Pogo Was Right!

By Alfred Barten

It's been over 30 years since the beloved possum, Pogo, uttered his famous line "Yep, son, we have met the enemy and he is us." I had that famous episode of Walt Kelly's popular comic strip taped to the wall by my desk for years until it became too faded, yellow and brittle to remain there.

Although Pogo's observation was part of a series on environmental pollution, I've come to realize that his words are just as applicable to all aspects of the human condition. I'm convinced that if we're unhappy, frustrated, angered, unpopular, and so forth, it has a lot to do with our own attitude and outlook. If you want to be happy, start by counting your blessings instead of pointing to someone else and saying "Look what you've done to me."

I bring all this up because of recent events leading to Auran's closing of the Trainz forums. As I understand it - and I admit I wasn't aware of the offending postings nor have I seen directly the statement from Lance Jago quoted in a post on the Train-Sim.com forum indicating the reason for the closure was undue negativity directed at Auran and its employees - Auran decided that there was no point in maintaining a forum where people were attacking others. We had a similar situation at the old BVE forum hosted by Barney and Big Vern on the Crotrainz website a few years ago. Like our cluttered environment, we were wading in our own pollution of unpleasant, undeserving, nasty comments. Barney and Big Vern responded by shutting down the forum.

I concur with Barney's and Big Vern's decision and Auran's decision. If you are unhappy, don't take it out on someone else. If you want to be happy, start by counting your blessings. In the case of Auran, there is so much to be thankful for that we should all be smiles from ear to ear. For starters, Auran is providing us with an awesome piece of software in every version of Trainz. When I demonstrate Trainz at train shows, people are amazed to find it only costs $25. By comparison, a game for PS3 will set you back $50 and have only a fraction of the functionality of Trainz and no access to add-ons. Trainz not only comes with routes and trains, it lets you repaint the rolling stock, build your own routes, and gain access to what is now over 70,000 free add-ons at the Trainz Download Station - courtesy of the Trainz community. And that brings up our next blessing - the Trainz community. There over 200,000 registered Trainz users. Many of these users have contributed their time and expertise to bring us the many add-ons, asking nothing in return but an occasional "Thank you." Too often these thanks-yous are never uttered. Another of our blessings was that Auran, by way of its Trainz forums, made itself and its employees accessible to the rest of us, answering questions and listening to our suggestions. If anyone has ever succeeded in gaining any kind of access at all to Microsoft, please let me know. I have a lot of suggestions I'd like to pass along. Finally, I can say from personal experience that Auran employees are among the finest people I know and I value the friendships I've made there.

I realize that sometimes things don't work as expected. That's especially true of add-ons that don't have the benefit of comprehensive testing, but can also be the case with the base program. We're not living in a perfect world, nor should we expect to be unless we want to be disappointed. I would suggest that if something doesn't work, see what you can do to fix it. Ask a question on a forum (Auran lists four Trainz forums on its TRS2006 webpage) or contact the developer or investigate the problem and see if you can fix it yourself. Anyone familiar with computers knows that things go wrong. That's why large companies maintain IT departments. We're still at the early stages of the computer revolution. We're like the first owners of private automobiles who learned to be their own mechanics and carry their own tools. I think it's a good thing to know what's going on inside the box, so why fight it? Persistence is the key to success. When you're done, you will have gained a sense of accomplishment and most likely some new knowledge about how the software works. You can add those to your list of blessings.

As many of you know, I've long been a proponent of the train-sim community, not just the Trainz community or any other community based on a single platform. Train simulation is a hobby in its own right, just like model railroading is. Let's take joy in the availability of all that's now available to us and thank the many members of our community who have devoted so much of their time and enthusiasm toward making this a truly great hobby. Let's also thank the companies who have made the effort and taken the financial risk to develop the base products upon which we are building our hobby. These companies are entitled to a profit - it's their livelihood after all - and I thank them all.

Cheers, everyone!

Al

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