Is this hobby on it's last legs?

[il-volpe]

@Enoch said in Is this hobby on it's last legs?:

@il-volpe Do not take this as an insult, my guy, but if the hobby came down to twenty GoB-like games, I would consider it way past dead. Nothing against anyone who enjoyed it, but just because you can keep it open forever, it doesn't mean it is what anyone would consider a healthy game.

GoB certainly did have its period of being dead and continuing to be up for the use of a handful of die-hards were still maybe sometimes playing a little but mostly socialized OOC.

However, prior to that GoB had about two years of RP-on-demand at all hours and 60-some different regular players. It was a healthy game and not tiny and had a respectable run in that state.

You may be thinking of Blood of Dragons, which is still open and, as far as I can tell, populated by fewer than ten regular players and seldom has any scenes going, and as far as I know, has been just that way since it opened in 2006.

[mietze]

When I started playing, there were no wikis or even websites really on most of the games I played. CG was done by rooms on the game. You were often required to write lengthy bgs that some poor bastard had to read (or not).

Almost all action and plot was staff "judged". If you did any sort of combat or needed an adjudicated scene you were placed in a timestop that could last for hours, days, or in one case with me 4 weeks.

There was no posted logging. Or jobs/requests or trackers, or events code with reminders.

Harassment and especially unwanted sexual harassment was something to be expected and put on your big girl pants and tolerate and was not generally grounds for removal of the harasser. It was acceptable on many games to make pcs that were flagrantly racist and lgbtq-phobic stereotypes.

The hobby has functionally and socially changed a lot and will continue to do so and in some respects has a long way to go. Some of the changes l love. Some took some getting used to.

So again I think old timers might grumble a bit, but in my observation even those who won't shut up their complaining will still play, if padt behavior is any indication.

[il-volpe]

@mietze Yep. I do recall. And all the games were WoD, Pern, just social, or furry-and-social.

And a lot of people remember this as the golden age of the hobby or summat, 'cause there were hundreds of connects to Masquerade at any one time.

[Tori]

I feel like I tend to be a 'get off my lawn!' type, but looking back, I realize I have adjusted as the formats have, and suspect that if there's a game that grasps me, I'll play it even if I have to figure out new stuff. So much has just been better, too - no more dialing in from my commodore64 via a 5" floppy and whopping 300 baud or having to use the computer lab telnet at school (thank goodness).

I mean, I may wah about it a little, with big changes - like when I had to give up SimpleMU if I wanted all the pretty colors - but I really dug the format of the Ares game I played. There was still a place to log in, though, outside of the web, with the black background and scrolling text, but I enjoyed the web rp I did, too. I didn't even think about it being different, I guess? It was just rp - but, again, it did have what I am used to available.

I kinda feel like it's when people asked me if I thought I would still be doing this once I had kids and was out of college. I was like, oh /please/, pft no, as IF! Yeah well, now my kids are in college so.

[tek]

@il-volpe BoD is less of a MUSH and more of a power trip

[Tinuviel]

@tek But GRRM said we can!

[il-volpe]

@tek Hehe, well, I sure as hell didn't want to play there when I read their app rules etc. I couldn't really know how many unique IPs they got even back when I was always looking at MUstats about it. Maybe it's a bigger handful than it seems, but even if it's four or five people, more power to them if it's fun.

“With a bit of luck, his life was ruined forever. Always thinking that just behind some narrow door in all of his favorite bars, men in red woolen shirts are getting incredible kicks from things he’ll never know.” -- Hunter S. Thompson

[krmbm]

@Tori said in Is this hobby on it's last legs?:

now my kids are in college so.

Why you gotta do things like that to people...

[Tori]

@krmbm said in Is this hobby on it's last legs?:

@Tori said in Is this hobby on it's last legs?:

now my kids are in college so.

Why you gotta do things like that to people...

Ahahaha! I wholly maintain that my kids have grown at twice the speed of normal humans, rather than the alternative:

I hope the nursing home they put me in has good wifi.

[Pacha]

@Tori

[Lotherio]

@Tori said in Is this hobby on it's last legs?:

I hope the nursing home they put me in has good wifi.

Them kids better hurry up and design me a neural port in the back of my neck so I can direct connect from my nursing home.

[Derp]

@mietze said in Is this hobby on it's last legs?:

non-"live" scenes

Have you seen how many people are throwing screaming tantrums about that, though?

[silverfox]

@Tori said in Is this hobby on it's last legs?:

or having to use the computer lab telnet at school

this hurt to remember thanks

[GangOfDolls]

I would like to be uploaded into a digital afterlife San Junipero style.

In that way, I'd be MUSHing my own afterlife forever.

[Arkandel]

@GangOfDolls Hey, you might be living in a simulation right now.

They need to fix the customization options though and the grind is brutal. Maybe the next patch will fix it.

[Derp]

@Arkandel said in Is this hobby on it's last legs?:

@GangOfDolls Hey, you might be living in a simulation right now.

They need to fix the customization options though and the grind is brutal. Maybe the next patch will fix it.

Truth.

[Tinuviel]

@Arkandel said in Is this hobby on it's last legs?:

@GangOfDolls Hey, you might be living in a simulation right now.

They need to fix the customization options though and the grind is brutal. Maybe the next patch will fix it.

I keep trying to attach Cheat Engine to the process so I can edit my stats, but no dice. Or die.

[Wretched]

@Tinuviel Dices

[Auspice]

@Wretched said in Is this hobby on it's last legs?:

@Tinuviel Dices

Deese.