Survivor XV opinions and other useless stuff.
Well, I guess it is my time to rant about it, heh. After 2004's sort of drama-ridden tournaments, I thought SXV would be better in that department and it was, in a way. This time, I sponsored Wild Arms 3' Clive Winslet, who was an intellectual sniper and wore cowboy style clothes. I really like the character, so I figured that it wasn't a bad idea
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Lastly, as far as the great Fallen scheme (or whatever you care to think of it as,) I think you are selling yourself short by just calling yourself the "cannon fodder" in the plan. Mith has been saying something similar and she is just as incorrect as you are. There was literally not a sponsor on the list who did not either come under fire or involve him/herself in our plan. Even Switchblade - who we all agreed we wanted to see in the final based on how he had been writing - tossed in a Helping Hand to me and to Krizak, which hardly made him seem innocent because Kriz and I unleashed some serious pain and it was mostly thanks to him. The only person spared from extreme wrath was Peptuck because he was neither on the initial targets list (although he would have been if it were up to me) and wasn't among the initial launchers of drano. The fact is that whether certain people would be seen as "ringleaders" or would be used as "cannon fodder" was just not something we ever considered. Proc and I hatched a scheme that I felt put the four people that were "agreed" to be worthy of heading to the finals on a very good track towards getting there. What we (and I include Kriz and Cynt here because they were the other two key participants and they shared this motivation) wanted to do was launch a great offensive assault. We needed the help of sponsors to do it (because we could not provide for maximum damage output without a couple of Destiny Bonds and Helping Hands.) I don't know what Proc told you, but I don't believe anybody was forced to be in "or else". Without sponsor help the scheme simply would not have come to full fruition. You might think (as Seril does) that what we did was not right because Fallen should not have that much influence, and that's your decision to make, but to say that you didn't like it because it cast you as "cannon fodder" is just not fair to us, as that was never the case.
I think you are right that Switchblade was the overwhelming favorite going into the finals, but this was not because he was left out of our scheme entirely - perhaps he was not as overtly "guilty" as you, but he was certainly involved. Most people probably just felt like he was writing the best by the end of it and that was why he sailed into the second phase and ultimately became the victor. Only one person can win these things and sooner or later everybody else has to lose. This time it happened to be Switch, but I would not say it means you will never get to see the finals again, or win. Have some faith in yourself (and your fellow RIers, heh.)
Well, that's all I wanted to say. I hope you think about some of this and try not to be so hard on yourself.
-Mark
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First, about the Heal trading. I think I was one of the first, in Round One, to unleash any sort of damage against someone (Draco) while everybody else seemed too afraid to do anything, since there were virtually no no-shows in that round and instead just spent their votes healing their allies. In the latter rounds, I chose to trade heals because it became clear to me that people were taking personal offense on getting voted, and I really didn't want to bother myself with it, especially with the cliques taking care of each other. I wanted to go on, of course, so I decided just to focus on my writing and wait for people to ask me if I wanted to trade with them... and that was basically it, really. I just didn't want to hear people complaining about how unfair I was being and how the person I might be voting against had done nothing to me and the like.
As for interacting, I think I've expressed myself wrongly here - in the second round, it just seemed like you had more interesting plans than to be stuck with Clive, and that's understandable, since you didn't know him at all. That wasn't the reason why I started disliking the round. I started disliking it because of what happened afterwards - and THAT's what really took all the fun away. People had plans and people didn't want to improvise, unfortunately. Still, it was in no way your fault and I most certainly do not think you were being selfish. I hope it's clearer now.
As for the fourth round 'drive-by', one of the reasons why I didn't think it was funny was just that: it wasn't funny. It wasn't the point. I mean, the point of round 4, in Moonside, was to have people to let their imagination flow and be creative instead of focusing on who voted on who and in which way people ended up voting, with the dual thread dynamic. One of the reasons why I went to Moonside was because I actually thought it was something cool to do, and because it gave me new ideas to try - and I'm sure you felt that way during that round, because your writing that round was what gave me the idea of going there in the first place. The 'drive-by' was unimportant and most certainly not funny.
And, finally, regarding the fallen thing (I never called it Fallen Alliance or Fallen scheme, unless you can point it out in my post and make me really embarrassed :p), I think it's all cleared up. I just didn't really wanted to target Onyx and Luna AGAIN because, as I said before, people were taking offensive votes personally, and I didn't want any more drama.... and that's just what happened. I mean, I wanted to win, but all it did was to make me feel more of an 'outsider'. I don't really question the Final results, and I'm personally glad Switch won, since this was his best work. It'd be wrong if he hadn't (and THEN I'd be complaining about it).
And yeah. I don't know - well, you remember RTSG's finals and stuff. It was frustrating and all and, after three finals, you kind of expect not to get very far. I don't think it's some people have something against me, it's just that I always feel ignored when I actually get there. I mean, you were in the chatroom during two of my final appearances, and you know how that went. It's more of a personal constatation rather than whining about it - even when I was in my absolute best, I wasn't able to attract people's attention enough so that they would enjoy it as I enjoyed writing.
And that's about it... I hope I didn't sound rude or anything. If I did, let me know, please.
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The drive-by was not intended to be funny. Other people saw it as such. Now it is a channel running gag, and that is OK with me because I think the gag is funny. But doing that was not something that I did to try to be funny. I did it because it was the best option available to me in the rules to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish. Anybody *could* have done it if they thought of it and were so inclined to try a tactic that other people would probably write off as sneaky and under-handed; I just happened to be the only person who fit both of these criteria.
And I think we have different opinions on what the intent of the split round was. I saw it pretty much the opposite of you. It was meant to change the dynamic of the voting, not to lessen the importance of voting but rather to heighten it. With smaller pools and three people being eliminated per side, that made things almost more chaotic than it would have been with six people being eliminated and everyone coming from the same pool. You could vote somebody who wasn't in your pool if you really wanted, it just would have been no tactical benefit to do so. There was also the possibility of going back and forth in the story, but this wasn't the primary intent, I don't think - we weren't allowed to go back and forth until halfway through the round, but the split dynamic was there from the beginning.
That's really all I wanted to add.
-Mark
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