Best posts made by Arkandel

@paris said in What drew you to MU*?:

I don't think a letter to the MU* community would help with some of its more intractable problems: the people causing the issues know what they're doing and don't care that it bothers reasonable people. And the staff letting them get away with it ultimately don't care, either. There are low- or no-drama games out there, play on one of those or try your hand at running your own.

Choosing your game - and its staff - was always part of the hobby. In fact things are dramatically better these days than they used to be, both because there are outlets where bad apples get fingers pointed at them but also because it's easier to find sane game-runners through word of mouth.

Not that running into someone badshit enough, combined with uncaring staff, can't burn an individual out. Of course it can, and has. All I'm saying is this has always been the case, but perhaps at the time we hadn't accumulated enough what-the-fucks to go over our threshold yet.

What's to love more...

The Justice League trailer or the Wonder Woman one?

Damn.

@faraday I found coding for MU* was an invaluable experience. It didn't shape my career, since I was already programming since I first got my Amstrad 6128, but it expanded my horizons really fast simply by giving me an incentive to mess around with MySQL when it was relatively new, work with version control and generally as part of a larger team, exposed me to APIs, data conversion, basic systems administration, shell scripts, network and socket code in general...

I would heartily recommend it to anyone who's looking to get into programming or is curious about a different professional path. It's not just internet points. What you can pick up from coding 'rooms' can easily translate into a potentially lucrative professional turn down the road, as long as one doesn't get complacent. Being ambitious with the toys you create on a text editor is a top-notch time investment.

Edit: Understanding other people's code. Expanding other people's code. Fixing other people's code!

@coin I'd be happy to set up a wiki on MSB's host if anyone wants to maintain it (whether it's @GangOfDolls or someone else).

Tor Project Confirms Sexual Misconduct By Developer Jacob Appelbaum.

@faraday said in What's So Hard About Ruby?:

@arkandel said in What's So Hard About Ruby?:

I found coding for MU* was an invaluable experience. .. I would heartily recommend it to anyone who's looking to get into programming or is curious about a different professional path.

20-30 years ago I would absolutely agree. Now? MUSHcode is so far divorced from modern programming paradigms and languages that any concepts you learn from it don't translate very well.

That said, people learn best when they're passionate about the thing they're trying to learn; doubly so if there's a tangible, useful project that can come out of it. So for you if that's old-school MUSHcode, go for it. Far be it from me to stand in the way of anyone's passion project.

But if you're trying to learn it as a generic stepping stone to get into programming, there are better ways to do that IMHO.

I agree, of course, but with two caveats.

Part of being a successful developer involves more than the programming language or platform itself. Working with others, documenting your work, architecting something you plan to create so that it's modular and expandable for example are still valuable.

But the most important part, I think, is something you touched on; being passionate about a project. That's the kind of madness that leads us to set stretch goals - aiming to get something so ambitious done we don't currently know how to do, or perhaps even whether it's doable with the tools at our disposal. I wonder if at some point Ares might have started out that way?

There may be an aspiring programmer out there right now with some crazy-ass idea about a MU*-like game trying things out to see what works, even especially if it means starting from scratch. And it's exactly the kind of work that leads to professional success down the line, too.

So I had this idea for a workshop thread for new concepts. It has a very simple format which I hope we can use, although if you want to create a different template then please by all means, go right ahead.

The original format: A quote, poem, tagline or phrase trying to encapsulate the character's theme. What are they about? What is their tragedy, their triumph or their place in life? It doesn't need to be inspirational or even feel-good; it should be workable for a hero's journey, a coward's lament or a rogue's spite. Anything!

Then others can propose their own or they can take something any of us put together and reimagine it. What concept could you run based on the same foundation? Two people can be inspired in completely different ways after all.

For example here's my take:

I made my song a coat

Covered with embroideries

Out of old mythologies

From heel to throat;

But the fools caught it,

Wore it in the world's eyes

As though they'd wrought it.

Song, let them take it

For there's more enterprise

In walking naked.

( W. B. Yeats, A Coat )

I'm imagining a fallen Tony Stark type - an Elon Musk whose enterprise was ripped from him by the accountants who now own and run what he built. In his late thirties, his best ideas spent now and what fame he has left nipping at his heels, ridiculed for the heights he had once conquered but he's struggling to keep himself together and not care about it... even when it's rubbed in his face.

He still hopes but doesn't know that he has the fire in him. What if the pool is too shallow or his success too random? His next project could be all the proof the world needs (assuming anyone is left watching - is even that only in his head?) to assume it was only luck the first time around, too, so that there is fear each time he dips his hands into the work again, and resents anyone trying to convince him to try once more.

There is room in there to plot for figures to come back from his past; litigators eager to see if the patents they own could take anything he still has, journalists interested in writing a come-back story for him, old colleagues wanting to reconnect, crazy fans, younger versions of him wanting to be inspired.

Wanna buy in?

@Usekh said:

End of the day you can do what you like with your own body, but don't encourage others to try woo-woo treatments.

End of the day, I don't even care what you're encouraging others to do, unless they're not consenting adults. Part of adulthood is deciding for yourself what's best for you. If you decide to not take penicillin because it's an evil chemical that's your call to make.

... But for all that is holy, don't mess with herd immunity. People who don't get vaccinated shouldn't be allowed within their communities. Be crazy on your own dime.

@derp said in What's So Hard About Ruby?:

@rnmissionrun

MushCode: Teaching people modern programming paradigms via the 'have you seen the alternative?' method.

"Nothing you'll see can possibly be worse than this shite"

@tiredewok Read up on the rest of the thread. Or at least the last few pages.

Perfect time for a selfie.

@faraday That made a small part of me die inside.

The other factor in order for PrPs to happen is that they need to be valuable. Just what adds value to them depends on the MUSH, though, and very much also on the perspective of the PrP runner.

Other than coders Storytellers/DMs are by far the rarest resource. It's however the only true way metaplot can scale on a game other than artificially limiting its playerbase; in other words as your MU* grows you'll grow unable to offer enough plot for everyone unless you actually stop it from growing.

For Storytellers to run things the circumstances must offer them the incentive to do so. I'm not talking about XPs (which is the usual carrot) but reasons to actually invest that time.

For instance:

• STing is a very creative task, so they need to have some freedom to enjoy it - and too many limitations get in the way of that.

• They need to be able to affect day to day RP. If all they can run is mundane events on a game with dragons or spaceships that's not much fun.

• Players must be rewarded for their investment too, and again, I'm not referring to XPs alone. Did you help kill that big ugly? Then the King should know about it - as opposed to every NPC outside the plot being completely unaware/uncaring of what you did since it didn't 'count' as much since it wasn't staff-ran.

And so on.

@ThugHeaven said in Good TV:

Still nobody for "The Night of" on HBO?

You guys are missing out.

On episode 3 now, it's really good. And I don't even like police/procedural shows.

@girlcalledblu said in Wheel of Time MU*:

@arkandel said in Wheel of Time MU*:

Tai Sedai

My theme limitations are showing-- Tai Sedai?

You won't find that in theme, that's for sure.

At some point during Tyme's heyday we had the bright idea (?) we should run an alternate timeline where Lews Therin Telamon had taken over Rand's mind and had established a new order of both male and female channelers.

At the same time we allowed players to respec freely, using all of their XPs to roll new characters of any type without needing to go through the - very draconic by today's standards, and very time-consuming in real time - steps of needing to join a guild and work their way up to full rank. This was done under the understanding the new timeline was temporary, and that at the end they'd be able to return to their normal mains or if they liked the new PCs instead, we'd find a way to convert them to the mainstream timeline.

It seemed like fun - but again, that's because I drove it, and obviously that makes my perspective pretty subjective. I don't recall how long the whole divergence lasted, either. Maybe for a couple of months?

@bobgoblin said in Tools, and not just Beiber.:

Do idle rooms hinder story tellers from being able to tell stories? If a player is going to sit social they'll do it either on the game or somewhere else. But how does that hinder story telling?

The boogyman here is opportunity cost. The theory is that while you're just hanging out chatting OOC - i.e. when there's anything else for you to do that might keep you from being on the grid or responding to a "hey, anyone wanna RP?"-kind of request then it reduces the volume of overall RP on the game.

Although on the surface that's certainly true in practice I don't consider it a major factor.

For starters the distractions offered by an OOC room are laughably small compared to the internet as a whole; I'd be far more likely to be distracted by a Reddit post, a Netflix show or any other kind of addictive video game than a random OOC conversation on a MUSH.

For another thing as it's been noted if we're idlying them it literally doesn't matter where our characters are; if I'm not even in the same room as my computer (let alone at the window) then the opportunity to RP with me is exactly the same - zero.

I thought it made for an interesting read. TVs Are Still Too Complicated And It's Not Your Fault by Walt Mossberg.

Edit: Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work.

@insomnia I always liked the idea of Supernatural as the setting for a MUSH.

Here's a question for you: How (and if) would you intend to tackle one of Hunter-based games which is essentially what this one would be in its heart, namely the reliance on plots for things to happen?

@lisse24 said in Tools, and not just Beiber.:

I really wish we were discussing ways to encourage players to pursue non-GM driven plot and creating engaging games.

The tricky part here is coming up with ways to do so without offering (perhaps) purely anecdotal methods. For example anything I'm about to come up with is stuff I would like, but my circumstances aren't the same as yours or someone else's. Or, looking at it from a different point of view, I've been chatting with a friend here whose big draw to the game they are playing is that people are sane and no one is perving on them; however for me that's not something I'd pick a MUSH for, as it's not something I deal with very often.

But some methods I'd like:

1. A real definition of how long the scene will take. Man, I can't stay up for a 4-5 hour scene unless it's balls-to-the-walls amazing. I won't.

2. This is codeable (and has been in different ways): A way to tell what a scene I'm considering joining is about. Is that a meet and greet? A political conversation? A fight scene? Obviously this requires participant buy-in though to update it.

3. The carrots need to work. IMHO currently in most MU* they don't. XP should have a purpose - it ought to incentivize the things we want happening on the MUSH; handing it out automatically to everyone is 'fair' but useless.

4. Games relying heavily on themes which involve NPCs need to provide the tools for players to portray those on the fly, consistently and reasonably. For example Werewolf needs spirits - period. There need to be specific, easy to follow guidelines and the culture in place encouraging all players to put some in play even if they're not actively STing (i.e. when their PC is already involved in that scene).

5. More reasons should be offered to meet with and involve other players, especially new ones. Arx did an admirable job of that and other games haven't picked up on it; from being handed XPs just for RPing with them, or with random other players, to sharing clues and learning secrets, this really helps integrate newcomers instead of having them idle then stop logging on for lack of anything to engage with.

Just some ideas for now, since you asked!

I think I've mentioned this before here but in case I haven't - I'm so spoiled by just 'finding' things online it doesn't even occur to me not to any more.

So while ago I was looking for the .apk file (basically an Android app in installable form) for Plex, a media player I use almost literally every day. I must have been searching for the latest version for half an hour before it occurred to me... what the hell am I doing? It's $4. $4, one-time fee including all future upgrades - what am I doing?