The Magic-Walmart myth

[Nellisir]

...any of a number of misspellings of 'medieval'. The last one being the most original element.

You mean my thief character isn't a "mydeevul rouge"?

 

[Raven Crowking]

You mean my thief character isn't a "mydeevul rouge"?

Ultimately, "You misspelled gingwatzim!" is the fallback position for anyone whose argument is failing.

Sorta like "wrongbadfun".

 

[Nellisir]

Also from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambiguous

Psychology and Management

An increasing amount of research is concentrating on how people react and respond to ambiguous and uncertain situations. Much of this focuses on ambiguity tolerance. A number of correlations have been found between an individual’s reaction and tolerance to ambiguity and a range of factors.

Apter and Desselles (2001)[3] for example, found a strong correlation with such attributes and factors like a greater preference for safe as opposed to risk based sports, a preference for endurance type activities as opposed to explosive activities, a more organised and less casual lifestyle, greater care and precision in descriptions, a lower sensitivity to emotional and unpleasant words, a less acute sense of humour, engaging a smaller variety of sexual practices than their more risk comfortable colleagues, a lower likelihood of the use of drugs, pornography and drink, a greater likelihood of displaying obsessional behaviour.

This is interesting, albeit verging on making a roundabout personal attack on some of the posters. These things correlate to a -lower- tolerance for ambiguity, or higher?

 

[Numion]

a greater likelihood of displaying obsessional behaviour.

Does > 150 posts in a ~500 post thread qualify as 'obsessive behaviour'?

 

[Nellisir]

I agree with this as well. I just happen to also agree with Hussar that its predominant usage includes a negative connotation.

I agree that, taken at face value, the term is neutral. It's -value- however, largely comes from the negative connotations. If that weren't so, it'd be interchangable with Magic Woolworth or Magic Sears & Roebuck, and I don't think it is in most cases. People just don't have the same nostalgia for Wal-mart that they do for Woolworths (it's tough to miss something that won't go away).

 

[Doug McCrae]

Okay, if you think that one of the senses of MW-M is to refer to the default position on magic item trade in the core rules, then say that instead.

Instead of 'My game contains magic Wal-Marts' you could say 'My game follows the RAW regarding magic item trade'.

If you think it means magic items can be easily bought and sold then say 'In my game magic items can be easily bought and sold'.

If you think it means a single big store then say 'My game has a single store selling all magic items'.

If you want to say that the 3.5 magic item rules suck then say they suck. At least we know what you mean now.

And so on. Practically any reasonably terse description is better than MW-M, because MW-M has so many different senses - a single big store, the default rules, negative connotations, no negative connotations.

 

[Raven Crowking]

This is interesting, albeit verging on making a roundabout personal attack on some of the posters.

I thought of it more in lines of supporting Midknightsun's diagnosis of disfunction. YMMV, especially in light of:

These things correlate to a -lower- tolerance for ambiguity, or higher?

Lower, the way I read it, but it is (funny enough) pretty damn ambiguous on the point. I clipped the part about leadership on the wiki, because it didn't seem to be saying anything at all.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Does > 150 posts in a ~500 post thread qualify as 'obsessive behaviour'?

Yes.

Clearly I need to increase my explosive activities, variety of sexual practicesand use of drugs, pornography and drink to decrease displaying obsessional behaviour.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I agree that, taken at face value, the term is neutral. It's -value- however, largely comes from the negative connotations. If that weren't so, it'd be interchangable with Magic Woolworth or Magic Sears & Roebuck, and I don't think it is in most cases. People just don't have the same nostalgia for Wal-mart that they do for Woolworths (it's tough to miss something that won't go away).

Or Ben Franklins. You remember those?

Man, I'm old.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Okay, if you think that one of the senses of MW-M is to refer to the default position on magic item trade in the core rules, then say that instead.

Okay, if you think that one of the senses of D&D is to refer to the default core rules, then say "default WotC core 3.5 RAW" instead.

Instead of 'I'm playing D&D' you could say 'My game follows the WotC 3.5 RAW regarding rules'.

If you are using house rules then say 'In my game we are following the default WotC core 3.5 RAW' instead of 'D&D'.

If you want to say that the 3.5 rules suck then say the WotC default 3.5 RAW suck. At least we know what you mean now.

And so on. Practically any reasonably terse description is better than D&D, because D&D has so many different senses - OD&D, RC D&D, Holmes boxed set, 1e AD&D, 2e AD&D, with houserules, without houserules, with 3rd-party material, without 3rd-party material, with splatbooks, without splatbooks, with negative connotations, without negative connotations.