@Ominous said in Hiring a Storyteller:
I got a feeling the OP meant they want someone to build and desc the grid then run plots once it is open, not a coder.
It does say "Hiring a Storyteller" right in the title. The OP said they were already doing all the coding.
Posters could also take a hint and not garbage up every thread with images.
I found them obnoxious ever since the trend started. Then the gifs started slowing my browser down to a crawl, and I said fuck it, and blocked them entirely.
If you have to post images, consider that it will have more effect if it's sparsely used. These trends become annoying when they start suffocating everything else.
Regarding weight loss, I found a few things useful.
Well, the first thing is that dieting doesn't work for me. Oh, it does work initially. I lose all the weight and I get a psychological boost from it, and then carefully start reintroducing normal food into my diet... And the weight gets back, plus more. My body gets into starvation mode, my metabolism slows the fuck down to conserve energy, and everything gets stored into fat, because the body goes "who knows when we're gonna have food next!"
So I did several rounds of yo-yo dieting and then stopped in horror because I ended up with more weight than I started with.
There were three articles that changed my approach: that stuff about the reality show "The Biggest Loser" - they followed up with contestants after 6 years, all but one have regained all the weight lost, and their metabolism was significantly slower even after all those years. So they have to eat less than a normal person would, just to keep at a current weight. They doomed themselves to a lifetime of not being able to have a balanced relationship with food.
Secondly, there was an article that detailed how it takes a year for the body to get used to a new lower weight. For a whole year, the body has an imperative to gain the weight back, through hormones and metabolic changes.
And thirdly, this one: https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/. The gist is, focus on gaining strength, not losing weight. Focus on building up dense muscle by low-repetition but strenuous weight lifting, and not cardio as is usually advised. This raises the basal metabolic rate and melts the fat, as such muscles spend more energy just by existing.
So I get angry when people say it's easy to lose weight, just eat less and move more. If only our bodies weren't intricate complex biochemical systems with various evolutionary purposes, maybe that simplistic maxim would work. Everyone looks at you like an idiot with self-control problems if you try to dispute this "simple solution."
Basically the solution is, eat decently so you can move lift more. Then eat even more, so you can lift even more. Of course, this still means you gotta eat healthy stuff and not stuff yourself with sodas and snacks. I just wish I knew all this ten years ago, long before I tried low-carb dieting the first time. I also have some good experiences with intermittent fasting, as long as it doesn't go into deprivation/starvation mode.
I don't mind bar RP.
It's good to get to know people.
It's good downtime for characters.
It sucks if it's the only RP in the game.
I suppose that's why Haunted Memories was such an unsuccessful niche game that didn't attract any players.
Or why RfK didn't attract so many players that it imploded.
Fuck trying anything new, right? Where's the next smalltown Maine or Las Vegas game? Come on, read me the same story again mom.
@thenomain said in What's missing in MUSHdom?:
@nightshade said in What's missing in MUSHdom?:
As far as affecting the setting, I’ve never needed tools for that, just permission from staff.
This is a sandbox. Make your own fun and leave staff alone.
...What?
Do I have to spell it out? It's tedious and I didn't think people are that dumb, but okay.
If a game is advertised as a sandbox (directly or indirectly), there is no sense in asking staff for any sort of help in "making your own fun." Which is the case with most games, ever since people concluded metaplots/staff-run plots shouldn't be a thing anymore.
If the game is advertised as "make your own fun" then the staff is just janitors. They won't support story or help you affect the world. In fact, they will do their best to get rid of you, unless you're their close friend. Maybe they'll approve your PrP once they make sure you won't do anything too creative or fun.
So the game becomes fractured into sandboxes of separate groups of people, instead of a shared world. What one group does to affect the world doesn't propagate to the other groups. Therefore, trying to affect the world feels pointless, which makes it feel pointless to play.
This is particularly acute when we talk about vampire spheres. In a sandbox, there's absolutely nothing to support their theme - political, occult, whatever you choose. Not in a way that propagates their actions to the rest of the game. The really dumb thing is that there are functional systems for more than just social play, in those LARP-oriented books. You wouldn't even have to reinvent the wheel, just apply it. There's a reason why they wrote those for settings with lots of people, unlike a small tabletop group. Because vampire doesn't work otherwise.
If you're complaining that WoD games end up being social MU*s with RPG elements, give them other elements
I don't think you know what I was complaining about, no. I can with absolute authority say that "do something different" is easy to say but hard to assure, especially if players are going to default to the same ol' same ol'. I've seen many games use that default as the basis for their systems, which makes sense to me, but saying, doing, and succeeding are three widely different things.
RfK. Arx. How come players haven't defaulted to bar RP there? Cause they have shit to do!
You were complaining that players always ask for the same old thing, which rubbed me wrong because I've spoken out time and again that I want something different. Not only I, but other players have obviously spoken with their feet, flocking to the games that aren't the same old thing. (If you're wondering about my adversarial and aggressive tone, this sums up why.)
So fuck your absolute authority. Arx. RfK. Two examples that clearly speak differently.
Or not, keep making sandboxes that fail to engage.
... What? Darkwater: Engaging. Fate's Harvest: Engaging. Some people find
Reno engaging.
Yes, some people. Meanwhile RfK died under the avalanche of interested players. Meanwhile, there's ~400 people on Arx. Let's not wonder why and what the difference might be.
Wouldn't it make more sense to create several such games, so that players are more evenly distributed across them, and there's more variety of settings and themes to choose from? Instead of having RfK implode from too many players, or Arx losing staffers because they just don't enjoy a game with such a huge population.
Wouldn't that be a better thing for MUSHdom?
So I'm wondering what conversation you think I'm having, but I don't think it's the same conversation that you're having.
That just means you didn't even consider what I've written. It doesn't fit what you already know, so you dismiss it.
I could simply not understand the conversation you're having, but as of now I don't find it engaging and so I'm disengaging.
Keep doing what you're doing (again, general you), I'm sure players avoid those games for totally silly, stupid reasons.
By no means bother to listen to a different perspective.
@tinuviel said in What's missing in MUSHdom?:
@nightshade said in What's missing in MUSHdom?:
Wouldn't it make more sense to create several such games, so that players are more evenly distributed across them
That's not how that works. We're people, not datapoints you can shift around.
It works by offering different themes so that people don't have to shoehorn themselves into Arx if they don't enjoy lords and ladies (or they enjoy something else more). Obviously, the redistribution of players would happen organically through people's different interests.
@tinuviel said in What's missing in MUSHdom?:
@nightshade There are plenty of games that aren't Arx.
Do they also have ~400 players (aside from sex mushes)? Why not? Are they imploding because of too many players being interested?
It might be nice to have multiple games, but with skilled and interested coders and weavers of story dropping out of the hobby like flies owing to reality stepping in, it's not something we can really demand.
I'm one of those who left and I'm saying why, instead of just disappearing and not bothering. Might be good to listen, if you don't want to keep playing with the same dwindling, incestuous circle of people.
This is Mildly Constructive, and you're acting like a petulant child. "I demand this, I want that." You've offered your ideas, and others have disagreed with you, or asked for further explanation. Present your ideas without getting defensive and abrasive and you may be taken more seriously.
Frankly, I've mostly given up on mushes and mushers, because this same problem has persisted through the hobby over almost a decade. So I simply don't care anymore - listen or don't. I vented my frustration, with some fairly constructive advice and a different perspective. If truly nobody shares my frustration, then that's pretty sad.
At some point in time before Haunted Memories, I staffed and helped create a lords and ladies game, as a complete newbie. This was my second mush ever. As most of the staff was new, we tried hard to be inclusive and not jaded, but we had absolutely no idea how to make our game functionally fun. In essence, we had created a sandbox for the theme, and it always bothered me and I kept feeling like I failed the game.
If I managed to figure this out almost a decade ago, as a total newbie, then what the hell is wrong here? How many new players try out mushes and just leave, for the same reasons?
@tinuviel said in What's missing in MUSHdom?:
@surreality Also RfK collapsed under the weight of it's owners ego and self-delusion in a cult of personality.
Them grapes are mightily sour, m'lord. No, it collapsed when the owner got overwhelmed by the workload and disappeared.
I've made my points, you can choose to ignore them but player interest will show what's true.
Build settings with conflict inherent in them. If you just build a city, it will be another bland-by-night. If you build a city ravaged by war, supernatural catastrophe, large-scale historical events, natural catastrophe, people will have built-in reasons to RP around.
Don't build a city. Build a setting that you could drop a character in and they could RP immediately without someone handing them a plot.
@auspice I figured it's good to share the info anyway. 
I thought it'd be a significant downgrade in quality from the Bamboo, but was pleasantly surprised. (It's actually quite a lot better, and has higher pressure sensitivity.)
@surreality said in Looking for an Artist, actually willing to pay...:
@nightshade said in Looking for an Artist, actually willing to pay...:
I also thought it would be useful to share my perspective, since it might be helpful and refreshing to someone trying to break into the art world. Don't need to repeat my mistakes if you can learn from them.
(First, thank you.) This I agree with. If someone is looking for a 'foot in the door' opportunity? Yeah, I even said -- coolness. Go for it.
Thank you for sharing your experience as well. Yeah, there were some points where we did agree.
There is some damage that can be done by this, still, though. Partly this is the whole 'customer inexperience' problem. "I paid $100 for this the last time when I got a similar thing from someone else, WTF you want $600?" If I heard one more time about how somebody's cousin would make it for less as an attempt to get me to drop a price -- and let's be real, they would never actually be asking the cousin to do it, it's almost always a request for the thing in hand right now at less than cost... it's one of those 'if I had a nickel every time' issues, I could retire now.
Yeah.... on one hand, I agree. On the other hand...
"I paid $100 for this the last time when I got a similar thing from someone else, WTF you want $600?"
"Sure, go to that other person. I've got 2 more projects I'm working on right now, and I'm being paid 600$ for them, so I can't afford to do anything cheaper, sorry."
Or you think hard and long whether you need that 100$ and you suck it up and do it, because it's drought for other projects and you have rent to pay. Sometimes necessity will dictate flexibility, sadly.
But I think my point is just, to have more perspective. We all know the "computer guy" who gets badgered by neighbors and acquaintances to fix their virus-laden machine for free. It's really not just arts. You have to learn to set limits, but also understand when it's better to be flexible. Whether you're 17 or older, with no prior work experience, you can benefit greatly from being the computer guy. You do it for free the first few times, then you start charging a little, then you learn enough to get hired by a company that does that stuff... It can be a lead up to a career.
One thing I wouldn't do though, is unpaid internships. That's complete bullshit. A company that does this is not a company I wanna work at. I'd rather work at a smaller place than be a cog in such a machine.
Mainly, I dislike this way of putting artists on a pedestal. I remember working on some underpaid jobs and half-assing them because of it, and it makes me so embarrassed with my past self. Now I realize I should've been more humble and grateful. There's a tendency to regard artists as these ineffable creatures of talent who are somehow special, and if an artist buys into this, it can be severely damaging to their success.
I've had people tell me, "Oh, how lucky you are. I wish someone would pay me to do art for a living." I had to laugh because luck and talent had nothing to do with it. Just hard work, eating shit, making compromises.
Yeah, I think this hesitation is why we've had a slew of boring, setting-less, theme-less WoD sandboxes over the last few years. You can be afraid that players won't engage with your game but what does it leave you with? If you suck your setting and theme dry of anything that might require a modicum of effort?
@Thenomain said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
My bike is old and hard to pedal. A lot of people have questioned me for purposefully riding a heavy bike. I tell them that this is the point.
Now I just need to use it.
A better bike might make it more of a joy to use, thus making you more motivated to use it. I know it gives me a burst of enthusiasm for an activity when I get a new toy or tool for it.
Sorry to re-derail the thread yet again, but I thought of something that might be useful. Quoting Gany for brevity but it refers to what mietze and surreality said on the subject, as well.
@ganymede said in Looking for an Artist, actually willing to pay...:
I understand why it is upsetting or frustrating. I had to watch my partner sell herself short too often, and then watch her burn out, and then hold her as she cried and mumbled about how she was very close to offing herself.
But you said your piece, and hopefully your crafter friend will take it to heart.
This is why I've had to learn to separate my self-worth from the worth of my work. When I ask myself what I should charge, I don't think about whether I'm worth some amount of money. I don't think whether my work is good enough to charge for, whether someone else is so much better and they charge this amount so how dare I.
My foremost thought is: what can I get away with? What's the price that the client can pay, what's the going rate for the work, what's the availability of other workers and willingness to work for lower pay. I never, everrrrrr tie it into my self-worth or self-esteem because that way lies misery.
Also, the sky is the limit. If I think someone's ready to pay a sum that's way outside of my realm of thinking, I TAKE IT. I TAKE IT AND DON'T LOOK BACK. Because of my upbringing, I am extremely shy at taking money for my work. I've been raised to do stuff for free out of kindness, or some idea of future favors. This spells financial doom so I've had to reprogram myself in this regard. Of course I'll still do shit for friends for free, but never in a business setting.
I justify this by knowing there'll be times I'll be underpaid, and this way the balance evens out.
Art also has this unfortunate property which ties creativity with self-worth on a deeper level than other professions, at least that's what I've found. Criticism strikes much harder and can really mess with your head. That's why it's so important to divest it from the financial aspect.
@thenomain said in What's missing in MUSHdom?:
Why shouldn't I keep making WoD games until the end of time?
You wouldn't have to keep making them if you make a good one. In order to do that, it would help to check what the previous ones have been missing. Have your cake and eat it.
@thenomain said in What's missing in MUSHdom?:
But if all people want to play are Social MU*s with RPG elements, then why bother making anything else?
Why would a WoD mush have to be a social one? RfK was political, with tons of risk-like minigames to play. That was a success - the main thing it lacked was a hard population limit. At 30 characters it would've thrived beautifully, and it was exactly what was missing in mushdom. The answer is/was right under your nose.
Since Arx has about 400 players or something, I would say it is also what mushdom was missing. Look at what players love and flock to, then do it well.
