@royal said in The Worst Thing You Have Done in this Hobby Thread:
Constantly ghosting the high holy fuck out of everyone the second my rabid meerkat attention span shifted to a new game, hobby or unexplainable burnout.
Too many good friends casually cast aside over the years to count. Sorry, y'all. I'm better now... but not by much.
Also guilty here. Very much so.
@solstice said in Good Anime:
- Wotakoi - Love is Hard for Otaku - Thankfully, romance also exists outside of high schools. This romantic comedy focuses more on the nuance of being in a relationship and getting to know your partner more than the chase itself - and with the principle cast all some form of geek, there's plenty of relatability to be found here.
Surprisingly, I enjoyed this one and it definitely is a plus that it isn't about high schoolers.
- Your Lie in April - Piano prodigy Arima Kosei dominated the competition and all child musicians knew his name. But the overwork and stress and a certain turning point left him with a mental block where he can no longer even hear the notes he's performing. Enter Miyazono Kaori. She's a pretty, free spirited violinist whose playing style reflects her personality, and Kosei is immediately fascinated. Unfortunately, she's already dating his best friend.
Careful, this anime will get dust in your eyes. Unexpected side affect. Also made me regret a little bit that I didn't take my own musical talent more seriously when I was a youth.
- Cowboy Bebop - Space cowboys? Check. Inspired Firefly? Check. Corgi? Check.
One of the classics that originally got me into some anime and still an amazing anime in my book though.
This pandemic turned me into a weeb. 
A lot of really good comments already. The obvious things are increased pay, good health care, paid vacation/sick days, etc., but that is probably out of your control but that is what people really care about. Especially after what happened in 2020.
It's hard to give other specific suggestions because it is hard to give a blanket checkbox to tick to make everyone happier, each team has individuals who have different outlooks in life. In the end, one I believe works for everyone in all walks of life is to remember that employees are human beings too, the highest earning CEO is not a special human compared to the lowest hourly wage worker, both are human beings. So it's best to remember that employees are not robots or worker drones, they are people. Treat them like people, with common decency, respect, and understanding of the challenges in life when it comes up.
@rucket said in General Video Game Thread:
I do hope crunch ends up going away for the industry sooner or later, but it's also been over a decade since the "EA Spouse" blog that brought up shit working conditions and, well, here we are.
Unfortunately as long as marketing people are making the decisions, crunch will always be there and games will be released in suboptimal state. Not surprised Sony de-listed the game, it's unplayable on PS4.
I had a lot of fun on the game, unfortunately RL just got in my way. My activity in both TSS and Arx went to zilch. Just a lot of mental fatigue from work and RL, my creativity has hit rock bottom. Hopefully I can find the spark again to want to write and RP sometime in the future.
I also think the survey can be a very good source of valuable information for game runners who care about the game. Sort of like an exit interview which can be answered anonymously.
Vietnam War had a shit ton of wrong in it, starting from how the conflict began. It showcases the terrible results of American and European Imperialism, the horrors of military doctrine of body counts, the lack of care of the native population (yet again) just to fight a proxy war on foreign lands, the might of the military industrial complex that has no care for Americans or foreigners, general warc crimes and atrocities committed without a second thought, etc.
There was nothing good about the Vietnam War to play about.
@Aria said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
@Auspice My father once told me when I was 15 years old or so that I shouldn't have cut my hair short because the boys in my school wouldn't like it.
Given how many threats he had made of the 'dating my daughter' type, I looked him right in the eye and asked, "Daddy, do you really think I should make choices based on what the boys at school want me to do?"
The look on his face -- and the ensuing silence -- was priceless and I have not forgotten it to this day.
@Auspice said in RL things I love:
I'm not sure if this has been said here before, but one of the perks to wearing a mask is I haven't had anyone tell me 'you should smile' in months.
You should buy a smiley face mask and if someone says that, put it on. Then give the death glare.
@Prototart said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:
@Auspice said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:
I for one always call in a GM to help me end my TS.
one time when i was a teenager i started a “sex scene” then called for a staffer to judge combat because i was there to kill the guy
you can imagine how smoothly this went and how many names i was not called
Critical roll for BONERKILLER.
Whew, this is a heavy subject but also a very important one, and it certainly makes one go through a deep thinking. This is also a subject I have contemplated with myself, certainly much more often in the second decade of being in this hobby than the first when I was more young and stupid. Despite being a minority in the US, I was lucky enough to be a minority that wasn't as looked down upon or discriminated against as some of the other minority groups. There was discrimination, definitely, but the discrimination I faced was a thousand times less harmful than what African Americans or Hispanic people face on a daily basis. However, growing up in the US since the late 1980s and on, my brain certainly has gone through a whitewashing through education, media, and just the atmosphere around me. Sadly, I did not fully embrace my own origin until I became more mature because growing up in the states, it is inherently viewed that being white is the pinnacle of our culture and that was subtly taught in this country.
When it comes to this hobby, I have been incredibly guilty of playing predominantly white characters. In fact, I don't recall playing a non-white character until HorrorMU where one of the story arcs (the one allowing you to be a deity) that I was going to swap to an Asian deity which means an Asian art portrait as my character PB, my first non-white character that I can recall. However, RL waylaid me and I couldn't log on much anymore so I never actually got to play the character even though I had it mapped out and ready to go. It wasn't until I came back after my year+ hiatus that when I returned to the hobby on Savage Skies where I finished creating an Asian character and started playing a minority as a main character for the first time.
Now, here are the reasons from a non-white person's eyes on what lead me to the decisions I have made since I started this hobby. When I select a character, I want to play that character well so other people have fun when they interact with my character and aren't repulsed by the character's actions or the way I write. One can make a character more challenging to play by having odd quirks or hooks that are inherent roadblocks to a hero's story and I've found that I had no issues tackling any of those kinds of character challenges except for two characteristics, namely Race and Sexuality.
I don't play gay, bi, or trans-gendered characters because I would suck at them, mainly because I was never in their shoes once. I don't know how to properly play a character like that properly and what's worse, because of the lack of experience and accurate understanding, I could easily come off as offensive in my character's actions just because what one learns about them from an outside point of view is often misleading or just offensively incorrect. This is the same reason why I have yet to play a person of color (except Asian), for the very same reason except this time it is a racial characteristic and not a sexuality characteristic. What I learned about minorities (both racial and sexuality) when I was young was very, very different from what I've learned since growing up, and still learning about to this day. I don't think anyone can fully understand with all the learning they do because they lack one key element which is actual life experience (the good and the bad), which is why white privilege is such an important term that is being brought up heavily today.
Now why didn't I play more Asian characters in the past being an Asian myself? Because an Asian character isn't as easy as playing a white character, unfortunately. People often say (and I have been guilty of this in the past without fully understanding what I was saying) just play normally. Even the term "normal" is skewed heavily to where you grew up. In the US? Being normal is being white. In my opinion, you can play a POC character "normally" because you would be doing it wrong. Also, since growing up, Asians are rarely the lead protagonist in American movies or shows and if they are, sometimes they are portrayed inaccurately or even racially insensitive because it's amusing. Am I offended when I do that? Personally, no. I look at it and go haha, that's so dumb. Then move on. But it has certainly whitewashed what I think are easily acceptable elements in a movie, a show, or a story. It's easier to pick a white character and play it "normally", it gives me less stress and one less thing to consider when choosing an appropriate action. It is a bit sad that this is the way I look at things but it is also due to all the teachings and experiences I soaked up since I was a kid.
So will I play more PoC characters in the future? Unfortunately, probably not. Is it because I don't care about the lack of diverse IC demographics on games? Of course not, it's the opposite. I don't want to try to help balance the diversity in a game by introducing a character that is horribly played that brings shame to myself and discomfort to those that interact with my character.
@GreenFlashlight That ain't Chinese food! Yeah, I went there.
I think the recent exchange of posts paints a very bright warning sign on Star War games in general. It is too easy to turn a cooperative RP game into one where people chase stats and try to buff their characters to insane levels so they can stomp on other players. Cooperation goes out the window, it becomes a cold war of stat and gear building until that eventually turns into a nuke launch by all sides with the losers royally pissed.
Now, twenty years ago, that might have sounded like fun to me because when you get that 7D, you're like ahmg this feels greeeeeeeat! Get an 8D? Holy shit, I just cast Lvl. 8 Cock of the Infinite on myself, fucking awesome. 9D??? I steal yo soul and cast Lightning Lvl. 1,000,000 Your body explodes into a fine bloody mist, because you are only a Lvl. 2 Druid. It certainly made the player feel good like you're stomping on a bunch of lemmings without consequence or it took crazy amount of coordination to counter you. There is no cooperative RP there, no building of bonds between players to enrich the story of the setting and each character, even if it is between a good character and an evil character.
Star Wars is probably one of the hardest genre to create a MUSH on, especially if you open it to the entire galaxy, allow cross faction and PvP, allow Force powers since that multiplies their character strength. It's been over a decade since I've played on one of the old, really large Star Wars games like Minos Clusters or SW1 but those were the glaring issues at the time.
I have a feeling that's why they haven't really been advertising antibody tests for the time being because there are tests out there but are currently unreliable.
@Testament said in RL things I love:
I'm not going to say that I love this, but, I finally got to do a "Per my last email" response to an email where I have to repeat the same thing because someone didn't get the point the first time.
I giggled.
After doing it once, you will find yourself doing it again and again out of pure enjoyment because... idiots.
