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    Tez

    @Tez

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    Best posts made by Tez

    • RE: Reasons why you quit a game...

      @loke

      Absolutely. Staff ethics and behavior are set from the top down.

      I've been fortunate to have come to most of my current staffing approaches through what seems to be a somewhat unusual approach to staffing, in that there were a group of five -- or more -- of us who equally held the ultimate authority on games. We set clear guidelines for each other -- and we held each other accountable to them.

      We had codes of conduct that were viewable by all staff, and we worked hard to keep each other honest. We didn't take our bitching to players, and we made a conscious effort not to bitch about players to each other if we felt we were getting too negative. Everyone vents, but it can quickly turn into a toxic stewfest. If a staffer is bitching TO players ABOUT other players, I'm gonna look for an exit. #1 warning sign.

      We tried to watch negativity. We tried to assume good intention. We tried to act transparently when actions had to be taken against players, and we worked to preserve staff confidentiality at every level. I think we mostly succeeded on all of that.

      I think many people have unspoken and unexamined ethical principles. It can help tremendously to set them out and think about it and make sure you are on the same page. Always challenge assumptions. Everyone wants to think they act ethically, but what does that really mean? Not discussing the issues can swiftly lead to people thinking all of their actions are totally justified, it's fine, it's not a big deal, it was okay to do this on this other game, and a document that sets out your principles -- and builds in the gut-check and calling each other on things -- can help.

      Meg, Roz, Sao and I produced a set of staffing guidelines for a game that we used to play and -- briefly -- staffed under someone else as a headwiz. I still use the guide today. Other games have adopted it as part of their policy as well. I've revised the guidelines, and will continue to do so, because I don't ever expect anything to be a perfect document. The staff policies are available for all players to view and I expect all new staff members to follow those guidelines.

      Currently, I do act as headwiz over a cadre of other staffers and some of them probably find me humorless and nitpicky at times in the way I insist they follow those guidelines. I've had other staffers ask me to do something for their characters through staff channels -- just adjusting attributes on their bit, for example -- and I've told them I need them to use players channels, from their player bit: +request, help channel, paging me as a player, etc.. Completely pedantic, of course, but it also sets a tone and an expectation that staffers are not privileged due to their role. Stuff like that!

      You have to keep people around you who will call you on your shit. Everyone is going to make mistakes. I know I make them all the time. You have to be willing to own up to your shit, and do so publicly if need be, and apologize sincerely. I think every complaint you hear is worth examining, and gut-checking with others. Sometimes it's totally off-base, but there's often something worth examining or reworking in many.

      I've been fortunate enough that I haven't had players coming to me as a member of staff with complaints about another staffer -- but I've been on the other side, as a player making those complaints. I've seen headwiz justify bad behavior in others by pointing out how much work the accused does, or dismiss it in themselves by saying it's not a big deal, there's no real issue, stop exaggerating.

      I disagree. As I said, trust is the most scarce resource. You can't buy it back once you've burned it.

      tl;dr: yes.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: Alternative Formats to MU

      MU*ing by telnet is kind of ridiculously outdated. My approach to this topic is a somewhat hyperbolic "change or die". But -- seriously. Change or die.

      We have a huge percent of players who have never touched a MU* before in their life. We have guests who make their way to logging in, and then get too intimidated and log out; friends of current players -- curious about the game, hearing great stories -- are ultimately too intimidated by the format to join

      It's not friendly. It's not accessible. It's not welcoming.

      I've often dreamed of a web-based format that combines the best aspects of slack/discord, google docs, roll20, wiki, whatever. Harper's Tale, a Pern game where I started mumblety years ago, had better web integration than 95% of the games that I've played since. And they did that back in the 90s!

      Lacking the time to make my dream real, I'll instead wait patiently to see what Ares does. I'm thrilled to see Faraday taking it in a more web-oriented direction. I think one of the things you aren't hearing yet, but may see in the future, are the many people just outside our little box who RP in different formats because the barrier for entry on MU*ing is too high. They'll thank you for looking forward.

      posted in Suggestions & Questions
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: Alternative Formats to MU

      @auspice

      I expected better than this level of old man yells at cloud gatekeeping from someone I RPed with when we were young and stupid too. They said that about our generation. C’mon.

      RPers are out there. I RP with college kids today — yes, on a MU; this stuff can be taught, though it’s hard — who give me hope for this hobby. There is love and energy out there that people are just shutting down by acting like the next generation is too stupid and flighty to take part in this.

      We’re not that special. We’re not that unique. Is the argument against really “kids these days!”? We can do better.

      posted in Suggestions & Questions
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    • RE: Spying on players

      No.

      --

      I was tempted to leave it at that, but I suppose I better clarify:

      I hate spying. I hate spying commands. I hate logging commands.

      I find it extremely hard to justify. Concerns about security don't really do it for me. It turns me off like nothing else on Earth if I know that a game has policies in place to support spying on players. The most common reason that I've seen is to prevent the abuse of code, but I'm not sure it's that effective. I have seen time and again players become staffers and the temptation is too much. They'll start flagging people suspect or dropping an observer on them or going dark or whatever the method is for the game for the silliest of reasons. It's nuts.

      None of this is IC: ICly, I have played multiple spies, moles, etc. It's awesome. It's good fun. But doing so requires the kind of trust that OOC spying can shatter.

      So, no. I've staffed on games that support it -- looking at you, Firan -- but every game I've ever built hasn't needed it, and we haven't had it.

      I will add one more thing: the games I create tend to be OOCly open and communicative, pretty small (20, 30 players), PvE rather than PvP, with a game culture that encourages all logs to be posted. If a staff member / storyteller wants to keep their finger on the pulse of the game, it's not hard.

      I understand in theory that it might not be the same for larger games, PvP games , games that don't post logs, etc. -- but I like the ability to be chill and open, and I have pretty strong feelings about avoiding games with OOC spying baked in like that as a player.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: What Would it Take to Repair the Community?

      @reimesu said in What Would it Take to Repair the Community?:

      Also, the people no longer welcome on this board are the ones who want to bring the personal attacks.

      At best, this is disingenuous defamation. I would like to hear how this is not in fact a mod making a broad personal attack on those unable to answer it.

      Personally, I want to hear from the people who've been scared into silence for the last few years.

      Me too.

      posted in Reviews and Debates
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: farfalla banned

      @ganymede

      Your decision sucks. Post the logs.

      posted in Announcements
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: Reasons why you quit a game...

      Every game I have quit was due to staff acting in a way I found unethical.

      In some cases, history very much agrees with me, and staff members whose behavior I objected to were later fired — but only after yet more damage done. Once, a game collapsed due to that mismanagement maybe two months after I left.

      In other cases, the jury is still out.

      I can love a theme, setting, characters, and code — even my very best friends can play there. But if I don’t trust staff? I’m out. And I’m usually reinvesting my time in my own games with a renewed grip on my high horse.

      Trust is maybe the most valuable and most scarce resource in this community.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: The New MSB

      @prototart said in The New MSB:

      @bloodangel

      https://brandmuday.mythicus.net/

      We were holding off on sharing this more widely until things has settled here, but -- yes. The board above exists. The mods there include myself, Pyrephox, Tinuviel, and Tsar. Introductory posts with more information can be found at:

      • https://brandmuday.mythicus.net/topic/11/welcome-and-a-short-note-on-organisation
      • https://brandmuday.mythicus.net/topic/9/good-day

      90% of the first wave of people were banned here, so if you thought it was good for MSB, you probably won't like it there.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: New Player Onboarding

      @Lisse24 @Ninjakitten While I'm not Sao or Roz, I do staff with them and was part of these conversations. Some of the things that surprised me that were a real problem for players are perfectly obvious things, in retrospect, like 'page' and 'look' -- and also what an @alias actually is. Is it an IC nickname? What? Terms like GM, TP, all of these words that are just part of our common lexicon leave new players going '???'.

      The 'look' thing in particular jars me. I've used channel spawns for so many years that it never occurred to me just how many players were struggling with the fact that the instructions in the welcome room were getting scrolled right off the screen by the volume of the cheerful chatter on the Newbie channel.

      Channels -- what they are, how they work, if they are IC / OOC -- are also a thing that gets to them. It seems to make sense to them when I talk about channels as chat rooms, and that you can be in multiple chat rooms with one account at the same time, but then trying to figure out how to explain to them that game is set up as a series of rooms, which is totally different than the chat room channels, that you navigate through by using exits never sounds as intuitive as it could be.

      We do a lot of explaining to people just how to even connect and how to talk, on channels and in rooms: say, pose, emit, etc. People trying to connect and being greeted by white text on a black screen has apparently been incredibly intimidating for a good number of our players.

      http://lostandfound.riverdark.net/wiki/Cheat_Sheet is the cheat sheet that was put together by one of our new-to-MUing staffers, who checked in with a couple of our other brand-new-to-MUing players. That's more of a list of commands that people who are already pretty well hooked need to look up than it is an onboarding list, though. Others have already said it, but the absolute best thing you can really do for onboarding is having people communicating with new players, and have a friendly, patient welcome crew. We're lucky in that we have an exceptional group of players for that.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: +repose

      Volund has a pose order tracker than handled this pretty nicely in the brief time I used it:

      This may or may not be the pose tracker I played with:
      https://github.com/volundmush/mushcode/blob/master/Pose Order Tracker - POT.txt

      And the rest of Volund's stuff is here:
      https://github.com/volundmush/mushcode

      posted in MU Code
      Tez
      Tez

    Latest posts made by Tez

    • RE: The Pack Discussion

      @Derp said in The Pack Discussion:

      Pure Conjecture Follows

      I will say that during my times with Cobalt, it would not at all surprise me if what went down was something closer to this:

      Cobalt is interested in Isaac. Cobalt expresses that interest. Isaac reciprocates but is also doing so with various other people, which Cobalt finds out about and takes offense to. Cobalt confronts Isaac, who throws @Macha under the bus by saying how he thought it would be fine but now it’s all weird and stuff, and so Cobalt instantly goes on the offensive, declaring him an undeserved victim of harassment and removing the impediment to her amorous desires problem player. She then finds out about others, and suddenly her ‘victim of harassment’ is ‘on a ban watchlist for harem building’, because that’s the only way to save face at that point.

      Since I can't report your post, how does this align with the behaviors expected your code of conduct?

      https://musoapbox.net/topic/3704/mu-soapbox-code-of-conduct
      But at no point are users to engage in personal attacks against each other. Personal attacks are anything calculated to demean, shame, or intimidate other users for any reason. Bad ideas can be called out. Questionable actions can be called out. Bad game design can be called out. But at no point should a discussion devolve into name-calling, bullying, dogpiling, or mudslinging for the sake of damaging another’s mental or emotional well-being. If you just want to name-call and vent about fellow users, there are other avenues. We suggest Reddit.

      posted in Reviews and Debates
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    • RE: What Would it Take to Repair the Community?

      @reimesu said in What Would it Take to Repair the Community?:

      The fact that a whole group went and formed another board just so they could continue being really mean to people says more about them than this place, really.

      At best, this is disingenuous defamation. I would like to hear how this is not in fact a mod making a broad personal attack on those unable to answer it.

      posted in Reviews and Debates
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: What Would it Take to Repair the Community?

      @reimesu said in What Would it Take to Repair the Community?:

      Also, the people no longer welcome on this board are the ones who want to bring the personal attacks.

      At best, this is disingenuous defamation. I would like to hear how this is not in fact a mod making a broad personal attack on those unable to answer it.

      Personally, I want to hear from the people who've been scared into silence for the last few years.

      Me too.

      posted in Reviews and Debates
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: No Confirmation Code to Change Email

      Gmail does not work, you are right. We currently use SendGrid for our email. It was a little faster to set up than SendInBlue.

      The limits on both are such that you will want to ask people not to subscribe to topic updates by email if you have any kind of voulme at all. We blew through 300 emails by like 10am with just a few people subscribed.

      posted in Suggestions & Questions
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: The New MSB

      @prototart said in The New MSB:

      @bloodangel

      https://brandmuday.mythicus.net/

      We were holding off on sharing this more widely until things has settled here, but -- yes. The board above exists. The mods there include myself, Pyrephox, Tinuviel, and Tsar. Introductory posts with more information can be found at:

      • https://brandmuday.mythicus.net/topic/11/welcome-and-a-short-note-on-organisation
      • https://brandmuday.mythicus.net/topic/9/good-day

      90% of the first wave of people were banned here, so if you thought it was good for MSB, you probably won't like it there.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: farfalla banned

      @ganymede

      Your decision sucks. Post the logs.

      posted in Announcements
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: Gamecrafting: Excelsior

      alt text

      posted in Game Development
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: Mass Effect MU*?

      @sg said in Mass Effect MU*?:

      I kind of want to do an XCOM mush today. I hope Ares drops soon.

      I hope you'll have policies to account for meatgrinder levels of character turnover and death.

      posted in MU Questions & Requests
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: Mass Effect MU*?

      @ganymede said in Mass Effect MU*?:

      Completing plots will result in obtaining resources and credits that can be crafted or traded into assets.

      Players individually can contribute to the success of the company outside of plots. Every cycle brings delivers Action Points that can be spent to do things that benefit the company. Those Action Points can also be used to gain XP to improve your PC, although it still takes considerable time to do so (under FS3's system). The Action Points system is intended to be a mini-game that ties into the success of the company, and thus the PC-base.

      The key is resource management for the company. That's what I need to have coded, and I don't know how well it would work. This is a bit of an experiment as well because, if successful, I can see how the "community" engine/code-bit could be used for other games

      Hello I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter and hear more on this.

      posted in MU Questions & Requests
      Tez
      Tez
    • RE: Alternative Formats to MU

      @auspice

      I expected better than this level of old man yells at cloud gatekeeping from someone I RPed with when we were young and stupid too. They said that about our generation. C’mon.

      RPers are out there. I RP with college kids today — yes, on a MU; this stuff can be taught, though it’s hard — who give me hope for this hobby. There is love and energy out there that people are just shutting down by acting like the next generation is too stupid and flighty to take part in this.

      We’re not that special. We’re not that unique. Is the argument against really “kids these days!”? We can do better.

      posted in Suggestions & Questions
      Tez
      Tez