Best posts made by Ganymede

@Misadventure said:

Based in my one second research, 1 in 6 children have a learning disability.

What is the definition of "learning disability"? I don't consider "having shitty parents" to be a "learning disability."

@collective said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:

I had rather assumed that this wasn't the old WORA and that constructive conversation is allowed and welcomed, even when people don't (and won't) agree. If not, obviously I'm in the wrong place.

You're not offering constructive conversation by asking rhetorical questions.

I think you've answered your own questions. Several times. For example:

Okay, so why is bigotry different in that a player should have to put up with it on a non-consensual basis?

You don't. If a game clearly informs a player that THERE BE BIGOTRY HERE, ARRR!! you can elect not to make a PC there, and move on. If you are confronted with this, you could ask the offending player to stop or cut RP off there, filing a complaint if necessary.

I have seen precisely zero people who have suggested you just sit there and take it.

If your character can't get sick without consent, or can't have their IC house burn down without consent, what makes it okay for the players of those characters to have to sit through abusive language and situations based on race, orientation, etc?

See above answer.

You don't.

I haven't, and I don't plan to.

@Auspice said in Cheap or Free Games!:

I'd never played Starcraft before. Rather than giving me any modicum of a tutorial, suggestions, or even 'play single player for a bit and then join us,' they brought me into their games... refused to answer my questions, crushed me, and then made fun of me for it.

This one time, my buddies got me to play Battlefield 1942 on a LAN. Never played it before.

Best game ever for newbs. Even if you don't know what you're doing, thrrr's something fun in pounding a shore with battleship guns.

@derp said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Honestly? I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't know what's safe, or what realistic goals should be. Total noob in this area. It's a weakness that I would like to fix, because I'm not 20 anymore and it's starting to become an issue. But it was never an issue before, so I spent no time learning this, compared to other things that required my attention.

Under these circumstances, I would propose that your best trainer is a friend who knows what they're doing.

Working out has to be fun when you're starting out, I think. When I started, I was with my brother. I followed him around from machine to machine, and, in between his sets, he watched mine. We bonded over the sessions, and it really made it more of a social event. That helps block out that overriding message in your brain when you're on your own -- namely: it's just you now, bubba.

So, consider that.

I'd recommend going to a big, public place, like a LA Fitness or YMCA or whatnot. I have never gotten much out of smaller, trainer gyms. I've found that those trainers are really good, but there's an expectation that you can do some of the more basic things, whereas trainers at larger places are used to dealing with the elderly, the obese, etc. (Not to say that you are either of these, but that these trainers are used to dealing with folks who are just starting for the first time.)

If you've got an ankle injury, I'd suggest also thinking about mobility and flexibility goals. This will help you for strength training too. Here's a neat video of some of the stretches that I like before hitting the weights. It's also quick, so you could probably do these once or twice a day.

@faraday said in Code systems that make it easier to get on with the business of roleplaying:

The FS3 combat system enables storytelling in mass combats if that's your jam.

This.

@Faceless said in General Video Game Thread:

I will also will go on to make the claim that Tactics has the best immersive, instrumental soundtrack of any FF game.

Mm ... no, can't agree. FF 6 takes it for me.

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

Allegiance got mixed reviews because it's a middling show at best. I'M SORRY.

Don't be sorry! That's your opinion. But when I throw Allegiance up against Miss Saigon, there's no comparison -- not for me, anyway. One is an embellished story about Japanese internment camps, and the other is a glorification of white saviors presented in an orientalist, misogynistic way. One has Lea Salonga in a dramatic lead role that holds the plot together, and the other has her as a wilting female stereotype.

I get that there's a lot to be said about THE SPECTACLE in musical theatre, and I agree that Jay Kuo's score is underwhelming. That said, the only reason I can still remember anything I heard in Aladdin is because I've seen the movie many times (and Courtney Reed is just awful as Jasmine, perhaps only because Lea Salonga (did I mention her again?) defined the role).

When Casey Affleck beats out Denzel Washington in Fences for Best Actor, I begin to see how the suspicions arise. When a sexual harasser beats out muthafuckin' Denzel Washington in an iconic role that he DESTROYS and Harvey Weinstein can keep a career, the entertainment biz can kind of shut the fuck up about trying to represent or be fair to minorities. Racism is still alive and well, and, in my opinion, it is up to the critics (the published ones, as opposed to the audience) to frame things in a proper light. Audiences, in the end, write their reviews by showing up or not; however, the critics need to see things with perspective because of their privilege.

Yes, there's some bitterness in me. (I've been turned down three times because I didn't fit into predominantly white shows.)

So, for me, Allegiance isn't just an important story, but also an important stepping stone, if not an iconic one. It is a show, essentially, by Asian Americans about Asian Americans at a time when being Asian American could get you killed. I believe it deserved more than 111 performances, where Miss Saigon got almost 4,100 in London and the best chance for an Asian American in musical theatre to get a role is to hope for a revival of Flower Drum Song. And even if is empirically and musically middling, it deserved better. I mean, Oh! Calcutta! had ten times the number of performances on its initial run.

Anyhow, I can't legitimately argue against your opinion. I respect it. But I want to leave this article for your consideration, and hope that maybe you'll change your mind about it.

@roz

From Matt Lauer’s debut album.

@Thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

Two words:

Mass.

Effect.

Three words: Available for PS4.

Six more: The Last of Us Part 2.

@Misadventure said:

@Ganymede In my one second of research I went with the definition as a statistically significant deficit in some common educational activity such as mild dyslexia, delayed speech dev, sociopathy, ADD, affective disorders. Downs, and not situational factors such as living in a war zone, displaced, foster child, Texas.

Aside from Down's, many of the disorders identified above can be caused by shitty parenting at formative periods. So, if a child is an asshole, you can probably blame the parents safely.

@saosmash said in The limits of IC/OOC responsibility:

When we ran our Mass Effect game, we had staff npcs in charge of our mercenary company for a long time (although one of them eventually turned out to be the Shadow Broker, spoilers). It worked pretty well although I always wanted players to feel more free to go out and just do things than they were.

Def. I can see this working out well! Also, NPC leaders can spit out plot-foo for PCs to work with. That said --

@arkandel said in The limits of IC/OOC responsibility:

Once again I will mention resource management. It's the real missing piece from politics on MU*; without it granting favors, making meaningful political decisions and maintaining friends (or creating enemies) due to the cost of your choices bears a lot less weight. If you have such a system then it opens a lot more venues for alliances and out-maneuvering others.

I have been saying this since RfK 1.0 shut down.

An effective resource management system gives a player something to do with his or her PC that can be completely separate from what staff is cooking. Said another way, putting the means of meaningful production (of RP) and the enjoyment of tangible benefits (of RP) in the hands of players motivates their private interests, which only strengthens the game as a whole.

@tinuviel said in Is Min/Max a bad thing?:

So to answer this, and basically all other "Is X bad?" questions, the answer is "it depends."

And what it depends on is whether the players involved are dipshits.

No matter what is good or bad in a game, every gaming experience can and will be ruined by dipshits.

Choosing your party wisely means picking the best players, not the best builds.

@roz

I guess, were I to put my finger on one thing that critics seemed to hook onto, it would be exemplified in this article from the Village Voice.

Allegiance faced a huge struggle in trying to pair its somber historical truths with its essentially cheery escapist form. In the end, that slippage was more visible to audiences than either the history or the good cheer. Onstage, internment camp life often seemed sparklingly clean and jolly, despite dialogue cues to the contrary; dramatic conflicts tended to crop up arbitrarily, in lumpy patches, with a particularly unwieldy lump shoved in all too hurriedly at the end. These were the honest mistakes of honest craftsmen striving to say something that mattered deeply to them. But on Broadway you pay for your mistakes, honest or otherwise, at the box office.

While every word is probably true, what Allegiance's detractors do not highlight is how this "slippage" was more-than-likely not a "mistake" by an honest craftsman but a deliberate demonstration of the confusion faced by Japanese Americans who were, by and large, loyal to American ideas. To me, there were no arbitrary dramatic conflicts: I understood the reasons for every single one. And, in my opinion, it is important for a critic to understand, appreciate, and even, at times, explain what might seem to be inexplicable to the reader.

(I am at once reminded at how my partner and I had to explain the "plot" in Cats to an elderly couple from Pittsburgh sitting behind us this summer seeing that show.)

If there is a problem with the book or story, it is probably that too much is expected of the audience when it comes to understanding the familial context from which the stories arise. Does the audience understand why the grandfather's fighting for Japan in the past is important? Or why the father's moving to the United States is important to know? These are cultural cues which are not explained, but which mean so very much when breaking down the final 10 minutes of the show.

And, damn, if I wasn't openly crying when Takei did so.

So, we are at loggerheads. I saw a fantastic show. I think this is what is so very lovely about musical theatre, personally.

@thenomain said in The limits of IC/OOC responsibility:

I think the tripping point of people who use the phrase "ICA=ICC" is that they very often ignore that "ICC" comes from people with a far broader understanding of the game world than the character. They have understanding of interactions that never ground in the game, but still affect the game.

Broadly speaking, there are two rationales for using "ICA=ICC."

The first is to remind players that they must expect consequences for certain choices in the game world. This is reasonable.

The second is to force an outcome on a player's PC against his or her wishes, even if its etiology is sound. This is not always reasonable.

The line is blurred between these uses because players don't always take a moment to consider whether or not an outcome should happen.

@seraphim73

Yeah, the census command is awesome. It allowed me to create a character that was pretty unique, even on a game with a standard set of action skills for particular roles.

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

The problem with critics, is the fuck they know what /I/ like. They are presenting an opinion piece, that's it, their opinion is not any more valid than mine or anyone else's.

But it really should be.

I expect my critics to tell me something more than what I can see for myself. Just like a teacher or professor, I want their piece to be more than an opinion. I want it to be an educated opinion.

They are being paid, most of the time, for presenting something more than "I liked it."

@surreality said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

Players being considerate of other players wanting to have a chance to become involved actually would have helped a hell of a lot more.

Or, you know, staff stepping in and telling people: stop fucking hogging everything you asses.

@ZombieGenesis

It was called Match if the Millennium.

I think modifying FS3 is the best way to go because it has a combat engine that can pit you against NPC bots without the need for staff. And it is as fun as you might think.

Go for a spotless record. Beat up all the NPCs you want, or get beat down by them. Don’t matter; have fun.

@thenomain

Start learning Ares. ^.^ I'm abandoning a custom system. I want to steal everything wholecloth from Faraday.

@faraday said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

Lack of care is certainly a problem, no question. I get around that in my FS3 combat games by just flat-out skipping people if they don't pose by the 15-minute turn limit. They can catch-up pose next turn if they like, or just be moving positions/aiming/frozen/whatever for a turn.

I don't think you can compare FS3 and WoD Combat for many reasons. The biggest one is FS3's lack of "initiative"; everyone goes at the same time, and the combat engine takes the pre-set "preferences" indicated by each player (weapon used, target, attack-type, etc.) and finds the results lickety-split. In WoD, each person gets a turn in sequence, and, unless that person is actively engaged, they aren't always going to do this quickly; even if each player took 5 minutes to choose their action, roll for it, and pose, a 6-person combat moves at the glacial speed of 30 minutes per turn.

And no, many people don't just queue this shit up. I do, but that's because I'm awesome.

@lisse24 said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

I gotta agree with others in that one of BiTN's weeknesses (as much as I loved that game) was it's sandboxiness and reliance on plot. It might be cool to combine the underlying theme with a territory code similar to RfK's to keep play happening and things moving.

A territory/resource management system is going to be cornerstone of whatever I end up doing.