A bit of banter too far - Season 3 comments

Recently I have had a couple of people at work mention my disagreement with Sheepie, even though it happened two weeks ago now. I would like to get it out there and then move on from it as I’m tired of hearing about it now and there are obviously people that have heard bits and bobs about it. Much more importantly than that, this incident also raised some concerns regarding season 3, which I would like to raise as we move on.

We have always discussed things as a group. Things like, is it ok to change the race date? Shall we restart the game and let Joe Bloggs back in? Shall we change the rules? Etc this is fine, this is the way it should be. When I had a beef with the game awarding me a penalty unfairly, I emailed Mark to discuss it and he basically dismissed it with no discussion. I wasn’t happy with this and I sent him a shitty email. He was upset by this and had a bit of a rant at me in the office. A couple more moody emails got sent later that evening and we ended up over the atrium the next day having a chat to sort things out. It all got very silly and out of hand. It was ridiculous really and shouldn’t have happened and it was a shame that it did. I don’t want to be having serious and quite frankly stressful discussions about a computer game during work time with my boss.

Something that has occurred to me after that incident, was why did I go to Mark with my grievance in the first place? Probably because I felt like he is the person I should be asking. It was never agreed that Mark would have the final word on anything, all the fantastic work he has put into organising the races, the forum, the emails, everything, it does feel as though he is the lead on things….the boss if you like….we don’t call him Bernie for nothing after all. Not everyone may feel this way, but it’s clear from my shitty email to him that I certainly did feel it was where I should be directing my query. The fact is, I shouldn’t have moaned at him about anything at all. I’ll accept that. I was wrong because it is not his decision to make and not his burden to take on. Anyway, that was that, we’ve kissed and made up and that’s the end of it. I don’t want to hear any more about it. Not from people at work and not when I get home. I was hesitant about posting this and bringing it up again, but at the end of the day this is outside work, we are all friends, so let’s just get it out there, forget it and move on. It’s only a game.

Moving on…….

We, and I mean all of us, have always had a cheeky bit of banter in the office with regards F1. We take the piss out of each other, we have a pop at each other, we use inappropriate terms and it’s all taken in the spirit in which it is meant. A bit of fun. We should be able to keep work and play separate. It seems the line between work and play has become a bit blurry lately. People are starting to get genuinely angry about this game and it is crazy. Cheeky banter is turning into angry feelings towards people and this is carrying over into the workplace. People coming into the office in bad moods, emails going around saying they want to leave, people have expressed they have had enough and have already left. It’s all getting out of hand and it needs to stop. Otherwise what’s the point in carrying on at all?

Anyway, learning from all this…….

Season 3 - Rules

We definitely need to have a few races on 2011 before starting the season to see what changes have been made and how best to set up the league moving forward, is the penalty system better for example?
We need to decide how we move forward with regards penalties. Do we agree that any penalty given is just accepted without question? Do we have an appointed leader that has the final say over any judgement? or do we open it up to discussion with a group ruling that is final? We do sometimes have videos which would help with judgements. I don’t really care how we do it, just as long as we are all in agreement and we stick to it, then no one can complain

Forum, email and organisation

There’s no denying that Mark has done a fantastic job setting everything up from Season 1 onwards, but I get the impression that it’s taking up a lot of his time, he’s taken a lot on and perhaps not everyone is as keen on taking on some of the responsibility. We should have a discussion on what and how much we do moving forward. I think the bare minimum is the race calendar and the driver standings. Anything over that, such as write-ups, is a bonus. Do people want to take turns hosting and organising a week? Things like that.

Reward

Do we continue into season 3 racing for money? Season 1 it was interesting with money, but Season 2 seems to have gotten out of control. Is the increase in money and promise of a bigger reward for success making people act and drive like plonkers? Should we just do season 3 for fun? I don’t think money is totally to blame, but maybe it is a factor?

Who’s racing?

With 2011 now open for 16 racers, we need to get more people to join in, along with that, we need to work out who is going to be staying in the league. There are people in season 2 that have barely finished any races and we have quite often raced without a full grid. People need to think about whether they are that serious about it.

Well that’s it really. I just wanted to put this out there. If you had asked me two weeks ago if I was interested in Season 3 or even buying 2011 I probably would have told you to go fuck your grandmothers tits. At the end of the day though, I don’t rush home every other Tuesday, rush some shitty dinner down my neck all to make sure I’m on the xbox in time for F1 for nothing, so I must enjoy it. I am definitely up for season 3.

See you cunts on the track