Dual Wield: Normality

Yes, I've been busy with works and games, there are several comeback I want to write about including the f2p conversion of RIFT (which happens like a loooooooong time ago), patch 5.3 of WoW's Escalation (while now 5.4 is hovering above), several old beta like FFXIV (i think I'll write it when I finished OB), and the continuity of Guild Wars 2 short story updates (which I missed like twenty of them, umm no, it was more like six) :D

but for now: I want to talk about the other world, again

No, not this one

I met a couple of my homies several days ago (yes, I still used that term for my non MMO player friends). One of our topic was branching, it was about our childhood friend, a really close one, we used to hang out of our youth until a year ago and then he abruptly disappeared, not really gone, but our contacts have been... disconnected, usually revolves around works and projects until I saw 'uncommon' act from him on his social media account statuses, occasionally leading and deliberately affiliated to some movement and party-like organization, not to mention some hormones....

Not to say on a big day of one of our friend there are no response from him and on his own big day he never said a word while his social media statuses are more vague than ever.

I had my share of youthful angst, hikikomori, and other terms of closing myself from the (real) world, I had my days of game and stuff addictions, but even in that time I never left my 'human terms'. Since gaming was never and won't be a long time accepted as a hobby on my country I'm sill considered a nerd, childish, or just plain weird and the least of them:'not normal', and I accepted that

And there we are, me and my homies (if you don't want to see this term again you can close your eyes and make more appropriate term) :P. Just talk about life and other lives, and we came to "Why he's not here with us?"

I replied: "Let's picture this: It is us, now, on a fancy (cheap) restaurant talking about stuffs, I'm talking with your wife, and playing toy car with your kids, I came onall of your big day, we catch up stories and work plans, and all this while there are no words from him? He deliberately dumped us and cut off all contacts, while there are lots of means when he wants to be here or even join the conversations. And you said I was the weird - not normal closet-basement online gamer?"

Of course he said yes and we get a good laugh together.

So let me tell you: Game doesn't change people, it doesn't make people weird and cut off from the real world, MMO doesn't, broken heart doesn't, politics are :)

Just look at Ellen Kiel, look at what cutthroat politics have done to her, CURSE YOU ANET!!!

Dual Wield: (Ir)Rationality

NOTE: Dual wield is solely my opinion, not my guild, not my parents, girlfriend (don't have one, anyway), not anyone, Sometimes I used quotes, sometimes I don't, it was simply the just cause of my trolling =))

I found myself as a non-grasper, wasn't quite able to distinguish something for it's literal meaning and tends to dig in order to find the meaning of that something to it's origin, like trying to determined who owns a dog from just looking at the dog, apparently I also quite bad at doing that since my mind wanders off a lot =))

This writing was begun when I found that from the initial 150-ish local gamer who already pre-purchased Guild Wars 2 are all males, for some reason I can't quite remember seeing 150 people gathered in a space and all of them are males (except in an army display), What happened here? I asked for opinion from them and apparently it was ended in vain (after 300 lines of opinions) since I can only found one valid answer and forced to accept the truth (local female gamer is a myth) :P :P :P

So I changed the question, and asked different circles of my friends "are you a gamer?" of course the answer is no, the strange thing is: When they're asked if they will come in an official game convention (like a local E3 or game convention, they said they would go and play games, they don;t mind being called a gamer in those events)

The Stigma

My local community can accept cat lovers, skateboarders, even face tattoo and piercing as a hobby, apparently when they said game as a hobby, some of them won't admit it.

Why? Because gaming is a nerd hobby and a deep dark hole toward rejection of society

That's not true!! Oh Yeah? try putting MMO on your resume/CV and replace music I know you can't play drums

You won't do it, ah yeah I guess you understand my meaning.

In US, Europe, most gamer said gaming stopped being a stigma years ago when Blizzard propels World of Warcraft into important pop culture

Important Pop Culture there, not here

I say: In here, locally, people follow majority, apparently majority said the most important western pop culture in my country is Lady Gaga

So yeah, I reject society and a nerd, I also have zero social life *bleep* (puts a thick glasses)

The Sad Truth

Even by saying "game as a hobby" you will always still stuck in a second gear here, why? Because the majority doesn't play, and can't appreciate why colored pixel sticks you good in front of your screen. "Painting can appeal more people" said the 'rational' guy

Apparently hobby can't be measured by rationality, but it can be blocked by skepticism which hide behind rationality

The most popular sport on my country is Soccer (or Footbal in EU), I wonder why stay up night for 90 minutes just to see someone scored a goal? I can always read the results tomorrow, this probably will become a chaotic argument where the pro will said about the beauty of every kicks, the adrenaline, the heart pumping saves, and after those the anti will said: "Hey, guess what: it's s the same thing on <insert hobby here>

But when you said "hey that's what I saw in an MMO game" the argument will continue about thousand other things better other pixels on screen until it washed out down the drain a.k.a rationality wins

And FYI I like soccer, I just dont follow it that much, Collina still has to be the next UN secretary general though

Try look up in the local streetshops, is there even a cloth with your favorite game logo in there? No? That's how stigmatized you are

Rationality wins again

Dual Wield : Stay away from my sweatshop

NOTE: Dual wield is solely my opinion, not my guild, not my parents, girlfriend (don't have one, anyway), not anyone, Sometimes I used quotes, sometimes I don't, it was simply the just cause of my trolling =))

My birth country, Indonesia is a haven for gold sellers and all forms of MMO or internet exploitation, the community are total hell since it's dominated by 15 year old kids and adults who exploited them to sell or buy in game currency, or sweatshop runner, ruining the community for profit, the sole reason why I used to never played an international MMO with my fellow countrymen (or women, which is still a myth)

But thanks to the internet, like-minded people have it so much easy to gather, from a thread created by my friend Kurogakure, Guild Wars 2 probably will mark the beginning of a new fresh and clean gamers from my country (even if it's just a fraction of the total hell).

Of course, like-minded is still like-minded and most of the local old-school gamer (which I prefer to call sweatshop employees) can never understand the urgency the community needs to stay clean, playing the game like it should, to pass time, to meet people, to gather for an event, or something without REAL CASH involved (unless they have cash shops). A few weeks ago my friend come into a clash with a hardcore sweatshopper, the sweatshop listed some of the most ridiculuous argument like: "How the hell should I pay for a game, if I can gather gold from it and sell it for REAL CASH PROFIT???"

Me: "Selling currency is illegal"
Sweatshopper: "Other people in other country do it too"

From the two lines of argument most people, even non-gamer can understand it was going nowhere, when people break the accepted law, they probably won't have a problem break anything else

I played MMO as a hobby, one of my hobby actually, something that defined by online dictionary as something that I did in my leisure time, outside of work, My friend also describing something like: "A chef can play online games for a hobby while professional game tester can cook at his spare time"

It was a completely different matter.

Apparently gold seller can't understand that, if a game is not profitable anymore they will quickly packs, sell out, and move into another one, they're not gamers, never was

So a gamer and a  gold seller is not even on the same boat, one wants a community, while the other wants community to buy from them (and they don't even own the game)

Sweatshopper: "Why can't I? The big company's making millions, why can't I make my own dough?"

In my country pedestrian walks on street, because the side pavements is used for personal shops, the analogy fits

All they want to say is: "Stay away from my sweatshop"

So Arenanet, please make your game free of gold seller and exploiter okay?