MU Peeves Thread

[helvetica]

@junipersky No one said they were doing it well!

[GF]

When you have to take a mental health break from a game because your life is in a bad enough place you don’t know if you have the fortitude to deal with the game’s atmosphere and then you’re in the shower the next morning asking yourself, Isn’t the fact that you need fortitude to deal with the game kind of a red flag?

[Arkandel]

@GF It’s something many of us forget at times. At the very least a game needs to be an overall plus in our lives, bringing with it more positives than negatives.

That applies to MU*, video games, forums… anything.

[Pavel]

@Arkandel said in MU Peeves Thread:

@GF It’s something many of us forget at times. At the very least a game needs to be an overall plus in our lives, bringing with it more positives than negatives.

That applies to MU*, video games, forums… anything.

Agreed. And even if it is usually an overall plus, sometimes it just isn’t, and it’s perfectly okay to say to yourself “I had fun doing this, but now I am not having as much fun” and leave. Even if you’re responsible for something, or your participation is key in a future event, or whatever.

Your mental health and wellbeing come before your commitment to any entertainment pursuit.

[Arkandel]

@Pavel Also agreed.

One of the biggest issues in our hobby (and probably all gaming-related communities) is the sunk cost fallacy. “I’ve spent so much time in this, I can’t stop now!”

And it hits both ways.

Players stay in MU* they’re getting mistreated (or at least have little fun in).

But also players burning out overstay their welcome and become toxic or unpleasant to be around because they don’t want to quit well after they should have.

[SpaceKhomeini]

@Arkandel said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Pavel Also agreed.

One of the biggest issues in our hobby (and probably all gaming-related communities) is the sunk cost fallacy. “I’ve spent so much time in this, I can’t stop now!”

And it hits both ways.

Players stay in MU* they’re getting mistreated (or at least have little fun in).

But also players burning out overstay their welcome and become toxic or unpleasant to be around because they don’t want to quit well after they should have.

Feeling this so hard about a few different hobby-things right now. This should be every MotD.

[Polk]

@Arkandel That’s really true of life in general.

The comfort of a routine keeps us sucked in, even when we feel we’d be better off stopping a thing.

I stayed with MtG Arena and Hearthstone longer than I should have, because it felt… empty… losing that habit. A hole in my day.

A MUSH ending, or leaving a MUSH, I find has the same effect. It’s tough to quit a thing you’ve made a part of your life.

But being able to quit a MUSH that you’re not enjoying, or worse is actively stressing you, is a great thing.

[Arkandel]

@Polk You see it online all the time. People playing WoW for years and they are just so miserable, complaining about Blizzard, their fellow players, the gameplay, hating every second of it.

Like, dude. You don’t have to keep paying a subscription. Just… stop doing this to yourself.

But also, other people who might still be having fun don’t need to be told they are wrong.

[Jumpscare]

For the past week, I’ve taken a break from developing Silent Heaven, but there’s someone who keeps nagging me day after day to hurry up and stop slacking: myself.

Wish I could get me to lay off me.

[tsar]

@Jumpscare said in MU Peeves Thread:

For the past week, I’ve taken a break from developing Silent Heaven, but there’s someone who keeps nagging me day after day to hurry up and stop slacking: myself.

Wish I could get me to lay off me.

When you figure out how, let me know

[Testament]

I can recall back to a particular time in my own staffing when some players were upset that too much was happening. I do blame myself for that because I had created and set up the game to be a lot slower paced by intention, so that players didn’t feel like they were constantly missing out. There were about three particular conversations that I remember regarding this. It was valid points, because I realize that as the game picked up slight steam and drew in new players, I felt obligated to plan more.

So I believe it’s important to state at the beginning what your expectations are going to be. How the content of the game will portrayed, thereby putting the responsibility on the players on whether or not they want to put their own time into it. At the end of the day, it’s their choice.

Regarding Seven Nations, I admit that I tend to be the primary storyteller, with a specific metaplot or story in mind that I want to tell, while at the same time not wishing to hide that metaplot beyond any kind of potential hoop-jumping, either IC or OOC. Which I’m fine with, but the story doesn’t move unless people are there to be apart of it. The biggest hurdle over anything I’ve had to try and mitigate was not having enough people, but trying to make sure that everyone who could be there, is there. So I know there can be this strange disconnect at times when either the game moves fast and then suddenly slows down. And as much as I don’t want to have a Discord for the game, it has helped keep communication open for people, I can’t deny that. Though personally, I think Discord really only works for smaller games rather than larger ones. Still, if I had a choice to not have it, I wouldn’t.

I think this might just be apart of the slow evolution of things. As the playerbase gets older, there’s less time to devote to it. I can remember being on older games and there always something happening somewhere. Now, the trend seems to be heavily leaning towards planning certain things at specific times, and even that tends to be done in an asynchronous manner, which I know that by itself has a varied amount of opinions on whether or not that’s actually good or bad.

@bear_necessities said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Herja said in MU Peeves Thread:

I think also normalizing playing multiple games for players that need more activity than one game staff can fulfill would help as well.

I wish there were actually enough games for people to be playing multiple ones

This is a fantastic point. I’ve always noticed a certain level of, well, I suppose tribalism when it comes to the idea that you play one and only one game, lest you not be seen as ‘loyal’. I’ve never quite understood that way of thinking. I can understand not having the bandwidth for more than one game, much how some folks only want to have one character no alts, which is a perfectly valid reasoning.

[Roz]

@Testament said in MU Peeves Thread:

This is a fantastic point. I’ve always noticed a certain level of, well, I suppose tribalism when it comes to the idea that you play one and only one game, lest you not be seen as ‘loyal’.

I honestly can’t recall ever hearing that sentiment in all my years of MU*ing. People playing multiple games has always been treated as the norm in my experience.

[Pavel]

@Roz said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Testament said in MU Peeves Thread:

This is a fantastic point. I’ve always noticed a certain level of, well, I suppose tribalism when it comes to the idea that you play one and only one game, lest you not be seen as ‘loyal’.

I honestly can’t recall ever hearing that sentiment in all my years of MU*ing. People playing multiple games has always been treated as the norm in my experience.

I’ve only seen remotely similar with the idea of playing one at a time. By which I mean if you’re logged in to Parx and having a scene, you don’t also be logged in to Smiran and Tallcoast, and you certainly don’t have multiple scenes going.

ETA: But I’ve also only really inhabited a very small festering of a space in the community, so my experience isn’t universal etc, etc, etc.

[Testament]

@Roz I’ve seen it before. Or at the very least, the perceived insinuation as such. Whether or not that was the intent, I suppose left more up in the air. I’m not saying it’s something that’s common, but I am saying I’ve had interactions in the past where players have promoted ‘only playing one game at time’ otherwise you’re doing other players a disservice by not giving your focus to that one thing, or something along those lines. If I misconstrued that, that’s on me, but it was certainly the vibe that I got.

[Pavel]

@Testament Yeah, I mean based solely on those words alone it sounds like “if you’re scening with me don’t scene in other games” which is… fine? I guess?

I certainly can’t multi-scene anymore, I have the attention span of a sparrow on meth.

[Roz]

@Testament said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Roz I’ve seen it before. Or at the very least, the perceived insinuation as such. Whether or not that was the intent, I suppose left more up in the air. I’m not saying it’s something that’s common, but I am saying I’ve had interactions in the past where players have promoted ‘only playing one game at time’ otherwise you’re doing other players a disservice by not giving your focus to that one thing, or something along those lines. If I misconstrued that, that’s on me, but it was certainly the vibe that I got.

Yeah, I might have misread your tone/intent, too! It sounded to me like you were suggesting this is a regular, common occurrence. So really we were just playing “anecdotal experience vs anecdotal experience.”

[Testament]

@Pavel said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Testament Yeah, I mean based solely on those words alone it sounds like “if you’re scening with me don’t scene in other games” which is… fine? I guess?

I should’ve worded it like that, because that’s very much an experience I had where someone got upset at me because I was sceneing with one person on a game and mentioned that my poses were a little longer than usual as I was trying to finish a scene on another game. And then it became a ‘thing’, which I likely construed, mistakenly likely, that people should only play one game rather than people should only be in one scene at a time. Regardless, I guess I can kinda see the idea of it, but at the same time, it’s not something that I personally anyways, have ever been bothered by.

@Roz said in MU Peeves Thread:

Yeah, I might have misread your tone/intent, too! It sounded to me like you were suggesting this is a regular, common occurrence. So really we were just playing “anecdotal experience vs anecdotal experience.”

I wouldn’t say it’s a common occurrence, but it’s happened enough that I’ve taken note of it.

[Pavel]

@Testament said in MU Peeves Thread:

it’s not something that I personally anyways, have ever been bothered by.

Yeah, honestly it doesn’t bother me unless it impacts the scene we’re having. If you’re taking twenty minutes to pose because you’re in this riveting scene on another game… that’s just rude. At least I think so.

[Pyrephox]

@Pavel said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Testament said in MU Peeves Thread:

it’s not something that I personally anyways, have ever been bothered by.

Yeah, honestly it doesn’t bother me unless it impacts the scene we’re having. If you’re taking twenty minutes to pose because you’re in this riveting scene on another game… that’s just rude. At least I think so.

Yeah, this is my only problem with it.

But, that said? It is a big problem with it. If I’m having to wait 30 minutes a turn in a two person scene because you’re in three other scenes, whether it’s in this game or not, then yes, I’m irritated at you. Because I typically have, like, 3 hours for a scene at most, and I’d like to have more than six poses between us in that time!

[Pavel]

@Pyrephox said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Pavel said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Testament said in MU Peeves Thread:

it’s not something that I personally anyways, have ever been bothered by.

Yeah, honestly it doesn’t bother me unless it impacts the scene we’re having. If you’re taking twenty minutes to pose because you’re in this riveting scene on another game… that’s just rude. At least I think so.

Yeah, this is my only problem with it.

But, that said? It is a big problem with it. If I’m having to wait 30 minutes a turn in a two person scene because you’re in three other scenes, whether it’s in this game or not, then yes, I’m irritated at you. Because I typically have, like, 3 hours for a scene at most, and I’d like to have more than six poses between us in that time!

Amen. I’m here, I’m participating, and we’re live. Don’t waste my time. I don’t need to be a priority for anything, but if we’re RPing, that should be the focus of your entertainment-level attention (RL comes first, fold laundry or whatever banal activity you do while you RP, that’s usually cool).

ETA: OR let me know that you’re distracted/slow/in another scene/whatever. So I can go and do something else.