In Your Vaste (Tabloid) - Issue 2

EDITORS MUSINGS:

Do you know what the problem is with news? It's meant to be new (and noteworthy). Do you know what the problem with this game is? Nothing new (or noteworthy) happens. The bigger problem for me is news papers should be written regularly and usually daily, can you see where I'm going with this?

So, to get around this issue, I thought I'd try something a little different from the norm. So the main reason people write papers is to get threads and posts etc to help them rank. But I am a citizen, I've got no need for such things. I have no cash, allegiances, reputation or other things to protect. I can literally just be a dick and only worry about the wraith of god thereafter so why not make an issue in the paper about OOC matters too? It's part of the game and more important now than it has ever been considering half the wars (generalisation) in this game start for OOC matters.

Lastly, I want to say thank you to those who contacted me about my last issue. I'm happy you took it for what it was and that is some light entertainment.

I hope you enjoy today's issue and if you don't I can sincerely say without the slightest hesitation, go fack yourself!

Vaste

LONG SWIMS AND FLIP FLOPS, MUST BE BEACH TIME:

*BREAKING NEWS*

Despite my assertions above something interesting has just happened. As per my previous edition article Cal has been executed by Lord Snow, Lord Commander of the North (Detroit) despite the nights watch vowing not to take part in the politics of the realms of men and mortals. Although no major casualties have been noted yet many low ranking members have have gone to the beach for a long swim and not returned home. It is understood that mob bosses with the rank of consigliere of above may now declare war upon another family rendering a god father's immortality ineffectual and In Your Vaste speculates that this may lead to highlander type battles in which only one immortal may exist transcending them to godlike status.

In other (totally unrelated) news, it has come to light that people who shall remain nameless (but we all know who they are) have been tried by the gods for the crime of bloodlining. Despite being initially found guilty of this crime and a short suspension sentence being set it appears the Gods have "flip flopped" and revoked this decision. What this means for the game and the non bloodlining law is beyond imagination. It has been stated that numerous people are shocked and appalled by this decision and many believe any sentence short of execution for bloodlining or attempted bloodlining is not a deterrent in the first instance.

BILL SHAKESPEARE AND HOW HE INFLUENCED THE MOB:

"To script, or not to script: that is the question: whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous role play or take up scripts against a sea of torrid writing..."

We're all fairly familiar with Shakespeare and the first 6 words of that adapted quote is probably well known to all of us native English speakers, right? Bonus prize to the first person who tells me the play.

Anyway, I digress into the realms of English literature. Scripting, I was highly impressed that there was the semblance of intelligent debate regarding this topic and I spent a good long while reading and digesting people's views. Evil Clown spent a lot of time gathering evidence about this. Initially I felt this was a witch hunt on The Winter Tempest Society, The White Walkers Or The Others (whatever it is you call yourself now) and was going to disregard it entirely and with good reason too. Then something amazing happened, Everglade turned up and justified his point.

Now, I've been here since the dawn of time (or so I'm going to tell you) and I've witnessed many changes in the game, some implemented by the admin and some implemented by the users. Things like lockdowns, wacking of unsponsored players, the rise and the fall of underground crews and the movement away from witticism towards brute strength. It's been a roller coaster of excitement but one of the biggest changes I noticed was the first time Threads were sold. I think Cooter was the first person I saw to do this and I think Randle opposed her most vehemently with a similar thread to Evil Clowns. I could understand everyone's point of view too, on one hand the thing that differentiated you from an average player was your ability to put together a thread that people wanted to read and respond to, why would you suddenly want everyone to now be at the same level as you? How will I be able to exert my status as the Alpha? On the other side, there was a lot of money in the game (although not as much as there is now), if I can defecate a thread of passable quality in 15 mins and someone would pay for it, why wouldn't I do this? It was within the game rules and leveled the playing field so now even Jesspre had a chance to be a good player despite not really knowing how to pen together legible sentences. Eventually the furore died down and thread selling became an acceptable business venture.

Why did I tell you the above story? Well we're at the same mile marker now with script writing. Don't get me wrong, I've toyed with the idea of doing this myself. I too want to rank (well not this character) and alot of effort is needed to be the best clicker (I think Dinty said it best when he said "click, click, click...") why waste that time trying to make decent threads too? Looking at the debate it's like we are at the same place in our history, is scripting acceptable? Is it the way forward? Black Aliss seems to have stated she'd tolerate it, if she hasn't yet fully endorsed it, as long as the information isn't repeated from thread to thread but it would be interested to learn whether the general player thinks this is acceptable or not.

So you've read it here first, scripting is here to stay. In Your Vaste salutes the ingenuity of which ever brain child came up with this idea. If you have a script but have no one to post with In Your Vaste reporters are willing to post with you for the low low price of $100 per post plus travel and expenses.

CAL VELARO:

Who is Cal Velaro? No one really knows who he is but the enigma surrounding his identity has caused quite the "who ha" this past week. Cal Velaro will be forever remembered as the guy who was killed for the mistaken identity. A vigil is being held in his honour at the Miami Cemetery and numerous people have already attended. It is hoped that anyone who is against bloodlining votes with their feet and just say a few words at the vigil even if the words are merely RIP. It is not advised that any be too vocal, as dearly departed Legion would testify if he were still with us.

I'M BACK, I'M LOOKING FOR OLD TIMERS

The OOC world has seen a sudden spate of people declaring they're back and stating they're looking for people. We hare at In Your Vaste are quite sick of it and I can sincerely state without any hesitation, "I didn't notice you were gone Chuckie but seeing as you recycle the same names over and over again I'm sure if I missed you I'd find you".

So Isabela Castella writes she's looking for old school players from 10 to 12 years ago and in typical fashion we all flock to her thread and say "Oh gawd you should know my, I'm AxeTarblesSal but people call me by my real name JohnJen Reed and I live in the bogs of the reach. Jeez it's been so long, who did you say you were again? I don't actually remember you or give a fuck I just want you to pander to my vanity". For fucks sake guys, there's more interesting things to discuss at the moment with Brexit, Orlando Shootings, Istanbul bombings, Euro2016, Lol Messi hasn't won a major international competition or even Where is Vaste vacationing this year (it's the Hamptons, thanks for asking guys).

In other words can we have some interesting topics of debate Black Aliss (NAME DROP) is itching to rant about something or other, let's give her a forum for it.

KIDNAPPING ETIQUETTE:

So as a 2 week old citizen many of you have realised that it's really easy to kidnap you. I genuinely don't mind but I'd appreciate a little respect like maybe not holding me for too long, some interesting conversation, returning the cash you steal from me (I'm not a bank and I don't crime so they're minor sums anyway) and/or maybe some compensation for my time?

Many of you have never been kidnapped so I thought I'd give you a brief description of my top 3 kidnapping experiences with this character.

1) Charles Floyd - Charles is everything you would expect in a captor, he takes you, cleans you out (took $27) then releases me before handing me $100K

2) Teddy Rollins - Teddy took me, beat me quite savagely then released me before returning my $100K

3) Mr Smith - Mr Smith is probably the worst captor I have ever had. He took me when I was offline then sent me his witness statements about robbing the bank in LA (I don't care mate, I have no money in it) then cleaned me out a few times. He kept me locked up until the police released me (some 4 hours later) with only a small RP about defecation to entertain me. Poor RP, little communication and stealing my money? If it wasn't for him this paper would have been released yesterday and probably had a third issue in the streets discussing current events. So as not to spam I have combined both the papers, so if this is too long you know who to blame. This rates very low on my kidnapping experiences.

OMAR'S COMING (In Your Vaste Debate Topic of the Week):

Traditionally the phrase Omar's coming has been synonymous with a drug dealer who is about to get robbed or the sigh of relief from the Denver family when they're esteemed leader gives their rings a respite as he talks about himself in the third person when in extreme moments of pleasure. But it appears New York took the phrase a little to heart when the Denver crime boss was visiting just after the execution of Cal in Denver as the Fish family started picking off Omar's bodyguards whilst Omar was (allegedly offline). In Your Vaste wonders whether this means Denver has now entered the war or whether this was a minor misunderstanding.

This aside, Omar was always going to be my topic for debate in today's paper. For any of you who don't know, Omar is one of the major characters in the TV series the wire, he is a homosexual but is shown to be masculine despite his sexuality. He's probably my favourite character from the show and I think the character has done wonders for equality and the equal portrayal of homosexuals in our media. As a former homophobe (not proud of this period and it was largely due to lack of exposure and negative portrayal of homosexuals) I'm quite proud of this change in stance and I hope it continues especially with dreamworks maybe showing a lesbian couple for the first time in a mainstream animation.

My question is this though, how does this reflect on the RP element of the game? Now we all know that the era this game is set in was extremely homophobic and racist and we know that the game rules dictate that they will not tolerate discrimination but can you discriminate against a character? Like if I called Bunk a fat fuck no one would bat an eyelid because his character is fat, but SHEEEEEEEET (pun intended) if I called Bunk a black bastard am I a racist? I mean my character is racist but that's a character and part of RP'ing is doing things you don't do in real life, is it not? How is it not character development to have these negative attributes in your character as well as good ones? I'd appreciate your views on this.