Posted by Gremlin on 22 October 1998 at 06:01:31:

In Reply to: Re: www.lost-world.com posted by Utahraptor on 22 October 1998 at 02:40:40:

: Hey, do you think Hutch could be Alan1 in real life?

They're not the same guy, no. But they're similar.

In Mitch's case, he'd post fifty messages a day for attention, and overlook the hints that he was getting annoying. When he finally caught on, he became hostile and did some weird things. The NetForum went into a civil war over it--those who had always hated him against those who understood what had happened. Probably. I'm still not completely sure what happened there. But I think that, in the beginning, Mitch was real and just highly excited. He's probably like that in life, too; and it probably gets him in trouble with the other kids who are tired of his brainless hyperactivity. When people on the 'net started treating him the same way, he became paranoid and hostile, trying to emulate the rest of us who were flaming each other from the safety of a computer. Then the NetForum crashed, and it almost ended. Except that Mitch followed us to Dan's board, and this board, and kept it going, though the rest of us had since dropped the war and pretty well decided to get along. Mitch can't stand that since he's not the focus of attention anymore. So he shows up every once in a while to start it up again. His strategy is simple enough: he befriends those who have never heard of him; those who have attack him; those who he's just befriended retaliate for him. It should be a simple strategy to crack, either by getting thirty-nine million 'netsurfers to hate him or by getting those who already do to stop attacking him. But it never quite works out, because everyone thinks they know what they're doing, and it's always different ideas which can't work together.

The good news is that he's not going to get far on this board. Simply because everyone here has already been warned about him. I don't think he'll get much sympathy here.

Hutch has a similar strategy. He's likeable enough when you first meet him, though he's usually inconvenient and overbearing. But then, if you try to go back to whatever Hutchless life you had, he pouts about it. He apologises incessantly. He assures you that if he's getting on your nerves, you have only to tell him to go away. But if you try to, he pouts again and generally disregards it all. Then he shows up the next night as if nothing much had happened the night before, and assumes he gets to sit with you since you're such good friends now. That's the preal problem with Hutch: he doesn't bother manipulating others into fighting for him; he just misses the point when you tell him to leave. Instead of going away, he changes a bit and stays there, advertising how different he is now. And when that doesn't work, he shifts again, and again, and again, and never actually leaves...he just changes a bit and assumes that everything is cool again.

The real similarity is the counterattack. Hutch is a lot more tangible than Mitch but so am I. I could just scream at him and get the attention of everyone else in the restaurant, but some people wouldn't get it. Hutch walks in as if he knows everyone, and whoever disagrees with that becomes the badguy in the situation. It probably doesn't matter much, since everyone working there, and all the lurkers ,know what he's really like; but it could become mesy with the random newcomers who don't understand the backstory. I get the feeling that anything I haven't tried yet is only going to upset the neutrals and be lost on Hutch. So I'm not entirely certain what I'm going to do about him yet. Nothing for the moment: he's in Utah for a few days.

--Gremlin

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