Forums are very quiet....

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

Ah, naturally engaging with them is a WHOLE OTHER LEVEL of attempted sympathy that I am dead sure is beyond most of us. But to say the actions of others are beyond basic understanding just because you wouldn't do it? I think that's intellectually lazy. Please note I don't mean that as an insult: we have to be intellectually lazy sometimes or we'd all just sit around thinking all day and then who'd make the toilet paper?

Besides, you just gave your own example of a thing you do that is beyond you (and it's absolutely the one I was thinking of bringing up, so thanks for that! :)). It's a bad habit, isn't it? So surely you can extrapolate your feelings towards your own bad habit and then apply to someone else's. The circumstances might be different but the core feeling and motivation might not be.

Also, I don't think it's self-loathing at play; it's self-satisfaction being poorly pursued and met. 'I hate it but I do it anyway' for something entirely voluntary (at least compared to, say, basic life needs by whatever standards are set by whatever society of which one is a part) might be masochistic but masochism isn't self-loathing. It's literally finding pleasure in pain (OR TEDIUM, apparently -- appropriate!). And those who make the effort to actually talk about their masochism, to lament publicly? My guess would be the whole thing is tinged with a healthy sprinkling of martyr complex -- myself being no stranger to that mode.

Understanding is not the same as sympathising. And here we can substitute 'understanding' with 'empathy' BUT only in a literal sense, since people often understandably (teehee) confuse the two. Empathy is simply when you understand someone else's situation but don't necessarily feel it yourself. Sympathy is what you're talking about: feeling as someone else to understand it, which is...dangerous, in my opinion. Sympathy is the fast track to losing objectivity and rationality.

And to engage with others is absolutely how sympathy begins -- it takes a very careful approach to retain empathy when confronted with others' extreme feelings. Thankfully you don't have to to merely understand them.

Just because you can grasp the understanding of what makes a person do things you never would doesn't mean you have to engage with them. Shit, half the reason we seek to understand others through a lens we consider safe and sane is precisely so we DON'T have to engage with them, because to do so is to lose that safety and sanity.

The ONLY reason I can engage with Exiles here is because I have been one. This whole thing, this ridiculous show of futility and self-flagellating, would be utterly batshit to me otherwise. I know because when I glance at any other game's forum and see zealous ranters that is my initial reaction. Red alert! Red alert! Game junkies detected! But then I *empathise*: oh, that's right, this is how I acted on the PoE forum. And act, to a degree.

Is that empathy or sympathy? Sort of an in-between. I don't feel that way anymore but I remember feeling something like it.

Similarly, I remember feeling like I was wasting my time with PoE, that the game was 'making me feel stupid'. My breaking point was obviously well below 40/40, but I still found it and confronted it. And it took years. Tens of thousands of words. And dollars. But mostly words. Is there that much difference between someone getting 40/40 and then feeling like they've wasted their time (but obviously planning to do it again next league) and someone writing more feedback on a forum that is largely ignored by its owners than anyone else...knowing it's a waste...and then coming back to do it again, all the while throwing money into a fire? I don't think so.

So when you say you it's beyond your understanding, again, I think you're a wee bit in denial there. And that's fine too: we don't *want* to understand that which we find repulsive or monstrous or wasteful or without value. That challenges our own ideas of what is not those things. That's unpleasant.

And the kicker is I'm not even saying any of those to empathise OR sympathise with you. I'm just using what I perceive as an intellectual dishonesty in your stance to go off on a rant that doesn't seem like it has anything to do with PoE but of course is 100% about what PoE really is, which is an activity I enjoy deeply. Thank you for that. :)

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LiMA6 wrote:

IDK why you gotta type all that, I mean the guy doesn't like me obviously. I might have argued with him in the past, and others. When my points have validity and theirs not so much so, and i'd point such out to bitter ends --- they'd try to avoid having direct conversations with me. I'll leave it at that.

I still think 40/40 is a waste of time. But then again, so is playing this game, and so is any game at all and even posting in this forum. So to some extent, I don't know why I do what I do. And I don't know why GGG do what they do. Who knows why anybody does anything.

Look at the bright side at least, the title of this topic isn't so legit anymore.

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LiMA6 wrote:

I think I can see why they made changes to flasks. It's because of mageblood, and because I do use mageblood...... well, feels good. It's so good because I'm such a lazy player. Being able to run so fast without spamming flasks is just so nice. So I've kinda grown with the changes to flasks. Obviously when flask changes were introduced I was totally opposed to it to the point I didn't bother logging in, I think it was expedition.

I have multiple east,west which I can donate. Just ask.

But yea I'm not happy with the economic aspect of this league.

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SeCKSEgai wrote:

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LiMA6 wrote:

I think I can see why they made changes to flasks. It's because of mageblood, and because I do use mageblood...... well, feels good. It's so good because I'm such a lazy player. Being able to run so fast without spamming flasks is just so nice. So I've kinda grown with the changes to flasks. Obviously when flask changes were introduced I was totally opposed to it to the point I didn't bother logging in, I think it was expedition.

I have multiple east,west which I can donate. Just ask.

But yea I'm not happy with the economic aspect of this league.

That actually brings up one of the more longterm issues I've had with PoE, seeing things nerfed in order to elevate other gearing/items.

I get they needed to come up with a new chase unique sooner or later, but a lot of the legacy gear in its strongest form would be highly sought after. One of these days I might eventually get a legacy Kaom's but at least I can say I have a legacy starforge or two that I found on my own.

I'm still bitter about shimmeron's as I wanted to enjoy them a bit more in standard.

On a side note - going back to this league's mechanic, I did an innocence treant brine king abberath and only net two exalts. Given the time invested to build out all those recipes that was a huge letdown. Maybe I should have waited to build another kitava but I basically had just 3 rows left that weren't filled with completed recipe tokens and needed to burn something to make room.