Posts made by Arkandel

@SunnyJ That sounds pretty interesting. Do you have a goal for an opening date?

@DnvnQuinn I don't know about free hosting but your best bet, since obviously you already have an internet connection and a computer, is to run it off of that.

If you have the knowledge (or time to learn) how to install Linux - possibly on a VM - you can run it from there. There are dynamic DNS solutions so you don't even have to pay for a domain name. That's as 0-cost as it gets.

@Cheesegrater What do flat earthers say about calling their friends in different timezones at noon and it's night where they are?

@Chime said in How should we (as a community) handle MediaWiki:

I've been very annoyed at MW for quite a while now, but I've realized that it isn't something I'm going to be able to discard and still offer a useful hosting service, really.

I've used several wiki platforms so far but nothing in-depth enough to warrant having an opinion. Can you give us a brief overview what the reasons you're annoyed at it are, just to figure out what the problem is?

@surreality, @ixokai, and others who have nudged me to consider mediawiki still, please add your two cents. Use-cases, features, things that can be done right, things that can be wrong, etc. are all very relevant to my interests in this thread.

Similarly, skilled wiki users - if you don't mind, what are the advantages of one over another for common MU* purposes?

@Coin said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:

@Arkandel said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:

@Thenomain said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:

@Arkandel

Does it feel weird when they change who plays Spider Man in the movies, or turning Thor into a woman?

And for Thor: Yes, to me at least. Thor is a specific guy! It's not his superhero alias, it's his actual name. Like, literally his mom was bitching at 'Thor' to go wash his hands before dinner when he was a kid. </rant>

There are a bunch of people in the world named "Angel". Is it weird for an X-Man to have the name Angel as their alias?

Angel was named after something else, other people called the same weren't named after him.

(We're derailing the thread so I'll stop it here )

@Thenomain said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:

@Arkandel

Does it feel weird when they change who plays Spider Man in the movies, or turning Thor into a woman?

And for Thor: Yes, to me at least. Thor is a specific guy! It's not his superhero alias, it's his actual name. Like, literally his mom was bitching at 'Thor' to go wash his hands before dinner when he was a kid. </rant>

@Roz Yeah, when it comes to a CG game adaptation with a clear 'central' character it does feel weird. Especially when many players will have made different paths (chosen different genders, choices, personalities etc) for Hawke but only one version will exist in the MU.

@Coin Yeah, that'd work. Essentially take thin-blooded out of the equation and control (but really control, as opposed to allowing special cases) Generations. For instance if you lower your PC's Generation via diablerie they becomes an NPC, done-fixed.

Addendum: It still leaves Elders in game as a concept though, which affects theme overall.

@bored Yeah, mechanically it's probably not hard to make it work with a few well thought-out house rules, but thematically it'd be much more awkward.

Elders in VtM are true powerhouses - even if they are strictly reserved as NPCs - so in a multisphere game unless every other sphere had something to keep them in check then their weight would push metaplot in a certain direction pretty quickly. Which by the way could still be awesome, but it's something to be accounted for.

@bored Yeah, that's what I meant. It might be a complication when it comes to a multiple-sphere game unless Generation is capped but otherwise I feel that theme fits a Victorian era MU* much better.

And yep, mechanical adjustments would have to be made.

Just throwing this out there - how would you feel using the CoD rules for a Vampire: the Masquerade themed sphere?

Tinuviel applies for a job in tech support

@Bobotron Yeah, it's the same thing. Whether combat is coded or it's +dice based, if your attributes are twice as high as the other guy's it won't end well for him

This isn't a story from retail but one from (people of) Wal-mart so maybe it belongs here.

The sister of a friend of mine had broken her leg and was wearing a cast and everything. One day she went to Wal-mart to do some shopping and headed out to take one of those motorised wheelchair thingies so she could move around. As she sits down on the only remaining one there she hears this loud sigh behind her and this obese lady goes over and starts yelling at her because she was a skinny girl, she didn't need a wheelchair, didn't she know those were for people who actually did?

She then threatened to call a manager. I can only imagine how that conversation would have gone. "This disabled girl is using a disabled people-only wheelchair!"

@Creepy A way to distance the game from traditional or expected bigotry - which funnily enough is common in science fiction by the way - is to detach mortal tropes from the Kindred's. Their point of view is different, they have heard, read or even seen things their mortal counterparts in government and good society simply don't have access to.

For example let's take racism. In the Victorian Age (or an alternative era reflecting it) the British Empire has reached all the way to India, Africa and the Middle East, and its military successes and suppression of the populaces there are causing mortal citizens to look down on those from these lands.

Vampires though? Vampires remember what the truth really is - those are some of the cradles of civilisation, ancient lands with deep rooted secrets, horrors and of course... power. They are still subject to discrimination especially among the neonates of course but the Elders among them realize there are major players in those parts of the world, things slumbering who might awaken and ancients who may be already active - they are not going to underestimate other Kindred travelling from those areas, it would be very foolish to do so.

There are many directions a game can take obviously. Interpreting theme in different ways is part of the fun of both making and playing on MU*.

@surreality Oh, absolutely. People are complicated, sometimes we like or dislike each other based on the most arbitrary criteria and that's just the way it is.

I think it's good to know our limitations. For example I can come off as pretty condescending when I'm trying to make a point - perhaps in this very post - which is something I'm trying to regulate. Now and then I even ask a few trusted friends if a post of mine is coming off in a way I didn't mean to. Either way though and as a result of that (or other personality quirks, flaws or just characteristics) I'm pretty sure even some people right here aren't huge fans of mine (but they are misguided fools) even among those I do hold in high esteem.

It's not an exchange. They don't need to like me first and if they do I don't have to return the favor. And that doesn't mean they're right or wrong about me either - in fact I don't even know that it means anything at all.

@surreality This is also true - but if people want to trash talk they will. You don't have to withhold TS from them, often times you need not do something special to deserve it other than to exist.

Caring about the opinions of others in such a context empowers them. If we do we relinquishing power over our state of mind and self worth to folks who are not worth it.

I pay a lot of heed to criticism and points made by folks I deem worthy of my respect. It doesn't matter if they like me, but I need to know I hold them in high regard first.

The rest... well, the rest are just white noise generators when it comes to their actual emotional impact on my day.

@VulgarKitten Because being shamed matters if and only if I care about the people in whose eyes my reputation was lessened. What do I care otherwise?

We will never be liked by everyone.

@VulgarKitten It's not the same at all! If someone asks for a FTB and the other person objects that person is a moron. This is known.

@mietze This is also our version of popular media culture. Sure, posing torture, decapitation, spilling intestines and smashing brains is fiiine but did we just describe a penis entering a vagina? SHAME!