GIAMPAL@auvm.auvm.edu (10/29/90)
As we all know, Amiga computer owners are different from the owners of
other computers. The differences are many, but this _humorous_ little
story tries to harp on a few. Lord knows I've been through each of these
stages, so please don't take offense.
--dominic giampaolo
uunet!chopin!nick
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The Psychological Development of an Amiga Owner
There has been great interest in finding out what makes Amiga owners
tick. Many people are at a loss to explain their sometimes odd,
evangelical, and abusive behavior. We have undertaken a study, and have
been able to split the development process into three (3) distinct stages.
The first stage we refer to as "Religious Ferver and Zeal", this is
followed by "Temperement and Depression", and the final stage is "Computer
User, not Whiner". We'll try to cover each of the key points that
distinguish the individual stages, and the reasons for progression.
Religious Ferver and Zeal
The first stage of the Amiga owner is the most amusing to watch.
Typically, the person will just have been introduced to the world of
computers, and by some stroke of (bad ?) luck, has discovered this
wonderful computer called the Amiga. The person is continually amazed at
its capabilities, and is stunned at what it costs. They spare no effort in
making sure _everyone_ they know is aware of this fantastic machine called
the Amiga and how inexpensive it is. This stage is marked by the
individual ranting, often at length, about the virtues of the Amiga. They
simply cannot comprehend that anyone in the world being so stupid as to
purchase any other computer. They are quite ignorant of the computer
industry, and tend to believe that the Amiga was the first to have
accomplished anything. Other features of this stage of development are that
friends avoid talking about computers with the person as they know it will
only degenerate into a discussion about how fantastic the Amiga is. For
particularly acute cases, friends will begin to avoid this person because
all the person wants to do is talk about the Amiga computer. It is also
somewhat intriguing to note that in most cases the person in question will
never have actually done any multi-media projects, own only a single
program (obviating the need for multi-tasking), and will have lots of
AmigaWorld magazines.
In addition, at this stage the person immediatly begins to notice the
lack of advertising about the Amiga. Feeling responsible for this they
will make sure that everyone they know, knows about the Amiga (even other
Amiga owners) and how cheap it is. They often feel that if they don't push
the Amiga, no one will, and it will die an obscure death. They cannot
believe the bumblings and failures of Amiga advertising, and wonder how
anyone in an advertising department could be so stupid. They often will
begin to think they should go into business selling Amiga's since that is
all they do anyway. The person at this point feels it is their
responsibility to make sure the Amiga succeeds. For some unknown reason,
they cannot comprehend that Commodore Business Machines is a multi-national
corporation which will not go out of business by next week unless everyone
goes out and buys and Amiga right this instant.
Temperement and Depression
This is the second stage of development, and is usually triggered by a
sophistication of the person. They will begin to purchase more general
computer magazines, and will become more cognizant of the computer industry
as a whole instead of just Commodore-Amiga. At this point, the person
begins to see that the Amiga really isn't the end all be all of computers.
They become depressed, sometimes severely, at learning this, and seek to be
reassured that the Amiga is still #1. They will often begin to talk more
about other computers, and how the Amiga really still is better. Their
arguments tend to be laughable, but all they really want is someone who
appears to be technical to say "I still like the Amiga because it has the
best hardware around". This then transfers into the fact that the Amiga is
the only computer capable of certain things. This feeling of superiority
will last only until the next issue of MacWorld or MacWeek in which Apple
announces yet another Macintosh. Again the person will become depressed
and seek solace by trying to find some other reason why the Amiga is still
the best.
This stage is the most sad to watch, as the person will often have such
great mood swings as to become almost manic depressive. You will see them
sneaking use on other computers just so they can find some insignificant
feature they dislike. This transfers into unbelievable stories of how the
other computer is terribly bug-ridden and unusable. Things will often
appear hopeless to the person in this stage. They will begin to wonder how
the Amiga will retain its dominance in the market place, and what is
necessary to accomplish this. They will often dream of wild fantasies about
what the Amiga 4000 will be, and how as soon as it comes out everyone in
the world will dump their current computer to get an Amiga 4000. This
comforts them and allows them to sleep easily at night.
Some people in this second stage will find it necessary to point out
each of the Amiga's failings and decry that they must be fixed or else the
Amiga is a doomed machine. Often they will speak of such things as 24-bit
color, RISC cpu's, faster custom chips, or some equally "hot" topic which
they know absolutely nothing about. It can be quite humorous to see a
person without a single minute of technical training try to explain how you
can put 24-bit color in the Amiga. Real techies try to explain things, but
to no avail, the person just knows that if the Amiga doesn't have 24-bit
color by the end of next week, Commodore might as well just close its doors
and go out of business. These type of people are generally more concerned
with having the fastest and best machine as opposed to worrying about how
to accomplish a project. They will even blatantly say this, however their
childlike behavior goes unnoticed.
Computer User, not Whiner
The third and final stage is when the Amiga owner finally reaches the
point where they actually use their computer instead of worrying about
whether it is number one. This is generally caused by a need to actually
do something with their computer instead of playing demos and music they
have gotten from NewTek or downloaded from their local BBS. The person at
this stage will have realized that the Amiga is still a usable computer
even if the MacIIfx is running at 40mhz or whatever it is.
This final stage in the Amiga users development is perhaps the most
fulfilling to watch. The person has come to the conclusion that all types
of computers are needed in the world, and yes, even the Amiga has a place
in that. They now will actually be heard muttering terms such as
"interactive multi-media", MIDI, Cel-Animation, and Ray tracing. However
the distinguishing feature is that these phrases are used in sentences with
"I am doing", instead of "With the Amiga you can do". People who once
avoided the person from stage 1 (Religous Ferver and Zeal), now are
interested in what the person is doing. Others will often begin to ask,
"Hey what kind of computer is that", instead of saying "Oh god, there goes
John on one of his Amiga kicks again". The person in this stage will still
be quick to note that the Amiga has been capable of doing things for
quite some time that others are claiming to be innovations. This is an
artifact of the previous stages, however it has become more muted and does
not scare people away. It is even possible to have a rational discussion
about computers with a person in this stage.
The person in this final stage will usually be involved in trying to
put together various projects using the Amiga. They will appear to be
visionary to their friends who can't imagine putting together a
presentation with music, animation, and text all on a single computer. This
is gratifying to see as it indicates that the person has reached the
culmination of what all of their previous rantings had been about.
Conclusions
It has certainly been an adventure observing these Amiga owners. They
are an interesting bunch, and the diversity of the stages of development
indicates a true maturation as time progresses. While it is very annoying
to have to deal with people stuck in the first two stages, the final stage
more than makes up for the other stages. We are currently looking into
ways of eliminating the first two stages through the use of systematic
desensitization and other behavior shaping techniques. We have a program
where we simply put the patient into a room with the last 3 years of
MacWorld and 500 IBM Technical System's Journal. After a week or so of
this we then move the patient into a lab containing Amiga's that are being
used for various projects. The results have been promising and we have a
75% success rate so far.
We will continue our work with these Amiga owners, and will hopefully
have more interesting news to present in the future.andrew@postmod.UUCP (Andrew_J_Richardson) (10/29/90)
>In article <1990Oct29.091325.20534@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> rjc@wookumz.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) writes: >The is the most pathetic bunch of dreck I've ever read. And most of it >is false. Its error ridden with assumptions like 'most amiga owners >dont know other computers exist, or the amiga was their first.' > >Most amiga owners I KNOW have atleast owned a C64/128, used or >programmed Unix, had a PC, an Atari 8bit, or an Apple. And as for >the rest of that post. It was pure BS. This has to be a joke. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ after 6.5 lines of ranting, you're starting to get it... although, judging from your sig line, i'd say that you're stuck somewhere in phase one. >"NeXTs are useless... Mac's are irrelevent.. IBM's are futile. Amiga's,however, >are quite nice!" -Capt Jeal-Luc Amiga | Flames to /dev/null >Ray Cromwell rjc@wookumz.ai.mit.edu | // AMIGA! \\ >"Your software will adapt to service ours!"| \X/ AMIGA! \X/ -- andrew uunet!postmod!andrew andrew@postmod.UUCP
rjc@wookumz.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) (10/30/90)
In article <andrew.3860@postmod.UUCP> andrew@postmod.UUCP (Andrew_J_Richardson) writes: >after 6.5 lines of ranting, you're starting to get it... >although, judging from your sig line, i'd say that you're stuck >somewhere in phase one. Maybe after 70 lines of armchair psychiatry you'd get the point that your post really wasn't that humorous, and if you insert the words IBM or Mac in your post wherever the words 'Amiga' appear it will read the same. Your post doesn't portray the average Amiga user, perhaps it portrays your own Amiga history and feelings. If you actually have owned another computer other than amiga and particpated in IBM/Mac communities you'll see the same religous attachment to them. I have been seeing IBM users bash Amigan's on WWIV nets for years. The same religous attachment for computers, also extends to other things like cars 'Oh yeah, my Chevy is better than your Jap Toyota' ,'Oh yeah, my Nissan is better than your XXX.' Perhaps you don't 'get' my signature line. Its from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Taken literally, it has no meaning. (NeXT's arent useless, the joke in the sig line is the play on the worlds 'useless,irrelevent,futile' from STTNG's Best of Both Worlds.) >>"NeXTs are useless... Mac's are irrelevent.. IBM's are futile. Amiga's,however, >>are quite nice!" -Capt Jeal-Luc Amiga | Flames to /dev/null >>Ray Cromwell rjc@wookumz.ai.mit.edu | // AMIGA! \\ >>"Your software will adapt to service ours!"| \X/ AMIGA! \X/ > >-- > > > andrew > > uunet!postmod!andrew > andrew@postmod.UUCP -- "NeXTs are useless... Mac's are irrelevent.. IBM's are futile. Amiga's,however, are quite nice!" -Capt Jeal-Luc Amiga | Flames to /dev/null Ray Cromwell rjc@wookumz.ai.mit.edu | // AMIGA! \\ "Your software will adapt to service ours!"| \X/ AMIGA! \X/
JKT100@psuvm.psu.edu (JKT) (10/30/90)
After watching two folks go at it over whether this posting was funny
and accurate or not, it's time to throw my $.02 in (hey why not?) In
all honesty, I think I speak for quite a few of the Amiga owners I know
when I say that the post was funny in sections, but by the time it got
to "Stage 2" it got insulting. Nobody I know has ever gone through
anything resembling the second stage, and to assume that all Amiga
owners are so fanatical that they will go into depression when they
"discover for the first time" that another computer can be useful for
anything is ludicrous.
Now hey, I have as much of a sense of humor as the next guy.... I
even have a "What's all this then?" (Monty Python) t-shirt and I
wear it often. But the post in question actually can be directly
compared to racial humor; very funny for everyone except the race
it is mocking. And when you take a closer look and figure out that
many of the things being said just might not be true at all, the humor
fades pretty quickly.
Kurt
(and before you disect my .sig quote and say I'm also in stage 1,
I really DO use Macs and IBMs at work daily and DO realize they are
better for some things than the Amiga. :-)
--
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|| Kurt Tappe (215) 363-9485 || Amigas, Macs, IBM's, C-64's, NeXTs, ||
|| 184 W. Valley Hill Rd. || Apple ]['s.... I use 'em all. ||
|| Malvern, PA 19355-2214 || (and in that order too! ;-) ||
|| jkt100@psuvm.psu.edu --------------------------------------||
|| jkt100@psuvm.bitnet jkt100%psuvm.bitnet@psuvax1 QLink: KurtTappe ||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------ST00482@auvm.auvm.edu (dan drake) (10/30/90)
Please move this thread to alt.flame, or alt.religion.computers. you are wasting my bandwidth. dan. BTW: if anyone replies to this in this newsgroup, you should study the english language, then reread the above.
za011@zeus.unomaha.edu (11/01/90)
I thought that your "Stages of Development" posting really hit the nail
on the head and was accurate to an uncanny degree. As a graduate business
student, I was annonyed by hearing statements from professors such as "you
have two choices when buying a computer: an IBM (clone) or a Mac," but I have
now come to accept reality (Stage III) and use the Mac lab occasionally. I
think your posting ought to be bundled with every new Amiga.
(If this message is screwed up, it is because I working at taming the VMS News
setup, and I haven't worked the bugs out.)
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Kurt Krueger | BITNET: ZA011@UNOMA1 | //\
MBA Student | Internet: ZA011@ZEUS.UNOMAHA.EDU | \X/--\ M I G A
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Do not bend, fold, or mutilate.
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