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  • RE: pvp vs pvp

    I’ll also say that you really do have to separate out two concepts:

    In-character conflict, which may be between player characters

    and

    Player vs player conflict, where the PCs are mainly proxies for beating ‘the other guy’ on an ooc level.

    I’ve had far more rich, rewarding, and intense conflict and competition between characters when there is no OOC masque, when players OOCly communicate about stakes, outcomes, desires, than when that conflict is treated as a competition between players. Like, I’ve had intrigue and espionage plots/scenes that could only happen BECAUSE we were talking OOC and cool with things happening. Also, being able to chat with people OOC about how we see this conflict helps me identify at a much earlier stage if this is a player who can handle conflict, or who it’s just not going to be fun trying to have these sorts of scenes with.

    A secondary issue is something I learned as a newbie GM and which has never steered me wrong in the days since: “You can’t solve an OOC problem with an IC solution.” If the problem is “this player is playing their character in a way that makes the game unfun for other people”, then punishing/beating up/demoting/killing their character is never the solution. Having an adult conversation with them OOC about the effect their play is having on others’ fun is, and if that conversation doesn’t go well, then removing them from the game is.

    Killing someone’s character because you’re OOCly annoyed with the player is one of the ways PvP gets real toxic, real fast. It’s not ‘policing the community’, it’s just taking your frustration out on someone who you usually know that you can beat and have often taken every measure to make sure that fight is as one-sided and humiliating as possible, because you’re there to ‘teach the player a lesson’, not to have fun with them.

    posted in Game Gab
  • RE: Real Life Struggles/Support/Vent

    @sao No, they won’t be final. 😕 But the general rule of thumb is that VISITS stop as soon as termination goes through, even with appeals to come. (The bio-mom rants on FB about appealing constantly). The pause will give the girls time in therapy and stable homes to keep processing their trauma and building skills. If appeals restart visits then they will just be that much stronger to face them.

    I’m really proud of oldest sister. Shit went down again Monday with mom. She had decided to come back to the visits upon deciding that staying mad at mom for not believing her about her assault wasn’t helping her heal. Mom decided to be a prat and badger her and kiddo about why they hadn’t done calls with grandmother the previous night. When the girls both told bio-mom they didn’t walk to talk about it she got sarcastic-angry. Sister walked out of visit, had some hysterics, then told the supervisor and her foster mom what upset her. Mom got told to knock it off or visit would end, then sister went back in and finished the visit. She STOOD UP for herself.

    posted in No Escape from Reality
  • RE: pvp vs pvp

    I’d say…make a game. Make it how you want it, and hopefully it will attract the people that you want.

    Currently, no one in the MU* community wants to run a strong PvP WoD game, and there are a whole lot of reasons for that, but only one cure: be the person who takes it on. If you don’t want that, or can’t find help to do that, then it sort of says its own story about whether that game is wanted by the community as it currently exists.

    There are some PvP-heavy MUDs out there, there are, as you say, MMOs you can model design on. But the only time a game gets made is if someone has a real passion for doing the work of making that particular game. If you don’t like the games other people have passion for, then your only true remedy is to invest your own passion. Do it. Do it right. Create something you can be proud of.

    posted in Game Gab
  • RE: pvp vs pvp

    @Cygnus They are talking about the video games you noted such as CoD. They aren’t talking about PvP games.

    posted in Game Gab
  • RE: pvp vs pvp

    This is on Game Gab. We’re here to, in theory, be constructive. If you want people to have a reasonable conversation about PvP, maybe don’t call all PvE games bland games filled with elderly romance novelists. Like?? It’s not a PvP conversation. It’s a conversation about PvP.

    posted in Game Gab
  • RE: The 3-Month Players

    Forked off pvp stuff by request to https://brandmu.day/topic/583/pvp-vs-pvp

    posted in Game Gab
  • RE: MU Peeves Thread

    @ten You can pry my em-dashes from my cold, dead hands. I’ve been (over)using them longer than LLMs have been in existence!

    posted in Rough and Rowdy
  • RE: MU Peeves Thread

    @Ashkuri said in MU Peeves Thread:

    Why is there a concern with “we have to be fair” to people who are toxic to staff and other players, totally obnoxious, or otherwise a bad fit?

    Every day I am grateful that the community has shifted away from this batshit behavior. IF THE VIBES ARE RANCID, BYE BYE.

    posted in Rough and Rowdy
  • RE: PBs

    Now that I know the kids say ‘faceclaim’ instead of ‘playedby’, I found a few other sources thanks to KB setting me on the right path:

    Shout out to this one for period appropriate pbs:

    I guess I should say fcs now, but y’all will think I mean feature characters instead.

    posted in Game Gab
  • RE: AI PBs

    @MisterBoring That’s an interesting point. There do exist models for SD that are fed on images in public domain, but I’m curious how well they really hold up because of the sorts of examples you mention.

    @bear_necessities said in AI PBs:

    I’m thoroughly confused by what the argument is at this point. Is it ok to use AI as long as i acknowledge it’s harmful to artists?

    It’s okay to use AI. Maybe it’s not perfect, but fuck it. I use AI, but I acknowledge the technology has some real flaws, and I don’t try to pretend that it is ethically better than alternatives. I’ve used AI for images and AI for code. I’ve even used AI to help me figure out why an update failed for BMD, so abandon ship if that’s a problem!!

    I use it. I do sometimes think about whether I should buy carbon credits or something to feel like I use it ethically, but on the other hand, I don’t worry about the carbon credits I burn playing video games. I don’t know. On my fucks given scale, it doesn’t really rate, but it does sometimes itch.

    In this discussion, I find the approach that AI PBs are ethically preferable to using PBs of existing persons hard to swallow.

    What is the line of thinking? Many of these models have used those very same images in their training data. Like, you’re just using the exact same images with an extra layer of ‘and also other copyrighted works’, in a way that is still very much under debate for how much actual harm it causes.

    Then there are some harmful beliefs out there which make people blind to potential issues:

    @STD said in AI PBs:

    Secondly, if the model is made for a for-profit system like Midjourney, then they already have the requisite rights and permissions. That’s part of what you’re paying for when you buy a license for Midjourney.

    That’s just incorrect. Make your judgments on the matter based on fact, at least.

    posted in Game Gab

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