@GF said in Macha Awareness (And Unappreciation) thread:

@Wizz It’s not a gif but I first thought of this.

This reminded me I made one specific to Ghost at one point.

Life giveth, life taketh.

It’s taken me a while to post this, but I did share a billion pictures of her, so I figured. We lost my dog back at the beginning of August. She was thirteen, so she had a very good run (and run, and run, and run…), and she’d started getting a bit blind and probably a little deaf, but she was otherwise quite healthy. Then what we thought was a bad UTI turned out to be bladder cancer, and it was pretty clear she already had a partial blockage. Hardest fucking decision I’ve ever had to make, but she went quick and peaceful and on a good day.

There’ll be another dog, hopefully sooner rather than later, maybe even much sooner, but there’ll never be another Riley. She was with me and my family through our hardest times. She was, genuinely, my best friend.

I like to think she’s being a little shit to my brother right now.

I typed up a whole reply to that thread about how to repair the community, as measured as I could manage, looked it over, and then promptly trashed it, just to get it out of my system. It’s a bit cathartic, if time wasting. I was never going to post it, because in all honesty what would be the point?

The OP is the most sealion of sealions, and I have never witnessed him engage in a conversation in good faith. That post is no different. It is a topic worth discussing, but there’s no interest from the people asking the questions in hearing answers contrary to “just keep doing what you’re doing”, in that or any other thread. The solution offered by the OP to the perceived problem is to just do the exact same thing, but to the “right” people (or, excuse me, “cull them”, that’s a fucking yikes, my dude, it can go on the shelf alongside all the other yikes gathered by that equivalence between bullies and genuine predators).

In general, nothing I’ve seen since this whole thing shook out has given me any confidence that MSB can achieve what it claims it wants, in part because I do not believe that is actually what the administration there wants, as evidenced by…basically every response to substantial criticism or pushback, but also by their blatant lying.

Actually, y’all lurking here anyway, here’s the version where I’m too tired to care about moderating myself. You’re lying. You’re lying out your lying lie holes, and anyone who goes and reads the relevant posts/threads can see it. The bans had nothing to do with the Hog Pit. The issues that sparked the firestorm that led to the bannings had nothing to do with the Hog Pit. Most of the people banned were banned over what was effectively a cease and desist as regards posting at all, not because they were super toxic baby-eating ultra bullies subsisting on the tears of the undeserving. And I note that basically everyone spreading this lie is someone who enthusiastically engaged in the Hog Pit. Yes, that means you, and you, and you. All people have to do is look at your posting history. I guess you’re just banking on folks not doing that, but here’s the thing, here’s the big glaring fifty foot neon flashing sign of Painfully Obvious Projection:

If you meant what you keep saying, you would not be lying about what happened and why. There is literally no reason for it other than you’re looking for easy excuses and convenient scapegoats. You banned a bunch of people and declared it good, so why, exactly, do you feel the need to make up reasons to further justify it? The reasons are right there! Anyone can read it! You’re clattering on about bringing the receipts while posting on a forum chock-full of them.

The way you’re behaving toward anyone offering any substantial criticism is fucking absurd (do forgive me, I used the bad no-no word). You’re aggressive as all hell straight out the gate, and when posters get fed up with that behavior and start caring less about trying to engage with you in good faith (as you offer absolutely none), you take it as proof you were right to be paranoid assholes. MSB cannot and will not get past this until you’re willing to actually check yourselves, but as checking yourselves seems to be a nigh herculean task, I doubt you’re up to it.

But that’s okay. You’ve got your little corner of the internet, and you’re welcome to it, and whatever enjoyment you get from it. You don’t actually have to pretend that you want to do better. I imagine most people would prefer you not, in fact. But if you do? Then you need to put in serious effort to fix your shit. And you’re going to have to reckon with the fact that there are people you are supporting and allowing into your corner that have no interest in changing and thrive off of the kind of environment you’re providing, By that, I don’t mean the pretense toward civility or tightened standards on what’s acceptable to post, I mean the absolute sub-zero chilling effect your actual behavior has had on the likelihood of anyone not in your immediate in-group calling out or reporting them.

At the end of the day, it comes down to staff. Do you trust staff to handle this sort of thing fair and reasonably? Then trust that they’re seeing things you aren’t; additional testimony, logs, personal experience, interaction with the accused, etc etc. This is not me saying that staff trying their best don’t still make the wrong call at times, or that their rulings should be taken as the end all be all in all circumstances, but when you boil everything else away, that’s what it’s about.

If you can’t or don’t or won’t trust staff with this kind of thing, then I don’t think it’s likely to help if staff air all the dirty laundry out for everyone to pick over. Everyone is not staff. These are not things decided by popular vote (at least, in every game I’ve ever heard of, they’re not). And it also discourages people who would report abuse but are afraid or embarrassed to have it made public. It’s very hard for a lot of players to reveal it even in private to staff they do trust, it’s often a struggle to convince folks (or convince yourself) to go to staff with issues like this. Every. Single. Time. that we have banned people from Arx during my tenure as staff, someone, and usually more than one, will immediately pipe up to say it was happening to them too, or they were getting strange vibes that they didn’t quite think was worth reporting. It is extremely rare for these folks to target only one person. Even when we pre-emptively banned someone, a bunch of folks talked about how they were already seeing red flags from him.

In this case, from my understanding, the person being accused is staff, and the person who could do something about it refuses to do so. This post is, therefore, a warning to the community, because that’s about the only thing that can be done to try to keep other folks from being victimized.

Do people make posts like this out of malice? Absolutely, I’ve seen it happen. But that’s rare, and the truth tends to out, because the sorts of folks who make up that kind of shit are also usually not targeting just one person.

This idea that someone needs a full court jury of their peers to determine whether they are, in fact, a sexpest/manipulative asshole/general piece of shit is silly. That can’t and will never happen. We aren’t calling witnesses to the stand or doing internet fingerprinting or whatever, there aren’t cops waiting to haul the guilty away or a singular judge with the power and authority to send you to internet jail. All that does is serve to protect abusers with layers of obstacles that victims have to hop through and the insistence that private things be dragged into the public for hobby randos to pick over. This is why demanding receipts in this fashion just doesn’t work. What counts as receipts? What counts as receipts that can’t just be waved off as not good enough?

It sounds like staff can’t be trusted on this game, and at least one is actively causing harm. That’s the point I’d say you’re best off leaving the game, but that’s a lot easier said than done. We get attached to games, to stories, to people. But it’s worth knowing that one can expect no help in this regard, and worth the victims being able to find support and assurance that they are not simply blowing things out of proportion.

I’m going to make this as short as I can. At one point this player commonly went by “Jay”. I know he played on Lion King MUCK a long long while back. He spent years playing on GarouMUSH, bounced to City of Hope after ragequitting, then eventually came back to GarouMUSH, much to the detriment of all, claiming he’d turned over a new leaf. No. Once he was genuinely banned from GarouMUSH, he apparently went back to City of Hope for a while, until he was banned there. Eventually he made it to Arx, and once we knew it was him, we banned him there too. Here’s why:

He’s a fucking sexual predator. I’m not going to mince words here. He preyed knowingly on underaged players, abusing the trust of already vulnerable children, hounding them for TS, personal contact information, nudes, and worse. He stalked them across games when they tried to break off contact, repeatedly lying about his identity to try to get close again. At least once, he stalked someone in real life across the country (this person was thankfully(?) not underage). He did this to several friends of mine, and I can only guess in horror at how many fucking others. He should be in jail. As he’s not in jail, he should be chased from this hobby and from any hobby for the rest of time.

This is why he was banned from Arx, and this is why I’m making this thread.

Going any further feels inconsequential, because given the above it doesn’t matter what kind of a player he is, but since we’re here already, I might as well. He’s a toxic asshole, and he will always eventually out himself as one because while he’s capable of masking or muting his behavior for a little while, he’s entirely incapable of changing it. He cannot keep IC and OOC separate. He will metagame as much as he can get away with. He will (shock of shocks) abuse the trust of other players to get what he wants. He will abuse any power he’s given, IC or OOC. He will be verbally abusive to players where he thinks people won’t report him for it. He’ll lie. He’ll shittalk people behind their backs, then turn around and shittalk the people he was just shittalking to. He’ll attempt to manipulate people he’s abusing into not reporting him, both by trying to convince them it’s not a big deal, and that staff can’t be trusted and might punish them. He’s pushy as fuck about TS, and possessive as hell. He misgendered people on purpose. He throws tantrums when not given as much attention as he feels he deserves. And so on. Name a toxic behavior to be found in this hobby, and he probably engages in it.

He’s had tons of characters and been on tons of games, I can only provide these:

GarouMUSH: Jeremy, Brom, Briari, Alecia, others I know I’m forgetting

From his City of Hope banning post: Brigette, Danielle, Diana, Izayah, Logan, Sonya, Troy, Justin, Andrea, Fogwalker

Arx (obviously): ex-Breccan (sorry any future Breccans)

Fuck you, Jay. You’ve hurt far too many people, I can only hope this helps prevent you hurting more. If any game runner/staffer wants help with identifying him on their game, they can DM me.

derp, this thread’s anger summed up in two words:

we are not a community.

We were.

Shit, I can’t imagine why this person got banned after only three days on the game, it’s a mystery someone help me out.

So, I have this dog.

She has opinions.

And she is ridiculous.

She was very smol. Mother and laptop available for size comparison.

She had a truly enormous family. 13-14 puppies, something insane like that, and she was the clear runt. Her brothers liked to pull her around by the tail and it was very rude. Her owner lived a number of hours away, so at first all we had were videos to pick from. There was one for each pup, but this little monster kept photo-bombing, bouncing around for attention and generally making a nuisance of herself. She was the last of the litter to be chosen, possibly because she was a headstrong little shit far, far, far too smart for her own good.

She is now 12-ish and has life threatening seizures, so there’s no knowing how much longer she’ll be around, but no one has properly informed her that she’s an old lady now.

It’s also really hot, so she’s shedding madly.

To add: People coming to a conclusion or general agreement on a singular issue (or even multiple issues) is not an echo chamber, just like people who are good friends are not a clique. Context matters, and in that regard, there are forum regulars disagreeing in this very thread.

Oh yeah, bouncing onto a thread to go WOW YOU ALL SUCK LOL is also not an argument that deserves fair consideration. Like what goofy ass logic is that? You want to debate something, maybe try providing something to actually discuss. Something less boring than “but what if bitches be lyin’ tho.”

The thing about microaggressions like that example is that they are rarely, if ever, isolated. People who do that tend to either target more than one person, or escalate their behavior toward the person they’re already targeting (if they haven’t already). It’s good to know as staff because there are players that are extraordinarily good about not quite doing any one thing enough to get banned, but that, when you can have a look at their range of behaviors, it becomes clear they really should be.

@Herja said in Bannings:

And lest people think I am a hypocrite that is upset because I got banned yet as staff of a game, I am not shy about using my own banhammer:

I’m not here because I am horrified about Ganymede having gone on a banning rampage (except when she banned @farfalla because Macha was being manipulative, that was super fucked up). I am not upset over being banned and I completely deserved mine. You do not call people clowns living in clown town and not expect to very soon lose access.

I am here because I think Derp and his current team are bad for the hobby. Victim shaming and whatever authoritarian power grab happened over there are some of the WORST aspects of this hobby and watching this happen in real time after hearing about it happening on various games is wild. I’m not mad over the bans. I’m mad that the worst the hobby has to offer has been given a safe space to continue to spread toxicity and ‘hide’ from the well-deserved consequences of their fucked up actions. (Looking right at you, Hella)

I, on the other hand, am mad about the bans. Less that they happened, as that was shitty and enough reason that Gany should not be admin anymore, but I recognize it was heat of the moment panic and anger, and more because they were upheld. There was a lot of noise about mistakes being made, accepting responsibility, etc, etc, but barely even a token effort, if that, to do anything to rectify the situation.

Hot take, every single ban should have been reversed. Yes, every single damn one, even the ones that probably deserved it, even the ones that asked for it. Even Tempest, who should have caught a ban fucking years ago. That situation was sparked by two abysmally bad decisions, and spiraled out of control entirely because Gany refused to listen to anyone and then panicked. Did some people deserve to get banned from how they responded to that? Probably. Don’t care. If you say it’s on your head, then it’s on your head, and taking responsibility means accepting that you actually did do something wrong, which means you should make an effort to right said wrong, or at the very least mitigate the fallout from your actions.

It’s actually worse that a handful of bans were reversed instead of all of them, because they were so few, and so unevenly decided, that it’s blatantly obvious this was used, after the fact, to scoot a bunch of people off the site they (particularly derp) didn’t like. Going on and on and on about The Clique only proves this is the case, because none of the bans handed down were because of that. There wasn’t some weird sweep of the userbase that determined whether or not someone was too mean girl for a non-Hogpit MSB, that wasn’t why the bans happened. It was pure opportunism. It annoys me that they’re constantly misrepresenting it, but I guess it’s a bit awkward to claim you’re the voice of the community and against people being mean and exclusive when you’ve just conducted an after-the-fact purge of people you don’t like.

In any case, I figured I was probably leaving once I woke up and saw all of that (I said as much over there), but my final decision came when I realized just how fucking unpleasant and unwelcoming it was going to be - and was already becoming - for anyone remotely friendly with anyone who was gone, for (ironically) anyone not in their new in-group, and for anyone who was going to be critical of decisions made in the past or going forward. People were already violating the new rules in order to tell people they weren’t wanted, and to shut up and gtfo, so I did indeed shut up and gtfo. No regrets on that. It’s so fucking joyless over there now.

Scattered thoughts.

It’s okay to be tired. I am so, so, so, so, so tired. Thinking about this is just exhausting, and right now I can’t stop. I am so tired of these fucking people, I’m tired of dealing with them, tired of hearing them, tired of them sticking themselves into every aspect of my life, tired of them threatening my friends and my strangers, and I’m tired of being afraid of them.

It feels like nothing matters and nothing has mattered. I’m tired of that too.

I’m tired of 2024 in general, and looking ahead doesn’t offer any break from any of it.

So.

It’s okay to be tired. But what these folks want from us, more than anything, is for us to give up. That’s their victory, and for all that they win, they haven’t won until that happens.

If you’re feeling hopeless, which I am, then I’d like to offer that spite can also be a fine motivator. It’s okay to be tired, it’s okay to rest, and it’s okay to get back up with nothing more than a desire to keep these fuckers from getting that last thing from you.

That sounds like an empty platitude, but it comes from the heart. If you’re in a dark, dark place right now, I want you to know that I am too. There are other people in here with us. Millions. You’re not alone.

Life giveth, life taketh.

It’s taken me a while to post this, but I did share a billion pictures of her, so I figured. We lost my dog back at the beginning of August. She was thirteen, so she had a very good run (and run, and run, and run…), and she’d started getting a bit blind and probably a little deaf, but she was otherwise quite healthy. Then what we thought was a bad UTI turned out to be bladder cancer, and it was pretty clear she already had a partial blockage. Hardest fucking decision I’ve ever had to make, but she went quick and peaceful and on a good day.

There’ll be another dog, hopefully sooner rather than later, maybe even much sooner, but there’ll never be another Riley. She was with me and my family through our hardest times. She was, genuinely, my best friend.

I like to think she’s being a little shit to my brother right now.

@Rinel said in A Constructive Arx Thread:

@RightMeow said in A Constructive Arx Thread:

@Apos

Welcome to Night— Arx. Welcome to Arx.

I feel you should do this now.

The City Council announces the uncovering of a new Labyrinth at the corner of Crown Way and Visitor Road, beneath the Archive. They would like to remind everyone that books are not allowed in the Labyrinth. People are not allowed in the Labyrinth.

It is possible you will see Hungry Figures in the Labyrinth.

Do not approach them. Do not approach the Labyrinth.

The door is warded and highly dangerous. Try not to look at the Labyrinth, and especially do not look for any period of time at the Hungry Figures. The Labyrinth will not harm you.

Someone found their way into the Labyrinth because Kalakh accidentally wiped the traverse locks again.

They met the Hungry Figures.

They did not survive.

Everything is fine now.

@Smile said in MU Peeves Thread:

Honestly, my biggest peeve is people who make decisions that get their characters in danger and rather than go along with it, they sort of like get frustrated at the consequences they get because “what else was my character going to do? Of course they were going to rage at the super evil and powerful mage! They are a rebel!”

Like the character isn’t real. You make the decisions. Own it.

I…why would you play a rebel character without expecting consequences. Isn’t that kind of the point of playing a rebel? If nothing happens and everyone agrees with you, you’re not rebelling!

This is a rhetorical question obviously, I absolutely know why, it just endlessly baffles me.

@Rinel said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

@Roz said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

Death definitely does not act human. She’s a mad goddess.

Maybe I should have just said “more obviously active in the world.” Dance of Skulls, etc.

Granted, that was one time, but it was a pretty big deal

You do one zombie apocalypse…

@Rinel said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

@kalakh

Was Azazel always capable of Devouring things as powerful as gods and their reflections, or did he get supercharged by it?

I’m assuming the reason he didn’t go after any of the gods originally was because it would negatively affect their reflections.

You mentioned Skald needing to merge with Vellichor as a result of Fable being consumed; were any of the other gods affected by Azazel’s unholy buffet?

He got supercharged but I’m definitely not the person to explain what happened there. Legion and Fable were the only Reflections that got et, so it was mostly Skald handing Vellichor a bunch of new responsibilities and going lmao bye.

If the final battle had gone worse though, the follow up last chance scene would have basically been Azazel doing a god/archfiend chomping speedrun while the PCs tried to stop him.

Finally, were Death and Skald unusually anthropomorphic for gods, or was it just that we (I?) saw more of a human side to them due to their relatively outsized influence in the founding of Arx?

Definitely more anthropomorphic than the other gods, for several reasons. Skald in particular took a pretty active hand in doing shit, then ended up stuck in the physical world because he used a bunch of his power to bind Legion, and leaving would have released it again.

Also he apparently thinks Elysia is lame in comparison now.

Oh, also, Legion, Fable, and Ruin were the big three that Azazel consumed, but he actually ate a fuckload of lesser-but-still-powerful horrors up north, which I suppose is good news for when the Arvani start pushing back up that way.

Afaik, that didn’t include the Maw of the Blizzard though.

@Quibbler said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

@kalakh

I had a Megalomanic goal to get the Oracle’s crown. Gianna had some link to the sirens I think, which I am very curious about (@clue 2227). Mostly when I brought it up the response was NOPE you’re gonna DIE so I eventually stopped pursuing it. I always wondered, though.

There was also the thirteenth crow dream (3033), which made Gianna decide she wasn’t going to tie herself to team good guy or team bad guy but instead try to… bridge between them.

As previously mentioned I’m definitely not the expert on Oracle (or Copper), but I think the ‘crown’ was metaphorical, like it wasn’t an actual object or anything, think of it like the way people use someone having the mantle of something. Oracle taught/bestowed Copper the ability to use time magic, which was otherwise unique among mortals (and now immortals). I remember someone sending Watcher a messenger asking after the crown, and her response was that she had no idea what that was really referring to, but that any power over time vanished from the Dream when Copper did.

Watcher did not know this firsthand, but she wholeheartedly trusted the person who told her both in that she would definitely know, and that she had no reason to lie about it.

So blah blah blah it isn’t possible for anyone else to learn time magic, at least in Arx 1’s setting.

@Roz said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

@kalakh said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

Re: Prism: Prism had a bit of her own thing going apart from Skald, but when Skald stepped down from godhood he granted a share of the power he retained to her, so she’s still got power, but yeah afaik she’s no longer a Seraph.

Prism actually decided not to accept that power. She and Skald are instead living as a comparatively normal, undivine couple instead. It’s very sweet.

I assume she still has magical ability, because she had also been a mage, but she’s no longer divine.

Aww.