the box noob.

seems self-effacing's the thing of the day.

the box noob, anyway, is this bright spark (or brainchild of some bright spark, if you want to be picky about language) who was inspired by the brainchild of a couple of jmods', or that death to the dorgeshuun quest, to be exact. inspired to the point that he goes to the trouble of getting a new account and (you guessed it) starting said quest. in this bit he has to help this cave goblin zanik (don't ask) get into a watermill. for some reason the chosen mode of transportation (or smuggling if you're still on that picky streak) the goblin's in a box.

he goes on to go marvellously off track, by way of fally, to be specific. (jagex should charge him for abduction of the poor goblin, if nothing else.) and carrying that big quest box he goes round saying things like "please donate!" and "donate to free me from slavery!" (perhaps the goblin draws on all that gold heaped in the box with it for survival's sake) which is a step above "phr33 st00f pl0x!". just goes to show, a step takes you rather far, (now for the rumours) apparently he got a million gp from just one run (or one player, if you're more inclined towards the gossip mill than the water one). and apparently that's not a one-off occurrence.

gossip goes as gossip does. apparently (hypocrite that i am, i'm not that bad. last apparently,) he got enough for a santa. which to put things into perspective, costs roughly 20 million.

apparently, (and this is a good apparently, credit goes as credit should) some bright spark (the first one, by all accounts) got the box, and simply walked with it till he had a bunch of cat-imitators hounding him with "wuzzat" and suitable exclamations. he pretended to subscribe to the 'action over words' theory (or the 'silence = gold' one) and simply walked. and walked.

all the way into the wildy. (i'll leave you to reconstruct the outcome.)

so there's the box bit of the name explained. noob because he keeps his combat level at 3. presumably he's just another dime a dozen levelist, who also happens to be some bright spark in circles i haven't yet discovered exist.

if you're the type who doesn't have too firm a grasp of english, or if you're the type who's got a firm grasp of english, detests incoherence and lack of clarity, and is nonetheless patient enough to wade through all this, (or if you're the type who's plain normal,) you probably didn't understand all that.

so basically, the box noob goes about perpetuating a form of glorified begging. (not much better either, was that?) okay. he thinks up a new way of going about this age-old business of begging, and is enormously succesful at it. some people reward him for his creativity, some for the same reason you reward street performers. they interest you enough to make you stop in your tracks for a bit, and for what's worth, that bit of brain power deserves its bit of monetary return.

i haven't yet run into him, because i'm strictly f2p. i've got a low opinion of runescape beggars, but not because i discriminate against beggars, whether on runescape or in real life. some things that go on in real life are just unforseen. and sometimes there are customs that even encourage begging. that i understand.

on the other hand, runescape's a game. you attain things by clicking. by exercising one index finger, and maybe some muscles of the hand. everyone starts on more or less the same ground, and therefore there simply isn't any need to beg. that's why i cannot stand beggars, in runescape. or most other people i see, really. those are kids. most of them (note use of the word most, instad of all) should be middle or upper middle class pre-teens or adolescents coming from families with enough money that they can afford internet access. they do not need to beg. begging cannot be excused as a habit, as a bit of culture.

it is plain sloth.

add to that. beyond sloth, it's self-demeaning. with every request for money they are lowering their own self-esteem, their own self-respect, let alone any respect anyone else might have for them, seeing them as they are, begging. begging when they have the means to work something out themselves, for themselves.

screw the 'it's not against the rules' school of thought. (and make sure you get the whiny, butt-kissing voice right when you say it.) i don't care if it's not against the rules. what i'm about to say defies logic, but that doesn't make it any easier to believe. i don't see why i should conform to rules, or even laws, when they conflict with personal moral standards. of course, this school of thought is a potential disaster. allowing the system to subsist on this would have the game (let's not even talk about real life) infested with scammers, account traders, pass scammers...

i'm still not about to follow rules that i disagree with, or not condemn actions that are confined to within the perimeters of these rules. (come on, it's an online game.) that's why i'd like to work in some area relating to law. law's about making moral standards legal standards. and the latter is what matters.

the "dancing for money" people, on the other hand, seem largely to be having their own bit of fun. perhaps they do this in the fashion of street musicians, but they aren't rightly exhibiting any talent of sorts, nor doing anything exemplary. so while i respect them marginally more than i do those begging just because they can, they don't rank very much highly on this mental list i've accumulated.

the box noob is a case apart. the original box noob, i can respect. i would "donate" to him, if i could, for the sole reason that i would be paying him for his creativity. it's not unduly harmful, amd he provides a right bit of entertainment for us poor slobs without another new thought in our heads.

of course, you'll by default have the pitiful imitators (think, the box kid, skilla4life) or similar people trying to imitate him, or claim ownership of that idea on various forums. plagarism at its best and basest.

which, rumour has it, (i know. couldn't resist though) will have him quitting rs after a time.

i don't at all support that decision. if i went by that attitude, i'd long ago have given up modship, and given up rs altogether.

so, the box noob, if you're reading this... great job, that was. and go on, don't give it up. it's the world, and you might as well stand out even further from it.

be nice.

"nice" isn't a good word. it wasn't meant to be, not in shakespeare's time, and i daresay not when it was thought up. neither now, wouldn't be too bad an idea either.

nice is a word you use to describe someone you don't know. it's a word for a stranger that can pass off as an acquaintance. it's a word you write on cards when you don't have any anecdotes to put down. it's a neutral word with positive connotations and a whole different implication underneath. "what's she like?"

"she's a nice girl."

nice what. nice how. nice she can suck up? nice she can act? nice she's so nondescript there isn't any nicer adjective to describe her.

i'm nice, people say.

people mean, i suck.

so most people don't get that meaning. so most people don't think. so most people are inane enough to take niceness as an acceptable (i'm not even saying commendable) exterior.

or maybe it's idealism. don't ask me.

never mind that i'm advocating niceness. "that wasn't very nice..." to initiate peace. "be nice? :)" as an answer to a stupid question.

i want to say to them. niceness isn't an attitude. isn't an action. isn't a mode you switch to just because you want the rewards for it. it's a way of life.

it's not niceness, per se. it's a side effect of goodness, of morality, of just being bloody human. so say my standard of what it is to be human isn't reasonable. to me, that's what it is. a lesser manifestation of all those things.

nice isn't buying an inventory full of newcomer maps, or making iron meds and distributing them. we've got a word for it here. that word's extra. it's called, condemming that person, and every other person who has the misfortune to meet them and dare to have a combat level higher than their own, by instilling in them the value that begging's right.

nice isn't dispensing useless advice to choobs of high-leveled players who aren't going to insult intelligence they think you have by telling you otherwise. read the knowledge base if you don't know anything. google it. what is wrong is your laziness, not anything about the game, not by far.

don't give me that crap called cynicism, because i'm not buying it. being realistic is one thing. faith is another all together. they can co-exist. they do. suck on th at.

so many.

so many people begging.

attitude shift, perhaps?

it's demeaning. diminishing your sense of self worth.

stop already.