User talk:Plinker

Some have questioned my goals with Wiki edits. Thus the following.

Thulsa Doom's Temple of Set contributes to the Urbandead community wiki

Please understand that everything about Thulsa Doom's Temple of Set Thulsa_Doom's_Temple_of_Set is a tongue-in-cheek parody intended to be lighthearted and fun for both zombies and survivors. You'll notice this in everything that is written about and by the Temple of Set. It's simply a way to announce our presence and invite everyone to come and play on our checkerboard, regardless of whether they want to be red checkers or black checkers (zombie or survivor).

The pages we create contribute to the *whole* community in the following ways:

1) From nothing, is something. Every page we create is placed in a spot where there was ABSOLUTELY NO PAGE PREVIOUSLY. No one EVER cared about that spot and nothing ever happened there. Frankly, noting of interest ever WILL happen there unless a group like ours puts down a flag and invites others to come and play. After all, they are not resource buildings, nor malls, nor cathedrals, nor any other building that has any significance whatsoever in the game other than a place to sleep or pass through. The policy of keeping every posting neutral and news-like is a good one for areas of significance like Caiger Mall, for resource buildings where survivors are forced to go and maintain to resupply, and for town pages where there is a lot of mutual interest in the larger area. The policy keeps these dynamic and important areas collegial. However, this policy, if enforced, for EVERY little link (including streets!) in the map is misguided and guarantees that 90% of the pages in the wiki will never have anything posted there. After all, what could possibly ever be neutral-newsworthy at "a factory" in East Grayside Factory_62,82 or "wasteland" in Millen Hills Wasteland_51,15 unless a group can declare it "homebase" and invite others to come and wrest it away? Even if someone does dutifully post something there just to have "a page" up, the page is completely uninformative and provides nothing that isn't obvious from the main wiki map (e.g. which building are next door). See Cottey_Way for an example of such an uninformative "placeholder" page.

2) The pages we created are zombie equivalent of resource buildings. It is a place for zombies to go and band together and provide mutual assistance. In terms of purpose, it is no different than the various wiki pages declaring revive points for survivors, or declaring that a particular building is a training area for the DEM, or that a fire station is a protected resource area in a particular town. It just happens to be a designated spot for zombies (rather than survivors) to gather and work together.

3) In designating an area for zombies to declare their own, we are providing a service to both zombies and survivors. The use for zombies is obvious, but for survivors we provide an adversary in an otherwise boring and humdrum town with no notable malls or other features. By declaring those buildings ours we provide survivors with the necessity to go around and warn other survivors not to sleep there, that it's dangerous, and therfore give the local survivors a reason to patrol and a particular job to do in that area. This is very valuable for survivor groups in their role to help other survivors; we are a foe to attack, a reason to strive, a motivation. Everyone needs a mission and we give them one. By having the declaration of Thulsa Doom's Temple of Set in the wiki itself the survivors can point to the wiki and say "See! It's dangerous! Be careful here. Join us to defeat the menace." This is also to contribute to a general "spooky" feel of danger and drama for NE Reganbank.

4) It is funny. All the pages are written with the specific intent of being tongue-in-cheek humor that is hopefully transparent for both survivors and zombies alike. Regardless of whether you are playing a zombie or a survivor, you should realize that the wiki page is several things: comedy; saber rattling for a small zombie group; and a warning to survivors that the group is specifically targeting the building to hold as it's own turf. Therefore, the players may find the language amusing, and survivors may benefit by not sleeping there, and zombies may have a sense of "home". Granted, no humor is universal and perhaps not everyone thinks it's LOL funny, but that's our intent for community contribution.

In short, this practice is constructive to the whole community, is original and not commandeering any preexisting pages whatsoever, and is intended to be playfully adversarial so that we all, survivor and zombie alike, have a sense of purpose in the game.

Big Bash II

It starts Monday the 8th in Barhahville. See you there. -- Murray Jay Suskind 00:31, 1 October 2007 (BST)