Best posts made by Ghost

Had a sudden realization today.

Between living in a state that regularly hits over 105 degrees (and rarely gets below 70 in winter) and my job altering the dress code to allow for cargo shorts and birkenstocks...

...I just realized that I don't think I've actually worn pants in about a year and a half. I can't remember the list time I wore a pair of jeans. I actually don't know where the jeans I own are right now because I haven't gone looking for them in my closet in a while. I've been working at home for the last 9 months straight and technically a pair of cargo shorts are now my "getting stuff outside of the house" done pants, and have been living near exclusively in baskeball shorts, a raccoon onesie, and my underwear for 8 or so months.

So weird.

I love the idea of a WoD bar event that is speed dating with mortals, changelings, werewolves, and vampires.

• Changeling is looking for a widow to siphon sadness juice out of
• Werewolf is seeking Kinfolk who don't know that they're kinfolk because Father Wolf demands the seed is spread
• Vampire is seriously looking for a 20-something AB Negative with insecurity issues because that's all she can drink and the last one died in a firebombing.
• Mortal is looking for a mature, fun-loving single adult who wants a monogamous relationship. Fan of hockey, pickleball, bocce ball, and HBO TV series a serious plus.

Aaaaaaaaand let the cameras roll.

These Fremen have become water-fat and weak. Mua'dib's name is no blessing. It is a curse.

@Derp The inherent argument in the word "wrongfun" is that someone is being shamed.

People tend to use wrongfun as a way of saying "this person is going over the line and attacking me for liking something that they don't, which is none of their business, and thus something cruel is being done to me."

Objectively, people should be able to discuss why they dislike something or why it isn't permitted. They should be able to do so with explanations and logic. Wrongfun tends to get called when either the complainer is making their complaint in "Asshole Tone" (making it feel like an attack), or because the person complained against wants to rush to get ahead of the narrative and claim the dislike of what they're doing is a bias-based attack.

Fun stuff.

Anyway...

I think wrongfun is a bullshit term, as well.

@cobalt The feelings of isolation, alienation, and impostor syndrome that come with this hobby and it's insane social constructs are normal. Almost every person who I've talked to who stopped playing MUs and stopped caring about the 'social scene' are living much more fulfilling day to day lives with a lot less drama and feelings of low self esteem. Myself included.

Realizing that people are ultimately replaceable and years of effort amounts to nothing kept is key. Everyone's life deserves to build and grow. This hobby is just...treading water and calling "had less drama that one week" as a victory. After years I really have come to the conclusion that the amount of time people spend in this particular hobby takes a heavy impact on their emotional and social health. Many who I talk to who quit the games agree that even socializing with non-MUers is strange after coming out of the cave; that it took them a while to properly communicate outside of the hobby due to the echo chamber impact to their social skills.

Take this as an opportunity to get out there and create something, grow, and connect with regular people without these extreme social abnormalities. It's HEALTHY and it feels good.

I recommend:

• Online D&D/Etc groups over discord
• Online writing clubs
• Take up stuff like disc golf or a tactile hobby like knitting
• Stop watching the news so regularly if you haven't yet. Little headlines are fine but all of the propaganda on Facebook, CNN. FOX, etc is designed to cause emotional impact. In some way this stuff is poisonous.

BE HAPPY. ENJOY IT.

@Thenomain said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

@Arkandel said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

Wrongfun may be used incorrectly but there's nothing wrong with the word itself.

Like there's nothing wrong with the swastika when used for its original purpose.
(Oh yeah, I went there.)

RED ALERT. RED ALERT. NOW HEAR THIS.

THENOMAIN HAS INITIATED DAEDELUS PROTOCOL. REPEAT: THENOMAIN HAS INITIATED DAEDELUS PROTOCOL.

lol.

Ohhhh no. I know for a FACT Blue Steel will stop shuriken.

But posting some dumb picture of a sunrise every morning and gushing about how blessed I am doesn't make it any more or less likely that I will one day die by a freak hunting accident.

@Kitty-Kat What you did was brave and cathartic, and in that I salute you. It's not easy to do this sort of thing.

Having said that, there are people in the hobby who have done far, far worse than you have who wouldn't be so brave to do what you've just done. For that reason, I'm going to advise you to not throw yourself at the feet of the gray concept that the mush community is.

@Kitty-Kat said in Not even sure what to title this, but here goes..:

I spent time in constant denial as I spent 2 years or so being dragged through the mud by MSB (pun intended, kinda?).
At least, that's how I saw it. While not everything I've been accused of is true...

Identifying the darker aspects of yourself and wanting to be better in real life and online is a noble pursuit. Know yourself always and understand why you went down that road to begin with. You owe these people nothing. This cathartic turn you've taken you owe to yourself. Be who you want to be for the best reasons and you'll rarely feel shame.

However, there is a bit of a sickness in some corners of the community. In a very "V taking the TV station hostage to have a little chat way", it probably deserves a better discussion, but you are in no way the epicentre problem. You, like many people, just got caught up in the same rush of negativity that others have been caught up in for years. It's seductive. It can be rewarding, vindicating, and often cruel.

Anyway, you don't need nor require my approval. As a fellow person, I just wanted to say I feel what you wrote and tell you to not beat yourself up about it. Understanding the symptom and getting off the shitty behavior train is excellent, but don't throw yourself at the mercy of the court as the villain. In some cases, your behavior was just parallel to some other behaviors in the court itself.

Promote positivity and others not going down the same path that made you feel guilty, and above all, I hope you feel better as a person. You're gonna be just fine.

PS. You owe no one anything. Dont let people make you their penance case.

Edit: Typos. Because 1:30am and a few beers.

@Thenomain said:

THE NOn-MAskable INterrupt

A non-maskable interrupt (NMI) is a hardware interrupt that cannot be ignored by standard interrupt masking techniques in the system. It is typically used to signal attention for non-recoverable hardware errors. (Some NMIs may be masked, but only by using proprietary methods specific to the particular NMI.)

In computer terms, "cannot be made to shut up".

We need to find you a forum sidekick named NoHup

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

There is a teeny tiny part of me wondering how much plot I've missed out on over the years because I've never flirted with / tried to bang an NPC.

I think we are onto something. See, you can't do social rolls against PCs, but social rolls are largely acceptable with NPCs. So if you go with the sex with NPC option, then technically you could make a manipulation+persuasion roll to convince the NPC to have sex with you "the birthday way".

I joke, but it does bring up an interesting line of questioning regarding who controls the NPC and does this bypass typical role play rules?

@Arkandel said:

As for that teenager, didn't she have parents or someone with custody who could intervene? That's pretty disturbing because at least the others were adults and could make their own choices.

The teenager is kind of an epic all in her own. The basic is that her father lived in a LARPHOUSE with her. Picture a crack house with stinky, unwashed people and a kitchen with stacked dirty dishes. People sleep 2-3 to a room and people pay rent on couch space. Dad moved daughter into the LARP house, and since he wanted to LARP, he got the LARPERS to allow her to LARP. Since daughter was 16-17, skinny, quasi-attractive, this led to a lot of overweight nerds referring to her as their little sister, trying to steer her into what they knew best, and her sitting on their laps while roleplaying vampires. THIS I saw first-hand, and Dad did nothing about it because he didn't want to rock the boat with his roommates and risk getting kicked out of the LARP that took place at his flophouse.

Eventually, daughter started sleeping with some 22 year old LARPer who lived at the flophouse. Dad got mad but didn't pursue charges. The people who owned the house sided with the 22 year old, supported the daughter for emancipation. After the teenager was emancipated, Dad was kicked out of the house, and the girl bonked uglies with that 22 year old for a while.

Fucked. Up. People.

@Sunny Ahhhh. I get that. In fact, I agree.

It's a dangerous line to balance on, but I think that you're absolurely correct that if there's a sexual element to something a staffer is running, it's wrong to just assume someone is whoring and needs to be shamed for it. There are elements of story where it makes sense, and if people are going to be ugly and spread rumors just because NPC/PC plot involving booty happens? Fuck that. That's mean and one step (or perhaps no steps) removed from spreading a rumor around the high school that the "only reason Tiffany McCheerleader made Captain is because she blew Coach Stevens."

That shit is mean.

However, conversely, history has shown in many cases that staffers involving in that stuff has led to weak-willed staffers plying staff bias to certain players. Sometimes it's because TS/Cybersex, sometimes because of ACTUAL sex (Skype, in person), and other times just because staff wants to be baller and seed the posse who backs them up with bennies.

So I think it's totally valid that people worry about this and want to avoid it, but ultimately how they behave when concerned about that defines who the bag of dicks is in the situation.

It's totally legit to ask: "Hey, X player got a super Xwing and lightsaber through plot with staff. How can I get the same kind of gear through role play?" The player who got that stuff, that story may have involved some romance. However, if the staffer balks and tells you that it was specific to X player and then proceeds to have romance-based storylines that result in sweet swag, then I think it's fair to cry staff bias.

Worse yet, it's an old argument: If a 20 year old aids a 45 year old man in cheating on his wife, gets them divorced, and ends up the luxurious trophy wife...who is at fault? ((OMFG PLEASE DONT ANSWER THIS. THIS IS RHETORICAL))

(Satire. Please take Admiral seriously)

I felt confident enough to post my application here, @Admiral

Mid-30s white male roommate application for Ghost!

Name: You will know me as Ghost
Sex: Male
Job History: I have been working in IT Operations for the last 5 years. I have some certificates, such as ITIL, but am branching out to SSCP and CEH to focus on Information Security
Hobbies: Tabletop Gaming, Hockey, Sci Fi/Fantasy TV shows, Board Games, Coffee house outings, interspecies cybernetic romance, slap boxing, and NTN trivia at popular sports bars
Needs as roommate: A room! Hahaha just kidding. I enjoy jokes. I'm pretty low maintenance outside of these few simple needs

• Never look me in the eyes; it comes across as challenging my power
• I WILL need a door for my room, because often there are things you wouldn't understand taking place. For starters, I don't let people see my record collection. My list of bands that no one has ever heard will only remain so if no one ever has access to view the labels on the records. That and I sometimes have people over to roleplay as transformers who have sex in animal form.
• IGNORE MY MOTHER AND THE PHONE CALLS FROM KRISTI
• I will require my own gender specific bathroom. FYI, my gender is CyberWolfGiantWizardLeprechaunDemiFemaleRepublican
• If you hear me crying in the night, whatever you do, do not enter my room unless you're wearing a Ninja Turtles tee shirt and yell out "WHO WANTS PIZZA!?!"
• I don't do floors, dishes, bathrooms, carpets, walls, ceilings, or hardtop surfaces. I am very good at turning on the garbage disposal, but am triggered by it since watching the 80s remake of The Blob.
• Playing Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain" on an infinite loop is my right for any purchased living space.
• Please accept the fact that I am a sexual creature in nature, and that psychic vampirism is not intrusive. It's a burden. It's who I am.
• I will need the house once a month for "LARP", which is code word for an elaborate NERF-weapon fighting game with roleplay elements that 9/10 time results in everyone placing their car keys into a bowl and having sex on surfaces that I do not clean. Afterwards, we rate each other's performance and assign XP accordingly.
• I tend to pay my bills in Bitcoin.

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

The shape of the interaction with the NPCs doesn't matter to me. What matters is the atmosphere created by those interactions, if it feels like a level playing ground. When it doesn't (and I acknowledge there will be times it doesn't feel level without there being actual staff misconduct), no amount of railing by the players is going to change staff's approach to it (because people on any side of an argument will find justifications to shore up their side of things). Your option then is to vote with your feet.

It isn't a matter of knowing it when I see it. For me, I know it when I feel it, and when I do feel it I'm generally not long for that game.

I think there's a lot of poignant stuff in your post. I'm a huge fan of "voting with your feet" because nothing is worse than fighting a losing battle and night after night logging into some place that "drives you fucking crazy, but you've put so much work into". I wouldn't wish that unconfortable feeling (of putting effort into something you know isn't going yo reward you, but you feel required to) on anyone. That's just...depressing.

I think that when it comes to the concept of "Staff NPCs" and the potential risks for corruption, conflict of interest, and favoritism, it's important to note that many people reaping those benefits are usually in one of three mindsets.

1. "I get these benefits because I don't suck, and if you want these benefits, just get on board with staff and ride the USS FRIEND NETWORK." (We know it's corrupt. We are on the winning team).

2. "Isn't this just how things work? I have a good working relationship with staff, submit jobs, and do RP that gets rewards. I dont know why you aren't getting your bennies." (I may or may not know I'm on staff's good side, but am receiving benefits for it and am not aware of any corruption. Staff just seems to like playing with me! BUT STAFF IS TOTALLY REWARDING THEM FOR BEING A VIP OR THEY'RE SAYING THIS BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT TO PUT THEIR CHEATING ON THE RADAR AS ACTUAL CHEATING.)

3. Same as #2, but the player is simply unaware that anything corrupt is going on at all, because staff has never imparted any suggestion that their rewards are corrupt. They may not even be corrupt. They could be 100% legitimate. Since they are not you, they can't tell why you may not be getting similar results.

My point: You can't always assume WHY someone is getting rewards without more proof/information. The risk of misfire and accusing (or mistreating) a player who has no idea whatsoever if they're getting special bennies is very high. Don't be a dick. Be mindful of this.

I've learned that the best approach is to admit that everyone has bias. Everyone likes playing with people who are fun to write with or have low drama. It's how they handle thesr biases that explain whether or not the behavior is corrupt. It's hard to diagnose, and even harder to prove.

...which is why I'm going to reiterate that I think the best option is that when a staffer plays, they *shouldn't be allowed to provide rewards to themselves or others. When a GM plays, that GM hat gets hung up.

Quick shout out. @Wretched is good about this. I appreciated his desire to separate himself between PLAYER and STAFFER. 10/10. Would ride again.

Is anyone as remotely excited as I am about Twin Peaks returning in May?

Devil's Advocate Question.

While I'm sure many of you have TSed with people things that you felt were entirely hot, if it's 100% about the story, then why are people so careful about who they TS with? Why aren't people just TSing with random people for the better of the story?

Not looking for an answer. I just wanted to float this little seed of destruction.

Because I don't believe the bias about who people choose to TS with is purely about writing capability. It also has to do with words like connection, trust, and these kinds of scenes wouldn't be nearly as prevalent as they are if they weren't stimulating. I'm not here to judge, but I simply think it's fair to say that if you need any of these words (trust, connection, sync) to TS with someone or don't feel comfortable posting them on the wiki as any other given log, then...

...they're special scenes, and if they include personal kinks of your own then...

BOOM. BOMBSHELL

...doing this with staff can foster bias for benefit.

Or I could totally be wrong, and if I ever come back to mushing I anticipate some of you people who don't like me to TOTALLY be okay with TS with me if the writing is good.

I work in IT.

Spread the fucking word, please.

When you're talking to IT people, never regale them about bullshit tech support stories. I had a guy recently regale me and some others about his time doing desktop support:

• "...so she called me and said her cupholder was broken. I said...cupholder? Lo' and behold I get to her PC and see the CD-ROM drive broken..."
• ...another lady said her mouse wasn't working and when I got there, it was on the floor and she was using it with her feet like a sewing machine pedal..."

NICE TO MEET YOU, GUY. IM A LEGEND, TOO. I AM -THE- GUY WHO DID TECH SUPPORT FOR A LADY WHO WROTE 'CLICK' IN SHARPIE ON HER MONITOR ON TOP OF THE ICON I WAS TRYING TO GET HER TO RIGHT-CLICK!

Repeating these tech stories to other IT immediately paints you as a bullshitter, and potentially someone who takes credit for other people's work. It's no different than repeating the entirety of a Chris Rock or Patton Oswalt comedy routine at a cocktail party, and everyone knows you're just repeating someone else's material.

There's only three thing women need in life: Food, Water, and Compliments.
MAAAAAN when did white people get less crazy?!?

++ So I told the flight attendant 'Like hell I'll get on the plane, I'm getting IN the plane LOLOLOLOLOL ++

Look, the chances that you're the true originating source of the cupholder, mouse wheel, or write 'CLICK' story is about 0.004%. Even if you were, it's old news, everyone in IT has heard them, and while it might work at your church or cocktail parties, it's still low hanging fruit and makes you look like a jackass.

Please spread the word. New material is needed for stealing.

Edit: added gif. Typos. Badass airplane joke that George Carlin stole from me.

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

I'll TS anyone my character finds interesting enough to fuck, I don't care what they're doing on their side of the screen & I have never really understood the desire for trust or OOC communication in roleplay but I do understand it's a prevalent thing in this community, so I don't dispute it. I do think it'd all be that much more fun if we didn't open ourselves up to the weirdness by inviting false familiarity with unknowns only to be let down when they're fucking creepers, especially when they're so often fucking creepers. Live, learn, and keep it entirely IC?

Agreed.

I'm not on some crusade right now. I just prefer a pretty cut and dry honest approach like you do. Fuck it. I'll role play anything with anyone so long as they don't get weird on me. Part of that involves me being pretty clear about boundaries and being willing to nope out when I feel it's time to do so.

But I dont think the community as a whole buys this "it's all IC" thing as well as they do declare. I think it's a mantra, goal, or even a practice, but I don't think many of us actually believe that it's entirely IC.

For clarification...

By massive genitalia I meant that my penis is, literally, Joe Pesci.

Not just Joe Pesci-sized. I am the explanation as to where Joe Pesci has been for the last 5 years.

He and I wheelbarrow all over the place and then I put him in things. Pretty cool arrangement, if you ask me.

@Auspice I appreciate it.

I believe that sometimes people are in sync, and sometimes they're not. I believe that even though you and I had a falling out that we could still write scenes together and help each other get what we came for: A not fucking boring night.

At some point I felt like it was the OOC contact that made this hobby more difficult than it needed to be, and I wanted to just...try it without YOU being Auspice and ME being Ghost.

I think it was a good experiment before I gave up the hobby. I'm glad we reconnected. I just wanted to find some way of going: "Yanno what? Shit gets stupid. People spread rumors, get these theories, there's drama between people, but maybe if there was a way to minimize that then myself and the people I RP with might have more fun (or at the very least less worry about each other)"