Posts made by Arkandel

@Sunny said in Poll: Do I enjoy this hobby more than I don't?:

@Arkandel said in Poll: Do I enjoy this hobby more than I don't?:

Why does a forum need to be influential to be valuable?

It doesn't. Slash is an or.

No, I get that, I wasn't responding to you per se.

It's just this idea in general that MSB (or any other community forum) is supposed, or meant to, have some kind of 'power' that it was never designed or meant to have. I keep reading that sort of thing - that it can't "bring games down" or "deliver justice" or "speak for the hobby" or... whatever it's supposed to be able to or not this week.

We're a neutral ground. That's all. We're game agnostic, there's no censorship unless people go waaaay too far, and that's... it. Hell, I'd close it down if we somehow were able to kill MUSHes we don't like through whatever magical powers we have because that's the exact opposite of what we do - this is about loving the hobby and wanting to communicate, bring its players together and elevate it, not to talk shit and get in the way of new or different ideas and approaches.

We don't dictate anything or claim to speak on behalf of anyone (let alone everyone) else.

Why does a forum need to be influential to be valuable?

@Ghost One of the main reasons MSB exists is to create a persistent identity for people to associate with and hopefully create lasting relationships independent of transient things like characters on individual games.

So boo.

No, I'm Lilith.

@Ghost said in Poll: Do I enjoy this hobby more than I don't?:

A wise person recently told me that they felt that MSB isn't a reflection of the mushing community as a whole.

I don't think it's a representation of it. I don't think MSB speaks for the community as a whole. But a reflection? Perhaps, depending on how much the louder voices take over the conversation.

When it comes down to it some folks here have thousands of posts to their names (ahem) and others don't, so volume certainly matters.

But the real question is... does it matter? Does any of this matter as long as you, personally, as an individual, are having fun?

If this place was a utopia and you were miserable playing on your particular MU* of choice or if the hobby was in a shitty place but your game (or circle of friends, or clique, or whatever) was a blast then does what other people do or feel outside your sphere of influence or even awareness really need to impact your gameplay?

We're not being entertained based on the average person's fun intake. We get what we get.

@Alamias said in Not even sure what to title this, but here goes..:

@Kitty-Kat I don't know you. I've never played on any of your games, but I have heard the name of Lilith spouted on here before in less than flattering light.

I don't know how y'all keep track of these names and which one belongs to which person on which game.

Lilith is as generic a moniker for female PCs as it gets. I can barely remember the names of my own alts on games I actually played on a few months ago let alone what identity someone else's names correspond to.

That's lowkey impressive.

@Ghost said in Poll: Do I enjoy this hobby more than I don't?:

And while those boards have 3.2k(etc) posts, I think my overall point stands. As cathartic as bitching and venting may be, I feel that negativity reigns and that those particular boards are a symptom of a bigger issue.

This is a natural consequence of who is motivated to post and by what.

The constructive boards, debates about the nature of gaming, even analysis of TV shows - those take time and thought as well as a certain frame of mind. If nothing else I think it's pretty impressive we have had thousands of contributions for them as it is.

But the Hogpit is easy. People get on there when they are pissed off - which makes them super high motivated to get whatever they have to say off their collective chests - or someone else has already had something mean to say which they can rant about, offer their +1 or drop some F-bombs.

I don't much care for that noise but it's part of the hobby, too. At least it's happening where everyone can see it rather than over pages and behind people's backs. Either way I certainly don't think it's what the hobby is about, since if I did I wouldn't be part of it.

There's a flipside to all this, and it's that ironically hatred is also an expression of love.

When Chronicles of Shannara was shit - which was very often indeed - there were no legions of fans expressing their outrage on the internet because... there were no legions of fans. No one cared enough to hate it.

@Auspice said in Fandom and entitlement:

When I asked one friend about it, his reasoning was: 'Well when I was in school, the jocks bullied me so now it's my turn'

I mean obviously your friend was being an asshole. But also some people are very weird about stuff others like; I have folks on Facebook who take a weird kind of pride in the fact they don't watch Game of Thrones, or don't care about basketball.

Like... if I made a list of all the things I don't like but others do it'd be as long as it is irrelevant. And, hell, shouldn't I want to like more things in life?

@Ganymede https://www.cbr.com/neil-gaiman-george-r-r-martin-is-not-your-bitch/

@faraday said in Fandom and entitlement:

On the flip side, the fans often are rabid and disrespectful to both the creators and to each other. If somebody likes something that you don't (or vice-versa), it's like they're the enemy in some bitter pop culture war of Everything Wrong With Media. It's pretty disheartening at times, honestly.

You know what's really bizarre? Some shows are just immune to criticism and I can't tell why. For example I was watching Breaking Bad in 'real time' and there was so little backlash about even the most daring twists the writing team took while new episodes were coming out. Hell, Ozymandias - the penultimate episode - was considered amazing at the time it aired.

Perhaps the answer is "well, some writers are better" or maybe their material is just easier to write for. I can't tell. But for most creative teams around popular productions I can't imagine being online because there are fans out there who will trash them completely, and very personally, pretty much no matter what choices they make for their characters or plot. Because what do you tell the guy who literally tattooed the show's lines on his body, named his firstborn after a character and basically lives for your show when you have to do something he doesn't approve of?

@Arkandel nodded at @Wretched to show he disapproved of the practice.

@Roz said in Fandom and entitlement:

But I don't care for the sense of "it was silly of you to invest so much into the answers of these mysteries that we built as the centerpiece of the series." If you want to leave your plot pieces open for flexibility, which I understand, it is probably better to not do that in a show that is built on mystery and mystique. Like, if that is your style of writing, it is just...probably a bad fit for those particular pieces.

I agree. Imagine if Agatha Christie wrote a mystery novel at the end of which the murderer isn't revealed, and her explanation was "it's not really about the whodunnit but the friends Hercule Poirot made along the way". Would that have played well even in a pre-internet era? Because I doubt it.

Artists need to occasionally break the rules and bail themselves out of their own genre's rotes, that's absolutely part of the game... but the rules are there for a reason and breaking them shouldn't be its own justification. There still needs to be a payoff, which a "let's look back X years and see how many cool moments we had" outlook really is not. Dangling plotlines, subplots are a weakness, not a strength.

Which isn't to say everything should be explained because that, too, is stupid. Some of the complaints I read about Game of Thrones' ending (for example) were utterly idiotic; some people wanted an explanation of why seasons are so long. What? Or how Valyrian steel is made. Why would that be required for the show - or books - to be complete?

@Ganymede said in Good TV:

I'm really enjoying Lucifer more than I thought I would.

Is it good? I stopped around the start of season 2, it had gotten a bit too procedural for me.

@Ganymede said in Poll: Do I enjoy this hobby more than I don't?:

@Coin said in Poll: Do I enjoy this hobby more than I don't?:

I enjoy it now because I don't do it as much or with as much focus.

This is where I am at right now.

I want to love it more, but I don't. I have other interests and responsibilities now, but it is really nice sometimes to sit in a darkened living room, and type away happily while sifting through news articles.

I'd like to say I'm there too for the same reasons but really... I'm waiting for the right game to bait me out there.

Any thoughts on this interview? I think it can spark a debate on a nerdy forum like ours.

https://slate.com/culture/2019/05/game-of-thrones-finale-backlash-battlestar-galactica-showrunner-interview.html

@Coin said in Poll: Do I enjoy this hobby more than I don't?:

I put yes, but there is a caveat:

I enjoy it more now, when I alot less time to it, than I did in the past, when it was a focus.

I think this is a more widespread issue with gaming in general because it's a very human thing for us to expect a return for our investment. Like... when a hobby - hell, when anything - becomes a big part of our lives since we just sink so many hours of the day into it then on an emotional level we wait something proportionate back from it. A payout, a win, recognition, something.

And... well, MUSHing doesn't have that. Gaming doesn't have it unless we're among the damn few who monetize and do it professionally. But otherwise even the most 'successful' among us won't ever see anything near the level such returns would have to make them worth the investment, so entertainment and whatever fulfillment that grants needs to be it.

Hell, it's not even like more mainstream forms of nerd-dom we can at least expect... if not recognition then awareness. Spending 3+ hours a night on something no one outside of the hobby even knows exists, and you'd have to explain it from the ground up to even get a confused 'oh, okay, I see' is... not easy.

That's a pretty tough pill to swallow but, I believe, it's essential that we do it knowingly.

I wouldn't be part of this hobby (or run a forum about it) if I didn't enjoy it.

The pros need to considerably outweigh the cons if I'm to be part of something I'm not getting paid for. Period.

@Thenomain said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

When does an NPC become a Staff PC?

When the NPC serves a staff member, and they are not a plot device for a specific plot/sphere.

Some signs for such NPCs:

• they are played pretty frequently as opposed to just when it serves plot reasons
• they have special relationships (and spend more time) with some players who often happen to be friends with the staff member
• they are not allowed to switch hands and be played by a different staff member
• they resolve (rather than be catalysts for) plotlines with the PCs helping them rather than the other way around
• they fit most definitions of a Mary Sue even if they happen to be 'tormented' in unique, snowflake-ish ways

As you can tell this happens often enough that it's pretty cliche.

@onigiri said in Our Tendency Towards Absolutes:

There is a definite tendency for players to dehumanize staffers

We dehumanize everyone we don't know. Maybe it's our community in particular but I don't know that's the case.

My theory is we like to point fingers because if we're not like them then we're with us and that means we're part of something. There's a 'we'. Then we bond over how much they suck.