Posts made by Ghost

@Rinel Right. When I wrote that I wasn't critiquing; though I've always believed that the point of making a character is to make some new perspective or skin to explore and not to write some idealized Second Life avatar of oneself. When the game/scene/player disappoints you there's less risk of internalizing. (Again, this is just how I rolled; I can't qualify what is best for others)

As far as I'm concerned, RP whatever you please, and I support exploration into the perspective of different genders, specialities, religions, species, etc.

Bear in mind there is no silver bullet statement in play here. No one is saying that there arent maladaptive behaviors outside of MU in the real world.

I liken it closer to little culty things like LARP, Church Organizations, Wine Culture, Crossfit, etc. Whenever anyone places themselves more in one particular social environment and less with general public social life, the "societal norms" of those very particular groups can and possibly will impact one's ability to function outside of those groups; they become so comfortable in that one environment that it affects some of their social skills outside of it.

It's not an uncommon concept.

@Joyeuse , @mietze totally touched on something I made a mental note to say before getting distracted with my whole Anonymous IzLyf shit.

You'll see a number of players playing a myriad of roles regardless of their own gender/identity (I'm a fan of this. Go go exploration) You'll see some of those players roleplaying caricatures (or arguably, fetishization) of subcultures they, themselves are not a part of in RL; stuff like straight women playing gay males, dudebros playing lesbian pornstar tropes. Is it offensive? Probably needs to be judged on a case-by-case basis, but from what I've seen people actually knowing your OOC race, gender, nationality (etc) can create issues on your PC's identity choices. There are people who don't want to see (example) white straight men play anything other than. Sign of the times.

Eye of the beholder.

@Joyeuse Some members of the community and I have a difference of opinion on those playlist entries. I adore @faraday as well and we disagree, no biggie <3. It's just a personal decision based on how much you want your characters tied to the community as a whole. Community or hobby? Your call.

PRO

• Helps people find you if you want to be found
• "Hey, I remember you!"
• Whatevs, it can be a simple, fun, thing.
• Helps you remember who you played as wikis also disappear when games do.

CON

• With so many OOC personalities identified to IC charbits and a number of people who have issues separating IC/OOC, there is a risk of people holding your in-character decisions as having something to do with you.
• Stalker risk.
• After 20 years I can tell you that most mushers I know have kept track of who played who for good reasons and bad reasons. I dont currently mush and still get messages about how so and so from some game 5 years ago is playing on thos new game and...

In the end, my stance is that it's better to keep IC purely IC and let the characters speak for themselves, and don't nail in the hook that awkward OOC conversations can use to hang you on.

But I digress from the point.

I think the community is safe for LGBTQ+ with growing support as time goes on, but this does not equal a guarantee of meaningful RP related to your T acronym. That you'll have to find and probably rely on cool RPers for.

@Joyeuse Realistically, you may not see overt discrimination at all. Even to the people who are bigoted, the community is very quick to bring the hammer down on people who use bigoted language.

Also realistically, a number of players have issues separating their OOC selves from their RL selves, which leads to a number of things that could side-effect your way. If your character isn't a match for their OOC preferences you may see issues with stuff like getting into IC relationships. Players can also be very fickle about letting new people in, which could result in some feelings of alienation. All in all, like I said, you're not likely to be directly avoided or told outright why if you are, so the best thing to do is just stick with people you enjoy RP with.

Having said that, I advise you to delete that "playlist" entry. Trust me. We've got people who complain about stalkers a large number of players track who-is-who from game to game. Limit the amount of ability you give people to contact you Oocly (dont give names, personal information, phone numbers, etc and use throwaway email addresses, discord logins, etc). When you start getting pages and messages about so-and-so and who did what 15 years ago, you'll understand.

There are a lot of people here with a lot of history. 20+ as you've seen so far. Mushing is less of an age club than it is somewhat Oocly factioned, and a number of players are suspicious of new people because A) They are an unweighed element B) Because they want to vet that the new person isn't an anonymous sock puppet for a bad person and C) Because there are cliques and some people only like to RP with their core group because there's less risk of wasting time.

@Prototart said in Getting Young Blood Into MU*'ing:

And that's ignoring just, the usual social maladaptive shit that's so common on games that it's just taken for granted, the people who have no idea how to interact with anyone who isn't broken the same way they are and the way that geek social fallacies are like burned into the fabric of everything and not to be questioned

I've had conversations with mushers (former and current) about how mushing could stunt social skills outside in the real world, and I think this is a great point. Human behaviors outside of the mushing environment aren't exactly the same, and I think it could definitely be off-putting to someone who is "new blood".

I'm really curious as to how theyre going to depict the Ogier, since ive seen many styles...

Or

Orrrrr

So forth and so on. I prefer the first. I prefer the BESTIAL LOOKING MONSTER that loves books a la Ron Perlman in Beauty and the Beast and less "kinda Shrek meets Ichabod Crane".

@Rinel said in Good TV:

@Ghost said in Good TV:

I'm getting more and more excited about Picard.

I think we're getting Romulans, too. I'm assuming that the amazing thing that Picard is referenced as having done in the trailers has to do with helping evacuate Romulus or something related to the supernova disaster of Star Trek reboot movie fame/infamy.

That would be interesting if the Kelvin timeline was affected by the Prime timeline, and then Kelvin also affected Prime. If that makes sense?

Either way I'm excited for Romulans ever since playing one on STO.

I'm getting more and more excited about Picard. So far the returning characters confirmed are:

• Jean-Luc Picard (duh)
• Will Riker(Will Troi? Diner-Troi?)
• Deanna Troi (Deanna Riker? Troi-Riker?)
• Data
• Seven of Nine/Annika Hansen
• Hugh

For some reason, it's Hugh that has me really intrigued. For those of you that aren't in the know, Hugh was a Borg drone the Enterprise crew nursed back to health. Picard originally ordered it to be euthanized. The whole episode was a morality play on whether or not a Borg should be allowed the chance to live, even if returned to the Borg (kill it so that it can't draw the Borg to you or return it to the Borg.) Hugh eventually decided that Geordie was his friend, he didnt want to leave the crew, but ultimately sacrificed his individuality to return to the Borg to protect his friend, Geordie.

It is believed that Hugh's individuality, prior to being wiped, would be witnessed by all of the Borg and perhaps result in a thought timebomb or emotional virus that could offspring a will to become individuals.

So Hugh plus Seven of Nine plus Borg in the trailer has me intrigued, because I love my Space Cenobites dearly.

@Auspice yea

Awkward should be defined as...

When your boss (who hasn't been productive) gets removed from being your boss the day before her birthday (and is assigned to a penalty box position), and your boss's boss tells 2 teammates (but not all). Now your ex-boss sits right next to you and the reporting structure that would announce that she is no longer your boss is out of office...so everyone is just sitting around and not addressing the elephant in the room.

I should also take a moment to say that while I still think the cultural aspects of the hobby must be focused on to attract (and keep) newer players, I also don't want to downplay the hard work that people have put into codebases, games, wikis, etc. It's all free web/unix development and it's not easy stuff.

So please don't think that I'm saying that it's all for naught. I think there has been a lot of evolution in the last few years, and I think it's been great for the veteran mushers. I'm just saying that I think it may be worthwhile to put heads together and plot out a future design for what the hobby could look like from a code perspective in the way the IAB or WWW Consortium have done.

I do see a possibility with some work that the format could have a bit of a renaissance, but it also may be important to understand where the hobby falls on the gaming-versus-writing description. It's a bit fuzzy, too, exactly what the hobby itself is given that the hobby is shared with automated bot-killing MUDs and heavy code-fixated MOOs.

@friarzen said in Getting Young Blood Into MU*'ing:

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think @ghost's point was more coming from the "I'm a builder and want to present the player with something that isn't +docrap/with-some crazy=bullshit_syntax"?

For example presenting an HTML table of the character sheet with +/- buttons next to values to create the character....

^yes.

@Griatch I think I'm thinking more in terms of an API approach, or really the same logic that was in place when Apple went from CLI to GUI. Sure, us nerds will always love (and live in) the guts behind the pretty interactive screen, but its the pretty interface that made personal computing thrive.

So stuff like...

Why is chargen still so "type: +attribute set Dexterity 4" and not "table selection on a website"? I can see where the CLI will always be relevant in terms of emotes and writing poses, but the evolution of computing was to place an attractive API/GUI/Interface on top of the convoluted CLI, and let the experts worry about the codebade while developing the user experience.

Things like sheet management, combat, inventory, etc being roped into web interfaces that keep the user from having to memorize a shitload of + commands because the ones that are hardlocked have been provided as buttons or drop-down options, and then the ones that require string inputs are offered text windows to type into.

People.

Young people can (and do) Google "online games".

I can tell you from experience that I've known people in the 18-25 range from time to time in this hobby and can tell you why they aren't in the hobby today.

1. Antiquated format versus new: Fan of it or not the younger generation is into innovation. Some into retro stuff like cherry py and retro gaming aren't piling into the hobby as it is, but most 18-25 are into NEW tech. They're into doing more in less time. They're not into slaving themselves to one laptop for 6 hours for a coffee scene when newer forms of entertainment give bite-sized, guaranteed rewards. They're also into...

2. The Elder Factor: ...not hanging out outside of their own age group. The MU community has a big problem with elder guard types being very judgmental about peoples knowledge, experience, roleplay styles, and not everyone is willing to take the time when someone logs in and asks "I'm new, can someone walk me through chargen?" The 18-25 crowd also has their own language older people like us laugh about. Millennials right? Let's target a bunch of post-teens typing in texting lingo and invite them to write long-form novels with us.

3. New people are eyed with suspicion: A while back I had the pleasure of having a few newer players complain to me that people kept harassing them in pages about who they were. They got drilled by so many players as to whether or not they were X or Y player, because the reality is that anyone who claims that they're new gets screened for safety and if they're not doing it right they tend to get avoided. Or...

4. P newperson=What's your kink?: 18-25 people also arent big fans of sexual harassment, nor are they fans of sexual harassment from people old enough to be their parents. Sad to say, there are a number of people who approach this hobby like a swinger's club, and most players have a list of experiences with being creeped on.

So, I don't want to be the negative one, here. I get that a lot of you love this hobby, but the reason why it's not attracting or keeping younger players is also why the same reason why it's not keeping/losing newer players in a higher age bracket. Slapping a fresh coat of paint on it or dying out the gray hair and putting on a Von Dutch cap on your wiki isn't going to attract or maintain a newer, younger player base.

There are some very weird, regularly-crossed, and cultural issues in the hobby that make it somewhat of a Country Club filled with judgmental, particular older people who want more people around so that they can enjoy their Country Club more but aren't really prepared to let these people be who they are. They spend so much time judging and critiquing each other that some new blood would be great...provided that they act maturely, follow the cultural trends, don't make stupid decisions, etc.

So...having said that, I hate being the guy to show problems without offering solutions.

1. Community Standards: Yes, each game has policies. Yes, the games do their best to weed out creepers and racists with arguable levels of support for the LGBTQ+ community. This isn't enough and the community as of current has problems with people being avoided for roleplay outside of clique, etc because the reasons for that aren't tackled. There are some assholes. There are some judgy, pedestal-sitting assholes who clearly haven't followed some people's better examples as to how to be prevalent without being elitist. If you cant figure out how to get everyone playing together nicely now, you're only inviting new people into a dysfunctional household.

2. Do. Not. Monetize: This is the worst idea. The worst. Period. I get that some people would love to have more money coming in, but monetizing for an archaic entertainment format makes it less attractive. It's suggested on Twitch feed advice that it's better to monetize after you have a decent viewerbase, not right out the gate, and this applies here, too. It's a hobby, and while for some people it's 70%+ of their day, its still a hobby and not a job. Don't monetize contributions, advertisement, or bringing new people into the game like some church/pyramid scheme.

3. Build web interfaces supported by code: By this I dont mean a web interface that connects people to the command line environment. Build web interfaces that never get to CLI. If you want the player base to evolve, then the hobby itself needs to evolve. Evennia and python are a good start, but ultimately the command line environment and clunky unix format needs to evolve. Move away from "commands" and do things like create an API interface that will take the arguments from the commands in easier web-based interfaces. THE CLOSEST YOU CAN GET TO A WEB PAGE THAT IS 90% TYPING AND SOME LOGGING, THE BETTER. To evolve, there are simply a number of things that need to be automated, and the things I've seen are a good start, but the constant return back to the command line (even if there is a web interface to connect to it) is rough. Mush clients. Etc. They're godsends compared to telnet back in the day for us, but not attractive compared to other formats out there.

Anyway, this was long, but it needed to be. In my opinion it's naive to take an approach that this hobby is great and you just need to get the word out. I think that's the path of least resistance to tackling issues that are harder to solve. There are other issues that keep people away and keep them from staying. Best to just be direct about that, because hours upon hours of work in one direction may be pointless unless the hobby itself evolves, too. That means taking some of the elder guard out of their comfort zone.

@Livia said in General Video Game Thread:

@Ghost

But honestly it's a surprisingly different game now than it was back then, and a lot of people didn't like the direction it went and just wanted to play it the way it was. Saying it's 'The same WoW' is not really true.

Like I'm sure all those other reasons are spot on the money (heh!) but still.

So are the quests different then?

I just think its a shame because I'd rather see WoW2 than to turn back the clock. I love the Draenei and Worgen, and I worked hard for my Mag'har orc. Theres so much story to experience, and while I get that the earlier state long before the Sylvanas Windrunner and Varian Wrynn arcs better allows players to experience those story arcs before they were made obsolete by the further patches, it still seems far less than what people are paying for.

Level cap goes from 120 to 60, available zones drop down a lot, available races and classes are nearly halved, etc.

@mietze said in Getting Young Blood Into MU*'ing:

It is interesting that most of the mushers I know of that have successfully bridged into success in the fiction writing world or white wolf/other professional rpg writing...often are not looked at as great members of the mushing community, and at least 3 of them are reviled.

So I'm not sure that someone whose talent and interest is in stories and novels that they control wholly is a great candidate for entering the mush community.

I don't see how 3 people who have gone from mushing to novel writing being dicks should be a cause for people with interest in writing being avoided for inviting to mushing. That those people were assholes is really just on them as people, and not related to their interest in writing stories that they control. As for the people I know who are still writing, they've had no problems separating the stories they control from the stories they share on mushing.

But my point was this hobby is less "tabletop RPG experience" and more "group writing", so the people with interest in the latter would likely be more interested than the people looking to get into the stuff on Critical Role. Mushing simply is not that. The people looking to play a fully sheeted dungeon crawl version of D&D or who want to utilize the systems in gaming books made by Modiphius are less likely to stay in the hobby, but people with more of an interest in writing itself would.

Vanilla WoW/World of Warcraft Classic.

Explain this to me.

Why is "The same WoW only with half the races, classes, and content" super popular?

@Duke-Nukem Nope. This place being a roleplaying forum for a corner/niche online "gaming" community that some people deem important enough to lose their stability over. There's bizarre behavior in many ways.

Trolls like Rick Sanchez prove themselves to be more desperate and pitiful than the people they believe to be desperate and pitiful. People like me who generally don't give a fuck about people like Rick Sanchez sit back and watch a level of attachment that is just perplexingly weird. They're very dedicated to their own losing fight against people they hate. Its embarrassing.

But I digress.

LOL.
Jesus christ, this place can be bizarre.