Posts made by Sunny

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/aug/21/former-tacoma-mall-gorilla-ivan-dies-age-50/

Facebook. I know, I know, it's a plague upon humanity, but I've been able to keep track of some old co-workers that I would have had to work a LOT harder at, if it was even possible to do so without the FB. But really, what I love are....

...Those people who your positive relationship with them never changes. Like, you get along thick as thieves, don't speak for 2 years, and then it's just la la la like nothing happened.

I feel a little bad, having read all of this, for asking what I did for +finger from my friend that's helping me with the coding things. Then that bad is countered by relief that I am not the only person out there that's very, very particular about some aspects of the code.

Once upon a time, I thought the solution was just breaking it up into different spheres -- admin (approvals, judgenotes, xp spends), support (build/code), and roleplay (storytelling, jobs that aren't strictly administrative)-- and while that's closer to the goalpost, it still misses.

My thought is to completely remove the little fiefdoms that come with a sphere-based system. The idea is to have subject matter experts on staff -- people that can handle the weird shit that requires an in-depth knowledge of a particular area -- but otherwise just looking at levels of responsibility. Me, those making adjudicative decisions, and those that don't, simply working within the framework they've been given and working assigned jobs. This thought uses a worklist system, and requires that someone keep an eye on the system as a whole to ensure nothing falls through the cracks; I can think of a myriad of ways to accomplish that part of things, but I think that's a per-game (and based on the personality of the game lead) decision, rather than something I'd advocate as part of the model.

It requires communication on the part of staff way beyond the level that the sphere system requires, and it has its own pitfalls/downsides/etc. I think those downsides are way more easily managed than those that come with people setting up their own personal fiefdoms and having games within games, particularly when we desperately need to break out of the oWoD way of approaching where the spheres actively discouraged crossover to the GMC way of doing things, which ties things together a lot more.

Blah blah Lean blah blah.

@Royal said:

Same with great role players. They're awesome! Surely they are waiting for a scene to start, so I shouldn't bother asking. When in reality? They're staring at the OOC room chatter.

This is so a thing.

I use 'steampunk' the same way I use 'high fantasy' or 'low fantasy' or 'gritty fantasy' or 'soft sci-fi' or 'hard sci-fi' or 'space opera'. None of these things are in a Proper Dictionary of Gaming Terms that I'm aware of out there. When I say 'high fantasy' or 'epic high fantasy', people can get a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about. It's the same thing with 'Steampunk' -- it does come with a generally known (if at least vaguely) sort of feel/thing to it.

I am not trying to define a genre or tell anyone how to use a word or anything else: I'm trying to communicate a generality. There are times where semantics get in the way of communication. I understand that it's good to have clarity and a shared understanding, but there is such a thing as taking that too far.

In other words, you assholes (I say it lovingly) knew what I meant. You still know what I meant. That is, in a practical sense, what matters. I qualify my Steampunk with the 'and' because there are elements that nobody generally, when they think of Steampunk, thinks it would include. Like elves and dwarves. Seriously. It might be a genre or might not be, might be a sub-genre, it doesn't matter how it's classified when we all understand in a general sense (and a general sense is, going back to the particular instance that started the discussion, all that was needed) what we're talking about.

Steampunk, to me: the game is set in Victorian London with SCIENCE! and the struggle between Order (Reason, Technology) and Chaos (Faith, Magic, Intuition). There are flying ships that are powered by steam, and all sorts of brand new technological marvels that are pushing progress forward at all costs. People wear pretty dresses and roll their eyes when Uncle Eddie arrives via jet-pack instead of by carriage to the party.

ETA: Fixed a few words that were wrong. Words are fucking hard.

People who stick with you when you're going through bad, bad times. Those people are the best.

@Thenomain

It makes perfect sense. I personally do see it as a genre, but I can see why someone else would view it more as a flavor rather than a particular genre.

@Balerion

It's a right I have, I guess, to call the cops because somebody got to a parking space before I did. It's a right I have, to call the cops. I'd be wrong, I'd be bitched out by the cop and possibly ticketed and fined and whatever else for wasting everyone's time,

Pretty fucking sure that's exactly what your stupid 'cease and desist' letters always amounted to. Because again, you do not understand Fair Use or IP laws, which is insane to me because you're so involved with IP issues. One of you two should take a damn class or something.

@surreality

What Luna said, except I don't know anything helpful. I'm sorry; that all sucks so, so much.

@Jeshin

I know of one other Steampunk game that is in development, but it's far more true to the genre than Smoke will be. Smoke is more 'Steampunk and...' than anything else; it's one of a couple of descriptors of the setting. I can't in good conscience bill it as a Steampunk game, because people would log in and see Eldren and Dwarves and go 'uuuuuuh wait...okay, wait, is this Steampunk D&D? wtf? huh?' (We're running Victoriana, which is "Steampunk and...")

I'm pretty sure the other game being developed is truer to the genre. Not my project though, so I can't discuss it in-depth.

If there are other games up and running within the genre, I'm unaware of them, and would definitely like to hear of them, too!

Banning people for talking about other games / etc / etc has nothing to do with respect (and it's a lie to say it is) and everything to do with fear of people leaving/control. Your wife, at least, is well aware that if the bulk of the people playing on your game realized that they actually had options, they probably wouldn't be playing there. The policy is geared towards holding a captive audience -- if you don't play here, you don't play this. To pretend otherwise is ridiculous.

I mean come on -- in the past, at least one half of your pair have VERY THOROUGHLY displayed that they do not in any way, shape, or form understand Fair Use or IP laws. Let's not pretend the pig is a pony just because we shoved a plug with a tail up its ass.

I wish you all the best in this project, and do hope you get yourself collected enough to get it up off the ground. Good luck!

@Three-Eyed-Crow said:

@Sunny said:

Yes, this is the Nymeria game, to save anyone else the time of going and looking.

This is another one of those times where I pine for the WORA archive, for a simple link to the insane history of Nymeria.

Bork bork bork.

I would almost say it's a difference between roleplay-intensive and roleplay-exclusive, almost. Like, intensive implies that there are still other things to do besides roleplay, there. That it's not absolute...which is accurate. Mushes do not fall under the category of RPI games. They aren't. They're RPE. If you aren't roleplaying, you are not doing anything that means playing at all.

@Ganymede

I will! Thank you for the recommendation. There will be a gathering of resources available and the acceptance of assistance from wherever it wants to come from. I just need another week or two for a few things to stable out for me in the offline world, then I'll get a site up and we'll go from there. I've had LOTS of volunteers for help, so I don't think we'll have any problem at all getting things off of the ground and moving forward.

I am going to be playing TinyDictator, but there are some things that I'm going to want to bat around with you once I get the site up, see what you think about them before full pursuit of the various bits. I am being deliberately vague because none of the ideas are coherently enough collected and discussed to churn them through the grinder here.

Yes, this is the Nymeria game, to save anyone else the time of going and looking.

Yeah, I am not the only one looking for people, by far. I do tend to actually shuffle people in other directions if they're going to fit better elsewhere.

As far as the Sovereign spots go, beyond just needing to be a female PC, one does have to play on the game for a bit before you can do the Sovereign thing. This applies to a few other things as well, but nothing that doesn't make sense.

It seems crazy to me that we're down to two Ducal spots. o.o Wow.

@VulgarKitten

Come play. You will love it. Like. It would be impossible for you to not, with what I know about your interests. Ash and Skaldia are hands down the best staff team I've ever encountered. I'd rank Skaldia up there on a level with @EmmahSue in terms of ethics and brains and stuff. Ash is just freaking all around amazing. It makes it a really safe place to play. I've seen one instance of flip-out drama and it got dealt with on the spot. It was a miracle.

Anyway:

http://www.kushielsdebut.org/index.php/Chalasse

The L'Agnace page is a mess, because it's my work-in-progress for how I'm going to be redoing all the province pages. I'm experimenting / fussing with my own first.

@Glitch Sorry. I'll behave.

@Jeshin I'm absolutely not a mod or admin or anything else around here, just an occasional very vocal minority that loves to speak in absolutes.