Posts made by faraday

@atomic said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

pattern recognition exercises, word lists, and "Remember this story" have to do with anything other than cognition

As I understand it (not an expert), they're part of tests for working memory, which is often one of the things impaired by ADD. Being able to hold a list of instructions, words, etc. in your head.

Like being able to remember what you were going to the kitchen for by the time you actually make it there.

Some of those tests can also evaluate being able to sustain focus on an activity without spacing out on some internal tangent and then being all: "Wait, what were we doing?"

@cassite said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

That's like pissing on the wall because the janitor will clean it up for you. It's their job to clean the bathroom.

Or maybe it's more like an elderly person with a hip issue not getting down on hands and knees to clean up a spill in a store and instead calling the store's janitor to clean up the mess they accidentally made. Since, y'know, that is their job.

@cassite said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

At least know what you're doing should invoke guilt and judgement. Because it does.

Nope. And this is exactly what I was talking about when I said that this meme brings out the worst in people being judgey without knowing all the facts.

@cassite said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

if I'm well enough to push that cart around the store, I'm well enough to push it the ten-to-fifteen feet from my car to the return.

You might be. Someone else might not be. Maybe @Too-Old-For-This is able to leave their kid securely fastened in a car seat for the time it takes to return the cart. Maybe someone else isn't, because their kid is a car seat escape artist, or has panic attacks if they feel alone, etc.

Empathy works both ways. If you can have empathy for the person whose job it is to round up all the stray carts, you can have empathy for the people whose circumstances are different that yours, for whom depositing the cart is a big deal for whatever reason.

And all these justifications of why people should be able to just suck it up and do it are exactly why this meme is a pet peeve for me. It may have been meant as a joke, but it results in people feeling judged and guilty.

@jeshin said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@faraday

Is the Shopping Cart theory even real, it seems like a kind of tongue in cheek this is something we see everyday thing to make a point. People don't take overly simplified examples as real do they?

I’ve seen it many times, often seemingly posted in earnest. And some of the comments when it’s shared are just vile. Which is why it bugs me.

Just saying... The Shopping Cart Theory is Ableist.

There are many reasons why someone may be unable to walk the extra five yards to return a shopping cart that have nothing whatsoever to do with their character.

I myself have done it on occasion - for instance, when my kids were very little and it was winter out, I would buckle them into their car seats first and unload the groceries second. I wasn't going to then take them back out of the car and repeat the whole car seat shenanigans if the cart return was too far from the car. (I tried to park very close to the cart returns for this reason, but that wasn't always possible.)

There are millions of parents in this same boat. To say nothing of the other millions of people with chronic fatigue, depression, mobility issues, or a whole host other physical and mental challenges that might turn "push the shopping cart an extra 5 yards" into a monumental challenge.

Yes, it's nice to return the shopping cart when you can. But quit judging people when you don't know their struggles.

@lotherio Since WebMu and DuckClient work with literally any MU, there's no point asking about "web-based gameplay" unless you mean something more than that. My point still stands that many games get by just fine without it. I never said that you couldn't build it in if you wanted it. You can build almost anything with enough effort.

Regardless, the OP has the info and can make their own assessments.

@lotherio said in How to launch a MU*:

There is/has been a push in the traditional platforms for web-socket functionality. You can but a client on a browser, with JS you can add some buttons for like talking on pub or checking the hangouts. You can also add in a logger of your liking, which can be used asynchronously by all players.

Yes, but like you said: you can add those things on. It requires custom coding and setup that is beyond most MU runners. Anyone can connect to a game from a web browser using WebMu, DuckClient (in chrome) or the built-in Evennia web client, but those are not conducive to async gameplay. I assumed that the OP was asking more about interactive websites and async features.

I'll echo what others have said and suggest that the game be mostly complete before opening. Most players, in my experience, want to join a game and hit the ground running. They don't generally want that ground to be constantly shifting under their feet. You can add things on later, of course, but make sure that the initial starting foundation is solid. That means:

• Stuff to get them going in the setting (theme files, chargen, app staff)
• Stuff for them to do once they get IC (plot hooks, grid rooms, plot staff)

How much staff you need depends on the type of game you run. I run games myself because I design the games to be runnable by myself. A game with lots of different factions to manage, diverse plots going on simultaneously, staff-heavy app processes, etc. is going to have very different needs.

@reason said in How to launch a MU*:

@pyrephox @bear_necessities @Seraphim73 Thanks for those thoughts! What's the expectation for web-based and/or asynchronous gameplay and your opinion on the degree to which that is table-stakes in the present day and age of the MUSH?

There are some folks for whom it's critical, but there are still plenty of games still running on the traditional MUSH platforms or Evennia that don't have built-in support for both web and async gameplay (or either). I wouldn't make a technology choice based on that factor alone; choose the game platform that best fits your needs on the whole.

My post-apoc game was set in Maine, in a rural town with a population of about 2000 people.

So there's been at least one MU using the "largely rural and heavily forested with a low population density" setting of actual Maine

So when I'm not working on Ares, I play Fortnite with my son. We got into making Fortnite creative maps over the summer and recently got the ability to share them.

We have a channel with map showcases/walkthroughs, and you can find all our map codes on Fortnite Creative HQ or Dropnite. (If you use my creator code - faradayllama - in the item shop, I get a little referral bonus for any vbucks you spend. #EpicPartner)

If anyone else is into FN creative too I figure we could use this thread to share fun maps.

+1 for Atlantis. Best one hands down among the Mac clients.

@misadventure said in Best MU* Client for Mac?:

Anyone know the current state in terms of OS changes, 64bit etc?

Works fine on the latest version of MacOS.

@insomniac7809 said in General Video Game Thread:

I'm just of the apparently outdated opinion that the game should be finished, not "finished*". Like, if there's some bugs that slipped past QA and the magic of a series of tubes can fix it after launch, fine.

The thing is, no software project on the planet ever is "finished". There's always something else you can add, low-priority bugs that you ignore because the cost/benefit ratio isn't there, and things you just flat-out miss because your team is human and users will always find a way to do things you never imagined, especially at scale.

So at some point the company just has to draw a line in the sand and say "this is what we're going with".

Smart companies, however, will not draw that line while there are still massively impactful known bugs, as seems to be the case that happened with CP2077. That's just treating your customers like crap, and they're rightfully paying for it.

Tangent - I'm irritated now that I put down $20 for a pre-order deposit for a game that will not run on my console. I can't get a refund from CP because I never completed the purchase. I can't get a refund from GameStop without going into the store, which I can't do because covid. Grumble.

Sounds cool.

@too-old-for-this said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

I finally figured it out. I hated waiting for other people to catch up. I hated having to do things half a dozen times when I was ready to move on. I couldn't concentrate because someone across the room was talking and I could hear it. I couldn't focus because in my head it had already been done to death. I wanted new. I wanted different. I wanted to be DONEOMGWHYCAN'TWEJUSTMOVEOOOOOOOOOOONALREADY?!

I quoted this to my kid and they were like: "YES. SO MUCH YES."

I had a similar experience, but it was tempered by a few things. A mix of people-pleasing and grade-competition was enough to overcome the "ugh" of boring, repetitive assignments.

And I was lucky because my mom was an advocate. Long before IEP and 504 plans were a thing, she was nudging my teachers like: "Look, she gets straight A's and never causes trouble in class. She's bored out of her mind. Let her read her book or write when she's done." And they did.

I read a lot of novels in school.

But I get that same feeling still in meetings and training. Squirming in my chair and wishing I could just gnaw my way through the floor to escape because it's so boring it's painful. One year I taught myself to write left-handed just to give my hands something to do. Now I have fidget cubes at the ready but it's still annoying.

So yeah... you're definitely not alone.

I agree with @Derp that you have to start with your basic goal. Not just a setting (though that's important too), but a vision.

I think that a TV series is a good analogy for a MUSH. Start with the elevator pitch that you would use to "sell" the game to execs - only in this case it's selling to prospective players.

Then make decisions about your cast. Not specific characters (unless it's going to be a roster game), but general roles and focus. Think about things like factions, PVP, organization.

Then make decisions about the story. Unless you're going for a full-sandbox mode, you probably want to have at least a "season" worth of ideas sketched out. Think about what the characters are going to do between events, and what systems/structures you need in place to support those things.

Then think about the OOC atmosphere. How will the players interact with each other? This is where things like consent, PVP, plot guidelines, etc. come in. Also, are you looking for a more narrative free-form feel, or a more crunchy immersive feel.

Only when you've answered all of the above should you make any decisions on server tech and code. Ares has a lot out of the box and is easy to set up, but it's not a good fit for every game. Nor is FS3. So you should pick the tech that fits your vision. It might make a lot more work for you getting the place started, but you'll save yourselves headaches in the long run.

HowToADHD just did a video on finances: How to Fix Your Credit (and How ADHD Gets in the Way

@macha said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

I really buy these things I want, because it gives my brain a hit?

It's usually a combo of things with adhd. It's the dopamine reward, the lack of impulse control, the poor executive functioning that makes long-term planning difficult... yeah, it's a struggle.

@darren said in Designing for Mobile:

At least I think that is how it works.

Yeah it depends on the OS, the phone settings for background tasks, and how the app itself works.

Even if you can keep the connection open though, it's still not ideal. Keeping a telnet connection constantly open requires a lot more cycles than just waking up every so often to see if there are new emails or chats. Mobile apps are typically designed for the latter use case. MUSH servers don't work that way.

@reversed said in Designing for Mobile:

Mukluk with more than a single infinite-horizontal-scroll row input area; it would still suck ass

Yeah, I mean... you can play on mobile now, but as OP mentioned, typing commands is frustrating as heck on mobile (without an external keyboard), and the connections can be flakey.

The problem with apps like MUDRammer and Mukluk is that command-Line Interfaces are designed for typing, but mobile devices are optimized for touch interfaces. Any kind of CLI is going to run into that same basic issue.

The Ares web portal as a whole works fine on mobile, but it loses its ability to do "live" updates when the device goes to sleep, so that's frustrating too.