Eye contact is a funny thing. When I was in school I was definitely on the shy side, so eye contact was very uncomfortable for me. And then school turned to work, and it became a bit more important to appear more "professional", so I had to force myself to do it.
Funny thing is, after a few years I moved into management and by then I had enough practice that eye contact doesn't bother me anymore. So I do think this is something that can be overcome.
Again, playing the merry-go-round.
So kind of a funny story... I actually logged on to see how populated Fate's Harvest is compared to Darkwater 2.0, and when I did, I suddenly remembered I made a character there when FH was in alpha/early-beta (thanks to @skew!) but never played. Of course the PC bit no longer exists after all this time, so I was reminiscing on the public channel and Annapaura suddenly chimed in. She remembered me and apparently had my PC on archive, which she copied and pasted over and all of a sudden I have a fully CGen'd, pre-approved character whom I don't remember much of!
I guess I am playing on Fate's Harvest now! Laziness wins again.
I have a whole shelf of oWoD books that, though well-used in my early Mushing years, are just taking up precious space now. They also look quite expensive and a constant reminder how much money I spent on them. Anyone know if there's a secondary market for these?
At least I am grateful I never bought a single nWoD book, given how I never felt connected to the new game setting. Those would be wasted money for me.
Well it's fun to reminiscent, so here is my list. It's ruled by characters who are the quirkiest, either in their personality, mannerism or something in their background. In no particular order:
Seanna on Shadowed Isles - the Fianna Galliard who was the scrappy tomboy of the pack, and gradually matured into her responsibilities to pack and sept (even respected!). I eventually retired her along with the rest of her pack, but she had arguably my most complete PC life-cycle and immersive play with a clearcut start and finish to her story. She was in a few adventure scenes that were BAR NONE the most memorable I have had with any Mush PC's (i.e. the Tibetan scenes, for instance), so that definitely helps cement her as one of my favorite characters.
Interestingly, Seanna is also the only character on this list that had a romantic relationship as part of her regular RP. Wherever you are, Gideon, hi!
Marianne Beaufort on Denver - I didn't play Marianne very long, but gosh she was fun. She was a Ventrue from London, and showed up with her coterie consisting of her various childer -- she was the elder of the group and brains of the operation, but she posed as the youngest of the bunch so people would underestimate her. The main fun I had with Marianne was her extensive and ridiculous vocabulary: she was infamous for using big words, archaic words, obscure words, and occasionally fabricated words to confuse everyone. I had to do a lot of research just to have a list handy for it.
"They want to interfate my gaudiloquence? I say pish-posh to those oncethmus aretalogers."
Scissors on Generation-X - Alas the game was short-lived, but Scissors was a 15 year-old Bonegnawer Ahroun who had no money, a drug-addict mom, and Rage-8. She was bubbling with anger all the time and physically shaking with barely constrained Rage; the fun part was her constant struggle against just blowing her top and killing someone outright, because she was the responsible one in the family. I liked her so much Scissors has been my namesake in Mushland.
Sydney Rae on Darkwater - Sydney was a mortal on a Changeling game, but also a Federal agent who was looking into weird stuff. Her story was a tragic one - her toddler son was taken by the Gentry and eventually someone app'd him as a PC (as a grownup, of course), unfortunately soon after I lost interest in Mushing and faded away. She never really found out about Changelings, though she knew many of them and figured out some of them were paranormal in some ways, but never dug too deep because she befriended some and they helped reunite her with her lost son. In my years of Mushing, Sydney was the one character who I could see as a viable TV/movie lead.
Mad Jack on Oathcircle - A barely literate Redcap with Intelligence score of 1, Mad Jack was more an attack dog than human. He was crazy, violent and disgusting, but also childlike in demeanor and I played him as comic relief. He seemed well-received by the Freehold despite all his negative attributes, and he had some very memorable and funny scenes. Definitely lots of fun to play.
Marie on The Reach - In some ways Marie was the most grounded, most level-headed characters I've played. She was a Psychic/Wolfblood who was, at best, on the periphery of the werewolf sphere; the lion's share of her RP was with the Law sphere, and she had a lot of memorable adventures as a beat cop. Even as a police officer she was mainly professional and taciturn, and eventually her psychic abilities and gunplay skills grew to a level that she could beat down most run-of-the-mill Supers, but it was mainly the police RP that made her fun for me.
Ha, thanks. I gain an odd satisfaction that I play the ugliest pirate on the game.
Updated. Lured out of retirement by a unique theme.
@Ganymede I have no clue about BSG (except everyone's girlfriend is a Cylon), but since it's YOU who recommended it, I'll go take a look soon.
Four reasons for me: Escapism, creativity, and collaboration. Plus laziness.
The first three are pretty self-explanatory; laziness factors in because it takes a lot of time and effort to be socializing in real life. I have to clear out schedules for a social event, get prepared, it costs money... and if I end up being bored or simply tired, I can't just turn it off and go watch TV or just go to bed.
And honestly, even in my college days I never understood the appeal of getting uproariously drunk together as a social event, which seems to be the most common party option available. I just feel it's better to do something creative with people with similar interests.
That being said I have mostly moved on to MMORPGs. Why? Again with the laziness -- MMORPGs require less effort than Mushing, and they're much prettier to look at -- but also there is a lot less drama going on, and at this point in my life I don't need online dramaz to add to my RL stress. MMORPGs also fulfill the Escapism requirement, and to a lesser degree Collaboration (the first M does stand for Multiplayer, after all!). I do find I am missing out on the Creativity side though; I have tried to inject background stories and such into my MMORPG characters, and there are RP communities active in most major MMOs, but... it's just not the same. Because of the medium's limitations, it is virtually impossible to develop the same level of rapport with other players as Mushing allows.
Maybe if some low maintenance Mush game pops up, and I find myself in need of a creative outlet, I might jump back in at some point.
They did? Ack. Another friend of mine is on Mac and I've been wanting to get him to play too. There goes THAT plan.
@Miss-Demeanor I'll look you up in-game!
Does anyone play Guild Wars 2? I just started playing about a week ago, been leveling with a friend and trying to figure things out, but hey, this looks like a game where it's more fun with more people.
One more update.
Completely lost interest. I may not be mushing anymore, but I'm still going to poke in here and there. Those of you who want to keep in touch, drop me PM's and I'll still get 'em!
Evidently, there are a whole bunch of players following this game's development, already planning out characters and waiting for it to open. Thought you guys might want to know that!
@ShelBeast said:
I am really curious, though, like Arkandel, about the experience of females (or perceived females) and other minorities or traditionally marginalized groups in the online community. Has this kind of behavior been the norm for you on MU*s? Is it something you experience more RL when gaming and less online or more?
From my personal experience: No on both counts (gender and ethnicity, specifically), but that's probably because neither of those comes up very often, if at all, in all the years that I have been Mushing. In this day and age I suspect that I am in the minority of people who don't associate with online people in RL; I have online friends whom I've known for over a decade and talked to on a daily basis, yet I don't know their RL names or ever seen their faces - but it does eliminate a lot of potential harassment problems described here.
I will add that Mushing and other online activities are very different though. I have only started actively playing MMORPGs in the last three years or so, and by comparison there has been no shortage of guys PMing me with "R U a girl in RL?", "whats your name" and "hi I live in XXX, where do you live?" Most of them are just being friendly, or at least that's how they perceive themselves to be acting, but once in a while it gets weird.
Caveat: The above doesn't apply to places like Shangrila. If you choose to play there as a woman, or even just a female character, all bets are off. Back when I played there (I still have a couple of lingering PC bits, but I don't really go there anymore) I ran into my share of ridiculous stalkers and harassers. So if you don't want to be harassed, do not go to places like Shangrila.
Speaking of Trolling, we were just having coffee RP the other day when we were trolled by a faceless man, who came through the door but was only detectable by some of us. That caused a bit of IC freakout!
Shakes fist at @tragedyjones
(P.S. In case that wasn't clear, this refers to a a GOOD kind of trolling).
Late to this, but let me add my appreciation for the awesome staff on BITN.... because I'm the person who sees a 10-minute lineup at the cashier and drops the shopping basket. Efficiency and fast responses make me happy, and BITN staff are absolutely top-notch with that.
How fast? Using my CGen as an example, after I finished the process and hit "Submit", I proceeded to go and write my character description on notepad. When I went to copy and paste it 15 minutes later, I was already approved.
They keep saying they're fast because the various +jobs are easy. Maybe that's true, but that still takes someone to pay attention; the fast turnaround means less time spent on bureaucratic paperwork and more time on the fun stuff.
A bit of a random thought: I believe we have Surreality to thank, but this game has the slickest Wiki I've ever come across. It takes all the proverbial Japanese out of the instruction manual.
Mono! I often wondered about what happened to you.
I was on Cold Space too (and once in a while I still go back to read the old CS logs). I played Monoko's sarcastic buddy, Illyanna Shevchenko.
Long, long time ago, in a Mush far, far away... which name escapes me now, my character had a pet Norwich terrier puppy named Scissors, and people were always curious about the name. I liked it enough to use the name again for a subsequent character on Gen-X (based in 1980's Seattle), a constantly bristling Bone Gnawer street urchin with high Rage that's barely contained. I enjoyed playing her so much I started using the moniker.
@Ganymede Ah you must've missed my posts in the Kushiel thread, but I've already tried it earlier in the year. Essentially, pleasant enough place with good staff, I got over-enthusiastic because I was on a GoT-kick at the time, then quickly realized it wasn't my cup of tea (didn't dig the setting, and didn't like the glass ceiling political set up).