The Olympia Enquirer

Jay Gischer (gischer@puget.mti.sgi.com)
Wed, 24 Aug 94 09:34:44 -0700

RSOCIA@delphi.com writes:
>
> Rich,
>
> I mean no disrespect to Rich's Olympia Times, but I have to agree
> with John Morrow when he says the Times is useless. Except for
> page 1, from Rich, the GMs notes, the rest is all either mindless
> drivel, ridiculous and absurd comments, or blatant misinformation.
>
Then I suggest you don't read it. It's real easy to hit the delete
key. I personally enjoy reading it. But then one of my favorite
pastimes in grocery lines is reading the headlines on tabloids.

The Times is invented for rumormongering, creative outlet, propaganda,
and just fooling around. I happen to like it.

Olympia is a game. As such, I will be very disappointed if there
isn't a little lying, subterfuge, backstabbing, terrorism, tall tales,
and what have you. I don't think I'll be disappointed. I'm very glad
Olympia isn't real life, and I certainly hope people don't confuse
my actions within the game with my own personal character in the real
world. For many people, fine upstanding people in real life, being
free to be a little nasty is part of the fun of the game. The Times is
part of that game.

Things do start to break down a little when the
lines are blurred, as when a Times posting mentions players, rather
than characters, as Greg points out. For myself, after realizing that
the message wasn't signed in any way, I realized that the message must
be a fake. But it struck me as a masterful piece of propaganda. I
presume that others were not quite so taken with it. And I suppose
there could easily have been people who believed it. After all, there
are people who believe that Elvis is not only alive, he's interfering
in his daughter's love life (cf. "Midnight Star" this week.)
So maybe something will have to be done about this. But I'd hate to
see the Times become boring, (although Rick would say it already is)
as I'm sure it will if only signed submissions are accepted.

-j


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