Best posts made by Artemis

I cannot stand played-bys.
Hear me out. I’m a blind player of text games and have been for a long time, but was only introduced to the idea of a PB when I got into mushing. Where I play currently, it’s a common thing on wikis and the like for the people who want to put them, which is obvi fine. When I started to app on Ares games, though, the played-by as a literal component of character creation kind of grated on me, especially since it shows up at the end of character descs and the name of the actor is in the profile. I have to go to staff every time like yeah hey sorry im leaving this out because i can’t see. But this isn’t a dig at Ares, just the prevalence of pictures to convey imagery in what’s supposed to be a text medium.
I know this is like probably super unpopular and obviously a very personal bias. I’ve spent years honing my knack for physical description, and one of the main draws of a mush for me, other than them being one of the only types of games I can play, is the niche art of making pretty stuff with words. I don’t think PBs negate this or anything, but it’ll always be a peeve for me when I can’t get a good visual from a desc because the person is relying more on a picture. I have the same philosophy about ascii but that’s a whole other rant.

It’s annoying when I’ve just quit my longest standing MU and want to join and be involved with others, but the investment is difficult to build up and my mental state derails me half the time. There are so many new and awesome games out right now, that I want to support, while I’m simultaneously trying to work on my own and torn as to where to focus my attention, so I end up getting way less done than I’d like. Just kind of feeling like a flake rn.

Hi. I figured I’d come out of the woodwork for this post because it feels pretty relevant to me, since I started rping around 13 and only came of age a couple years ago. RP has single-handedly been one of the most cathartic outlets for my creativity, personality, and sexuality, and also one of the most emotionally taxing. I genuinely don’t think I’d be who I am without years of rp under my belt, but I also would have avoided tons of unnecessary stress and a lot of very real hurt. As a kid, I lacked the mental and emotional bandwidth to handle some of the heavier situations that arise in these spaces, not just abuse, but general bleed and vicarious feelings. I think it’s especially easy for kids who don’t have much of a social life to immerse themselves way too deeply, so instead of a hobby it becomes a coping mechanism. Obv this isn’t an age-specific issue, but people of lower maturity level are certainly more susceptible.
So, on one hand, rp was integral to my development as a person, but on the other, it kinda fucked me up and I’ve had to reevaluate my relationship with it recently. Collaborative writing can have such a beautiful and powerful impact, but I’d say underage people should stick to spaces with others in their age range, and if they are caught on an 18+ game, turn them away with an invitation to return later.

speaking out against abusive players is difficult

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@hellfrog said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

@Polk said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

I think it’s a fair complaint that you get shut out of RP in a game unless your PC is a young woman willing to, er, “put out.”

Honestly, I don’t.

I think this gets ASSUMED to be what is going on a lot more than it is actually what is going on. And if it is going on, and you are truly getting shut out of ALL RP on a game because your pc is not the sexually desirable flavor…that game is not for you. You don’t fit the team. Time to move on. What it isn’t time to do is make it seem like the people who are playing whatever fits the team are victims or bad people, or only fit because of sexual reasons. Focus on the people you know to be violating boundaries and being a problem. Do not just assume or lump together anyone who does manage to find rp.

To me this is a weird thing to defend? I get your point about not lumping people together, but as a player who has experienced this exact kind of ostracization, I think it’s perfectly right and good to critique such behavior on a game-wide level. Of course, if a game advertises itself with those kinds of themes, it’s a different story, but most places where it gets complained about are not doing that.

when players are so nasty and unpleasant to deal with you’re afraid of being spied on and bullied a second time for imposing IC consequences.
lol this isn’t even a mush thing, i’m on a mud, but shit i just needed to say it publicly somewhere. carry on with your actual MU peeves!

i hate insomnia
that is all

Hello! Just dropping in to say I had a really fabulous time at the battle scene today. Normally events of that caliber give me a lot of anxiety, but everything about it was well-paced and very easy to keep up with, and I was able to relax into it and just enjoy the rp. Congrats to everyone who participated, and thank you @apos

@Kestrel DOWN WITH PLAYED-BYS

I am with Hellfrog on this one that I enjoy descriptions and even fluffy ones! I’ve also made my opinion on this known before, lol. It’s kind of crazy to me to hear someone suggest nixing descs as a whole. To put it plainly, I love writing descriptions, I love writing them in detail, and I love describing clothes because it makes me feel like I am playing with Barbie dolls. If you don’t want to read that, then don’t. I often include enough detail about my character’s physical traits and attire when I pose/emote anyway.

@m2abrams15 just expressed a thought. Idk what the coarseness in these replies is about.

executive function is a fucking miracle and superpower

I finished chargen for Shatteredmu last night, which seems like a really cool game that I am sincerely excited to play. Also, I completed my own Ares installation a couple days ago for a thing I’ve been working on the last few months and it’s gratifying to take that step forward. Has been a good MU week for me and i just felt like sharing the vibe

Some people are good at writing descs and some aren’t, and being bad at it/not wanting to doesn’t detract from your skill as a writer. Im just saying to have no desc at all will never not be lame to me, it’s literally how im able to picture a character. To be honest, no, a lot of people do not adequately pose their character’s looks in a scene, because it is generally the cultural norm that they have a description for reference, or a pic!

Have been plagiarized! In this same specific way actually. Once someone wholesale stole my description for a character on a different game, bragged about how much time they spent on it, and then another person copied them and brought it back to the game I play. I ran into them and was like o.O and that was the story they gave me, anyway.
As flattering as it is cringe!

@GF I’m so desensitized to the odd, awkward, or vaguely insinuating messages I receive from random people on games like these that I forget reporting harassment is a thing I can do. I know this doesn’t answer your question exactly but idk maybe offers some insight.

I am shy about asking for rp unless I have a concrete reason to do so, in which case i have zero shame. I think it also depends on game culture for me; on Ares, no problem asking on rp requests, while on some other games you have to pm anyone you want a scene with, and that’s kind of nerve-wracking if it’s just a random approach. Still, I’ve pretty much gotten over the anxiety of it and tend to just go for it with varying levels of success. It’s harder on games that have been around a while, because typically, people have long-term rp circles there and I find those are the ones who usually don’t respond.

@mietze said in MU Peeves Thread:

Reeling a bit from a mispage earlier in the day that kinda took the wind out of my sails.

On the one hand, I guess I know who to avoid in the future. But it’s coming at a really bad place of timing.

It really sucks to feel like you’re okayish enough to pass the time with RP wise if there’s nothing better to do, but you’re not of the caliber where it would be worth engaging in deeper RP with you since you’re just a lightweight bore and there’s nothing substantial there.

I do often feel (as do like 98 percent of the people I know) like i’m the always the unwanted/last person to be picked for the kickball team. I don’t /think/ it’s the reality (and hey if we were all the super popular kickball captains growing up maybe we wouldn’t have gotten into mushing or whatever so it’s just kind of a primal worry for a lot of people. But i’m feeling it super hard tonight.

I’ll work through it (or disappear) but damn. I’ve done my share of mispages but it’s been awhile since I got one and i have to say it kinda really did hurt this time. Even if if it’s from someone that I really don’t even care about!

This surprises me. You seem really popular as an RPer in general, and the like two interactions we’ve had made me go oh I would love to rp with them more. I’m sorry it happened, you are fantastic!

@Cobalt i haven’t read any other post in this thread but out of context, ew
eww

@mietze I agree with everything you said! I enjoy playing attractive PCs and would struggle to write a completely unremarkable character, because even when I try they end up interesting or multifaceted in some way. I think the interesting parts of them are what cause them to be appealing, also.
Anyway, liking PBs and ascii art or simply disliking descriptions is all well and good. I think the point of my original post was just to express how their widespread use can be a slight annoyance to me and presumably any other VI player in an otherwise fully accessible hobby. On Arx I can’t read a majority of people’s clothing descs because of the lack of regulation with no_ascii tags, and on Ares I have to literally skip a step on chargen because I can’t see pictures. Could be something to think about, possibly, idk.