TS - Danger zone

Tinuviel

@Pandora An NPC is a tool, just to run plot and move the game's story/ies forward. That's all they're for, and when they're used for anything else it comes across as playing favourites or playing them like a PC.

Pandora

If you think anyone prone to playing favorites isn't playing favorites with or without TS, I'd like to borrow those rose-tinted glasses. Any staffer or ST prone to fucking PCs with their NPCs isn't likely to defend the choice in this thread, so this isn't even a balanced debate so much as an echo chamber.

peasoupling

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

@Pandora An NPC is a tool, just to run plot and move the game's story/ies forward. That's all they're for, and when they're used for anything else it comes across as playing favourites or playing them like a PC.

I don't know, sometimes NPCs can just be like long descriptive passages in books. Not really moving the plot along, but that's fine.

Tinuviel

@Pandora That is in no way what I said, and you know it. "They are playing favourites" does not mean "and nobody else is."

Secondly, we were asked for our opinions, not for balanced debate. Not every group of people with a similar opinion is an echo chamber.

ETA: I also didn't say that they were playing favourites if they TS'd with their NPCs. Just that it comes across as such, which is often more important than what is actually happening.

Ghost

There's so much weird....vague blocking in this thread.

Like(sic):

Statement: "I think staff sometimes plays favorites based on who TSes them."

Vague Blocking Response: "Everyone has a right to enjoy whatever kind of RP they want. Fuck yourself."

This thread has been pretty revealing and fascinating, IMO, but also veryfuckingweird.

Tinuviel

@Ghost Well, of course it's fucking weird. It's a bunch of nerds talking about sex with people on the internet.

Ghost

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

@Ghost Well, of course it's fucking weird. It's a bunch of nerds talking about sex with people on the internet.

Dont you mean: artistically written character scenes?

Tinuviel

@Ghost said in TS - Danger zone:

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

@Ghost Well, of course it's fucking weird. It's a bunch of nerds talking about sex with people on the internet.

Dont you mean: artistically written character scenes?

Not the way I do it. It's like (The Watchmen's) Alan Moore got to write a revised edition of the Kama Sutra.

Jennkryst

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

Secondly, we were asked for our opinions, not for balanced debate.

And I asked that we play 'who is in my mouth?', yet here we are, opining and debating, with no actual smut in sight.

1.2/10

Tinuviel

@Jennkryst said in TS - Danger zone:

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

Secondly, we were asked for our opinions, not for balanced debate.

And I asked that we play 'who is in my mouth?', yet here we are, opining and debating, with no actual smut in sight.

1.2/10

You want smut, go talk about it in the hog pit.

Ghost

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

@Ghost said in TS - Danger zone:

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

@Ghost Well, of course it's fucking weird. It's a bunch of nerds talking about sex with people on the internet.

Dont you mean: artistically written character scenes?

Not the way I do it. It's like (The Watchmen's) Alan Moore got to write a revised edition of the Kama Sutra.

STFU NERD Watchmen is Damon Lindeloff or Zack Snyder. Who's this Alan Moore guy?

Anyway, srsly props to the people who said TS was a sexual event between players (not chars) and were more forthcoming.

Tinuviel

@Ghost said in TS - Danger zone:

Anyway, srsly props to the people who said TS was a sexual event between players (not chars) and were more forthcoming.

At least in my experience, which isn't as vast as some, it's one of those weird situations that it's an IC driven thing that leads to more... interest, for lack of a better term, OOC. It's two characters fuckin', but two players getting to be smutty at each other. Like two authors trying to write the most lurid prose in some weird competition.

If that makes any sense.

Pandora

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

@Pandora That is in no way what I said, and you know it. "They are playing favourites" does not mean "and nobody else is."

Then why does it matter so much if they TS, when you acknowledge that any other sort of behavior is just as likely to lead to favoritism? I know staffers, very good ones, that appreciate a good turn of phrase or bit of wit far more than the Ikea Mambo. Is it favoritism if they decide to banter with those best at good conversation?

Secondly, we were asked for our opinions, not for balanced debate. Not every group of people with a similar opinion is an echo chamber.

Of course, but what I meant was that there's only really going to be one opinion here, because the majority opinion is 'NPCs shouldn't TS!' and any other opinion is just shouted down because there is no room for debate in the echo chamber.

ETA: I also didn't say that they were playing favourites if they TS'd with their NPCs. Just that it comes across as such, which is often more important than what is actually happening.

I might be putting words into your mouth here, but if you play somewhere that you can tell who is fucking the NPCs because they are getting more shine/loot/plot/demigod-babies than you, you probably play somewhere with shitty staffers and TS is the least of your problems, but I can at least understand your stance in that case.

Tinuviel

@Pandora said in TS - Danger zone:

Then why does it matter so much if they TS

If they TS using NPCs I feel that it's wrong because then one person is being prioritised over others when it comes to that NPC's time. By NPC I'm using my definition, that is an important or valuable member of the non-PC group, a "supporting role" not an extra or a prop. That's not necessarily favouritism, but it is inappropriate use of an NPC. If you want to TS, use your PC for that, I don't care, but if your NPC is being used to constantly boink half the playerbase and the other half just want to sit down and talk politics with them, then it's a problem.

@Pandora said in TS - Danger zone:

any other opinion is just shouted down because there is no room for debate in the echo chamber.

Disagreeing with you isn't the same as shouting you down.

@Pandora said in TS - Danger zone:

I might be putting words into your mouth here

You are putting words in my mouth, a little. I don't care that PCs get rewards or whatever for boinking prominent NPCs, that's actually how the world works in many cases. I do care that the player in question gets extra time with an NPC that others don't for no reason other than the staffer wants to boink using that glove.

ETA: By "NPCs time" I mean available RL time to interact with the NPC. I don't care that the NPC's IC time is mostly oriented towards chasing tail, or whatever, but if it's impossible to get a chance to interact with the NPC because their RL time being taken up with the arduous task of TSing for hours, that's my issue.

Ghost

@Pandora said in TS - Danger zone:

Then why does it matter so much if they TS, when you acknowledge that any other sort of behavior is just as likely to lead to favoritism?

Said in the thread about TS.

This is a thread about TS and the behaviors surrounding it. I mean, it's cool that you have opinions about non-TS related favoritism, but this is the TS thread and all soooooooooo....

Pandora

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

ETA: By "NPCs time" I mean available RL time to interact with the NPC.

Again, if the NPC is taking care of their duties before indulging, where is the harm? Do you disagree that if no one is currently seeking RP with this NPC, that the player behind it should be free to do what they want with it, provided it is not some shared NPC?

I don't care that the NPC's IC time is mostly oriented towards chasing tail, or whatever, but if it's impossible to get a chance to interact with the NPC because their RL time being taken up with the arduous task of TSing for hours, that's my issue.

Agreed 100%, I am anti-anything that takes away from story/plot progression, including TS between players/staff/STs/goats/anything. I'm not arguing against irresponsible NPC-runners, I agree that they suck. My argument is solely against the idea of banning all NPC-boning, full-stop, because somehow their TS (which we all agree can be a meaningful roleplay interaction, I think?) is unfair.

ETA: @Ghost It's okay if sometimes you don't have anything useful to say; not-chiming-in has never in and of itself killed anyone.

Tinuviel

@Pandora said in TS - Danger zone:

Do you disagree that if no one is currently seeking RP with this NPC, that the player behind it should be free to do what they want with it, provided it is not some shared NPC?

No. If nobody is seeking RP with it, it shouldn't be used (ETA) outside of events, or other such RP-producing endeavours. It's a tool, not another PC.

ETA: Allow me to explain my view further. When you are using an NPC, as I have defined them previously, to roleplay, you are at work. You are performing a job. An NPC can, ICly, bang whomever or whatever. A person in charge of that NPC does not need to typefuck at people for that to have happened. TS is a luxury, not a necessity of the job.

You want to typefuck? Do it on your own time, not when you're using a game resource. In this case, 'your own time' is literally logging into your own PC to do it.

Pandora

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

@Pandora said in TS - Danger zone:

Do you disagree that if no one is currently seeking RP with this NPC, that the player behind it should be free to do what they want with it, provided it is not some shared NPC?

No. If nobody is seeking RP with it, it shouldn't be used. It's a tool, not another PC.

ETA: Allow me to explain my view further. When you are using an NPC, as I have defined them previously, to roleplay, you are at work. You are performing a job. An NPC can, ICly, bang whomever or whatever. A person in charge of that NPC does not need to typefuck at people for that to have happened. TS is a luxury, not a necessity of the job.

You want to typefuck? Do it on your own time, not when you're using a game resource. In this case, 'your own time' is literally logging into your own PC to do it.

Ah, so this is a game-specific thing for you. Because there are plenty of games where NPCs are just powerful staff alts or powerful characters handed to an ST for a plot or arc, during which time they are not playing any PCs and are charged with spicing up the grid and handing out plot nuggets and interacting with the masses in general.

Tinuviel

@Pandora said in TS - Danger zone:

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

@Pandora said in TS - Danger zone:

Do you disagree that if no one is currently seeking RP with this NPC, that the player behind it should be free to do what they want with it, provided it is not some shared NPC?

No. If nobody is seeking RP with it, it shouldn't be used. It's a tool, not another PC.

ETA: Allow me to explain my view further. When you are using an NPC, as I have defined them previously, to roleplay, you are at work. You are performing a job. An NPC can, ICly, bang whomever or whatever. A person in charge of that NPC does not need to typefuck at people for that to have happened. TS is a luxury, not a necessity of the job.

You want to typefuck? Do it on your own time, not when you're using a game resource. In this case, 'your own time' is literally logging into your own PC to do it.

Ah, so this is a game-specific thing for you. Because there are plenty of games where NPCs are just powerful staff alts or powerful characters handed to an ST for a plot or arc, during which time they are not playing any PCs and are charged with spicing up the grid and handing out plot nuggets and interacting with the masses in general.

Those don't sound like NPCs, to me. They sound like PCs. Still, in that case, I would say "spicing up the grid and handing out plot nuggets" doesn't include typefucking. You're still doing a job.

That also sounds like a ridiculously easy-to-cause-problems policy, and I'm glad I don't play there.

Derp

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

If they TS using NPCs I feel that it's wrong because then one person is being prioritised over others when it comes to that NPC's time.

Surprising no one, staff do this all the time without sex. Not everyone has an equal right to an NPC's time or effort. Staff always prioritizes.