Posts made by Ganymede

@Miss-Demeanor said:

Gany: When I say 'sphere-wide plot' I mean 'metaplot for a sphere', as in, the major story arc for a sphere. And I say 'should' because I know that such things HAVE been handed to players before. Never saw it end well, but its happened.

I think I understood what you said. Just because you did not see it end well does not mean it is a bad idea.

What I envision is dividing up a sphere-wide plot into tiny pieces, which a player can easily run on their own. They can be events; they can be actual stories; they can be whatever. Staff can manage that, and pitch in where necessary.

It just requires some coordination and leadership. So maybe it is something we ought not consider.

@Miss-Demeanor said:

Because your player run plots aren't advancing sphere plots or (hopefully) metaplots. STAFF should be running those things, not players. Staff should have that inside information, not players. That should be a Staff ST's entire job, handling the plots that cannot or should not be handled by players.

This is not categorically true or untrue. Players generally expect that staff will handle sphere-wide plots, but this does not have to be the case. And staff does not need to reveal inside information in order to operate a sphere-wide plot. So, I disagree that sphere-wide plots must be run by staff only.

I have for a long time suggested the implementation and use of staff-sanctioned modules. These are plots that are drafted up by staff, with bits of information in them that may be discovered by the players through the plot. Players can easily run modules, and be unaware of over-arching themes or a meta-plot that is shown when you put the modules together.

You use the word "should" a lot, and I have to ask "why." It's not because I'm trying to be obtuse or childish, but because I think we ought to challenge the "should" and wonder: "what if?"

@Miss-Demeanor said:

Are you going to start giving your Admins and TL's xp for doing jobs?

Of course not. But if you are going to award players with XP for running plots, then why should staff not be able to gain XP for running plots?

I concur with Sunny's sentiment that staff should not enjoy rewards that players can't or don't.

@Arkandel said:

So they'll happily go gobble down pounds of meat harvested from less exciting animals systematically living their lives under truly horrible conditions and reward the people doing this by paying for that meat, but ohno that one lion.

I can accept people killing and eating animals. I reject the idea of hunting and killing for sport.

@VulgarKitten

Around it? Sure. In it? Fuck no.

Damned buggers get caught in my teefers.

@Coin said:

@Ganymede said:

@Arkandel said:

What do you hope to gain with it? What's the goal, that is?

@Sunny has already stated that she wants to return to an older system of governance. I can't say that I disagree.

Not really a responsive answer.

Not a good question. Vague antecedents led to misunderstandings.

@Arkandel said:

What do you hope to gain with it? What's the goal, that is?

@Sunny has already stated that she wants to return to an older system of governance. I can't say that I disagree.

@Miss-Demeanor said:

Everything went to player-run (or Staff-run through player bits), which some people used to game the system for bunches of extra XP. I believe she's trying to halt that before it starts.

Why is this a problem?

@Roz said:

I love bacon as much as the next person, but I don't want it in my fucking cookies.

I concur. If you want some extra crunch in there, go use cricket flour, and don't skimp on the crickets.

@VulgarKitten

Telling people they are stupid is the whole point to these otherwise pointless forums. If I don't suddenly become possessed of some horrible, vicious invective, I'll lose my cred card.

I'm biased. That crunchy satisfaction has resulted in gum pockets. They hurt.

I'm with @Admiral. I'm sick of people putting bacon on everything. Try something else. Otherwise, you're offending what I have of hipster sensibilities, you imagination-less fuck.

@Templari said:

@Ganymede said:

Bacon is a stupid man's flavor additive. There are plenty of better, tastier, cheaper substitutes.

You. Off my planet. Now.

I did not say I didn't like bacon. I love bacon.

I'm saying that only stupid people use it as a flavor additive. Because, frankly, there are better, cheaper, tastier choices out there. There's nothing bacon adds to a dish that salt and lard couldn't accomplish.

For instance, in an omelet, I prefer chorizo over bacon. Around here, chorizo is a fair bit cheaper.

@Admiral said:

My real beef is with bacon. I am so, so, so sick of people putting it on everything.

Bacon is a stupid man's flavor additive. There are plenty of better, tastier, cheaper substitutes.

@Arkandel said:

But my main reason is that machines tend to isolate a single muscle, which is inferior - and somewhat dangerous - compared to compound exercises which work out and strengthen more than one muscle group at a time.

It depends on what machines you're using. Cable-based machines are safe, and probably the best way to hit the groups I need and want to hit. It's kind of hard to do lat pulldowns at home without a machine.

At home, I used free-weights and did bodyweight training, as previously specified. Many of my TBT exercises were compound.

Went back to the gym after 2.5 years of home-gym exercise.

I'm finding that interval sets really hurt on machines.

I'm fucking getting old. Shit.

@Jaded said:

My dad is a big wrestling fan and I remember going to Wrestlemania VI with him when I was 10 and meeting Roddy Piper. He really was such a great entertainer and as a fanfreaking kid, I thought he was just fantastic. After the show he gave me a high five and an autograph. One of my best childhood memories.

Piper was so awesome that Ronda Rousey asked him for permission to use his nickname. His passing probably spurred her to shave 5 seconds off of Rousey's epic beatdown of Correia.

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

And how do you propose to rein in players whose first impulse in any confrontation is to leap to the combat dice?

Social penalties may be used to dissuade physical confrontations. No one likes to deal with a bully. If the game has a working political/influence/status/social system in place, known violence may be accompanied by rumors and negative impacts.

Also, judicious staff NPC beatdowns.

@Derp said:

Spoiler Alert: The United States is not a democracy.

Spoiler Alert: it never was.

@Roz said:

I am pro-mage rights 4 EVAR and literally feel dirty if I ever side with the Templars in any major way in the games, but I could still empathize with the fact that he was a slave who suffered horrific abuses and was mentally, emotionally, and physically scarred as a result, and who was trying to learn how to make his own choices after a lifetime of having no choice.

I didn't say it was impossible to empathize with Fenris; I said it was difficult.

Fenris was enslaved and experimented on by a Tevinter Magister. Everyone hates the Tevinter Imperium, so it was easy to externalize that hatred. But Fenris doesn't hate the Imperium; he hates mages.

His anger, to me, is akin to a generalized hatred for one class or another based on a particular choice, which I personally find stupid. Moreover, if you want to be a generally good person, you spend plenty of time trying to distinguish individuals from groups; for example, Saemus' and Ashaad, that whole quest with the saarebas, and the remnants of the Starkhaven Circle. Fenris' simplification of the issue seemed childish, which, perhaps in context, was fine or the writers' polemic.

In the end, I found him whiny and pointless, and I enjoyed killing him. How dare he speak out against my Merrill.

As for Squall: I don't have to like him to like FF8.

@HelloRaptor said:

See, I don't usually have a problem with those characters, in general. But I think maybe he reminded me too much of Squall in Final Fantasy 8, who I most defs did despise in almost every possible way.

Yes, but you're also retarded, and not in a cute-and-quirky way like Corky.

Fenris's anger was hard to empathize with. I think this is mostly because his plight is overshadowed by how the storyline leans in favor of Mages, in my opinion. No matter how I played, I eventually sided with the Mage's plight, rather than take the position that Mages ought to be purged.

And, yes, this may be because I adored Merrill. But I like cute things.

So, shut the fuck up, Corky.

@BetterJudgment said:

... are supported by someone (@Ganymede) who people actually respect ...

To be fair, I wasn't supporting @HelloRaptor's prerogative to be an asshole. I said that it's more important to focus on one's ability to express oneself accurately than to another's choice of how to interpret that expression. This was to defend my excusal of my own leanings towards dark, mocking satire or comedy.

I mean, if we want to talk about cancer and suicide, how it has taken special people from me and the people I love, and how I use dark humor to shield myself from the awfulness of reality, then let's go for it. I found @HelloRaptor's comment quite tame compared to what I've said in real life to others.