Why is Gor so Afraid of Updates?

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June 2013

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Jun 21 - Summer Solstice

[Sayrax wiefel]

Now lets put this clear


D&D gets updates, ShadowRun, Vampires Masquerade, Skyrim, Call of Duty


All of these "games" get updated...


Why is it , that when pani first come out, folks flipped hardcore...

Saying the books would not count..

even going so far as to say, they wernt really written by norman but someone else so they didin't matter


Why is gor so allergic to change of its source material ?

[Aphris Myoo]

Why is it , that when pani first come out, folks flipped hardcore...

Maybe because the people of the first Pani city were all alts of a notorious GE sim. Now seeing possibility of katana swinging BtB raids.

Some updates are for the good, some are bad.

[Xaz Elephas]

Something new can always be fearful to what you have been familiar with for a long time. I have played games that the Dev have introduced new content that totally changed the whole game and some to a degree it killed the game and community that was in that game for years. With that experience alone I have personally experienced with each new book JN puts out I hold my breath with the ‘What has he done now’. However, he is writing an ongoing series, an epic story that is not done yet. (Please lets not get into if he actually writing them or not). Last few books he has introduced new content. I am going to take the stance that for me John Norman is the development team in a gene of a game I play. With some of this content I think its exciting, the Pani, the Black Court for Assassins, more content on assassins hunting in pairs, and I can get excited about it.  However, there the side of me too that still is afraid of what next-new-content will he introduce. My fear of course is like in book 35 Black caste do something messed up, another Pa Kur and were hunted and killed, and the caste is no more. How would I handle that? It’s not like a real development team who is asking its player base ‘What do YOU want’. It’s a writer who will continue to create his epic book series who will only take into consideration in a very small way his readers. So with that, let’s look at Harry Potter series that in the end, hell she killed off more of the characters she created then Shakespear did. So that’s why I am leery of new things. They unkown. Where will he end the series on?  Will Gor blow up and were all dead? The next book is due out soon.

[Taog Ra]

You already know exactly why some people flip out.

I don't mind updating and I enjoy most the roleplay I've had with characters that don't quite fit inside the cookie cutter cutout pattern.

An Ezio from Assassin's Creed doesn't fit the genre.  A Last Samurai from the movie of the same name doesn't fit the genre.  And this criticism is coming from a guy who could easily be confused for a Last of the Mohicans type of assassin -- until you roleplayed with the character.

I don't care to flip out myself.  I just ask for a small consideration from others:  All I ask for, is keep the character and roleplay offered me Gorean.

I'm tired of trying to 'educate' people what that means.  They should have enough self-discipline and pride in themselves to pick up the books and actually READ THEM toward understanding them and how it fits into the rest of the genre.

I didn't see "Vikings" in Marauders.  I saw Gorean men of the Torvaldslands.  I didn't see "Native American Indians" in Blood Brothers, I saw Gorean red savages.  I didn't see Genghis Khan or Attila the Hun in Nomads, I saw Kamchak and other Gorean men of the Plains.  And when I read Swordsman and Mariners, I didn't see Samurai from feudal Japan, I saw Pani peoples.

Is it too much to ask to keep it Gorean?

[Bhoamar Landfall]

I have to agree with the responses. New would be good if it was not looked at by the ge communiyt as a way to turn what some enjoy on it's head.

[Carter Ebbage]

I am going to simply echo the points already made I suspect.


Kamchak wasnt a stereotypical perspective of Ghengis Khan.. Marlenus wasnt a depiction of Julius Caesar.. why did the Pani become a characture of a Japanese Shogun... it was as usual, the crowd who always want to push the boundaries of a Gorean theme jumping on a new bandwagon... it wasnt enough we had warriors looking like bad ass bikers or kajira looking like arabian princesses and now we have outlaws with katana's justifying their use because they stole it from a pani.. (Jeeeze)

So, thats what is wrong with Updates... they  add and allow an opening for yet another exaggeration of the already piss poor behaviour we often see.

[Syndel Daviau]

As sim owner of a sim that plays in a timeline of the books after the current ones and, therefore, accepts the existence of everything that was written by John Norman so far, I can tell you just why people are iffy

Every day we receive a bunch of idiots that have no concept of "location".

The other night, we had to eject two Pani men who apparently are leadership of some Pani new sim somewhere out there that were at the Capacian Baths of Ar wearing a belt with 4 decapitated heads. Patiently, they were IMed to ask a) to remove their bows (our sim is melee only and the rules says that it would be removed at the gates – which means they did not bother reading the rules) and to b) please remove the heads before we would have to go through the trouble of roleplaying law enforcement arresting them for murder of some NPCs or whatever because we doubt anyone would pass the gates of Ar with heads around their waists! Needless to say that didn’t go well and ended up in some ridiculous argument leading to ejection. I don't care if in a Pani encampment somewhere in the woods they wear rotten heads in their belts... location, location, location. Ar is not their camp.

Every other day some Pani free woman shows up in Ar trying to be a Contract Woman. Result: we had to send the following notice in our group:

“Once and for all.. we do -not- have Contract Women. This is not a Pani sim. Enslave at will because the law doesn't protect barbaric cultures and non-citizens and the practice of slave-like acts and public offering of them as service without being condemned to them by the Arian legal system (aka penal brothel) isn't regular or acceptable. I hope this clears up confusion.”

The other day, we had a guy coming around wanting to have a “pet werewolf” because he learned that there was half Kur/half man in the books (Grendel) and I had to explain to him that actually it wasn’t quite like that but that Grendel was an experiment done in the Steelworlds with technology not found in people’s backyards. I also had to explain that human slaves acting like Mogli were found in the Steelworlds tending the Kur and not in Gor.  We also had a Torvaldslander trying to claim that he was like Grendel and impregnating a Physician. *le sigh* Of course, it was invalidated when brought to our attention.

So, those are little excerpts of the day-to-day of a sim that’s exposed to the most recent books and the kind of constant moderation that it takes. It’s not a BIG headache but it’s a little bit because people don’t read context and they forget the main thing which is… LOCATION. Cannot come impose your culture in another place without consequences. Cannot expect something happening in another planet to happen in Gor and the Priest-Kings allowing just so etc

So, summarizing, I believe most sim owners just chop down the moderation work and headaches by not acknowledging because it’s simpler.

[Xaz Elephas]

I agree too with what some have posted, in that we are as a community not always closed to new content IF the content is played correctly by those who pick it to play it. Syndel hit it right on with.... 'Every day we receive a bunch of idiots that have no concept of "location".. I always update my role-play along side the latest content, too.  Here again I am going to say, people need to read the books.

[ramond lax]

Warriors have been around since book one, and people still don't know how to play them right.  The same can be said for assassins, physicians, scribes, Slaves, all the way down to pot-makers...

when you add a new factor into the mix, Nearly unknown and leaving far too many doors open, then people start to panic. 

Personally i wold have liked it if the books cut off somewhere around the mid to low twenties.

[Aphris Myoo]

and now we have outlaws with katana's justifying their use because they stole it from a pani.. (Jeeeze)

Thats the point, not only outlaws who stay in GE. But also Red Castes I regular see with 2 (sic) katana.

* Aphris Myoo dresses in a yellow orange catsuite and screams "now I will kill Bill".

[Violetta Daviau]

...

* Aphris Myoo dresses in a yellow orange catsuite and screams "now I will kill Bill".

You go, kiddo!

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/MM-Kill-Bill/1368208

[RabC resident]

Well I feel it is only an update if it is penned by the same hand.. If not then it is a reinvention. Just the same as what would happen to any series that was picked up by a new writer.. I am not against change.. Just change for changes sake seems pointless to me.

[Marcus]

Well as for if he has or hasnt written the latter books, I posted this once before after I contacted the publisher of the books and got this in reply:

Dear *name removed*,
I am both John Norman's agent and book publisher and I can assure you on the strength of my eyewitness observation and first person communications with John Norman, that he is the sole author of Gor. His writing style is unique and inimitable and it's impossible that anyone else could remotely produce anything in John Norman's name that I would not immediately be aware of, not to mention that he and I converse about his work all the time.
Please feel free to share this email with any skeptics.
Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
President
Richard Curtis Associates, Inc.
171 East 74th Street
New York, NY 10021
Office: 212-772-7363
http://curtisagency.com

[Syndel Daviau]

Why in the world would his publisher or ANY publisher in the world admit to ghostwriters? >.>

[Raven]

I've got no problem with updates.  Where it concerns my caste, there are a number of interesting things which have come about in recent years.  The Black Court, Assassins hunting in pairs, hunting without wearing black.  It makes perfect sense to me. Assassins would stop at nothing to get to their marks so if another killer is needed, or they have to go in disguise to hunt, seems to me that it would be the logical way to go instead of wandering around with a big ol' neon sign over their heads ("HERE TO KILL SOMEONE!  3RD DAY OF HUNT!  BZZT!  BZZT!  BZZT!").  Not to say that that's how all hunts should go, because I prefer hunting in full black, but in case someone surrounds themselves with an impenetrable fortress, 10 NPC guards, and also uses group chat, minimap and radar to thwart any attempts then I think it's only fair to keep one's intentions hidden until the last possible moment.