I’m naming my next character Ogrin P. Vandagyre

@hellfrog That’s a hard lesson to learn, especially for us nerds with wonky brains. “If not friend, why friend shaped” might be a meme but it definitely resonates in some of my previous interactions on MUs (and in RL as well, let’s be real).

I have thankfully had the privilege of building some OOC bonds, but 99.999999% of people are like… colleagues. We work at the same RP mine, we might have a group project together, but we’re not going to the pub after the RP is done and I’m not going to write you a Christmas card.

It’s a really hard distinction to draw, especially when young.

@hellfrog said in Warma-Sheen:

I just wanted to know what the mindset is that makes someone sock puppet on a new game instead of, idk, trying to rp.

While I obviously can’t speak to anyone’s inner world without having many a chat with them, I can speak to mine back when I did this kind of thing in my very, very, very younger days: I wanted to Be The Best. Probably from a lack of validation at home, I sought reinforcement and attention elsewhere, to that end I wanted to be the richest character, or the combattiest character, or the bestest starfighter pilot or whatever. (ETA: This also included MUCH… ‘creative storytelling’ in my real life. Nothing majorly harmful, but very “I have a girlfriend in Canada” kind of vibe.)

Admittedly, these were all on code-heavy, RP-required-but-lite MUDs… but I imagine the same holds true in many other circumstances. Lack of validation and an inability to intrinsically motivate.

I’d absolutely follow the advice lain herein, but I would add: The game is your space. You can certainly consider it a shared space, but nobody else is entitled to be there. So don’t hesitate to pull the trigger, even if you’re tempted to offer chances. You have a right to peace of mind, they have the privilege of joining you.

ETA: Double-agree with @Pyrephox’s suggestion to avoid crowdsourcing. Not only would you be likely getting woefully outdated information, but you’d be at the mercy of our collective memory and our collective grudges. If they’re still a problem, they’ll reveal that in due time, if they’re not, then bully for all involved.

When I was young, I had an imaginary friend, as I imagine most of us did. I would blame that imaginary friend for things as I grew older – I knew this person didn’t exist, but I wanted to get out of trouble. My mother, eventually, came up with an ingenious solution to the problem: I would be punished for things that the imaginary friend did.

Suddenly, the imaginary friend disappeared.

That excuse didn’t work coughcoughcoUGH years ago, it doesn’t work now. Even if it’s true, it’s absolutely still your fault – so minor kudos for accepting those lumps.

@Cobalt said in Warma-Sheen:

@Rathenhope said in Warma-Sheen:

All fair, I wasn’t aware that TR reused names. A few coincidences does not make a pattern, so I retract!

I absolutely understand the idea they might be the same person. This recycling of names is so foreign to how roster and ares games work. It’s not something done in modern day MU*ing.

Recycling names might not be (it still happens, though increasingly rarely which is annoying), but with more roster games coming about one really should keep the idea of multiple players of the same character in mind when making accusations.

Yeah, on The Reach if you went idle or your character died it’d be frozen and appended with your dbref. So Pavel would become Pavel_74656, and someone else could and would take the name Pavel.

Kelvin’s not that unusual a name that only one person would think to use it.

@Cobalt Could be Tremere. But that’d just confuse the non-WoDites.

@Cobalt said in Warma-Sheen:

And no, fuck him.

Times like these remind me why I like you.

Legendary (Australian) vaudeville performer Toni Lamond dies aged 93

@dvoraen said in Prove Tez Wrong:

You must now provide a labelled diagram of Tez the Teapot.

Well. Tez the little teapot’s short and stout. Here is their handle, here is their spout. When they get all steamed up you’ll hear them shout. Tip them over, pour them out.

@MisterBoring Quite agree. Trust, but verify the good vibes, while maintaining a readiness to just react to the bad vibes.

@Tez Guess who just got through writing a paper on practitioner ethics, boundary setting, and bias acknowledgement. >_>

@Ashkuri And as a corollary, we shouldn’t say “we should RP sometime” as a polite, social, nothing statement like we do when we say “we really should get coffee” to the irritating person you used to work with, and you still see down at the grocery store. Mean what we say and say what we mean.

@Tez said in Tough Calls:

I have cautioned people on behavior that could, if not corrected, eventually lead to a ban, so I GUESS I issue warnings, but not in the manner I used to

Not that I want to accuse you of impropriety or anything, but do you find that you’re more willing to caution/counsel people with whom you’ve already established a rapport or relationship vs a relative unknown?

I ask only because I very much do feel that way; I’d be much more inclined to tell you, for instance, to knock it off vs someone I don’t know who’d just get a boot. I know it’s a bias that some would object to but I also tend to avoid staffing these days, precisely because I know my own biases enough to know I can’t be bothered.

@Tez Hrm, without sin eh…

What about @junipersky?

ETA: Assuming you mean comparatively without sin. Let he who is the least shit throw the first stone sort of thing.

@catzilla Just teleport into their living rooms while they’re having dinner. That always works.

@Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Cujo taking the time to talk to me rather than banning me speaks fairly well of him as a person.

The bar is so low it makes my dating standards seem excessive.

@Jumpscare said in Banning Bad, Actually?:

And if I did, is there anything wrong with responding with something like this?

Of course not, but that’s not really what’s being argued. It’s not that anyone is suggesting there was absolutely no alternative to banning, but that banning was a perfectly valid and reasonable choice to make. Some think it was, some think it wasn’t, and some are just here for the hors-d’œuvre.