What Do You Want Out of a MU?

[somasatori]

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

My twenties back.

When I think of a MUSH I think of the fun I used to have, the crowds I used to play with, the themes I enjoyed.

What I am probably really expecting, though, is to still be the person I was at the time with that kind of free time in my hands, the novelty of doing this new thing, and a lack of cynicism which I likely no longer possess.

There’s very much a hauntological element in MUSHing for me as well. Couching a lot of my wants in a “this is what I learned” perspective doesn’t discount the nostalgia I have for games in the past. In fact, it emphasizes it: imagine if such-and-such game could be improved? Well, it can’t be improved because it’s gone, as are my twenties – and soon so shall my thirties follow.

There were some great experiences and I knew some really great people back in the day. Except for a handful of them, I have no idea how to contact them if they even had an interest in being contacted by someone they pretended to be vampires with on a text game. I recently logged into my OneDrive and did a deep dive into folders that I hadn’t looked at for a long time, as well as the old email account I used when I was first starting TR back when I prematurely announced it in like 2009, and just the creativity and energy made me wonder what happened to that person. Your comment, Ark, made me realize that’s also the underlying desire I have from a MU*.

Sorry for vibe killing with this comment lmao

Third Eye: super cool question that’ll drive engagement, what do you want out of a MU?
me:

[Pavel]

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

imagine if such-and-such game could be improved?

Firan, but without all the Firan in it.

[icanbeyourmuse]

Another thing I thought of:

Something to do in ‘downtime’. It is one of the things I like(d) about Firan and Arx. Some of the code I was/am like ‘Why do we need this?’ I guess I like the hybrid of MUDs and MUSHes that Arx and Firan fill(ed). It would be nice to have a semi-social and crafting system on Atharia. Or messengers for when people, due to RL/time, can’t connect for RP, messages give a lovely avenue for people to communicate in an ic method. An NPC where people can ‘ask questions’ of that gives them information about current plots. Maybe it even has a ‘generate a job if person hits on this new plot info’ aspect so staff can follow up with the player and see if they want to chase the new plot info. Even if it is just new plot info to them. Maybe a semi-limit on how long they can ‘talk’ with the NPC so they don’t ‘get everything’ right off. ATM, I just tell my players they can nudge me for RP on my NPCs even if it has no ‘game plot significance’ and is just ‘spending time with the parent’ or ‘Talking to their preferred God about nothing’, etc and I usually drop plot hooks to people in the scenes to decide if they want to look into it or not. I guess in my jibber-jabbering way I am saying I would like to see a /little/ extra code that is more about flavour/accessibility/able to generate something for people to bite on.

[Snackness]

@somasatori Upvote for Barbie

[Ashkuri]

Anymore, part of what I want out of a MU is a positive player base. People who like to cooperate instead of compete, share info and introductions and plot info, chat and have fun together, and ask openly and often for RP on the appropriate channels for doing so.

A playerbase that enjoys being on the game instead of complaining about everything they hate about the game – this is ideal for me.

[Third Eye]

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

me:

NGL I am America Ferrera Existential Crisis Barbie 95% of the day, and the other 5% I wish I was some form of America Ferrera.

I try not to be too seduced by nostalgia because at least for me it’s a mug’s game. I read old logs and sometimes they’re great, but also sometimes the experience was clearly better in the moment than it feels in retrospect. Sometimes I have great experiences with people I met like 8 months ago while being kinda bummed out by people I’ve known for a decade. It all sucks if you do it long enough, but also all surprises can be pleasant. IDK.

[Wizz]

@Third-Eye said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

I read old logs and sometimes they’re great, but also sometimes the experience was clearly better in the moment than it feels in retrospect.

I did not expect this sentence to resonate as much as it did, looooool.

this is why I leave OOC chatter in my logs if I have the choice, because half of the fun for me was just hanging out with a solid friend. I’ve def had a log’s sentimental value salvaged by reading our commentary when the stuff happening in the scene itself was not actually all that compelling to Future Me.

[somasatori]

@Third-Eye said in What Do You Want Out of a MU?:

NGL I am America Ferrera Existential Crisis Barbie 95% of the day, and the other 5% I wish I was some form of America Ferrera.

Same.

One thing I was wondering lately, given that there’s a decent amount of discontent with some games and a lot of questions about “what makes a MU*” and “what do you want” and so on, back in the 2000-2010s when that would happen there would be an explosion of new games. In the WoD and Shadowrun spaces, you had Metro, HM, and the Seattle MUSH, then attrition and ennui about those settings got players making other games (not necessarily Gold of My Own, but “ugh this again”). I think the same thing started to happen with Fallcoast and TR. Not sure if that’s going to be a thing now as a lot of the older players seem to have less energy and even less time, but there are many tools that make it relatively easy to create new games given Ares, RhostMUSH, and Evennia. The barriers to launch is much lower than before.

I say this while realizing that Ares has a very vibrant scene going on, btw. Just something I’ve kind of noticed in traversing various spaces lately.

[Pavel]

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

back in the 2000-2010s

Why do you hurt me so?

[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.