by Speider Schneider

Created on: July 06, 2007

Internuts!

Our technology grows by leaps and bounds yet nothing has reached such a state of perfection as has the World Wide Web. The history and information of the known universe is a click away by anyone who has access to a computer. A plethora of sites cater to every taste and distaste and one could spend their lifetime surfing through boundless information and still never cover even a fraction of one percent of what is available.

Communication and interaction brings together people from every nation, creed and walk of life. It gives voice to the unheard via blogs, personal web pages and chat rooms. It gives power and rise to the basest of humans and socializes those who can only be described as...internuts.

Part 1 - The Gods Of Gaming And Other Basement Generals.

A friend at work invited me to join in on an online game of World War 1 aerial combat. It was a slow period at work and we could enjoy some downtime on a site addressed www.youplay.it. We joked about the screen names we would use, each of us trying to outdo the other in grotesquery. I registered under several names, each one viler than the next. I provided many laughs and word play while we each logged on to take our turns over lunch periods and break times. It was simple diversion for us, just a few of the dozens of registered users on this site.

One day I noticed I had been "challenged" to a one-on-one combat by a screen name unknown outside my circle of friends. I accepted the challenge and started to play. On a side bar that marked turn order, the other player posted comments. Each comment would condescendingly tsk, tsk at me for each move I made.

"It's a mistake to stall when you are in flight," would appear from this faceless player.

"Really?" I would post back. "Please allow me to kill you now," I mocked.

After the first two games, I realized this other player not only had no sense of humor, but was quite serious in his gaming and thought his purpose on the site was to educate newer players. A couple of friends mentioned that they had also been challenged by this other player and were not as kind as I in my opinion that he was a very lonely man or boy who sat at his computer twelve hours a day. A simple click on this player's name brought up the stats that he had made 329 moves over the last twenty-four hours and had over one hundred games in play. A simple use of math told me that the moves per hour this person made added up to one lonely and compulsive geek.

He challenged me to a couple more games

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