Posts made by loke

@skew

@skew said in How to use Potato MU Client:

@Ruggles is reporting the above simply does not work on PennMUSH. Is anyone out there playing a PennMUSH game that could check?

The [/get 0] is what seems to be failing. If you set up the above to just send say [/get 0] it should work. Though now that I type I do hope ol' Ruggles was using a zero and not a letter!

This is happening in windows 64bit. It doesn't matter what the server type is. That is the part that is purely handled by the client before it sends it to the MUSH. Basically there is some kind of bug. I ran my client as administrator and it still won't do this. Course I'm trying to log to a drive that is not the main OS drive (potato isn't on the OS drive either) so that might have something to do with it if this isn't a widespread bug. Who knows.

@rook said in Reasons why you quit a game...:

This contributed to the heartache cycle, which for me is the high of character conceptualization... only to step out days later onto the grid and see tumbleweeds blowing by.

Yeah. This is hard. You're drumming along, thinking you've got something that will hook into what is or isn't going on...then it's like throwing a line in and never getting a nibble when fishing. It blows because of all the investment. I don't think I've ever seen a game that is hurting for activity change their entry requirements (I'd be interested if others have).

Like, if people are having troubles RPing, then ease up on some CG requirements so there's a low front end investment. Then if things don't work out (because they are likely outside of your control if the activity is just low), not as rough lashback for the player.

@apu
When you say you get disinterested with theme is it like a total, man I'm just not into HP or WOD anymore, or is it something like I got bored with the theme because we were harping on the same stuff over and over (theme is worn out for whatever reason).

I can think of situations myself where if the theme was more malleable (not like AU malleable, but extensible), and I had a chance to engage with that, I might be more interested in staying around.

You're right. I clearly was focusing on the narrow interpretation. I like your breakdown/re-integration. Thank you!

@lithium Yep. I think this is the biggest thing. If you're going to have anything, have this imho.

@ixokai I agree. I think professionalism is a level of commitment by an individual. Another 'professional' attitude is, "I'm going to do a good job no matter what other people around me are doing." Some might say that's just a form of integrity. I would say yes! It is! Work ethic, a commitment to strive to be better (because I think we all backslide so this is necessary to fight that), and to just be fair.

However, I think it's okay to not be overly timely on jobs (especially in a small game with less staff) as long as you set this expectation with the players and prioritize things that help unblock players RPing (apps for one). I think prioritizing your own jobs or your own interests is not one of my values. (this is not to say that I believe people shouldn't work on what they are excited or motivated by)

Some staffers hold two conflicting beliefs, "This is my game,"/I get to do what I want when I want, and "I'm in it for the players." I think if you're in it for the players, you find a balance between taking care of yourself and serving your player base without sacrificing on fairness.

@goldfish I have a personality that is more vocal, but I am shy when it comes to instigating RP and such. I am sadly one of those people who probably make a lot of shy people feel alienated because of that. It's not intentional; it's just how my own shyness manifests. Unfortunately, it causes a lot of perception problems that I have to combat with some of my shyer friends.

@tez I like the transparency and that this is available to players. I wouldn't expect players to read it all, but the message it sends is...you /can/ hold us accountable. This is what we stand for. This is what you can expect from us, so if you're not seeing this, something is wrong.

@thenomain said in Reasons why you quit a game...:

What good starting guidelines do is establish intent

yesyesyes all kinds of yes

@tez
I've actually found a lot of the things you've shared here to be very true. I don't have assss much experience as a lot of people here in leading in a MU setting (some), but I have a ton of experience working on, with, etc high performing and poor performing teams (with high and low performing individuals) in a work setting.

A lot of the benefits you're describing, and interpersonal guidelines, were true there too.

We espoused and held each other accountable to:

• transparency
• direct communication and constructive criticism (there's a lot of stuff that goes into this, like agreeing on what this looks like)
• always give the benefit of the doubt, or, "default to trust" (huge)
• respect (I think the not talking about players, keeping it away from gossip, etc, falls into this territory)

We found that even if we had a great discussion about these tenets to begin with on a team, that if we didn't write them down, codify them, then they weren't really enforced as much. On the teams with well-intentions, this boiled down to them not being present in our minds. Reviewing such tenets when we did retrospectives or creating a reflex to refer to them when we felt ourselves backsliding in the moment was great to help everyone reset (sometimes it just helps when 80% of the time or more, people need to emotionally reset) to what was important and what we all wanted to strive towards. People make mistakes, forget, etc. To not account for this and think everyone is already on the same page has proven to be a naive assumption in those settings.

I think constantly revisiting is great. This is a never-ending thing. I think saying well staff just suck or people just suck is kind of a copout as a staffer (or someone interested in improving). So what if something looks like a brick wall; I'm going to smash through it!

Tez I'd really be interested in seeing what you guys have iterated on to piggyback on your progress so far.

@sunny I'm pretty sure that's not the intent of these ideas, but you're right nonetheless.

@saosmash
I think that's the key. Most often you don't need them once they are written (if people are actively enforcing them), but they help if someone just didn't think of a situation.

Basically, they make the situations a little more real before you get to that point and the damage is already done.

@ixokai I kind of meant just giving guiding principles. Like a mission statement or 3 golden rules to live by is all. Nothing heavy handed. It's a good point though. Writing this stuff out can easily verge into that territory, and I think a bible of hard rules isn't helpful. Hard to remember, legalistic, and too brittle when it comes to real world situations.

The contrary view is having something like golden rules or a guiding mission statement is that it is up to interpretation. I think if you have a staffer who is trying to bend something like this to fit their situation and not own up to their either serious misalignment or culpability in some matter means...well, you just found out they shouldn't be a staffer to begin with imho.

@darinelle said in Reasons why you quit a game...:

and gut-check with others.

Totally agree with all stated. I would add. Giving someone your perspective and then saying what you want to do, then getting a thumbs up...not good enough. Why? Because it means that person is already primed to agree with you. It means they only got your perspective. I've seen this happen a lot and it always produces inferior results. There are ways you can mitigate this without needing to involve other people.

You can, be careful to only provide said people with straight up facts. Don't color the facts, don't talk about what you want to do yet, etc. This will make it easier for someone to not have unconscious bias and to get as pure as an objective standpoint as you can get from any given person.

@darinelle said in Reasons why you quit a game...:

Not really, no.

Truth.

@darinelle said in Reasons why you quit a game...:

Who cares why people are refusing to hold people accountable?

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I didn't mean in this context. I meant the issue in general of people holding people accountable regardless of context. It's applicable because these reasons could be root causes of staffers doing it is all.

@apos Something I already agreed with, but worth a reply to shout out how important this is, because I've seen staffers do the contrary. At the point where a player leaves a game, they've left the game and regardless of the reasons, I think that boundary needs to be respected. If they wanted to provide feedback, personally I'd like to think that they would. It's not always going to happen, even in the best of circumstances.

Pursuing a player outside of the game feels like crossing an important line on many levels.

@darinelle I wholeheartedly agree, but I think some failure of people to hold each other accountable (outside of just not wanting to, and I think this goes for people holding people accountable, not just staff) is because people get tentative when there doesn't seem to be a precedent set for it.

I think when there's emphasis and a culture around upholding things, people are more likely to do it. Obviously this requires someone to lead by example and passion. Posted tenets don't do jack squat without follow through. Thoughts? Provided upholding certain principles is happening, do you think making them explicit matters? (to flip the idea on its head)

@auspice said in Reasons why you quit a game...:

...I have a lot of heartbreak tied to losing spaceships.
I feel your pain. ;_; Spaceships R.I.P.