Posts made by Darinelle

Dammit bread, WHY WON'T YOU PROOF. That's all I need, because if you won't proof I'm going to have to make bread AGAIN on Friday and I DON'T WANT TO. MY PLAN WAS PERFECT, DAMMITALL.

@saosmash said in Reasons why you quit a game...:

@darinelle Um, don't you know it is now your job to rp with me every day? Chop chop. This is your life now.

If you weren't sick all the time I might! <cough cough> "Oh, I should probably close the scene heeeeere." <cough cough>

I love the Bannings board on Arx. It makes me seriously happy, because it's not "here is the person and here is the list of evidence various people collected over X number of years." It's just - "This person did this thing, and we don't do that here." Done.

It's a quick guide to culture, it's not a bunch of horrible drawn-out drama, and when people disappear it's easier to be able to look and say - welp, they weren't banned so they're either on another character or left the game" rather than wonder.

Professional behavior and professional committment are two separate things.

When I am staffing, you should absolutely expect me to not be unethical, to handle things in a timely manner, etc. That's behaving professionally.

When I am staffing, I am not going to feel bad for taking a 2 week vacation (it was glorious), for not logging on 5 days a week, or for not spending all night every night doing jobs and making stories for other people. Some nights I log in and play. Some nights I don't log in at all. Some days I do a bunch of jobs, some days I don't do any. When you start looking at my efficiency and a quota and I have to start making project plans for stories and I have to do X amount of work I don't like before I am allowed to do Y amount of work I DO like, then we have a disconnect.

That is also a reason I quit games. Don't make the game feel like my job.

@tez said in Reasons why you quit a game...:

You have to keep people around you who will call you on your shit. Everyone is going to make mistakes. I know I make them all the time. You have to be willing to own up to your shit, and do so publicly if need be, and apologize sincerely. I think every complaint you hear is worth examining, and gut-checking with others. Sometimes it's totally off-base, but there's often something worth examining or reworking in many.

I disagree. As I said, trust is the most scarce resource. You can't buy it back once you've burned it.

tl;dr: yes.

These are the three greatest principles of ethical staffing, period. If you do these things, you will succeed in most cases.

1. Keep people around who will call you on your shit, and be willing to own up to your shit and apologize as needed.
2. Examine every complaint you hear, and gut-check with others.
3. Earn trust and don't betray it. It is an extremely limited commodity.

Everything else is just window dressing and different paths to the same goal.

@loke said in Reasons why you quit a game...:

@darinelle I wholeheartedly agree, but I think some failure of people to hold each other accountable (outside of just not wanting to, and I think this goes for people holding people accountable, not just staff) is because people get tentative when there doesn't seem to be a precedent set for it.

Who cares why people are refusing to hold people accountable? If staffers cheat and no one does anything, that ruins a game. Whether it's because it's the first time, or whether it's because they don't want to tell their friends that they're being assholes, or whether it's just that they don't care - staffers cheating ruins games.

I think when there's emphasis and a culture around upholding things, people are more likely to do it. Obviously this requires someone to lead by example and passion. Posted tenets don't do jack squat without follow through. Thoughts? Provided upholding certain principles is happening, do you think making them explicit matters? (to flip the idea on its head)

Uh... Posted tenets not doing anything without followthrough was my original point, so I agree. On the other hand, if staffers are behaving ethically, do they need to have explicit tenets and a mission statement and bylaws? Not really, no.

@loke said in Reasons why you quit a game...:

Do you think there was a way for those games to identify and get rid of those staffers more quickly or mitigate the damage they could cause while investigating?

I don't want to dictate or lead your response, but I've often wondered if more effort/focus towards staff principles (and accountability) would help mitigate a lot of this. I'm thinking of an atmosphere where staff that come on basically know they have to adhere to certain tenets and they are taken seriously by all staff brought on board. A cultural alignment.

So I don't know a single MU out there that defines its guiding staff principles in any way other than "we aim to make fun for our players, have a great game, and behave ethically." Every staffer always knows this.

When staffers fall into cheating and lack of ethics to the point that it ruins the game, it's not because there's not a cultural alignment or a list of ethical tenets - it's that when staffers fail, other staffers either don't call them on it/give them the boot, or can't do it because the unethical staffers have power over them.

Lack of correction of unethical staffers is what kills games. Not a lack of ethical staff principles.

I will leave a game if:

1. I cannot affect the world in meaningful ways as a player, OR
2. I cannot interact with or build or otherwise create stories for players as a GM that have meaning, OR
3. Staff are cheating assholes, OR
4. Players are cheating assholes, and staff takes no action.

Or any combination of the four.

Solutions:

As a GM, don't be so married to the idea of What Should Happen that you remove player agency. Create a framework where the players can solve a problem, offer them options, but be open to the idea of letting their ideas and plans matter. Create interesting ways to KNOW about those ideas - be it a healthy dialogue before events, or some more formal system, or some other way - so that you can incorporate them into the story. Operate under the "yes, and..." principle, rather than the "no that's not right, here's the real way" idea. Sometimes that's not possible, but where you can, look for a collaborative way to tell a story.

As a player, be flexible. Just because you have The Best Idea Ever doesn't mean it will work. Accept that there are probably a lot of things going on behind the scenes that you just don't know. Develop a good dialogue with the GMs, be willing to talk to them about your disappointments without immediately accusing them of being assholes who don't want you to have any fun. Don't assume the worst - assume ignorance unless you have proof of bias.

As both player and GM - don't be a cheating asshole.

As staff, take action against problem players before they wreck your game and ruin the fun of a bunch of players.

Sup, yo. I know you! (Puffin on Firan and on Arx too)

In any sort of urban fantasy, or somehow linked to our actual world setting, I generally give it a hard pass.

In a fantasy setting, I think it can work well if there's a sort of Rock-Paper-Scissors sort of discrimination triangle, where if you have three races, each one discriminates against one of the others but it's never a back and forth. Or if there's some reason to work together.

Discrimination is tough. And discrimination can be done well if there's a cultural reason to hate <x group>, but PCs who play as part of <x group> should be able to have ways to not be totally downtrodden 100% of the time. (See also: halfies in Firan) Without that, then you're effectively asking an entire group of PCs to be footnotes and scapegoats in other people's stories, and I think it's very hard to do that in a way that is engaging for everyone involved.

I really like the almost unknown Revanche Cycle by Craig Schaefer. It's a four-book arc, that arc is complete, all the books are published, and it's political fantasy that doesn't make me want to punch a baby and whose author doesn't kill literally every character I even like a little in the first hundred pages.

@faceless said in MU Things I Love:

When you find that music that just helps you write in a scene. Or any scenes, really. At present I listen to the soundtrack for Final Fantasy Tactics. It just helps me hone in and focus. It's always nice when you hit that point where you just feel like you've hit your stride in a scene, a given week, month, or whatever.

My Halloween event this year (I always try to make the time to do one really creepy, non-metaplot-y scene around Halloween) was written to this song. Which I listened to on repeat throughout the scene.

It was as creepy as you would think. I totally grok.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgfklKnOg4w

@saosmash IKR? I mean I have more time to do art now, but still. I was going to MAKE WAR. Dammit.

@saosmash I still can't even. My husband got me sick so our trip this weekend is kaput and I'm still just bubbly about everyone last night.

Last night, between two players and me, in a large-scale plot that brought to a conclusion the first part of a major metaplot arc:

Player A made a choice utterly consistent with his character.
Player B also made a choice utterly consistent with his character.

Me, to Player A: You realize that if you do this, your character will die.
Player A: Well, I'd hoped not, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Me, to Player A: Well. I'm going to give him a goddamn heroic death then.
Player A: <cracks knuckles> Let's go make MUSH magic.

Me, to Player B: You realize that if you do this, your character will die.
Player B: That's what he'd do. I'm okay with this.
Me, to Player B: Okay. Let's do this. Here we go.

It was glorious. It was heroic. They saved other people's PCs. They saved NPCs. And in the end, when the time came and I dealt them both the damage they would have received? They succeeded their checks to stay alive through crazy damage, and managed to make it out looking like the badass heroes they are.

Last night was magic. People in pubchan were glued to the log, frantically refreshing to see what was going to happen. People in the scene were hoping. The poses were epic, the story fantastic, and all because of players who let the moment infect them, and inspire them, and weren't afraid to look certain death in the face and just go all in anyway.

You know who else gets credit for that?

There was one character who was going to have to make a similar choice. She made her pose and waited. And then these first two players moved in and distracted the bad guy, and she.... let them. She didn't struggle. She didn't force it into trying to make him deal with all of them. She had her moment. She did some heroic things. And then she let them save her, letting their potential sacrifice take the spotlight.

So - MU Things I Love - people who will go all in on a story, will risk death not because they want to take all the spotlight or the story, but because that's what their character will do, and who are willing to share the glory with others. That kind of collaboration makes greatness. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

EVERYTHING IS HORRIBLE I AM UNDER 1.0.

Oh wait. I don't care. I should post more and lurk less or something, but w/e. I SAID I DON'T CARE! <sobs>

Also - those players who take time to give feedback to the GMs in a way that isn't hideous and hateful. Even when it's constructive criticism. Those players who are themselves experienced GMs and see a frustrating situation, and reach out to the GM with a quiet - "hey, I know this is hard and thanks for doing it, can I help in any way?"

Even when the answer is no, I am always grateful as shit for players who do things like this while I'm GMing. I get to tell stories with some amazing people, y'all.

@roz It's not that we're plotting your death, it's just that you might die. TOTALLY DIFFERENT.

@chet Yessssss. Love this so much. And also both big things filtering down, and small things moving up and just /around/.

Oh, people from work. No it is not my fault that I can't document processes I've never used and tell you what you're leaving out based on a complete lack of technical or business specs. Also, if you don't invite me to your project meetings, it's not my fault when your project misses things I would know. Also also, when I say "this is going to go wrong here are the people I need on call for 24 hours after the project goes live," not assigning those people for 24 hour access and letting them get pulled into projects and then complaining about how we're behind schedule does not put you on my happy side.

Yeah, we're off schedule.

No, it's not my fault.

Fuck right the hell off.