20-08-2003 06:36									#31
	Got spare money?

Thanks man!

Seriously, the keys to unlocking the whole puzzle are in Beta's own post:

One of the driving forces behind the Vox war was our desire to go 10 rounds with Mohamed Ali and come out the winner. I'll be honest about it. We would have loved to beat you early - simply because you were GS and the strat guys. The game situation clearly had a lot to do with it, but I gotta tell you, there was this other motivator.

So....because we decided we wanted to play too, the game is no longer about THE GAME (the game at hand), but it's now about "beating the strat guys." Pure and simple. This sets the stage for the following:

The other part - and this is the part I think you have difficulty understanding- you can be a pain to deal with. Really, you can.

Ahhh....note the shifting of blame? We're just doing our thing....you know, playing THE GAME, not "playing the opponents," but look at the way the cards are stacking up.....that's not what everybody else is doing. We're playing the game, they're playing to beat US. Totally different mindsets. Doesn't matter who's "ahead" - irrelevant. We're the "strat guys" and they're playing to beat US. Regardless.

often come across arrogant, and self-righteous, and get defensive very quickly.

We come across as confident, and why not? We wrote much of the book that is the accepted wisdom of the freakin' GAME that we are playing? Ahhh, but since they are out to beat US, and not simply to play the game, it comes across as....arrogance.

The picture begins to become clearer.

Also you react very defensively in public - as in "Omigod, how could you do that to us."

Yes....exactly. How could you not play the GAME? Why this ruthless focus on beating a team that is NOT on the best real estate, that's NOT in the strongest long-term game position (especially had we not been in a position to stop the big two from carving up Bob between them)? I would submit that the natural response TO such behavior is to get defensive....they don't care if the Bobians carve up the continent and outgrow or outpace us. Irrelevant. They're not playing to win the game, they're playing to beat US. If, in the process, they can win the game, that's great, but not the primary objective.

Very much clearer, having read that post.

-=Vel=-