Posts made by mietze

I don't think logs are valuable as far as reporting bad incidents of behavior. Too easily doctored (I too have seen it go both ways, both staffside and playerside). I am a big fan if there's been some huge violation of policy or behavior standard, to let staff know about it. Not because I expect anyone to be banned outright from their offense towards poor me, but because an explanation of what happened may help staff establish if there's a concerning pattern of behavior from a variety of sources (not just one tight knit group).

I always forget to log, unless I'm prompted to, unless I'm running something. In any case, if something is neat enough to keep, I don't keep it in raw form (I edit all the ooc and channel crap and me +sheeting myself every 10 minutes, not sure why I do that). I do often kick myself for that later though, I wish I still had descs of rooms/outfits/PCs, ect sometimes.

@Tempest said:

I'm gonna roll my eyes at the 'tee-hee there was so much going on there was no time for TS'. The reason RfK was so popular for ghouls/mortals is that they could make sex-slave fuckbunnies who, despite only rarely RPing outside of their owner's bedroom, could pretend to be "useful" or brag about their "allies/etc" and roll dice at jobs and off-screen stuff (keyword there being off screen). The same attitude goes for many of the vamp players too.

If you chop off everything after bragging, then isn't that the most common thing said about ghouls, everywhere? You can make a fuckbunny anywhere, and most of the time that is kind of the most meaningful contribution you can make as a PC (social play), unless you're a PrP runner or something.

There will always be super/+ who do nothing but fuck or relationship drama, or never come out of their house, ect. I will say that I actually caught some people who I thought primarily only did that elsewhere out doing things (even RPing!) on RfK.

I am an active, social player who likes to run plots. I've never had a hard time getting lots of rewarding RP elsewhere. However, my experience on RfK was the opposite of my experience on TR and other places. Probably this is in part because I had over the years become less shy about opening requests and shit like that, and being a little more willing to cold call people for plot involvement oocly as well as ICly. But I believe it was also because ghouls/mortals were more functionally useful than they have been elsewhere. People are fond of talking a great game of how personal story is very important but I do think that PCs are treated with more respect OOCly (sadly, IMO, but I'll take what I can get!) when they are also valuable by the numbers and in a concrete way.

Also, while I respect that you had a very horrible experience there, I think you're conflating "here are the things I think were done right" with "every other game is WRONG." Which isn't the same thing at all.

@vanderlylle I think I could have lived with a couple of RP rooms (so that folks weren't bounced from 'public' areas when a scene had progressed or there was a plot scene where newcomers couldn't join in. It was pretty refreshing to have limited proxies too (though immediately coming from TR I grumbled about it at first), it did seem to improve attentiveness in scenes (though maybe this was just my perception). So I don't have strong feelings about that aspect.

I don't think there's too much of a risk for RfK players going to another game and demanding that things work there how they did on RfK. While there were /some/ WoD noobs, the majority of people were pretty well versed in huge multisphere games, which is why they got hooked on this new, different one.

Virtually all of the players that I talk to regularly have the mindset that either they are going to wait for awhile to play vampire because they know that they can't get that same experience elsewhere (not because all other places are horrible, but because of RfK's unique setup and somewhat against the grain staffing policies), or they're going to have a sandbox for a small group and minimal expectations for affecting the sphere but being open to it.

Of course, you DO have the typical loudmouth entitled asshats (though I would argue most of those folks were/are already playing at other places/are no stranger to the community even before the closure).

I think that the very strict staff PC policies were the major difference that made some kinds of player/staff issues relatively low on the game. With staff not being allowed to play PCs that could take on major roles or politicking, I think that enabled people (once they realized that was true) to relax a bit about assumptions/worries that staff were out to fuck over other people in favor of their own PCs or related PCs. I noticed more degradation of that as the staffing policies seemed to relax, and I do think it's pretty telling that ultimately it seems to have been the prospect of further relaxation of those policies that seems to have prompted the decision to shutter. I know there are members of the community that very very VERY much disagree with me here, but I do think having such very 'draconian' policies contibuted a huge amount to the positive environment. Though I also agree with others that' s probably one of the most difficult to sustain staffing models. That game was very PvP, and when you have staff who are privy to seeing the incoming scene beats and other tracking info, so that they do know what's going on (or what players are reporting about their PCs), I think it's super important that there's a line of separation there. When that started to get murky, discomfort rose. In my experience, and my observation. I also think that the 1 PC policy per person, while "unpopular" in the larger community of WoD places, was pretty important as well, and would also be very hard to replicate beause people are "spoiled" the other way. (And arguably, this makes much more sense on a multisphere game, to allow more than one alt).

I think that staffside the want is documentation.

Though the thing with XP is that there are always going to be fair/unfair things. On a passive XP game, why should someone who sits in the OOC room 99 percent of the time have more XP than the person who created their PC a month later but has been active and doing things in the world? If XP only comes through +votes, why should the people who lurk in large group scenes for the +vote/here have more XP than the people who stick to small scenes or who have less on grid time but are very active, but may not receive the volume of votes? If it's a game that values documentation of background happenings/philsophies given to staff (whether or not it's used) then the people who choose not to participate in that way may have less XP than someone who does. Depending on the XP total, it may not be significant.

I liked the potential hybrid approach at RfK, where one had the option of entering more historical/philosophical information at any point in their play (either pre-grid or post-approval or any combination thereof). Because this was sent to staff, it was in theory documented. But for those who like to settle in or fill in details as they meet people/establish ties/get into character (like myself) there's not a rush or pressure to have all of it figured out pre-approval. For those who cannot get into a character without a huge amount of pre-approval documented depth, then that's available to them and they even get an XP boost up front in doing so. (And those who fill it out along the way get their boosts along the way).

I don't think it necessarily must be tied to XP, but I thought that was a really interesting way of doing things, and it felt pretty good, at least to me. My PC there ended up being a lot richer with a lot more defined and /staff known/ backstory than any others, even in my old days of MUSHing where it seemed most of the time you had to write huge detailed epic bgs!

But like Akandel and others have said, I think this is very much a personal preference thing, I think both paths to detail are valid, and i like it when there are options to get there!

The +beatsheet that was weekly had a learning curve for folks used to passive XP (hello!!). But once I got in the groove I really liked that better than just +vote or passive. And the wiki beatsheets (more detailed info/background/personality stuff) that you could fill in at any time pre or post-approval were nice too. But yes, I do think it is labor intensive (as compared to auto) and that can be an issue when there's a players to staff-hours imbalance.

I believe there may have been some staff PCs that were starting to push the line set for actively engaging in politicking.

But also, as others have mentioned, it's hard to transition from intensive things that are difficult but ok to do on a small game/when one has a certain amount of time and expanding that out.

I know that I'd started to see some things that made me uncomfortable, I wish that this wasn't the solution, but I respect it a great deal

That being said, I will miss the game immensely as well as the people on it. I think it'll be hard for me to play on another vampire game, and I forgot how much I love single sphere. I'm game for suggestions as to where others are going though.

The Prince was not idle.

My understanding is that there were some questionable things happening staffside with not the time to get a handle on them. Whether this was a communication issue or an ethical one I don't know. And there's always more than one side of the story.

But idle Prince? No.

I didn't know anyone did promise rings outside of the young to mid teen years? Back in my day that was what they were--something that was given because you weren't of age to do the real thing (so still in high school or the equivalent, under 18. Well, mostly if the girl was under 18 I guess).

@thebird Have you tried gazpacho? Easy to make, it has all the taste of a salad but it's a cold, blended soup. I don't know if that will ping your texture aversions or not, but one of my sons doesn't like the texture of a lot of raw veggies (he like the taste though) so that was a good solution for him. I could see it making it worse for other people though.

My job. Doesn't happen every appointment, but damn if it doesn't feel good to see someone walk in and report a pain level of 8, and walk out reporting a 4, and to feel that happening right under your hands.

And again. "Political" pcs on that game can be killed and acted against for any reason. That's why I'm curious as to what sort of pc was killed without notice. Was it a political one who just vanished with no word to anyone? Was there a arrangement made that they wouldn't be back or that staff felt was made? (Invited to not come back? Someone said in a pique--because I bet most people have seen this happen too--well, I quit! But then doesn't turn in the request and just rolled over? I mean I saw that happen a lot on tr with the requisite return after a few months and then pissiness that people had in fact believed their threats and moved on)

I have seen one death that could be termed as non-consensual post player leaving in my time there. It is the pc of a banned player. And even then it wasn't a lame death, it happened in the course of that pc taking on one of the arch villains currently. All the other pc "deaths" have happened by retirement, request, or IC action. Though this is just in the last 6 months and I understand that there was some major drama a while before that.

And as Gany has pointed out; in any case freezing or death or silly story is totally avoidable by giving notice and/or taking charge of your own story before you go.

I think in the case of this game, where idling longer than your allotted 2 weeks means that you may be ceding your PC, then if you need to walk to regroup you need to send a quick @mail to staff so that they know. It really truly isn't hard to do. If the idea that you need to notify staff if you are going to be gone longer than 2 weeks barring an emergency if you want to be sure you will keep your PC horrifies you, then probably a game with that policy isn't one that's worth the stress of knowing that you will need to be willing to do that if you do decide you need to walk when you're undecided. I don't think that it's bad to be horrified at needing to do that, different things trigger different people.

People coming in/out without explanation or disappearing without warning and then showing up later with no explanation and the free at any time freezer policy on TR really I felt did a disservice for the culture there, for a variety of reasons. I can understand why other games might take a harder line.

Though it sounds like the situation that is sort of being talked about but skirted around here is more of an individual one. I know for a fact that most of the idle players that idle out are not killed. Sometimes they ask to be. In those other instances, I'm not sure what makes staff pick one person for plot fodder and other ones not. But I could definitely see why maybe there's a harder rule about killing off any political PCs that idle without warning. Support or Civilian, eh.

But Vampire /in particular/ suffers a great deal when people just wander off without warning or saying anything, because of the nature of the game. I think it's harder to manage now that RfK is so large but I too see the logic of cutting back on the revolving freezer thing. But absolutely that's a policy difference between a lot of games and I can also see why it might be offputting to as many people as those who like it. I think most people don't really think about it/care.

And I will admit, it's kind of hard for me to understand the upset over losing a PC if you didn't even care enough to bother to tell anyone you'd be gone past the usual roll over time barring emergencies.

One of the reasons that the governor of Oregon might not have ever experienced a health care wait is because he is of significant wealth/employment class to have never been without good health insurance accepted by all the doctors of his choice/in his area, so it was never an issue with him. The people with no insurance/shitty insurance experienced something very different.

Until about 3 years before Obamacare, my family was paying $1000/mo for shitty ass $5000 deductable catastrophic care only "health insurance". Then we joined an extremely expensive HMO but at least preventative stuff was covered. So I spent the first decade of my children's lives being given That Look in the doctor's office that would have denied us care until I said the magic words of "how much is your cash discount if I pay you in full today?" The vast majority of people who are not on good insurance plans do not have the means to do that. And doctors were not required to accept medicaid (the indigent person medical plan).

Wonder what the wait time was for a family who did not qualify for medicaid/find a provider for it who didn't have $300 to drop per visit for a pediatric visit + immunizations + medication? Would they have bothered to try to get in at all? That is why there wasn't really a wait there, as say there was when I was growing up in the military (socialized medicine that all could access, so yes, more demand, and there was indeed triage in a way that regular care visits elsewhere didn't need) because you'd already cleared a bunch of hurdles even being able to know you could call to make an appointment in the first place.

In any place perfect, no. But it is pretty icky that the reason why there was so little of that in some tiers of the medical system the US is because so many people were /denied any kind of access/ period. Look at public health/indigent clinics though and the story is way different.

I tend to avoid STing with my PC involved unless it's for a small group that is like a playgroup ( (pack/coterie/motley) and there's only me or maybe one other person who's comfortable STing so there's no real chance of round-robining and there's no game- or sphere-wide implications. So--a scene where we defend our territory against an NPC threat of about the same power level? Our group of friends goes to investigate a creepy house Yes! Some thing where some giant Thing shows up and starts smashing up an area of DT and we really should be in the news for it or it might have ripple effects beyond the group? No.

I understand the viewpoint that it's about trust. I think where my discomfort comes from is not that I'm afraid that I would do something wrong (I know that if anything I'll err on the cautious side, in regards to rewards, ect.) but more that I like a buffer of the appearance of fairness too. I'm able to relax more and enjoy myself with that layer of protection. It doesn't stop people bitching about what they are going to bitch about (favortism, or whatever), but having refereed a lot of that shit staffing various places, it's colored my view about wanting some separation so that it's a easy call for staff (ST isn't involving their PC, rewards cleared by staff, ect) to tell them to get bent.

18 month old sleep regression starting 2 months early. This was okay with rounds 1-3 when I was in my 20s. I'm too old for this shit now that I'm over 40. I feel like I got run over by a fucking truck convoy and left out to dry in the sun, and then propped up for target shooting. The 16 month old has slept a total of 4 hours in the last 30. Not all in a row. Well, at least it won't matter if the neighbors shoot off fireworks all night one we get back from the big display.

Sunny, I know this doesn't help at all, but being of the age to have seen a lot of parental deaths and impact on sibling behavior, even in tightly knit families--

Sadly, from what I've seen this is almost the norm rather than the exception. And yes, it can change on a dime, esp. after the funeral is over and when the nitty gritty of the estate settling starts to happen.

I don't know what it is.

I have seen it happen within my own extended family in a way that was shocking. A friend of mine was the youngest of 5 siblings (the older four were from their mutual dad's first wife who died of cancer and then he died of cancer and they weathered all of that well but when her mom committed suicide shortly afterwards all hell broke lose, including the rather bewildering accusations of who's real family, whose stuff the stuff really is, ect. I have seen it happen with my uncle's estate. And amongst many other friends and acquaintances /particularly/ when the last parent dies but not always.

I don't know what it is. I do know that most have recovered from the immense batshit craziness in the immediate aftermath. It doesn't help when you're going through it though. I am so sorry that you're having to deal with this. I don't know if your mom's passing was traumatic or shocking in some way (that seems to have been a factor in what I've observed but not always). I am so sorry for your loss. It's not okay at all what is happening. But for whatever reason it certainly seems to be sometimes what happens. I hope that your brother pulls his head out soon and realizes what he said to you and that it can be reconciled. This is not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong. Who knows why they are triggering like this, but it's not anything you could have done. Love you.

The Korean spa near me. I wish I could afford to go weekly. A day of hydrotherapy and sauna-like stuff, along with getting the first layer of my skin scrubbed off by a stern auntie = awesome soft skin and relaxation. Also 5 hours more or less by myself while hanging out there!

I too love a quiet house that I get to be in by myself. My husband works at home and has for all of our together time (this has been very handy many times!), so for the last 15 years there's been another person around all the time albeit in a home office and then I have 4 children, 13, 12, 12, and 1. I think I can count the times I've truly had the house to myself in the last decade+ on half of one hand. But it is wonderful, even though I love my family.