You know, whats ironic about our virtual lives!?

Ummm.. right.. oO seriously, take it like a man.

TO EVERYONE ELSE: If you have any comments along the lines of accusing the OP of having issues.... don't bother. You all have the same issue of being brainwashed zombie drones with a major bugbear against independant thought. Your opinions on THIS topic in particular are worthless.
Thanks.

TO LAWNMOWER:
I wouldn't say you have as many issues as most of these people... though you could stand to realise a few things.
You have concluded that your own physical existence is finite, futile and pointless. It is good that you have realised this.
The problem is that you are still looking for the concept of eternity... that you are still seeking perfection.
Comrade.... Eternity and Perfection don't exist. Everything is finite and is eventually recycled. The very concept of form is a brief one, and at best just a mote of the greater concept of change.

"You"... as such... don't exist as an entity. You are a brief and accidental collision of energy... ever moving, though very slowly to the eyes of a mortal observer... Your virtual avatar is the same: just a collision of energy.
You can't hold to that. The energy must inevitably move on.... and the only real way to be truly content with existence is to accept that.

Don't fret about "importance" or "purpose" for these things are human fallacies... illusion to clutter what is otherwise comparitively simple existence. The only "purpose" you have in life is to do whatever you do and eventually dissipate like everything else.

As Aleister Crowley put it: "Do what thou wilst shalt be the whole of the law"...



~ SotiCoto
(Hui-Qu'ist)

You're still alive, aren't you? With roof over your head, food, bed to sleep in. Elsewhere in the world some people ain't so lucky and here you are QQing about a game. So what if you're big bone, weak or ugly, there're lot of ways to better yourself.

You know what? Forget about it. To late for you I guess.

And would you condemn the 3rd world people for QQing about THEIR game?
Yes... I mean "life".

Funny thing is... often they aren't QQing at all. Amazingly enough, some people are quite content to be what we in the first world would call "impoverished". For that matter I doubt the average chimpanzee laments the lack of television / clothes / roof in its life.

So ask yourself this: who is suffering more?
The people who are QQing are generally those who have something to QQ about. It is all in the mind.

^I was talking about the OP, nothing to do with you. I know you have a unique way of living and I respect that. The OP, on the other hand is just annoying.

I be postin' in this here thread!

At least the OP shows independent thought and reflection even though I do not agree with his observations.

As usual, the mob rushes in to ridicule his alternate point of view and bludgeon him back into conformity. Typical. Mob, being the majority does not guarantee that you are right or superior in any way. Who needs help, the normal sheep or the one that observes he's living amongst a herd?

If you want some divine insight, it would probably be 'Do not start religious discussion right after a mod posts'.

Come on now people.

I think it's a novel idea and is interesting to think about,

and the OP doesn't need any psychological help or some kind of idealogical/religious/spiritual change. He's just a guy who's learning about life and who loves video games, like all of us!

He associates that aspect strongly with himself, and if it's what he wants to use to leave his mark on this world then I say more power to ya!


Focker out!

Oh this reminds me of a slutty girl saying "yea I'm a slut but so what, every girl is, just that some like me admit it".


When someone (like you) has a personality problem he/she doesn't want to deal with, the most easy thing to say is "everyone else has it so who it's the right or at least neutral thing".

And of course, what fits in is Crowley. What other rolemodel would you manage to find.

Are you also going to quote LaVey and Nietzche?

"Live for the moments you are granted, exist in harmony with others, and have a damn good time doing it. That's all we mortals can do."

Congrats

Keep on truckin...............

Oh man, you owe me a screen wipe, I laughed so hard my coffee ended up on my screen. Oh...you were serious? Do me a favor...it does NOT show independent thought and 'reflection' that your virtual avatar is more important then reality.

The sheep who thinks he's a dog, thats the one that needs help. This sheep thinks he's a dog, the rest of us do not attach any real significance to pixels on a screen...well, not the well adjusted ones anyway.

MMO addicts and people who prefer to flee reality are not well adjusted nor are they particularly observant, they're hiding from the real world for which they are, or think they are, ill equipped.
These people need professional help, not being told how special they are and how great it is they're standing out from the crowd.

Since everyone is quoting I'll do it too with appropriate quotes

---

"All worldly pursuits have but the one unavoidable end, which is sorrow: acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births, in death. Knowing this, one should, from the very first, renounce acquisition and heaping up, and building, and meeting; and faithful to the commands of an eminent guru, set about realizing the Truth (which has no birth or death)."

(c) Milarepa, Tibetan yogi

---

"Uncertain is the life of man as raindrops on a lotus leaf. Know that the whole world remains a prey to disease, ego and grief."

"Childhood is lost in play. Youth is lost by attachment to woman. Old age passes away by thinking over many past things. Alas! hardly is there anyone who yearns to be lost in Parabrahman."

"Daylight and darkness, dusk and dawn, winter and springtime come and go. Time plays and life ebbs away. But the storm of desire never leaves."

(c) Sankaracharya (at age 15) - Bhaja Govindam

---


"You are said to be wise in these matters, Yama," said the one who had
been called Rild and Sugata. "You are said to be a god, whose kingdom
is death and whose knowledge extends beyond the ken of mortals. I
would question you, therefore, while we are standing idle."

Yama did not smile his mocking smile, as he had to all his opponent's
previous statements. This one had a touch of ritual about it.

"What is it that you wish to know? I grant you the death-boon of a question."

Then, in the ancient words of the Katha Upanishad, the one who had
been called Rild and Sugata chanted:

"'There is doubt concerning a man when he is dead. Some say he still
exists. Others say he does not. This thing I should like to know,
taught by you.' "

Yama replied with the ancient words, "'On this subject even the gods
have their doubts. It is not easy to understand, for the nature of the
atman is a subtle thing. Ask me another question. Release me from this
boon!'"

"'Forgive me if it is foremost in my mind, oh Death, but another
teacher such as yourself cannot be found, and surely there is no other
boon which I crave more at this moment.'"

"'Keep your life and go your way,'" said Yama, plunging his blade
again into his sash. "'I release you from your doom. Choose sons and
grandsons; choose elephants, horses, herds of cattle and gold. Choose
any other boon - fair maidens, chariots, musical instruments. I shall
give them unto you and they shall wait upon you. But ask me not of
death.'"

"'Oh Death,' " sang the other, "'these endure only till tomorrow. Keep
your maidens, horses, dances and songs for yourself. No boon will I
accept but the one which I have asked - tell me, oh Death, of that
which lies beyond life, of which men and the gods have their doubts.'"

(c) Zelazny - Lord of Light

I don't have a personality problem; I am gifted with independance from psychological social reliance.
To put it more simply: Unlike most people, I couldn't care less if I don't fit in or am "socially inacceptable".

And your comparison is so totally flawed it is backwards: Everyone having a trait doesn't make it right, but rather makes it common, unoriginal and not worth repeating.


Was that some sort of criticism?
If it was then it flies right by me... as I have utmost respect for the works of all three people mentioned there.
Doesn't mean I feel inclined to give any more quotes. Overcitation demonstrates a lack of creative thinking ability.



Forcing people to live their life the same way you live yours isn't "help"; it is small-scale fascism.



When Chuang Tzu was going to Ch' u he saw by the roadside a skull, clean and bare, but with every bone in its place. Touching it gently with his chariot-whip he bent over it and asked it saying, "Sir, was it some insatiable ambition that drove you to transgress the law and brought you to this? Was it the fall of a kingdom, the blow of an executioner's axe that brought you to this? Or had you done some shameful deed and could not face the reproaches of father and mother, of wife and child, and so were brought to this? Was it hunger and cold that brought you to this, or was it that the springs and autumns of your span had in due course carried you to this?"

Having thus addressed the skull, he put it under his head as a pillow and went to sleep. At midnight the skull appeared to him in a dream and said to him, "All that you said to me-- your glib, commonplace chatter-- is just what I should expect from a live man, showing as it does in every phrase a mind hampered by trammels from which we dead are entirely free. Would you like to hear a word or two about the dead?"

"I certainly would," said Chuang Tzu.

"Among the dead," said the skull, "none is king, none is subject, there is no division of the seasons; for us the whole world is spring, the whole world is autumn. No monarch on his throne has joy greater than ours."

Chuang Tzu did not believe this. "Suppose," he said, "I could get the Clerk of Destinies to make your frame anew, to clothe your bones once more with flesh and skin, send you back to father and mother, wife and child, friends and home, I do not think you would refuse."

A deep frown furrowed the skeleton's brow. "How can you imagine," it asked, "that I would cast away joy greater than that of a king on his throne, only to go back again to the toils of the living world?"

~ Zhuangzi.

I know you have the respect for all of them once I saw you have respect for one of em. They are alike, and they share your points of view.

Just so that others know what we are talking about here; LaVey is satanist, Crowley was into magick and Nietzche had a nervous breakdown in the end. All of them have common life philosophy just expressed in a slightly different form.


ps: I don't mind that these are your rolemodels, it's your personal choice. I just want to make it clear what kind of rolemodels they are.

i lol'd irl prty dng hurd. lyk ttly rofltastic d00d.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lawnmower why cant guild wars 1?

The game needs a new engine so that Gaile can conga even more hardcore. Since reworking the engine of Guild Wars would be too much of a hassle for ArenaNet, they decided to kill off GW(1) and make way for GW2, which will sport a superior conga engine specifically for the purpose of dance parties that never, ever end.

God help us all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Servant of Kali All of them have common life philosophy just expressed in a slightly different form.

dey is crazy nutz? o ok. dats wut i needid 2 no, thx.

MY LIFE
Henri Michaux

You're going someplace without me, my life.
You're rolling away.
And I'm still waiting to make my move.
You've taken the battle somewhere
Abandoning me on the way.
I never followed, I stay.
Where you are leading me, I can't plainly see.
The very little that I want, you never bring to me.
Because of this emptiness, I want
So many things, almost the infinite ...
Because of this emptiness, that you never fill.

(translated by Valerie Smith and James Bushnik)



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Michaux

PS/ A link to Henri Michaux - Quotes ==>
http://www.littlebluelight.com/lblph...es.php?ikey=19

can we talk about how mesmers suck or something

this thread doesn't feel like it's about guild wars at all anymore

"...this thread doesn't feel like it's about guild wars at all anymore..."

There is always a CENSOR not faraway, right next to you

If escaping reality gives you enjoyment or satisfaction, good for you, but remember that your actions have consequences. To do something in excess at the expense of what is good for you is wasting your life. You have one chance at it.

Rolemodels?
Not quite.
Nietzsche was against Nihilism... and in many respects I am effectively a Nihilist. As for the breakdown, I don't think Adolf Hitler taking your discoveries out of context and using them to justify genocide would really work well with most people.
Crowley had "magic spirit-summoning battles" with rivals, which makes me lol. Not my cup of tea really. My father was ALL about him though.
LaVey is along similar enough lines to the others, and I swear he named his beliefs "Satanism" just to troll the christians. Funny... but not quite right.

I'd give them all a 7/10 maybe...

But my real Role-Model was Zhuangzi... as far as I'm concerned.
0ld-sk00l Taoist .... but with a sarcastic and often downright sceptical and even Nihilistic streak.
Well.... him and Steve Irwin... but poor Steve-O got the Sting-Ray treatment. I already pledged that I'd die by Giant Anteater aggro; nothing aquatic.

"...Nietzsche was against Nihilism... and in many respects I am effectively a Nihilist. As for the breakdown, I don't think Adolf Hitler taking your discoveries out of context and using them to justify genocide would really work well with most people...."

The a/m sentence is ONE MORE perfect confirmation of a very SERIOUS scientific study (check by yourself) which says that in every forum on the net, where internauts debate about a topic, at a certain moment an argument arises with the word hitler.

Weird isnt it? its not the first time I notice it btw......

He doesnt have to live his life 'my way', he needs to live life.

Ok after reading this post I will 10000000% say that you are seriously RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOED in the head and need to go seek help immediately. It's a game. nothing more, nothing less. No matter what you do in this game, it will in absolute NO WAY effect your real life in any way. No one at your job, in your family, or your friends could honestly give two flying shits about what you can do in a virtual world. Your character is not there to "Memorialize" you if you should die tomorrow. Quite frankly, outside of your family and close friends, no one would even really care.

Lawnmower: you have a problem.

This thread is exactly why people think MMO's are unhealthy and damage kids.

Forward this to some anti-game nazi, and it would make the news.

the game does require you to be a lifeless nerd to get armor, weapons and lets not even go into what it takes to get some tittles (such as legendary defender of ascalon), this is a fact and those who accept this fact shouldnt be referred to as nazis, the comparison is digusting. mmo rpgs are obviously addictive and status oriented.

however this guy does have issues and seems to have tied the existence of his soul to beeing able to transfer his character into gw2. my advice is get out more, get a girl friend and discover real life. work on your self esteem try working at something you truely love, reinvent yourself. seriously i dont think anyone should have the image you have of yourself, seek therapy maybe not because your crazy but to work on your confidence in real life.

Funny the OP seems to have abandoned his thread lol

Ever heard the phrase '40 year old virgin?'

Seriously, get out more and enjoy real life.

"It's just a game" is utter BS when talking about an MMO like Guild Wars

It's disappointing that guru has come to what it is now. It's all relative to the state of guild wars. When GW2 nears release, the new elite forum will rise, and years from then, it too will become decrepit, just as guru has.

The virtual being is just another world, a unlimitedly vast 2-D world. Take virtual existence into consideration. Learn to adapt to what the world has become.

(sorry for spilling my brains in such random fashion)

Those that agree with the OP are most likely in their teens, with little to no life experience, and little to no social interaction.

Everything in the universe is code, is it not? We may all be playing the ultimate "game" right now. The one that counts. As they say, "truth is stranger than fiction", and the more science discovers, the stranger it gets.

Death? Extinction? As you wish. I place my bets on the Programmer and was planning on leveling up myself.

Maybe it's my english that makes me unable to get my messege across.

This might be a suicide to start out with but yes you are right in some of your observations(all of you) . Some facts about me:

1)Yes I am an un-educated(quit high scool)
2)Yes I dont have girlfriend. Yes I am a virgin.
3)Yes I live at home
4)Yes I am young(20)
5)Yes I don't have any RL friends
6)I am an atheist, and I have not found comfort in religion, helping others.
7)I have seen a psychiatrist twice. But that was over eating issues. And I got these 20 mg pills I took every day... they where anti-depressive. the psychiatrist told me that it was pills to make me be able to give me more self control.
My life got crappy when I saw him. Suddenly I started feeling sick. I started actually acting like a sick person.
When I stopped, I started working out and lost 40 pounds in a couple of months, due to some workout and eating healthy. I eventually have gained it all back, and I am sloppy and fat and stuff. But im happy enough, I think.


But I think that's as far as it goes. Things "I" don't think I am not:

1)I am not emo. I dont cut myself. I dont wear tight jeans. I dont wear mascara. I dont listen to My Chemical Romance, or Fall Out Boy. I dont hate life. I do think there is no point to it tho. I dont think it serves a purpose.

2)Im not an MMO addict. Total playtime in GW: 350 hours in the 18 months I have had it. And that was mostly deleting my characters, using the same name and going back to make my character more visual appealing.

____________

GW might ultimately, be for me a dress up game. A virtual doll experience. I dont even socialise alot. I dont hang around in the game and chat all day. I just like to run around with my character from time to time.

And that's it.
I am not ashamed of it.
I don't see it. I don't see why having a girlfriend, getting kids, getting the goddam dog, volvo and house with the backyard and the nice little postal box outside the house next to the white fence.

Don't take life so seriously. You are not gonna survive it anyway <- So why, not let it just revolve around a game? Or partially in my case? Its not dominating my life. its just a satisfaction.



I used to be very selfaware. I did what others did, and I was embarrased about my weight, about my thoughts and about me doing different stuff from other people.
Im beginning to grow away from that, I think. Im slowely beginning to see my alternative ways of thinking as a positive thing.

I like the story about the guy who first said the earth was round. "HIRACY" they shouted, and hanged he was.
I feel like that sometimes. I feel like that einstein who got kicked out of school, because no one understood that people can be intellegent, interesting and cool in so many different ways.

I dont see why I have issues. Maybe it's a dream, and granted it's a dream or desire that I have some problems with talking with family about.

At one point I figured it was like being a child. In a way I feel the attachment to the character I have in GW, is the same kind of attachment I had to my favorite action figure when I was 8 years old! It looks cool, he does cool looking things, not possible or realistic to do in real life, and the mythology and universe that survives this character is just cool, but unrealistic.


On the other hand, maybe it's good that there are people like me, who think like I do.

Maybe I sound depressed, but I dont feel like it. I like my own company, I laugh every day, when browsing youtube and reading about games, movies and music, which are my interests.

I work in a school.. in an elementry school(6-7 years old) as a substitude teacher(or just a guy who hangs around when the kids are having fun after school). I feel pretty good about this part time job. I like to think that I am decent at it.


This was not supposed to be a thread about me, but about my dissapointments with GW2.


It's not that I think GW2 won't be better than GW1, because I think thats very possible, since GW1 was not to good in all areas(like story...), and its not really about(despite what I said before) the hours I invested into the character.

Its more along the lines that.. well it's easier to just have GW. Its here already. Im not paying a fee. my "virtual me" is already created and looks the way I want him too. What if GW2 will only have faces/hairstyles I hate? I can go insane over thinking about all these little things... I rerolled my character playing him for 150 hours because I didnt liked the hairstyle and thought the face had a little hitler mustache, which I dont have in RL.


Some of you said some things that have made me think. Particularly about that thing about the universe would seize to be there. that all stars will die.

And that was my argument from the beginning. having kids is pointless because they will die. and their grandchildren will eventually die. and everyone will die until we all die. but if the universe itself ends.

All this makes me envious on religious people. It has to be such a nice pillow feeling. To be able to believe that there is a place for someone in heaven. I wish I could believe that.


In RL I already feel old. I am 20 years old. physically wise its just gonna go downhill from here. the 18 year olds will probably be stronger than me now. my body is decaying. life is starting to be more about bills and ambitions and different schools of thought that I have, is being killed by man's ideology of what life is about - be a drone in drone city, worship drone gods, do repetitive work to make drone currency - to be a drone consumer and buy Ikea furniture to make the drone economy stable, and make sure that drone world continues forever, so we all can live in our little pond of what life is about.

While this might sound insane, sometimes I wonder if a child soldier in Sudan is feeling more alive and with a bigger sense of purpose, when he is fighting for his tribe, and against/or with the regimes in the wars in his country, than the average westeren man.

Perhaps we where just not supposed to be part of civlization. Perhaps it would really be better to fight to the death with sword in hand?

That's what I dont understand about these suggestions.. "dont screw it up". Am I supposed to try and use hypnosis to make this world.. this world that has been shaped by the last few generations, the reason that I want to live?


I am afraid. Thats what I think my biggest problem is. I am afraid of becoming old and dependant on others. I think thats what I am trying to escape in GW. the hope that my character and the world wouldnt age. that my character wouldnt gain wrinkles.
I dont like the idea of trying to make myself good looking and attractive, when I am eventually going to get old and die very soon. I know that people will tell me to stop worrying and just enjoy life for what it is now, but I think thats just another way of saying: "hey lets supress bad thoughts. lets watch Lost or play counter-strike and pretend we will be good looking and strong forever".


When I go into a bus and see old people, I see people who lost the spark of life a long time ago. they often smell... like disease and decay. And they serve no purpose. As inhumane and cynical as it sounds, they only cost the world money and space on the retirement homes, which starving children in africa would have better use for.
and then they use their last 10-15 years of their lives watching jepordy, getting medicated and diaper changed before its finally over and they can get eaten by maggots in the dirt.

I might be young, naive... But from what I can gather from older people - older people who never made it big, got rich, got their dreams forfilled and just settled with a normal no-goody non-memorable non-epic life... Is that their dreams was just lost as the harsh realities of life went on.


So thats it. I have made threads about it before. why buy and play GWEN.. why bother playing GW anymore when it was all for nothing? when the time.. that cant get returned to you, was wasted on character development that would relatively soon get smashed away.

And thats the irony. Hench my title.

Because thats exactly my thoughts about life aswell. Why live life, when life will end? why have children, when they will die after a 100 years, why waste your life with bars set by the average sheep-in the pack man.


But in a way... perhaps what I was really trying to ask with this thread: tell me the reason to live. tell me the reason to go up in the morning and do stuff i dont want or think is time consuming and boring. why live if we will die. I cant get this out of my head. None can give an satisfying answer.

Why clean your house when it will be unclean, why upgrade your computer when it will get outdated, why buy the latest WoW expansion when they will just make another one and make you grind 10 more levels again...


WHY? Is why the problem? Is asking the real problem?

Are you cool? If not, why the elitist type? Maybe you think you are cool, but care so much about what everyone thinks that you make sure they know just how cool you are.

Anyone can blurt names and judge 7/10 style. The really smart ones know they are talking between the lines and the really cool ones know what they are saying (about themselves).


It's like Goethe said...

Thing is, I have no problem with the way the OP plays the game to "escape reality," I'm fine with that. I mean, what else are games made for? They're designed to offer entertainment, which is designed to allow us an escape from the stresses and turmoil of everyday life. If someone finds that said game is the best and only escape, and loves it to the point that they almost make it their life, well, to each their own.

The point I am arguing, and which I think is the most mentally unhealthy part, is the fact that [lawnmower] claims to have bet on the game retaining a piece of him should he perish. That is unhealthy. That is an acceptance of your own mortality based entirely on the assumption that you will be immortalized in a video game. That is the dialog of someone contemplating ending their life, and finding rationale behind it.

Whether [lawnmower] is joking or not - it's not something to joke about. The direction this thread has gone only seeks to assist that mentality (people only agreeing and disagreeing with "making GW his life"). Look, the only thing [lawnmower] needs to know is how limited and fragile life is - and enjoy it while you can. You bring religion into it, and you bring about as much false hope as immortality in a video game.

There is no immortality. There is no "second life" (despite what Linden wants you to believe). This is all you got - make the best of it. If playing a video game is your way of making the best of it, then so be it, have fun.

EDIT: Just saw your post, [lawnmower], so why live? I'll tell you - because you were given the opportunity to. Why not? Not to throw around quotes, but "It's about the journey, not the destination." Go through life not thinking that one day, it will be all for naught, but rather who the hell cares - you care. Honestly, you're not seeking to impress anyone, right? Then why should it matter if anything you do has any merit or effect on anything? It doesn't. So do everything for yourself - be selfish. Do what you enjoy, and enjoy every minute of it.

Lucky land of Oz to have someone like you there. That's exactly what the OP needs.

hmmm first of all revolving your life around a game is not living life its staring at a monitor, your simply sitting there doing nothing to benefit anything. Video games are there for excitement and fun not something you want to worship and do all the time. Yes you said you only had like 350 hours but you also mentioned no friends or anything. You are on anti-depressents because you dont attempt to go out in the real world and try and have fun! Lose weight, go out, make friends and enjoy life! You dont need drugs to make you happy and undepressed you need to get more excitement in your life and not feel so bad for yourself. You mentioned you are an atheist, well let me quote the bible for you:

As soon as I read your posts I thought of this part of the bible because it really is in sync with you. Believe in God, you know he is always there with you and he helps you gain confidence. Look forward to a heaven and work for a heaven and you will have something to live for. With God there is a reason to lose weight and go out and live life once again. Pray because your prayers will be answered and I guarantee you will become a happier person.

Yeah.

A thing that caught my eye in oyur post; "it's about the journey, not the distination" <- Was the oppesite of this, not why we wanted to play GW in the first place?

"it's about the journey, not the destination" is what they are arguing about the grind in MMOs like WoW. And people in GW where like ... "the game only begins at lvl 20. it begins where other games ends"!

You should read The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. Also, try not to sound so crazy.

I dont see how a GW character immortalizes a piece of you? do you really think that in 50 years the gw servers still exist and you character will be there?

The only thing that makes you live on forever is making children and pass on your DNA in them..



Try to get some self esteem! and confidence!
Take the one thing you like about yourself and utilize it! And go do what you like the most or go strive to get what you like the most! be it loose weight or get real life friends! When there is a will there is a way!!!