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Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 3:36 am — Post subject:
I've added my own emphasis to the following quotes from earlier in this thread as a way to get my meaning across. I'm also not able to go back and find out who said which quote without losing this whole huge post. And even though it is pretty lengthy and wordy, I think the subject matter is important enough to make that worth-while.
Most (if not all) of you have heard my rantings about Life Levels, and about the Guild of Peasants, which uses that Life Level System as its primary means to accomplish its purposes. If you haven't, then visit www.GoPeasants.blogspot.com to read up about all of that. Every single one of the problems that inspired the quotes above could have been solved, could have even been avoided, if people were willing to raise their Life Level (their method of operation, that which drives them to make the choices they make) to something better. Tanshin, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said "People are too stuck up on their own ideas to even try other peoples' suggestions." Life Level 1 is always about self-service, only thinking about oneself to the exclusion of all others. In essence, accusing Cyan of only being in it for the money as accusing them of operating in Life Level 1 ways! On the other hand, considering others' ideas and desires, even for shallow, flighty reasons, as long as such reasons are sincere and selfless, is Life Level 2 (or LL2, and I'll use "LL" for most of the time from now on). Though LL2 is by no means either the highest Life Level or high enough to make Uru a place we can all be proud of, if more people had operated like that it sure would have made this whole "BOMB" experience much more bearable.
The real reason for D'ni's fall (and the fall of any group of people in Real Life) is essentially rampant LL1. Way too many of us wanted our ideas heard but wouldn't give anyone else's ideas a single thought! Things like that destroy groups of any size by offending and distancing people from each other. Someone (I forget who) mentioned in the chat that it was groups of people working together who discovered the solution to the Pod Ages (as well as many other Ages), something that I think would require a lot of LL4 in the members of the groups. But, this person asked, why couldn't our group today work together the way we had before? From what I could tell, it was because far too many people wanted to have the glory of being the one who solved the puzzle -- far too many were being driven by LL1-ish pride! If everyone had been like that, then I sincerely doubt the puzzle would be solved even now.
But fortunately not everyone was like that! If I saw everything correctly, those who were quietly dedicating time and energy to solving the puzzle were also steering clear of putting other peoples' ideas down just for the sake of not looking as bad. If they disagreed with a theory, they had a simple explanation why, though most of the time they were constantly reaching out, trying to glean any information or ideas they could from everyone else in the group. Naturally, such LL4 Peasants (Peasants because they knew they weren't any more important than anyone else) figured it out and we averted what would have been a terrible crisis (OOC: Ok, ok, I know that if it hadn't been figured out, the worst that would be happening right now is some bickering and a lot of headaches, but still...). For those people, this was like the good 'ol days of Uru, again!
Imagine, though, if this had been real. Imagine you really found yourself in a real crisis, with a bomb ticking down from 1000 and a strange code as one of your only clues to stopping it from killing hundreds if not thousands of people. It would matter little whether you'd be able to figure it out if everyone's LL1-ish pride got in the way of even looking at the code for more than 2 seconds. It reminds me of the scene with the two boats at the end of the second of the new Batman movies, The Dark Knight. (In case you haven't seen it, there are Dark Knight spoilers ahead!) In that "Social Experiment" (and yes, this was a type of social experiment today, too), the test-subjects made LL4-ish decisions and totally PWNed the Joker at his own game! (Ok, Dark Knight spoilers are done!) But people who operate in the lower Life Levels will end up destroying each other in Real Life, though it usually doesn't go past arguments and insults in settings like Uru -- which is still enough to keep me (and I think others) far away. I personally don't think new visitors to the Cavern would be turned off by BOMB's count-down nearly as much as the sight of grown-up children fighting all around it about who's right and who's wrong.
The Guild of Peasants wants to help everyone get back to how it was in "the old days of Uru" so things like this don't happen again. Raising your own Life Level won't necessarily stop "BOMBs" of various sorts from popping up in your life, but it will make you more capable of handling such tough times. And it'll make communities in Uru and Real Life all the more enjoyable for everyone, which is what we want, right?
Shorah,
White Knight
I personally gave up on this because of some of the crap that was flying around in the chat.
URU is about helping people, which right now is not going on. People are too stuck up on their own ideas to even try other peoples' suggestions. And when somebody keeps trying to suggest something, they shove it down and tell you you're an idiot and to shut up. I've had enough with this to be completely honest.
Something tells me that by the end of all this most if not all of the people involved will have said something they're going to regret.
This could have been a good idea.. but people are just plain rude. I cant even bear to be in the cavern right now and I have never felt that way before
Overall the experience was very fun. I thought about giving up when it turned into a big argument in the stairs near the ferry, in which some people were saying stupid stuff about Cyan only wanting to make money, I didn't follow the conversation anyway. But I stayed there and I'm proud to be part of the group who found the solution.
Most (if not all) of you have heard my rantings about Life Levels, and about the Guild of Peasants, which uses that Life Level System as its primary means to accomplish its purposes. If you haven't, then visit www.GoPeasants.blogspot.com to read up about all of that. Every single one of the problems that inspired the quotes above could have been solved, could have even been avoided, if people were willing to raise their Life Level (their method of operation, that which drives them to make the choices they make) to something better. Tanshin, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said "People are too stuck up on their own ideas to even try other peoples' suggestions." Life Level 1 is always about self-service, only thinking about oneself to the exclusion of all others. In essence, accusing Cyan of only being in it for the money as accusing them of operating in Life Level 1 ways! On the other hand, considering others' ideas and desires, even for shallow, flighty reasons, as long as such reasons are sincere and selfless, is Life Level 2 (or LL2, and I'll use "LL" for most of the time from now on). Though LL2 is by no means either the highest Life Level or high enough to make Uru a place we can all be proud of, if more people had operated like that it sure would have made this whole "BOMB" experience much more bearable.
The real reason for D'ni's fall (and the fall of any group of people in Real Life) is essentially rampant LL1. Way too many of us wanted our ideas heard but wouldn't give anyone else's ideas a single thought! Things like that destroy groups of any size by offending and distancing people from each other. Someone (I forget who) mentioned in the chat that it was groups of people working together who discovered the solution to the Pod Ages (as well as many other Ages), something that I think would require a lot of LL4 in the members of the groups. But, this person asked, why couldn't our group today work together the way we had before? From what I could tell, it was because far too many people wanted to have the glory of being the one who solved the puzzle -- far too many were being driven by LL1-ish pride! If everyone had been like that, then I sincerely doubt the puzzle would be solved even now.
But fortunately not everyone was like that! If I saw everything correctly, those who were quietly dedicating time and energy to solving the puzzle were also steering clear of putting other peoples' ideas down just for the sake of not looking as bad. If they disagreed with a theory, they had a simple explanation why, though most of the time they were constantly reaching out, trying to glean any information or ideas they could from everyone else in the group. Naturally, such LL4 Peasants (Peasants because they knew they weren't any more important than anyone else) figured it out and we averted what would have been a terrible crisis (OOC: Ok, ok, I know that if it hadn't been figured out, the worst that would be happening right now is some bickering and a lot of headaches, but still...). For those people, this was like the good 'ol days of Uru, again!
Imagine, though, if this had been real. Imagine you really found yourself in a real crisis, with a bomb ticking down from 1000 and a strange code as one of your only clues to stopping it from killing hundreds if not thousands of people. It would matter little whether you'd be able to figure it out if everyone's LL1-ish pride got in the way of even looking at the code for more than 2 seconds. It reminds me of the scene with the two boats at the end of the second of the new Batman movies, The Dark Knight. (In case you haven't seen it, there are Dark Knight spoilers ahead!) In that "Social Experiment" (and yes, this was a type of social experiment today, too), the test-subjects made LL4-ish decisions and totally PWNed the Joker at his own game! (Ok, Dark Knight spoilers are done!) But people who operate in the lower Life Levels will end up destroying each other in Real Life, though it usually doesn't go past arguments and insults in settings like Uru -- which is still enough to keep me (and I think others) far away. I personally don't think new visitors to the Cavern would be turned off by BOMB's count-down nearly as much as the sight of grown-up children fighting all around it about who's right and who's wrong.
The Guild of Peasants wants to help everyone get back to how it was in "the old days of Uru" so things like this don't happen again. Raising your own Life Level won't necessarily stop "BOMBs" of various sorts from popping up in your life, but it will make you more capable of handling such tough times. And it'll make communities in Uru and Real Life all the more enjoyable for everyone, which is what we want, right?
Shorah,
White Knight
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Join us in making sure we don't repeat D'ni's mistakes!
www.GoPeasants.blogspot.com
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