Best posts made by Arkandel

@surreality said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:

It's the rest of us that need answers, and they're hard to come to if 'if you accept this at all, you just want to demean women RL and call people offensive slurs right and left' or 'you just want the world rewritten to bubble wrap your personal sensibilities and everyone is sensitive to something' are the only positions people recognize as participants in the discussion.

If this thread has a point at all it is to at least allow the conversation to be had, and see what - if any - restraints are sufficient to both allow for some interesting depictions of real world issues while not making the same setting essentially unplayable for those who have faced a form of discrimination in their own real lives.

I am not even sure if it's fair to call for understanding from both 'sides' of this (to the extent there are sides). Some of us simply happen to be on the more privileged side of the social fence, and that's a difficult signal to override.

@Seraphim73 said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

I think that you're ignoring the mentality of players here, and it's something you're very much going to have to look out for. In general, if players check a Where list looking for RP and see that Luke Skywalker is in one room, and Abist Trass is in another, unless they've RPed with Abist before, they're going to be heading for the room Luke is in.

The trick is for Luke to never be in a room unless there's a damn good reason for him to be there. Unless he's serving the plot, currently pushing the story forward, Luke shouldn't be online.

FCs like that don't belong in bar RP. If they are then it's a problem. l generally get more RP, more weight behind their RP, and thus more position in the metaplot simply due to the OOC weight behind their names.

@auspice You're welcome.

I just started with Linode a few days ago and it's going great. $5/month is nothing (and the first few are paid by a coupon thing), I got root access on a distro of my choice, and the machine is fast and responsive. No complaints.

@collective said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:

Here's the thing: Why is it hurtful to suggest that it's hurtful to use that kind of language and bring those situations into play? Why is calling a gay player's gay character a fag okay, but saying 'I have to wonder why you want the right to call somebody a fag' not okay?

It's not. This debate - no debate - can be had if we can't disagree, or even just argue, without worrying someone will have their feelings hurt.

We need to have both of these conversations. Is it (and when is it) okay to discriminate IC, and is it possible someone might be upset at the idea OOC?

We won't get an answer. There's no answer. It's not like someone's going to put an idea here that will make everyone go "WOAH I never thought of that. It fits all games, it addresses everyone's concerns and we can just run with it now". Different MU* will need to do their thing after weighing the pros and cons, same as with... a lot of other issues games need to pick their poison on.

But we still need to have the conversation.

@pyrephox said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:

I like Arx; it's a second world fantasy game that has chosen to make a very egalitarian society, and that's a lot of fun to play. But if Arx was a game set in Meiji-era Japan, even Meiji-era Japan with magic, then I would want and expect to see some level of the cultural inequalities that existed then as play elements.

I agree with the distinction, but I also think it doesn't really answer the issue here. Obviously (?) fantasy games can dodge IC discrimination by essentially masking it behind IC concepts that don't have a direct equivalence in the real word; mountain savages, Drow, vampiric monsters or whatever are they can hated freely. Similarly Hollywood-izations of historic settings can 'fix' the past in basically the same way, by turning them into a fantasy version of their origins.

But when is the actual real world situation appropriate for a game? Never? Always? Only for a select audience? What's the best way for staff to implement these things if they try to go for realism? What are some policies they can use when players start being assholes? What are things they should be on the lookout for? How do they handle a case where a player ends up feeling bad because of the situations depicted on their grid anyway?

Those are questions I'm curious to see takes on.

@GentlemanJack said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

Maybe it could work. But another thing that made Star Wars cool was space, space fights, ships flying around. With everyone on a single planet I don't know if you will still allow that.

As with other things you have to pick your poisons. For instance I was bothered sometimes on Dawn of Defiance because I was on planet A and someone was offering RP on planet B... so it was a big deal to make up an excuse to be on a different freakin' planet every single time.

We all have different priorities but to me that's a bigger hiccup.

There's probably a better thread than this, but...

I always liked Batman with Catwoman, and the latest comic series is hitting it out of the park. Batman Annual 2 in particular was amazing, and I'm digging everything about the series; the direction is fun, the writing is on point, the artwork is doing it for me.

@apos said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:

Here, let's give another example. Old West storyline. A black PC goes for a job as a deputy, do you punish the sheriff for saying no?

In my experience (not for this particular example but more overall) the Sheriff would be given the, ahem, rope to hang himself with. He may say no and face the OOC windfall for it, or say yes and face the OOC windfall for it.

The real question for me is what is staff's role in this? Are they supposed to give him direction ("the general NPC populace would respond badly if the deputy was hired") or back his decision either way (such as run events with negative reactions, angry mobs, aggressive local merchants trying to strike back if he does make the new hire, for example) versus shielding the player from trying to OOC paint them as a racist?

Well, sure, but the choice should be there.

I was nearly never dark, but there were times I was dealing with things (such as, say, building or having conversations about the sphere or even waiting for someone to log on while playing my character). I didn't want to be spammed during those times, as I was already either doing something - and as others mentioned, even an @idle ends up spamming you.

Would it have been better for the game if I simply logged off my staffbit to avoid this? If so, elaborate.

Treating people like adults never fails in the long run. If you can't trust your staff members will use dark or any other feature properly you already have bigger problems than code can hope to solve, but treating them like potential screwups (we can't TRUST you with this much POWER!) will certainly not achieve the expectant results.

@derp said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Does anyone have any experience with personal trainers?

Yup.

I am thinking of looking for one, but I honestly don't even know where to start. Do certifications really make that much of a difference for the cost increase? Are certain certifications better than others?

A lot of certifications don't mean much because chains (such as Goodlife in Canada) churn them out by the shitload. It takes them a couple of weeks and a hefty fee paid to the mother company and they get one of those, which doesn't amount to much at all.

It doesn't help that most gyms will cram PTs down your throat, whether they are good or not. A "free consultation" for an hour is basically a marketing opportunity for them to have your ear for that long, and at least at first you don't know who's going to be much good for you.

A way to go about this is to look at yourself and answer some basic questions...

• What you can start with is figuring out what your goal is. Is it to lose weight? To gain something (flexibility, strength)? General conditioning?

• What is this worth to you? How many hours per week are you willing to put into it? How much money are you willing to spend? You should be aware ahead of time since it will absolutely come up when you are deciding on whether to give it a go.

The goal of any PT theoretically is to bring the trainee to the point where they are no longer needed. That's what the best of them will do - start you on more hours, then ween them out as you become more proficient with form and confident in your limits, until you want to go further.

Do you need a PT? That depends on your current level of fitness and general experience. Personally I got a lot of traction out of reading articles, watching a lot of youtube videos by reputable people, subscribing to subreddits (/r/fitness is pretty good, for example) and then hiring PTs for short bursts to go over my form and correct specific issues.

Another factor is that many gyms offer classes for free. Depending on what you want to do (say, yoga or pilates are pretty common) you might get traction out of those, at least while you determine what you want to do.

A third factor, if you can manage it, is getting a workout partner; they are worth their fucking weight in gold; they are the ones who sometimes make the difference between "meh, I don't feel like getting off my ass today" and "shit, it's more of a hassle to call and cancel than just put my shoes on and go". Plus, y'know, your buddy might be able to help you with some tips too if you find someone who's slightly more advanced than you are - for the price of buying them a beer after.

Whatever you do, don't commit to a long term plan with anyone, about anything, until you know it's for you. The best workout plan or PT are useless if you don't do them. Start slow (and they'll always try to give you discounts for more commitments, it's gym-running 101), see if you like it. You need to like it. If you don't like it you won't do it, not in the long term, and the long term is all that matters.

Edit: You can also consider an online PT for hire. I know Stefi Cohen's program is very good for instance, at least for the kinds of stuff they cover, and they will go over your form through videos for a fraction of the price. Plus there are communities you can join, etc. It might be worth your while.

@faraday said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:

@arkandel said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:

There is no question handling these themes carefully is necessary

In truth, though, there are many themes that have the potential to upset or offend someone. IC -ism and sexual assault are the two we point to all the time, but that's by no means an exhaustive list. Someone who had to deal with a loved one with a particular mental illness may be sensitive to depictions of that (e.g. suicide but that's not the only example).

Absolutely. I'm not trying to pre-emptively decide that action needs to be taken either way, only that we consider the question and see if adjustments are actually possible.

In fact I've left games over pretty much exactly what you mention here. A year or two ago TJ was putting together a nWoD game (again ) and he invited me to a Skype channel where we were chatting about theme, and when the question of horror came up one example that came up was a PrP based around a woman miscarrying a child. Someone put up a lot of objections about how might trigger people, and that we shouldn't permit that kind of plot to be ran, which ultimately led me to decide to not be part of that process.

Anyway, the discussion is still beneficial. I believe it's important to have it so we can figure out - among other things - whether there's a sweet spot for compromise between the two points of view.

Alright, that makes sense. See, most players can work well with staff telling them "this is what we are doing in this game and this is how we're doing it", so they can make an informed decision about whether it'll be fun for them to play there.

For example I - and others - have vehemently disagreed with @Coin about the implementation of Renown but once his mind was set I stopped bugging him about it - taking 'no' for an answer is a matter of essential sanity in our hobby.

So afterwards I had the chance to weigh the pros and cons at my leisure and decided the former were more than the latter, thus I'll be rolling a wolf there not because of the system but despite it. In fact I don't believe I even get to complain again about the overall implementation from that point on because, in making this informed choice I accepted it was worth my while.

However that puts a slight onus on staff to make it clear what's yet to be determined and what's in the brainstorming or design phases, otherwise toes will get stepped on both ways. I think it's worth keeping in mind as a practice since it can spare everyone some misunderstandings.

Does that make sense?

@derp said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

See, that's the thing. I would -like- to focus on strength training because I have an injury that prevents me from doing high-impact cardio at my current level (ankle is too fucked to run right now but is stable and can easily bear steady, low-impact weight)

Yeah, for strength training that's a good idea.

My suggestion would be to still look for someone who knows what they are doing. Don't let them keep you on machines for long - junior PTs prefer them for a host of reasons - they are easier, catchier for the eye if you are a gym owner, and it's simply less work for them to let you crank out 10 reps on an incline machine than to teach you how to bench press. But the latter is by far a superior training tool.

You'll make mistakes either way. That's okay. Part of the fun is figuring out how you are fucking up and what to do about it.

For me code serves three purposes:

1. Allow for better record-keeping. Why remember things (such as when PrPs will be ran) when computers are so much better at remembering stuff for me?

2. Expedite menial tasks. The worst thing about combat scenes done manually for 3+ players is how long they take; some nWoD battles took 2-3 hours to resolve, and that's with minimal posing.

3. Keep coders busy, otherwise who knows what they'll end up doing with their free time.

@TNP I kinda admire superhero MU* players for their flexibility. I've spent so much time on games trying really hard to maintain internal consistency (for example there was a big debate on a fantasy MU* lately asking if concrete has been invented IC or not) that just being able to add a bunch of alien races overnight without the game exploding with questions seems amazing to me. Not to mention people can interact with different versions of the freakin' same person and not just go 'well, you know what, fuck this. I'm gonna go home and watch TV' is downright admirable.

Oh, since I forgot to mention this...

It's commonplace at the gym, right at first, to feel like you don't belong, or that people are watching/judging you. Some are more self conscious about these things than others, and it doesn't help to point out the vast majority of gym-goers don't give a shit about anyone else but themselves, or that the only shape they'll look at is their own in the mirror or maybe the cute person across the room (bouncing the image off of five mirrors first, of course).

What might help is that if you have company it mitigates that initial feeling a lot. A PT will establish you, a friend will help you feel like you're where you should be, and either way it just works out.

@tat The +event code. @Cobaltasaurus did it right. It changed how plots are ran, and how easy it is for runners to schedule things then for players to sign up for and be alerted when they're about to start.

@Rook Not saying this is necessarily an answer to that particular problem, but since Eldritch specifically allows for people to play mortals even now, before the supers' spheres open, why not start someone to see if you can get a handle on them then have an IC Becoming for whatever they are meant to be?

It's effortless in case of a Cover; you'd simply take over with your Demon. Or they could have an Embrace or First Change, boom, done. Then again if in a few weeks, before that happens, you decide a different direction than you initially thought works best... just change it. So if he ends up looking more like a Carthian than Ordo Dracul, there's nothing to stop you, you know?

@Luna said:

Unpopular opinion time...some revealing clothing should just not be worn by some people. And furthermore, we're back to don't be trashy. Revealing clothing isn't always trashy but some sure as hell is.

I'll just talk about guys. Spandex-wearing guys that is, bicycle-riding ones. People who don't belong in tight-fitting athletic spandex-made clothes with brand names and logos on them. Come on, that's not an attractive look, and no one thinks you're an athlete because you're wearing $500 worth of athletic gear from SportChek.

@packrat Almost all the time figuring out a PB is the very last part of the character generation process for me... and where I find myself regretting the most I didn't factor it in earlier, since now all of a sudden no picture seems quite right for the look-and-feel I'm going for.

I used to think this was unimportant, but in this day and age (get off my lawn!) where people don't read descriptions but just take a quick glance at your wiki page that sort of thing does play a certain role. If the only initial visual impression someone will have of my PC is in that one glance then I want it to sink in before I can adjust and amend through poses.