Best posts made by STD

I just love that he called @Cobalt a “loose canon”, like she’s an 80s action movie cop.

“You’re a loose canon, Cobalt! Any more PRPs and the Mayor will be up my ass with a microscope! I need some Tums!”

@Jenn said in Neitherlands:

@STD

My guess, if I had to make one… It was probably because that person would rather rob a grave and eat remains than have an internship with head-staff’s NPC. But like. This is nothing more than speculation.

I know that at least in the TV show based on the books on which the games were made… Fae (which dead NPC mom was) are often targeted by human magicians. So that they can powder the bones and snort them as like, magical cocaine and mana. That is my guess.

I find these two statements to be hilarious. The idea that a player is so desperate to avoid interaction with the headwiz they would rather grind the bones of a dead NPC and snort it like magical cocaine in the vain hope that some of the magical MacGuffins will ooze off onto them tickles my funny bone in ways that are probably illegal in 48 states.

@Polk said in JKER Temporarily Banned Discussion Thread:

Bad faith posting is generally worthy of some sort of administrative action.

I’ve no dog in this hunt (and haven’t even read the thread in question), and this might be a slight tangent, but…

The impression I had was that folk here generally assume bad faith unless they personally know the person making the post. At the very least, people sure to seem to assume bad faith about anyone who comes here to defend whatever game is currently being castigated. Many times that attitude ends up being warranted, I concede that, but it is still something about this forum that really bothers me. There are accusations of bad faith in this very thread discussing bad faith! It’s recursive bad faith! Bad faith all the way down!

Now, of course, individuals are free to assume whatever vile motivations others have, but I guess I just want… confirmation? Clarification? Not sure what the right word is here…on what counts as Administratively-actionable bad faith. Clearly those defending games aren’t considered so by the admins, even if most of the vox populi sure do seem to.

@Tez said in JKER Temporarily Banned Discussion Thread:

Last night, I thought maybe that we might want to have a discussion on this as a community to see if there are additional guidelines or rules that we need to put in place. (See? Over-legislate.) This morning I think that probably I just need to be more willing to act. I take the hands-off approach to heart, so much so that Pavel teases me about it, but I don’t know! I would like to hear from you guys on this. Please do continue to discuss.

This is… honestly difficult. On one hand, the more you put rules into place, the more likely someone will be able to rule-lawyer through them. Tightening the grip ironically makes more starsystems bad actors slip through your fingers. On the other hand, there’s definitely a chilling effect if the rules aren’t clarified, so everyone knows what to expect. It’s a delicate balance, and I don’t know if anyone has ever managed to strike it.

I suppose, fundamentally, I’d err on the side of less rules. After all, if you already don’t trust the admins here to be reasonable with judgement calls, then you shouldn’t be here at all.

I hope this is the appropriate place for this.

The setting and idea seem interesting, but there’s a big sticking point in the Policies section: a requirement for an Ares handle.

Why is this so? If you want to identify specific players and make sure they are keeping in line with the alt policy, would not IP addresses be more full proof? I know I shudder in revulsion at the idea of the whole Ares handle thing (surely I can’t be the only one?) and it won’t keep anyone who is a problem from just creating a new one, right?

It’s also a point that the Ares website states explicitly that:
“Handles are an optional OOC identity…”

So making it a requirement to play on your game is directly in conflict with the stated goal of the handle in the first place.

Why is this policy there?

Encountering and reconnecting with an awesome player who you knew 19+ years ago on a completely different genre of MU*.

It just seems like complete fantastic serendipity.

And then playing with them and discovering that not only are they just as good as you remember, but are actually better. Their RP has improved!

@icanbeyourmuse said in Macha Awareness (And Unappreciation) thread:

@Cobalt They likely are just going to use it as a way to show you are a ‘horrible person’ since that seems to be what they have decided about everyone here.

Isn’t that the same here? With the majority assuming bad faith of anyone who tries to explain or defend themselves? I mean, there is a substantive difference in that, at least here, the admin won’t ban someone for having a differing opinion from them, but the same attitude pervades.

@Cobalt Don’t bother engaging them. The only winning move is not to play.

@bear_necessities said in Macha Awareness (And Unappreciation) thread:

I also know that Ruiz prefers to keep their communication off-game and will frequently defer to Discord as a method of communicating.

Okay, that… is a huge red flag to me. Asking to communicate off game has never ended well in my experience.

I don’t trigger easily, but that is definitely something that as soon as it’s suggested it’s “Shields up! Red Alert!”

@Serafine said in Neitherlands:

@Meg What’s my motivation?

Not looking like an asshat.

State what you mean clearly. Pontificating with obtuse hyperbole and metaphors does not make you sound more intelligent. It makes you sound like an asshat.

Look, I’ll make it easy for you: Do you claim that @inuki blamed @Jenn for her medical problems?

Choose one:
YES/NO

Thank you so much for the response, @Raeras.

I’m definitely glad to see it’s one of the policies that you’re not married to, since the language involved (“You will only receive one warning”) seemed to indicate it was a hardline stance.

I think, in my mind, it stems from issues with troublemakers and bad actors in the past and the idea that knowing who you’re playing with from the jump has some kind of…I can’t think of the right word but it can put people at ease? If that makes sense.

This might be redundant now that you’ve reconsidered the policy, but I’ll make a comment about this anyway as a sort of reference for the future.

I’ve never seen an attempt like this actually benefit the victims of bad actors or troublemakers; it is always the opposite. Since bad actors and troublemakers will be happy to circumvent any attempt at linking the person to the character, but those who follow the rules will be inexorably linked, this means that the only ones who benefit from such a system are those bad actors and troublemakers who can identify and target previous victims or those they have grudges against while remaining anonymous themselves. Yeah, their behavior will eventually tell, but you’re putting your other players at risk until that happens. It’s a recipe for disaster and I’ve seen it happen every. Single. Time.

This sort of thing (among others) is why I have a pretty staunch no-outside-game contact or link-to-player policy and also why I take pains to compartmentalize and isolate every game I play. Maybe I’m a weird freak for doing this, but it has helped me navigate the shoals of MU*ing pretty peacefully ever since I enacted this personal policy of mine.

So I hope this illuminates why some would have a huge problem with this policy should you consider it again in the future.

Thanks again for the response! It’s great to see a game runner responding so well!

@De-Villefort said in Concordia Thread:

Why would anyone want to go back to that? That’s not a fantasy, it’s a nightmare.

Yeah! I mean, that’s like people wanting to play in a cyberpunk dystopia where the Earth is dead and everything is run by corrupt government, megacorps, and crime syndicates!

Who would EVER want to do that?

… Seriously, dude? Seriously. You can’t think of why anyone would want to play in anything other than a bright and happy utopia with no conflict or challenge?

@Tez

I would not support the removal of any logs for any reason, except for spam. If, as Pyrephox has said, someone keeps posting logs to gum up the forum or individual posts, then cutting the spam (and banning the account) seems reasonable. Like most gray areas, there’s no hard and fast rule for what constitutes spam, though, so it’d be up to admin fiat on a case-by-case basis.

I think that’d be better than trying to head off this situation by requiring posted context since it wouldn’t stop it anyway (the spammer would just put in bullshit reasons why they’re posting the logs) and still would require an admin fiat ruling eventually.

@Gashlycrumb

Los Angeles 2043: A Blade Runner MUSH is very good. Staff are responsive and helpful (though the Director is currently on a 2-week vacation to prevent burnout), the players are wonderful (you’ll see tons of folk come out of the woodwork as soon as your character is approved to arrange character connections) and there’s always something happening.

If dystopian classic cyberpunk is of any interest, I’d check it out.

I’ve always hated the concept of OOC Masque. It has always seemed wrong-headed to me. I know this is going to sound impossibly naive and possibly insane given some of the battle-scars people (including myself) have in this area, but I’ve always been of the staunch opinion that a game for adults should be able to have the players act like adults in an OOC way. So don’t take any OOC knowledge IC.

Tis a little dream I have.

That said, I think cooperative games – even with canonically opposed factions – can work just fine. I’ve seen it first hand, even. I’ve mentioned it before on some thread, but there was a game years ago in which the Technocracy and Traditions had to cooperate in a town because Weird Shit was going on and both sides desperately wanted to know why. So, while there was friction, certainly, everyone there was cooperating. Any character who wouldn’t either wasn’t approved or would “leave town”. So just a tweak to the setting can set things like that.

But even without that, being open and honest OOCly is the best policy, I think. In my experience, most folk are fine to talk out conflicts and find a narrative solution everyone can live with. Those that can’t, well, there’s always staff. And I think we all know at this point that those people would involve staff EVEN IF some OOC Masque was in place and all the bureaucratic 't’s were crossed. So I don’t think it’d even be any different in the worst case scenario, but substantially better in the best case scenario.

@Serafine said in Neitherlands:

@STD I do not spend time with people who consider an eighth grade reading level “obtuse” and require multiple clarifications.

And yet you’re still here and responding. Are you really so incapable of answering a yes or no question? It’s easy, I assure you. Tiny children can do it. If they can, surely someone of such obvious intellectual superiority as yourself can as well, yes? If only to show us smooth-brained knuckle-dragging imbeciles how wrong we are.

So, prove your oh-so-big-brained credentials by answering the question with a simple yes or no.

You really come across as a small person trying to look large in front of these people, and you don’t need to cram so many $5 words into your palms to present to me your argument sans point

I’ve had a hankering for some good 'ol Star Wars RP and happened upon Star Wars: Restoration. It’s an Ares MUSH (which is nice), but it has a rather strange quirk to the chargen that gives me pause.

Characters are required to have connections to other characters before being approved. The stipulations for this are kind of off-putting, too; the connected character must be someone who is already established on the MUSH by having at least three logs posted.

The stated reason for this is to make sure that no one is starved for RP, but I think it might work against the MU* as a whole. I know it gives me pause to even attempt to create a character there unless I already know someone in an OOC way. Going through all the effort to make a character and not finding anyone interested or willing to link theirs to yours seems like a big hurdle to cross (even if it’s only mental).

Plus, I’m not sure if this even works for the stated goal of making sure no one is RP starved. Even if you DO link your character’s to someone else’s, there’s no guarantee that the two of you will be compatible otherwise (in terms of timezone, RP style, etc). The only real way to know for sure is if you already know the person OOCly from elsewhere. It also seems to me that it would encourage inorganic links. You are just mechanically required to have a link to another character, so you just find the easiest, least obtrusive link to get over the hurdle with no real interest or investment in the link itself.

Am I wrong here? Is requiring character connections at chargen (rather than having them settled after chargen as just about every other Ares MUSH does) actually a good idea? Am I just being an antisocial nerd?

I think you really need to consider what kind of RP you want to focus on, which in turn will influence the setting. Want a lot of high-level intrigue and politicking? Set it on Coruscant for all the bickering Senators and politicians. Want more crew-focused and frontier politics stuff? Set it on some podunk planet on the Outer Rim.

Now, you could have several different planets for different RP interests, but as others have said that’ll just split up the playerbase just like having different eras would.

My preference for era would be for either the Old Republic or Birth of the Empire settings (with a close third being some Clone Wars shenanigans), but in the former case I’d like something set on Coruscant primarily while in the latter some podunk Outer Rim world would be preferable.

The Old Republic always seemed like a nice hotbed for high-level political stuff, considering there was a MASSIVE Senate, an actual Republic military, megacorporations, and of course the Jedi all with differing agendas yet somehow needing to work in some semblance of cooperation, especially with the Sith Empire a constant danger.

In the Birth of the Empire case, setting it on some useless Outer Rim world would give more flexibility to the playerbase (there’s a lot of Jedi that managed to go into hiding out there) and allow things like the Hutt Cartel having a big influence while the long arm of the Empire can still influence, but not dominate things. The Outer Rim is perfect for people who want to escape their pasts. Plus, lots of Space Pirates!

@Testament said in Proving Assertions:

So you’re right, the winning move is to simply not play, but even that comes with it’s own series of assumptions, for both good and bad.

That’s fair enough.

But I stand by my conclusion that hammering someone in a public forum where everyone assumes them to be Space Hitler is not a very good way of determining how they normally react.

Something I’ve personally struggled with forever is when it’s appropriate to include details in other characters’ backgrounds in plots.

You’d think this would be easy. Just page the person in question and ask, “Hey, I see your character did a stint in a mental institution in the past. Mind if I include the facility and maybe some of the staff as NPCs in my new plot?”

But I always find asking like that to be incredibly awkward. Like I’m intruding on something personal; this other person put some work in their BG and now suddenly I’m asking to use parts of it for my own stuff?! Sacrilege! This gets worse if I’m a fairly new player, or they are.

The weird thing is that I know that I, personally, love when other players do this with stuff in my character’s background, but for some reason I can’t make the mental connection between what I would like and what others would like on this issue.

This probably outs me as a neurotic mess, even worrying about this. Which maybe makes me perfect for the hobby!

So how about folk here? When do you think it’s appropriate to add details like this to plots? How do you broach the subject to the other players? Do you even do this, or am I some kind of weird freak for even thinking of spicing up plots with character background specifics?

@Adora said in Ruiz Thread:

… seems to actively enjoy hurting his roleplay partners OOCly with his IC infidelities.

… Wat.

How does… why would…

… What happens if one of his harem attempts isn’t bothered OOCly? Does he drop them?

@Faraday said in What is a MUSH?:

I’m actually curious what use cases you’ve found for descriptions.

The only thing that comes to mind is some sort of reality layering when a character has some kind of stat or attribute that lets them see additional/different information.

Like how in oWoD there’d be regular descs and Changeling Descs that only other Changelings (and those who could see Dreaming Shit) would get.