I wanted to respond to the August 20 podcast, where we learned what nicks Zous' mines. Zous provided a humorous discussion of sheep, as in the followers and noninnovators in this little game of ours. As expected, he made some amusing and valid points, then ended with some thoughts on not changing the shoat avatar every player begins with.

I'd like to think I get along well with Zous. He was helpful and supportive through my early game experience. I admire how much he has contributed to the PMOG community including organizing and running a lottery on the forums. I don't doubt most if not all players have a positive tale to tell about Zous. In no way should anyone consider this post an attack on him or his character. Nor should anyone assume that this response is motivated by ridiculously irrational rage. I doubt Zous is kept up late, torn apart emotionally by thoughts of unchanged artwork, any more than I am plagued with nightmares about a lightning bolt striking down my tiny pig in a top hat.

However...

Zous's statements that not changing an avatar is herd mentality is disappointing. That sort of glittering generality I can't comfortably leave unresponded to. I for one had not changed my avatar-yet-for more reasons than merely because "everybody else wasn't doing it". I'd like to take a little time to muse on a few of them now.

One of my reasons I briefly touched on in a different thread entitled "Need help chava keeps attacking me". The discussion with the original poster taniss took a similar turn and I pointed out that there's nothing wrong with a measure of anonymity. I understand the desire for fourumites to be easily recognizable. But anyone familiar with the principles of espionage understands that not standing out is both "the defense and the weapon". Before I understood the "carpet bombing" methods mines are applied to profiles, I considered a strategy of hiring shoats en masse to attack enemies, my own specific actions layered within. Now, I better understand the game (though arguably play worse), and have given up this tactic. I am therefore less motivated by this line of thought, but still believe I or another may find some way to exploit being a faceless member of the masses.

My avatar remains the same as it was when I started this game also due to real life issues that took more of my focus. On other threads, I've mentioned that I work for a national chain of books stores (no, not that one, the other one). Between middle managements' increasing panic about the economy and the frankly spoiled nature of the customers in our area, I come home more exhausted than a simple retail job should leave me. I'm simply not motivated enough to make the changes to that small square after arguing about whether tape -regular sticky tape -is a legitimate business expense the company should be paying for. Much as everyone else, I have other matters swirling through my routine-enough to let changing the avatar slide in priority.

It's also true that I haven't found artwork I feel strongly enough to switch to yet. I've never done well defining myself with a single image. With words, I can just say or write " scruffy playwright" and be done with it. But I've never been satisfied summarizing myself with a single visual. Should I commit to the photo in the college paper when my first play was produced? What about the cover of my favorite book, "The Long Run" by Daniel Keys Moran? Would a close in zoom of a bowl of spaghetti made from my family's secret recipe (the second secret ingredient of which is actually bacon!), suffice? Or could I post a cover from an old Doc savage novel and know that everyone "gets me"? I'm aware of how pompous such introspection on a trivial issue is, which is why it was, again, easier to ignore that aspect of the problem and leave things the way they were.

Additionally, I have to admit my skill with computers is rather poor. Net searches, simple games, and (apparently), long rambling written work are within my capacity. But only just. When chava first persuaded me to join IRC I mentioned that I still thought of my computer as a big gray box that goes 'ping' to appease the spirits. Unfamiliarity with important modern tools is a poor reason, but my arguments today are about why I made such choices.

Finally, and perhaps most important, is reasoning I find difficult to phrase properly. It ties in very much with what I thought of when I first learned about PMOG. It struck me as a game where the actions of the great players would hold the most resonance. Zous himself is the best example of this. You can mention his name to other players and they'll respond with "oh, that guy who runs the lottery" or "oh, the guy in charge of the risk game" or lots of other examples of things he's contributed. The number of honest responses of "oh, the guy with the Harvey Birdman avatar" I sincerely believe would be negligible at best. I felt this game would more value deeds in missions and words in forums more than art in boxes, that I was willing to neglect changing my avatar.

And that's just some of my reasoning, little of it deep, little of it noble (except maybe that last one). I can't say these ideas were thought through in detail before today, but I can say they had least occurred to me when the issue first came up. I can't say I speak for every other player, but I can say I didn't simply leave my avatar a shoat because I saw others do it and felt like jumping on the bandwagon.

As an act of goodwill, however, I have brushed aside such things as my petty reasoning and approached the problem. I have changed my avatar. I have changed a single pixel somewhere on that 600 by 900 grid. Were I a better graphic artist I would work more spectacular magic, perhaps reducing this rant on to that single dot, or creating a unique work using exclusively pixels from the shoats artwork. But I have done what I can do and learned in the process. This is more than enough, and, coincidentally, makes me the cowboy.

I'd like to state again that none of this was an attack on Zous. In fact, I thank him for giving me the opportunity to exercise reasoning and writing skills that have been neglected. I understand his position and don't doubt that it's a more popular view than mine. I simply wanted to respond to reasoning I disagree with.

I understand, dear reader, any strong desire to mine me. I'm easily found-look for the avatar of the shoat...that isn't.

I read your post with interest, and speaking as a reasonably long standing member I have never seen not changing your avatar as the action of a follower, personally its quite the opposite to me.

I will also use this post to mention that Zous stole my "grinds my gears" phrase and has now made it famous with a small PMOG mod. (c)Craig 2008 (Well Actually (c) Family Guy Season 6)

However, I dont have a word to say against either of you, everyone has and is entitled to an opinion, yours made sense, but as I dont listen to the tubenauts I cant comment on what was mentioned.

I have a pic of my Growing Son, if I didnt I may have just had myself again I guess.

Regards

Craig

I always thought that was an ultrasound! See, that's nice and I understand being pleased and proud enough to make it an avatar.

Don't worry about it, there was no offense taken, and as I'm sure you're aware the segment was mostly in jest.

The message really went out to those users of the forums though. And what bothered me more than sticking with the shoat was changing your avatar to fit with the current fad. I just realized that the number of people who haven't changed their avatars greatly outweigh the fad-followers.

Your avatar is your face on the forums though. I see the ultrasound and I know immediately that it's salmontickler, just as the bacon-gun is Pix, the gear-monkey is craug, and the MLB-bong-smoker is drudge. It adds a touch of personalization and makes it so that I don't even have to read the name to know who posted. Just as I'd expect people see Harvey and know it's me who's posting. It makes me feel like I'm having a real conversation with real people.

Meanwhile, sticking to the shoat avatar makes you a name in a faceless crowd. It makes it harder to connect with other people and hurts the society, you're just one of many without personality of your own. Face it, you're a borg :P (or at least that's how I see it).

Lastly, I'm shocked that anyone took my rant this seriously, and while it's not a problem, I should stress that the rant was not intended to offend but was more just for show :D

Don't forget the hot, juicy, Jason Statham smoking bacon.

*shameless promotion for her drool-worthy avatar* :D

I change my avatar at random. Why? Because... Well. I don't have any reason. I just like to change my avatar. That is all.

I like my bacon badger king. I think it's funny. Plus when I had a picture of me, people said it was emo. So I would rather be bandwagon-funny than emo. Does it matter? I still know you're bleaquehaus regardless of what picture you have. The shoat isn't any more anonymous than anything else. It does make me slightly more likely to dismiss your comments as n00b ignorance until I realise that it's you and not an actual shoat, though. I sort of feel bad saying that, but it's sort of true. I tend to associate the shoat picture with asking questions that have obvious answers.

But if you like it, more power to you. :) I uphold your right to keep using the shoat picture!

I have to admit I bandwagoned with the bacon, but other than that, I've kept the same avatar and see no reason to change it.

I just recently changed mine.

I can see how you feel that way, bleaquehaus, but I'd like to add that the avatars, in my opinion, are more for owner than they are for the other players. It helps us identify more clearly to other people.

You mentioned Zous was not the Harvey Birdman avatar, but as soon as I see it in the forums, I know it's him. The time it takes to see that is shorter than reading the name, since the images are all very distinctive and the names all look similar when glancing past.

Shoat avatars, to me, usually mean shoats. People new to the game that I have not seen before and have no recollection of. As such, I frequently miss some of your posts, because I make sure to read the posts of people I know will interest me.

You've sort of broken that pattern, since I now know that even though you have a shoat avatar, you are no shoat and I am very much interested in reading posts as well thought-out as the one at the beginning of this thread.

I shall try to keep an eye out for the only avatar, made special by a particular person that uses it, instead of what it visually represents.

Chava said what I was trying to say only better.

Yah.

I didn't know that was Harvey Birdman anyway, I live under a rock and I don't know who Harvey Birdman is. It's just Zous' dude.

Harvey Birdman is an attorney at law.

Who's the man in the suit?

/Me Suppresses urge to turn thread into harvey birdman joke dump.

/me suppressing the urge to start a thread offering to make avatars for Shoats... in case the problem really is being graphically challenged.

edit: ok here you go: http://pmog.com/forums/social-to... (don't blame me, it was Shyiskhar's idea)

Why suppress that one, I kinda like that idea...

Who's the cat with the beak?

Yeah...tl;dr entirely...but I'm with Zous...when I see an avatar, I know who is posting, and that makes life easy!

That's the entire reason for using an avatar in the first place...so that people can associate your posts with an image...as humans, we're visual creatures.

I don't associate anything with bandwagons...I just dislike having to check to make sure that the Shoaty image belongs to an actual player-of-PMOG and not a random n00b...

When Peanut comes heavy, he comes hard!

Well, I have a lot of ground to cover, so here goes...

I get it that people prefer a recognizable image. I understand that Zous' monologue was comedy, and was mostly focused on the fads of pmog. If I was actually angry about it, I would have contacted Zous directly and worked it out with him, because I don't air my dirty laundry in public. I probably let the whole thing slide except for a perfect storm of events:

1-I mentioned the argument at work (really? Not buying tape is gonna pull this company out of the hole?) that was preying on my mind. I had a lot pent-up energy that had to go somewhere. I'd like to think that this was more constructive than other things I could have done.

2-I've been neglecting my writing. Oh, I poke at plot outlines and character studies some, but it's been a long while since I FINISHED a thing. I count this as a tiny victory.

3-Even with no malicious intent, Zous' monologue still scooped everyone who hadn't changed their avatar into a pile marked "Same". That's a button for me. There's a literary criticism teacher out there who now makes certain to tell her class that even though it's in bad taste, it is physically possible to write "masculinist" criticism (the opposite of feminist criticism), and the pen won't fly out of your hand in defiance of physics. I knew I had other reasons for not changing my avatar than what I heard on the podcast. I just enunciated them.

Maybe I should have deleted it, but at the time I hoped it would provoke some lively and intelligent discussion. I think it has, although I'd hope more shoat avatars would've weighed in. Maybe I'm a minority of one. Oh well.

czarchron, good on you for taking up an opportunity. I'd probably have used it if it had been available when I started. Heck, I might still...

And special kudos to chava! I only wrote to express my opinion, not to change the political landscape of avatars. But to paraphrase Woody Allen paraphrasing someone else, "If my writing makes just one more person confused and disoriented, then I've done my job."

/me pops in to say it was himself that got bleaquehaus to join irc, then leaves without actually contributing anything to the conversation.

@bleaquehaus I applaud you for speaking your mind. And I admire your pixel art. (even if you still look like just one of the drove)

It's obvious you are unique. I've heard your 'voice' now and I will always recognize you from now on.

But isn't comedy about lumping everyone into a pile marked "Same" so that you can then make a gross generalization and have no founding for it? :D

with great tubenauts comes great responsbility.

bleaquehaus is so not tl;dr and I just wanted to pop in and say this is one of the best threads ever XD

Well, I just feel the avatar helps create ur pmoggean personality and gives everybody a chance for the world to see what they are like, e.g. their favourite food, animal, whether they are vicious blah blah blah.

Normally, when people see a shoat avatar, they generally start having this mindset that that is a noob shoat, no? Or maybe just too lazy or ignorant to change the picture. But I'm not saying the piggy avatar is bad or what :D

I like the idea of taking the shoat Avatar, and perhaps changing it a little.
Hmm, Shoat in Deadpool mask? Next project!

@bleaquehaus - I see where you're coming from when you say it would be nice to have a few more with Shoat avatars weigh in on this thread, but the problem with that is most of them are in fact... Shoats.
Most Shoats are more likely to sit back and watch for the first few levels, and by the time they feel ready to jump in with a comment that isn't along the lines of "How do I....", they've altered their avatars.

Having said that, I'll go with Shyiskhar's idea of mucking with the Shoat avatar. Could be fun.