time when someone contacted us and said he was offended by a joke, so we changed it. They contacted us directly, and weren't passive aggressive on it.

I don't have any characters in Hydra, but I would love seeing them mentioned for good or bad.

But if you don't like that, then it's better to speak up directly and not be passive-aggressive.