Saturday, July 9, 2011

Forum Games People Play in the Middle of the Night

No, not like the Word Association game, Make a New Word or a Reaction thread, but games you can play with the forums and preferably with other players.



An example would be Mulch's Unregistered Bingo.

Second Citizen MKII:  Go to Quick Links and Who's Online.  See what the unregistered Guests are looking at.





For this example I have chosen the "This forum is colour shit" thread by Wasted.  Post a bingo bump.



Be prepared both for views and...well...um...some not so happy campers.  Not everyone enjoys this particular game and it can be viewed by some as...disruptive.  The level of annoyance will increase with both the frequency of play and with the sensitivity of the thread you bump.  Sleeping dogs and all that.

At the time of this writing there are 12 people viewing that thread post-bump of mine.  Four members and eight guests.  The first post to follow my bingo post is typical of the responses you will likely see to your own bingo posts.



gotVirtual:  Go to Members then Current Visitors.  See what the Guests are up to and then post in one of those threads.  You would, using the example below, post "Bingo!" in the "Against the Butt Sex" thread or the "What are you listening to?" thread.  I know which one I'd choose.



SLUniverse bingo is much the same as the others.  Go to Quick Links and Who's Online.  You get the idea.  It may be less disruptive if you play over multiple forums rather than just one...unless, of course, disruption is your goal.



For more information about Unregistered Bingo, please contact the originator of the game, Mulch.  Go ahead and tell him Lee sent you.  It will serve him right.





Another game is Who Am I?  Post as a well-known poster in the forum and have people guess who you are parodying.  Here is an example of Pig parodying Wasted Engineer in the "Do You Feel Annoyed by the Fags in SL" thread on gV.  (Wasted had posted a "Do you feel annoyed by the flags in SL?" thread earlier.)  Some of the entertainment comes from people not realizing you are doing a parody at all.





Another game you can play on forums is Scavenger Hunt.  Prepare a list of words and then go find posts with those words in them on the forums.  An example of this can be seen in my earlier blog post listing posts with the word "chicken" in them.  Borrowing an idea from the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt, I chose the word "umbilical" for the next scavenger hunt example.  I plugged the word "umbilical" into the Search functions of the forums.  Would it surprise you to know that there are ten threads on SC MKII that contain the word "umbilical"?  There are seventeen on SLU.  When you compare the two, taking into consideration the sheer size of SLU, it does seem to me to be a disproportionate number.  Go figure.  gV delivers (pardon the pun) exactly one "umbilical" post.  Not surprisingly it is a post made by Kick Frenzy.


Kick said in the "The Universe: What came before the Big Bang?" thread on gV:
"I think I get it and they're wrong, but on the right path.
Our universe is like an egg.The brane connection is like an umbilical cord.The sudden influx of material is like sperm entering the egg.
Then there was life.
So there. :D"

I did enjoy seeing both some expected titles and some humorously incongruous titles pop up on SC MKII with the "umbilical" search.

God On TrialThe Abortion Thread, Screaming babies in delivery roomsCrowd-Source Help Needed: Is This FlipperPAY's Butt Crack? , Passive-aggressive, chickenshit tagging

Prokofy Neva is the OP of the "Crowd-Source Help Needed: Is This FlipperPAY's Butt Crack?" thread.  Troy Vogel posted the "umbilical" post in response to something Coco said.

Coco said:
"If Lecktor bounces Prok down to the Cornfield, I'll go down there with him, and post nowhere else.
Course, some might find that notion attractive! 
"
Troy said:
"Now that's crazy talk...... why did you two share the same umbilical cord? I know siblings who show less loyalty. Frankly I think Prok is lucky to have someone like you backing her/him. A privilege s/he has yet to prove deserving.... in my opinion."
This is 23rdDJin's response to Sally Rosebud in the "Passive-aggressive, chickenshit tagging" thread started by the apparently aptly named PrettierHateMachine.

Sally said:
"I think some people might need to learn to step away from the computer. 

marmalade"
23rdDJin said:
"oh, they do...
and immediately log in from their cellphone or (insert favorite e-umbilical here)."
While you're scavenger-hunting you may come across useful tidbits of information like this from Jen in that "Passive-aggressive, chickenshit tagging" thread.  Bonus!

Jen said:
"Aside: Little tip I learned from a Missouri farm boy/ metalworker: when hailstones ding your car all over, don't take it to the shop [hundreds $$, and unsatisfactory results]: instead, wait for a really hot day when the metal gets almost too hot to touch & then throw icewater on the car- the sudden change in temperature causes the dings to pop themselves back out."
Of the "umbilical" Search returns on SLU, how can you not immediately go to the "Weird home remedies that work" thread?  Surely that will be less alarming and potentially more useful than anything in the "Circumcision" thread, no?

Geaven Gall said:
"here are some home remedies from asia you really don't want to experience first-hand (as told to me by my grandmother):

if your child has chicken pox, get another child to pee in a tub of water and bathe your child in the pee water  (apparently, this has been done to me when i was too young to protest, but i will spare you the details )

if you have a cut, dig up some fresh soil and pack it directly on the wound . how my grandmother never had gangrene, i'll never know.
and also, in the old days midwives used to cut umbilical cords by breaking a ceramic plate in two and using the broken part since it's supposed to be clean and untouched."
Ready for the "Circumcision" thread?  C'mon.  It's kinda funny.  Not graphically creepy at all.  Totally worth it.  Truuuuuust me.

Mocksoup Graves said:
"VIVA LA FORESKIN!"
Well, he did, but the relevant portion is this:
"LOL, I feel strongly about this."
Ann Launay said:
"Umbilical cords? "
Mocksoup Graves said:
"Don't you? I have a sack in the closet. I can share."
TMI?  Looking forward to visiting Mocksoup at home now?

This one came from the "Who's messing with the SL Wiki" thread.

Lance Corrimal said to Joshua Nightshade:
"right, because i imagine when you were born the doc threw out your sarcasm glands together with the umbilical cord and all the other stuff... let me make the introductions...
'Irony, this is joshua, he never heard of you before. be nice to him.'"

Another game is to match a thread to a soundtrack (What's the Thread Soundtrack?).  A drama thread would probably require something dark and foreboding or maudlin and a humor thread something light and peppy.  Or as you wish.  You would then call it and post a corresponding Youtube music video in the thread.


I do not recommend any game of Guess the ________ (Alt, Sockpuppet, Owner, Operator, etc.)  That's for advanced players and can lead amateurs to obsession, paranoia and madness, not to mention awkward incidents.


Lastly, for this blog post at least, is the Old Forum Chestnut Drinking Game.  You drink every time someone posts an old forum chestnut.  Make sure you are not planning to drive or operate heavy machinery shortly after playing.  Examples would be drinking every time:

1.  Tarzan mentions a psych ward or psych meds.
2.  Lias scolds someone for name-calling.
3.  nina says, "hey."
4.  Joshua gets accused of running SLU.
5.  Lum mentions Rand.
6.  Kick tries to interpret or arbitrate a thread.
7.  Pep mentions gNat, Scylla or Suspiria (Sus, Miss Piggy or MP).
8.  Someone brings up the infamous "Joshua stalking Prok allegation" or the size of Joshua's weiner.
9.  Someone addresses Cristiano as "Chris."
10.  Someone asks if it is time for tits.
11.  Someone plays virtual psychologist on the forums.
12.  Someone plays virtual lawyer on the forums.
13.  Someone flounces, ragequits or ragestays.


Anyway, there's a couple games for your consideration.  Could be fun.  YMMV.  Just don't tell me you're bored.

9 comments:

  1. you missed one in the Old Forum Chestnut Drinking Game.

    "Bams/Lain claims to be done with a thread/subject". many a time that little gem would have all of Moscow passed out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LOL

    I just *KNEW* someone would suggest a Lain bullet for the drinking game. I thought about putting one in there, maybe something about Lain mentioning any version of the word "hack" (hack, hacker, hacking) or talking about pot, but then I thought I'd leave it off and see if anyone suggested one in the comments section. We could probably create a ten-bullet drinking game on Lain alone.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Stephie says we could add the following...

    "trorg, troll, good times, good things"

    ReplyDelete
  4. Stephie wants to add this one to the drinking game:

    reading comprehension.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have noticed that if I use an "unusual" word (ie not one of the basic 10,000 required to graduate from an American High School with a basketball scholarship) it tends to propagate and even proliferate throughout the forumsphere after more enthusiastic - or perhaps more pretentious - readers use it, having looked up its meaning in some online dictionary, preferably not the Urban one. I consider this some sort of compliment, since my aim in virtual participation is of course not to entertain and be entertained, but the other two legs of the BBC mission statement, to inform and educate.

    Pep (So that readers can score a point on the drinking game, I will mention that since I used "jejune", just the once, it has become Suspiria's favourite word - and occasionally she uses it correctly.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. /me takes a shot and nudges Stephie on Skype.

    ReplyDelete
  7. another game, though i'm as yet uncertain how to work the alcohol factor into it, would involve tracing back each new word Lias misuses to where she first heard it. it used to be a lot easier than it would be today.

    ReplyDelete
  8. If you were playing the drinking game during this thread...

    http://gotvirtual.net/community/threads/crimes-against-convention-leehere-absent.2380/

    ...you should have at least gotten a buzz.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I swear this man either was the recipient of this particular crack himself one too many times or he really is a pharmaceutical rep.

    Tarzan said...

    "Getting out of the house is really a state of mind or a change of the state yours is in when you are active in this forum. Actually going outside and interacting with people can be helpful, though. A tab or two of Ativan when panic grips you can get you past the rough spots. Check with your mental health care provider. You do have one, right?"

    http://gotvirtual.net/community/threads/crimes-against-convention-leehere-absent.2380/page-34#post-108507

    Or he's Wasted's older and *slightly* less obsessive brother.

    ReplyDelete

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