Mumblefratz, you *are* a Gerontocrat.

Absolutely I am a Gerontocrat (is this really a word?). I also definitely agree with the curmudgeon description.

Although I did manage to find curmudgeonliness defined as a noun describing the state of being a curmudgeon, probably the best description of the -liness suffix that I've found is in an appropriately named International Journal of Speech Technology article "The Effect of Lexical Complexity on Intelligibility" by Alexander L. Francis and Howard C. Nusbaum. Only the Abstract is reprinted here for clarity sake.

Abstract Most intelligibility tests are based on the use of monosyllabic test stimuli. This constraint eliminates the ability to measure the effects of lexical stress patterns, complex phonotactic organizations, and morphological complexity on intelligibility. Since these aspects of lexical structure affect speech production (e.g., by changing syllable duration), it is likely that they affect the structure of acoustic-phonetic patterns. Thus, to the extent that text-to-speech systems fail to modify acoustic-phonetic patterns appropriately in polysyllabic words, intelligibility may suffer. This means that while most standard intelligibility tests may accurately estimate the intelligibility of monosyllabic words, this estimate may not generalize as well to predict the intelligibility of words with more complex lexical structures. The present study was carried out to measure how words varying in lexical complexity differ in intelligibility. Monosyllabic, bisyllabic, and polysyllabic words were used varying in morphological complexity (monomorphemic or polymorphemic). Listeners transcribed these stimuli spoken by two human talkers and two text-to-speech systems varying in speech quality. The results indicate that lexical complexity does affect the measured intelligibility of synthetic speech and should be manipulated in order to accurately predict the performance of text-to-speech systems with unrestricted natural text.

If you remember Laugh-In (and I'm sure you do), put that in your Funk & Wagnalls and smoke it.

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In any case I appreciate the kind invite but I started out a Diplomat and I see no compelling reason to jump ship at this point. I guess it's a matter of loyalty, I hope you understand. Certainly were I to change empires at this late stage in my life the Gerontocracy would definitely be my top choice.

You do serve Geritol and Bengay in the lounge don't you? Also don't forget the Centrum Silver. However, I still manage to not require Viagra despite receiving 100 spam emails a day insisting I try it for cheap!

Require Viagra? Isn't it a recreational drug?   

and BTW, we serve Scotch aged 14-years and fine old brandy in the lounge, thank you very much. We're old, we control the world, and we deserve it!

The gentlemen with the dark glasses will be arriving at your current connection location as you are reading this; simply modify your profile as they "suggest" and all the benefits will follow automatically.

drrider

I have to say that AT&T's online text-to-speech synthesizer is quite good; check this out!

drrider, don't forget to mention that cask of Amontillado in the cellar...

I've wondered about the etiquette of inviting people from other empires to join a different one. I've invited some to join the Kzinti, but restricted it to people in empires that seem inactive, or empires that have a very small number of people, and have accumulated only a small number of points. I think I have about 4 former emperors and maybe around a dozen former senators from other empires in the Kzinti now. I also didnt invite any of them until my empire had reached the top ten. The defector with the most points had around 90k. Most players that had posted on the forums, I sent PMs as well to invite them. I dont think anyone has been annoyed.

One frustration has been recruiting a good number of players who are regularly active on the forums, because they are already in empires or simply have no interest in one. I've got a lot of people in my empire, but hardly any people with much of a presence on this site.

Sentient species taste better...

Now that's an elegant compliment. As a journeyman curmudgeon myself, it is a pleasure to watch someone create masterworks of the Craft.

Understanding doesn't always lead to acceptance. Unfortunately, I have a pretty serious thing about loyalty myself and more than half expected such a response.

Still, opening with such a voluminous yet apt digression rather adds evidence to my case about your empire identity issues.

@shiva7663: thanks for the meta-compliment

p.s. I've not tried finding "gerontocrat" in a dictionary. I first read it in a Larry Niven piece, I think, and I'm sure it's in several different SF authors' works. It's a natural outcome of thinking a lot about what life would be like if people lived *much* longer than they do now, but still kept breeding.

I just did web search of the string "-liness suffix" and that's what I came up with. The Abstract was so funny I simply had to include it.

As the creator of the Diplomats one could take offence at a comment like that

Well the Diplomats flavor seems to be gold   

GW, Mumble, as a 25-year-old all i can do is confirm that youth is wasted on the young. if my own peers had the unseriousness with which you approach your selves, and perhaps a dash or two of your flare for wordy wonder (which is anything but prosaic), i perhaps wouldn't spend so much time making jokes at their expense under my own breath. what refreshing banter!

I kind of think lack of flavor may be a good thing. There's lots of flavor in a nice thick steak, but look where that gets the cow.




Thanks for the kind words. I can't speak for GW but when I was that age I doubt I was any different than those you may joke about. I'm not totally sure that I'm immune from that even now. Age does not automatically imbue one with wisdom but it does tend to provide a certain perspective on the ups and downs of life. Not taking yourself too seriously is just one way to roll with the punches.

Attention Gerontocrats. Plan A has failed. Switch to Plan B immediately.

Marshall, you find out where he lives. GW, you grab the duct tape.

We just clone him under a different name, and send the drooling remnant back to them.

Wait...was it the drooling remnant that we wanted?

(Is curmdgeon a congnate of drooling remnant?)

(Do they still teach the word cognate in school these days?)


drrider

Meh, if the drooling Mumble-clone will bring up our empire score, I say let him drool as much as he likes. (Especially since it'll be his keyboard, not mine.)

I guess I should actually PLAY some more, instead of hanging out in the forums, huh?

drrider

(PS - OK, if we aren't getting the real Mumblefratz, I guess I should play A LOT more, and better than in the past.)

Bah, you're doing a lot better than I am. I can't seem to beat Crippling

Taste is such a fascinating subject. I'm only a recent recruit to the Metaverse and am still ambivalent about the fact that I now think about scores. That basically blinds me to the notion that high-scoring victory is a sort of flavor of its own.

Still, Drengin, I have to jovially scoff the name of the empire in light of y'all's AltMeta stats. Diplomacy is hardly the favorite victory type in your empire

no.

GW we call it aggressive diplomacy

You'll note the empire icon is a planet being hit by a beam of some sort with the implicit destruction of significant parts of the planet being imminent.

That's the kind of diplomacy we are talking about!

The discussion of the Giants.

How entertaining *claps*

Mumble, have you ever considered the multiple-character thing? I've just noticed that someone in the Gerontocracy is also apparently active in a couple of other empires. I have no idea if this is generally considered bad etiquette, but if it is, then I'm OK with rude boys. My adolescent D&D habit was bad enough that I loved knowing several DMs.

But I admit I'm too lazy (and big-map obsessed) to think of trying to maintain more than one of these MV characters.

Anywho, I thought it was worth mentioning. After all, you *are* a Gerontocrat no matter what that silly scoring database says.

p.s. @KzintiPatriarch: If I thought I could maintain two characters, I'd seriously flirt with your empire. Sentient species taste better, and first thing after the revolution we'll eat all the advertising geniuses.

I am regularly active on the forums, and currently play up to obscene in DL, and would have probably joined an empire by now.... However so far i find that completing a conquest victory in Galciv bores me to tears, that is the big problem. Also i hate using other victory conditions apart from conquest just in case i'm in the middle of a fun game and then it ends!

Actually I do have two active characters at the moment. One is my gigantic galaxy main character, the other I've used for my Metaverse League games that are smaller by nature.

I'd be willing to have my MVL character join you, but in the past this has been frowned upon by the Diplomats. Other empires think nothing of it so I don't really know if there's any kind of consensus on the practice. I suppose I can check it out a bit although there is a slight bit of complication at the moment. One thing to point out is since my MVL character is limited to medium galaxies it's not the score monger that my main character is. I suppose that's a good thing if you're really as score agnostic as you profess.

I'll let you know what I find out.

You might want to consider joining the Metaverse League. Currently we have about 20 players. We randomly select game settings and victory conditions and have a month to submit a game fitting these randomly selected criteria. These are limited to medium galaxies and below just so that it's not a tremendous time sink.

We do score the games based on score and speed of game in terms of game years but these affect only small bonus points and not dramatic differences of 100's of thousands of points. In any case I find it appealing to test myself on random settings and victory conditions that I would not ordinarily play. It's competitive, although I don’t think overly so, while at the same time cooperative due to the team organization. It’s as much instructional as it is competitive and I also find it a nice change of pace from my normal 2 month long intensive gigantic abundant all type games.

Anyway, young and old, veterans and inexperienced players of all shapes and sizes are welcomed to play. However, because of the team format it is a commitment to submit a game because your teammates depend on you. But submitting a loss or even a resignation is acceptable and we do understand that real life can rear its ugly head at a moment’s notice. It’s something to consider.