While I will always be a grid girl. I’m old. I like my back in my day sort of MU*. I do understand the benefits of web planned scenes too. Especially as we are busy people. We don’t have to type:

ooc - RightMeow stepped away, but they will be back

or hide in private rooms and hear:

OMG RightMeow is always in a TS scene (not that it matters if I want to be as a grown adult). Or RightMeow is not very inclusive.

When I’m really not RPing. I’m idling with random OOC chatter or we are both waiting on a pose 1 an hour or something until we tie up dinner, etc.

Also in web scenes people cannot run away from my massively long and chaos filled scene sets where I will purple prose you to death, I may fall, I may set the place on fire on accident, I might faint across someone’s lap on a dare… you know… normal things. Normal… right?

But I also like just wandering the grid to open places and discovering people and places and things. So… I guess don’t yuck a yum and time is short, enjoy your hobbies how you want?

@L-B-Heuschkel although not the original four. I’m still to this day touched to be invited. Even to be invited annually when I sigh that I miss RP.

I think that staff is overworked by staffing.

It’s been a loooooooong time since I staffed a game. Mainly, because if you asked me to I’d laugh hysterically and log off. I may or may not be back. I have feelings about admin’ing now. LOL

There is not a fix all. I think it has to do with growth of game and trying to include everyone. I think at heart staff WANTS to include everyone and wants to see their stories play out. It’s just not enough hours in the day and then the guilt of not including others. Which leads to the you aren’t doing good enough. Which leads to imposter syndrome. Which leads to you have so many things to do that you just can’t figure out what to do. Which leads to decision paralysis as the decisions that need to be made are coming at a daily if not hourly basis. Which then leads to why bother. Which then leads to leaving.

This could be a week, a month, a year, but it’s the lack of understanding that staff are also people with some spicy brain stuff and brain weasels happening too. They sometimes don’t feel liked on their games either or included. Sometimes too backgrounds to not be too foreground, which they also have to think about how that looks to the general masses that don’t KNOW them.

I think it’s just staff stuff is overworked stuff. Unless you are lucky to find that person that adores an aspect and wants to do it because it’s their happy place. Most are just pulling short straws on who has to run which plot or cover which area, etc.

Just my thoughts. As I said, I run from staffing now so maybe this isn’t it at all.

Hi, my name is RightMeow and I hyper focus.

I have done both. I have stayed until a game is done, the doors are closed and people are dismissed. I have also wandered away. I wish there was some magical reason that I left places or didn’t even start them when I looked into them. I think a lot has to do with time. When I first started, I was working from home. I had time. I didn’t have as many obligations as I do now. Now, I went back to school. I am in management with odd hours to fill gaps. I am investing in people around me far more and investing in a game sometimes just feels tiring.

Previous games I have left reasons (not games they didn’t do anything wrong).

I didn’t feel connected to the story line. I felt like it was done in a way that I couldn’t break into it, but only certain people could. They were quested out and only X number could quest out on it. No bad vibes to the people, for sanity one has to lock down the number - but then they progressed and I felt not so progressed and then lost on how to get into it without seeming like a pest.

The game closed while I was on my annual holiday hiatus (I work retail management - I’m barely eating and sleeping let alone hobby-ing).

I adored the people I was playing with, but the game runners had a very very very specific vision in their heads about how the game should be run and how characters should act. It felt more like a novel than an interactive performance. It was also locked to 1:1 time and you had to achieve certain things in age, experience, etc that a young rostered char would take RL years to even break into. It was disheartening, but while there was story - I could overlook it. Then all the people I was writing stories with left.

However, that said. I do try to stay around until I can’t (I even check in at Arx from time to time). This also shadows who I am as a fundamental person though. I have a hard time giving up on people and always thinking they changed, etc. So that is more who I am then the game I’ve hyperfocused and locked in on.

Leaving just tends to be that I respect they can run the game how they see fit and I respect myself to know when it won’t work out for me. — although, I adore and miss writing stories with you. Even when someone gives dark visions of my poor teddy bear being ripped apart like a monster. (haha)

I think another struggle for me is the platform. I feel with Ares, it’s hard for me to ‘walk the grid’ and come across organic random RP. It’s scheduled and it’s strange for me (I’m old) to ask to join as I still sort of view them as private scenes and I tend to respect people want to play with their people.

I think that GM’s are people.

Life is messy and complicated and nothing ever goes to plan on most days. It’s part of living life. It doesn’t mean it’s also not fun and not grand.

When it comes to staff and GM, it always feels like it’s a them vs us player mentality that I’ve never loved. I tend to be relatively nice, understanding, and laid back. I adore writing stories. However, I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.

That’s okay. A staff member shouldn’t be made to feel they have to ‘deal’ with me if I zap their energy. A GM shouldn’t feel they have to include me. I would like a heads up if possible so I don’t keep trying to get involved in it (awkward). I’ll learn if they don’t though I got brain weasels for days.

As a player, I can also be flaky. My RL is hectic and my schedule borders on insanity that changes. I love those that have been understanding with me over the years. Hell there were deaths, births, relationship endings, etc that we have all gone through.

I think (and maybe I’m off track - it happens a lot) that you never know what the people on the other side of the screen is going through. I think the whole MU* environment is a lot better if we just show a bit more compassion. In the end, it ain’t all that deep. It’s just a game. Sure we love it. Sure we get emotionally invested from time to time, but at the end of the day. It’s a game. It’s a hobby we share. We should remember that staff (and players) are fitting this hobby into their very messy, very full, very inconvenient lives.

If a game is going somewhere you don’t like, leave. It’s the rule of the internet that there will be another X in X amount of time if you just wait. Or you can be the one to set up the new and improved X thing. I guess, I just feel like no on owes me their time and energy if they don’t want to give it and I likewise don’t owe anyone mine.

Life is complicated. Eat cake – or something.

I would not play nor get paid to be on the game. As a person who has done a lot of retail and dealt with enough people and opinions around money - it’s a hard no.

I’m not going to yuck another’s yum, but my RL money for bills has enough people trying the, “I pay your salary, you will do what I say” mentality. I don’t want it in my hobby free time.

Just my two cents.

Also, this is not a peeve. I don’t actually have a MU peeve. This is a MU sad sorta. To me.

I have been playing in this hobby longer than some of you have been alive (that’s sad on a different level for me) and I think this year I’ve decided to step away from it.

There is no drama. There is no hard feelings. My life just doesn’t fit around it anymore. As well as play not being available to keep me invested. This is NOT a gripe. It’s my ADHD brain that wanders and fills my time if not occupied. I’m just a little sad to think my MU* time might be just done. I know it will always be there to come back to and I’m sure I’ll lurk on this site because I have a sick fascination with it. It’s just hard to put into words. Like … oh… but that oh holds so much.

That said. I got to spend the last year or so catching back up with people that I haven’t spoken to in years. I got to hear how their RL lives are going and see how their story telling (and mine) have changed. I got to get giddy running into people that do actually cross my mind from time to time. So I’m pretty excited about that and if I have RPed with you this last year. I have ENJOYED it. If I have paged you, I feel HONORED to catch up and I feel undeserving to those that got excited to meet back up with me.

No matter our differences and our opinions and sometimes our toxic rightness, I appreciate the people of this community.

I’m just in my feels about this realization and I’m just sharing to people who might understand (my RL people are not MU* people).

So in conclusion to my brain dump you all!

I feel like we need a 2026 one now.

I also think it’s important if it hasn’t been said, that YOU are having fun in the scene too. While it’s great to run things for other people, if it feels like work, you aren’t enjoying it. That’s going to come across in the writing dynamic. If you are also having fun and they are having fun, then we have chef kiss magic.

@junipersky

There was even a book series about it.

I figure that everyone is just settling back into their RL routines after the holidays, not to mention re-figuring out time for their hobbies too.

I normally ask a lot of questions. If you’ve ever played with me, most of my chars ask endless questions. It’s the best way to engage with others and to have them flesh out their characters.

I rarely feel the need to win and OOCly cackle madly when the dice do NOT favor me. I try to be funny, but temper it to match the tone of the RP. I don’t mind failing.

I’m also a pure minion of chaos. This means, I’ll randomly decide things. No one can come up with an idea. I draw them to an area and decide surprise whatever. This normally is a what the actual eff. example I’ll swoon on a person to bring them into the scene. I try to keep an eye out for who doesn’t seem to be as engaged as others and ask them specific questions or include them. (Side note: I do this in life too).

When someone is excited to try to do a thing, instead of saying ‘my character wouldn’t do that’, I either come up with a reason WHY my char would do that. If I cannot for some reason, I direct them to a player/character I know WOULD do the thing.

I view all my RP as coming in to write a story that I don’t even know the ending of and I’m here to see how it flows. However, if people aren’t engaging and having fun, well then, I wouldn’t have anything to write.

I put other.

I adore failing my dice rolls and I don’t need to be the main character all the time. However, I also am a real life person that (like most of us) have some trauma that I would like to avoid in my game play.

So I’m all for it, but if the theme is going to be really dark. Please check with me first, then we game on. Also, like others, I want it to make sense. Don’t do something just to do something. If it makes sense, I’m all in. If a random house falls on me and someone takes my shoes, it better further some cause or character development.

@SockMonkey Do we share a brain? Because all of this. I understand (and have done) all of this.

@SockMonkey said in Tough Calls:

My husband was still dealing with his brain tumor at the time. Did the person know that? No. Should I have to tell them or explain how “brain tumors aren’t comedic content” for them to have common sense? No.

In my very misguided youth, I thought I had to over explain every decision I made. I still over explain when I get in panic state that I think I’m offending someone but that’s a me thing. I stand very very very firmly in the thoughts that NO ONE is entitled to any of your RL information. They don’t get to know your story if you don’t want to tell it. They don’t get to have any of that. Also, no one is promised anyone’s time. I’m sorry that happened to you. There is nothing worse than a ‘surprise’ RP mechanic (good or bad) aligns with a RL event that there are feelings around. For me (as I can only speak to that) it’s like getting emotionally ambushed. Not intentional on the other person, but damn.

Also as a person that likes to inject comedy in serious, you have to learn to read the room. I think silly/comedy comes from doing things to lift a serious game as the brain can read it and put a person RL in that state, so a little light RP is good too. But, time and place.

My idea of humor (which may fail as humor is subjective) is falling over a stranger’s lap and ‘swooning’ for him. Luckily, the person that it happened to went with it.

Or playing a game of dares or something that leads to an end point that both people are laughing OOC and like WTF just happened.

Or making comments. Or taking the fall instead of being a hero but doing it humorously.

Or collecting a specific thing for no reason other than humor or seeing how many they can end up with.

Maybe I don’t understand silly, goofy. I don’t think it’s game disruptive though.

I mean I’ll ask someone to RP. Then when they don’t or it doesn’t work out; I get all rejection sensitive and never ask again. I just wait for others to ask me.

Spoiler: It doesn’t work well. Also, as much as I thought I was being annoying, I’ve been told I wasn’t annoying. So I just try to ask, but I only do it like twice and then I stop. They now have to engage if they want to.

I’m usually pretty nice and welcoming to people. I normally try to RP with as many people as I can. I sometimes overshare plot with people. I like to get people up and running and I like to connect people to other people that I think fosters their stories. That said…

No one but me gets to decide how I spend my energy and who I RP with or don’t RP with. That feels so toxic to me to tell another adult who they have to RP or how they have to RP. I’m sure that’s not the intend but…

Right now for a lot of people RL is severely fucked up. People are uncertain, scared, struggling, etc. Our hobby is meant to be a safe haven from that. One where we get to meet people and tell stories and write stories and hide in our escapism for a little bit before we go back to our RL demands. I don’t want to co-author a book with everyone, so why would I want to write a story with everyone?

Does this make me elitist? I don’t think I’ve ever been called that. Does that make me mean and rude and unwelcoming? Still don’t think I’ve been called that, but maybe. What it does make me is protective of my calm. Forcing anyone to interact with anyone is bad in my book. If people want to log in and hide in a fake online place with one other person writing a fake online storyline with them because it gives them a moment of peace in their chaotic real life? Let them.

I give you a server so you have to do what I say ranks right up there with the working spouse telling the homemaking spouse that they have no say to their identity. They can’t spend any money because they haven’t earned the money. It’s different, but it rings at the same level.

I don’t run games. I avoid staffing like I owe it money. I just think that with the world being as it is for a great many people right now, just let them find their peace where they can find it. You are free to ask them to leave your game if you want, but you do not get to tell a person who they must interact with like you own or control them.

Just my thoughts. Doesn’t make it right. Doesn’t make it wrong. Just makes it my opinion.

@Pavel

Lords and Ladies, magic and magical beings. I cannot remember the overarching plot as it was forever ago, but magic was in high theme and it was high fantasy.

I played Crossroads too, not my first game though. I played CDI (Castle D’Image - I think) too

I feel like my very first game was a Robotech one called Protoculture or something like that. There was a Heavy Gear one out there. I think my first WoD game was something like Haight Ashbury where I knew nothing and people had to explain a lot as I was trying to interact in it.