Posts made by L. B. Heuschkel

@tek Haven't had the (dis)pleasure but if a player makes you feel like we should probably talk to him but it'd be such a shame to lose all of whatever, then that player is likely doing exactly that. Gut feeling is usually right.

Ban abusers, even if they are good writers
And even if they run lots of events.

Zero tolerance for certain behaviours is probably a very important step. I've left more than one game because nothing was done about horrendous behaviour and chicanery, whether towards me or someone else. And entirely too often, that abuse does in fact come from staff or from someone of whom staff will say, 'he's a friend, he'd never do that'.

@greenflashlight I'm going to go with, the staff needs to be players.

It sounds so simple. Nothing is ever that simple, of course. But in terms of importance, it does matter. Some game runners take it on themselves to be game runners because they want something specific and the only way to get it is to run it. This is great. Some then go on to think that having an idea and implementing it somehow makes them a superior segment of the population, and bloody hell, they will not let you forget it.

Running a game does not make you a better human being. It quite possibly makes you a sucker because it's a lot of work, and you certainly deserve kudos for putting in that effort so the rest of us can have fun. But there's one hell of a difference between respect where respect is due, and expecting to have some kind of communal authority and status of visionary.

The best game runners I've played under and/or staffed for have been people who saw themselves as players, just putting in more volunteer work. Some even went as far as to play their own games anonymously in order to avoid sucking up or special treatment because staff or staff adjacent.

It's natural to want to play with your friends. We all do that. In my (let's just admit it, opinionated and not very humble) experience, there is a leap made sometimes where new players cease to be potential future play mates and friends and become annoying pieces of obligation. If you're ever in that last mindset as a game runner -- get another hobby, go on a break, do something else.

I'm not convinced it's transparency (though transparency is good) as much as it's respect. Players need to respect game runners for hosting, running, and maintaining the game. But game runners also need to respect their players. When neither respect the other, the game turns into a horrific cesspit of 'what can I get away with' and 'who cares, everyone's an asshole'.

@derp said in A healthy game culture:

That's FS3, not specifically Ares.

I stand corrected.

I also agree with Pyrephox above about incentive and not taking it too far. I've been on games where people would have wild and massive OOC arguments about when you deserve a virtual cookie for a scene. The cookies had no game mechanics effect. They were just numbers that got posted to a weekly leaderboard. The arguments were rabid.

I am not a fan of 'popular scenes this week' posts or 'cookie leaderboard' posts for this reason. Competitiveness is not necessarily our friends in a community based game.

@sixregrets I figured that was the joke. That his name is close enough that he's having a really shitty week because of that other guy.

Truth is, from over here, I wouldn't know one from the other. I have no idea who either of them are.

I'm going to have to agree that if there is any one (2-3) player(s) who can ruin a game on their own, then that is management, yes.

Game runners don't need to be high visibility, leading everything by hand. In fact, when they are, the game can turn into an attention grabbing competition because players feel the only way to stay involved is to elbow into the game runners' personal circle.

They do, however, need to be trustworthy. That means some level of transparency, and a reputation for fairness. If you can't trust game admin to take your complaint seriously because they're buddies with the guy who harrassed you, then the only way to go there is far away.

@il-volpe Hmm, Ares has a smidgen of it in that you accumulate Luck by scening, and more Luck by scening with new characters or characters you haven't scened a lot with before. It's a nice little touch -- and probably as far as I am comfortable with it going.

It's a good reminder that the game wants you to meet new people. But it's not enough to make 'farming newbies' viable. Because that's the other extreme of that -- people doing pointless, no-content scenes just to get a notch on the score card.(1)

But that's a thing that applies to any and all game systems: Ultimately, you can't code yourself into good game culture. You can remove some of the obvious hurdles -- favourite example here is pvp style games that actively give you xp for killing easy things such as other players, even the big MMOs learned quick to not reward farming the newbies. But ultimately, game culture is built in spite of game mechanics, not on them.

(1) Disclaimer: A scene is not pointless if you enjoyed it. Bar RP, slice of life RP, chatting sports at the laundromat RP, is all not pointless if you enjoyed it or felt you built IC relationship from it. Pointless means a scene where someone walks in, drops a few poses about being too bored for this shit, and walks out, wasting the space they occupied.

It's not a structural or organisational thing as such, but one which makes or breaks a game for me: The feeling that everyone is as welcome as they want to be, whether that means being on 8 hours every evening or just checking in every other day for a bit.

It's definitely a cultural thing, and it only happens when management and the older players make an effort to make it so. Set a trend of talking to new people, of channels being non-hostile, of answering questions also when they are stupid, and you've come a long way.

From staff's side, this means booting the assholes, but it also means not rewarding unwanted behaviour with attention. It's very easy to fall into the hole of catering to the loudest. But me first, me first behaviour also helps create an A and a B group of players. The ones you want to listen to the most and create stuff for the most, are the large, not particularly loud group of people who just play the game, interact like adults, and don't cause any great ripples. They're not always the most exciting, but they're the ones who keep your game from falling into dramatics and cliquery.

Did I miss a memo or was this not the joke?

@faraday said in Redbird's Playlist:

It's not a technical limitation, it's a cultural one. You can play synchronously in a grid-based scene from the web portal and asynchronously in a temproom scene from the MU client. What matters most is the culture of what the majority of players on that particular game prefer. I've been on plenty of dead pennmush games, but nobody's like: "Wow, nobody's doing anything. PennMUSH really sucks."

Nah, there are a few things that are easier to do from a client, such as some of the combat commands -- and of course some of Gray Harbor's custom code that hasn't been been ported to the portal (which is obviously not the portal's fault). Myself, I run both -- a client for channel communication and handling combat, writing poses from the web portal where editing is a hella lot easier.

@ninjakitten Pretty sure there aren't any things you can only do on the web portal. There are things you can only do from a traditional client.

I'm grumpy as hell because I won't even be considered for a shot until July or so, unless miracles happen. I'm high risk and chronically ill, but not in active hospital treatment.

Was a bit of a media hubbub about that here the other day when someone pointed out that this means terminal cancer patients who refuse further chemo are also not being scheduled because no hospital treatment=not at risk.

The logic of bureaucrats, man.

Fortunately for me it doesn't make much difference since my illness keeps me pretty socially isolated anyhow.

@faraday That's what I do. If a scene is idle for 24 hours and I have heard nothing from the idle player (or someone else bringing word from them), I will move the scene on. Maybe not on the 24 hour mark but definitely soon. It's not fair to the rest to leave everyone waiting.

@cupcake Here is the spiel I usually set -- and I am the master of asyncs, largely because stupid European timezone.

OOC notes
This is an asynchronous scene, meaning that it does not happen in real-time. You'll have time to write, and it's okay to write a novel if you want to, but you don't have to -- short and sweet gets the job done too. I reserve the right to move scenes on after 24 hours of no activity, even if it means skipping someone.
Start time is when the first GM emit drops; being present at this time is not a requirement.

Because no, it is not at all unreasonable to clarify what your tolerance for downtime is. I have scenes I have negotiated privately that move maybe weekly because of the health or work situation of the other player, and that's fine. Because again, this was agreed on in advance -- that glacial would not be a problem.

It's not fair to keep someone waiting for weeks if you have not agreed that it's going to be like that.

I put that disclaimer in the event description, and I put it in an OOC line at the top of the scene when it begins, so that I am certain everyone has seen it.

@hedgehog Southern Jutland. They are building new hospital facilities for all of this, I was told. So I can just wait a couple of years or something. Bright smile from nurse.

I have no reason to suspect that I have breast cancer. The screening is mandatory in the fashion that my own GP is expected to make me bloody well take it, however, and there'll be no end of nagging if I don't. So now it's on me to get an appointment at a hospital in another region, and arrange transportation.

I am fortunate enough to have a partner who drives and works shifts so that driving in the work day is actually possible at intervals. Many disabled people aren't.

Taxi pool transportation can be booked -- but with the caveat that they pick you up with in a two hour timeframe of the booking time. Meaning that this can be a full day expedition with two times two hours' curbside wait. I am lucky -- I have a partner with a car. Again, many disabled people don't. Last week it was freezing -15C. That'd be great for an elderly, disabled person to sit curbside for four hours in, I figure.

I am red hot furious about the complete lack of concern for this.

Today I learned that cancer screening is mandatory in my country when you turn 50, but if you can't walk without mobility aids you can't access the location they're made in. But they're fixing it in a couple of years so, like, deal.

I'm very, very tired of even the most basic of things not being disability accessible.

@faraday said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

I’ve seen it many times, often seemingly posted in earnest. And some of the comments when it’s shared are just vile. Which is why it bugs me.

Usually from the same crowd who will tell you not to let your illness control your life, that you choose whether you want to be a victim, and that where there's a will there's a way.

A.k.a. the 'never have been sick for real' crowd.

@roz said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

I've seen the coin to get a cart thing in the US, but rarely. And actually the one that comes to mind first is Aldi, which isn't an American company, so I assume is probably just bringing over standards from Europe.

From Germany, more particularly. It's become common in Denmark as well, dunno about the rest of Europe. We have a lot of German discount chains here, they introduced the idea.

@vulgarkitten said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Real World Peeve: knowing a bunch of your online friends are going through really fucking tough times right now with their real lives (jobs, mental health, physical health) and there's not a thing you can do except offer a shoulder/ear. It's not enough and I hate that it's not enough and I wish I could do more for these awesome people.

Hear you so loud and clear on this.

@testament A good take on the spoon theory, really.

Run us out of spoons, we're gonna have to throw other things.