Best posts made by Ghost

@faraday Yeah. I'm on the fence about AiArt/Midjourney. Granted, I don't think people who generate art via Ai qualify as an "artist" (for some reason people have started to think the Earth is flat, so let's not go crazy equating people with search engine skills as Frida Kahlo), and I think it's generally okay for RPGs and character art for RPG games, but the impact it's having on paying artists is wrong. I don't like where it is going.

Yeah...I dunno. I think at the end of the day the worst of the hobby comes down to sex, jealousy, bullying, and complications with mental illness. Obviously, due to sexual harassment I've had to endure on numerous occasions, my hot button has been considering ways to affect the negative behaviors associated with sexual harassment...which everyone benefits from. I believe the "Shang" roleplayer mixing with players like you has created an environment where some players can't help but try to bring Shang with them mingle with people that aren't about graphic sexual roleplay or OOC flirtation.

100% agree that the topic of anything relating to sex or IC relationships is the cause of endless amounts of drama in the community. Snide me says "must be that whole 'it's just roleplay!' mantra". Realistic me says that while I enjoy kicking at that box of "denial spiders" (because let's be fair, it affects outsiders, too and we wish some of these people would just evolve and stop), it's worthless waiting for this behavior to stop (or even asking) because it seems ingrained in a lot of personal RL needs/deficiencies/issues/etc. I've been there. I get it.

So my dislike of how some people utilize PBs as a sexual lure/object slips into that. Unfortunately, with this community, there's no way to resolve this stuff, because the hobby presents itself as an open-to-the-public environment. It's easy to let people in the door on these games, but hard to keep unwanted players out.

<insert BlahBlahGhostsRepeatingFunctionOnGamesSupportingSexualAbuseRoleplayCorrellatedToTheNumberOfPeopleBehavingBadlyAroundSexRoleplay argument>

"Beef" on Nertflerx has its hooks in me. Love it. Definitely recommend.

@ZombieGenesis said in The Case Against Real PBs:

Did you tell them you were doing it? No? Did it affect their lives in any way that you were doing it?

Question.

Would it affect your life at all if someone you didn't know admitted to masturbating to pictures of you? What if they told you not only did they do kink-stuff using your likeness, but simulated a "relationship" with another person who was also gratified by your image?

An old player I used to MU with once told me (after being apart for years) that they made our FireflyMush characters into a sims game that had been running for years using sex mods, and went into detail about how many kids they had, etc. I can tell you honestly that someone emulating ME emulating a celebrity for years with all kinds of sex shit on their ooc end was really uncomfortable. I also clammed up all the time when I did TS and got a page about how they fapped to it.

In fact, I'd say over 70% of the interpersonal bullshit I ever got into in this hobby was always related to either me trying to flee for my life from a creepy player or other gross OOC boundary violations, so...I'm inclined to believe my own experiences, trust me.

I feel we are all logical and reasonable enough to agree that it's generally not okay to simulate that level of intense stuff using another person's likeness as a puppet, and that "if the victim didnt know it's okay" is rarely a valid argument involving sexual anything.

Maybe it's just me and I've been away from this shit long enough to step back from a 10,000 foot level and analyze how fucking weird this community can be. I think there are delusions and addictions at play and a lot of work goes into defending the outlet, especially when RL isn't cutting it. I've been there. I get it. There are just these pockets of weirdness and whenever myself or anyone else points them out there's a lot of "playing defense" around those topics. Very bizarre, and I'm grateful I don't draw from the hobby for a social outlet, anymore outside of occasional forum stuff.

@ZombieGenesis said in 2023: Dead Celebs pt 2, Electric Boogaloo.:

Pee Wee Herman

@Misadventure said in 2023: Dead Celebs pt 2, Electric Boogaloo.:

What no Paul Reubans or Angus Mcleod?

^^^^ it was linked as Pee-Wee, but yeah, Reubens got mentioned.

@Misadventure said in The Case Against Real PBs:

PS: @faraday just being reminded that there are people who can't visualize characters from text is enough for me to say if I were the head of a text based RP game I would be okay with PBs.
You'd think I would remember this since I have family and friends who have the same experience.
I'd still put images behind a spoiler tag or similar.

Yeah this actually came up in convo I had lately with someone and I absolutely agree with this point.

There are ND people or others who have hard times turning text to mental imagery, and I think that's 1000% valid. Great points. And given the potentially high population of people this would help, it makes PBs seem much more relevant alltogether.

Does it change my stance about wanting to see good writing and seeing descriptions in prose? No. But the idea has given me something else to consider for sure.

@Wretched said in 2023: Dead Celebs pt 2, Electric Boogaloo.:

@Ghost

Paging Mister Herman. Mister Herman.

@reimesu said in The Case Against Real PBs:

Frankly, the entire argument against PBs isn't an argument against PBs, it's an argument against unethical players who are being manipulative. Which really means that you have to be vigilant about who you play with and what you're willing to get into with people you don't know.

While I don't disagree with you on this point in any way, I just wanted to say that my argument against PBs is a bit of column A and B. I still never truly liked PBs. My argument was also against using PBs.

I remember one time I used a famous rock musician as a PB. A few years later I was at one of their concerts, looking out at the actual dude I used as a likeness for rp, including some TS, and I felt so weird about it that I never wanted to go back. I technically have a distant RL connection to Emma Stone by like 5 degrees (her friend's sister married a former coworker and I guess occasionally comes by for barbecues, etc lol) and I gather that even mentioning that she's been used as a PB in conversation (should a chance run-in occur) would be super uncomfortable.

I have a long history of being around celebrities (some are friends, some are friends of friends) and I've always been the type to try to see and treat them like regular-ass people, and knowing the amount of harassment and unrequested sexualization of the female celebrities I've known (to the point of them having to worry about people waiting for them in lobbies, etc) the idea of it all just grew sour for me over the years. Many of them are well aware that if they google themselves they're gonna see things that make them feel unsafe or uncomfortable, and I imagine PBs might do that.

PBs just made me feel like a weird, creepy dork. (Edit) So I guess you could say that my angle is that out of consideration to treat those people like regular people, it became somewhat of a conscientious stance for me. This explains why (at least for me, paired with the desire to see good writing) I feel so strongly about it.

Edit: Also, jeez @reimesu the shout-out to PHBs took me back a decade or more.

Spaceballs 2 is in development with Josh Gad and Mel Brooks at Amazon, as reported by Variety Magazine. No word yet on the possibility of return actors (including Rick Moranis)

@faraday said in Bring back the Hog Pit:

Could also delete it but maintain a readonly archive on some fileshare somewhere for posterity. I've been told that buried in with the toxic sludge are some useful tidbits, but YMMV.

I'm not 100% sure of this, but the only people really wanting to keep a readable copy of the Hog Pit are the same people who want it to be back open to partake in it.

That, and the HogPit is like 3000 pages and if you kept only ONE INSTANCE of each of the following threads it would probably be 300 pages:

• argument about social dice
• argument about what is or isn't an apology
• PERSON is the new BAD PERSON EVERYONE HATES
• Arx stuff when there was already a separate Arx thread
• I'm here to call out ______________ before I get called out for my own bad behavior
• etc etc etc

The whole thing is clearly 80%+ abuse give or take the same 8 people bragging to each other about how great they are at RPing together, so I'm with you. Not entirely sure what "good stuff" should be saved there, especially given how cyclical the conversations are half of those same conversations have already probably been recycled at the other place.

I think it (HP) stands more than anything as a recorded history of mistreatment for far, far more people than it stands as a memory of good times for the people who thrived in it, and for the life of me cant understand why the former isnt the more important culture to protect

@Tapewyrm if you're looking from people from the WORA era, you may have better luck posting in reddit in r/MUD

I say this with as little bile as possible, but since the WORA era, a lot of the more level-headed people left the hobby between then and now. VTTs and MMORPGs were a welcome escape from the normalized bullying and drama in the "Hog Pit" section of the forum. When the admin closed it down there was a rift in the community between two groups:

• People who wanted the personal attacks and bullying to end
• A large group of people (citing the moral high ground, btw) wanted specific admin punished, claimed the ability to bully and mistreat people in the Hog Pit was healthy, created their own forum, proceeded to high five each other for missions to get banned on this forum, and still occasionally check over here to sow dissent and throw mud.

A lot (and I mean a lot) of players quit the hobby between then and now because a certain "vibe" kind of got normalized and "dishonest character assassination" became more popular an approach than "communicate with each other and resolve your issues". It was simply easier, when it came to people who disappointed you or didn't go with your design, to chase or bully that person into feeling unwelcome on the server.

Edit: (And if that doesn't work, use drama/lies/accusations to isolate them from the people who like them and then they'll leave! Again...moral highground )

Then, naturally, people with that mindset started getting in with staff or opened games of their own, resulting in a whole 2nd string crowd of people who partake in the "Hog Pit" style of bullying so that they also get RP opportunities.

If you're truly coming back, you're coming back at a very exhausted and contentious time for the Mush/Mux crowd. Many from the WORA era, myself included, have stopped playing on the games altogether.

In my estimation, there were a number of game staff/coders during the WORA era who kept people like this in check, but those people either got sick of it, aged out, or went to do other stuff. Without that stopgap the "PHBs" now want control of who is or isn't welcome in the community.

It's at the point that a code base used by many, many games (Ares) own creator doesn't partake in the hobby, but that other group (claiming the moral high ground, btw) seems to claim that everything will go back to normal so long as certain admin from this forum are sufficiently exiled, the Hog Pit is reopened, and the ability to publicly humiliate people on this forum is reestablished.

@Tapewyrm I also recommend checking out the VTT world now with stuff like "startplayinggames". I know a number of amazing GMs there and it might be easier to put together a VTT game that wants to also do dramatic writing. There you might find people with the similar interest in collaborative writing without the stigma of 20+ years of unresolved interpersonal drama.

@Derp said in I owe a lot of people some apologies.:

@Hella

You say this and then you end up with Dirty My Little Pony. Careful what you wish for.

I do not wish for this to be.

Question...

IS IT ETHICAL to join a bunch of MUs and embed yourself in roleplay with people who don't like you as a means to repair your relationship with them by being cool with them...and then later reveal it was you all along?

...asking for a friend.

@Ganymede said in Ethical Question:

@Ghost said in Ethical Question:

IS IT ETHICAL to join a bunch of MUs and embed yourself in roleplay with people who don't like you as a means to repair your relationship with them by being cool with them...and then later reveal it was you all along?

Generally, I don't find myself in such ethical quandaries because I have neither the time nor the inclination to try and convince people who don't like me that I am likeable.

Generally, it's for that reason that I've never moderated an online forum and have never been in a situation where I've trained to maintain my popularity in spite of.