Posts made by Faraday

@Evilgrayson They could certainly do a better job of clarifying, e.g., “right to use in the context of the game” or something (again, I am not a lawyer). There’s a philosophical difference between “you can’t take back the toys you contributed to our shared sandbox” and “we can do whatever we want with your content”. My interpretation is they were going more for the former but you could always ask them to be more specific in the policy.

As far as AI goes - I hate it too, but realistically those companies are not respecting copyright claims anyway. They consider anything on the open internet fair game. Unless you’re playing on a locked down sandbox, your content is likely going to get scraped no matter what the game policies say.

@Pavel Generally in the US you have an automatic and immediate copyright to your creative works. That’s why you’ll find that most sites driven by user-generated content (social media, wikis, etc.) will all have a similar clause in their terms of service somewhere. For example, Facebook’s ToS (abbreviated):

We need certain permissions from you to provide our services:
…
You retain ownership of the intellectual property rights (things like copyright or trademarks)
…
However, to provide our services we need you to give us some legal permissions (known as a “license”) to use this content. …

Lawyers could debate whether something as small as a MU description constitutes a copyrightable “work”, but elaborate wiki pages, vignettes, etc. would be more likely to qualify.

Of course, in the context of a MU it gets a little murkier. Many them are not on solid copyright ground to begin with (operating in the gray area of fan fiction) and there’s probably (IANAL) some defense in the expectations around the shared nature of the experience.

All in all, it seems unlikely that anyone would go to the expense of pressing a copyright claim over MU stuff, but I can understand why the game runners may want to protect themselves.

I’ve never done anything quite so legalese sounding, but I’ve created similar policies that basically prevent a player from going scorched-earth if they leave the game. Whatever you contribute becomes part of the community property, basically. Most games do this in practice, even if they don’t spell it out in policy. I do appreciate the non-commercial part of that clause, actually.

I’m not a lawyer, but from what I know of copyright law, “licensing” is the correct legalese term to protect the game against you trying to claim that they’re taking your copyrighted work (which is basically any original character or writing).

@Mr-Johnson said in Good Systems to use in 2024?:

@Roz Did that get more optimized or is it still really difficult to keep up with larger playerbases for decent price?

Depends on what you consider a decent price. The 2GB droplet (currently $12/month) runs most games just fine. If you’ve got tons of players or run long enough to rack up thousands of scenes, you might at some point need to bump it up to the next bigger size. But really even that is not much by web server standards, especially when you consider that Ares is running a full-service web application, a regular database, and a game engine that needs to respond to commands near-instantaneously.

It requires more horsepower than a traditional MU server because it does a lot more.

Evennia’s good too, but I don’t think it has everything you need code-wise out of the box. I think it’s pretty comparable for hosting cost.

Rhost + Volund’s MUSHCode utils is also a fine choice if you want something simpler / traditional. Also the hosting would be cheaper since you can do shared hosting.

@Pavel said in Ares questions!:

You could probably get away with just not giving the MU details out and getting people using the portal instead.

That would require custom code, since the game has the address emblazoned on the home screen and it has the web client as well.

There’s really no reason to, though, since players can play together equally whether they’re connected via a MU Client or the portal. Sometimes games do web-only or client-only systems (like chargen) but in general it doesn’t matter how you connect.

@catzilla said in Ares questions!:

Since I can’t get the forums on the Ares site to work for me, I’ll ask here!

If you want to DM me with the details of the problem you’re having, I can try to help you get that sorted out. You just need to create an AresCentral account and then you should be able to log in.

@icanbeyourmuse said in Installing Arxcode?:

All items need to be added via the admin panel on the website. So, players can’t really use it as something to craft without putting in a request for their cool item to be added

Very true, but that’s still a potentially viable option.

There’s all kinds of potential implementations here, from total honor system, to a +request driven inventory system, to a full-fledged crafting system. You could also do a hybrid, like extending simpleinventory or the existing desc plugin without going full-bore crafting code.

@bear_necessities said in Installing Arxcode?:

I play 99.5% through the portal, never look at people’s descs, and would have no idea if they had pretty colored clothes or not.

You can still see peoples’ descs on the portal, but I don’t know how many actually care to look.
(Though from my adesc, I’m not sure how many bother to look in-client either. YMMV.)

@Cobalt said in Installing Arxcode?:

On Arx there was an inventory and wear system, where you would in came craft pieces of clothing and then wear them and they’d be displayed on your desc when someone looked at you. And you could color them with 256 ansi colors.

I never played Arx but I’m vaguely familiar with the system. The colors are supported, but if you wanted to restrict who could use them in a desc that would definitely require custom code. Or you could adopt the Simple Inventory plugin to track “crafted” items and do it on the honor system.

@Tez said in Installing Arxcode?:

I’m just saying the tutorial fails to address a number of things, unfortunately, around versions.

It’s just geared more towards people who are already developers (especially Python), while Ares is geared towards people who are not developers at all. It’s a tradeoff of flexibility (Evennia can run pretty much anywhere, and let’s you build a lot more varied games) vs. simplicity (Ares is designed for a specific environment and is more of a pre-built LEGO castle rather than a pile of bricks).

@Cobalt said in Installing Arxcode?:

I want pretty clothing ansi colors

I don’t know specifically what you’re after, but you can modify the ‘describe’ plugin with custom code templates in Ares.

That said, Evennia is definitely the preferred option for really immersive systems.

You’re trying the tutorial here? https://www.evennia.com/docs/latest/Howtos/Beginner-Tutorial/Beginner-Tutorial-Overview.html

@dvoraen said in [BeipMU] Removing pose order spam from Ares games.:

I forget how Ares sends poses to players on a client, since it’s been a while for me. If the first character is literally < (i.e., only the pose is sent and not a nospoof like the PC who sent the pose) then it will happen as I’ve outlined.

Also if someone does a <OOC> Faraday waves. or FS3 combat messages, which are prefixed by <FS3Combat> Faraday is knocked out. or ASCII art, or any paragraph that starts with < for some reason.

Really specific channel names is the safer way to go.

@Roz said in [BeipMU] Removing pose order spam from Ares games.:

Or if it’s a reasonable number of channels, I’d probably just set it up with the actual channel names.

That’s what I’ve always done. Angle brackets was the standard on PennMUSH for channels so it was necessary to distinguish channels from OOC and such.

@Testament said in Real Life Struggles/Support/Vent:

I don’t know if ADHD falls into some kind of spectrum or not. She was willing to say that there was something to read into it. Or at least enough to prescribe me medication for it?

ADHD is not a “spectrum” per se, but it does have three distinct subtypes with subtly different presentations. How to ADHD has a good explainer on the differences (also a great channel overall for understanding ADHD and how to work with it). I’m not suggesting you try to diagnose yourself from it, but learning more about it may help give you vocabulary to understand what your provider is saying and ask the right questions.

@Testament said in Real Life Struggles/Support/Vent:

She just said “it used to be called ADD” when I stared at her blankly after she first told me.
I actually think she said Predominantly Inattentive, now that I’m reading that again.

That would make sense. The diagnoses previously categorized as ADD are now under ADHD (inattentive or combined subtypes).

It was just odd that if said they “ruled out ADHD” but then diagnosed you with ADHD

@Testament said in Real Life Struggles/Support/Vent:

The test I previous spoke discounted ADHD, but did not count out ADD, and it’s been a long damn time since I heard that acronym, but it’s still a thing.

ADD is no longer in the DSM5. There’s only ADHD, though there are now three different presentations: Predominantly Hyperactive, Predominantly Inattentive, and Combined. It’s possible that provider is using outdated terminology to describe the inattentive presentation, but that’s still officially ADHD. (The hyperactivity is just more internal than external.)

Hope you feel better!

@Gashlycrumb said in On PvP and permanent injuries:

There are players who do all these things, but I think we jump to those interpretations far too soon.

I disagree. I’ve seen an inordinate number of players exhibiting blurred boundaries and unhealthy attachment. I also think it’s more charitable to assume that they are just unhealthily attached to their characters rather than assume they are a jerk, bully, or poor sport.

But YMMV - as someone who is usually game staff and forced to mediate these shenanigans, it colors my perspective.

I certainly don’t think that players who enjoy PVP are any more disposed to these behaviors than players who don’t; I just think games that allow PVP tend to have more of these issues due to the nature of the conflicts.

@Kestrel said in On PvP and permanent injuries:

This means characters are more likely to be self-inserts, which can feed into unhealthy attachment and blurred IC/OOC boundaries.

My experience is that the likelihood of characters being self-inserts is high regardless of whether you encourage/allow PVP or not. The drama just gets higher when those avatars come into high-stakes conflict with one another.

But I agree with you that conflict is essential for good storytelling, and some degree of PVP is unavoidable. Heck, I’ve seen players get really bent out of shape over who destroyed more robotic NPCs in a battle scene, when there are no other stakes beyond IC bragging rights!

For me, it’s just about the tone and boundaries for the conflict.

@OnceWas said in City of Glass - Discussion:

I said “minus one” from its rating, which is five, thus far. It’s a great place. Bad documentation, eh, maybe not such a thrilling attraction.

I misunderstood. My mistake.

Nonetheless - a sweeping statement of “bad documentation” and players not being worth “five minutes of extra time” over one single documentation omission is bafflingly aggressive.

@OnceWas said in City of Glass - Discussion:

Any mentions made of “required admin powers or roles”? No.

You could have just pointed it out in a constructive manner, y’know: “Oh, btw, the building tutorial doesn’t mention the required roles.”

And you’d be correct - it should. I will fix it. But really, 1 star for bad help files because one help article out of hundreds has a mild omission seems a bit… much?

@junipersky said in RL Peeves:

She has even requested one out special needs 6th graders be pulled out of class and sent elsewhere whenever she covers that level. (Um, feels illegal to me, but I have no idea.)

Details matter, of course, but on the surface - yep, sounds like a likely violation of IDEA laws.

@watno said in On PvP and permanent injuries:

It works well on Silent Heaven for a number of reasons.

Perhaps I’m missing something, but all of that seems very focused on physical conflict.

The majority of PVP interactions I’ve seen on games haven’t been centered around combat. It’s more about thwarting plans, taking a position someone thought was rightfully theirs, interfering with an IC relationship, making somebody look bad… heck, I had one player quit the game entirely over an IC prank (where no literal harm was done) because they felt the other player shouldn’t have gotten away with it.

Some of this is unavoidable, but at least on a co-op game there’s a set expectation that you’re supposed to work it out in a way that’s fun for all.

@NotSanni said in On PvP and permanent injuries:

Rephrasing PvP as “CvC” and allowing for CvC - Character vs Character - conflict while not tolerating PvP (player vs player) content is a good first step

While I certainly agree that words have power and CvC is more the aim, I think running counter to well-established, cultural jargon is a losing proposition.

PvP never literally means actual player versus player. We’re not standing on posts whacking each other with sticks like American Gladiators (yes, I’m old). It’s always a conflict via character proxies.

And really, acknowledging that there is some measure of OOC factors (like a chess match, but with story beats) feels more honest.