Name: G.I. Jonesy
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Posts: 2441
Insecurity makes people do awful things. They live their lives belittling others and enlarging themselves with money and power. The more rich and powerful they get, the more they belittle others. They're never quite content though, because the problem is their own insecurity.

Selfish people are even worse. The anti-drug people are not against drugs because they care for the well-being of drug-users, they are against drugs because they care for their own well-being. Drugs aren't the answer, they say, (repression is). Just say no to drugs, (and yes to war). To suggest persecution is healthier for drug-users than drug-use itself (or even most drug-abuse), is outright insane. Are they insane? Maybe some of them, but most of them are just so selfish they'd rather persecute drug-users than be 'persecuted' by drug-users.

In some ways, the insecure and selfish are evil. Mostly, they're troubled and scared. The way these problems manifest themselves here, in the world of pro-gaming (Quake gaming, anyway), is that the people never strive to make this thing more than a recess playground, or a temporary means of winning a few extra bucks. Yes, instead of having self-confidence and thinking, "We can make this thing the greatest sporting empire the world has ever known.", people think, "Oh, it's just a hobby, and sometimes I get to fly around the world, and i'm not a nerd, really.".

I don't know why people are insecure and selfish. Something about their upbringing, i'd imagine? Myself, for example, never went to the same high-school two years in a row. Every new high school you go to, you have to start over meeting people and building up popularity. You quickly realize how stupid it all is, and stop participating. If you went to the same high-school every year, today, you would likely still care about popularity, at least among your own little high-schoolish group. It's probably a question best posed to a psychologist. A better question may be, what do we do about it?

The selfishness and insecurity of people, mostly the latter in this community, has always been a problem. If you have no confidence in yourself, or in what we're doing here, and you care so much about what other people think (you're a nerd, and video-games are for dorks and they're not sports and every other negative, belittling, demeaning attack on your self-esteem you've ever heard), it will continue being a difficult uphill battle where we hurt ourselves more than we are hurt by others. You could say, there's merit in changing our games and ourselves based on what detractors say. But I don't agree. I think our video-games will become better, if we change them based on what we actually like about them. If we all love video-games, then what's the problem? If we change them to be what others want them to be, maybe the games will become something we don't like. If we make our games so we don't like them anymore, than what the fuck is the point of even playing video-games?