Posts made by Pyrephox

I wouldn't mind an Erotic MU* with a stronger theme, as long as the theme doesn't get in the way of having erotic play, if that makes sense? Although there's nothing wrong with having an Erotic MU* that focuses on a single small set of kinks. Like, I think there are niche MUs like...Shoujo Ai MU? Or that m/m superhero MU* I don't remember the name of. Where they lean into a specific kink constellation.

But, I admit, one of the things that appeals to me about a huge 'wide theme' MU* is the ability to get a whim, create a character for a specific scenario, and be able to (theoretically) find that scenario until I get bored with it, then drop the character without causing any distress to anyone else, or messing up any sort of plots.

@Cupcake said in Good TV:

I am late to the part for the Tales From Arcadia collections of animated series, but I sure did love 3Below. Now I'm watching Trollhunters, which I know is going backwards, and I'm super looking forward to Wizards, the third and final installment.

Trollhunters is awesome. I didn't think they were going to be able to match it with 3Below, and in some ways, it felt more rushed than TH, but it was still very good. I also look forward to Wizards.

I guess I'm just going to stand over here and blush, then.

More seriously, thank you for the game! It was a fun premise that leaned into the horror in ways that I really enjoyed, and I found you both to be active and enthusiastic right up until 2020 just 2020ed the hell out of all of us. I'd love to play a game you run again, if time ever permits!

@Grim is a good person to entrust the game to going forward, and I definitely recommend that people check it out if you've got small-town fantasy/horror itches to scratch.

@HelloProject said in RL Anger:

So, my ex-therapist tracked down my Twitter (as I have a google info box due to releasing my music through a distributor, so google is like "Wait are you famous?"), after exactly two years when it would no longer be illegal for him to contact me. And then, after I had to figure out who he was, he confessed that he always was attracted to me. I always had weird vibes and like some things he'd say and the way he'd make physical contract with me kept feeling very inappropriate, which is a part of why I left. But then when he tracked me down today (literally this was like an hour ago), he said all kinds of wildly and blatantly inappropriate stuff.

So yeah I'm incredibly emotionally shook.

As a professional counselor and a trainer of counselors, I'm terribly sorry. This person is acting unethically in every possible way, and I encourage you - if you can - to report them to their local professional licensing board for an inappropriate dual relationship. For just about every type of therapist, attempting to initiate a relationship with a client is strongly discouraged no matter how long it's been since the therapeutic contact, so even if it's not illegal, it probably will be against the ethical practices of the local licensing board, particularly since the person sought you out against your will.

If you don't feel comfortable, that's understandable, but unfortunately inappropriate dual relationships are one of the most common ethical complaints against therapists. Your experience, I hate to say, is not as uncommon as it should be.

Romance/sex is always going to be one of the most popular things to do on a MU*. It's intense and dramatic, while being low risk, and not requiring GM intervention to start, continue, or (usually) end. Also, it involves sex.

I don't think there's anything wrong with that, so long as you aren't derailing the things other people do so that they have to deal with your romance/sex things.

@A-B said in Tips for not wearing out your welcome:

There's just too MUCH. Too many possible variables. I mean I see where you're coming from - but are you sure that asking what you did wrong or apologising is always a bad thing? (Faraday didn't seem to think the same. Is that conflicting data?)

You really need to seek out pro-bono online counseling or consultation with a professional. There are peer support groups online that are specifically oriented towards helping you through those feelings. This is not one of them.

I was kind of hoping that online ones existed, being currently not good in person - sometimes it seems there are and sometimes (notably by local professionals on the brief, disastrous occasions they've tried to do anything for me) I'm told firmly that there aren't.
If you happen to know where off-hand it would save time. If not, no harm done. Just asking in passing since, you know, there's sometimes a limit to how much web-searching one person can stand in one day.

The state of online counseling is...extremely variable. I cannot actually give recommendations, because I haven't assessed the efficacy of any of the options. I can only say that this community has a varied step system, from volunteer listeners, to online support groups, to what they claim are licensed professional counselors. They also have some guided self-help things you can do on your own. I cannot evaluate their service or claims, but only the professional counseling costs money, so you might find something useful here: https://www.7cups.com/

Again, I cannot verify or support the above link, because I honestly have no data on their practices or outcomes, and this should not be considered a professional reference or endorsement. But I do hope you find help, and I hope you find a place of peace and support!

@A-B Accepting responsibility for your actions and accepting that you were wrong does not mean that YOU are a horrible person, or that you shouldn't attempt to speak to anyone. That's catastrophizing, and it won't help you.

You really need to seek out pro-bono online counseling or consultation with a professional. There are peer support groups online that are specifically oriented towards helping you through those feelings. This is not one of them.

But: Accepting that you were wrong, does not mean accepting that you will always be wrong. It also doesn't require someone to spell out to you exactly how you were wrong, any more than getting a puzzle wrong means that you can never solve the puzzle unless someone specifically shows you every step. It just means you have to take a deep breath, realize that whatever you did then /wasn't/ working the way you wanted it to, and then, next time? Do something different.

I'm not on the game in question, but I'd imagine that your stated action of "I just got despondent at incredible length." made players and staff deeply uncomfortable, and they decided that they did not want to play with you. So don't do that again. You've been told that trying to pursue a conversation with someone about your banning or your behavior is wrong, so don't do that again. Keep a list if you need to, and consult it when you wonder 'what should I do differently'. Observe other people in social situations online, and see the reactions that various methods of presenting yourself gains. Even if you don't, in the beginning, understand /why/ these reactions vary, you can develop an idea of which outputs lead to which reactions.

General advice: recognize when a game isn't what you want, and find another game, rather than trying to change the game to what you really want it to be. Or focus on the things about this game that you DO like. Trying to make a specific game into the right game for you just because it has a theme/system that you like is only going to make you AND staff miserable.

Can I, in all seriousness, suggest reaching out to a professional therapist about getting help for your struggles? Because you're not handling it well, and it's not a game's job, or the staff's job, or any other person's job, to give you your 'really big step forward'. Take a break, get some help recognizing and working on social situations, then come back to games when you've got some strategies that you can practice.

@Cupcake That episode did a genuinely better job at portraying a sex positive society that still has certain gendered expectations that most fiction I've seen. I loved the fact that, while it seemed clear that you had to start paired up with a member of the opposite sex, everyone involved emphasized that the important thing was that people participate, not HOW they participate. Friendship was just as valid as sexytimes, in whatever combo you wanted. It was all very low pressure and accepting in a way I appreciated for that sort of trope.

@Cupcake said in Good TV:

I've watched 3 episodes of Motherland: Fort Salem and I still don't quite know what to make of it. Thoughts, anyone?

The worldbuilding is pretty cool, but the premise in and of itself is a bit whackadoodle. I think it might be too much for the casual tv watcher to handle.

I'm really enjoying it. The characters are interesting (I'm not hugely into the overwrought teen romance, but the fact that it's between two women instead a woman and a 'bad boy' is at least a fun shift in the typical formula), and I like the way it builds a magical society rooted in American witch folklore a LOT better than, say, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

Also, the special effects aren't bad for a small network show, the magic system is genuinely intriguing, and I love that they aren't leaning back from some of the implications of a society of warriors. Most of the characters have war dead in their background, and in some frankly brutal fashions, and they deal with that in ways that I find interesting.

It still has a lot of room to crash and burn (and I can see several ways it could go from here that I'm just not interested in), but I'm liking it so far.

@Sunny Upvoted in sympathy, because Jesus Christ.

I think I've been 'into' writing most of my life. I think the first story I can recall writing because I wanted to write it, not because it was a school assignment, was 3rd or 4th grade, and by the time I was in high school I had notebooks filled with story fragments, terrible adolescent poetry, and worldbuilding and plots for gaming campaigns.

As to whether MUing is writing - it absolutely is! But I definitely think it teaches some fundamentally different habits and techniques than writing fiction - and that some of those habits and techniques are /bad/ for writing fiction (and vice versa, of course. Trying to plot your MU character's 'story' in the same way you would a novel character is a recipe for sadness and disappointment, and novel plots tend to not make good MU* plots, while good MU* plots would tend to be far more chaotic and unfocused than a good novel would prefer). So I wouldn't recommend a MU* for people who want to learn 'to write', and honestly think that if you want to write fiction, MU*ing less is the best choice.

Although that may be my own bias, since the two activities take up the same brainspace in my head, and I can't do both at once.

@saosmash said in General Video Game Thread:

@Pyrephox I will always be a Sorry Cop.

I really want to try to be a Superstar Cop, but I don't know if I can do it.

@TNP said in General Video Game Thread:

Anyone play Disco Elysium yet? Does it live up to the reviews it's been getting?

I loved it. Absolutely loved.

It's not for everyone. Things you should know before going in:

• It's incredibly text-heavy. There is no combat system. You mostly walk around, click on things, read dialogue, choose responses.
• It's unabashedly political, but it doesn't offer any easy answers, other than a general 'racist idiots are racist idiots'. But your favorite political system, whatever it is, will probably be thoroughly mocked at some point, including choosing not to have a favorite political system.
• It's weird. Some people compare it to Lynch, and it certainly can be very Lynchian. But it's the sort of game where random things can go weird and sideways pretty fast, especially if you pick the right skills.
• It's pretty short. A fairly thorough single playthrough is probably 20ish hours. It has some replayability, but there are no branching plotlines. Just different takes on the situation based on who your character is this time around.

Yeah, no.

I disagree with Faraday about many, many things, and our philosophies of gaming are almost diametrically opposed. And I've argued quite strongly with her about those things on here, where shit tends to fly.

And she's never once been rude or aggressive in those arguments. If you managed to actually piss her off to the point of her snapping at you, I can only assume that you started calling her names or ranting about lawyers or something else completely absurd.

And - honestly? It's her project. If she has a strong vision for what she wants to see in it, then that's her goddamned right, and she doesn't owe anyone anything. I know there are things that she prefers not to actively support, codewise, but it's not like you're banned from doing it. She's just not going to do it for you. It does not, in any way, justify, excuse, or 'make understandable' any sort of harassment of her. It wouldn't even if she turned down every suggestion with a gif of someone shitting on the suggestion and an audio file of extreme flatulence for extra emphasis.

I always make the text description first, then look for a PB that fits it - which often means doing a google image search for things like 'young woman freckles' or something. Even once I find a potential person, I try to find a picture that gets across the character - I've had PBs where I can only really use ONE image of them, because it fits the personality of the character, but none of the others do.

That said, I don't really care about other people's PBs, and will usually go from the written description. Anime or drawn PBs don't bother me at all, but doing nothing but linking a picture in your desc, or having some incredibly generic and unhelpful desc like 'this is a person' drives me up the wall.

The proper answer is "Disco Elyisum".

What I always want for my characters is interesting action and conflict, and these tend to be the things that are most difficult to get. Unfortunately, I'm prone to tell myself elaborate stories of, "How cool would it be IF..." and think of awesome things the character might be able to do. But none of them ever happen, and that's usually where I start to slide into burnout.

It's not 'be the hero' all the time, either (although it's definitely be the hero SOMETIMES - right now I have a character who is honestly more of the universe's butt monkey than I'm really all that happy with, but it is what it is), but it's more like - I want my character to have to make difficult choices which have meaningful effects on their life and SOME part of the game setting. It doesn't have to change the world, or even the city - but I like to see repercussions from what I do, I like to be able to have a character push the world, see it change, and have it push back.

And things have a tendency to just fade away in MU*s, with player/staff turnover, and so forth.

My current, and first, cat was a stray who worked himself up into the wheel well of my car as a six/seven week year old kitten. The shelters were closed for a holiday weekend, and by the time they got around to opening again, I couldn't imagine giving him up.

Now he destroys my blinds and gives me snuggles.