Best posts made by Ganymede

@silverfox said in Good or New Movies Review:

I know that there are many different dialects of Chinese - is it appropriate when you don't know what the exact dialect is to call it 'Chinese'? Even if you do know (for example, this post since you explicitly told us it is Mandarin) is it still appropriate to use the more generalized term?

It's okay to use the more generalized term, I think. The Chinese language is more different than Japanese or Korean than Mandarin is from Cantonese. Plus, I don't expect the unknowing to be able to tell the difference between the dialects. Wikipedia has a good breakdown here.

@Kanye-Qwest said in Cultural differences between MUDs and MUSHes:

I don't understand why it's polite to expect people to ask your permission to pose themselves into a public room.

Politeness is the manner in which you conduct yourself. I think paging a person/group before entering their room is polite.

I don't think that it is rude to pose into a public room without asking first. I think it is rude to demand that people ask for your permission before coming into the public room in which you are RPing or connected.

I think we're mostly on the same page, but I'm commenting to clarify my previous comment.

@lotherio said in Good or New Movies Review:

My worry is, its a much larger cast than five misfits.

My worry is that the relatively-new writers and the new director. Sure, Zhao directed Nomadland, but this project looks really ambitious. And I'm not sure whether the Firpo Brothers can handle the material.

I think this may be a high drama, and that does not seem to play well to audiences, as evidenced by The Incredible Hulk.

@surreality said in Cultural differences between MUDs and MUSHes:

We learned this in kindergarten, didn't we?

I learned it in the bedroom. It's much more fun when the first two invite you to play.

@sunny

Same.

@surreality said in Cultural differences between MUDs and MUSHes:

"What do you want to do?"
"I dunno, what do you want to do?"
"Anything's fine."
"Anybody got any ideas?"
<silence>

This sounds like the beginning of a scene to me; likely from a Cheech and Chong movie.

@surreality

I'd get those for the vintage value.

@Arkandel said in How does a Mu* become successful?:

Again, BITN is doing this, are they flooded with 11 year olds and vengeful PKers?

Things may have changed, but when I applied on BITN, I had to wait for them to process my 5 XP of spends prior to hitting the Grid. It was probably child's play for them to look me over and stamp me with the sign of approval.

And you really can't use BITN as a blanket example. BITN is based in the modern day with a system that isn't terribly complex. Games like Kushiel's Debut require some knowledge of an alternate fantasy world, and games like Requiem for Kingsmouth are so different from the average WoD game that staff-checking is not a bad thing.

You wanted reasons; I gave you reasons. And if you've never tried to retcon the damage that a single PC can cause in 24-48 hours, then you probably do not know how bad things can get. When you have a political game where status, titles, and influence mean something, then you either have to heavily-restrict it or review PCs as they come through.

@Rinel said in Accounting for gender imbalances:

Still, asking someone to pay a hundred dollars for me to go through PDFs for an hour and rename them feels obscene on a visceral level.

I hope you don't think this is what I do or like to do either. But I can tell you that I have accumulated over 2,000 hours of pro bono work in under 10 years because I use the billable hour system.

But that's another topic for another day.

@Lotherio said in Survival/Apocalypse Genre Survivability:

My question boils down to … while apocalypse style games seem great for a Mu*, is it better suited to smaller group styles of play, even if OTT?

These games are great for a MU*. What seems to be lacking is a system that permits players to build the world around them. If all staff does is present insurmountable situations, you should not be surprised when the players and PCs end up fighting each other or otherwise walk away from the game.

There is more to these sorts of games than the odds of dying. Try putting some effort into collaboration, cooperation, and creation, and such games might actually thrive.

@Ganymede said in The Basketball Thread:

Toronto in 6.

You will all bow to me.

@Lisse24 said in New Player Onboarding:

So I'm wondering, has anyone seen a game do a really good job at making sure that new players get integrated? If not, what do you think games should be doing to welcome new players?

Staff can find players willing to be "new player greeters," or something like that. Players sometimes find it easier to talk with other players. Just be sure your greeters are good folks.

@Pandora said in Accounting for gender imbalances:

I'm kind of at the point of considering physical bodily harm the next time he starts speaking at work, but at the same time I'm hesitant to go to HR to file a grievance against someone I consider a friend.

If your other recourse is physically harming him, it sounds like you should not hesitate to file a grievance, which may be considered more appropriate and less painful to him.

@Cupcake said in The Shame Game:

So what is the purpose of public shaming in our community? Are we invested in the idea of helping problem players to improve?

Generally, no.

I'd like to think people can change or will change after their bullshit is called out, but I would never pretend that my public shaming of them here was meant to be some sort of rehabilitative effort.

One part of self-improvement is self-awareness. If public shaming leads to this, great. If not, that's fine as well; you can develop your own mature sense of self-awareness on your own, I figure. And, if you don't, I don't have any plans to meet with you in the future (probably).

@Testament said in RL Anger:

I started going to the gym again.

I hate myself.

I never hate myself. I just kick myself for not working out because getting back to where I was is tough in your 40s.

I've been out for over two months.

@surreality said in CoD - Victorian - Penny Dreadful-ish.:

Think of it in terms of learning a new language. If all the native speakers sneered and started mocking you when you flubbed a word, sure, you might learn that word -- but what you really learned is that all the native speakers are assholes.

It's true, though. French people are assholes.

@Derp

I concur.

Watch out for your creatine levels, though. Too much of the stuff can cause your blood work to show that you're on steroids.

That was a very awkward visit from my uncle.

@Lithium said in The Shame Game:

What I /SAID/ was that all opinions have the same propensity of equal weight regardless of who says them. It's an opinion, it is not a fact. Therefor people will judge the opinion based on their standards, that's all anyone can do.

I'm of the opinion that not all opinions have equal weight. Opinions that are formed from personal knowledge, reading and evaluating the works of others, and/or critically thinking about the same have substantially more weight than those without.

By saying that opinions "have the same propensity" of equal weight, I'm unsure if you mean that all opinions without critical evaluation by the listener have the same weight. If so, then I agree: it's all just words. In context, to say that all opinions have the same weight, however, sounds like a very dangerous belief -- the sort that promotes plutocrats to positions of power.

Although not recognized as such, Megara is the greatest Disney princess.

@Sunny said in CoD - Victorian - Penny Dreadful-ish.:

Why is 'how women and minorities are treated' the benchmark for making a game 'historical enough'?

I think this is because this is where the largest disconnect is. The truth is that many of us have no personal experience of the prejudice that minorities felt back in these days; we only believe what we read from accounts of that time.

I otherwise largely agree with you. There's no reason why the game designers could simply kibosh the discussion.