Defunct website link, indeed does not appear to be a real game. Locking this thread, if you guys want to continue discussing it though you're welcome to create a hog pit post and I will move the discussion into there.
Chet, consider this a warning. If you want to troll people there are other avenues to do it. Don't use the advertising section to do it. If you actually are trying to start this game, and your bad link was in error, please contact Arkandel, Ganymede, or myself.
It's just filling out web forms and sending them out into the ether, largely never to be responded to. So why does filling out job apps feel so exhausting.
Honestly this applies to almost any group with people in it. Ask anyone who has been in leadership on a volunteer org, even with members who are friends and that you’ve known for years, and then you see what happens behind the scenes or to you when you have to say no to a proposal/item/expense/want that they are super invested in.
*Fading Suns (I so very much want this. Have contemplated trying to start one a few times.)
*NWoD 2.0 but M/M+ only
*Single Sphere NWoD
*I am a weird person who loves historical themed places that are in the 1800s and onwards
*Shadowrun (though I wouldn't know my elbows from my ass in the new rules now)
*Buffy I really had fun on Mystick Krewe even though I detest the TV show, ick.
*Battlestar (with hefty theme control. Please no marines that sob about getting shot and/or disobey orders in combat and leave the line to go rescue kittens.) It's interesting to play a game where the PCs are in theory cooperating with each other towards a shared survival goal, however, with slow pacing it often devolves into PvP over who's fucking who, in my observation. That's kind of meh.)
And if you are partnered to a massage therapist, you get the burning hot shower and then at the end a sudden throw down to ice cold! (Free hydrotherapy! Makes you feel like a million bucks and instantly warm once you get out. Try it sometime!) I learned to warn him in advance about the cold water part.
Eta: no I dont recommend instagramming your showers I swear.
I am a parent of 3 teens who are very involved in online gaming, and who are obnoxious in the way teens are--as a result there's a group of about 20ish high schoolers that I have at my house or who roam around freely between several houses that I'm very familiar with, and I've known most of these kids since they were in jr high if not before that.
There are varying levels of parental supervision involved--but none of these guys would want to make the police show up at someone's door for "fun". Again, that's just a very specific subset of kids who frankly probably have more than just overinvestment in a game going on. Have they heard of it yes. I've overheard them talking about it in a "wow, what a sick fucker" sort of way.
Have I had to have conversations with them when I felt the trashtalking was getting out of hand or veering into insults that I wasn't sure they even knew what it meant? Yes. (And most of the time they had no idea). Have we had to have discussions about some of the memes that they repeat, and what they mean? Yeah. Young teens often do not have the background/life experience to realize some of the more subtle racism or misogyny that's there--and that people will judge them for, being rightly upset.
But doing something that is a no brainer for causing harm--like sending a group of armed people to the door of someone you only know through a game....that's not something, again, that most people even teens are going to do.
Get themselves killed by doing stupid shit like street surfing/diving headfirst into shallow water/other reckless stunts to themselves behavior? Yes. Kill people by inattentive driving? Yes.
Spending time sending a SWAT team to someone's door? That's beyond impulsivity there. I think the reason why it isn't cracked down on more is not that people think kids are just being kids, but because trying to deal with that sort of thing that crosses international or state borders is super complicated and many local agencies don't even know how to cope/where to start.
I have noticed a certain amount of sparser than usual activity in the last year or so. (Kingsmouth seemed to be the exception, at least for me)
I do think that the pool of mushers has consolidated/shrunk a bit, but that now that there are a handful of GMC games open people are stretched a bit thin. I've also noticed that maybe because of that, there's less people willing to start/engage in activity/PrPs, and it does seem to very much be a culture shift now where even staff relies upon active players running things to breathe life into a place. (I don't think that's horrible or wrong, BTW, just my observation).
So what happens is largely the same players are tapped into running things (or the people who would run things see this happen) on mutiple places and they burn out quick. When staff is busy and the usual suspects are not running things, it means that there's no activity. I think most people don't idle around to chat really these days because there are other things like Fallout, non-MUSH games, family stuff, ect.
I know I personally have been feeling kind of blah. I like running small group things, but when there doesn't seem to be much real chance of reciprocation so I worry about getting stuck never really getting to play my own PC, it makes me reluctant to invest a lot of time. (As opposed to TR where for all the other valid and glaring faults, there did seem to be a lot more people I knew running the type of things I liked--Nakesha and others in the Law sphere kept my energy going for other stuff because I had a soft place to fall as far as getting to enjoy being part of another person's scene they were running that wasn't a staff plot with 15 people in attendance because people were so desparate for any kind of thing to do that wasn't social).
Usually I'd be fine with investing more effort up front (typically at least for me, it does eventually come back around for me), but to be really blunt I've been plagued with some pretty serious health issues starting with complications postpartum from my oopsie baby almost two years ago that seems to have morphed into some kind of autoimmune thing I've been struggling to get answers for (looks like maybe there is some hope soon, keep your fingers crossed), I've picked up a second job, and I'm trying to balance once more being a parent to a young child and the increase in household stuff that needs to be done alongside that after enjoying a handful of years of just parenting preteens/teens. It may be since the MUSHing crew seems to be aging a bit (when I first started mushing there were a ton of teens/early 20 somethings--many of us are still around and...not anymore) I bet that there are quite a few people in the same boat of needing to balance more life stuff. (From friend chatter, especially needing to pick up a second job, it's the decades where more health stuff happens, and then there's family stuff like children/divorce/ect.)
I have not noticed a huge amount of actual activity decrease--just less public chatter because people are doing things other than hanging out ooc chatting on windows. But every year that I've mushed there is a dip in November/early december (used to be family centric breaks or huge work increases/finals) with a bump up a little during the holidays when people were home and off work/school, with another bump mid January when people were bored and it was crappy outside. I think that's still true to a certain extent.
I would put Fading Suns, Battlestar, and Firefly squarely in that category and all have enjoyed long and devoted followings in mushdom.
I would be cautious. I do not think different genres really tend to convert people. Especially since IME people tend to less run from systems than people--so an influx of the same people trying to get away from each other sometimes works (It did for quite some time on RfK because of the staffing there) but much of the time it does not. Especially if the people are coming into it thinking it will solve all their RP woes. People are people, and when it's the same people, they're even more the people they've always been. IMO.
I enjoy the genre of that game and like variety, so I anticipate having a lot of fun. I worry a wee bit about some of the expectations I've seen, if for no other reason that people have unfortunately been trained into some very VERY bad habits over the last series of WoD games.
My blouse today had a print of the animal that is also my nickname wearing glasses in the style i wear. My new boss thought it was cute and hilarious.
I think it’s helpful for staff (and even STs) to let players know what they’d like to see, because there can really be a huge variance across games and even STs.
For example:
*Are requests/inquiries and pitches for IC doings welcome for ic “news” stories on games? I’ve played on good mushes where it was enthusiastically welcomed, never responded to either negatively or positively, met with pretty harsh ooc don’t waste my time commentary, and also where it was expected but not said explicitly anywhere, so staff was frustrated that “nobody was interested” when in fact people didn’t know it was welcome.
*Is the wiki ic (open for even stranger players to have a conversation about connections)? I have seen it both ways on good places.
*is there a fleshed out how to make a request (not a +help +request, but....more like “we want you to pitch the specific way you are hunting for info/tracking the beast/researching the artifact/reverse engineering the alien tech, how you’re approaching it and your proposed rolls.)
*does staff/st acknowledge a mail or request in a polite and timely manner (even if they can’t answer right away, but just to let the person know it’s being looked at?)
*are people encouraged to give positive feedback and complements for a neat way of approaching things or something especially enjoyable?
I think a lot of times people have a certain perception that everyone knows what to do to show their interest, and I’ve found mush to mush it can be a lot different. Being an excited player and putting in inquiries or asking questions and being brushed aside rudely and/or hearing staff talk about how “nobody” does anything proactive when your job or mail has been sitting unresponded to for a week is pretty disheartening too. Sometimes people are happy to give another nudge or keep poking, sometimes they’re not!
Too bad you can't combine them. I'd combine Good with Animals, Beautiful Voice, and Caretaker so that when she sang the nearby woodland creatures would come and help her out with her daily chores. 
@deathbird my hubby feels much the same way. Meanwhile I am like OMG YAY DRAGONRIDING! 
A generic entrance pose to me is "so and so enters the coffee shop, <insert description of PC and clothing since nobody seems to read them on PC objects> and pauses for a moment, taking a look around as the fiddle with their coat."
My god that is horrific. What a total scene stealing asshole!!! Good on you.
Half the time when I have encountered these terrible people that enter a public room without begging permission or checking +where, I'm the one giving them the scene set when 2 people pose on by totally ignoring them and giving no info after taking a long time. So. I could see tossing something like the above to let people know the PC was incoming and waiting for a bit of a scene set, and to also test for activity.
Yeah, that is so totally the biggest fuck you ever.
No wonder people camp the ooc room and act like they're frightened to interact with anyone they don't know.
Edited to add: Sorry @arkandel , I misread your post, obviously. I'd blame no coffee yet, but honestly, I'm pretty much just in a mood today. Leaving this as is though because erasing it seems to be a wimpy thing to do. But yes, people totally ignoring everything to have things setting on fire or a robbery in progress disrupting everything is a peeve of mine too. I'm sorry I snapped at you, it was uncalled for. I can already tell--it's gonna be a /day/. 
I love tofu and seitan but I do not see them as meat "substitutes" as they are their own delicious thing. I think the substitute concept does not really work too well. I prefer the taste of soy, almond, or cashew beverages but they do not replace dairy products, it's a totally different taste and mouth feel.
There are some vegan "cheese" options I like as spreads, but it isnt cheese!
I still eat meat and dairy products too, but have happily eaten vegan and vegetarian for months or years at a time, especially when I didnt live in an area with immediate access to small farm eggs, milk, and mear.
As far as OOC orientation, I don't know. It's not a topic that I have a lot of conversation via pages or ooc comments about. I do think that most people assume I am straight rather than bi because I've been married for 18 years to the same dude and have 4 kids, and pretty much am the epitome of fat middle aged mostly-housewife who has run businesses "on the side" (at least they've never been MLMs?). I don't fault them for that, how could I? It's the life I live for the most part. Now if they had met me before this marriage they would be surprised, since I tended to date mostly but not all women, and ran in women-centric circles. Some of my friends who only knew me from that time were surprised when I a) got married for a second time and b) it was to a man. But they were much more "whatever" about it than I think most people who have met/known me casually through school or community orgs now would be.
I have not met too many male or female players who have identified as bi. I am not sure if it's because they fear harassment or questions (It is always a concern, I think, since you usually can't really be sure of another player's gender and virtually everyone I know who HAS opened up has expressed fear about harassment from straight men because of past experience.).
I love my job usually but Friday and today are apparently scream at the teller day. 
Oh well, it beats getting screamed at by half naked people, which happened occasionally with my last job...
