GameBanshee Forums

by CM
But the American system places a great deal of emphasis on High school as a growing experience. Why is that? All the teen movies are around this time etc. I never understood that. College is the main development stage in my culture or when a person starts to work.

I agree that college is a development stage when people start to work. On the flip side, High School is real important in personal growth. Kids/Teens 13-17 go through a lot of changes in those years; I believe they serve as very formative years for the personality we carry with us into our adult life.

As far as the movie world goes, targetting high school is easy. I think most people here look back on high school and view the era as tacky and trendy. That's just what an abundance of teens follow. Movies and music form such trendsetters for a lot of high schoolers, not to mention they are a financial gold mine. Teen movie exploit the troubles and frustrations associated with high school and their target audience are the very people they mock and they love it flocking to theatres and music stores alike.

In school i was famous, i had respect from the younger years and tolerance from the older and my year just thought i was crazy...i am not sure how wrong they were...

Basically i was known by everyone in the school for most of the time for being The Boy Who Wasn't There, it was weird, if anything i was my own social circle in school, i was aquainted with everyone and everyone got along with me but i only had a few friends and i don't even speak to them anymore.

I was somewhat of a loner but i couldn't really be anything else in my situation.

Academically i was both fantastic and poor, it would depend on how i felt in that day, there would be entire English lessons where the lesson seemed to be for me alone and there would be others where one wouldn't know i was in the room. I would always get asked the questions and have to get the answers off someone else because i just didn't have the teaching, on several occasions i would say to my friend "Why don't you just answer the question, it would be a lot easier!", teachers weren't impressed

Of course i only came out of high school with 6 grades, but then i only took 6 subject

It's a long history and told much better in person, the actual facts meld together and it is difficult to remember it all, who knows, someday i might get around to documenting it "The Wonder Years" would be the title i think

I was very shy. Very quiet. Did my schoolwork and blended into the background. I was a nobody, had no great ambitions to be anybody, had no encouragement from school or home to try to become anything at all. We did not have the money to buy the 'fashion' to fit in, I had no real academic strengths, and I had to work hard for what I got. I lived in an area where girls left school at sixteen and worked in a shop until they started a family. All I knew was I wanted more than this.

Then I accidentally happened into a job centre and applied for a job in London. Then I played bad girl for many years to make up for lost time, to find this evasive identity Never looked back since I did all of my growing up on the streets of London.

Like Frogus describes (I am getting more and more convinced he must be my secret son) I was both smart and different, which for some strange reason led to popularity and respect...

This leads me to thinking...

I also had a circle of very arty and intellectual (yes, very pretentious) friends, people I sat up all night and discussed art, philosophy and literature with....white shirts and 40's style Italian suits, sometimes with Oscar Wilde-style scarves instead of tie....

Please see attached photo of me.

She called me to her room and accused me of taking drugs.

Exactly the same thing happened to me the term before summer! It was started by a paranoid teacher of mine who has always suspected me of something...being a red, a deviant, who knows , and once noticed me with an object given to me by a friend of mine when she just got back from Israel. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it's a tiny book full of Hebrew which supposedly protects the holder from danger on journeys...it is small and black, and I carry it about my person in one of those little, press fasten bags like those which one keeps draw in...she examined it, but, upon finding that it was clean, did not abandon her pursuit, but took me in for questioning, piling stories of OD'd, dead, and crazy people she has known from drugs in the past. Bluffing (as I am sure my blood is not clean) I offered to go with her on the spot and have my blood tested, but she did not take me up on it, and so now (I believe) has no more right to accuse me of drug taking. My dilemma is that whenever I do anything wierd from now on, she will assume that it is drugs causing it, not just innate wierdness...

Anyway, in conclusion, I am proud to announce CE as my second official SYM parent .

And, to keep on topic - Isn't it interesting that everyone seems to be describing a similar model for their high-school persona?
Independant, not associated with groups, but apparently friendly with all of them, smart yet rebelious (complaicent?), and defnately 'wierd' or unusual. I wonder what it is that attracts this highschool-person to RPing

Originally posted by frogus
And, to keep on topic - Isn't it interesting that everyone seems to be describing a similar model for their high-school persona?
Independant, not associated with groups, but apparently friendly with all of them, smart yet rebelious (complaicent?), and defnately 'wierd' or unusual. I wonder what it is that attracts this highschool-person to RPing

The only group i didn't get on well with was the attainable women For some reason i was really friendly with the out-of-my-league women and the I-wouldn't-ever women but not the actual ones i was interested in relationships with, that was due to social ineptitude of course

There were people who didn't like me, but to my knowledge i only had about 3 enemies

@Attachment, very...austere (cool pic )

Originally posted by frogus
Anyway, in conclusion, I am proud to announce CE as my second official SYM parent .

The only thing that worries me is that Kayless is first parent...

Lovely picture Frogus You would have fitted in perfectly among my intellectual teenage friends.

And, to keep on topic - Isn't it interesting that everyone seems to be describing a similar model for their high-school persona?
Independant, not associated with groups, but apparently friendly with all of them, smart yet rebelious (complaicent?), and defnately 'wierd' or unusual. I wonder what it is that attracts this highschool-person to RPing

Yes, I have noticed this too...although I don't think RPGing is the common ground here, I think the attraction to SYM is. I for one was totally uninterested in RPG:s, still is in fact, apart from some computer games. I believe Ysh, Georgi, Weasel and several others here have not been RPGing either.

Originally posted by C Elegans


Yes, I have noticed this too...although I don't think RPGing is the common ground here, I think the attraction to SYM is. I for one was totally uninterested in RPG:s, still is in fact, apart from some computer games. I believe Ysh, Georgi, Weasel and several others here have not been RPGing either.

True

I stumbled into SYM from the SoA forum after a following a certain person who had the habit of posting prejudiced remarks and fleeing I did try to follow the Anomen thread - honest!

A few years ago, in grade 6, I was the nerd everyone knew. I always wanted to be "cool", and I tryed to be other people, and I tryed at school, and such things. I was also a loser type kid, and loner type, but I had friends.

Then I changed.

Now, after many mutations (thats the right word ), I'm just me. At first glance, I'm the nerd kid who wears black and/or baggy clothes. For the people who know me and have ever talked to me, I'm a nice kid (to nice people), and to the meaner type people, someone not to f*** with. I never resort to violence, although I have many ways of getting vengence, and people know this. I dress the way that makes me feel good about myself, which is kind of skater/rocker/goth style. I do fairly well in school (although I could be getting much higher), although I am one of the smartest people I know (and I'm not being arrogent, many people believe this too). I refuse to do drugs. I'm part of the rather small rocker/goth crowd in my school, in which everyone is "informed", and dress the way they want to. People help each other and stand up for each other (and keep some people, like me, from commiting suicide). We talk about basically anything, nothing is ignored or anything (although sex as a topic comes up rather frequently ). We're all just who we are. We're also rejects from all the other groups (they all made/make fun of us all the time, but we have a riot over it, since we can screw with their minds ). I was always a reject in previous years, until I found my group this year. I have never and will never be popular with girls; only girls who know me and like me for who I am (a crazy freak) will ever go out with me.

But, almost all of my friends are girls, and all my best friends are girls. They tell me I'm the type that is easy to be friends with, and easy to be best friends with. I'm best friends (I tell them most things, and they tell me everything) with about 5 girls, and they all say that I'm a great friend.

Also, I'm the depressed one, and one mostly likely to commit suicide. But I personally know I will never do it, because I would never go without saying goodbye to everyone that helped me, and in doing so, they would always talk me out of it.

There are several main groups at my school:

The preps (ugh, so many of them). They hate us and we hate them (although we have fun doing it, they actually hate us).
The rappers/druggies. The ones we refuse to associate with.
The ginos/ginas. Another annoying group.
The skaters. Friends with alot of them, but sometimes the group at our school is a little too moronic.

And finally, us, the rocker/goth crowd. Long live rock music.

I'm not quite sure which group I was in. I guess I could count myself as a geek (nerds, squares whatever...) but I was never hasled by the "Jocks". My relations with others was good and I guess I commanded some respect from others. I was a quiet person and I still am. I studied hard, got good grades and ended up Dux of the school (but I reckon the award should've gone to someone else).

I was a major nerd in high school. How surprising huh? Never bothered me, and it still doesn't.

If I hadn't gone out to dinner with some co-workers tonight, I was going to draw the same conclusions about SYM's core membership that our friends frogus and C Elegans did. Namely that the folks who frequent SYM are generally of above average intelligence and education, we generally operate out of mainstream groups or classifications and that we tend to think for ourselves.

As C Elegans points out not everyone is intersted in role-playing games, but I think it's fair to say that nearly all of us have played RPGs at one point in our lives or another, and it's equally fair to say that the vast majority of the people at SYM started coming to GameBanshee through our interest in BG2 (it is the "Official Fan Site" after all) or some other CRPG associated with this site.

It's a generally accepted sociological principle that people of like types stick together, whether their common ground is skin colour, religous or cultural background or, in the case of GameBanshee, a common interest. What is interesting to me is that despite our differences in culture and nationality, it seems that many of us share similar adolescent experiences regardless of the lattitude and time zone we call home.

I've said before that GameBanshee (and particularly SYM) is one of the most civil and pleasant forums on the internet, and I believe that the common experience many of us share, of not necessarily fitting in with our peers, draws this community together and allows us to blow our tops off at each other, share our personal pains and celebrate our individual triumphs together as a sort of extended worldwide family (although the whole Kayless, C Elegans, frogus thing is too freaky for me).

Without wanting to overstate possible similarities between different SYMers, I do think it is a case of a rather extreme selection. There are many steps in this selection.

Firstly, although we all come from different cultures, countries, age groups and backgrounds we have all played at least one computer game and we all use computers. Most people in the world disappear by that selection mechanism only.

Secondly, we liked BG enough to look for information about it on internet. We found Gamebanshee, and we liked it enough to stay.

Finally, we found SYM and we decided to stay here and post a lot. With so many levels of selection, I think it is not surprising that we show similar features. And in psychology it is well known that the adolescent years affect a person's development and characteristics a lot, often even more than the childhood years.

Originally posted by HighLordDave
I've said before that GameBanshee (and particularly SYM) is one of the most civil and pleasant forums on the internet, and I believe that the common experience many of us share, of not necessarily fitting in with our peers, draws this community together and allows us to blow our tops off at each other, share our personal pains and celebrate our individual triumphs together as a sort of extended worldwide family (although the whole Kayless, C Elegans, frogus thing is too freaky for me).

This I totally agree with, in my although limited experience, the most civil and less arrogant. And what is freaky with a handsome disco frog and a smart nematode having a handsome and smart frog son?

First of all, congrats on 2K @HLD.

I found that, while I didn't ever fit in as such in high school, once people thought that I was just weird because of being permanently high (though I never got high at school, and not that often out of it either) things went a lot more easily. For some reason it was okay (even 'cool') to be weird because you're a pothead, rather than just because that's the way you are.
Irrespective, it made things much easier for me and meant I didn't have to change my behaviour in the meantime (plus I got invited to more parties), so I did what I could to encourage the reputation.

Originally posted by C Elegans
The only thing that worries me is that Kayless is first parent...

Now why would that worry you my dear?

Originally posted by HighLordDave
(although the whole Kayless, C Elegans, frogus thing is too freaky for me).

I wonder why? Could it be because I have the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament? Or is it because I'm fanatical advocate of disco, amphibians, and obscure fugly animals?

Originally posted by C Elegans
And what is freaky with a handsome disco frog and a smart nematode having a handsome and smart frog son?

We’re just like one of those 50’s sitcom families. We could get our own show and call it Leave it to Frogus.

Originally posted by Kayless
. We could get our own show and call it Leave it to Frogus.

Not Kayless Knows Best?

Originally posted by HighLordDave
Not Kayless Knows Best?

Ooooh! I like the way you think!

But wait...Kayless doesn't have his disco frog avatar anymore...instead, he has transformed into a raccoon or some other furry mammalia. I'm going to demand sole custody!

i was a very forgetful kid in primary school...i even forgot to bring my school bag to school (we don't have lockers)
i am what i would call a very blur person....This went on until i reached primary 5,6. Then suddenly i thought it's very important to pass tests and exams...so i did. Ha! (i actually passed my math PSLE too) hihhihihii

In secondary school i told myslef that i want to excel in school so
i joined the badminton club and won a gold for my interclass competition.
i joined the school editorial board and became the secretary..then the artclub where i became the president...Then choir where i also became the president and manage to win a silver for the school in some singing competition...the student council where i became the social executive....The computer club which i just joined..
the catch is i had to sacrifice my grades to cope with my extra curricular activities ...(but these were one of the best times i have had).

In polytechnic i decided that i had enough of extra curricular in secondary school so i joined nothing (not a single club) and concentrated in my studies..and i think i did pretty well and graduated in the top 10%...

I seem like a very bubbly outspoken person but i am actually very quiet personal and i tend to stick to myself. I have lots of very close friends but that relationship is based on a 1 to 1 thing....i don't seem to be able to mix well in a group. i need alot of time to myself to think and just relax....

sometimes it scares me just how much i like being alone (unattached)....i sometimes feel like a lone spirit inhuman and drifting...

i heard a chinese saying that goes.
before i met you my being single gives me a sense of freedom,
after i have met you and lost you, that sense of freedom becomes loneliness.

Well i can agree that i didnt fit in during my high schools years at all. College is where i really fit in. Also i noticed that people here are not clic orientated. A majority move between groups or dont actually have a group, rather they are everywhere or nowhere. I wonder how people changed in College. I know i changed greatly....more confident etc. I personally think college has a more profound change on a person.

Originally posted by C Elegans
But wait...Kayless doesn't have his disco frog avatar anymore...instead, he has transformed into a raccoon or some other furry mammalia. I'm going to demand sole custody!

Jeeze, I would've thought you of all people would recognize an animal as common as this household pet (it's a ferret). But the custody thing’s probably not a bad idea, since we all know that ferrets are part of the WEASEL family.