What Do You Want Out of a MU?

[somasatori]

@Pavel said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

@somasatori said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

back in the 2000-2010s

Why do you hurt me so?

[Gashlycrumb]

@Pavel said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

I want a game that realises timezones are a thing. There are people in places other than North America, and we’d like to play too. Yes, it’s hard, but I’d really like to attend events that aren’t the cast-offs from the ‘main cast.’

Eh, “I want a prominant place in the story, while playing at a time offset from the rest of the group by seventeen hours,” is an unreasonabe request, much as if I asked my table-top GM to run me on Tuesdays when the rest of the game plays on Sundays, yet somehow allow me to affect the story to the same degree as everyone else, and prevent me from feeling left out.

However, “I want a game that is played when I can attend,” is practically indistinguishable from wanting a game at all.

I think it’d be an improvement if game-runners approach the time-zone issue by identifying blocks of time where events will occur, and sticking to them. It’d reduce FOMO. Also RAMO, the Rage At Missing Out that you experience when your PC has been an active force in the plot for months but the finale is scheduled for a time that you can never play and never have, and have listed as no-go in your +finger.

This isn’t to exclude Pavel; most MUs would have a goal of multiple time-block sets. The idea would be that he could see that he can play in Purple Block, and take on the Eldritch Tinky-Winky, and that maybe sometimes he’ll be around for a Red Block event, but he should not try to spearhead the fight against the Great Po. And also know that if he consistently shows up during Purple Block’s times, he’s likely to have something to do and someone to play with.

This isn’t what I want out of a MU, exactly, it’s just a measure I think might work.

[Faraday]

@Gashlycrumb said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

Eh, “I want a prominant place in the story, while playing at a time offset from the rest of the group by seventeen hours,” is an unreasonabe request,

It may be an unreasonable thing to expect, but since this thread is just about things we want out of a game, I don’t see a problem. It’s no different than wishing you could find a TTRPG group that meets Tuesday nights.

@Gashlycrumb said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

I think it’d be an improvement if game-runners approach the time-zone issue by identifying blocks of time where events will occur, and sticking to them.

As a game-runner, I would hate that. I run events based on an ephemeral mix of what works for me and what makes the most sense for the players involved in a particular plotline (to avoid precisely the situation you mentioned where someone integral to a thing can’t make it). Trying to codify that into a block schedule would make me never want to run another event ever.

Which is not to say someone else can’t/shouldn’t try it; just for me personally it wouldn’t be an improvement.

RL scheduling will always be a barrier to synchronous RP. If you don’t like async and you can’t find players with compatible schedules, there’s no magic that’s going to make it work.

[Gashlycrumb]

@Faraday said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

As a game-runner, I would hate that. I run events based on an ephemeral mix of what works for me and what makes the most sense for the players involved in a particular plotline (to avoid precisely the situation you mentioned where someone integral to a thing can’t make it). Trying to codify that into a block schedule would make me never want to run another event ever.

I don’t see the difference, except that the schedule is written down. Are you all over the clock for the same group sometimes?

[icanbeyourmuse]

I /trey/ to be available for as many time zones as I can but I’m a horrible scheduler. I pretty much go ‘Who’s around and wants to RP? I’ll probably throw plot stuff at you.’ Or variants of that. Atharia has a bit of a European lean, probably due to the hours I keep. So, it gives them access to plot.

I think it is reasonable to /want/ a game available when you are. It is, in my opinion, only unreasonable when you expect people to give up sleep/work/whatever to be on when you can be. Wanting and expecting are two very different things, in my opinion.

[Faraday]

@Gashlycrumb said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

I don’t see the difference, except that the schedule is written down. Are you all over the clock for the same group sometimes?

Yes. Not everyone has a predictable schedule.

[Wizz]

@Gashlycrumb said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

Are you all over the clock for the same group sometimes?

I mean, a lot of us are? not to beat this particular dead horse but we’re not young anymore, and real life priorities trump trying to force any sort of strict gaming schedule. that’s kinda just the nature of the beast at this point.

[Pavel]

@Gashlycrumb said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

Eh, “I want a prominant place in the story, while playing at a time offset from the rest of the group by seventeen hours,” is an unreasonabe request, much as if I asked my table-top GM to run me on Tuesdays when the rest of the game plays on Sundays, yet somehow allow me to affect the story to the same degree as everyone else, and prevent me from feeling left out.

I mean, not really? Async exists, and I’m not the only person from Not-the-United-States who exists.

If you have “the story,” then make events available for us that contribute to the story as much as those run for anyone else. I don’t expect to be in every event, but I’d like my contributions to the events I can be in to count as much as anyone else’s events.

[Gashlycrumb]

@Wizz The idea is more that the not-gaming schedule is strict-ish. If Purple Block is 16-20 Tuesday, Thursday and 11-13 Saturdays it doesn’t mean Tinky-Winky attacks three times a week, just that he almost never attacks off-hours.

Everybody has to carve time out in their schedule for hobbies, and most people have unpredictable schedules, but I guess I feel the opposite effect – it’s a lot easier to carve out that time if I have a general idea about when it will be.

I did basically try to do what Pavel wants. I won’t claim I succeeded, but I watched the activity graphs of my game and tried to serve what I thought of as the second time-block, which was evening in eastern Australia. I didn’t try much to do much for a smaller blip of higher activity that happened in what was usually the middle of my workday.

@Pavel said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

I don’t expect to be in every event, but I’d like my contributions to the events I can be in to count as much as anyone else’s events.

Man, do I hear you.

[Pavel]

@Gashlycrumb said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

Everybody has to carve time out in their schedule for hobbies, and most people have unpredictable schedules, but I guess I feel the opposite effect – it’s a lot easier to carve out that time if I have a general idea about when it will be.

For me, at least, it’s not really a matter of carving out time (as in changing anything else) but finding already carved time. I can’t alter my work schedule to fit in game time, no matter how variable said work schedule can be. So I have to see where time is already available and use that.

[Faraday]

@Gashlycrumb said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

Everybody has to carve time out in their schedule for hobbies, and most people have unpredictable schedules, but I guess I feel the opposite effect – it’s a lot easier to carve out that time if I have a general idea about when it will be.

But again, not everyone has that luxury. It’s all well and good to say that I’ll do Purple Block plots in 16-20 Tuesday, Thursday, and 11-13 Saturday, but if I’m not available in those timeslots for a whole month because of life - I haven’t helped anything. Similarly, setting up the expectation of fixed timeslots like that might discourage players who might otherwise find ways to get involved. I’d rather catch (and create) RP when I can.

If your life circumstances permit a block system and you want to tell stories that way - go for it. I just don’t think it’s an improvement for everyone.

[icanbeyourmuse]

I don’t thin blocks need to be ‘carved out’ for people. Putting effort into /trying/ to make time, without screwing yourself over, for people in timezones not yours goes a long way. Effort to help them feel involved can make someone feel involved because you are caring enough to /try/ and help them get involved. Trust a player with a small bit of your game plot that can connect to everything else going on, use asynch type stuff like Ares and Arxcode (Evennia in general?) has, set up scene loggers in a temp room or a room where people can go see previous poses and add their responses to what is going on. There are a lot of things that can be done to help someone feel apart, timezone availability is just another one.

[Kay]

Currently willing to sell non-existant firstborn to game Gentry able to provide a Changeling the Lost game. Even more so if it’s multisphere in some fashion or another.

Seriously, I need an outlet for my “I want to play a candle/dragon/book/avatar of murder/troll/mirror” etc shenanigans. I need my Changeling hit!

Also I know I’m not alone, you’re guaranteed to have a super popular game on your hands.

[Pavel]

@Faraday said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

I just don’t think it’s an improvement for everyone.

Alas I think that may be the fundamental point of this whole exercise, or indeed any “how do I make a game” thoughts. You won’t be able to please everyone, no matter what you do.

[Gashlycrumb]

@Pavel said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

For me, at least, it’s not really a matter of carving out time (as in changing anything else) but finding already carved time. I can’t alter my work schedule

Well, yeah. I expect pretty much everybody has some stuff that they cannot rearrange, like work-schedules and certain appointments, and some stuff that they could rearrange but it’s higher priority than gaming, but also some stuff that’s more or less the same priority as MUing. Do I take a stroll down to the pub, read the latest Stephen King, indulge in my hobby of defacing antique furniture with imitation milk paint and ‘live, laugh, love’ decals, or MU? If I don’t ‘carve out’ the time for these things, I might end up letting co-workers talk me into Trivia Night.

@Faraday said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

if I’m not available in those timeslots for a whole month because of life - I haven’t helped anything. Similarly, setting up the expectation of fixed timeslots like that might discourage players who might otherwise find ways to get involved. I’d rather catch (and create) RP when I can.

That month you’d schedule with the Purple Block playgroup same as you do now? Clearly I need to figure a way to arrange it that doesn’t give people a ball-and-chain feel about it. The idea is to facilitate forming playgroups with compatible schedules, and to leverage that compatability by making some block of shared available time slightly special – I leave the furniture alone for another day because it’s Tuesday, and others in the group make similar decisions.

One thing I want out of a MU is synchronous RP, regularly available without a lot of hanging about trying to hunt it up.

[Faraday]

@Gashlycrumb said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

I leave the furniture alone for another day because it’s Tuesday, and others in the group make similar decisions.

Except if you have an unpredictable work schedule, or kids, or a chronic illness, or any number of other life situations that make such routine decisions impractical. Then it’s not just one month that you’re rearranging Purple Block, it’s any month, or every month, and it kinda defeats the whole purpose of the system.

But again, I’m not saying it’s bad for everyone, any more than having a TTRPG group that always meets on Sunday. It’s a perfectly fine idea for some people. I’m just pushing back against the notion that it’s somehow trivial for everyone to carve out time for a routine schedule like that.

[Pavel]

@Gashlycrumb said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

One thing I want out of a MU is synchronous RP, regularly available without a lot of hanging about trying to hunt it up.

Well now who’s being unreasonable?

[Roadspike]

@Gashlycrumb said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

Eh, “I want a prominant place in the story, while playing at a time offset from the rest of the group by seventeen hours,”

I don’t think that this is what @Pavel is saying. It’s certainly not what I was saying when I made a similar comment. What I would like is to not be a Zeppo if I can’t make Prime Time Events (whatever time that might be for a given game). Or if I’m going to be a Zeppo, I want to be a Zeppo whose impact (even if it’s minor) is recognized. Gimme an announcement post about the thing that I did, have it get mentioned by an NPC (or a PC) in a Prime Time Event. Acknowledge that there are people playing the game and doing things even if they can’t make Prime Time Events.

[Coin]

@Roadspike said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

@Gashlycrumb said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

Eh, “I want a prominant place in the story, while playing at a time offset from the rest of the group by seventeen hours,”

I don’t think that this is what @Pavel is saying. It’s certainly not what I was saying when I made a similar comment. What I would like is to not be a Zeppo if I can’t make Prime Time Events (whatever time that might be for a given game). Or if I’m going to be a Zeppo, I want to be a Zeppo whose impact (even if it’s minor) is recognized. Gimme an announcement post about the thing that I did, have it get mentioned by an NPC (or a PC) in a Prime Time Event. Acknowledge that there are people playing the game and doing things even if they can’t make Prime Time Events.

This is one of the things that we’re really trying to achieve in the game I run and I hope we do, when we try to do big things.

What I’ll usually do is I’ll divide a big event into three sectors: LIVE, ASYNC, and VIGNETTE. People who can make the live event get to have their live scene, people who can’t go to the async scene, and the people who want to be involved, but won’t be able to be active enough for an async scene (or don’t like async but can’t make it to the life scene) can drop short vignettes (even with other people, like mini scenes) of what they’ve done during the events of that story.

It’s not perfect; a LOT of people often just ignore it if they can’t make the scenes, not bothering to touch the vignette. But it’s there.

[Wizz]

I want a MU* that plays with the format a little, because I find that really fun in theory and I don’t know that I’ve ever really seen more than a few in my time.

think sorta like, the Network/Horror MUX. gimme a game where the rosters are a core personality jumping from physical host to host, or the main physical setting is always changing while the characters remain the same (like a game about immortals!), or maybe a location unstuck in time where characters from different periods can move between them and make things really screwy.

I’m sure those would be paperwork nightmares all in their own uniquely horrible ways, lol, but I just wanna try it dammit!!*

*usual disclaimer applies, I literally do not have the time/spoons rn to make it. maybe someday.