@Paris I'll have to look from home. No way in hell am I gonna risk getting caught googling "prurient perfume" for the purposes of making a character who secretes lube, from my phone, from work.
Fuck it'd be less embarrassing if I got caught looking at porn.
When your office announces that they'll be having a Mardi Gras party at work that includes tossing beads from the 2nd floor down to people in the lobby...
Corporate train wreck waiting to happen.
Will I participate? FUCK NO
Will I witness? YEP.
One of the major problems in this hobby is that without the existence of logs, bad behavior is a matter entirely of hearsay that makes it hard to truly understand what's really going on. Over my tenure in the hobby I've seen some really openly bad behavior (Stalking, threats, doxxing, abuse to name a few), but more times than not I'm approached with rumors of these behaviors without evidence.
I'm going to say up front my answer, and then explain why.
My answer? YOU CAN'T, NOT WITHOUT LOGS
This is a text-based hobby, where there isn't any explanation as to why logs can't be presented. This extends even to Discord or any other outside-of-game chats. Sure, they can be falsified and edited, but in theory the person being accused could also present their own logs as evidence of edit. But the one thing that remains true is that you can't deny the existence of logs as a good focal point on determining whether or not bad behavior has happened at all.
Now for the part that some people might not agree with me on, but I feel very, very strongly about this.
Like it or not, this isn't an environment where things happened exactly as a person claimed that they did because they say it's true. There are people who leverage their reputation over logs, and there are people who know that character assassination on a private, page-level campaign without the existence of logs can do absolute damage to a player or game that they aren't happy with...and it happens. We all know it happens, and it happens more than I think we pay attention to.
So my advice on this thread going forward is to understand that over the history of this hobby there have been some absolute people who deserved the title of "problem players", but there have also been some rather unfortunate victims of aggressive behavior from players who have somehow managed to avoid getting onto that list of problem players (due to cliques, popularity, ownership of games, etc).
How do I personally deal with problem players? I used to get annoyed or upset about it, but nowadays? I don't.
For me, it's simple. If someone does something rude to me on this text-based media, I can log it and forward it to staff. There's no reason to wrestle and there's no reason to lose my cool. I'll forward it to staff as a complaint, sever OOC communication with the player, and if I find myself on a game where staff isn't handling complaints about logged abusive player behavior? I leave the game. Ultimately, if this results in me having zero games to play? I do something else with my time, because at that point I'll have more fun away from MU than with it.
But we should be very, very, very careful to not create an environment where cult of personality results in logless courts of public opinion, and I feel that there should be more awareness and action taken against people who use the sideways means to attack other players.
So, there are problem players (Stalking, Doxxing, Abuse, etc) and there are players who use logless whisper campaigns of such to attack other players who have upset them. There's a difference.
@Tinuviel Hey. I'm going to show you something.
This is my ten foot pole...
And this is a video depicting how I'm gonna use it to NOPE the fuck outta this one.
I think you'll find that mushers who aren't so concerned about the social currency side-game of mushing aren't easily "hurt" by disagreements/miscommunication, and usually approach the concept of forgiveness/conflict resolution like normal human beings.
Staff doesn't care about their players at all (translation: I am upset about staff not agreeing with me on an issue and am plying the social currency side-game on MSB to achieve vindication).
There is only so much actual fucked up stalking/abuse/maybe even legal damage that happens on these games. The rest is all subjective, and for some, amplified to questionably rational degrees.
Corporate management often boasts the need for ethics...unless it involves decisions that might result in people brushing up their resumes.
Didn't get laid off, but one of my major peeves in life are people who require ethics from you that they're not providing in return.
@Lotherio My SO, who I very much love, stomped a nerd's dick in the dirt once when he did this.
Guy: Oh, so you like the X-Men? So youre into mutants, like Juggernaut? (obvs trick question)
Her: Cain isn't a mutant, but right now Colossus has the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak
Guy: Whoa, wait, Colossus got it??
Me (mentally): "Yeaaaaaah you kick that ass, baby. You kick that ass hard."
WORD. I JUST LANDED ANOTHER SOLID CONFERENCE CALL MOMENT.
There's a moth flying around my office right now.
Guy on phone: There's a butterfly or something flying around my cube.
Other Guy: Yeah it's a moth, pretty big one, too.
Me, in a Buffalo Bill accent: It's uh death's head moth...
I'm high fiving myself right now about as much as I did as the time a guy said that voltage was running high by about 4 watts and I told him he's gotta turn down 4 wat.
@faraday said in Historical MUSHes:
@A-Meowley said in Historical MUSHes:
@surreality said in Historical MUSHes:
I think it would be ridiculous to say that staff allows what I've described because of an inherent desire to be sexist/racist/ableist/homophobic/etc. RL.
Good thing nobody's said that!
Except that they have. Just not in this particular thread.
Wow. Totally forgot about that thread.
The way I see it is this: You can't have it both ways.
If you have a historical mush without also incorporating both the negatives and positives of the era, then it's really not historical but more a period-piece with adapted/selected themes.
But if you role play an idealized version of a specific era (I.e. a good example is the movie Overlord, which had Bokeem Woodbine playing a black NCO over white troops in the invasion of Normandy, which never happened historically), you can still enjoy the game, but it's technically not historically accurate.
Sure, some covert assholes are gonna be like "Hey I wanna drop n-bombs (not because I'm racist but because it's HISTORICALLY ACCURATE AND THIS IS THE LACK OF HISTORIC ACCURACY I ZERO IN ON)", but implementing modern themes for OOC comfort to avoid negativity TECHNICALLY detracts from the purpose of roleplaying out a historical era.
I guess philosophy-wise, the whole point of history (or revisiting it in fiction) is to acknowledge the good and bad of the era and to write a story that is fictitious but could have happened in the era. Doing so allows us to revisit the setting and use the negativity of the era as a constant antagonist to the protagonist.
In short: Adrian Brody in THE PIANIST would mean little without the theme of racist, fascist Nazis sacking Poland.
I can see both sides of the argument. My preference would be to actually bind to actual historic accuracy but mandate the themes of expected PCs and leave the racism/bigotry to NPCs/enemies controlled by staff who will do so with dignity.
ETA: You can RP a game in an era where people owned slaves or women had no right to vote, but you keep the game manageable by simply requiring that all PCs are not those who believe in said bigotry. They could want to abstain from the topic, outright DISLIKE the bigotry, or ignore it altogether and focus on other themes, but never be a proponent of.
Geez, I don't wanna spoil anything, but I wanna talk about what happened tonight...
***=SPOILER***
Taking the "parent character" thing here.
How fucking LULz would it be if there was a character who was a new dad and was tired all of the time, but during some kind of vampire hunt it led to a strip club. The hunters want to go in and pose as customers to find the vampires.
"No. No. OOOOH no. The last time I did this I had to sleep on my couch for a month. Do you have any fucking clue what it's like to live on a couch for a month? I couldn't even explain to her that the glitter was from a fucking vampire. She made me go with her and the baby to swim lessons for a one year old. Does that even fucking make sense? Swimming at one?!? Man...I dunno."
Phone rings...
"See?! It's her. She knows things. Now she's asking me to pick up formula. I have a fucking shotgun on my back with shells that shoot fucking fire and I'm getting texts to pick up baby formula and Wiggles videos. Guys...I love you but I think I'm done. Done. Gotta retire."
Right.
"James Marsden, did you ever feel that your career had hit a low point?"
James: Well...
And then, you know, Sonic.
New Game Idea:
(drum roll)
WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER: THE MUSH
A game about the lives, trials, and tribulations of hardcore 1980's camp counselor tropes with all PBs in their 30s and 40s.
Will they discover the lost hermit rocker in the woods before the rich kids from across the lake unwittingly cause the destruction of the camp by nuclear fire?
Will a 20 year old Ted (PB: Clive Owen) succeed at saving the camp by keeping his crown as the camp's reigning fart fight champion?
Will the multiculturally cast group of high school gangbangers sent to camp to avoid probation (PBS: Tracy Morgan, Will Farrell, Betty White, Wes Studi, Ricky Martin, Mako) learn to work together before one of them stabs each other with the SWITCHBLADE HIDDEN IN THE BUNKHOUSE???
I might try to put an end to the "IC Relationship with NPC" argument, here.
Here we go.
I think that a player character (key word) having a relationship with a staff-run NPC is absolutely fine so long as the following requirements are met.
Players must submit a +job to staff to arrange scenes with NPC. Must state purpose of scene and if they want TS
Staff may assign whichever GM is available at the time to role play as the NPC. The player does not get to choose who roleplays as their "NPC lover", as all GMs have the same expectations of fairness. Theyre all deputized.
Head Staff are comfortable telling their GMs that they may be required to TS with people as a means of +job fulfillment.
Otherwise...itsafuckingPC.
Constant stream of RL friends/family posting about how triggered or depressed they are is depressing, especially when their suggested fix is loads of attention or to buy them things like concert tickets, plane tickets, or video games.
@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@krmbm said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
The? No. It shows that it is A way to get story.
That's your opinion as a person that thinks inter-personal RP via staff NPCs is fine.
Mine (as someone who does not think it's fine) is that I just saw Sue get a cool new weapon because she went 18-holes with StafferBob, and I did not get anything because I don't enjoy that particular flavor of RP and didn't jump on StafferBob's putter.
I may be completely wrong and pettily jealous, but now I'm completely wrong and jealous over here, on a game where I'm more comfortable with how staff uses their NPCs.
Why is this being presented as if it's a problem? If someone is going to be completely wrong and pettily jealous -- and behave in accordance with those feelings -- I don't want them on my game anyway, so it sounds to ME like in this scenario, literally everyone is winning.
Just wanting to understand, so I'm asking to clarify.
Are you saying that if Bob is upset and jealous that Steve got a shiny cool weapon with great stats after 18 sessions of TS with a staffer (and that Bob has not had this opportunity made available to him), that Bob's behavior is petty and that if he is removed from the game everyone wins?
If that is what you are saying, then I disagree.
ETA: Realistically, I get that me working 365 a year to afford a sports car is the slow standard, but if some 20 year old dude fucks a cougar and gets gifted a Ferrari for it, I'm still gonna be like: "Yeah, fuck those guys".
So excited for this Star Wars. Haters gonna hate. I'm loving it.
