Best posts made by Arkandel
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RE: I owe a lot of people some apologies.
Can someone please explain what this thread is about in somewhat clear terms?
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RE: RL things I love
Our moluccan cockatoo; a pink engine of flirtatious chaos.
She can be quite a handful, and does her best to take over a household (all half a pound of her) but she's a blast. When she's mad she screams "PRETTY BIRD!" at you aggressively - in her language it means something completely offensive.
She loves Queen, rap and Beyonce. I'm currently teaching her to appreciate Iron Maiden.
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RE: Forgiveness in Mushing
@testament said in Forgiveness in Mushing:
What is it about mushing, or RPing online that makes it so easy for us to screw up? Sometimes badly. And when it does, why does it often seem like those people find themselves blacklisted from the hobby?
A number of things.
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Internet anonymity is a big thing. It affects everyone even outside of the hobby, and things are said most people would never say to each other's face.
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We're not the most socially adept crowd in general. I mean... we're not, on average.
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Roleplaying makes it hard sometimes to separate our egos from our characters. On top of that some of us can't deal very well with either being more popular (or being rejected) even in the context of playing a game, dealing with pecking orders, etc.
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The themes we often play are sensual, romantic, military or political - which compounded with the former can lead to or at least encourage some unhealthy attitudes.
But maybe I see a lot of the negatives because of how this site functions. Because while we all know what the Hogpit is for, there are times I take a step back and wonder, "Holy hell, we are a bunch of hateful and spiteful people, aren't we?" I wonder how much of it is truly honest, how much it is chest thumping, and how much is back-patting. This isn't so plea to better to each other, because most of us are at the age where that kind of thing goes without saying.
It is not. But we're far more likely to rant and attack someone who drew our ire that one time than to post something nice about that person we had a pleasant conversation with. That means over time more threads are created charged negatively than positively, at least on that forum.
Then again that provides an outlet, and things are aired instead of brewing privately in pages, making someone the target of discontent they might have no idea about let alone a floor to defend themselves on.
What I'm asking, after that long-winded opening is: have you forgiven someone in this hobby? You don't have to be great friends with them now, but at least to the point where there's no animosity. Indifference, perhaps. You don't even have to list stories or names or anything.
I'd like to say I forgive all the time but the (perhaps sad, I don't know) truth is I forget all the time. There are people I'm aware greatly drew my ire years earlier who, when I re-examined it rationally after a long period of time, I no longer really recalled any of the specifics. I was aware of the general gist but not just what it was - and at that point is it really worth it to hold a grudge?
On the other hand I do keep track, at least that way, of repeat offenders. If you've creeped on me once you won't get another chance; that doesn't mean I'll avoid and discredit you, but we won't ever have close IC relations again. The first time is a freebie, the second one would be on me.
Or have someone did a friend of yours wrong, and mob mentality takes effect?
That can happen. To be honest MSB has hardened me when it comes to bandwagons since I get PMed a fair bit, and I was fairly thick skinned to begin with. It's frustrating to see it when it happens though.
I'm more sensitive (to the extent that I am at all) when it's friends of mine being mistreated though. I don't invest in my own ego as much as I used to, yet it's difficult sometimes to really tell what happened when you only hear one half of the story - that is, from just one perspective.
Or were you the person that did the screwing up and how hard has it been for you recover from that? Did you have to hide who you were? Play a different game with a different user name or email?
I've fucked up, sure. Having said that I don't really hide who I am on most MU* simply because I do have friends I like to play with and it's always nice to run into them on a new MU*. I also really don't think I'm the type to not take 'no' for an answer; if anyone wanted to avoid me I'd pick up the hint pretty quick, especially since I won't try too hard or for too long to play with any one person before moving on.
One thing to consider here is that for MSB oldbies our identities are pretty much public record. Soft resets - rolling new alts - might hide the crazy temporarily but if I'm creeping on people long enough it's only a matter of time before everyone here knows it, and it will follow us basically forever. We got long memories.
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RE: Forgiveness in Mushing
@ghost said in Forgiveness in Mushing:
A lot of time is spent on MSB trying to determine whether or not a complaint is valid or if it's just vindictiveness because it happens so much and no one wants it to happen to them.
For me it's not so hard - usually - to catch an issue when someone has done something truly bad. A few logs of someone openly creeping, being at the center of repeated issues etc is enough to flag them as walking problems and they will always carry that flag for me. If they figure their shit out in the future I can consider playing with them but never closely again.
No, what's hard is knowing when someone has had an one-time incident, or felt particularly triggered that one time, and distinguishing between that and a player who'll always have a thin skin who will need too much patience to deal with. That's really tricky.
Look, anyone can feel bad. It doesn't matter if it's for a valid reason because, well, we don't control our emotions. It also doesn't matter whether that reason can easily translate to someone else - it's possible the same Mean Thing can infuriate one person and only make another facepalm. That's not something to be forgiven or forgotten, it's just... human nature.
A history of fuckups. That's the smoking gun I look for.
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RE: Good TV
@three-eyed-crow said in Good TV:
@arkandel
My understanding is that, because Daredevil's face is masked, he's a LOT easier to stunt double for. Between that and the rushed production schedule for Iron Fist, I don't exactly forgive Finn Jones all his performance sins, but I can see how he was put in a situation where he couldn't really do great work.If only Iron Fist had a mask in the comics, right?
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RE: Learning how to apply appropriate boundaries
A lot of the mockup conversations in this thread basically come down to this:
I would like you more if you were someone else.
We'll, do you want to be someone else?
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RE: Good or New Movies Review
The Avengers: Endgame trailer is out.
Hyped as fuck.
I won't even pretend to use spoiler tags for a trailer but we need to talk about this, you guys.
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RE: Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems
@pyrephox I'm the same way. If a game makes me want to optimize and run a spreadsheet of my future XP spends then it's got me.
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RE: Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.
@aria said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
If it would make the retail workers feel better, I will tell my very funniest retail story ever, which involves end-of-night inventory at a friend's place of employment. I will warn, however, that said friend was working at a fetish shop at the time, so.... it's super, super NSFW.
Y/N?
What's the goddamn chance we'll say (N)?
Come on. This is us.
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RE: Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems
@groth said in Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems:
@sparks said in Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems:
In terms of actionable suggestions and focused discussion on those suggestions, the Github ticket is always going to be the winner by far since it breaks the discussion into specific topics that can be sorted/labeled/assigned etc.+1.
Forums like MSB are great for general brainstorming but they fall apart if you need to create sub-topics on the fly and organize feedback. They are simply not meant for organizing technical information since a lot gets lost in the noise, especially for late comers.
But the scope of what a thread is meant to achieve is still debatable, and obviously for those of us who simple enjoy debating systems and mechanics there's value in it whether it's deemed usable or not. It's not like the rest of every other thread is packed solid with high quality content not comprised entirely of cat memes.
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RE: What drew you to MU*?
Speaking for myself I have a rotating circle of friends, some of whom still play, many of whom are semi- or probably permanently retired. I've occasionally been tagged by some of those to get back in the game but usually it's when I have the itch.
I've noticed over time the cause and effect circle @Wizz mentioned - reading geeky fantasy books which led to playing similar things out on a MUSH - had even been reversed; I'd read new novels while playing the possibility of turning it into a game at the back of my head. What would The Stormlight Archive or the Lightbringer setting look like, would it be playable? Could it lead to interesting gameplay if the plot was detached from the book characters?
The reality of it sometimes disappointed me. Perhaps it's because of what I do here and the stories I hear both publicly or - even more frequently - in private, but I've found the less I need to care about the OOC side of MU*ing the more engaged I allow myself to become, and the happier I am on a day to day basis with it.
But what draws me the most is moments when things click.
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That feeling days after I start a new character when the other shoe drops and the PC does things on his own I didn't know he would when I started typing his next pose; it's magic I haven't found anywhere else.
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The time when I meet another PC whose player I don't even know and we harmonize over theme; it just flows, one pose into the other, tossing things over only to see them caught and returned, enriched in each bout.
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The notion that a character is a living entity in a way who can outgrow my initial plans, changing from what he experiences which are in themselves things no one planned for them; not staff, not other players, no one. They just happened, and he's now a different beast than before.
I haven't ran into the opportunity to get those feelings from other types of gaming, and although I wouldn't know, it's probably not quite the same for creative "solo" writing either. But if I do get the itch to get back it's because I'm missing them.
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RE: Random links
@derp said in Random links:
Egypt investigating picture of couple having sex on Grreat Pyramid.
Not all heroes wear capes.
Obviously NSFW-ish but overall pretty mild.
They are assholes. I hate those kinds of tourists.
A few years ago a Brit tourist in Knossos - a freakin' 3000 year old palace - went across the ropes when no one was looking and took a dump on the Minoan throne.
Like come on. It's really hard to advocate life-ruining sentences for idiots like this since no one got hurt... technically... but fuck.
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RE: Spirit Lake - Discussion
I'm thinking of a small town lawyer (STOP GLARING AT ME GANY). Not quite sure yet if he'd be the sleazy, young idealistic, ambitious or cynical type but someone who's looking at all this magic spell-flingin' going around and flinching about the class action lawsuit that's sure to come at the end of this all.
Probably a local.
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RE: Spirit Lake - Discussion
@scar said in Spirit Lake: An Original Modern Fantasy Game:
- How long has magic been around for in the modern age, at least as far as is commonly known by PCs? That is, are we talking months? Years? What's our time frame to compare 'veterans' and 'newbies'?
There is no magic in the modern age. PCs have no frame of reference for it. If they do, it's the same frame of reference we have in the real world. Myths, works of fiction, etc.
I like there are no veterans around. It sets the stage where PCs are on equal footing, and avoids the XP paradox where OOC oldbies but IC newbies are somehow far more knowledgable than newcomers who happen to be playing weathered wisemen.
Here's to hoping we don't get too many indifferent 'eh, whatever' characters around only a couple of weeks since first discovering they can fling fireballs from their fingertips, too.
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RE: Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff
Having critters is fun but godfuckingdammit lint-rolling my clothes every damn day because everything I own is covered in shed hairs is getting old. I bought a new winter jacket a couple of weeks ago, went home, hanged it... came back to it the next morning and wouldn't you know it, there's dog hair everywhere on it.
I'm at the point where I'm picky about entire kinds of fabrics when I buy clothes based on how they rate in terms of fur stickiness.
<fistshake>
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RE: Ideal Scene Length?
@meg said in Ideal Scene Length?:
I find that 'meet and greet' first scenes never go anywhere, and I prefer to keep those like, shorter. If this is the first time our characters are meeting, I'd rather something short and sweet. Then the next time we put them together, maybe a bit longer. Or if they click, a lot longer! Maybe they end up gushing about
I think I like meet and greets especially if they are organic and players invest in them.
To be clear about what I mean - 'organic' not in the way that's in the flow of RP since obviously there is no flow yet as you're just IC meeting for the first time. What it does mean is there's no agenda about it; I'm not meeting a character pre-determined between us to be my PC's love of his life, or a future coterie buddy or whatever but instead it's a blank slate and we're just exploring the chemistry and possibilities between them. That is a great setup, IMHO, and even more so if I don't even know who the other player is. For example I had a pretty good meet-and-greet yesterday, it was fun, yet nothing 'happened' in that scene; we discussed pillows, lower back aches and what it's like to live in a small town.
But that leads to investment... and it's a real thing. Look, I get it; it's more exciting for the player to be part of that PrP where you go up against the Goblin King or you're meeting the Prince for the first time instead of a random Joe at a cafeteria, but if you don't pour some effort and do more than pose about the weather then no big surprise there, the scene is going to be boring. The normal rules of RP still apply whether it's a 'throwaway' scene or not; we need to give the other person something to throw back at us, push the boundaries a little bit, build up some rapport.
If I show up and have my guy do the RP equivalent of staring at his phone half the time then yeah, the meet and greet will suck - but it's because I suck.