@AmishRakeFight said:
Once the holidays pass and its freezing and miserable and its never going to be shorts weather again, people will be more active to avoid going outside.
Eh. Life is just busy for me now. Another baby girl on the way. Work is swamping me out. And I am doing a new workout routine. Aside from the weather....still sweating my balls off here in Louisiana.
@BigDaddyAmin I'm never going to be warm again. 
Over the last 12 months I have made on-and-off attempts to dive back into Mushing, but I have noticed a culture change since the days of yore. Gone are the days where you can hit the grid and randomly find public RP, and interact with people you won't normally socialize with. The spheres are now more insular. RP, when it happens, is primarily private. OOC chatter is the new norm. Stories and plots only take place at scheduled events, almost disconnected from "normal RP". Somewhere along the way, the spontaneity of RP and story has been lost.
I hope this trend turns around. I say this not because I'm an old-timer longing for the 'good ol' days', but realistically in a world of flashy MMORPGs and other entertainment options that offer instant gratification, Mushing needs to be more welcoming and more exciting to stay competitive in attracting and retaining players. Falling into the role as a glorified chatroom is the exact opposite of what this hobby needs to be.
Personally I've stopped trying. It's a bit sad and disappointing, but after 20 years Mushing has lost that spark of wonderment for me.
@Scissors Are you sure you're not looking at the past through a nostalgic filter?
What you're describing is rather accurate in many occasions but I hardly think it's something that's happened over the last year or even several years.
@Arkandel Ah, let me clarify that. I didn't mean this trend happened in the past 12 months, or in the last few years. I have retired from active Mushing a number of years ago, but made sporadic attempts to get back into it; the last time I tried was in 2012-2013 on The Reach and yes, this trend was already evident then. I've just been making another attempt this past year and found that the trend has continued, arguably even more so than before.
Then yeah, I can see that.
Partly it's a game culture thing (not all MU* treat newbies the same way, including to simply shun them) but it's likely also often a matter of shrinking playerbases in general. When you have 90 people online it's easier to find someone to play with than if you have 20.
I'm sick of other people that play on mu*'s for the most part. I mean I can be an asshole IC but I think ooc I'm pretty decent. Then you get pricks like Derp and Spider and the crazy of people like the ones that run that Project Fuction game(s) that just ruin entire games. I backed off playing and stopped even trying to let my mind match OOC info to characters but for the most part it all feels like a huge waste of time as of late.
Am I the problem? Maybe. But games seem to have lost the drive they use to have. The compelling story, the want to build on that story and to interact with other characters. I was critical in the past of Eldrich but it was honestly because that game could be great. The spheres are there, the players, and the backdrop.
I love Reno but to me it's the same, there is no driving force to lead story. But for me I love some Fallout 4, Destiny, and Star Wars Battlefront so at least I have something to fall back on to do in place of playing on a mu*. If you have a PS4 hit me up and we can get down or even an Xbox 1 , I just got myself one for Christmas >.>
Then when it's all over and the rest of you are ready for Dead Animal Pickup, I'm gonna go balls deep into Dahl. But only because she asked me to. Sweet-like. - Riddick (2013)
@ThatOneDude said:
I love Reno but to me it's the same, there is no driving force to lead story.
I'm just starting to have fun on Reno. But I'll say this: it was work. I've rarely seen a game so newbie unfriendly. Finding RP was near impossible to begin with. It's still difficult with the majority of the player base.
@TNP said:
@ThatOneDude said:
I love Reno but to me it's the same, there is no driving force to lead story.
I'm just starting to have fun on Reno. But I'll say this: it was work. I've rarely seen a game so newbie unfriendly. Finding RP was near impossible to begin with. It's still difficult with the majority of the player base.
I hear you about that.
I think the mutually assured destruction of "people who have a list of people they won't roleplay with" has come to roost. The mushing pool is getting smaller as it is, but I know at least 6-7 whiny fuckbags who constantly worry over trying to figure out if X player is someone they used to know and swore off rp with. For almost every one of these players is a list of 2-3 "safe" players they focus their home base rp with and very rarely do they squeak outside of that safe zone. People continually get added to that "avoid" list and - give or take a few months - they wonder why a game has become stale.
MU*ing has become very insular over the last few years and in many cases if I do not guarantee relationship/TS rp, the player tends to move on until they find it.
In the end, I think a lot of people just spend a lot of time playing nomad, trying to find the game that isn't like this until their "no play" list shows up and "ruins everything" or...they're simply moving on to things less addicting with a better time:output ratio.
Delete the Hog Pit. It'll be fun.
I really don't understand He-Man
My list of people I will not RP with is barely beyond 2, I believe. Even then I do not put special effort into avoiding the person. Although, I do not make special effort to play with them as well.
If you kick around Kushiel's Debut, by all means look me up and prod me for RP. I do not promise super brilliant RP or anything but I try making social RP somewhat enjoyable.
I, for one, never buy the "it's the holiday season, and finals, and vacations" type response when attendance is attendance is low. A drop in 10+ players and only one posted to the "Vacations and Leave" BB? I could attribute maybe 30-40% to being away but not posting to the board, but in my experience almost every Mu*er I come across is on 2-3 games with multiple alts per game. I think if people wanted to be communicative and keep in the loop, they'd let plenty of people know that they're on vacation/finals/etc.
Lately on the game I've been playing, people have been "busy with RL" for 4-7 weeks and then show back up to let a couple of people know they left for a different game. I'm pretty sure "everyone" is still out there, they're just nomadically migrating in search of the RP Buffalo and have abandoned the games that aren't giving them the output they hoped for.
@Ghost said:
I think the mutually assured destruction of "people who have a list of people they won't roleplay with" has come to roost. The mushing pool is getting smaller as it is, but I know at least 6-7 whiny fuckbags who constantly worry over trying to figure out if X player is someone they used to know and swore off rp with.
This isn't my experience at all. I currently don't actually associate with any players that are like this. I have one super shy friend who won't RP with strangers until he's drug to do so, but that's different. I certainly have a list of people I won't play with, but as with Muse's it has maybe 2-3 people on it, and I'll actually avoid games where these people are.
I think this might be projection.
MU*ing has become very insular over the last few years and in many cases if I do not guarantee relationship/TS rp, the player tends to move on until they find it.
You're really playing on the wrong games.
You might not buy the "it's the holiday season", but when multiple people say directly "Hey, I'm gone this week for Thanksgiving" I'm going to blame their absence on...wait for it....Thanksgiving. Most mushers, these days, have families and children and things that absolutely require attention away from the games. That may not be the case for you, but it certainly is amongst the people I know.
Any suggestions, Sunny? I'm not the insular sort, but I think I've fallen accidentally into some kind of cliqueish crowd that I should probably break free of. I love to involve people and share the rp love, but lately I feel as if getting these people I've been doing with to get involved requires a lot of convincing due to them having this LIST of people.
I'm going to give Kushiel's Debut a shot. I'm still waiting for approval, but it's Thanksgiving down here in the U.S.
It's giving me time to work on the ol' Mass Effect Project, though. Yes, @Thenomain, I am working on it.
“It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.” -- Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
I've heard good things about Kushiel, though I've got zero experience with the books. I'd also play the ass off of a Mass Effect game, Gany.
Don't get me wrong, folks, that above post wasn't some pessimistic projection. I really do regularly play with a bunch of people who write others off based on what they see on their wikis, have lists of players they refuse to associate with, often ask me if I think some random player is one of the people from that list and if they are unable to determine for sure...they avoid that person just in case. I've tried telling them that this in NO WAY hells the Mu* community or a hobby, but Meh...
...I think I need some fresh air and nice peeps to write good stories with.
Delete the Hog Pit. It'll be fun.
I really don't understand He-Man
I don't have any experience with them either, but the Wiki does a good job of outlining the setting. If you have any experience with fantasy novels or medieval fiction, you probably have enough information to get your feet wet.
I haven't read them either. I still intend to play the shit out of the game. @Sunny is a good resource to talk to on the game.
I'm there, waiting on approval. It's pretty slow right now (I'm told it'll need to be next week) but then again it's Thanksgiving.
While waiting I'm re-reading the first book... damn, 1900+ pages on my Kobo. I can barely remember much of it either, it's like a brand new novel at this point.
Yeah, KD is the only place I'm really playing right now; I tried getting into the WoD circuit and just haven't found the genre compelling at all aside from the work I'm doing with it. People come in cold all the time. Mostly I suggest avoiding highly religious concepts for new-to-setting folks, but as @Ganymede says, if you've got any experience with fantasy novels or medieval fiction or historical romance or...etc, you know enough to play. The only strict 'time period!!!!' thing is that the Americas don't exist so we don't have the trade goods (or drugs) from there. And when I say strict, I mean that's the only thing anyone ever notices or will say something about, within reason.
Edited to add: Yes, it is likely to be this coming week that approvals start happening again; the lovely guy that does them had the nerve to go see family with his family for the holidays. I'm not really sure who unchained him.
@Ghost
Definitely sounds like you might need to branch out a little more 
Good you're willing to do so, though!
I only know of two people I flat out avoid, because of legit crazy/stalker tendencies, in the over-a-decade I've been at this RP thing. I'm totally way too shy for my own good and really have trouble getting out there to RP as a result, but I'm willing to RP with anyone. It's just a matter of catching me when I'm not at work (rare these days), or feeling less anti social/shy than usual >>
That said, if anyone is still giving Fallcoast a go, feel free to look me up there as Red. I can usually think of a reason for her to be anywhere/when.
@AmishRakeFight said:
Once the holidays pass and its freezing and miserable and its never going to be shorts weather again, people will be more active to avoid going outside.
Eh. Life is just busy for me now. Another baby girl on the way. Work is swamping me out. And I am doing a new workout routine. Aside from the weather....still sweating my balls off here in Louisiana.
