Posts made by mietze

@sunnyj said in NOLA 2: Back in the Vieux:

Maybe these people have unreasonable expectations out of the hobby as it is today. This is especially true when the people most ENERGETIC in affecting the world around them are OFTEN the obnoxious, uninteresting, buries-staff-with-jobs, giant coterie/pack/motley plot-hogging sort.

You'll get no argument from me over that! Though to them they're having a ton of fun and "creating RP for people," and they might even correct at least in part over the latter! But they'd also probably say they are "making their own fun" too, by being proactive and asking for things, ect.

So it's a good thing to define expectations pretty well on a game, as to what can be (or can't be) expected from staff, and what they specifically they mean by "make your own fun." Some of the worst behavior I've seen from people has been when they are doing just that!

I think there's also people who enjoy being able to affect the world outside of the private RP room but it's really not something they feel they MUST have to find enjoyment, people who don't enjoy at all knowing that they'll never be able to affect the game world environment beyond the private scale, and those who recoil from the idea of /having/ to do anything with anyone they don't know/outside of their RP room.

Or some mixing and matching, like the folks that want to affect the game world environment, but want to maintain full control over who gets to take part in that and anyone but their circle is going to be very unwelcome despite the effect on their PCs.

Larger game world effects require staff intervention or arbitration usually I'm not talking about plot forced ON the players from on high necessarily (though that is one form of staff mediating PC abilities to make changes to the game environment!) but more making sure that there's a neutral judge for a scene, or facilitating investigations and the like. There are many players (including me!) who can be quite happy with having minimal to no effects on the world at large, because we are getting our RP kicks from smaller more personal stories that don't rely on other people beyond those involved caring about them.

I really cannot think of many games (and can think of no non-invite-only WoD games) that were improved in the quality of story or play by allowing 100 percent free reign and first come first served oocly to rule the day. It tends to make for a very toxic and unfriendly game environment. Maybe that would have been brushed off 20 years ago, but with people being much more time crunched now, most people will not fight to get their goals met if there happens to be someone gross in charge (ICly or OOCly) they'll just leave.

I do think managed conflict is the way to go. But it's very very VERY work intensive (see RfK and the shitshow that developed once that attention slipped/the person doing it was no longer there). It would be nice to see some attempt to meet in the middle.

But that still requires staff taking on a lot of work. Like maybe coming down hard on undesirable OOC behavior and removing people who engage in it, so that even in a IC PvP intense game, there are very clear boundaries for making and maintaining a healthy ooc environment.

I'm thinking I might make a barrel racer (rodeo) but I need a little something to connect to the outside world too. Anyone want a connection, feel free to hit me up via pm.

Maybe it's just the company I keep, but I see a lot more sacrifice when it comes to community organizing, GOTV efforts (beyond just posting some doodad on FB), canvassing, and more importantly supporting others running for office who are NOT the traditional middle aged middlin' to wealthy white penis-haver from the "Millenial" generation than I do from the people my age and older who sit around on their asses bitching about them.

I think a lot of people forget about all the voter suppression methods that have been part of many states for years and years, that make it extremely hard for college students and frequent movers to get their ballots or make it on to lists, ect. To say nothing of the idiotic campaign of voter suppression that is the avalanche of "everyone's the same, why bother voting" that's vomited everywhere. Hmmm. Wonder who that targets by and large.

When I show up for community meetings, millenials and younger gen-xers make up the majority of people there, not silver haired white guys. When I've needed to recruit people to walk with me and go to events to do voter registration or chase ballots during election times (help find people whose signatures were rejected, so they know they've been disenfranchised and help them rectify it) they've been millenials who are actually giving up a lot of after work or lunch break time, not the old people with lots of time to spare and senority. The running for office trainings we've been putting on are swamped with those under 35, women, and brown or black people.

I get that a lot of people can't do much but nag their friends and coworkers, but please don't shit on a generation that is probably a lot more involved locally than yours.

ETA: I'm almost 45, so not a millenial. Just getting kind of tired of people dumping on them. I paid about $30k for my bachelors degree, could set my pay level (outside of government employment) and get it because the job market of the 90s was so awesome, know a ton of people my age who became independently wealthy because of the dot com era (those that didn't fritter it away and invested wisely, that is), I could buy individual health insurance for $90 a month, schools maybe weren't funded as well as they could have been, but they weren't at the level of falling apart even in the rich suburbs level that they are now for K-12. Pretty sure the people under 30 are getting a shitty ass deal than the one I got. So I don't know, if they feel some futility about things, or decide not to work themselves to death for less than half real-worth wise hourly wages than what I got at their ages, I really can't say I blame them too much.

Cosplay is so mainstream these days you might want to check with your local craft store. Several in my area have open cosplay crafting nights (just like a stitch and bitch) where you can bring what you're working in to the teaching studios and just eat snacks and work on your stuff outside of home. Also even super small conventions (around where I am anyway) have cosplay panels/classes (this is where eldest has picked up most of their skills). I also have seen cosplay get togethers/group crafting nights posted at game stores.

If you dont already know how to sew, taking some basic classes will help. But I think craft stores are the best resources, especially if they have any kind of open lab for sewing/jewelry making/ect.

Kinda? I dressed up as my troll metal band guitarist from SR Seattle one year, but being a square and this being the 90s and thus not a time via social media where the mundanes like me had heard of cosplay, I just called it going to a costume party.

I am a little more familiar with the cosplay scene now that my 16 year old sews and shit and is really into it. What kind of tips are you looking for? If you're looking to be out and about in public and show off your stuff you should be fine at any convention. People seem to not really ask, and you could always say you are doing an OC from <game> or <general genre>. If you are looking to enter a competition then that might be trickier. In my observation outside of competition really people are friendly and supportive even if they dont have a clue as to what you are.

A lot of people play cross genre. A lot. And a lot of the famous drama and gross people HAVE played on BSG/WoD/L&L you name it.

But. Staff philosophy and tight shipness and tight theme and game culture can make a huge difference in how people get along. When RfK was in its heyday, I saw people who were notoriously horrific to others OOC actually be able to play with others well. I really don't want to know the hours that the headwiz personally sunk into making that a possibility, but it was. A lot of these people won't not play on a game just because it's low powered/open sheet/ect. But they will act better if they know they'll be kicked off if they don't, or if people can safely ignore them.

There is no difference between <any genre> players. The crossover is too great. The people who only play one genre and never any others are the outliers.

So again, it is often the culture, not the content of the games. And unfortunately, with a few exceptions the WoD Game CULTURE has been garbage and/or extremely tolerant and even celebratory of abusive behavior. When taken out of that environment and given firm boundaries, many of the people who act like stupid assholes on any number of loosey goosey WoD games behave like normal people on another.

Honestly, when I look at tastes less gamey, while I know that it means mu* my mind leaps to anything not pertaining to gaming (generalized) discussion. So I can see the hardiness on consolidating discussion about non-mu games. Especially for newish or casual users

Sounds great to me. It's been awhile since I played WoD but when I was an active player in that genre I often went to other MU*s to use temprooms if all of the ones were occupied (or in a few cases, if I was being harassed/alt-stalked by someone who game staff wouldn't do anything about). As long as you don't care about bragging rights for numbers, I do think it would a) be used and b) be valued by WoD gamers who like me, felt super guilty about keeping an alt on another game that they weren't playing much just so they'd have access to a coded temproom with rolls, ect.

I bet being able to do either 2e or old NWoD would probaby be way too much work, but that would give that kind of access to just about all games in existance using that system.

I have played on end-of-run neglected games and had fun, but usually that's because they were small, there was no hope of xp or PC advancement (no support) so they ended up being more collaborative with PvE storytelling for existing stats. That only holds people in a certain mood (that I can dig more often than not), and tends to not have as big of an audience that the ooc drama whores need/want (or they've driven everyone else off, and you can deduce that quickly and nope out).

I like staff mostly because it gives me the illusion on a non-invite-only game that there's a chance that someone is trying to do a theme and may even have some idea of where to direct an overarching story to give some flavor to that theme regardless of participation in the game plot.

Games where there are not people in place to provide guidance of some sort, regardless of whether they have staff in name/neglect only or if its automated tend to devolve into a shitshow of fucking and killing or OOC drama over the two. Which is great if that's your bag, but it's not mine.

What about the people who buy/sell/trade unwashed used underwear.

Are you out there mushing still? I know she used to read here (or maybe wora) once upon a time. I feel sad to have lost contact (though I think she took a long break near the end of RfK.

Anyway, miss you, would love to get in touch again.

@deviante

@jonah42175 Aww,I just remember the awesomely awkward IC RP, not any ooc issues. It's the nice thing about being an old lady now, unless something was truly mindblowingly horrible, I'm likely to only remember things fondly!

I love the buffy universe on the games I played, and I thought the rulebook (actual paper copy or something) that I thumbed through was hilarious, campy, just fun and just right). I would play the hell out of a Buffy game!

But I fucking HATE the TV show. Battlestar just put me to sleep (another universe that I enjoy exploring through RP and /reading/ about on a wiki or whatever, but don't like the TV series, except for the Lorne Green stupid-ass crazy version of my childhood), but Buffy actually triggered dislike in me for some reason.

That's the thing I love about MUSHing. Come to think of it, I didn't enjoy Robert Jordan's books and I'm neutral on the old and next-oldest Star Wars shit (eps 1-6), but I LOVED those MUSHes, and I am like the only person I know who really enjoyed the WEG sourcebooks and rulebooks for Star Wars. I have super fond memories of TTing Star Wars.

Super fixated on "correctness" people will always find something to pick at. They'll fight about "correctness" even if you follow the rulebook (just ask anyone who's played a Fading Suns games about endless and tedious to all but themselves historical knowledge wang waving on chan with people arguing and criticizing one another about how they play their fictional "house" because their PhD in 6 million different kinds of RL ancient history tells them that's not how it would be at all!)

So I say, figure out the parameters of the lore/world that YOU as staff/gamerunners enjoy, make sure people know what they are and what will be within the "Scope of the game" (whether that's restrictions, alternative history, whatevs) and just let people who would whine self-select out and/or create their own place (and you stay away if what they create would make you whine!) or boot them if they're too disruptive!

And hi, Jonah, I think I remember your PC there, having read your list. I was Nanette, I think we tended to be the youngest in any crowd.

Neither, my "current" list hasn't been updated in like...2 years.

I have been scrimping and saving and taking every single plausible shift I can possibly handle (including working 12 hour friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday shifts nearly every weekend for the last 4 months) and now I get to take my family on a road trip to a real vacation destination (blue collar though it may be) for the first time in about 10 years, and way longer than that going somewhere for no other purpose BUT our fun as a family vs visiting relatives.

It feels pretty good. Maybe someday when I land that job with bennies we can do stuff like this more often. A woman can dream. but for now I get to play/hang out with my teens, preschooler, and hubby until Saturday! (And then all my kids go back to school next week, which is always a sad time for me.)