Posts made by Arkandel

@Lithium said:

found RP muds (Wheel of Time)

Keep talking.

As of episode 6, the Shannara Chronicles are a mixed bag.

The special effects are pretty good but the story is a bit more cliche than I like (plus characters' competence fluctuates so much based on what the plot needs at any given time) and some of the acting is very unconvincing.

But it's not boring. If you like a bunch of attractive long-eared people fighting demons it's got potential.

@surreality What bugs me about it is that more and more games go out of their way to prevent players from communicating with each other at all as an attempt to prevent asshattery. You can't even chat with your opponents in Hearthstone other than with pre-coded things like "well played" or "sorry".

@Warma-Sheen It's also about playing games though. Something about them makes people go from "it's only a game" to "these people are only players, and thus part of the game so who cares". I can't quite explain it.

And it's not just video games, not at all. At my old job I was playing basketball with these guys... you couldn't find nicer people. Family men with kids, long-time professionals, polite to others, considerate, well educated - a bunch of us were MScs and PhDs... the works. Then we'd go play pick-up games (or worse, real games in a stupid league for businesses) and you'd see them turn into these crybabies whining about every call, disputing fouls, throwing balls around in disgust (one smashed his phone on the floor, his wife wasn't greatly pleased about that)... it was really bizarre.

Couple that with some anonymity, unaccountability and the fact people who're quite shy and uncharismatic in real life can be the center of attention like they always craved and weird things happen online.

@Wolfsong said:

I used to use SimpleMu almost religiously, until I got a newer PC and it stopped being compatible (text size was minuscule and there were no settings to adjust it) due to the lack of support.

Hello @Wolfsong! I, too, follow the tenets of our Lord and Savior - SimpleMU.

You can change the text size, font, color... anything. If you need help drop me a line and I could help tonight when I get home - unless you want to continue with your heretical ways, of course. Hey, it's your soul.

People start being found dead in their rooms. The only common element is they were playing online video games when they died (all of them are using the same local ISP - a coincidence obviously).

Then turn the plot into The Last Starfighter using whatever game-inside-the-game you want and PCs stuck in its universe playing it for keeps until they win.

@Three-Eyed-Crow said:

Does anybody who bikes regularly have advice on what kind to get? The Internet tells me there's a huge range of choices and price ranges.

I bought a bike semi-recently so... Basically, go to a local bike store or two with an idea of how much you are willing to spend. Be aware that they will try to upsell you - it's how they make a living after all - but also that the laws of diminishing returns apply to bicycles; if you go up from $300 to $400 you'll get a much better model but go up from $800 to $900 and won't be as big a deal for your commute and recreational rides.

Then test ride the bikes that match your range and make sure they fit your geometry. Are you comfortable on the saddle, does it feel right? Does it look nice? I mean if you're gonna spend a few hundred bucks on something you'll keep for a few years it might as well be something you'll enjoy in every way.

That's it!

@Roz Weeell, that's partially true. Not completely though.

I mean we can get into a debate about what is the most 'real' us, but I know people in real life who're considerate, very responsible family people and well behaved as individuals, but treat online like some kind of fake place where they can troll for the lols, or exploit bugs (although they are quite law-abiding outside of those interactions), and generally allow anonymity and the lack of accountability make them act in ways that would be getting them punched otherwise.

Is it because of the punching threat they're nice iRL? Or is it that they just don't take their online interactions seriously?

I can't pretend to have the answer. I do know that it doesn't matter - act like an asshat to me online and, since I will never meet you in flesh, I will treat you like an asshat. That's only reasonable.

My housemate at the university and I started reading the Wheel of Time books. I was sort of more or less aware of Medievia IV at the time although I hadn't played that much or for long, but then he discovered "a game just like that but in the WoT universe".

So I went over to A Moment in Tyme. My first day I defended some Aes Sedai from a Whitecloak provoking her. She was Ororo Sedai, and she had weather powers.

... Yeah, so when I look at the logs from these days I cringe, but it all sounded so cool back then.

@Shayd said:

If you guys don't get the idea that there's a difference between online games and real life, then I do not know what to tell you.

And if you can't get that when the sum of your interactions with someone are online and they are typically unfortunate then it doesn't really matter to to them what you are like in real life, you will continue to run into a wall again and again around here.

@Misadventure If you have more than one ST in the game then you will never have parity or consistency.

I seem to be incapable of running short stories. Like, one-and-done scenes are just not my forte, everything I do ends up being a saga made up of acts and many moving parts. I like figuring out the logistics and putting things in motion.

I'd love having players around who stick around for the duration. By time time my plots enter Act 2 either the game is seriously underpopulated and/or enough of the original characters (who possess important plot hooks) are gone, so the story dies a slow and undignified death.

@Misadventure said:

I'm seeing chat bubbles and a notifiction naughtyfiction counter when I sent a message.

FTFY

@tragedyjones That's inhumane. You should sue.

When I was discussing this kind of thing a few months ago the idea was to focus on the tragedy of two characters who could have gotten along famously, and actually did for a while, but they were vampires and petty things got into their way; they had kept up with each slight and escalated, time after time, so after hitting the grid we were probably headed into scorched earth tactics. Destroy all that the other person cared about, commit one nonsensical mean act after the other until they were both left with nothing but peeves and hatred - but never quite attacking each other directly.

Because the second worst thing to losing would be winning.

@Misadventure said:

Wut?

What, are you going to go to the bathroom without a smartphone like some kinda Luddite?

@SG said:

Unless you're into House of Commons Rp, i don't see rival characters like this interacting all that much. Even though Harper and Trudeau shared the same barber, I don't imagine they met up that often for what we'd call RPs type scenes.

Oh, I agree, and I said so earlier in the thread (I think in this page) - the circumstances would need to be set carefully so the two characters get to play with each other regularly else, especially in a slow or mostly inactive sphere, they are shooting themselves in the foot.

@tragedyjones said:

I needed the watch function because parts of my job take me to places where cellphones will be confiscated or you simply cannot enter with them.

What? What if you need to use the bathroom? That makes no sense.

@SG At a certain level we need to establish what 'conflict' means in the context of the game you're playing.

If all it means is "the characters hate and will attack each other on sight" then yes, obviously that's counter-productive to playing in the long term since the opportunities to actually roleplay are slim.

If they are political rivals but have a healthy respect for each other - for example - or fight their wars mostly through proxies (think Moriarty versus Holmes) it's a different story.

On a mostly inactive sphere I had a similar conversation with someone in the recent past - creating a rival PC, that is - but the tough part in that situation is how to still encourage roleplay between them.

I mean the issue there is IC; unless you create the circumstances very carefully so the two characters antagonize each other but also get to hang out regularly, you'll end up with players who might have good OOC chemistry but rarely get to play together even though they are both online and bored because the PCs don't like each other. Which sucks.