Stranger Than Fiction MUX

[Tat]

Welcome to the small town of Callahan, Ohio. Everything is picturesque. Houses line the streets with their perfect lawns. Shops open at 8 and close at 5. People barbecue in their back yards while little league games carry own between festivals.

Pst. Do you mean 'carry on between festivals? Appears on your wiki homepage, too.

[yourmamasayswhat]

First impressions - Great potential in this game, but be aware that staff can be really pushy about plot and story, even insisting that you play with specific people to further plots they want to advance; it makes it less like fun and more like you're there for the amusement of staff. There's also some strange vibes with one of the characters/players, who I think is also staff. None of us are sane here, Alice, but it stops being fun when you are whined at because staffers feel left out of RP, and if you are not careful, you, the player, will getting booted out in deference to staff, no matter who's in the wrong.
It deserves a go to be sure, but nothing sours a great story-ground like biased management and staff throwing tantrums.

[TNP]

I have a slightly different impression. From things I've heard Drama say...

1. Unless you've experienced something supernatural as part of a staff run plot, you have no idea there is anything like that going on.
2. Staff run plots are directed toward those people who RP with as many people as possible.

Now, I understand the desire to have the focus of the game happen organically. But it's made it so I have a lot of trouble finding the desire to play. There's only so much bar RP I can take and this is worse. It's not even bar RP. It's arcade RP: teen drama minus anything that you're there to actually play about since you're not in the know.

[fatefan]

@tnp That's been my experience as well--the motivation is steadily dwindling because, even though I've tried to get in scenes with as many PCs as I could, I'm apparently not doing it enough or with the right PCs, so I've encountered (with one really interesting "scared of the dark" exception) literally zero of the theme that actually interests me about the game.

[Auspice]

If this game is run by who I think it is, be very careful about revealing who you play there after ranting here.

Because if it is the same couple, I was torn into for posting a gripe. Spoken to in ways that were abusive on the highest level. All because they have a 'rule' that no one's allowed to talk about them here.

[Arkandel]

@auspice Not MSB-specific, but if anyone tried to give me limitations about what I can or can't do outside of their game, I would explain very carefully where exactly they can shove it, and walk away.

[RnMissionRun]

@auspice said in Stranger Than Fiction MUX:

If this game is run by who I think it is, be very careful about revealing who you play there after ranting here.

I'm not 100% certain but I believe these may be the same folks that once ran MUSH of the Dead.

[TheOnceler]

Too bad their anti-MSB rule means people are less likely to share their character names here, since actually trying to find RP on the game was like pulling teeth.

During my brief time there I never once saw more than one scene happening at a time.

A plot was announced with the promise of public and private scenes. One public scene was dropped. A week and a half later a private scene was run for the players in that public scene. There were people in that private scene who literally had not logged into the game whatsoever since the public scene they happened to have been on for happened.

At one point a post was made announcing the private scene and encouraging those not involved so far to interact with those who had been invited to get involved. I have no idea how this is meant to work.

Though the plot apparently involved the carnival nothing ever actually happened there, though I saw many players trying to do public RP there.

It's noteworthy that this appears to be the first staff-run plot since July. Though the ad mentions player run plots I didn't see any and nobody I talked to there had ever reported hearing of any being run.

A game with one very closed plot every six months, no prps and little public RP does not really have a lot to offer new players.

This is all in addition to the fact that the wiki is a shrieking disaster, contrary information seems to be the name of the game and that staff have a really weird attitude toward sex. There is anti-TS language all over the place (which, fine, it's a bunch of 15-17 year olds, this policy is ok by me) but then there is an actual post dedicated to how TS is fine, but behind closed doors. Which is just such a weird reversal.

And I'm now told votes earn you XP you can't spend because they don't really have a system in place for that yet.

Admittedly much of this is hearsay. Maybe some of this has changed? Maybe people got in on the plot? Guys, the last time I was this dissatisfied with a game I took it over. I decided against it this time. I gave up after a week. So if you hate me at least the game has that going for it!

[TNP]

@theonceler said in Stranger Than Fiction MUX:

At one point a post was made announcing the private scene and encouraging those not involved so far to interact with those who had been invited to get involved. I have no idea how this is meant to work.

Especially since exactly who those people are was never said.

[Bobotron]

@rnmissionrun
I would think so; their advertisement uses the same formatting as that game and the not-Secret Circle game.

[yourmamasayswhat]

@auspice I worded my post very, very carefully for this very reason. I recently quit playing there and I've no intention of going back, for many of the reasons stated in these other comments and a few other things.

If you get an uncomfortable creepy feeling playing a game and it's not from the atmosphere (and I cannot tell you how badly I wanted to overlook the worrisome views on sex and the needy staff overtones of 'why doesn't anyone wanna play with me' just to play horror-themed well written adventure MU), just run. No amount of lovingly-crafted character boy-version of your teenage self is worth it. Definitely a toxic environment. I really want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it looks like that might have been too much.

[Collective]

I logged in, tried it, had a couple of scenes and haven't been back.

The good: Staff absolutely will work with you on making sure your character fits their vision and integrating them into the game.

The bad: This is very much a game for the staff. Once I figured out my character was there as a background character to the interesting stuff happening to others, I decided not to stay.

That is NOT me calling this MU bad, by the way. I suspect that if I had the spoons to dive in and put in a few months as a spear carrier, my character would be upgraded from 'regular extra' to 'supporting cast'. But that's a lot of effort to be adjacent to somebody else's story, for me.

If somebody is willing to put in that time and work and OOC social-fu, I'm sure they would have a more rewarding experience.

Which is about as fair a review as I can give.

[TheOnceler]

A lot of these issues would be resolved by having someone on staff willing to drop non-episode-related scenes on the grid. Just a dumb monster-of-the week, even if the 'monster' is a robbery or a non-combat thing. Or hosting a regular RP event, such as a karaoke night would give everyone a reason to go IC, because you'd know there's RP there regularly. Or by having some real stance on PRPs other than "they are allowed, but no information on actually running them will be forthcoming ever!" Two or three enthusiastic (and hopefully creative) players can help a limping game along, as long as staff stay out of the way.

[Auspice]

Mod Voice
I have gotten report of a supposed "MSB plot" to take down this game. I don't know if there is any truth, whatsoever, to this. I don't know if it was a joke, if it was a few people trolling and when they got found out they decided to point fingers this way to try to cover their own ass, or what.

What I do know is that no one on the moderation staff here condones any sort of behavior in regards to 'taking down' games, trolling games, or otherwise misbehaving on them. And we certainly don't appreciate anyone doing so in MSB's name.

[Lithium]

@auspice Wouldn't there need to be some sort of posts to try and enlist all of MSB into any such plot for said plot to exist?

[Auspice]

@lithium said in Stranger Than Fiction MUX:

@auspice Wouldn't there need to be some sort of posts to try and enlist all of MSB into any such plot for said plot to exist?

Like I said, I don't know if there's any truth to it (my guess is it was a troll(s) who needed to point fingers). I presume there'd need to be some sort of enlistment.

But I just want to make it clear we don't condone any such if it exists.

[surreality]

@lithium One would think.

Or maybe the hivemind has finally reached maximum potential, and we can all communicate telepathically now.

(Were this actually the case, we would all be existing in a hell so much grander than any we could ever cause.)

[Three-Eyed Crow]

@auspice said in Stranger Than Fiction MUX:

Mod Voice
I have gotten report of a supposed "MSB plot" to take down this game. I don't know if there is any truth, whatsoever, to this. I don't know if it was a joke, if it was a few people trolling and when they got found out they decided to point fingers this way to try to cover their own ass, or what.

WTF?

Are there details available to offer about this? My tendency is to side-eye these claims heavily and roll-northernly-eye the 'MSB rule' and such that staff has shown tendency to do thus far, but I'd hate to be rolling my eyes northward unfairly.

(I am not plotting against this game, personally. I do not play there and do not care, apart from the motion of my eyes.)

[Auspice]

@three-eyed-crow said in Stranger Than Fiction MUX:

@auspice said in Stranger Than Fiction MUX:

Mod Voice
I have gotten report of a supposed "MSB plot" to take down this game. I don't know if there is any truth, whatsoever, to this. I don't know if it was a joke, if it was a few people trolling and when they got found out they decided to point fingers this way to try to cover their own ass, or what.

WTF?

Are there details available to offer about this? My tendency is to side-eye these claims heavily and roll-northernly-eye the 'MSB rule' and such that staff has shown tendency to do thus far, but I'd hate to be rolling my eyes northward unfairly.

(I am not plotting against this game, personally. I do not play there and do not care, apart from the motion of my eyes.)

I don't have any details, no, but I just want to put my foot down before any rumors start or get out of control.

Someone came to me, upset, because they had been implicated (despite not being involved, true or false). Like I said: I don't know if it's even true. But I just wanted to speak up before anyone tried to get anything out there.

It's entirely possible someone saw the recent discussion in which there had been some chatter about 'MSB takes down games' and thought they could use it in their favor. MSB doesn't take down games. MSB won't take down games. If specific individuals want to be assholes, that's on them, but we (the board) don't have any part in it.

[surreality]

For ye olde record:

I made a login there in a fit of 'maybe I will try something'. (That would be Lily, for anyone wondering who the fuck it was.)

I played one scene probably about a month ago, which was fine. I wasn't blown away, I wasn't offended, so I really don't have any feedback to offer in either direction, so I haven't bothered to really say anything. People were nice from what I observed, staff and player.

I logged in once after that a handful of weeks ago, thinking maybe I would carry on, but then my 'nope, I am still RP oomphless' kicked back in and I haven't logged in since. Likely won't, since 'the moment, it has passed' and I don't think I could get back into the character's head even if I wanted to.

That there's accusations of people from here trying to burn it down means I'm definitely not going to be putting effort toward trying to crawl back into Lily the Dorkbomb's skull. If it isn't true, that's shitty to claim, and if it is true? I'm not of a mind to get shot in some crackpot's feud crossfire.