Best posts made by Rook

@BigDaddyAmin said:

^This

I am upvoting your post, @BigDaddyAmin , just because one cannot double-upvote @Miss-Demeanor 's post.

I swear, every time that someone mentions "Republican", "Conservative", "Democrat", "Liberal"... my finger lingers over the nuke button. I am so fucking sick of politics (and broken, fucked up politics at that!) that it will, at some point, drive me off of games, this board and so many other things that I enjoy.

I already avoid the news, have given up social media, and so many other things because of it, in the avoidance of it.

Not that anyone gives a shit about me, but seriously, I am not the only person/American here and elsewhere that is beyond the puking stage with politics and the zealotry and idle attacks.

This happened today. A good female friend, a self-proclaimed Feminist who loves to go on and on about sexism and inequality, today ends up all depressed because her crush isn't going right. All was fine, we talked about it, until she blurted out that she was tired of waiting.

Me: "Waiting on what?"
Her: "For him to ask me out! I'm starting to think that he doesn't like me!"
Me: "Why haven't you approached him?"
Her: "He's the guy!"
Me: "What does that have to do with anything?"
Her: "What?! What do you mean? It's the man's job to make the first move!"
Me: facepalms "You're serious? That's sexist, don't you think? What happened to equality?"

We talked a little longer, and now I think she has a little better grasp as to why I was so shocked to hear her talk like that.

I've always said that the first group to establish RP in a public place has the privledge of setting tone, action and scene. They took the initiative to get things started, likely have something in mind as to direction and maybe a plot, who knows.

People who join should take the time to meld into the scene, not try and force the scene to adapt to them.

@surreality
Fuck players who cannot bother to READ on a text-based game. Fuck them and all that they hold dear. I cannot count the number of people who misread, skim or outright skip character descriptions and end up posing stupid shit due to that ignorance. Room descs, when on grid, are even more of a crime against the game.

I have, and forever shall, OOCly laughed and made fun of people who cannot bother to fucking READ on a MU*. GTFO, seriously, go back to WOW or whatever made you think that you could roleplay.

The conversation has come up on MUSH (the PennMUSH Dev/Community site) about MU visibility on the web, resources and attracting new players. I thought I would post it here, as well, since this is another active collaboration area of MUs.

So here's the idea. What I am proposing is not really my idea, it has been kicked around a few times by several people. It has been poopooed and smirked at, but it keeps coming up.

What I would love to see is a central community-run place where we can disseminate information. OGR/MU-Gateway used to be a great place to find new games, now it is mostly dead (sorry to those that run the place, it needs life). We did discuss a few weeks back MUDStats.com and the ever-loving MushCode.com listings and how they were tied together, but suffering from single ownership (slow updates, etc). The idea came up to band a community site together where not a single person or two administrated it, but many did.

I think it is worthwhile for us, as a community, to get together and form this idea. Elect a committee, build a damn nice website that is collaborative and solid, and ad-campaign the hell out of it to draw everyone in MU*dom in. Not necessarily the players at first, but the MU owners, the developers, the coders, etc. The players will then come naturally.

This is an effort that we all benefit from. Game information/ads and lists, softcode releases, softcode repositories, coding forums and discussions, server/hardcode forums, Guides on how to run MU*s, etc. We all contribute everything we can find, we sort and organize it, and we invite others to curate and update that information trove.

Software projects get big on consolidation and collaboration. That is what we should be aiming for, IMNSHO.

Now, MuSoapbox is clearly already a step in this direction, but since it focuses on specific areas (guides, discussions, some code), I think it is a piece of the solution. I foresee MuSoapbox being either a link off of this idea-site, perhaps even worked into it so that everything is in one spot, still run by @Thenomain , @EmmahSue and @Glitch .

The benefits:

• One site, areas run/curated/administrated by teams that are self-electing, appointed, whatever you choose.
• One site to advertise your game at, find help, etc.
• One site to consolidate and point players to for information and help, like these very forums.
• Collaborative administration, whereas it becomes the Wikipedia.org-level go-to resource for all things MUSH/MUX. In this manner, singular people going idle do not make a site unusable.

To give an idea of what we envisioned, MushCode.com/MudStats.com's MUSH listings, curated and ran by a team instead of one/two people. Forums for discussions like this. Code repositories with full credit given to authors/sources but just dragged and stored in one place. Links to the github repos and project sites for PennMUSH, TinyMUX and RhostMUSH (and any others that opt in). A blog-like front-end for announcements, RSS feeds subscribable (do people still do those?), new games going up, releases, etc.

We have this expertise in the community. We have a need. We have people looking for it. I think we should get people together and start it. I will even volunteer to get things off the ground until we get the ball rolling, people step up to take curatorship of various areas, etc.

All I'm trying to say is that on the one hand, MSB encourages stricter, tighter staffing... but then is quick (I should say 'was quick', in the WORA days) to roast a staff for doing just that. Let's just take that into account in the conversation here, as I feel it is relevant.

Wellhung: Hello, Sweetheart. What do you look like?
Sweetheart: I am wearing a red silk blouse, a miniskirt and high heels. I work out every day, I'm toned and perfect. My measurements are 36-24-36. What do you look like?
Wellhung: I'm 6'3" and about 280 pounds.I wear glasses and I have on a pair of blue sweat pants I just bought from Walmart.I'm also wearing a T-shirt with a few spots of barbecue sauce on it from dinner...it smells funny.
Sweetheart: I want you.Would you like to screw me?
Wellhung: OK
Sweetheart: We're in my bedroom.There's soft music playing on the stereo and candles on my dresser and night table.I'm looking up into your eyes, smiling. My hand works its way down to your crotch and begins to fondle your huge, swelling bulge.
Wellhung: I'm gulping, I'm beginning to sweat.
Sweetheart: I'm pulling up your shirt and kissing your chest.
Wellhung: Now I'm unbuttoning your blouse.My hands are trembling.
Sweetheart: I'm moaning softly.
Wellhung: I'm taking hold of your blouse and sliding it off slowly.
Sweetheart: I'm throwing my head back in pleasure.The cool silk slides off my warm skin.I'm rubbing your bulge faster, pulling and rubbing.
Wellhung: My hand suddenly jerks spastically and accidentally rips a hole in your blouse.I'm sorry.
Sweetheart: That's OK, it wasn't really too expensive.
Wellhung: I'll pay for it.
Sweetheart: Don't worry about it.I'm wearing a lacy black bra.My soft breasts are rising and falling, as I breath harder and harder.
Wellhung: I'm fumbling with the clasp on your bra.I think it's stuck. Do you have any scissors?
Sweetheart: I take your hand and kiss it softly.I'm reaching back undoing the clasp. The bra slides off my body. The air caresses my breasts. My nipples are erect for you.
Wellhung: How did you do that? I'm picking up the bra and inspecting the clasp.
Sweetheart: I'm arching my back. Oh baby. I just want to feel your tongue all over me.
Wellhung: I'm dropping the bra. Now I'm licking your, you know, breasts. They're neat!
Sweetheart: I'm running my fingers through your hair. Now I'm nibbling your ear.
Wellhung: I suddenly sneeze. Your breasts are covered with spit and phlegm.
Sweetheart: What?
Wellhung: I'm so sorry. Really.
Sweetheart: I'm wiping your phlegm off my breasts with the remains of my blouse.
Wellhung: I'm taking the sopping wet blouse from you. I drop it with a plop.
Sweetheart: OK. I'm pulling your sweat pants down and rubbing your hard tool.
Wellhung: I'm screaming like a woman. Your hands are cold! Yeeee!
Sweetheart: I'm pulling up my miniskirt. Take off my panties.
Wellhung: I'm pulling off your panties. My tongue is going all over, in and out nibbling on you...umm... wait a minute.
Sweetheart: What's the matter?
Wellhung: I've got a pubic hair caught in my throat. I'm choking.
Sweetheart: Are you OK?
Wellhung: I'm having a coughing fit. I'm turning all red.
Sweetheart: Can I help?
Wellhung: I'm running to the kitchen, choking wildly. I'm fumbling through the cabinets, looking for a cup. Where do you keep your cups?
Sweetheart: In the cabinet to the right of the sink.
Wellhung: I'm drinking a cup of water. There, that's better.
Sweetheart: Come back to me, lover.
Wellhung: I'm washing the cup now.
Sweetheart: I'm on the bed arching for you.
Wellhung: I'm drying the cup. Now I'm putting it back in the cabinet. And now I'm walking back to the bedroom. Wait, it's dark, I'm lost. Where's the bedroom?
Sweetheart: Last door on the left at the end of the hall.
Wellhung: I found it.
Sweetheart: I'm tuggin' off your pants. I'm moaning. I want you so badly.
Wellhung: Me too.
Sweetheart: Your pants are off. I kiss you passionately-our naked bodies pressing each other.
Wellhung: Your face is pushing my glasses into my face. It hurts.
Sweetheart Why don't you take off your glasses?
Wellhung: OK, but I can't see very well without them. I place the glasses on the night table.
Sweetheart: I'm bending over the bed. Give it to me, baby!
Wellhung: I have to pee. I'm fumbling my way blindly across the room and toward the bathroom.
Sweetheart: Hurry back, lover.
Wellhung: I find the bathroom and it's dark. I'm feeling around for the toilet. I lift the lid.
Sweetheart: I'm waiting eagerly for your return.
Wellhung: I'm done going. I'm feeling around for the flush handle, but I can't find it. Uh-oh!
Sweetheart: What's the matter now?
Wellhung: I've realized that I've peed into your laundry hamper. Sorry again. I'm walking back to the bedroom now, blindly feeling my way.
Sweetheart: Mmm, yes. Come on.
Wellhung: OK, now I'm going to put my...you know ...thing...in your...you know...woman's thing.
Sweetheart: Yes! Do it, baby! Do it!
Wellhung: I'm touching your smooth butt. It feels so nice. I kiss your neck. Umm, I'm having a little trouble here.
Sweetheart: I'm moving my ass back and forth, moaning. I can't stand it another second! Slide in! Screw me now!
Wellhung: I'm flaccid.
Sweetheart: What?
Wellhung: I'm limp. I can't sustain an erection.
Sweetheart: I'm standing up and turning around; an incredulous look on my face.
Wellhung: I'm shrugging with a sad look on my face, my weiner all floppy. I'm going to get my glasses and see what's wrong.
Sweetheart: No, never mind. I'm getting dressed. I'm putting on my underwear. Now I'm putting on my wet nasty blouse.
Wellhung: No wait! Now I'm squinting, trying to find the night table. I'm feeling along the dresser, knocking over cans of hair spray, picture frames and your candles.
Sweetheart: I'm buttoning my blouse. Now I'm putting on my shoes.
Wellhung: I've found my glasses. I'm putting them on. My God! One of our candles fell on the curtain. The curtain is on fire! I'm pointing at it, a shocked look on my face.
Sweetheart: Go to hell. I'm logging off, you loser!
Wellhung: Now the carpet is on fire! Oh noooo!

Anything that is done by command line is, by sheer necessity, a complex command string, period. MUSH derives from MUD, all of them are telnet-based interfaces because that is what was around, cheap and easy to run in the 90s.

Most anyone who cannot fathom commands in MUSH are the either going to do one of two things:

1. complain, grump and walk away and go back to their non-coded Chat Room RP or
2. be intrigued by Something New and Cool enough to actually start to learn things.

The average intelligent player (and come on, you have to be intelligent to MUSH) will learn how to MUSH in a matter of one or two days for the majority of anything that they have to do. I personally have seen more people walk away from their first time MUSHing for reasons having to do with the complexity of the RPG being used (I'm looking at you, WoD) or because of the interpersonal interactions had on the game itself with the Staff/Players, than I have ever seen leave because of "all that typing".

With that said, players will either be open to learning something new to fill an entertainment void in their life, or they won't. Format, media, interaction all matter, but what MUSH has going for it is the sheer quality of that entertainment, no matter how you present it.

It just floors me that this group of people on this board are so outraged and shocked by this bad behavior by these famous people. I'm shocked because of all people, you all should know by now the sheer stupidity of mankind just based on the cross-section of bullshit that MUSHers do, discussed on these very boards.

It's laughable, because it seems that, because you have some sort of celebrity crush on this person or that person, that they are above and beyond the same dark and ignorant urges and imperfections that infect the rest of the race.

We roll our eyes and say "Oh, really. Again?" each time someone mentions sexism, racism, whateverism on a game. It's barely discussed before said perpetrator is dismissed and life goes on. But, if a Celebrity gets the very same accusations, everyone loses their damned minds for weeks or months on end. There is endless wailing and flagellation.

Are these people so high and mighty that they become that different, that worshiped, that they get this Special Consideration?

I am of mixed emotions on this. I've always sort of noticed when people cannot RP their Amazing Stats and Skills at all, instead relying entirely on dicerolls to do the brute forcing for them.

A character with a very high Dex + Firearms roleplaying out a scene with lame, ridiculously overacted and over-the-top poses of backflip shots and leap -dive shots at the local kid's shooting booth at the county fair... it's just as eye-rolling as someone with a high App + Seduction roleplaying the slinky, smoky-eyed nymph who wants to be all Jessica Rabbit/Marilyn Monroe while serving coffee in the college Starbucks.

I don't care if you rolled 10 successes. Your pose is ludicrous and scene-breaking.

Oh, wait, this was about other things, wasn't it.... damnit.

But, @ataru, being the victim is what draws attention to you! Social media is teaching this new generation how attention feels, and they are learning to garner it in all ways possible, some of those ways are very unhealthy.

When society is calling the recent political stress syndromes up onto the same levels as combat PTSD, there is a huge red flag. Conversations about politics should never cause as much emotional damage as living through actual combat, a shooting, or a rape, or anything else that would cause genuine PTSD. Politics, by their very nature, are conversations about differing opinions. If you are traumatized by conversations with differing opinions, something else is seriously wrong.

I was playing a short campaign in tabletop D&D, and we were allowed to make any race that had playable stats. So, I naturally picked a Troll. I made him a Rogue. DM gave us each one choice of starting magic item, so I asked if I could have an Oil of Slipperiness. Troll drank the Oil. It becomes permanent. Troll becomes Rico Suave.

DM had the final laugh, though. Troll dies in hair fire.

People who slow down to 2 mph to turn a corner, taking more than 10 seconds to get the fuck out of 40-50mph traffic to do so. Fucking learn to drive, asstards.

There is something to be noted here, however, and that is a lot of RP cliques that I have run into in the last 3-4 years have been of a mindset that "We don't know you, so you will get minimal attention/inclusion until we have judged you".

I normally do not advertise who I am, where. I very briefly had my AresMUSH @handle linked to a character, but removed it because it just grew more and more annoying to me. I do not play the OOC game. I, in fact, stay the hell out of any OOC conversations about a game or the players on it. I just don't want to see behind the curtain.

I agree with Ghost - there are people out there that appear (to me) to be into MUSHing mostly for the "OOC Game" or "metagame" as many describe it. They derive their fun out of the OOC interaction, for good or ill, and not the IC character stories. I say this because: 1) They very rarely RP (maybe once every 3-4 months, by their recounting), 2) 99% of their MUSH time is spent chatting and talking.

Some of those people that I describe and have talked to over the last couple of years, are the very people at the top rungs of a few games' IC structures. The IC leaders of the game. Not RPing. Not stepping down for the more actively-IC people vying for the position, either.

Having had more than a few conversations with players over the years, just in natural chats, it seems to be that this happens everywhere. As one said, "It is how MUSHing is."

So, as a result of this, I don't advertise who I am, where I play. I have no playlist. Not because I've done horrible things or been banned anywhere, I just enjoy my anonymity. I like meeting new people who may be old friends but I don't know it yet, but yet neither do they. Discovering great RPers and friends is the joy of the game for me, 50-50 with the great stories written.

Replying because my last post wandered and didn't make a point:

I've met several people that have made no bones about outright saying "If I dont know you, we don't RP" and then they needle for past characters/games/interaction information to place me by. I have learned to simply smile and shrug, tell them that it is their loss, and I move on. I am not here to suppliment my life with online OOC drama, I get enough via work and my RL social/family life.

Some people/personality types thrive on interpersonal drama, I do not. I do not need to feed on people's energy in such ways. I much prefer to build people up, support them on rough days, help them find fun.

I soundly second @skew's advice here.

Yeah, sure, no-yes-men is a thing. But so is a unified, solid effort of multiple talented minds in a singular direction. This is how you break the humdrum mold of the same-ole-same-ole in a game. Strike out in a direction and make things happen. Yes, people will bitch. So what? They aren't paying your bills, so feel free to ignore them on your project. If even a handful of people go along with you, you can try something new.

Don't be so invested in your project that it calcifies you from doing things.

Eh, I'm through with the PVP element of games to the point that if MMO is in the tags list on Steam, I mark it Not Interested and move on, don't even look anymore.

I was never a big MMO player, but the sheer cesspoolness of most online "communities" of PVP games is just enough to literally make me ill. Some people get off on the constant crap thrown around, but to me, I play games to connect with people and have fun. Not bitch and complain with little minds. I get enough of that in my day job.

Believe it or not, the only MMO I put any time more than 5-10 hours into was Eve Online, played for 5 years. It is known for being a brutal learning curve and rather adult approach to PVP, but somehow that actually weeded out the little kids who were just there to smacktalk and try to appear cool. You got the adults who smacktalked and tried to appear cool.

Eh. Get off my lawn.

Really enjoying Ready Player One. Talk about a firehose-drinking dose of nostalgia.

@Roz
I would wager to say that, of those players that you describe, there are very few of them that are expecting or settling for a text-only medium, to begin with.

"What? No pictures? I'm out!"

This is what I mean to say when I say that UI, the interface itself, does very very little to abstract away from the fact that the game IS typing. JUST TYPING. ALL THE TIME. And you have to type well or the culture will snub you. They will laugh at your grammar, your desc, your LOL speech, all of it.

CULTURE is the biggest barrier to entry to MUSH. Period. I really don't think that anyone can convince me otherwise. After all, this entire board's existence is based purely on culture, culture fit, culture breaches and various lack-thereofs.