Best posts made by Ganymede

@Prototart said in Getting Young Blood Into MU*'ing:

And that's ignoring just, the usual social maladaptive shit that's so common on games that it's just taken for granted, the people who have no idea how to interact with anyone who isn't broken the same way they are and the way that geek social fallacies are like burned into the fabric of everything and not to be questioned

I’m going to say this in a non-repulsive way in response.

If you think you can avoid MUSH maladaptive behaviors in real life, you are either tremendously naive or stupidly optimistic. You might as well admit that you live in a box if you can honestly and introspectively believe that real life is any less dysfunctional.

@rnmissionrun

I was once a victim of a scam. The caller left a message and claimed to be an officer from the IRS. So, I called them back because, well, that's what I do.

Them: Our records show that you owe over $5,000 in back taxes. A lawsuit has been filed against you.
Me: Really? When was the complaint served? I haven't received my certified mail.
Them: pause The complaint was mailed to you.
Me: Was it certified mail? Because, if not, the complaint does not comply with Rule 4.
Them: You have been served, sir.
Me: No, I haven't.
Them: You still owe the money.
Me: Let me speak to Jim Keegan.
Them: What?
Me: Jim Keegan? He's your regional chief compliance officer.
Them: No, he's not.
Me: Yes, he is. I spoke with them four days ago in a separate case, where I represent a receivership.
Them: What?
Me: A receivership. May I speak to Agent Keegan?
Them: There's no Jim Keegan here.
Me: Then you're not the IRS, I have your phone number, and I am a prosecutor. What's your name?
Them: click

@Tinuviel said in Consent in Gaming:

So yes, we are all in this together and we should do our best to ensure a good time is had by all, but punishing people for not wanting to play out the boring, the stupid, or the overlong just seems silly.

Define "punishment."

Should staff levy some sort of punishment? Of course not. Should players? Debatable. We all arguably want to be as accommodating as possible, but if someone is "depriving" me of my opportunity to do what I want to do, then I don't think anyone is going to look at me side-eyed for being a bit salty. So if I am the CO who is being dodged because a player doesn't want to play out a scene where I get to engage in the RP I'd like to engage in, I may decide not to spend a lot of time playing with that player's character in the future.

Is that punitive? Arguably. Consider the following:

@Thenomain said in Consent in Gaming:

Who you decide to help and spend your time with is up to you. This is ultimately a selfish hobby, and nothing, nothing can make you play well with others if you don't think they deserve it.

I think it is unreasonable for the player who elects not to play through a scene that I would like to player through to expect me to carry on, my wayward son, as if nothing at all just happened. Like we are still going to be besties if we only engage in the RP that such player wants to engage in, regardless of what I'd like to do.

The solution is to be deserving of it, of being self-aware.

Being self-aware sometimes means understanding that you may have to play through something that is boring in order to let others have their fun. It means understanding that it's not just about you and, maybe, you're part of a group whose needs and wants may be different from yours. If I could put my finger on what irks me these days, aside from people sitting around idle, it is the apparent absence of self-awareness reflected in attitudes and policies.

But I digress.

If someone says, "Hey, this doesn't seem like fun," don't think less of them. Think, okay what can we do that's fun? Have a conversation.

To be honest, if someone says "hey this doesn't seem like fun," I'm probably going to believe that they have the maturity of a pre-pubescent. One might as well say "I think this is boring" or "you're boring me," or something equally ribald.

Better approach: "I think we're heading in a direction I'd rather not RP through. Can we figure out a resolution that works out for both of us?"

Or: "I'm not really feeling this path of RP. Can we take it in a different direction?"

Treat your comrades like a fellow player, not a character who has to do things because otherwise your character won't get their spotlight time. Appease to their better nature or let them go.

As said above, jaded people get paranoid of being burned. Similarly, jaded people get tired of other players running over them because they attempted to appease to their better nature. Perhaps I am cynical, but I have found in the past decade that players are more than happy to take advantage of a situation to get what benefits them.

These nights, as I've become an elder, I find myself less and less willing to appease to anyone's better nature because, well, I can't find it. I have become increasingly frustrated with my experiences on games. I have trouble connecting by reaching out publicly to do so. So I am preparing not to give up, but instead to go back to building the game I want to see.

It's nice to know that, around here, we can all agree that unnecessary kitty suffering is a cause we can all get behind.

On topic, sort of:

1. I’m attracted to people.
2. Either I am attracted to you or I am not.
3. I don’t assume anyone’s sexuality.
4. I just want people to like me.

@selira said in RL Anger:

Why kale, when there's broccoli?

Mm-hmm.

I can eat a pound or two of broccoli quite happily.

Also, I've lost 25 pounds since the end of June.

Created upon request because people like to make me work, thereby ensuring their doom in the impending Catbot Uprising.

For those reading my posts or e-mails:

@surreality said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

I may be in a weird -- ok, no, I know I'm in a weird position on this particular issue, but there's an innate problem, mainly: there's no way to make 'I know the history of this garment/item' as visible as the item itself. Many people won't know, but there are folks who do.

I'm just going to use you for illustrative purposes, then.

Ganymede: You know what you have on?
Surreality: No clue.
Ganymede: Why did you get it?
Surreality: It looked pretty?
Ganymede: Okay, well, that's a cheongsam, also known as a qipao. Back when my parents lived in China, around the time of the Cultural Revolution, women who wore that were arrested for dissidence and never seen again.
Surreality: That's awful.
Ganymede: Yeah. It was really shitty. The Communists thought it was too bourgeousie, and put people to death for that. It was also a way to keep women in check, who were often outspoken activists against the rise of communist totalitarianism. Like, imagine if you were wearing Lululemon or Victoria's Secret stuff one day, and then you get picked up by a bunch of gun-toting psychopaths, driven to a camp, and then shot in the head for political reasons.
Surreality: ... so, I shouldn't wear it.
Ganymede: No, I just want you to be aware of it's history. Women in the 80s and 90s brought it back when China started to become more capitalist. It was a sort of counter-revolutionary thing for them. The Chinese government had just opened up, and it could not risk losing status in the eyes of American interests, so it tolerated the movement knowing full well that women were once again being disobedient.
Surreality: ... so I should wear it?
Ganymede: That depends. Now that you are aware of what it means, would you be upset if I told you to take it off?
Surreality: No.
Ganymede: Great! Now, show me your kitties.

As for the teen that wore it to prom, she defended her choice because she thought it did not constitute cultural appropriation and that it was pretty. Where the conversation gets exasperating is where people say things like "well, how was she to know?" and "she's just a kid!", to which I say "there's a fucking thing kids use called wikipedia so you can learn about your clothing's history and the Three Kingdoms and shit without much difficulty, c'mon".

And when people say "well people in China are okay with it", that's when I say "people in China didn't have to flee China for their ideals or witness their friends disappear for wearing that outfit, like my mother who had to spend 2 years separated from her family because her parents could only afford to take 2 of their 3 kids to Canada with them, so they left her behind with other relatives in Singapore with no fucking contact whatsoever."

That's why the situation is exasperating.

Also, more kitty therapy:

@GreenFlashlight

I can appreciate a spot of idealism, but I draw the line with unsupported suppositions. I am willing to go out on a limb and say that you, like the vast majority of people here, have no idea of what it is like to live in a non-capitalist country. We should talk a little about places like China.

I oppose the idea that anyone's income must go to someone who provides me something you will die without, something literally forming the foundation of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Below security needs are physiological needs. Among physiological needs is the need to eat. I presume you do not oppose the idea that someone's income must go to farmers; however, if you do, I would be interested in learning what you think this outbreak of COVID-19 is going to do for the Nebraska corn harvest.

Every person who dies homeless was murdered by the people who put profit over the sanctity of human life.

Joe Murphy is probably going to die homeless, but it isn't because people have not tried to give him free housing. That said, I know several people without homes at the moment, and while I might want to open my house to them my partner would likely object because she doesn't know them and may be concerned for our kids' safety.

I do not believe landlords actually provide a good or service in return for the rent they are paid, because the costs of business are funded one hundred percent by the rent tenants pay, which means the only thing a landlord does to earn a check is come unclog your sink as part of you paying I'm guessing a thousand bucks a month, or maybe picks up a phone to call someone else to fix your problem and act as a middleman who for some reason deserves half your income in perpetuity.

I have a client who was physically and emotionally abused by an affluent ex-husband. She ended up getting a million dollars in her divorce decree, and used half of that to build up her real estate "empire," which consists of a couple of dozen single-family houses. She rents these to veterans, folks with disabilities, minorities, and others. After paying expenses related to maintaining the properties, she makes around $50,000 a year, which she lives on along with her pension as a former school bus driver.

She knows each and every one of her tenants on a first name basis. She does most of the repairs herself. For some of the disabled tenants, she helps them get groceries now and again. Over the years I have handled her evictions, and some of the shit she puts up with is this side of saintly.

But she's a landlord, right? So she has to be a piece of shit, if you are to be believed.

There is literally nothing in the world stopping us from giving every living human the relative comfort and dignity of a home except for the murderous greed that tells us our landlords should have the power of life and death over us unless we tithe to their coffers.

Actually, there is something that stops the people from doing this in the United States: the U.S. Constitution. Incorporated into that document is the Bill of Rights, which guarantees certain fundamental rights against encroachment by the federal government. The Fourteenth Amendment extends those rights to the states, if those states did not already incorporate similar rights into their state constitution. Ultimately, the people through their government cannot simply take someone else's property and give it to another; not without just compensation, at least.

In order to pay that compensation, a government needs money. Presumably, it gets that money through taxes; however, the federal government could feasibly just print more and more until it has enough to buy up every parcel of vacant land and every empty residence in the country. One would simply have to convince the Federal Reserve and the other members of Congress of the wisdom of the solution.

You ask what the alternative is to letting millions of people die of exposure every year, and my mouth drops open a little bit because I can't for my life imagine why you think that is an unavoidable outcome rather than one cultivated by greedy fuckwits who think that owning land is more important than human life.

My mouth drops a little because of your presumption that millions of people die of exposure every year because of landlords in the United States. It isn't because of systemic racism, sexism, or genderism; it isn't because of familial or collective hatred for the mentally ill or non-dangerous deviance; and it isn't because of political cowardice, misguided priorities in governance, or simply societal indifference to the plight of others.

No, people are dying because of landlords, folks.

That said, everything in me says that this landlord done fucked up somewhere. Getting 32 tenants to agree to default on their leases knowing well what it may do to their credit and/or living arrangements suggests that the landlord is a piece of shit that needs to be strung up.

@chibichibi said in Idling all day on MU*s:

What's the point of even logging in if you're just idle?

I very much held this belief before.

I think this was because I saw myself as valuable to a game. Why? Because when I play a game, I try very hard to get engaged. And when I engage, as others can probably attest to, I engage. So, when I saw people idling, I believed that their presence didn't add any value to the game.

This may be true.

But the better perspective is examining the harm. While I could conceive of reasons as to why idling folks harm a game, none of them held water. Everyone engages at different levels, and expecting people to approach a game as I do was sort of foolish. After all, my level of engagement, reasonably, set me apart from others, and this was fine too.

So, I see otherwise now.

@tori

Pretty sure Apos is going to wake up one day and think: “why the fuck is everyone’s PC portrait that of a cat?”

@ghost said in Online friends:

The majority will not want you to have access to their home, spouses, or children.

To be fair, I don't want many of the people I know to have access to my home, spouse, or children, including people I consider my friends.

We all get to set our own boundaries.

@crawfish

Arx is a really lovely game, but the fact that it has inspired such lovely feline art sets it apart from just about any other game I have been involved with.

@roz said in FCs on Comic MUs:

You don't have to run PRPs to be a good fachead.

What you said here brought up two comments, not directed to or at you, Roz.

First, this is very true. Good faction heads are hard to find. Staff should not be quick to make these fac-heads staff because this converts them to staff, which entails different duties, obligations, and responsibilities on top of usually-unwarranted extra scrutiny. Pro-tip: do not convert good fac-heads to staff unless absolutely necessary.

Second, games with fac-heads need to give serious consideration to the use of redshirts/proxies/drones. These are player objects that are publicly available, and meant to be a proxy PC object for another PC, allowing them to appear, essentially, in two places at once. The use of these has been the subject of debate, but I would opine that these would be useful on superhero games for the reasons Lithium and Arkandel are discussing.

If Superman-player wants to have special private time with Lois Lane, that's perfectly okay. But he should not be ducking out of his Justice League meeting or RP obligations just to get his super-rocks on. Letting him use a redshirt to do private RP frees up his PC object to attend that important meeting or RP. This means Superman-player can accomplish two important objectives at once: (1) making sure his faction is active; and (2) making sure his relationship is on solid ground.

For staff, this also obviates the excuse of "well, I planned an IC date with Lois, so I couldn't make the meeting" or "I can't put enough time into my obligations because of the social/private RP I want to have to further Superman's character development." It makes scheduling things easier: you could feasibly be at two different, important events at once, and, so long as there's no alt or timing conflict, that could, again, mean that Superman is more active from the perspective of other players. Pro-tip: letting players use proxies increases their availability for RP with their PCs, which increases activity on the game.

@silverfox said in Critters!:

I don't know if this is allowed, but the first kitten is going to cost between 7-10 thousand dollars to get back on his feet. If you know of anyone looking to donate, let me know, and I'll shoot you the shelter's donate link.

These requests shall always be allowed so long as I'm here and an admin.

If you have a link to a GoFundMe page, go ahead and put it down here or anywhere else you want. Continue to blast on a daily basis. We don't agree on much here, but I think we all agree that fundraising for animals and others in need will always be encouraged and permitted.

Anyone who feels otherwise can PM me.

@bored said in FCs on Comic MUs:

I'm also not sure what third way you're implying here. Either you're a person who promotes and creates story, or you're a person who largely consumes it.

There are three types of players presented: (1) plot-runners; (2) story promoters; and (3) consumers. Plot-running is different than promoting story; story promoters are the sort of folks that RP with others often, provides entertainment for other players, and, on an OOC level, helps get new and old players involved in things. That's different than a plot-runner, who, as the identification suggests, actually runs plots or stories for people.

We're all consumers, so instead, I'll focus on the other two characteristics. From them, there are four types of people: (1) runs and promotes; (2) runs but does not promote; (3) does not run but promotes; and (4) neither runs nor promotes.

You want (1)s. (2)s come on board to run stories for others, but otherwise aren't around; these are rare, but I've seen them. I fall into (3)s mostly because I rarely run events (because of schedule and time), but when I'm on I try to involve as many people as I can. (4)s aren't necessarily bad to have, but you can't rely on them to keep going.

Just my opinion.

@arkandel

The story follows wuxia storytelling. It is a very East Asian way of putting a story together. Lots of awesome chop-socks action. A lot of laughter interspersed, thanks to the comic chemistry of Awkwafina and Simu Liu, who is no stranger to sitcoms.

But it is Tony Leung who eats up every scene. Both a gifted martial artist and romantic lead, he brings the same sort of gravitas to the main villain, Wenwu, as Michael Jordan did to Killmonger. That said, while Killmonger was motivated by rage and injustice, Wenwu is motivated by love and family.

To say that it probably resonates with Chinese more than non-Chinese goes without saying. But that the MCU did such a good homage to this style of movie is special. The special effects are amazing, of course, and if you don’t shed some tears, you probably have no soul. I took my eight year olds to see it, and they enjoyed it a lot.

Also, it runs 2 hours and 13 minutes, so it isn’t a slog.

@bored said in Regarding administration on MSB:

I'm still gonna go with 'a bunch of my (anonymous) friends agree with me!!' is always a bad argument.

I agree with @faraday, and I'm not anonymous.

That is, I agree with what's she's getting at.

I, by no means, know everyone, but I've come across a lot of players on games I am new to who either have never heard of this place or its previous incarnations or actively avoid it. Those that fall into the latter have rumors and stories, all of which are only partially true.

I have only been a moderator for a short few weeks, and it is overwhelming. Not that any members are particularly difficult to deal with -- to the contrary -- but what has come with it is a myriad of considerations and perspectives that I did not have to deal with before, and this sense of responsibility that I had underestimated.

I think I see what people are getting at. Activity is what keeps places like this alive, but it's not the only thing. One could blame IGU's demise to that, or see how it coincided with the rise of MMORPGs and console gaming.

I know what I'd like to see, so hearing a large number of voices and perspectives has been helpful. I would encourage more voices and opinions. I'm seeing people arguing with one another when there's really no need to argue; convincing one another of the weight or strength of an opinion seems pointless if the people who are supposed to be convinced aren't responding or engaging fully.

I can verify that there are people who believe as Faraday does, and who don't come by this place with their ideas for the reasons she's stated. I can't speak for why Faraday remains to voice her position, but I think it is because it's not just her position. As a person who is employed to speak for others, I can empathize with holding on and repeating what has been said because it needs to be said. Take that for what it's worth.

I think an Honest Review section is important. I think it needs to be watched carefully. I think the Hog Pit needs to remain as a check against pedantry and sophists. And I think that we need to be careful to keep the toxicity where it is supposed to be.

Still working on Rules v 2.0.

Look at how fucking toxic we are.

That looks awesome. Can’t wait to hear about the cool things you and your son will do with it.

Here’s a kitty.