[Ethnography]

[quote name='Chewett' timestamp='1296502779' post='78304']
Just to derail the topic more. Thats a load of BS. There were MANY different people devolping the learning about MANY different things. They just seem basic to us know and thus some people ignore them. You wouldnt say a Crossbow is "High Tech" but there was a lot of work that went into devolping it. Many scientific minds made gunpowder and all sorts of weponry way before the time you suggest.
[/quote]

Think what was discovered and built before late XIX/XX century. With a small exception of some mechanics of celestial bodies (I believe) researchers and engineers could immediately verify their claims - it either worked or not. It is the last 100 years that we move in the grey area. Example: what are huge high evenrgy facilities _really_ doing? Trying to find a trace of beings that are nessesary to make one theory work (incidentally - they keep moving threshold, no definite answers).

[Ethnography]

@Kamisha: A hundred years ago you could have assembled all top scientific minds of the time on a single real photo (OK let's say 50% to avoid arguments)and they could have talked and understand each other. Nowadays you have more PhDs than cab drivers and they all do research in more and more specialized areas, with less and less communication with general scientific community. Every single field have their authorities, refereed papers and conferences. And the very scale and dispersion makes _average_ research quality go down - and as there are more and more young angry men trying to get a foothold to immortality, some of them cannot withstand the pressure - and they cheat. It's just a statistical effect. A few years ago there were a few well publicized hoaxes in science - you may find info about them; there was also a White Paper and a set of guidelines for researchers I believe by American Physical Society. It's definitely worth scanning at leat.

My background is science (well, used to be anyway) - and whenever I came across some well published case of inexpected results in social sciences etc I begin reading with assumptions, experiment design, errors analysis. And quite often that is all I do as after reading these sections come to conclusion that the paper is rubbish - just a unqualified individual observation without scientific merit. But then I may only assume that heavy work and sound research cannot easily produce 'scientific discoveries' popular papers would notice :-P

@Kafuuka (we were wrinting simultanously): I think some arguments above are relevant. In a crowd of scientists of today some are competent - some are not; just like in every other profession :-P (and in developed countries science in many respects works as every other business; it's neither good or bad - it's just too big to work smoothly otherwise :-P)

[Activity days]

Why not quarterly activity appreciation giveaway - for activity in the last quarter? Nothing really big - nowhere near Christmas; but the tiny chance of getting some special crit would add a flavour; 2-day-old players (well, including myself if quarterly activity was measured) would not have unfair advantage

[Activity days]

Activity days: 105% (A total of 40 out of 38 days)

(First full day completed 24.30h after account was created)

[MD Calendar]

http://pagancalendar.co.uk/: quite a list... event though I suspect some people would argue with Russian Christmas Jan 7th as (Misc) Pagan holiday

[Story Night Comments]

Thanks for comments - constructive feedback is always appreciated!

[Ethnography]

Actually it seems to be a sound research practice - scientific ethos is dead and high time to realize that :-P Scientific results to be valid should by possible to verify and reproduce. Otherwise the temptation (especially for students, but many researchers as well) could be too strong - and raw data home production would follow. For any serious paper with non-trivial results first thing one should carefully read are assumptions - and data collection methodology.

[MP-Level as upgrade requirement]

It seems the idea died together with the discussion about it. Still, as a month old mp3 (planning to move mp4 after I finish Mya's quest) will support a few arguments already raised in this thread:
1. uniformity and even chances cannot be achevied in people controlled game (I would not consider it a balancing feature); alts, people will md friends and given mp veterans will most probably have advantage over complete noob long enough that the noob goes to the next mp - the question is: whether they would exploit the advantage spoiling the game for other players
2. my a month-old mp3 experience: no massive beefed-up abuse; I was attacked but a few times by some killer squads - much more annoying were elemental attacks I got quite a few times (I do not think accidental, learned how to deal with these); if people want to be ugly in a world with few rules, they will (and as far as gameplay is concerned, they are more deserving to be banned than just mp-semigods, just sitting around)
3. as for ultimate fighting in MD... my attraction to MD is a complex world with puzzles to figure out and people to interact... it's nice to collect trophies (crits) but as far as fight go MD is average, to put it mildly - would not expect many people to play the game for fighs alone
4 finally: I suspect that quite a lot of people leave the game as before they start reading and drop pre-existing typical game concepts they go mp4 and rules/ world they did have time to begin to understand get more complicated and a cushion to fall down - harder (and: they have already lost an opportunity to learn basics of tutorial quests); maybe some more effort and safeguaerd should be implemented to protect new players from their own initial conceptions
I do not own any unit upgraded high enough to matter here and plan to move up before it would matter - but even though my interest is not immediate I wouldn't consider it to be a major problem

[What you think about this?]

There may be one more explanation of decreasing number of daily votes - the site seems to be overloaded; when the contest begun I could always easily enter and vote a few times a day. Now most of the time it refuses connection (or loads forever). It may be that MD have steady voting population and other games increasing

[xrieg's crits for sale]

(inventory change, WTB BP)

[January Sale]

[s]No min bid mentioned, so:

Angien
ID: 510205
Age: 219
Tokens: purpurfog, blooddrop1, emeraldglare

Pimped Grassan
ID: 575199
Age: 267
Tokens: claw3, stardust

1sc each, if acceptable[/s]

Inadequate bids withdrawn :-)

[xrieg's crits for sale]

[font="Courier New"]Crits for sale
will sell [b]only[/b] for satisfactory price unless suggested price is set (read: please take it away, I hope to get that much)

crit name[color="#AFEEEE"].......[/color]age[color="#AFEEEE"].........[/color]date[color="#AFEEEE"]......[/color]tokens[color="#AFEEEE"]....[/color]suggested[color="#AFEEEE"]....[/color]current[color="#AFEEEE"]....[/color]bidder
[b]Joker (shop)[/b][color="#AFEEEE"]......[/color]1[color="#AFEEEE"]...[/color]Feb 23 2011[color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"]..........[/color]2sc[color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"]....[/color]
[b]Tormented Soul[/b][color="#AFEEEE"]..[/color]315[color="#AFEEEE"]...[/color]Feb 11 2011[color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"].......[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"]......[/color]
[b]Remains[/b] 700200[color="#AFEEEE"]...[/color]30[color="#AFEEEE"]...[/color]Feb 11 2011[color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"].......[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"]......[/color]

Remarks:
1. offers in this thread or forum/ in-game PM
2. crits/ coins accepted
3. if given a choice, would prefer strong young crits to age them myself rather than weaker aged ones

Sold:
[s]Pimped Grasan[/s][color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color]6[color="#AFEEEE"]...[/color]Jan 15 2011[color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"].........[/color][color="#FF0000"][sold][/color][color="#AFEEEE"]......[/color]
[s]Pimped Grasan[/s][color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color]6[color="#AFEEEE"]...[/color]Jan 15 2011[color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"].........[/color][color="#FF0000"][sold][/color][color="#AFEEEE"]......[/color]
[s]Imperial Aramor[/s][color="#AFEEEE"]...[/color]0[color="#AFEEEE"]...[/color]Jan 15 2011[color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"].........[/color][color="#FF0000"][sold][/color][color="#AFEEEE"]......[/color]
[s]Tormented Soul[/s][color="#AFEEEE"]...[/color]24[color="#AFEEEE"]...[/color]Jan 21 2011[color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"].........[/color][color="#FF0000"][sold][/color][color="#AFEEEE"]......[/color]
[s]Pimped Grasan[/s][color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color]0[color="#AFEEEE"]...[/color]Jan 24 2011[color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"].........[/color][color="#FF0000"][sold][/color][color="#AFEEEE"]......[/color]
[s]Joker (shop)[/s][color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color]33[color="#AFEEEE"]...[/color]Feb 11 2011[color="#AFEEEE"].....[/color][none][color="#AFEEEE"].........[/color][color="#FF0000"][sold][/color][color="#AFEEEE"]......[/color]
[/font]

[Ethnography]

'newbie’s prospective'++