Thoughts

I've been thinking about ORGs lately and how much I used to love them and enjoy them to the fullest.. how many hours I used to spend talking to people in the games, caring about the games.. just being here ready to go. Then I think back to what did I used to do before I played them.. it still consisted a lot with talking to people and playing games online.. now yeah sure I still talk to people but I find myself more or less using the internet to watch shows that I miss because of work.

I'm in a couple ORGs right now and I'm just not feeling it like I used to.. it's almost like apart of me doesn't even care. I don't know if I'm just growing out of them or if it's just the people I'm playing with in them.. but something has seriously changed. I don't know if it's just because my priorities have changed or what. It's interesting though.. to just not care.. but maybe it is because of the crap I have went through with the ORG world as well.. as a whole. Like the people I used to consider good ORG friends.. are no longer friends with me.. I saw their true colors. The whole taking a break and seeing who really were friends and who were just using me for game purposes. It's honestly sickening to an extent.

It just makes me wonder what I've been doing all this time with playing all those games. Sure my life is changing a lot in the past 2 years.. and maybe that's why I feel this way.

I guess it brings to the total question of why do people play ORGs? Originally I started playing them because I loved the concept of it and I loved making new friends.. then I started to like the challenge part of it.. and I have played every strategy possible, as well as I've even hosted. But I'm starting to not like most of the people that play these games.. is there just a type that plays? What is that type? What happened to all those people I used to love to play with.. has most people just moved on and now we're stuck with a huge chunk of not very nice people?

I think one of the worst parts of ORGs now a days is that there is so many cheaters and people that just take things too far.. like making fake screen shots.. using PERSONAL information in games.. calling cops.. giving out phone numbers just to be a jerk. People using others and pretending to like them.. even outside of games.. just for the purpose of using them in future games.. This is what ORGs have become and I don't like it. I think it's chasing all of us that used to just play them for fun away. Why must people be this way? Why can't they just PLAY the game and look at it as a game.. and have it be fun.. they aren't fun anymore and I feel like it's because of these types of people that are emerging all over the place. The horrible things I've seen people do.. is just ridiculous. Even down to the point of recording phone calls.. and what's with video confessionals and massive skype calls now in games? What happened to normal written confessionals.. what has happened to ORGs over all!? Like in the REAL games.. the ones on TV.. I think that's what bothers me the most.. people can't make up fake proof of things.. people can't record you in those games.. why are people getting away with stuff like that in these games?

Is there anything we can do to stop this and bring back the fun of ORGs?

The short answer: no. Or at least not in the way you want:

Just like in real life, the game evolves. They'll never be able to "take back" the paranoia that will always exist because of Hidden Immunity Idols, even if they take them away. People will always consider making fakes, because it's been done before. Strategies will only pile up, never be forgotten.

It's the nature of games like this. People think of new and inventive ways to win, and just because they're new doesn't mean you can't still compete with the traditional ways. You just have to play that much harder. If anything, it creates new challenges.


The only real way to rejuvenate that feeling is to host a game with people who've never played before. Even then, you couldn't really play in that game, because you'd have an edge and it wouldn't be the "pure" game you seem to crave.

I dunno what to tell ya, really. It's a game, and sometimes you just stop having interest in em. Just like video games, or board games, or computer games, or anything for that matter.

There are always going to be a jerk or two in games that like to create a bunch of unneccessary drama. I do my best to ignore the jerks and bond with the cool peeps.

I don't like to play games where I know people, I find that I have more fun when I play random games with people that I dont know. I always make a friend or two and I like to test my ability to make it far in games without relying on friends.

I love the strategy aspect of survivor games online, typically Im a thinker.... I guess that is why I still enjoy ORG's. I try not to let the assholes get to me but sometimes they do. In the bb game that I am in right now, everyone seems pretty cool but the game hasnt been in progress long enough for me to figure out who the douches are.

When I enter a game and it turns out that Im not having fun, I just.... let them vote me out, I dont try in challenges, I become more or less inactive. There is no point in doing something that brings you NO enjoyment. Although I have a hard time doing this if I have a "partner" or someone in the game that is depending on me to help them. I do have a heart.

There is nothing I think that we can do overall to stop cheating, fake convo's/emails whatever.... However, Hosts could be more picky about who they let into their games. Thats why I do invite only games sometimes as a host. I dont like loser/idiot/pricks in my games but it still happens sometimes.

Hosts could put in their rules that if someone is caught spreading fake convo's that they could be removed, but it's hard to prove that. I mean, it could end up a he said she said ...... it's really hard for hosts to control this.

I dont think there is a certain mainstream type of person that playes these games. I meet people from all over the world and I find that most are all very different. Like I have been chatting with this gay dude who lives in CapeTown South Africa, I couldnt really compare him to any other gay dude I know. ....Having said that though, there ARE a lot of assholes online.

Justin and I find for the first time in OPS3 that people were using video chats on skype to communicate. It made it less fun for Justin and I to host cause they werent posting enough info in their journals for us to always know what was going on. Again, I think it will be up to the hosts in the future to change how games are played and players are treated.

There isn't much you can do as a host because players usually don't 'respect' the rules. Even simple ones like cross tribal communication, you have a friend who isn't on your tribe you might talk to them and unless they are a dick and tell the host you'll never know. And it's like that for all the rules you want to make to keep the game fresh...like aliases or whatever...since there isn't really cameras following you, you have no proof about who did what. It's annoying but you either deal with it and keep playing or don't. There isn't really a solution.

It's just tough sometimes. I do agree that games are so much fun when you don't know anybody in them.. of course my very first couple ORGs were my favorite ones because I didn't know anyone in them.. and obviously playing games with people you know just makes them that much harder. I don't know why people think playing games with people you are friends with is easier.. because it's not.. since you connect with some new people and then are like FML about who to stay loyal to lol.

But it gets harder and harder to find games that you don't know anyone in. Although I guess it must be getting easier since most of the vets I know have stopped playing. Maybe it is a good time to try out new games. But yet.. they just aren't the same or maybe I've just grown out of them.

I think the thing that bothered me the most.. is just finding out some people I used to talk to all the time that I felt so close to.. could care less to ever speak to me again.. for no reason at all and it's like wow and makes you doubt any other friendship you've formed in a similar manner.