Brown Bear Challenge Thread

[dalem]

What does "brown" mean?

-dale

[dalem]

I don't see any bears in here, what gives?

-dale

[AUSSIEJEFF]

Originally posted by dalem:

So what is this thread about?

-dale

I think this is what is classically termed a "Morphed" or "Hijacked" thread. Starts out being entirely different to where it ends up! So, in essence it could be a thread about something or nothing depending upon your point of view.

I hope that clears everything up....

AJ

[Yeknodathon]

Originally posted by dalem:

So what is this thread about?

-dale

Here is me Hyperdrox. I pissed it off on purpose, so that it would growl and show its teeth.

Turnips don't have teeth, so it was rather pointless trying to piss it off.

Yeknod

[ November 10, 2002, 01:55 AM: Message edited by: Yeknodathon ]

[Pack Kuma]

Ah well. Win some, lose some. I'm going to take my Hyperdrox now and get into bed with turnips and Peng, with visions of hijacked turnips carried by stupid Monty Python Swallows (HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH) dancing in my Hyperdroxia.

[Pack Kuma]

BTW, Kuma means Bear (points for language). Since I'm not a Polar Bear or God Forbid A Pooh Bear, or even a Grizzled Grognard Bear, I must be a brown bear, so says the Mrs.

I die.

[energy76]

Actually, I don't really understand what is so confusing about the Peng thread. It's just a bunch of people shouting tongue-in-cheek insults at each other because they enjoy it. They use the term "Peng" for themselves, because it's well, odd and unique. What's so complex about that?

[Pack Kuma]

Actually this is the dreaded hippie Brown Bear, standing in the way of a German panzer company, thinking unthinkable thoughts and just having smoked his Hyperdrox.

[Pack Kuma]

[Foobar]

Kuma,

I say good luck to you. I think your motivations for doing this are honorable.

But here's something to remember. You are going to have to lead the way, and start telling people what it IS about, so that they will shut up about what its NOT about.

If there is no schtick, if there is no catch, if there are no traditions or regularites to bring the thread together, you will quickly see your noble goal whizzed down your leg. It will be drowned out by the noise of idjits who feel that their Mutha Beautiful is being threatened, or by idjits who think ONE contiuous thread is too much already!

What holds the MUTHA BEAUTIFUL together, as best I can tell as a scum, non contributing bystander, is its openly stated CORE VALUES that are IMPLEMENTED by every poster to the piece of CRAP

MUTHA BEAUTIFUL CORE VALUES (as far as I can tell)

HATE- You gotta have conflict to get peoples attention

ENVY- Nothing motivates ppl like wanting the other person's half.

FEAR - Fear of having to say something useful or intelligible to contribute in the outerboards. The Cess Sanctum allows you to drop in every few days, post the word "WANKERS", and then strut away from your PC like you just invented the cure for cancer

COMPLACENCY - Oh it sucks, but its OUR sucks! Nothing helps firm up bad habits like doing them over and over as you slide further down the spiral of despair and self loathing

Now, I like what youre doing, but I know I payed more attention to Beavis and Butthead, then I did to Little House on the Prarie.

Its a ratings thing, you see? You gotta give people what they want. And they like to see a disfunctional TV Family Christmas Special, so they can make haughty comments about it around the water cooler, pretendig to be looking down on it, but actually just glad to focus their loathing outside of their own skin for 5 minutes. They'll talk about how "Its a Wonderful Life" really makes them think about what's really important, for about the last 5 minutes before the boss walks up, but I assure you they havent sat through it for the last 6 years.

Thats all I got for now. I hope my post gets you so pumped up, that you'll want to kick your Mom in the face!

(The source of this last inside joke can be found at http://www.realultimatepower.net/ )

[Pack Kuma]

Captain, thanks for the link, funny site that is also soooo sweet that I flipped out for no reason at all. Also, point well taken.

Long post, but I poured my heart out into this one:

Okay, back to business. To give us some inspiration, above I've posted our thread totem, mascot, and master of ceremonies, the faux-Jungian archetype of the Guru Brown Bear, island of serenity, contemplation, self-knowledge, and intellectual discussion in the midst of the explosive battles of the wonderful simulation that Battlefront has given us. He also adorns my own label of homemade molasses peanut butter.

My vision for this thread is that we can learn some things about each other while discussing this game...not simple tips and tricks but tactics, military science--all as applied to CMBB, military history, and not least of all, use this as a challenge thread. I guess my notion is that this can be a kind of forest coffeehouse where we can pause our game and sit under the tree for a minute with Brown Bear while the shells sit frozen in midflight around us.

Let me break the ice a little and say why I want to do this, and give you a little of my bio (which is what I'm hoping more people on here will do in order to make this a *real community,* like those small-town library wargaming clubs, rather than just an ongoing bar brawl. I'm a graduate student in anthropology at Yale University studying the US prison system. I've got a deep an abiding interest in all things World War II, but particularly the eastern front.

My paternal grandfather was a banker who became a Sturmfuhrer in the Nord division of the Waffen-SS; he trained at Wildflecken and was sent to the Russian front in 1942, where he probably died; we don't know for sure and that's really all we know about him. So that makes this "game" kind of sacred for me in a way that other wargames are not, like I can somehow know him better by using this game as a vehicle for my imagination about what it must have been like. It's like enacting my own personal mythology.

I don't want to say it's offensive to treat this stuff lightly, with humor and such, but sometimes when I see a soldier get killed on the screen by whatever, I think about my grandfather's fate. I don't know that much about where division Nord went. Did he wind up stuffing his entrails back into his abdomen on some open steppe after being hit by grenate shrapnel? Was he cooked alive by molten metal inside his panzer when it was hit by an anti-tank round? Is it instead possible he might have survived the war? Sometimes I try to think like he might have thought when I order my little pixel platoon across the field of battle. Silly, but important for me to do.

Anyway, that's the kind of thought/discussion/biography I was hoping to prompt with this thread. What do you think about when playing CM? Why are you interested in it?

Would you like to reenact, on computer, a certain battle with me so we can try to uncover just a *little* of what it was like to be there, rather than just play a bloated "game" of capture the flag?

[Barrold]

I think you have a point PK, which is no doubt influenced by the nature of your background.

As far as a continuing Anti-Peng thread, I am neutral.

Regarding your sig though, I have some info for you.

The quote was made by General John Sedgewick at the Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864.

Apparently he said the entire statement at least twice before being struck in the face by a minie' ball so his injury did not occur in mid-sentence.

I had erroneously thought it was General Mansfield who said it before being killed at Antietam before doing some research on it.

BDH

[Pack Kuma]

Thanks for the name, I'd forgotten it was JS. I didn't know he said it twice!

IAC, it's really not intended to be an anti-Peng thread, despite my railings at the beginning. In fact I'd like to get away from the Peng/anti-Peng thing altogether and make this something new.

[Gyrene]

Capt Foob, you're a wise man sometimes, a really hoopy frood.

A rambling hoopy frood, but you know where your towel is.

Gyrene

[Firefly]

Originally posted by energy76:

Actually, I don't really understand what is so confusing about the Peng thread. It's just a bunch of people shouting tongue-in-cheek insults at each other because they enjoy it. They use the term "Peng" for themselves, because it's well, odd and unique. What's so complex about that?

That's pretty much it, it always amazes me that people don't get it, but I'm from the country that brought the world Monty Python and Blackadder. The fact that there are people here with a sense of humour is what keeps me coming back to this board.

One clarification though 'Peng' is not a term they give themselves, Peng (or more correctly MrPeng) is a semi-regular poster here who was the recipient of Seanachai's original challenge. There is also a Chinese restaurant in London called Mr. Peng's, but I don't think it's the same person.

[Pack Kuma]

"Thank you! I finally know who Peng is! All the planets must be in alignment today," said Brown Bear.

Anyway, I'd like for this to be the "non-insult thread," a place where people can go a wee bit beyond that type of thing (see above post). That's all. If some folks like to do that sort of thing, well, that's up to them.

[Foobar]

Stoppit, Gyrene...

Youre making me feel all mushy inside!!!

[Nidan1]

Originally posted by Boo_Radley:

OK, the Peng thread has been going on for awhile, granted. But that's not to say that if you weren't there at the beginning, you'll never get in. I wandered in back in January of last year and was immediately told to SOD OFF, which I did, because I didn't follow the rules. So, I lurked for a bit, figured some of it out and went back. I played the game by their rules and they still haven't figured out how to get rid of me. And yes, there are a lot of "in" jokes. There always are within certain groups. I see repeated references in some of the grog threads and realize they must be in jokes, but it doesn't bother me. Why should it?

Sure the MBT isn't for everyone, but I fail to see why it gets so many people riled up. If you don't like it or want to deal with it, then ignore it. Why is that so hard to do?

You can Sod off!!! just as easily in here, twit. Hows MSN coming along?

[Ruthless]

I think this is a good idea. It is obvious that the masses of newbies coming here are frustrated by all the old hands and all the old hands are saying "OMG, what is it with all these new people? How do they not understand this obscure reference to a joke we made two years ago? Do a search! This issue has already been discussed!"

At any rate, what others pointed out is quite corrrect, so I shall summarize:

Although I think it is a nice idea to start your own non-Peng Challenge Thread, eventually, you will probably find that people will begin telling jokes, some of which will become inside jokes. A group of regular posters (even newbies) will develop a camraderie and that will seem "clubby" to people just joining the forums. That is just human nature--it's called friends. However, you shall find that the regular posters here are pretty nice in general and will talk to you even if you are not "in the club".

I will also point out that the response of the old hands here has not always been tremendously polite to the new folks. Anyone remember whatshisname that posted like 6 pointless threads his first day signing up? Although his threads' content value was certainly questionable, he was neither rude nor offensive. And what did he get for it? In his first thread, he just wanted to introduce himself and the moderator promptly locked it up. Really, I understand the frustration of not wanting to have a bazillion useless posts clogging up the board, but his threads were arguably no more inappropriate than, say, the umpteenmillion Peng Threads that are started here daily. <Sound of forum regulars organizing a lynching...some of them pulling up chairs and opening beers...> In other words, I suspect that there HAS been a little bit of preferencial treatment of old hands, and some shortness in dealing with new people. My point: Everyone should make an extra effort to be nice, particularly to the new folks. New folks: I recommend you often lurk and seldom post. That should get you up to speed. And please do a search before you post.

As for the Peng Thread...I don't think it is that hard to understand and a lot of the inside jokes are not that hard to understand, either. However, may I recommend the Cesspoolers come up with a standardized post they can cut-and-paste into the first thread of a Peng Challenge which explains the threads intentions and some of the inside references that newbies won't understand.

Sorry, one more thing: The new guys posting about how "clubby" the atmosphere is here and some of the curtness of the replies to their posts: May I recommend you try posting some genuine questions at, say, www.counter-strike.net forums? See what kind of joy that brings you. Here's my prediction:

"YOU: How do I do/use XYZ?

AVERAGE POSTER: OMFG, YOU N008! Y0u don't know how to use XYZ cuz u r n07 1337 like me! If you didn't suck so much you wouldn't be such an @$$! STFU and stop posting!"

Except, of course, the grammar and spelling would be much worse. Anyway, that gives you an idea of how much nicer this forum is than most, so don't complain TOO loudly...

Anyway, thought I'd put in my two cents, but it looks more like $10.

[ November 10, 2002, 02:24 PM: Message edited by: Ruthless ]

[Hakko Ichiu]

Originally posted by Pack Kuma:

BTW, Kuma means Bear (points for language).

Japanese. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any insults or rude sayings attributable to bears in that language. The term "bear" does have a particular meaning in certain sociological sub-groups in this country. Are you by any chance large, bearded, and fond of wearing lumberjack-style clothes?

I was going to break into a jolly singsong of that famous ditty, "The Freshmen Up at Yale", but I couldn't remember the exact lyrics to the verse about sophomores. A google turned up empty. Any one know the words? It would be a shame if this one went unsung, given the circs.

[OGSF]

Ah wish ye waill wi' ye thraid, laddie.

Regardin' tha Peng thraid, at's a challainge thraid. We play tha game copiously an' challainge each other bitterly. We enjoy tha creativity inherent ain insultin' tha stuffin' oot o' each other, withoot resortin' tae racial, sexist, political an' other such drivel. Af'n ye like tae di tha same, blunder ain an' gi' at ye baist shot. Af'n ye didnae like tae di tha', thain don't.

Some folks think tha very existence o' tha Mutha Beautiful Thraid (Kelly's Heros insider rrreferaaince) as a personal attack on thaim. They feel tha need tae attack at ain returrn. Their real issue as tha' tha folks ain the MBT didnae gi' a crap aboot thaim at all. Ah wud recommaind counselin' fer such folks.

There were a Newbie Opponaint Finder thraid some months back, Ah wudnae suggaist a search or anythun like tha, but Ah think at were started by a Penger...though Ah think we've killed tha bugger since.

Anywha, enjoy ye'sailf mon...an' Ah hope tae see a challenge ain here some time soon.

[Pack Kuma]

"Insults or rude sayings? Hmmm? Have I insulted anyone?" asked Brown Bear, politely.

Well (ahem) I am in fact large, bearded, and fond of flannel, but my kind wore these duds long before they were coopted by certain sociological subgroups with a preference (ahem...growl) for such.

And ah ain't no freshman! (I'm 30 years old, I hope not at this point!)

[Abbott]

And ah ain't no freshman! (I'm 30 years old, I hope not at this point!)

I's is able to got me four yere degrey in as little bit as 9 yeres!

[dalem]

Originally posted by Ruthless:

However, may I recommend the Cesspoolers come up with a standardized post they can cut-and-paste into the first thread of a Peng Challenge which explains the threads intentions and some of the inside references that newbies won't understand.

Umm, first post in every new thread, been doing that for at least two years now.

Reading Is Fundamental.

-dale

[Pack Kuma]

I must say that the CMBB tac AI is not all that bad on D. I just played a QB against the computer, me Axis, mostly tank battle, and the dang thing whupped me good, and here I was all kitted out with vet Kingies and crack Panties (that doesn't sound too good, does it?), some PzG's, halftracks.

Came over the big hill overlooking the village, and there were some JS2's and such that my Tiggers had problems with, but the cool thing was that the Russky SU's kept pulling shoot and scoot's on me. They knocked out a panther or two that way. I was beaten up real bad, but it was fun, felt like playing a human.