Best posts made by deadculture

I believe that speech should always be unmoderated and that social admonishment will take care of course correction, if necessary.

Coming from a place with actual limitations to what they call freedom of expression, down to and including the very necessary element for freedom of speech called anonymity, I find that calls to moderate and squelch 'undesired speech' in any way is like adding a ball and chain to one's own ankles.

Because the goalpost of what's acceptable will keep moving, the more you call for said moderation, until it's 1984 (see my forum avatar) and Big Brother is watching you for signs of Oldspeak.

@three-eyed-crow said in Horror MUX:

@botulism
Yeah that totally wasn't directed at you. Tho even the softer concept of 'seasons' where there are contained story campaigns and then you shift to another (with mostly the same characters) I've been on a handful of places that have done them to varying degrees of success/failure. I think there's more experimentation in smaller games than the not-so-vast masses see sometimes. This is a cool approach to it and its exciting to see it tried, tho.

I think people get more attached to their characters the more is at stake. Such as: if you've invested a lot of time to get something neat, like a sword that screams and can kill vampires, or if you spent a long time to poise that character for a position of import in the setting. It is admittedly fair to be frustrated if the wrong timing has you lose those two investments in the next 'phase', but I like how tabletop games like Pendragon and others deal with this. It gives you a sense of continuity without forcing you to think your game ends with the death of your character, even if Pendragon is really, really punitive as far as systems go. The wrong 20 in a roll can spell your death.

@bored:

Conrad has tons to do (to the 'I have people griefing me because I'm RPing with someone else instead of dealing with their request' level. I know his player very well.

I have a character whose entire initial personal agenda was to fuck with Conrad. That personal agenda lasted exactly one day/night because everyone is either in it together or they'll have to be the only man/woman on the island. The inherently cooperative nature of a game where the individuals odds are bad for everyone, regardless of their concept or IC connections, is really, really interesting to see play out.

Essentially, you either build a bridge with others or you get stuck and possibly perish. Ultimately, though, I made my own fun and my character, who started out as the odd man out, made connections with people that I think are very interesting to play out.

What I would like to see is a MUSH based on the same world as Guy Gavriel Kay's Lions of Al-Rasan, A Song for Arbonne, etc. It's close enough to some themes in our world's medieval era to make it easy to play, extremely low-magic and very engaging, if you ever read either of those books.

@horrorhound A horror game.

As someone who suffers from inattentive ADHD, I have to say it's very fascinating to hear these stories, particularly from other Inattentive types. It was an uphill battle to figure my shit out, and it continues to be, every day, but I'm happy with the progress I've made. Granted, the med I take is just legal amphetamines on an extended release capsule, but it helped.

Skype dates. JFC.

@tinuviel We've made it into a time-honored tradition. Along with ruining livers.

I think HorrorMUX essentially proves that it's possible to make an episodic game that is enjoyable throughout limited runs. A lot of concerns about making serial games were basically of the 'What if people get too attached to their characters' category, but let's be honest, as long as you have a sense of continuity you don't really need to be playing the same person for 3+ RL years. I'm looking forward to seeing how the next iterations of the game play out.

I suspect the transient nature of the characters themselves, with the underlying sense of permanence of the Archetypes themselves gives us less of a sense of competition with each other, so it feels more like an OTT game of Mafia or something.

IE: It's not a game where there are defined winners, but survivors, and it's definitely PvE with the expectation that you will most probably die, but at least those that survive you will probably have more interesting story because of it.

When a single conversation leads to discussing philosophy in a way that makes sense to both characters involved, and understanding the how-to of goals is achieved not because of a mechanical fluke, but due to the flow of conversation. Also, when it helps you figure out the between-the-lines part of a background you yourself wrote.

@Three-Eyed-Crow Nevertheless, people should be pointing others to this thread and the other on the down-low, because it helps to be informed.

@buttercup Well, now you've learned, and since you know, you better watch out for him. Don't believe a word he says, OOCly. He's a compulsory liar and someone who needs to compensate his real life with his online presence, so he does the things he does.

Here's hoping that Arx's staff takes this complaint seriously and does something about him.

@Arkandel Just as in a sword fight, politics take a level of strategy. You can turn that early loss into a long-term consolidated win if you have the right resources or if you manage to make your interests align with those that have said resources, while trying to obtain a measure of them for yourself in order to be autonomous. Pulling rank almost never works in MUSHes; players are very oppositional to this kind of stuff and would rather have their character be seen as the rebel if they're overt, or they will subvert your character's demand of obedience with a subtle power play if they're not. There's no outcome that's pre-written when it comes to human dynamics, because the human element strips politics of determinism.

You're right regarding the best politicians on MU being also the friendliest.

It's important to highlight the scope of RP you want the NPCs to do, if people are to rent them out. And also that the scene has to be documented by logs as a rule. Otherwise the next person renting that NPC out can be surprised by Wolfblood babydaddy showing up with their infant daughter or something crazy like selling half of NPC's shares in PentexCorp.

So, while I am in support of the idea, just make sure it has a framework of rules around it to prevent abuse.

@Apos said in MU Things I Love:

@Faceless Was pretty much my sole reason for having coded objects, 100%. In theory, it shouldn't matter. And yet. AND YET.

Items that are coded, take time to customize, etc, become very significant. Someone else, or even you, spend time creating that item. If you got it from a quest, you'll forever remember it as that special time you got something nice.

And if you lose it, you fucking mourn its loss, too.

I played a gunsmith on a cyberpunk MOO, it made me very pleased when people liked my guns.

@arkandel I felt that way about his books, too. But then again, they are self-sufficient in every sense of the word. You don't want to play out stories in it. You're happy with the stories by the time they end.

No cliffhangers with GGK, which is something I appreciate very much, too. Every book is final.

Guy Gavriel Kay is great at both world-building and characterization. Comparing a GGK novel to a GRRM one is like comparing gold to bull crap.

I realize this has nothing to do with the topic at hand. Game on.

@bananerz I learned to ask the player of someone any of my characters are possibly getting in relationships with about where they see the relationship as going. It's a good way to gauge what they expect out of you and what they stories they want to pursue from it. I figure it's better to have a degree of informed consent on each other's expectations going forward from that point than just winging it and seeing where it goes.

On the other hand, I've played an unhappy couple with a long term online friend of mine and we've had some beautifully tragic and tense scenes as a result of that RP. I'd say it made me a better player, overall, because it was eye-opening, in a way; just how we handled the adversity since we trusted each other as players and had a good degree of separation.