ANST - Why am I playng this game?

[Joel Schumacher]

Trish McCurdy wrote:
> A Lady once waved to me when I was Queen the first time, and she was
> about 40 feet from me.  I had lost one contact earlier at the event,
> and was doing the event by seeing eye Lady-in-Waiting. (laugh, it is
> funny, except for this part)  I did not see the Lady, and she was
> devistated.  She thought that I had ignored her, and when I was told
> of this and went to find her, she was crying, saying I looked right
> at her, and ignored her, and looked displeased.

This disturbs me more than a group of peers letting their tempers
flair.  I agree that the public nature of this argument might make
the SCA look bad.

We do not know what prompted the confrontation.  I believe that every
one of us can lose their temper, given the right buttons are pushed,
peer or not.  Maybe the arguement was over something foolish, like
pride or ego.  Maybe it was prompted by something that, were the facts
known, many of us could sympathize with.  Perhaps not agree, but at
least sympathize with why it happened.

Should we be allowed to express our opinions, even in a heated manner?
I believe so.  I don't think it makes anyone any less of a peer for
expressing their opinion passionately.  But there are places and times
where you would not want to do this.  As is often done on this list,
take it private.  If I weren't in the SCA, seeing hot-tempered, blade-
carrying people would scare me right away from them.  'Don't want that
lunatic to get mad at me someday and maybe pull that knife'.

On the other hand, we have somebody who was crying because the queen
didn't wave to her?  That's what disturbs me.  Maybe there's more
involved between the two people than stated.  Maybe queen has nothing
to do with it.  But I'm seeing it as this person crying because "the
queen" didn't wave to her.

Why is it that a possible slight from pretend royalty should upset
someone enough to run off and cry?

It's just a game and people who cry about something so simple disturbs
me.  One of the reasons I'm playing this game is I thought it was
rational people who knew it was all a game.  (As opposed to some of
the people I saw make the game world their reality, when I was in
high-school).

-Karl von Augsburg
______________________________________________________________________
Joel Schumacher                    JCPenney Co. - UNIX Network Systems
jschumac at uns-dv1.jcpenney.com      12700 Park Central Pl   M/S 6021
(972) 591-7543                     Dallas TX  75251
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