@Auspice Okay I'm not the only one, thank gods.
When I read that this happened in my head:
@jibberthehut said in RL things I love:
@Auspice Yeah, you need like an 8 inch throat
to handle even quilting. It's why when I had money years ago, I got the Singer Quantum, because it had a really generous throat and I could do a queen with just some tight rolling and adjusting how I basted and pinned and dear god I just realized how dirty quilting sounds..blowjob.
@tek said in The Dark Side of online Role-Playing:
@Ghost You know someone is being fucking egregious when I'm agreeing with you.
Let's just call it: being glad you can identify who will back you up when seriously illegal stuff happens and call it a day.
I may not agree with everyone about specifics here and there, but at the end of the day I'll always prioritize their safety and their kids' safety, strangers or not.
@Auspice I went FWC because it got me the most time around Shohreh Aghdashloo's voice acting.
Her voice is magical.
@Derp said in The Dark Side of online Role-Playing:
Ultimately it probably won't change anything. But there are two distinct lines of thought in this particular thread, and that's probably at least worth discussing.
Or a spin-off thread about snooping on your kids.
This one really was supposed to be about online dangers to minors and not about the politics of monitoring your child's online behavior in a way that is healthy for them.
What We Do in the Shadows is amazing. Amazing.
I love Matt Berry, and I love me some Psychic Vampire.
@Pandora In my experience, asking "hey could we not" is often an opening to things that are bothersome, like guilting or negotiating or shaming.
When I say "could we not?" I'm not really saying "hey let's talk about this" but instead "I dont like this". So, I guess it would be better to just say: "I dont like where this is going and need to bow out".
One of the benefits explained in the whole X-Card thing is that it's a contract to not require explanation as to why the card was pressed. It's a contract that says "all you have to do is press the XCard and I'll just flow with it in a different directions, no questions asked."
Because who wants to explain to strangers personal past traumatic experiences or personal fears?
IMO the best part about the XCard is that if you contract to not pestering or requiring explanation going in, then everyone involved may be more likely to go "alright, cool, moving to something else" rather than taking it to an OOC pressure level.
@Lotherio The Vandals are great. Man, almost all of that Epitaph Records new wave punk pre Blink 182 era stuff is solid. Rancid, Nofx, Bad Religion, Offspring...
That was a good era of music.
@faraday Right.
I LOVE the effort you've put in and your attitude. I think you are 100% on-point as to how a game focusing on story over game-elements is run. FS3 is great for it. Focusing on getting players involved and everything? 100% on point.
My opinion is that implementing TTRPG systems into the hobby (WoD, SWRPG, etc) should ONLY be done if the game is being treated like an online TTRPG, which is not the same as a baseline MU. My opinion is that in providing the facade of using the system as a means of importance you're going to create a split playerbase of "story rpers" and "ttrpg players" that never mixes well.
In short, the crunchier the sheet/system, the more importance those elements need to distinguish players and their capabilities from each other.
@Aria HAHAHAH or Skid Row doing "Youth Gone Wild"
They called us Problem Child
My knees can't run a mile
I like my salsa mild
WE WERE THE YOUTH GONE WILD
Maybe I'm a dinosaur here, but this conversation has been going on for years.
Does anyone else remember mIRC or AOL RPG gaming? This got talked about a LOT because you'd have games that expected you to know the rules, have some convoluted notepad character sheet with a lot of "STRENGTH: 0000", and a lot of die rolling.
The end result was a number of side games called "Free Form RPG" where they did away with sheets altogether and turned everything into opposed d100 rolls.
It's pretty simple to me:
MU TTRPG=Uses the system.
MU Story RPG=Free form. Statless super hero games. Universal dice systems like FS3.
Back in the day the freeform people didnt mesh well with the WoD players, either.
Another one: Metallica in my friend's Honda CRV
This one was weird. Eons ago my friend and I used to drive around town in his black Honda CRV blasting metal music everywhere. We'd listen to Pantera, Megadeth, Suicidal, Corrosion, Slayer, etc with no issues.
The moment he put Metallica in the CD player the car just died in the desert on a stretch of highway about 2 miles from a gas station. Luckily it was night and we were able to call someone to come help us.
He got the car fixed. Put Metallica in again? Broke down.
Got rid of the car, got a new one, put Metallica in? Engine light.
He got a hold of me a few years back and said that for over 15 years he had a NO Metallica rule in his car and things were generally okay, but he actually broke down again and it just so happened to be that Metallica was on the radio.
Fuel my ass.
@faraday Counterpoint.
I gave this some thought a while back. I used to think the same thing that you just posted. What changed my mind about MU being writing is the following...
First, for a hobby about writing there sure is a lot of NOT writing. PBs have replaced character descriptions to the point where people have to race to pick up their favorite PB before it's taken. Some people are still into writing it all out and creating creative setting pieces on dug rooms, but it's not across the board. I'm sure there are other places (I'm just waking up), but there tends to be a lot of "move it along" and waiving of written description in lieu of pictures on a wiki.
Secondly, I think people speak of it as "collaborative writing", which i suppose it could be between specific players. As a whole? Its 20+ players all stabbing at similar plots with individual efforts and little coordination. I cant remember ever playing on a game where the plot outline was detailed beforehand and group conversations were had about necessary scenes, plot development, and who would be in charge of writing from X character's perspectives. I would say more so that players make a character and try to coordinate, but see @Pandora above; the end result isn't really intentionally collaborative writing as it might be described as "loosely collaborative storytelling environment where some characters are so clearly idealized extensions of the player that it can be difficult to do anything outside of what others want to happen". There is no chapter craft, no coordinated plot progression, and you could say that scenes are crafted, but most of the time (in Mu) a scene isnt something you go into with a point, but more to "see what might happen and it keeps going until someone gets bored or has to sleep". Turns are not taken in any form of novelization. A novel where every other paragraph is some writer taking a turn without pre-planning the content of said turn with the other author would be horrible. It reads differently.
So, I cant feel that this is evidence of actual writing, but a roleplaying hobby that considers it to be because they're emulating the style of writing. In truth, most published authors in the hobby have either left or consider their writing to be a separate entity from their RP hobby.
What happens in MU is something nebulous, but I would describe it more as a "text-based Second Life" before I describe it as being in the same vein as what Stephen King, Brandon Sanderson, or Jim Butcher (former MUer) do for a living.
In fact, the MU paragraph/turn style may hinder one's ability to get out of that mindset to make better, less purple, more impactful writing pieces. To be a writer, a MUer should get out of that MU mindset and dig into exactly what these novelists are doing, how it's done, and understand the importance of how those novels are put together. The writing style of an author/novelist is entirely different. There are no "poses", 8 paragraph purple prose entries are simply not novel quality no matter how much people think they are amazing, and the writing level of most contemporary writers targets the imagination of an adult at the reading comprehension level of an 8th grader.
So, counterpoint. I still agree with Mercedes Lackey. People can disagree with me as much as they want, but until someone publishes a 75000 word chapter of a 25000 word per scene log list of a MU that has 450 scenes, I'm gonna have to agree to disagree.
@Ganymede said in Pro Wrasslin':
You have to laugh at that guy, but appreciate his balls. He got the fuck beaten out of him by Browne, and half a dozen others that had to be held back.
I deeeeeeefinitely appreciate them balls. I mean, if you're looking to get your ass kicked, but want to do it in a place that won't get you killed, a room full of pro wrestlers and MMA fighters is a lot safer than, say, throwing some kind of shit bomb into a Hell's Angels bar.
But still. Bret???? Bret and Anvil Bret? Montreal Screwjob Bret? Calgary Hitmen Bret? Beloved brother to Owen, brother in law to Jim, Uncle of Natalya? Brother in law to Davey Boy Smith BRET??? REFLECTIVE PINK SUNGLASSES GIVEN TO A KID BEFORE EVERY MATCH BRET???
We love Bret and the Harts. If you don't you're just a bad person.
Dude shoulda yelled YOLO and drop-kicked Vince McMahon instead.
@TheOnceler I think you should go back to read the thread.
Somewhere past the "chugga" and "chugga" and "toot" and "toot" you'll find that the fuzzy bunnies comment was not written by me. You will also find that I agreed with the hyperbole that authors are concerned about cancel culture, which was agreed to by a published author.
What exactly are you wishing to achieve? If you want to be rude about which cultural approaches to counter culture are or are not valid, feel free to open your own Hog Pit thread about edgelords and books about duckies driving tugboats, please.
Keep it constructive.
The more you all talk the more it's becoming apparent to me that my SO is the dude in this relationship.
I'm constantly putting away her electronics because she thinks they'll be fine on a countertop next to a half empty glass of water. She's lost about 20 novels and 2 expensive gadgets because the cats like to play FUCK THAT GLASS OF WATER when it's next to something meant to keep nice.
No, baby, it will NOT be okay for the night. No I'm not being anal retentive. I am protecting you from your folly.
@Testament said in Well, this sums up why I RP:
@faraday Sheridan was better anyways than Sinclair.
Agreed. I'm partial to Sheridan taking those moments to equate hard work and Minbari relations to his love of baseball, or proselytizing on a lesson his father taught him when trying to explain abstract concepts to G'Kar.
@Auspice Saw a thing this morning that said the Easter Bunny is Jesus' Fursona lolol
@GangOfDolls Not disagreeing. Seems like bait to get into politics, which if I read last page of responses correctly, turned into just that.
I broke my 4+ month post abstinence merely to point out that I wasn't sure if people missed that he called it: "fighting charlie".
@insomniac7809 FUCKIN SEE?!?! They laugh at me, but there's some fun in this.
@insomniac7809 said in Emotional bleed:
If I don't feel things when I play a video game, it isn't a video game I'm going to be interested in.
I don't like this approach, and I'll expound as to why: We're not talking about just "feeling" things.
People like going to the circus because it makes them feel something. People like watching horror movies because being scared can be fun. People like Thanksgiving dinner because it makes them feel something. People like eating ice cream because there's fulfillment in it. People like putting dollars into the claw grabber machines knowing all the while it's a ripoff because it makes them feel something. There is not one thing that anyone does so in life because there is zero feeling/gratification in it. We're not robots performing tasks; every action taken is applied to FEELING something.
So I feel like this approach to the question of "emotional attachment and bleed" when it comes to online gaming and the emotional turmoils that come with that type of obsession shouldn't be written up as "If I don't feel anything it wouldn't be worth it to begin with".
FEELING something isn't the same as actuating trauma through a hobby. It's not people like you that I'm concerned about when it comes to these games. People like you and I do (did) this stuff because there was juice in the squeeze, but there are others who squeeze until it hurts, and maybe a little bit of upset when the squeeze stops hurting. There are plenty of players in the hobby that approach it with a balanced eye, but when the hobby causes emotional bleed that leaps off of the keyboard and into the RL/OOC realm in ways that aren't "darn, the claw grabber didn't get the Popeye doll; better luck next time" we then enter the realm of where things on the other side of the keyboard can go wrong.
So in that light I personally don't think this conversation should go in that direction. Example being stuff like the times someone's RL mental health resulted in conversations about suicide as the direct result of things that were (or weren't) happening IC. I've been there. Others have, too.