Posts made by Ganymede

@HelloRaptor said:

Because as long as they're trustworthy, there's no possible way their direct involvement could influence their calls.

I didn't deny the substantial influence that authority or affluence brings. That's always a threat. Transparency makes that threat more open. No policy will ever cause a sane person on a game to ignore the potential for abuse that staffers have.

That risk exists in tabletop, and will always exist where there's a Storyteller and no absolute rule of dice.

All I'm suggesting is that we stop calmly red-lining initiatives to give staff a little more faith as a matter of course. We've been kidding ourselves that we can curb abuses through policies or code.

@Sunny said:

The level of ugly is ridiculous.

Again, I'm a horrible person, but perhaps you should laugh about it with your older brother. Because nothing pisses off horrible people more than laughing at their horribleness. Except for me, of course: I'm a horrible clown. I want you to laugh along with me, as I pull you down to hell.

@Sunny

I'm sorry to hear you're going through a rough time. My advice is probably not something you should follow, but, having removed any semblance of empathy or a soul in exchange for a profession, I generally have nothing good to say about or to any person that has meaningless injured another.

You may want to remind your brother that families, unlike marriages, are not contracts.

You are a better person than I. I love my family, but I remember how they neglected to tell me that my cousin, with whom I grew up and went to school with, committed suicide until after the funeral.

@HelloRaptor said:

And set their own notes, and judge their own scenes. PVP even.

If it's just about trust, and you trust the people involved, these should be no problem. Maybe they aren't, to you. I personally see it as having to do with shit other than trust, but I appear to be in the minority here.

Sure. Make the +notes public. Make a 'log or it didn't happen' policy. Transparency helps to build trust.

Of course, no. Why do that? Let's just stick to the way we've been doing shit for years, pretending that players can't trust staff, and vice versa.

@Spawnblade said:

@Ganymede - I enjoy the idea of a multi-sphere world, but only when the spheres aren't isolated from one another. However, I do enjoy Vampire more than most spheres, even if some of the lore feels restrictive (never came to terms with the idea of playing a creature that was, in turn, playing at being human stuck in time, incapable of true change from its original personality.) Can't remember if Blood and Smoke loosened that a bit. I didn't know about that Off-Screen System. Just read up on it and find it quite interesting. Seems it would help lighten the load on staff while still aiding in fleshing out a true Vampire experience. Thanks for the recommendation!

No problem. If you have questions about the game, and I'm online, feel free to page me; I play Cai.

@HelloRaptor said:

Yeah. Storytellers bringing their own characters is a recipe for making other players feel awkward.

This can be true, but so can the opposite.

Might as well toss in and give it a shot. I concur with @Coin. The entire fucking game is about trust, and with the proper code and policies in place, there's no reason why staff can't set their own XP requests.

@Coin said:

We'll see what we can do to ameliorate this, but in general, this sort of thing is more of a player-side issue that needs to be addressed by players.

You're presuming this will occur, but staff can take steps to make it happen.

For the Werewolf sphere, for instance, if players are supposed to run one another's Hunts, then make that known. If there are events occurring that could cause Packs to rally and protect their territories harshly, make them known. A weekly announcement as to local goings-on could go a long way.

@Miss-Demeanor: I play Dana on Eldritch, and Cai on Kingsmouth. As Cai, I could really use some coterie-mates or a ghoul or thrall or two. PM for more information, if interested!

@Miss-Demeanor said:

The hardest part, for me, is finding RP outside of plots. A lot of people are still kind of... hiding away in private rooms or the OOC room and being generally unresponsive to prompts for RP.

I have found the same for Eldritch, but it existed at Reno as well. I am open to RPing and running scenes for anyone that comes along to take the invitation. Sadly, like on Reno, few have taken it up.

If you like Vampire, Requiem for Kingsmouth is probably your best bet. It has a good contingent of international players, so you'll find people there playing all day long. That's good for me, as I play during business hours a lot. They have an Off-Screen System drawn from Damnation City which I believe generates its own RP without taxing staff too badly.

@TNP said:

I just have to mention this oldie but a goodie that some of you have probably forgotten and others were lucky enough to not have heard of. Until today.

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2008/12/fan_ficition_friday_goku_and_anne_frank_in_until_t.php

Yes, you read that link address correctly. Dragon Ball Z and Anne Frank. Oh, yes. Hitler is in it too. Naturally.

My RL Anger stems from me being so incredibly stupid as to have opened that link, and read through the article.

@Roz said:

I think "let her try" is a pretty damn good philosophy. Because sure people love to say big things like "men are just built better at X than women," and maybe they are on average, but it also means there's a lot of instances where women are just not allowed to compete or qualify at the same level EVEN IF they're capable of it.

It's a good philosophy in sports. Golf was much more popular when Annika Sorenstam was around.

@BigDaddyAmin said:

It isn't the fact of where I am that is so bad as much as it is my colleagues telling me to be satisfied. I think if they were in my shoes they'd see it differently.

I think your colleagues should push you a little more -- not to be satisfied, but to be not satisfied. That's why successful companies offer benefits like paid education and the like, so that their employees feel like they are growing, even if their jobs are menial and repetitive.

Nothing is worse than feeling like one is taken for granted, and I sense that's what you're feeling. I'm sure you'll find a job that doesn't make you feel that way, in the same or a different field. MIke Rowe has some interesting thoughts about investing oneself into one's job, rather than seek others, but he'd probably be the first to admit that you ought not stay in a place that's actively holding you back.

@Roz said:

Or, you know, it's J. Willow Wilson, writer of the new (and acclaimed) Ms. Marvel and -- a woman.

People considered Dan Brown an "acclaimed" writer too.

I don't have much to add to that, but I think the explanation sounds trite and unnecessary.

I concur. USAA is awesome.

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

The Amazing World of Gumball.

Hell, yes.

@HelloRaptor said:

I didn't suggest any correlation between CEO pay and company performance, only that the influence that CEO has on company performance is significantly greater than that of any single worker or group of workers of the size discussed in most layoff situations, primarily because the scope of action and influence had by either is on a completely different scale.

You're right, that's not the same thing. Glitch is also correct; a really shitty CEO can take a company down no matter how proficient its workforce is.

What matters is that a working classical capitalist model posits that a company's workforce enjoy greater wages based on productivity. When wages increased commensurate with productivity, the United States's economy grew stronger and more robust. When this ceased being the case, in or around the late '70s, the country's began an inexorably debt death-spiral that it isn't coming out of, even now.

It's not about living wage: it's about paying your workers fairly based on their productivity. Unfortunately, no one honestly likes the idea of taking a pay cut when their performance is terrible, so they are willing to accept a consistent paycheck even if their productivity increases over time.

@Sunny said:

I have at least a dozen people in my office that I cannot stand. At all. They are, in my opinion, horrible people who should not only be fired, but should probably spend some time in the stocks with their claimants getting baskets of rotten fruit and vegetables. These are people that are genuinely doing awful things that are, unfortunately, just barely within the law. They know they're skirting the line, for the most part. They do it anyway because they're mean.

I hate insurance adjusters too. Luckily, the ones I work with listen to me. I've heard horror stories.

@tragedyjones

Does it matter? She's the ex for a reason, right?

@TNP said:

Without an OOC Masq, there's really no reason for the flag.

Additionally, if you have an OOC Masquerade, you should disable the +who command or make sure that it doesn't reveal a PC's location. Sure, that might make RP hunting difficult, but OOC MASQ YO.

@HelloRaptor said:

It pretty demonstrably does, for me, since the amount of bullshit I have to put up with whenever it's gotten turned off for whatever reason is almost completely absent when I have it on.

Admittedly, I didn't consider you in the equation, because any harassment you get is probably deserved.

@Silver said:

... and I think the very subject is being questioned from the wrong perspective.

This is the most important thing you said. If the conversation were made simpler, the opinions would be argued with greater clarity.

The "Unfindable" flag for a CharObject makes it difficult or impossible to determine where the PC on the Grid. It doesn't prevent harassment on channel, page, @mail, or otherwise. If you want a quick fix, there are other commands to prevent being communicated at without consent. If you want to address harassment, go to staff; that's their fucking job.

That flag also makes it difficult for people you don't know to find and interact with your PC. If this is because you want to RP through a scene with others uninterrupted, then you can get a +temproom, if those are permitted, or tell people coming in to fucking go away. If intervening PCs throw up the old "it's a public place" bullshit, go elsewhere and pretend you're back at that place at which the scene was to unfold. If you don't want to be contacted ICly, then go OOC or disconnect.

The reasons for why people employ the flag are myriad, but the effect is basic. As far as I can tell, it's a pointless device.