Re: (LONG/RAMBLE)Attempting to achieve "Spiff"

[Glaveman@aol.com]

In a message dated 95-06-12 15:52:02 EDT, azrael@access.digex.net writes:

>Now, if anyone has a low tolerance for clueless people trying to do
>new things - delete this message right now - and email me a generic
>flame message.  I'll understand...

Don't worry....not everybody has an oak tree up their wazoo!

>I'm not sure where to start, other than to say I'm in a shire which is
>growing, technically large enough to be a barony, but we probably don't
>have a sufficient number of truely active members to support baronial
>type activities.  (And before the whispering starts that "Highland
>Foorde is considering trying for Baronial Status", I'll just say, like
>probably every group, there is always a little whispering in the
>background... always... even in Baronies, I'm sure there are groups in
>the Baronies that want to form Cantons, groups of Baronies that want
>to be Principalities, or Principalities that wish to be Kingdoms.  Of
>course I could be wrong.  ;-)  

I agree.  There is always talk of your next step as an entity.  It's the same
way in any organization that is uses categoric monikers based on growth and
activity.  I have heard talk of the same in Windmaster's Hill since I got
here.  It's normal and expected and its absence could be a sign of
abnormality of purpose.

>A number of people point out that local
>awards and orders can't be given/formed by shires... Why? No
>representative of the Crown.  Okay, that makes some sense to me...
>Although there are still people in the shire which deserve recognition
>- and don't travel outside the shire very often.  

This is regrettable. I was in a small shire.  Most events were 4 hrs away.
 We kept trying to grow and succeeded in being and maintaining a shire;
however, royal progression was out of the question.  We were too small and
insignificant to deserve that.  (There is a Shire in Atlantia, BTW, that
hasn't seen a royal progression at their events in 5 - 7 yrs.)  When people
joined the our shire, they were real hip until they had busted their butts
for a few years and there just weren't enough hats around, with interest, to
notice and award them.  Not having shire level awards to recognize this work
was absolutely assinine and embicilical......but it's period.  At least
that's the excuse we got.

>I scanned Corpora (1993),

Don't blame me...that's your fault!!!

>I thought I would ask the eminently learned folks in the Merry Rose

Yes.  That's us.  'Cest mois and all that.

>Okay, this is just my attempt at making "stuff" a little more spiff...
>*tongue.in.cheek*  I mean its not like I want to create a whole new
>Principality of anything... ;-)

(GASP!!!) How dare you even suggest that the game is not spiff enough as it
is!! How dare you even suggest that you can play it spiffier than the rest of
us!! If you try this even once, the fubawaba brigade will come to your shire
and commit spifficide!!  You will be guilty of spiffyism and hanged by the
neck......until your spiff!!

>(Oh, and if anyone is going to flame
>on this - please send it to me directly - I feel guilty enough
>forcing the whole kingdom to read this message.)
>In service (and rambling)

Here's to a guilt cocktail for both of us.  I realize that we try to produce
the illusion of a monarchy in our game--that's one of the most objective
reasons we "people of like interest" get together to do this.  BUT we
shouldn't let size and location affect our ability to recognize people's hard
labor..dammit! Because I have seen this debate before I know the answer you
get first -- "Kingdom awards are for people who do kingdom service." Agreed.
 Since there aren't any shire level awards to be given by a seneschal,
service to a shire must not be important at all.  We will all disagree with
that because we know better; but if we all know better, why hasn't this
changed in the eight years since I last argued about it.

Falcone Raassouli Ita Ravin
aka, Donald Wagner
Knowledge Engineer/Escalation Control
AT&T Consumer Interactive Services
{insert standard disclaimer of your choice here}

"The problem with the rat race is...even when you win you're still a rat."
Lily Tomlin