Best posts made by Gingerlily

@Staked said:

@Derp said:

I want a Dark Sun game that isn't a) a MUD or b) house ruled so heavily as to be practically unrecognizable or c) using some weird alternate history theme.

Just straight Dark Sun, at whatever point in the timeline.

This. I used to play the hell out of Armageddon MUD waaaay back in the 90's early oughts. Would love to see a true Dark Sun MUSH to play on now. With work and a kid I AFK for brief moments too much to play on a MUD where perm-death can happen whether you're at the screen or not.

Random aside: I wish this was part of the MUD v MUSH dialogue sometimes, RPI or RPE or whatever MUD, part of the reason I found sticking to MUSH easier as I became an 'old' is that there are far fewer occasions in my life where my full and total 100 per-cent attention can be on my screen. It is nice to be able to turn away and spend a moment patiently explaining again why markers are for paper, not your skin or the walls or the cat, and if you need some more paper perhaps look on your art shelf or ask mommy, instead of screaming "NO STOP ARGH NOW LOOK AT MY HP DRAIN YOU HAVE KILLLED MEEEE"

MUSH is a +1 (10?) for parenting. I also have no opinion on Dark Sun, and this only really belongs here because it went off of what someone else said. ANYWAY.

EDITED: A typo was annoying me, I fixed it.

@ganymede said in Make MSB great again!:

@gingerlily said in Make MSB great again!:

The 'MSB effect' is on PEOPLE not games. It is damaging because not all game runners are intensely resilient and sometimes when a person is called useless and pointless or jokes are made about whether they are seeing a shrink, they are hurt, insulted, and no longer interested in running a game or dealing with anything MU* related ever again...or for a few months at least. If people posting on MSB were slightly less vitriolic it would be better for everyone.

I'm going to pick at this for a second.

If people were slightly less vitriolic in general, life would be better for everyone. If we all carefully picked our words, or kept our messages somewhere between Sunny's succinctness and Thenomain's grumpiness, the messages would be clear, cogent, and concise. But we all know this is not going to happen overnight.

There was a time when this place was different, at its inception. It was so full of good feelings and felicity that HelloRaptor felt alienated, old, and useless (although, to be fair, he is at least two of these three things, no matter what). But, the good old hate is on the rebound again, for whatever reason.

Ever wonder why?

Frankly, I think it's because we've stopped caring: not about each other, but about what and how we say things. Or, at least, we aren't taking the time to consider this before hitting that submit button. Maybe if we did that, this place would change slightly.

And then, maybe we keep on taking more and more time to consider what we're saying, how we're saying it, and if we can say it better. And then, maybe this place would change some more.

But you can't legislate that any more than you can legislate Bill & Ted's Prime Directive.

What we can do is just consider it.

I was not suggesting that it could be legislated, I thought I mentioned somewhere that it was a culture issue, not a moderation issue. I did not join MSB from its onset, by the time I was here there was a lot of pretty gross behavior going on already. There were a few discussions that were interesting and where people were conducting themselves like adults, and I did enjoy some of those. Mostly I have enjoyed not the forums themselves but meeting and talking one on one through chat with some really fabulous people who I would not have come across otherwise.

I can't speak to the 'we' who have stopped caring. I've never participated in the nastiness. It doesn't jive with who I am nor who I want to be, and the appeal of being an asshole to someone through the anonymity of the internet was fun when the internet was new, but by the end of college a good 20 years ago less so.

So I've never wondered why hate was on the rebound again because I never saw MSB at a time when it wasn't alive and well. I assumed it was just the nature of the place from the get go.

I've seen the same people talk on threads like these about how all the mean needs to stop who on other threads enjoyed being as mean as possible. So I don't really know what's going on in people's heads. What I do know is that its actually /extremely easy/ to not be shitty to other people. It's not a major challenge. It takes almost no effort. So yeah I mean people can talk about it and consider it. Or they could just grow up and decide to do it. It really is exactly that simple. The rules that applied to us as preschoolers still work, and we have advanced social emotional and executive functioning skills...if they can manage to use kind words and think about other people's feelings, pretty sure we can to. All one has to do is bother.

ADD hyperfocus is how I get on the computer after work to 'unwind' and start off by reading some news or whatever and something makes me think of something that sends me into a Wikipediahole. I emerge six hours later, armed with nuanced information on totally random things that I will soon forget.

I spent an entire afternoon reading everything about Tunnel #3 (And then sidetracked to 2) under NYC. I don't even live in NYC, nor am I especially interested in anything involved.

I spent another entire afternoon on 'The American Sheep Wars" which I did not even know was a thing but now I do and in such detail!

It's actually not a horrible way to spend time, the issue is if I slip into a hyperfocus Wikipedia hole and planned to do...anything else at all. Because then I did not do that.

Oooh, set it in the late 90's. If I play a character hanging around College Park in the late 90's, yearning for gothy darkness it will be super therapeutic.

@apos said in MU Things I Love:

@Thenomain Doesn't happen as much on games with coded money and any feeling of resource scarcity. It's a symptom of money feeling meaningless, and the largest reason for that is because it's not coded so no character feels the need to RP not having access to it when they need it. I think not having coded money is analogous to not having any way of showing someone taking damage. In full consent games without systems, sure people will pose getting hurt. How hurt are they? Shrug, there's a lot of dumb ways to track it, but the equivalent of saying, 'well okay since there's bad systems for tracking damage, we should handwave it and go without' creates way, way more problems than people think.

Like the time where my char's husband informed her that due to Reasons, we'd have to be tightening our belts and cutting down on expenses almost entirely and OOC I was all "So is this just rp flavor or do I really have to stop buying things?" and he was all "No its the second one, stop buying things." and its VERY SAD. But I will definitely rp not having access to it because I DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO IT

@Sparks

This is why I have the best job for ADD. The average kindergartners attention span is 7 minutes. Mine is maybe 8?

Doing many things but never for very long is a very successful day teaching Preschool.

@kanye-qwest said in Reasons why you quit a game...:

This has been very helpful to me, for Arx in particular.

http://thagomizer.com/blog/2017/09/29/we-don-t-do-that-here.html

I like that one. In general I am a bit exhausted when people create these parallels between those staffing a game and those doing paid work. This was more 'here is an easy thing from our professional lives that we can also use in games'

@Wretched said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

I self advocated! And it worked! I was a little blunt and firm and used words like 'unacceptable' and 'would like to be acknowledged as a partner in my mental health' and 'I don't feel like you are listening to me'. So now I will soon get non stimulant ADHD meds!!!

(because Kaiser hates cannabis and wont gimme stimulants lest I am 100% pee test clean. And as a former daily user who is overweight, tha'll take a bit.)

So, woo!

I have a medical cannabis card because my state does that. It's for migraines, but I've seen strains labeled as helping with ADHD and thought that has to be nonsense (I have ADHD and have been on and off stimulant medication since diagnosis in high school.) HOWEVER as it turns out the pot for adhd thing wasn't nonsense. There are a few that get me focused as anything, and can get a ton accomplished.

@darinelle said in The limits of IC/OOC responsibility:

@arkandel - The way we handle it in Arx is Voices/2nds in command, who act with the voice of the faction leader. Spread the love and share the burdens, because it shouldn't and can't always be THAT ONE GUY who stands AT THE NEXUS OF ALL DECISIONS. It's not feasible IRL, and it's certainly not feasible in a game.

I think the responsibility if you have someone dependent directly upon you for their arc is a scene once a week. I also think you should never be in a position where more than 3-4 people are directly dependent upon you for their entire arc, esp. when they're different arcs. At that point, then more people need to be involved organizationally.

I like that Arx thing. The voices thing. Spreading out the authority so that the stories don't bottleneck because Joebob (Duke Joebob, I wanna make him fancy) has been awol for work or finals or something. It makes it easier on Duke Joebob, and also more fun for the pople picked to be Voice for Jobbobland since they get to call the shots too. 10/10 thumbs up.

@Atomic said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

My brother broached the idea to me that I should get .. I dunno, tested? Examined? However folks put a pin in figuring out how one isn't textbook neurotypical? He thinks I'm in the AD* zone, somewhere. A lot of reading later I'm inclined to take his advice. I guess the question is, outside of the possibility of a diagnosis, does it actually help getting it identified?

100% yes, at least if it is impacting your daily life in negative ways. Lots of adults who make it to adulthood without diagnosis have already developed effective strategies for mitigating the impact of ADD in order to get there. But if you feel like it does have a negative impact on life, whether its work or with interpersonal stuff or whatever else, its definitely worth getting the diagnosis. There are lots of new medications, they no longer just toss ritalin at the problem and hope it works, and there are also strategies and skills to learn whether you want to go the meds route or not. I'd go to a neurologist for testing rather than a GP if you have the option.

I have never found the common refrain of 'It was so much better in the 90's' at all informative of my own experience. I have been playing MU* for the same dino amount as most of you give or take (off and on, but active enough) and I've found the quality of games gets better, it is much easier to find a playgroup that shares your level of engagement, (old person with children and grown-up job, handful of hours handful of days a week to college-kid I MU*alldayeverydayhaveyouevertriedJolttowashdownthecocaine) and levels in between!

I find a lot of positive in the community too, I've made both lifelong and shiny new friendships through MU* and that's worth every evening something has aggravated me. I have certainly come across horrible people too, but I'm not sure the ratio of fine to amazing to horrible is that different than any other community. Maybe the anonymity of the net skews a little to horrible, but not enough that I've wanted to forever storm off.

When you are a special education teacher because your mother was a special education teacher and your parents met at a camp in the 1970's as counselors for children with special needs, and also you have ADHD that was diagnosed in high school and a daughter who is on the spectrum.

It feels extra special on the days where my brain does not allow me to do my job, which is to help children with developmental delays do preschool and get ready for kindergarten, because my brain is too similar to their brains. "Sorry kids but I guess you know how it is?"

@thatguythere said in A (Mildly Complete) List of Current Games:

@gingerlily said in A (Mildly Complete) List of Current Games:

I have never found the common refrain of 'It was so much better in the 90's'

Whenever I hear this in regards to mushing I always wonder if they lived through the same 90s I did.
Not to say I didn't have a shit ton of fun back then but I would be very hesitant to all anything from then better. It was different some of the issues were different but I would also agree that from a qualitative perspective if not a quantitative one things have gotten better not worse.
Of course I don't tend to have much a sense of nostalgia in general.

MUSIC was better in the 90's, obviously. MU*ing is just as good now.

I have the most annoying insomnia, and when I can sleep, I am the lightest sleeper ever so I just wake up. It fills me with RL Anger, especially anger towards people who can sleep. Like my husband, who just saunters into bed two hours after I go to bed, while I am still struggling, tossing and turning, and within FIFTEEN SECONDS of his head hitting the pillow is just snoring away happily. He's the worst, right? Grrrr. It's 1:15 am, I've been trying to sleep for an hour, and he's due any minute to just waltz in here and instantly crash.

People who fall asleep quickly are terrible people.

@kanye-qwest said in Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems:

So thanks for the idea of this thread, but we get goodfeedback talking to players directly and aren't really getting the kind of suggestions we'd hope for. If you have feedback, take it through the official channels in game or on github, we are abandoning this MSB-staff-interfacing to focus on what we think is important, and fun.

Back to your regularly scheduled posting.

You guys have been such active participants in threads specifically for trashing your game, I have never been able to decide whether that is admirable or just nuts. Definitely drop it for what's important and fun. This can't possibly be either.

@stabeest said in What drew you to MU*?:

I've been involved in IRC roleplay since I was about 16 years old. I spent years playing on play by email games and forum games as well. I started RPing because I love to tell stories. I have since I first started playing with Barbies and acting out elaborate fantasy scenarios with them. I guess I never really grew out of playing pretend, but until I discovered the internet, it was all just inside my head or written down in these notebooks that I would FILL with world-building notes.

Then I discovered people telling stories on IRC and the rest is history. It's been twenty years now. I've taken breaks here and there for sometimes years at a time, but I always come back because there are always stories that I want to tell, characters that I want to explore.

I found MUs thanks to my best friend who knew I needed an outlet and thought this could be a good one. And it absolutely has been, no matter what has happened. I've met some wonderful people. I met my partner. I've told some stories that have been just beautiful. While some might find it terrifying to think of moving into a MU without any friends, I find that exciting. New people mean new stories to tell. That's all that this is about for me.

Man I was also into my Barbies way later than most kids but they lived ELABORATE COMPLICATED LIVES. I think mine were more 'Beverly Hills 90210' than high fantasy but I was 11, I had time to grow.

@hedgehog said in MU Things I Love:

@Gingerlily

Share your secrets with me, wise one. I've felt like a non-entity forever, now. Some of that is burnout and frustration, but I would be lying if the burnout and frustrations weren't tied into perceived reactions/non-reactions from other people. Y'know, that lovely old feedback loop.

Find people who you are comfortable admitting that you are struggling to, who might also be struggling and thus super forgiving and wanting to help. Then they will forgive you if you have to suddenly bail because you forgot how to write.

Or find brand new people. The struggle is real, lots of people share it, and I think some of them are finding each other and it's great.

My reason is totally weird.

I was a freshman in college and my English writing professor decided to make the basic first year writing class have a 'theme' and the 'theme' was like, Man/Cyborg, does our relationship to technology make us one with it? (It's 1997 here for context) There were random lists of choices for the second research paper and one was 'virtual societies' and I picked that, having no idea what it was but it sounded cool. Apparently my professor was in large part referring to MUDs so I made chars on some roleplaying ones and interviewed people with what I'm sure were some weird ass questions, and played just enough to be the most clueless newbie because I was not just 'how do you do X here' but 'what even is this, what is the point?'. The people were super nice, even the head admin of one. Turned in paper, a few months later got dumped by boyfriend, was grouchy and didn't feel like getting drunk at parties where he'd also be. Stayed home and thought "Hey I remember that place you could like hang around and pretend to be a dryad on a quest or something, maybe I will do it for -fun-." Been text gaming since.

Like Jane Goodall, only I became an ape.

Also I swear I read a hard copy library book about MUDs in specific, but it couldn't have been the Richard Bartle because that wasn't out until early 2000s so WHAT DID I READ, I still wonder. It had descriptions of characters, and discussed as a phenomenon men playing females and attempted to analyze the reasons. I have wondered for years what book it could be, but no clue. Paper obviously long gone, it would be a hilarious read now. I did get an A!

I know I will have a nice meaty response once I have read the entire thread because I find this topic super interesting and remember the major culture shock I experienced making the switch. I still have perspectives on rp and gaming shaped by 15 years of MUD. Had to pause though to offer a huge 'screw off' to the people who turned the convo to 'muds are rp lite, players don't care as much' Come on guys be cool. It isn't a contest.

Okay! I have now read the whole thread and can reply for true, though on my phone for what that is worth. I am in total agreement that having players from MUDs check out MUXses is fabulous, the reverse would be too, they can both be incredibly fun.

Here was my culture shock. In my first scene ever seeing a line of text that read 'Eve enters from the hallway', greeting Eve in my pose, and having it explained to me that Eve was not there yet because she had not posed. At the time it made very little sense. We ignore the text emitted by the game here? Why? Now of course setting ones entrance into a scene is a crucial storytelling tool I love.

IC vs OOC is -still- tough for me. I have learned the benefits to talking and planning OOC, some great stories can come out that way. I will never get the constant casual chatter about it, never not have tons more fun learning through rp that Joebob is a double agent who killed his father than learning it when he talks about it on pub. And no, person who implied that on KD players keep secrets OOC because the game is 'hostile'. It's because some of us find exploring them in game kind of fun, that's all.

Fundamentally both types of game are cooperative storytelling, I think one of the major differences is how much collaboration is expected in order to participate.