I think people naturally DO rp with people outside their friend group. Most of my oldest friends are long since tired of rping with me. I think most players really appreciate finding someone ‘new’ and fresh to rp with, and it’s the default state to search for that.

But when it comes to ooc trust, they are gonna rely on those they are friends with. When their characters are threatened, they will turn to their friends for support before a stranger in an IC position that might make (more?) sense. To a lesser degree, they are also going to disseminate plot to their friends. A lot of plot handed out to players is "X is happening, get together a team of pcs to address/experience it’. A lot of people will default to known quantities! It makes sense. I think a player maliciously or intentionally excluding others is much rarer than might be assumed.

IDK how to change it or even if you should try, but forewarned is forearmed or something.

i think you’ve got three dials: game size, nuance/specificity, and staff involvement. Cranking any of these up or down is going to affect the others. You can (and should! if you want!) make a game that is highly specific in a historical or fictional setting, but doing so is going to turn down max players and probably increase staff involvement in direct relation. You can turn down staff involvement and let your players mostly self-police if the guardrails are broad and high enough, until that player size gets to a certain limit.

I think you can pull off most any kind of niche or historical setting if you are willing to accept and spend your time curating a small and like minded player base.

Did! Just not willing to play it the 2 more times to see the story firsthand.

@GF I think it is great, actually. Really only have 2 complaints: a couple of locations had about 1 too many explorable areas/wings to complete puzzles. Just a BIT too long. The other is that getting the icon to actually grab the interactables is finicky as fuck, and it can be real annoying.

I might have preferred the way some things were performed in the original - but only a couple. I got to see someone unfamiliar with the original play this for the first time, and everything landed. All in all, a really pleasant surprise.

being bummed out

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

@SpilledBeanz sorry, i have to admit i am probably not the target audience to get worked up about this. sorry that happened to you and all, but it just sounds silly to me, and that may be because i am-- 4 years out from any RP?

but when you have a culture of rot, then is more rot really contributing to it when it starts at the top?

It doesn’t really matter how the offense sounds to you as staff; whether you would personally be offended or upset by it, etc. What matters is that behavior is making players uncomfortable enough to complain about it, and the behavior continues despite being told to stop it.

@Warma-Sheen said in Inuki Ban Thread:

I think if you really believed that was real, booting them and isolating them is doing way more harm than good.

I don’t just disagree, I think you are objectively wrong. Harm to whom? Good for whom? Is it the responsibility of a forum about text based roleplaying games to provide mental health treatment? Is it ETHICAL for a forum about text based rp games to provide mental health treatment or advice?

NO.

@Warma-Sheen said in Inuki Ban Thread:

If the experience of someone here is such that it brings them to empathize with people who have taken that drastic action, is the best reaction to boot them?

Yeah. It is when the ‘experience here’ is being reminded of their own words and actions, and the sympathy is displayed to make people stop talking about their own words and actions. Go read Thirdeye’s post if this is a real question of yours.

@Floof maybe you were reading your own rp
maybe you just don’t RECOGNIZE yourself

Yeah, that’s pretty good, damn

@inuki said in Numetal/Retromux:

I understand why people commit suicide over cyberbullying.

This is pretty dramatic for someone who asked for receipts and then got them. Someone presenting your own words is not ‘cyberbullying’.

@Third-Eye RIP to a real one

@ChaoticSin said in Numetal/Retromux:

WIth the exit of Polk, we have brought the game back up

giggle

Appalled at the setting. Houston. IN THE 90s. Ew

@Pavel especially considering people who take what should be private discussions with staff to the public channels are usually, in my experience, not representing the private interaction accurately.

It’s usually some inflammatory bullshit. Like the last time I saw Jennkryst do it!

@junipersky Sometimes people remind you that they are, mostly, ready to be good to each other. I’m so glad she had a good holiday, and you got to see it

lo there, do I see my lady, come come my lady
lo there does she call to me, my sugar
baby

@Testament aw damn

@Testament You do you, but I for one have, on numerous occasions, been rping with someone who clearly has no concept of my character and poses them as though they are entirely different? Short instead of tall, old instead of young, bald instead of brunette, etc.

That’s inconsiderate and disrespectful, and at that point why am I even there? Clearly what I bring to the scene does not matter.

@Juniper That’s fair, I also roll my eyes and backflip out of characters when I see the chatGPT signifiers in the desc. Any time a physical quality “embodies the nature of” or “speaks to” a vague and unrelated personality trait? Bam.

I like a little fluff in descs. I like it in poses, too, even though I know it isn’t good writing, strictly speaking. I also prefer not to have clothes in a desc and just pose them where appropriate in scenes. To me, these are preferences. Something doesn’t have to be for me, but that doesn’t mean I think it should be designed out of the hobby. Except the LLM stuff. That should be.

I will never understand people acting like descs don’t matter, or that no one reads them. If you don’t read the desc of your scene partner, that is fkin rude. It’s a verbal medium. If you don’t want to read a paragraph to get your mental image right, that is a you issue. Not a game design issue.

Are they difficult to write sometimes? Sure. Drudgery?? What?? You absolutely cannot replace them with LLM slop without it being painfully, repulsively obvious, and I have literally never in all my years in this hobby seen someone disparaging a desc for not having a paragraph to describe clothes. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t ever happen, but it’s not some widespread standard.