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!

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...

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

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.

Well the Diplomats flavor seems to be gold   

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.

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

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.)

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

GW we call it aggressive diplomacy

The discussion of the Giants.

How entertaining *claps*

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!

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.