Posts made by Ganymede

@Pandora

To be fair, it may be reasonably argued that lawyers are, in fact, poxes on society.

@surreality

Villains are always more interesting than heroes.

Of course you aren’t a villain for protecting yourself, but even if you were neither I nor any reasonable person would find fault with your decision.

@surreality said in Our Tendency Towards Absolutes:

Welp, I guess we've come back around for me being the bad guy for not wanting to be around someone who, within the past month, went off on an utterly divorced-from-reality and entirely personal abusive rant at me, and topped it off by mocking the medical circumstances that are totally fucking up my family's lives for the next decade, it being the last decade my elderly folks probably have.

The Joker is much more interesting than Batman anyway.

@Arkandel said in Fandom and entitlement:

But also some people are very weird about stuff others like; I have folks on Facebook who take a weird kind of pride in the fact they don't watch Game of Thrones, or don't care about basketball.

We have a word for people who hate things that others enjoy, but which they don't understand: evangelist Christians.

@Rinel said in Good TV:

Does Lucifer have Mazikeen in it, and if so, how does she deal with the whole half-rotting-face-mushy-garbled-speech thing?

They don't. It's probably a good thing as well. I didn't read many of the comics, but I can tell you that Mazikeen is part of the entertainment factor of the series.

@Auspice said in Fandom and entitlement:

Part of why I got rid of my Facebook is I was tired of being bullied for enjoying sports.

Not to derail, but who the fuck bullied you for enjoying sports? As far as I know, if you're into dudes, have breasts, and like sports, you're a fucking unicorn that every man would want to saddle up and take for a ride.

As for fandom, I'm of the opinion of fuck fans you don't owe them shit. Fans may give you a base from which to vault your creative IP into fame, but that's not why Game of Thrones did well whereas The Shannara Chronicles did not.

And just when I was considering canceling the Netflix.

@Auspice

I understand the desire.

There was a time when I didn't have such a familial connection. It took some time to build it up again. Around 20 years ago, to say that I was the estranged black sheep of the family would be an understatement.

It took 10 years for my brother to convince me to spend one-on-one time with him again. My partner encouraged it; she always had a tight family that relied on one another. I don't regret doing that, but in those 10 years of relative silence, my brother only wanted to chat, and never demanded anything from me.

When my kids were born, my parents wandered back in. Before, I would see them once a year when they swung into town; now that they are swinging back out, I know that I will miss them. But, again, they never asked anything of me. They knew better than that.

I am concerned for that hope, desperation, and envy. Those are three things that I don't really know any longer: not because my family and I are close now, but because my vindictiveness made it difficult to conceive of any of those emotions as it may relate to my family.

Just be careful.

@Arkandel said in Good TV:

Is it good? I stopped around the start of season 2, it had gotten a bit too procedural for me.

It starts to get really interesting in Season 2, in my opinion. The characters have a bit more character to them, if that makes sense. The writers are unafraid to wander into the absurd, as comic books go, so there is as much laughing as nail-biting.

My partner really isn't into comic book movies but she is obsessed with Tom Ellis and his misadventures. And I could really watch Lauren German all night long.

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

And every. single. time. they seem to think I'm on-call to help them with this 'brilliant plan' of theirs and my fucking god I am sick of it.

As it seems clear to me that your family doesn't give a shit about your emotional needs and well-being, I am still at a loss as to why you bother to even respond to them.

I'm really enjoying Lucifer more than I thought I would.

@Coin said in Poll: Do I enjoy this hobby more than I don't?:

I enjoy it now because I don't do it as much or with as much focus.

This is where I am at right now.

I want to love it more, but I don't. I have other interests and responsibilities now, but it is really nice sometimes to sit in a darkened living room, and type away happily while sifting through news articles.

@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

I think it's inappropriate, regardless of profession, to equate roleplayed sex out to real life sex. That part of the premise is what I disagree with.

I think it is inappropriate too, but I remember a time when players literally flipped their shit when they found out a player that they had "staked out" as their territory dared to engage in TS with someone else under an alt.

I remember a time when someone flipped their shit at me for doing this.

I don't think either of us have time for that kind of shit, and I don't think staff should be concerning themselves with that possibility either.

@surreality said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

I think this also goes both ways; it informs players of something that they cannot demand staff to provide for them. That's a non-trivial protection for members of staff, and cements their right to say 'no' as well, even to players who have firmly adopted a 'you are here to provide a service for me and give me the scenes I ask for' mentality.

This as well. Ethical rules are often as much a shield as a sword.

@Tempest said in Our Tendency Towards Absolutes:

So, the reasons behind what Sparks is talking about, have nothing to do with what Sparks is talking about?

I think Sparks is criticizing the mentality that all staff are bad by default, and how this is deleterious in the hobby.

I think Too Old For This is explaining that bad staffers don't get the boot as often or quickly as bad players, presuming an equal level of badness.

Both positions can be correct, so I wouldn't respond either, except to say perhaps that the observation is true, and if one's experience has been so bad that one cannot trust any staffer than maybe this hobby is more trouble than it's worth.

I have a very strong opinion about staff NPCs that end up TSing PCs. This could be because of my profession.

I mentioned before that an ethical staffer shouldn't be limited in what they do; however, what constitutes an "ethical" staffer varies from person to person. We have tossed phrases like "ethical" and "abuse" without really giving much in the way of definition, but what I think everyone can agree with is that a staffer: (1) needs to have a set of ethics to constrain their inherent power on a game; and (2) a staffer can use their inherent power on a game that can hurt another player.

People that work professions that either require or often create strong emotional or personal ties are ethically constrained from engaging in sexual relations with their clients. It doesn't matter if that professional is kind, gentle, or ethical, as others would use that word: they are in a position which is of such power or connection that the profession binds the professional to avoid any potential abuse. And while it is a stretch to suggest that a staff member on a game is akin to a doctor or a lawyer in their relationship with any player, it is not as much of a stretch to point out that players are often dependent upon staffers for their engagement with a game.

I am of the opinion that a blanket ban, while constraining the otherwise-ethical staffers in how they may engage with players, provides a baseline of behavior -- an ethical rule -- that can inform or assuage players as to what sort of RP staff may press them into. Were I to run a game, I would probably insist on such a ban. While many good stories may be cut short or snipped by such a rule, I would point out that players can RP NPCs that can engage in TS in a PRP.

And, yes, while I recognize that staff are also players, I cannot overlook how staff have powers and duties beyond players.

@Tempest said in Our Tendency Towards Absolutes:

My problem, and IMO, the core toxicity destroying the hobby, isn't that MU staff can be shitty or that players are entitled … . It's how dishonest, tribal, and defensive they (and everybody else in this hobby) are, and how incapable of taking a look in the mirror and holding themselves and their friends accountable they are., nevermind accepting outside criticism.

My ribs still hurt from the irony.

You're not wrong, though; you are right. We don't look in the mirror often enough. We are full of faults. And we are often unwilling to hold our friends to the same standards that we hold strangers.

And we are human.

I'm not sure how any of this has to do with what I believe Sparks is talking about, which may be why she casually walked around what Too Old for This was saying. But I would approve and support of a measure that holds staff to a higher standard of conduct than players by virtue of their positions.

@Sunny

What are "reduction of harm" policies?

@Wretched said in Game of Thrones:

I want Maisie Williams as a hardcore action star kicking the ass of (or kicking ass along side) people like Jon Bernthal. Not 100% sure why but i could def see her as a badass murdery action star.

As far as I know, she's still signed on to play Ellie in the proposed live-action version of The Last of Us.

@krmbm said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

I object to staffers using NPCs - special characters with access to shit regular players can't get (whether that's abilities, connections, information, whatever) - as their personal PCs, and justifying it by saying "it's just an NPC."

That sounds like unethical conduct to me, which makes it fall outside of whether sex and romance should be in the toolkit of an ethical staffer running a plot for someone.

@Testament said in The Basketball Thread:

I'm going to be fucking salty for months.

I don't see why.

The Bucks will have Giannis at the end of the day. Middleton and the other free agents would be stupid not to resign. There remains a substantial chance that Leonard goes elsewhere, so this is probably Toronto's only shot.

Bucks fans have many more chances to see their team raise the trophy. Toronto does not.

Everyone loves an underdog.

Keep doubting, folks, and I'll keep the faith. It was unlikely that the Raptors got this far, but they are better than Portland.