Posts made by lordbelh

@Cupcake I went to see it with my two little cousins. They were like.. 'What? NOOOO! WHY?!?! Butbutbut' afterwards.

Poor traumatized kids.

@GangOfDolls I'd say RfK proved all of that wrong.

It had boons and it had status and they both worked exceptionally well together.

The problem on most MUs is that they are sandboxes. Boons, status, leadership positions and politics in general are pretty pointless in a sandbox.

@Catsmeow That was pretty much how I read it.

@Arkandel It did ask about Muds/Mushes later. But yeah, I noticed that as well.

@Kestrel Actual lines of code and actual writing, that's about all I'd think you should be worried about. Especially mu related. Being inspired by others' ideas and successes (and mistakes) is how progress is made.

@Arkandel As long as they're not benefiting each other in any tangible way, but rather just enjoying a story from different angles (this is just a prp, folks!), I don't see the problem as long as their paths don't cross.

If they're not taking anything from anyone, and they're not enriching their characters in any way, where's the conflict of interest?

In my experience a lot of people who can't be bothered to have fun, still want to squint at those who do.

@mietze And Vampire misses you?

@Lisse24 I do like that investigation you can have active are limited. It was one of the things I was vocal about initially, in that it forces you to delegate issues down the command chain. One character just can't investigate and discover every damn clue out there, and so solve every problem.

Only being able to resolve one story issue at a time would also play into that. Basically anything that forces people in power to delegate is a good thing, in my experience.

At this point in the game the people who can shine are the ones who can dig into the lore of the world, and the ones who can be social. That leaves the explorers and the soldier types somewhat threading water for the time being. I'm sure other concepts, too.

But I do know that the whole dynamic exploration ideas is going to offer something to both sorts.

Of big battles, the important thing is that people feel they can in some way contribute. What it gives you isn't just the battles, though, its all the roleplay around where you can finally explore those sides of your character. Rather than taverning it up.

In this they're no different than other GM events, in that they provide so much extra opportunity to shake things up in your regular scenes.

@Kanye-Qwest Selfishly, I'd love myself some grand battles. But that's because my character is geared towards them. Its always great to have your character be able to do the things you've imagined they're supposed to be doing. Intimate adventures are great, too, but also perfect for crowd-sourcing out to player storytellers, if they have the tools necessary to run them. Especially if they're given plot clues to work into them, so attendance feels like it has some weight rather than being ephemeral.

@buttercup I don't know about that. I suspect the future of Thrax will depend on the players of Thrax. There aren't a lot of Thrax vassals at the moment, but since he's a Count there's still two steps between him and the High Lord someone could app in on. That doesn't exactly put his character in the center.

And if you're not even in Thrax, the amount of association anyone needs to have with him is minimal to none.

That said, avoiding things and people you think will destroy your fun isn't something I'll judge anyone for.

@Cupcake Its not to late to scene with me, even without the @randomscene bonus! I have yet to turn down a single person looking for RP with me. I just stopped being the one poking at you for the scene. Start being the one to poke at me, and you're likely to get somewhere.

@Arkandel Presently I am judging it both on what it is, and what it can be. The can be part is going to find itself less and less important as we go forward, though. There's only so long that can be an effective lure.

I will say that while there is always going to be a level of OOC in political games, I'm not sure exactly how much of it there is. From the outside people have a tendency to ascribe a ton of ulterior motivation for things because they don't see the roleplay behind it. I've in the past been accused of OOC collusion with people my character was actively trying to destroy. And I've also found myself squinting suspiciously at other people, but without evidence I tell myself that all I'm doing is spoiling my own fun. It usually works.

Now I'm not a head of house/voice, so admittedly I'm not that thick into the political side of things. My character just doesn't care enough. Which was part of his appeal when I picked him, since I didn't know if I'd have anything close to the time on hand I'd feel obliged to spend if I was in charge. Plot seems to be building everywhere, though. The other day I encouraged 2 members of my org to try investigating, and funded their efforts, so they'd get a piece of it.

I look forward to the dominion system coming online. I'm not sure how much of that will even be applied while there's massive plot threats on the horizon driving unity. Politics sort of fade into the background during crises, they need a bit of breathing room to happen.

If I've noticed something, it is the amusing irony of all the silver of all the orgs in the game seem to be flowing into the crafters. These commoners who are making bank beyond any noble. Since there's no actual competition or pressures on them, or costs, they're probably gonna own everything soon.

@WTFE You might not realize it, but you're coming off as the crazy person in this back and forth with @apos.

@Ganymede said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

It is not a surprise that any number of us don't see any logic to having an e-mail requirement to log-in. For the most part, I still don't. Your game was an exception because I just don't know Evennia.

I do find it somewhat ironic that people are hung up on e-mails, when they're not an absolute requirement, and I've yet to come across a game with a wiki where I didn't have to provide my e-mail. A necessity in playing most games (often with a rule that there must at least be a character page.)

@Apos said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

But it doesn't do us any favors to expect someone to bend over so far backwards they are basically the equivalent of a poor customer service rep dealing with screaming customers.

I don't disagree with you. I don't think Staff need to bend over backwards and smile at abuse. But there's a scale. When you misjudge that scale, and I think that very much happened here, its healthy to acknowledge it and see why it happened, then address it. Don't indulge the idea, natural though it is, that others are worse, or that you're right so you're justified. Because while I certainly think you're right on the e-mail issue in this case, there's always going to be a point where you think you're right, but you're actually not, and if you've gotten into the habit of thinking that if you're right you can act however you please, you're in trouble. (I don't think none of you are at that stage. But that's why I said something to start with; if I thought you were a bunch of idiots then I'd have just shrugged away it all, because there's no point in engaging.)

ETA: When I say address it, I mean address and discuss it among yourselves. I don't think you'd get much out of doing it here in public.

@Kanye-Qwest I'm going to preface this by saying I really like your game (and you are an integral part of that), and this comes from that place:

Making responses that come off as petty, defensive, vindictive and antagonistic on a thread about your own game is not a good look, especially when its directed at fairly benign system design disagreement.

It might just seem like a part of a small feud on MSB, but when its here and about the game, it creates an impression.

That in turn will likely to some extent translate into the game, and its interactions. Fairly or unfairly, most players have come across staffers who confirm to those qualities and it wasn't pretty. Seeing you display them here is likely to make 'em crawl under a stone instead of engaging with you (or at least start that process). That just leaves things festering.

So in the future I'd encourage you (and this generally goes for any staffer on any game who wants the best for that game) to just take the high road. Show your best face. There are a host of unintended consequences for not doing it. Pursuing feuds do nothing for you.

I've heard of this Custodius person, and glanced over countless posts bitching about him and detailing various depravities. As I sit here with the idea that he's not only on a game I'm playing on, but taken a roster character in close proximity to my own, I keep thinking: Wow, this is a bit surrealistic, isn't it?

The Firan thread was always something of an amusing side show and a general warning of the pitfalls of RP to me, rather than anything I actually took very seriously. So many things were so obviously fucked up there that to take too many lessons from it risks stepping just as wrong on the opposite side of the scale.

I suspect I'll keep RPing as I have been (I'm enjoying the game, which is neither perfect nor the game I would have likely made, but still fundamentally very enjoyable), since quitting any game over one player I don't even know is never going to be an option. Nor is abruptly cutting off/changing my IC interactions with someone who is part of my organization going to happen.

Still, I do consider myself now warned. While I've a habit of giving people a chance regardless of their reputations (I was warned about @Pondscum but personally I've had nothing but positive interactions with her, for example), when someone gets as consistently bad rep as Custodius it inevitably (and should) influence your decisions.

I suppose since @Apos and @Kanye-Qwest both played on Firan, they'd be as well suited as any to make an informed decision. Assuming its not a false flag. I mean, they've happened before.

@Lithium I've used one line descs. Though I'll admit usually they're 2 or 3. Rarely more than that, though.

In play you'll find me writing paragraphs if I have paragraphs of things to say, or just a couple of lines when I don't.

I just don't see the point of spending effort on a desc people'll look at once, when there are wikis they'll stalk and if there's something distinctive I want to draw attention to then I'll probably add it in a post anyway.

@Thenomain Yeah, you'd think it would be the other way around. But usually being Staff means you always get the benefit of the doubt, while being a player means you're held to whatever standard Staff's mood dictates is appropriate.

Toxic attitude that would get a player booted? Then just everybody has a bad day, and staff is stressful, and besides, the players provoked.

Made a mistake? Everybody makes a mistake. Except the last person who didn't make a mistake but was obviously trying to play an angle.

Etc, etc. It doesn't happen everywhere, and less than you'd think from people's complaint's, but its one of the ways power corrupts. The more and the longer you have it, the easier to see yourself as the exception to the rule, and you're better and above them.

Look at the FBI director; by all accounts a reasonably ethical man. But he thought the rules didn't apply to him, and he and circumstance were above them, because he viewed himself (probably accurately) as a just man. But he'd never allowed his subordinates to get away with it for all the reasons he got crapped on himself as a result.

I like stepping out of my pose order occasionally. Slip in a quickie. That sort of thing. Give a better flow to the scene. .

@Arkandel I signed up, but even I sigh at the 20.00 EST timezone even as I soldier through.