Best posts made by Arkandel

***=Sorrynotsorry because so much cool new art and memes to post. ***

click to show

Kingslayers of Westeros:

@ganymede said in MUSH Marriages (IC):

Seriously, I've had great relationship RP. Fun relationship RP, that didn't always become about the hawt seX0rz. I can think of a dozen folks I have such a good time with in a relationship, mostly because, I guess, I'm not clingy or needy as a player.

After a long time in the hobby I think where things usually break down is where any kind of boundary getting crossed isn't met with an immediate - mild, but clear - message that it's inappropriate. It doesn't have to be a fight or a 'breakup', but it does need to be explicitly communicated and not argued.

When it comes to some of the needier, angst-filled people in our community signals room for negotiation. So I whine at you because you're playing in a room with your alt with someone else and you try to explain yourself, the message you are sending ("hey, I'm not doing anything wrong, man") isn't the one I'm receiving ("if I make your life miserable every time you do this, you'll stop doing this, and instead only play with me"). It's because that's what I want to read, and what I want from you, yet what you want isn't a concern of mine.

The correct messaging has to be explicit. I think you are doing a good job of that, and it's something I wish more people did since it'd eliminate much of the drama. "Hey, I play alts whose RP is separate than the RP we have together. I do different things sometimes, it doesn't mean I don't like the RP we have." If there's any pushback on it, offer to figure out a way to transition out of the RP you have with that person - and if there's more pushback I'd advise to turn the offer into a mandate. Don't argue the point, just declare it; this signals your boundaries aren't up for debate.

Lines. They need to exist, and they need to be respected, else bad things can, have, and will continue to happen.

***=Perhaps, but then again your favorite character***

@wildbaboons The last book in the series was published several years ago. It's unreasonable to require spoilers any more, with apologies to anyone who's yet to finish them - guys, you shouldn't be reading this thread in that case.

My wife has at times mistakenly referred to them as the "Fabulous Four".

I naturally debated divorce.

@carex said in Let's talk about TS.:

Another pet peeve about TS is mages. I was dating a girl ICly when a mage, who literally met her at a party and thought she was cute, used Mind/Corr/Life to impregnate her from across town. Just out of the blue. She had met the guy once for all of three poses. Staff said he could do it so we rolled with it but it was fucked up and she stopped playing that character about a week later.

I mean the guy is a creep, obviously. This isn't even about TS (I mean... there was none either way), it's about forcing another player into something they didn't sign up for in any conceivable way.

But there's no excuse - zero - for staff who let that happen let alone actually encourage it. The only sane response to that was "no, get out", and that should have been the end.

Conversely the only sane response to staff who 'let that happen' is "wtf, lol, bye".

Hiding this behind spoiler tags for multiple reasons!

***=Spoilery content***

Players and staff (who are just players with a colored first letter in their names anyway) are the cause.

This is very easy to see when new games open with brand new themes, yet people try to play the exact same way as they did in the last game, even when it stretches plausibility. So it's in a rural area but my plan is to build a high-tech skyscraper for my character's business empire, or a post-apocalyptic hellhole and I'm running a college student in debt, same as I did in the last six games I played.

Culture is very difficult to enforce by staff, especially when you're drawing from a very small pool of players. Staff are outnumbered by the players; it's an uphill battle and most don't choose to fight it since they simply lack the resources as they're dealing with a lot of other tasks at the time. So it settles.

Less than eight hours into it and 2020 can really go fuck itself already.

@prototart said in A (Mildly Complete) List of Current Games:

Between

even ignore everything about how text is a super niche medium since, God, probably like Everquest I guess and how most people just age out of literally anything and honestly the rate here is probably like 10:1 exit:enter at this point

and

and it's still a deal w a community that's spent years sheltering time bombs and e-weinsteins cus "well they're fine with me" or "wow that's a friend of mine maybe you're the problem,"

I must completely agree. My opinion on this is that we are very dismissive as a community to anything that doesn't match our personal, direct experiences.

Folks ignore the fact ours is a shrinking hobby because they can personally get RP, or they've personally helped someone new get into playing (which is great, btw, don't get me wrong) despite how playerlists are becoming shorter and more games shut down than get opened.

Similarly people these days get all up in arms now about some bad players ostricized by the community but they befriended and defended them in their hayday, ignoring tangible warnings to the contrary when it didn't fit their interests to take them more seriously.

It's how we are, and that won't change. It's why I think sites like MSB, TMC, etc are important to have around just so we can look at our community as a whole outside of our own bubbles and maybe readjust our opinions based on others' experiences as well.

@Jaded said in Good TV:

I'm a huge Star Wars nerd and I found The Mandalorian, at times, felt like a generic sci-fi show that was then reskinned with Star Wars aesthetics and themes.

That's the amazing part about it. It's a western in space - much like Firefly but in the Star Wars universe, too. It's a feature, not a drawback!

@tyche Call it what you want. I call it "MSB rules". Please adhere to them.

@GreenFlashlight said in Good or New Movies Review:

@Arkandel said in Good or New Movies Review:

Should I be yelling at the damn kids to get off my lawn?

Not precisely. The contention here isn't age, it's either that you think you have a greater right to dictate what Star Trek is than the people who own it have, or that you think Star Trek can only be one limited thing.

I think I'm entitled to have preferences while aware they don't constitute rights, no?

In a nutshell there are so many franchises and properties out there which are based on big action pieces. I liked (sometimes loved) Trek because it occasionally - not always - strayed from that formula and gave us ethical, educated, optimistic thinkers as its protagonists, and problems that were solved by deliberation and reason rather than out-phasering the enemy.

I'd still like to be catered to. Believe me, I'm quite aware why I won't be, at least in the movies (in fact that's the whole point of my post) but do I need to like it?

@wizz MSB is what y'all make of it. There are pros and cons, since having an environment where you can speak your mind without worry of censorship can backfire or it can be a way to get honest feedback.

The reason I agreed it wasn't the right thread for staff to get constructive technical feedback is because we're not built for it. A bboard in-game would be even worse, for example. The medium doesn't match, it's as simple as that - in fact not for any kind of extensive brainstorming where separate subthreads need to be tracked down, including building up a new game's theme for example.

But please don't underestimate the value of being able to speak freely. I don't mean it for Arx but in general. While shitposts and unprovoked personal attacks are a sad consequence of it, there's a big upside of both being able to say what you want without looking over your shoulder and reading what people outside of your personal circle think of your grand plans.

@Packrat

@bobgoblin Mind you, I'm not saying the following applies to you.

Sometimes it's not so much that a company, a hobby or an activity is different - or at least that it's changing at a rate or in a way it didn't use to - but more that we are different people now than when we started. We have expectations, standards or even personalities and lives no longer compatible with things we used to love a while ago.

I feel that way in regards to Blizzard specifically. It's quite possible what irks me now is stuff I would have loved eight years ago. That same principle could perhaps apply to MU* for some folks.

@wizz At least one of your concerns was addressed by the author. She was addressing Alina's race in an interview - since she was described as a blonde white woman in the books but mixed race in the show - and attributed the lack of diversity to her own shortcomings as a young author when she first wrote them.

I feel many other tropes could probably be explained the same way.

Also it's hilarious people online are still butthurt about white characters being race switched. Unless it stretches suspension of disbelief... you're already coping very well with people shooting energy beams out of their hands, y'all. Do you really draw the line at them also being Asian?

This thread is in the 'mildly constructive' section.

If people want to dogpile or point out personality flaws of Theno's, or Arx staff's, or anyone else's please go somewhere else to do it.

@groth One of the videos I really love to watch is the "how stuff is made" kind.

It makes me feel... humble. In my chosen industry we get a bit cocky about just how damn smart everyone is; we architect, design, implement, troubleshoot and maintain these ever-evolving pieces of infrastructure, then do the same for the applications we run on them. We're so smart!

Then I see how something like... those hard tips are put on shoelaces, or how bottlecaps go on bottles are actually made. Or how carpenters put tables together without using a single nail.

The world is full of really smart, capable people. It's awe inspiring.

Another factor to consider is, as a whole, MUSH-dom doesn't do subtlety very well. When it's there to be found in RP it isn't usually so much an undertone of racism or discrimination as much as a consistent stream of wide-eyed ranting and gleeful mustache-twirling delivering monologue after monologue about whatever the character is about.

Movies and books can actually portray this kind of villainy to add some depth and set a tone without making these aspects the every scene's sole focus. PCs often don't. Far more so when their players are disingenuous about their characters' purpose in the game.