still thinking about help sites. help sites help people, that's a fact. it's whether they deserve that help or not that bothers me.
you could say, everyone deserves every kind of help they can get on their way down a common road. and it's the job of those who've gone before them to help pave the way. those that've gone before them are self-sacrificial, accessories ultimately to this common goal they're all looking towards.
by that logic, help sites are perfectly necessary.
it still seems that logic applies more to, say, great scientific discoveries, things that you spend a lifetime on, because you know it's worth the spending. if help's provided, it's provided not because you hope to reach the end, but because you hope to be part of that journey to reach the end.
if not the end, then a meaningful journey.
runescape's a part of the world. runescape's a model of the world, in as realistic a way as it is possible. it stands to reason that what applies in the real world applies there. and vice versa.
the fact remains that rs is not the real world. and to help you live you character's life in as great a way as it is possible - it's not exactly worth spending time on. but to save people time by giving them your own, regardless of the context...
it's a service. not that that makes it any more worthwhile.
it's not reasonable to expect people to start from the beginning all over again, without any knowledge of what's already known. it's not reasonable to force people to rediscover for themselves what others have, just because it's worth the discovering.
sometimes they say, life's a journey of self-discovery.
to play rs is a journey of discovering, by yourself.
and why is that?
because take that element of independence away, and you're left with little else.
in this sense, runescape's too small a model of the real world for help sites.
why help sites, then? is it purely alturistic motives? to help people. to share with people knowledge. to pool experience. so we all come out on top.
i went into this post with my belief that help sites were unnecessary very much shaken. midway through, i'm back to where i started. yet i deign to contradict myself, by doing exactly what i claim not to.
i'm trying to figure out why. why do such a thing?
to tell the world perhaps, how smart you are, that you've found out this certain thing about rs that no one else has (or that you think no one else has, and considering the small enough size of rs, usually isn't all that remarkable at all) and it just has to be shared. for credit's sake, or for the sake of the telling, or simply yeah, to help.
wtf.
never mind. on to the actual point of this post. i've set up shop in the barbarian outpost. pizza-making and blogging ftw. it's rather quiet, really, and rather amusing when people do pop in. on my level 3 skiller, i'm rather untouchable.
some people're beumused to the point of condescension.
"hello little girl... you shouldn't be here."
the conversation following is peppered with lmao's and lol's.
i end up dispensing pizzas to whoever comes round, and with that 2 levels per trip. a fair bit of fun, really. in the time it takes to respawn i play around with the print screen button.
water, fresh air, company... what more could you ask for?
2 comments:
There are a lot of reasons for people to contribute to fan/help sites. First of all, I think it is just in people's nature to huddle together, communicate, seek to be useful, seek to be liked after all. Yes, there is also a desire to establish some kind of a status within a group you are in. It all adds up together. So, there is this force of nature behind fan/help sites - there is no use in denying it or trying to stop it. At least, that's what I think.
As for motives of site creators/developers I can only speculate. I believe the motives are many again. There is a money factor of course (many sites are there to make money, and I am not talking about only cheat sites), but there are also a lot of altruistic reasons. Again many different reasons. Why do people volunteere in the first place? I bet the same principles apply here.
In my particular case there were several things that made Runewise appearing:
1. It is a joined project between me and my son. Speaking about shared interests.
2. Desire to do some PHP programming. I used to be a java developer. I don't write code for living anymore, but I do enjoy writing PHP code for Runewise.
3. Desire to share the knowledge about Runescape I acquired by playing the game. Am I showing off? I hope not, at least, there is no conscious intention.
4. Finally making the world a little bit better. Same as with volunteering: if I can make an impact and help, why wouldn't I?
I see.
I'm making a distinction between fan sites and help sites though... Fan sites seem more for networking. Do something fun with people who have that common interest. Find out such people actually exist. Discuss, whatever.
Rather hard to deny them when I'm actually participating and huddling too :)
Help sites, though, are about articles, and more articles, that basically tell you just every single thing about the game. I know some articles are necessary, perhaps it's just rather a narrow-minded view here, but some articles just seem to encourage laziness. It's just, if you really don't know something you should, fine, ask, and people will tell you. But running across people calling each other "noob" because the asker hasn't looked up a help site first... I don't know, it's that whole mentality of there's a help site there, no one needs my help when they can just look at a help site...
I've indulged in that too, sometimes. Think I've ranted enough, anyway :)
Never did think about the making money bit. Didn't think it was possible, really. Now that makes more sense. Thanks.
Didn't think about the programming bit either. Sounds interesting. I suck at most things computer-related.
As for reasons I mentioned, it's mostly just speculation and cynicism on my part :)
Runewise's a fun site, really. Please don't take it as an insult. Was directed at help sites, actually. What with quest guides and all. There's a difference between taking a part of the game then explaining it in rather an obvious manner, and adding a new dimension to it all, via tools of whatever sort. Most sites mix the two. Just the degree of mixing. If that made any sense.
As for the making the world a better place, that's a great point. Just whether it's so much worth it that bothers me, but that doesn't matter very much.
Thanks very much for taking the time to read all this though! And for all the time it took to write this out. I really appreciate it!
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