Best posts made by Ganymede

If you are going to make players earn something for their PCs, then the rules should be clear and straight-forward, and readily available. I concur with Faraday and Surreality here.

If there is discretion involved, the exercise should be consistent. Ideally, deviations in that consistency should be adequately documented to explain the deviation, and why it was fair.

These rules are different than rules about on-game conduct. Those rules are by necessity and circumstance going to need to be more vague, but should still adequately inform new players as well as provide staff the discretion to act on novel situations.

But system-based gains should be less discretionary and more strict. Otherwise, you’re going to have favoritism complaints, among other things.

Staff need to be quick and decisive when they act, regardless.

@thenomain said in Make MSB great again!:

I think that the advertiser should have control of what goes into their advertisement. That seems reasonable to me. If an advertiser wants to wipe an entire thread from their thread, let them. And if sycophants come to trumpet, so be it. I think it's reasonable for the average visitor to the Internet know that not all positive reviews are objective.

That's why I think there should be a separate game review place. That's where the advertiser cannot control what's being said, good or bad. Create a new forum for them, even.

As for respect for others, that's something that cannot really be policed except by ourselves.

@surreality said in RL Anger:

Sounds like elder abuse to me.

I'm pretty sure someone's going to prison for encouraging someone to kill themselves.

I sincerely hate it when academics try to discuss these subjects in a mixed audience of fellow academics and those who are not. There are certain bits of phrasing -- like the 'all white people are racist' one -- that are conversational shorthand to the people who study the same subject, and the theory is actually entirely reasonable and it isn't even hard to understand.

I hate it when academics shade agency by blaming the herd. Yes, privilege is a bad thing, but let's not overlook how these acts are committed by people that knew, or should have known, exactly what they were doing.

Yes, white privilege probably assisted an orange into the Oval Office, but let's not forget that a bunch of old rich fucking people supported him and every other dullard that got into office.

@Kanye-Qwest said in The Apology Thread:

(That last one was me! And I got called a cunt like seven times by the person against whom my biggest transgression was using one of the multiple disses at my character's command to illustrate a part of her personality)

Ah. So, what you mean is: don't be fucking petty with your grudges.

In which case, I agree. People are fucking petty sometimes. Very petty.

I hate it so much that I will fucking hate anyone who is fucking petty.

I don't know; I wish I had more to contribute these days.

@zombiegenesis said in Potential Buffy Game:

My wife got a kick out of basing it in Ohio as I've been wanting to move there for ages.

Tell your wife that I can probably get you a decent realtor anywhere in the state.

And, seriously, I will totally work on a wiki and Grid for you, if you pick Dayton. It's under-rated for a game setting. There's so much craziness that could happen here. To the point where the last time I TT'd a game (Werewolf: the Apocalypse, 20th Ed.) I set it here just so we could have fun rampaging through the dilapidated areas of East Dayton, and then hunt for Weaver-things in the ritzy suburbs of Washington Township.

Other highlights:

• Bill's Donuts, as @hedgehog said, which is one of the top donut places in the country.

• Century Bar, one of the best bourbon joints in the country.

• The Pine Club, the No. 2 spot in the country for a steak (behind freakin' Peter Luger's).

• The Tom Hanks Center for Motion Pictures (Wright State University), which, as the name suggests, was co-sponsored and opened by the Oscar-winning actor.

• The Dayton Ballet Company, which is the second-oldest regional dance company in the country.

And why would I do this? Because I like this city, and it will help me learn more about it to build it as a Grid. (Also, because I'm kind of interested in playing a PC.)

@lotherio said in FCs on Comic MUs:

Alfre Woodard.

That's all you had to say. Her work as Mariah on Luke Cage is nothing short of Emmy-worthy. And her scenes with Mahershala Ali are tense and electric.

Daredevil was about action. Jessica Jones was about horror. Luke Cage was about drama.

Iron Fist was about reminding us that nothing lasts forever, even cold November rain.

I'm irked by the theatre critics that panned Allegiance.

I mean, maybe it resonated with me better because I share the same skin color with most of the cast. Or maybe it's because it's really nice to see a musical about Asian Americans from the perspective of an Asian American.

Or maybe it's because I harbor fears that the same thing that happened to Japanese Americans will eventually happen to Chinese Americans. My family, my children.

George Takei eats up each and every scene. I adore Teddy Leung and Lea Salonga. And Christopheren Nomura's baritone is breath-taking.

The performance I saw last night was through Fathom Events, and the filmography allows you to watch in a way you can't on stage. Still, this shouldn't get mixed reviews. While Broadway seems bent on digesting old, campy material (School of Rock as a musical, really?), it's nice to see something that is darker, sadder, and contemporary.

So, fuck critics. They can kiss my whole asshole. Racist motherfuckers.

@fatefan said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

As I'm watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix, I find myself thinking about what a MU* in 2020 might look like based on ATLA and/or the Legend of Korra, depending on what timeframe might work best.

What would you argue are necessities for success for such a game?

I've got a few that come to mind, but I recognize players may come to the table with some significantly different expectations:

• Clear point in game world/timeline
• Long-term central storyline(s) that all PCs can contribute to
• Opportunities for easily grouping together PCs in scenes
• Wide range of backgrounds & bending abilities
• Some sort of coded conflict resolution system

Given the above, how might you rank/prioritize these (and/or anything else that might be important)? Are any missing the mark?

I think you need to start where all good games have started: what kind of game is this?

Is it a storytelling game, where everyone participates by consent?

Is it a campaign setting, where players can have an effect on the world their PCs are in?

Is it a war game, where players are expected to join in on plots with a substantial risk of doom?

From there, you need to figure out what system you want to use based on the kind of game you've chosen.

Everything else is relatively minor.

@tempest said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:

What'd I miss?

Nothing much. Bug-squishing. But there's also the military politics involved as well, if you wanted to head into that angle.

Nah. Let's all just bang Denise Richards.

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

That reboots/rehashes + diversity casting = the vast majority of the film industry in 2017+1.

That Netflix reboot of The Punisher into a TV series, which had a surprising number of women as directors or writers, was fantastic!

And it totally catered to the libtard snowflake in me, what with the gratuitous gun and bloody violence!

@tragedyjones said in General Video Game Thread:

Is anyone going to be playing Fallout 76 on the Xbox besides me?

I won't.

I use the PS4.

Because of The Last of Us 2.

That, and it's just better.

@calindra said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

That's not me saying that you're not wanted, but me suggesting you look after your mental & emotional well-being by keeping away from the toxic and awful things that might cause you distress until you can let it roll off your back and keep it moving.

Let me just interject to say this:

I think you're missing Sunny's point.

We all internalize our emotions in our own way. Telling adults what they ought to do isn't helpful. Your advice is sound, but it will not lead to the kind of change that Sunny is seeking. She doesn't want to leave MSB.

She's asking for support for her request that MSB's admins/mods be fair and responsive, which isn't an unreasonable thing to ask for.

In my experience, Sunny is anything but a wilting flower, but everyone has their tipping points.

My story starts like this.

@theonceler said in Meanest (But Funniest) Thing You've Done in a Game:

Classic story.

Boy meets girl.

Boy falls for girl.

Boy and girl head off to a private room to fuck.

In one instance, girl starts to give the boy head before morphing into a Crinos and biting off his dick (doing 6 aggravated damage).

In another instance, girl gets boy to near completion before transforming into a swarm of black widow spiders and crawling all over him before skittering to the ventilation system.

Admittedly, you probably want to avoid any instance of oral sex with me.

@packrat said in Um...What?:

He was crying when he described how his family and him cheered as the jews from their village were rounded up and shipped off though. It was not something he was ever proud of in retrospect, just stuck in a fucked up situation for everyone involved but he did end up going along with it.

My father was born in 1939. He grew up as the second of twelve kids in a Chinese family living in the Canton province. He remembers when he had to be a bike courier for local criminals before the Communists swept into power, which he had to do so that his family could afford to buy food. He and most of his brothers were taken in by Jesuits, and he was raised at a Jesuit school.

He doesn't talk about his time in the motherland much. What he did tell us as kids was how lucky we were. I thought this was because he had managed to grab a sliver of privilege in North America, for we were pretty well off.

My mother was chased from Hong Kong by the Communists. While most of her family were able to afford passage to North America, they couldn't take everyone. For a couple of years, she hid illegally in Singapore with relatives, until she could afford a ship to North America, where she was reunited with the family that had, essentially, left her behind.

She doesn't talk about her time in the motherland much. What she did tell us as kids was how lucky we were. I thought this was because she managed to rise up from being a Girl Friday to a well-regarded logistics manager whose fiery temper scared the living shit out of the truck drivers that worked for her.

What I do know comes from my aunt. She lives in Hong Kong. She tells stories of how and why communism took hold in China so completely, and why Westerners do not understand why the majority of Chinese still look at Chairman Mao as a hero. Her stories are sad because, as many Chinese now desire Western culture and ideals, they are antithetical to communist principles, and so there is a huge clash. She tells of how, whereas the people were starving all over before communism, they now starve because of the capitalism that was ushered in.

There is horror outside of the U.S. that many people do not understand, and this is why I am strongly considering public office.

@sparks said in General Video Game Thread:

My best friend has never played an AC game and absolutely loves Odyssey, for whatever that's worth.

Not gonna lie, but the fact that you can play a woman means a lot to me.

@surreality said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

Being brutally honest? Some people just want to watch the world burn. Some people just want to wank their grudges. Some people will not see reason, or simply will never give someone who slighted them once a shred of benefit of the doubt ever again.

Nothing I'm talking about is going to change these people, but appeals to the reasonable people -- who I think are the vast majority of posters here -- that they have sometimes swayed into little hate cliques or dogpile teams or commiseration spirals or gossip circles strips support from the truly intractable hate-spewers and bullies.

Then, a suggestion.

When one of us does something you agree with -- the general you, not General Yu -- up-vote the intervention. You don't need to post anything to indicate your agreement. Just a "okay, I agree, but I don't want to say anything because, whoa, there is some crazy going on here, gurl, and I ain't into threesomes."

Similarly, when someone says something you agree with in opposition to something you don't agree with, maybe just do the same thing. Dogpiling starts with the seemingly-innocuous "me too, an' yo' momma" and ends up snowballing into "well, shit, if other people are going to dump on this poster, then, by golly, Imma gonna do it too." It's sort of a mob mentality thing, and the horrible thing about it is that otherwise reasonable people get pulled into it.

It's an actual thing.

Anyhow, sure. Okay. I'll speak up more, even in the Hog Pit that I said I didn't want to, and won't, police.

@tempest said in Regarding administration on MSB:

Furthermore, I am not really cool with this post, at all. Or with this 'shut up or I'll ban you' being a casual comment from somebody who is a mod on the board.

What part of that post was intended to be a casual comment? It's not a casual comment, and it wasn't phrased as one.

What exactly have I done that is so horrible, please inform me?

C'mon, really?

You toe the line. You've always toed the line. You know damn well what you're doing, but if I would have to say it plainly, then you're deliberately doing shit in order to test people's patience.

If you want to sell the idea that you had no idea that creating a topic called "United Heroes is Literally Worse Than Hitler" in the Mildly Constructive area, so be it; however, your actions belie your claim to innocence or ignorance. You could have picked any other kind of innocuous title, but, no, you decided to go with "United Heroes is Literally Worse Than Hitler".

Not "Links to other United Heroes threads."

Not "Hot Topics on United Heroes Banned by Mods on this Forum!"

Not "Lurid Undie Weasels Form Border Guard Against Interesting Stuff on United Heroes."

No. Hitler. Hitler is what you picked.

C'mon.

Just, stop. You know what you did. Just don't do it again, all right?

And that's my casual comment on the matter.

@cupcake said in Good TV:

I, uhh...might be a fan.

That's outrageous. Truly, truly outrageous.

Just in case you all missed it, Sony pulled the game from its store. For both consoles. Until it is fixed. And it is giving refunds, which Sony will no doubt demand some compensation for from CDPR.

Regardless of the reviewers, the complaints were bad enough that Sony, of all companies, took unprecedented action.

Your experiences and opinions may vary, but some huge profit-driven corporation thought it was bad enough to give refunds and pull the product.

@kanye-qwest said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

That very much is not what I was 'wanting to know', because it is balls out insane

What did you want to know? I thought you wanted to know who Derp thought was one of the "untouchable" people that skirt the line here.

I think his response was pretty clear.