When you move to Europe and expect to be relegated to the background, but instead everyone is super accommodating and just seeks you out when you’re around, offers side-scenes for social things you miss, and makes sure there are scheduled events you can still come to

It seems like a number of game runners are taking a harder stance about players like this. It feels like it used to be “Well, they haven’t broken the rules HERE…” and I’m seeing more and more admin instead saying “No, they aren’t welcome here to start with.” Or in this case, where maybe a rule wasn’t specifically broken but someone brought the wrong vibes and got the boot. I think it helps make games safer spaces and love to see it.

Which is also to say: I don’t know this guy, but good on the CoD staff for booting him early.

I cry at scenes the way I cry at folger’s commercials: I’m moved, I’m not actually upset.

If I AM actually upset it’s time to take a break, because that doesn’t feel healthy.

Non-specific but I’m having a lot of fun lately! Things are chill, I can find RP when I want RP, people are friendly and talented and give as much as they take.

Novel idea that a hobby is relaxing and fun, I KNOW.

I recently realized that the MU world is bigger than I thought, so in case I played with any of you back in the day, I’d love to reconnect!

Current:
Shattered: Alex, Charlie

Past:
AnsibleMOO: Dylan
Hogwarts MOO: Perry
Scattergood: Crystal
Hogwarts Express: Evelyn, Darius
TortallMOO: Heather
Sunrise MUCK: Kamau (II)
Soulfire: Evelyn, Darius, Mayhew
Keys: Bee et al
Pack: Everard

@Cobalt I asked Neil Gaiman once (at a book signing, we weren’t just hanging out) his top piece of advice for aspiring writers, and it was “finish things.” He said I’d learn the most by forcing myself to get to the end.

He also once gave me a hug and told me everything would be okay, so I take Neil’s words as absolute truth.

@RightMeow I love a good cry IRL, and am absolutely the sort of person who tears up at Folgers commercials. RP makes me cry in a good way sometimes, where I’m just really invested and something sad is happening. I always come away from those scenes loving it. (And always tell my scene partners, who always laugh at me.)

If something OOC is making me cry though? It’s usually a sign that I need to step away from someone/something, because it’s no longer fun. I don’t do RP that’s not fun, ideally for everyone involved. And I don’t tell people about these times, because what’s the point? Either the person is being shitty anyway, or maybe they’re not being shitty and it’s a me-problem so I don’t want to make them feel guilty for perfectly okay behavior.

@helvetica I’m glad to see this, and their response. I actually had also taken a look at the game, and things like this felt icky. But it sounds like it was unintentional and the game runners are doing what they can to listen.

This is Meatball and he and his brother are dirtbags.

Edit: It would be Meatball. If I knew how any of this worked.

@Third-Eye This isn’t a “last two years” thing, but as someone who MU*d a lot when I was in high school/college, and then stopped and only got back to it in the last couple of years, there’s also the shift in how LONG scenes take. Two hours used to be SO LONG and now it feels like two hours just isn’t enough time to get through most scenes. AND now most of us are adults with jobs and families and other responsibilities other than writing that psych paper between poses, so carving out more than two hours for RP can be hard!

@tsar I’ll play emotional support rivals with you any day

I am IN LOVE with that little chicken.

Non-specific but I’m having a lot of fun lately! Things are chill, I can find RP when I want RP, people are friendly and talented and give as much as they take.

Novel idea that a hobby is relaxing and fun, I KNOW.

@JinShei Barnaby ️

@Kestrel The only times I’ve had issues with someone, I quickly learned the other person was a known entity that others tend to avoid anyway. I think assholes have a habit of showing their true colors all on their own, and unless you’re concerned about them doing something harmful, it’s not worth worrying about.

@Third-Eye This isn’t a “last two years” thing, but as someone who MU*d a lot when I was in high school/college, and then stopped and only got back to it in the last couple of years, there’s also the shift in how LONG scenes take. Two hours used to be SO LONG and now it feels like two hours just isn’t enough time to get through most scenes. AND now most of us are adults with jobs and families and other responsibilities other than writing that psych paper between poses, so carving out more than two hours for RP can be hard!

It seems like a number of game runners are taking a harder stance about players like this. It feels like it used to be “Well, they haven’t broken the rules HERE…” and I’m seeing more and more admin instead saying “No, they aren’t welcome here to start with.” Or in this case, where maybe a rule wasn’t specifically broken but someone brought the wrong vibes and got the boot. I think it helps make games safer spaces and love to see it.

Which is also to say: I don’t know this guy, but good on the CoD staff for booting him early.

@Pavel Ahh I missed that one. I’m not trying to say I have the one correct definition here, just that if I wrote a description and said you could use it and you then used it, I wouldn’t call that plagiarism.

I see enough examples of the more blatant variety anyway that’s honestly shocking. It seems like most of us are thirty-somethings who have been RPing for 47 years and should know better than to be straight up copy/pasting other people’s work.

@Pavel I’m not aware of a prior discussion here, I was just thinking of cases like ghostwriters or the above example of Tez writing descs for friends.

Plagiarism is when you copy someone else’s writing as your own without permission, so using a desc that a friend wrote for you wouldn’t count.

I also think phrases or a particular (brief!) way of describing something usually wouldn’t count. These things tend to go in and out of style among friend groups or games and feels more like the adopted slang than ripping someone off.

Blatantly using entire descs, event descs or scene sets or backgrounds or anything else where you’ve just copied what someone else did and not citing where the writing came from? Is plagiarism, and I’d support banning anyone who did it.