The Pyroto Observer an entirely unofficial take on current events in the land of Pyroto

 
Broppsfar Battles
Recent events on Broppsfar have pitted number two wizard Laffsman against former number five wizard Geneva. When an anonymous source on Broppsfar came to TPO with the story, I responded that I thought Laffsman and Geneva were allies.
       "Well yes, so did Laffsman... until he asked Geneva to drain someone down into the negs, writing 'I want X destroyed, I want X drained. I want X down in the negs.' I believe X was NIM, but I'm not sure. Unfortunately, noone had ever tried to get Geneva to support them in anything like this before. And Geneva simply didn't want to kill off someone she didn't know because she was told to. I suspect that they had never had any kind of formal arrangement - people had simply promoted Geneva (68 levels worth between them) and then expected to her to return the favour by doing whatever she was asked.
       "Laffsman and his vassal Maglizard took offence at this. An argument between Maglizard and Geneva came about. Geneva has never been the most tactful of people, quite the reverse in fact, but she showed considerable restraint, despite repeated accusations of ingratitude and disloyalty. Then the argument was taken off-line, and things got messy. Geneva came back to the boards, and posted messages. Noone saw these messages because Maglizard hurled them. More messages, this time to the green board, and these again were hurled. More angry contacts, and personal e-mails from Laffsman, and then she leaves the game entirely. I may have the order wrong, but all the events listed above did happen.
       "Laffsman says he's 'tired' of the whole issue, and although he describes the action he requested of Geneva as a 'simple request' he's not willing to say what it was. Meanwhile, he and Maglizard are gently badmouthing her now she's gone. I think they were genuinely surprised that she left. I get the impression that her leaving was more due to personal stress than anything else, but I'm not sure.
       "I don't really have an axe to grind, except an anti-censorship one. I don't really know any of these people. Feel free to check out my posts to all involved in the past. Be sure also to check out Geneva's anti-war posting on the green band, since that sums up her tactless approach very well."
       Since this time, Geneva has reappeared on Broppsfar and posted several pacifistic messages in her defense which have not been hurled. LaffsMan has gone on record as saying that he had hoped Geneva would support his attacks, though he has said that verbal support would have been fine. Geneva has stated her intention to leave the game behind in favour of the real world.

The Valt is Opened
In other Broppsfar news, high-level Broppsfarians Myrkjarten and Leander have left the mountain to settle the nearby mountain of Valt Tivearki, which they have to themselves so far. As Valt Tivearki is not even visible from Pyroto Mountain, the new mountain will probably not receive any natives for a long time to come.

UPSman Takes Dent Down
In the first inter-mountain conflict of any duration, UPSman and Dent/Andreus battled it out between Paz Clafi and Pyroto Mountain.
       The conflict began when Dent arrived on Paz Clafi and proceeded to change his name and ignore concerned contacts from high-level wizards on that mountain. Worried about Dent's intentions and hoping to get his attention, Bricker and UPSman temporarily demoted Dent 25 times each. When Dent eventually moved back to Pyroto, Bricker visited in order to restore the levels he had taken from Dent, but UPSman did not.
       Offended by UPSman's failure to restore his levels, Dent spent thousands of manna draining UPSman, succesfully knocking him into negative on multiple occasions. Unfortunately for Dent, UPSman's many Paz Clafian allies found it simple to bail UPSman out of negative.
       In retaliation, UPSman demoted Dent many levels. Unfortunately for UPSman, Dent was equipped with a solid question list and lots of bonus manna, and found it no trouble to simply reclimb all the levels he was demoted, using his extra manna to drain UPSman, in what could have been an endless cycle.
       The cycle was broken when Dent unsuccessfully Kamikaze'd UPSman, losing lots of esteem and some public favour in the process. Pyroto wizard Bison stepped in to demote Dent down to zero, though these demotions were later undone by both Thargor and Bison.
       After realizing that neither of them was likely to be able to actually hurt the other, Dent and UPSman seem to have patched up their differences for the moment, and Dent has celebrated by once again renaming to Andreus.

Suggestions on Corrections
Tim, Servant of TSOTL, writes: "You could tell your readers that if they have an objection to a question, there is a 'Contact Us' link at the bottom of every page. When somebody complains about a question, the administration forwards it to me for further research. I have corrected dozens of questions using this arrangement. However, I do require the precise wording of the question, not a rough guess at what it was.
       "Unfortunately, sometimes I get messages like this: 'The question about dogs is wrong.' There's not a lot I can do with that kind of information.
       "It is not helpful to post the complaint using Beseech, because that is used for petitioning the higher-level wizards on your mountain, not for contacting the administration.
       "It is important to understand that the Mentors consider the answer to be a form of 'password'; answers are the 'arcane knowledge' of The Land. They usually go for what they consider to be the 'best' answer, even if it's not the only one. For example, if the question is 'Who is the famous Jackson brother?' the obvious answer would be 'Michael', not 'Tito' -- even though 'Tito' is somewhat famous."

Miss Manna
Dear Miss Manna,
I recently acquired the "Create" spell and was thinking of creating my very own Ether channel -- you know, a place where wizards can get together and talk, maybe get to know me better. Should I set the access priveleges to level 3, or level 100?
Narcissistic on Nermisoda

Gentle Wizard,
While it's a noble pursuit to try and stimulate conversation of any form, I suggest you take a peek around the Ether first to see what you might be able to do differently. As it is, there are several "vanity" channels already in existence -- what would yours have to offer readers, besides, well, you? You might consider a theme for discussion, or you might just as well try to generate conversation with your interesting ideas somewhere even more exciting -- your own mountain. While vanity channels might be a good place for others to get to know you, the absolute best place -- both socially and politically -- for you to get to know other wizards is on your home mountain. Please consider this before running off to the hills of Etheria for good.
       As for the level your channel is set at, wizards don't get the Ether spell until level 16, so setting your channel at 3 is the same as setting it at 0 or 16. A channel readable only by centurions will get less traffic, as there are more lower-level wizards than higher-level ones, and those that are above 100 already have plenty to read.

Meet Your Overlords: Bricker
Since signing up on Restlech a little more than two months ago, Bricker has founded the largest climbing team in the land, the Teeming Millions, and led them away from conflict on Restlech to the new and mostly peaceful slopes of Paz Clafi. What lies ahead for one of the fastest-climbing and potentially most powerful players in the land?

On the Straight Dope Message Boards, you manage some sort of trivia challenge of your own. How does that work?
Ah, yes - The Bricker Challenges. There have been six so far, consisting of fifty questions each. Since the answers are judged by a real live human being (yours truly), instead of a Mentor, I have quite a bit of flexibility in how I pose questions. The questions range from straightforward ("Who was known for "Hi-di-hi-di-hi-di-ho?") to much more arcane ("Is the quality of mercy strained?" - in this case, a winning answer would be, "No - it falleth as gentle rains from the heavens, and it's Portia's speech in 'The Merchant of Venice'"; this question requires both a direct answer and an understanding of the context.) The winner, the first person to post fifty correct answers or the person with the most correct answers when the deadline arrives, is entitled to a case of beer. I started the Bricker Challenges before Pyroto came along, because I love obscure trivia. From the responses it's gotten, I would say that so do the other Dopers - or perhaps they're simply very thirsty.

So do you think you'll be introducing "Ha!" questions to The Bricker Challenges?
The 'Ha!' questions have been among the most challenging in Pyroto's repertoire, since they often don't lend themselves to research. That is true, also, of a lot of Bricker Challenge questions; they are deliberately phrased to cut down on the chance of succumbing to a search engine, instead relying on knowledge. While I am a big fan of puns, though, and have chuckled at a few of the 'Ha!' questions on Pyroto, I won't be using them in BCs any time soon.
        This does give me a chance, though, to pontificate on what I think the weakest part of the game is right now: question quality. While we are fortunate indeed that Tim, Servant of TSOTL, is highly responsive to documented errors in questions… I suspect a lot of poorly phrased questions have slipped by him; he is, even though a legend, only one person. And if I ever find the wizard that originally Suggested "Name a famous Abstract Expressionist?" I will renounce my pacifism and demote him to zero instantly. I mention this one only because the question has been revised and does not exist in this form any longer, so public mention is not forbidden.

What were your first impressions of Pyroto?
Oddly enough, coming from a certified Pyroto addict, my first impressions were not positive. I thought it was supposed to be about the trivia, and I resented having to post messages. If someone were to check the Scarlet band of Restlech from around day 5560, they'd see a 6th level Bricker complaining about "getting to know my fellow wizards better" - virtually a copy of the messages we see today from newbies. Of course, in short order I realized that Pyroto was about forming a society, and unlike any other message board, it was a society in which the members - not some faceless "admins" - created and sustained the spirit of the community. I now realize that we make up the spirit of the land, even if we're not technically The Spirit Of The Land.

What was the concept behind the Teeming Millions climbing team?
I would love to grin modestly and say how apparent it was to me early on that unity was the key to success here, but the truth is we became a team not through grand design, but simply through our previous acquaintance on SDMB, our common love of trivia, and our vision - undoubtedly shaped by SDMB - of what kind of on-line community we liked. And I should take this opportunity to correct any impression that I am the "leader" of the Teeming Millions -- we are a team, led by consensus of the members. I happened to be one of the first Dopers to take the Pyroto plunge, so I was in a position to provide some lessons learned early on, but we've always been a group, with no divisions into chiefs and Ind -- er, Native Aboriginal Americans.

Looking back on your experiences on Restlech, what do you wish had gone differently?
It's hard to say. As much as I felt we were treated shabbily, I have since come to realize that there's a certain sense of urgency when you perceive a threat - witness our actions with Dent/Andreus on Paz Clafi. Of course, I think there is a chasm of difference in philosophy -- while I now understand a little better how the Restlech wizards leapt to demote a threat, because I did it as well, they never made an effort to repair the damage. I followed Dent to Pyroto and promoted him in an effort to reverse the 'damage' caused by our demotion. If I wish for anything to have gone differently, it would be that both "sides" had then the wisdom we've gained from the experience. But of course that's impossible - experience, great teacher that it is, comes from making mistakes. I think we'd both do better in similar circumstances if there were a 'next time'.

What is your current attitude towards the higher-ups on Restlech, and the mountain in general?
I wish Restlechians the best. Thus far, there have been hostile spells in one direction only: from a senior wizard on Restlech to one of our Paz Clafi wizards. In keeping with our general policy of avoiding hostile actions if at all possible, we simply repaired the damage - and this was a mountain issue, not a Teeming Millions issue; all of Paz Clafi's Magenta wizards assisted in that endeavor. But I believed before, and still do now, that Restlech is a fine mountain with great wizards. I think the senior wizards lost sight of some of their noble goals, but as I've said before, I know how it can happen. We've modeled a lot of Paz Clafi rules after the Restlech rules, and owe them a great debt.

About how many members does the Teeming Millions have now?
In one sense, about 4,000 - that being the number of registered participants on the Straight Dope board. Of course, the vast majority have never so much as clicked on the Pyroto ad banner. But all it takes to be a "Teeming Million" is being a fan of Cecil Adams - so I expect there are many thousands of us. Most just aren't here yet.

But the Teeming Millions team does deny membership to people to wizards who weren't on the SDMB before a certain date, doesn't it?
Not at all. As I've suggested, though, we're very open to people forming other climbing teams, believing that the mountain, and the game, is best served by more smaller groups than one monolithic hundred-person group. We think that this is the better course for a late-arriving Cecil fan. It's also counterproductive to invite a new Scarlet wizard into the extant climbing team at this point; a wizard needs to experience the game on his own, rather than be handed resources and vicarious game power immediately. A wizard that experiences the game on his own can better appreciate the need for peace, and for a haven for it.

Are the Teeming Millions who have signed up all on Paz Clafi?
We don't have a formal membership roster or initiation ceremony, so it's hard to say - and of course, as new members come in, who knows what mountain they'll end up on? But I think it's safe to say that most of the Pyroto-active Teeming Millions are on Paz Clafi, yes.

You and your team have been known for preferring to avoid mountain politics. Have you found this to be a challenge as Paz Clafi becomes populated with non-TMers?
Not so far. We've got loose moderation rules in place, and assigned moderators for the message bands. In fact, we have actively encouraged "native" Paz Clafians to fomr climbing teams of their own. We like the idea of a voluble, active mountain, and are cheering on the promising new wizards as they appear. Far from being threatened by good climbers, we welcome them, feeling they'll make the mountain strong, and that the "peace first" policy will make such sense to them that, should they overtake us, they'll be inclined to keep it. In fact, among the wave of new players is a wizard with substantial experience in the old dial-up game. His first post was to declare his war-making desires and an offer to kamikaze anyone in exchange for promotions. This morning I got a Contact from him, saying how much he likes the chance to climb without having to worry about attacking or being attacked.

Do you believe that Pyroto would be a better game if people didn't use the attack spells?
Never say never. As I suggested earlier, this is a self-regulating community; although Paz Clafi is a peaceful mountain, we reserve the right to sanction a violator on our message bands. We simply hate to do it. But we recognize that the ability to keep the message bands interesting is what will attract and keep good wizards… having to wade through chaff to get to the one meaningful post out of fifty will dissuade the new wizard who really has something valuable to contribute.
        I do believe that the game would be better if people didn't seek to enforce their own opinions ("This is a personal demote, not one as a matter of mountain policy" type things) through attack spells. I also think that people who try to win the race, so to speak, by tripping their opponent rather than by running faster are not to be admired. So attack spells used for tactical purposes, to worsen the plight of an enemy, are not great. But part of being the (lower case) spirit of the land, as we all are, is the recognition that others may not feel this way.
        Many people approach the other wizards of The Land as game pieces to be cast aside in pursuit of "playing the game fully". But I see each name as a real person, with real feelings, real concerns, and a real life (and, for the advertisers out there, real dollars to spend). I am loathe to see any of these players cast aside, or discouraged, because another player wants to "win" and doesn't care what happens to the other pieces on the board. It's fine to be ruthless at Risk or Monopoly -- but I don't see the wizards of The Land as little metal top hats or plastic molded game pieces. They're people. They matter.

What is your take on the recent inter-mountain conflict between UPSman and Dent/Andreus?
Dent chose to take some actions that were, in my view, deliberate attempts to provoke a response. UPSMan demoted him, and so did I. We both told him that the demotes were designed to be temporary. After he left for Pyroto Mountain, I followed him and promoted back the levels I had taken - since they were, after all, a temporary measure, like a police "stop and frisk" situation. UPSMan did not, and that was the genesis for the inter-mountain events. I think they both reacted with anger initially, and Dent showed what a determined power climber can do with manna bonuses, burning over 25,000 in Drains. Fortunately, the hatchet has been buried, and the matter is settled. But it was an excellent lesson: demotion of a wizard with lots of esteem and a good question list is not as harsh a punishment as one might think: Dent kamikazed, ended up at level 0, and was back in Blue later that same day. He is an excellent climber.

Do you pay much attention to the affairs of the other mountains?
One of the serendipitous outcomes of the Dent affair was my multiple visits to Pyroto. I was impressed with the quality and quantity of the Pyrotian wizards of Blue and Indigo, and great enjoyed my chances to talk to them. Of course, they were expensive conversations, but I hope to return to Pyroto's slopes for more Visits soon. Other than that, I depend on the various Ether channels for a sense of the happenings on other mountains.

What do you see as the greatest challenge ahead for the Teeming Millions? What are your hopes for Paz Clafi as a whole?
I've chosen to answer these two questions together, since I think the challenge that faces us now is the care and feeding of a mountain that is rapidly coming into its own. If our vision of "how the game should be played" has merit, we can rely on the other teams, and other wizards, of Paz Clafi to continue to work towards a strong, informed, and peaceful mountain. I would like to see Paz Clafi's ranks continue to grow, and now that our "rookie" wizards are themselves able to instruct yet another generation, I hope that Paz Clafi will take her place in the pantheon of The Land as a mountain to be emulated.

If forced to choose between what was best for your team, what was best for your mountain, or what was best for the game as a whole, which would you pick?
I cannot imagine the interests of any of those three ever being adverse. But I think this game has great promise, and I would choose its interests over either team or mountain. I also would choose the interests of the mountain over the interests of the team, since our team goal is to help in the creation of a good, balanced, active mountain, and if the team's interests are inimical to that, then we've done something wrong.

Admin Notes
As before, if you'd like to contribute a news item, a commentary or even a regular column to TPO, please mail Ninjalicious so we can talk it over. I'm especially eager to recruit some wizards from the outer reaches of the Land so this newsletter doesn't wind up being too focussed on central Pyrotoland.
       P.S. Interested parties can access older issues of TPO here.

"Pyroto" and a bunch of other words here are trademarks of Pyroto, Inc.

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