I'm sick of the doomsayers who say MARP is falling apart at the seams, I'm sick of people saying they're leaving because they're not happy with other player's actions, what's happening on the message board, they don't get to play all their favorite games, they don't like the Editors, their computer isn't fast enough; quit whining, people. If you're not happy with what is happening, take a vacation or leave, but why does every single player feel like they have to take a turn on the soapbox and tear a strip out of whoever their disenchanted gaze of the day turns to? I'm on vacation because I have a life which is being dragged down by the commentary here lately; I'll be back as soon as I feel like I am capable of handling my duties at MARP again, but I'll at least admit that the problems I've had with Tommi or Cicca or even Stig in the past are problems between me and those players, not the death of the MARP community. I can damn well accept my own responsibility for what happens.

The freaking sky isn't falling, Chicken Littles. If you aren't happy, nobody's keeping you here. If you don't like what you see at MARP, try positive criticism - it seems to be a lost skill nowadays, and it's sure to have more influence that flaming whoever has pissed you off this week. In particular to Sportsdude's post, this is maybe the 5th time I've seen someone posting to complain about not getting enough speed and their being ticked off at that fact -- yet I can't remember one single person suggesting a change to slower recordings or suggesting that the rule needs to be revised to say that getting 90% of the game speed needs to be changed. Is everything a matter of personal convenience, MARP? Does everything have to suit the all powerful id? We have a site, we have personalities, we have rules, we have skill, we have fun. I don't see where all this recent pessimism fits in to the paradigm.

You know what I really have to say in this post? I want to offer congratulations to Ashuime Rainflower and Aaron Pieper for crushing my Magical Drop 2 and 3 scores, and giving me new limits to aspire to. Thank-you for kicking my ass, it's given me new challenges to look forward to, and more incentive to play the game, when I have time. I look forward to eventually returning the favor. I look forward to trying to catch Brian MacLean, one of the most skilled players I've met (particularly in game genres that I like) at Lasso, a game he doubled my score on while playing handicapped. He at least had the decency to leave the site earlier when discontented without bemoaning how everything at MARP was falling apart.

Here's something else. I personally apologize to you, Tommi, if I offended you with any of my posts on the PC_10 issue. I won't retract my point of view, and the vote block still stands, but I hope you can realize why I did it--I wasn't out to spite you.

I'm not going to tell anyone here what to do, and I'm certainly not going to moralize any further. I hope everyone in T5 is enjoying themselves and will have a good time competing. Best of luck tourney entrants, and I'll see you all in a while.

Oh, and glad to see you back, Aqua.

Sincerely, Q.T.Quazar, MARP Rules Coordinator

-- Q.T.Quazar (qan@home.com), October 06, 2000

Answers

not to mention that i was the first to break a MD score (also first to 1million on MD2 its now 1,4) - ok so you regained the crown but you never know in the future...

good points btw - really i dont care what tournament games there are - it gives me a chance to enjoy more games i never played since i only got like 200 roms

-- david oliver (davedude1414@yahoo.com), October 06, 2000.

Good to hear from you again, had been kind of wondering where you'd gone in #marp. I don't think I can add much to what's already been said, really. MARP isn't what it was when I first joined, and that's fine. As far as I'm concerned it's still a fledgling site and the changes that have been made are for the benefit of all in the long run. And personally, I think SportsDude has the right attitude in a sense. If you're not having fun, you don't need to be here. We're just playing video games -- Remember video games? It's a song about video games... (heh, sorry, couldn't resist)

At any rate, I've certainly had a blast in T5 so far. Everyone's been very pleasant and willing to compare notes with me or outright school me in some cases. In that sense, it feels much like the old community again. So good luck to everyone in the tourney. And as for you, QT; anytime, anyplace... You're a worthy competitor. :)

Cheers, Brian McLean

-- Brian McLean (bmclean84@hotmail.com), October 06, 2000.

Thank you for mentioning my name, and I still aspire to one day beat your 4,000,000 Magical Journey score. But I don't think it will happen any day soon. I think MARP is great, it's just great to have other players to compete with, or in some cases, simply admire.

I loooove Galaga and Mr. Do and Qix even though my high scores are around a piddling 240,000, 90,000, and 60,000 respectively. And being able to watch masters in their element is just super-fun! Mr. Do especially! Before MARP I had no idea that it was possible to get that many extra lives, and I had no idea what I was doing wrong. Just reading strategies and seeing high scores of course didn't really help, so being able to watch someone was really great.

Don't mind me. I'm just babbling. I guess I felt obligated to respond because my name was mentioned. Oh and my hat goes off to mjfoxtrot for his ridiculous Pengo score.

-- Aaron Pieper (apieper@vt.edu), October 08, 2000.