Posts made by Sunny

This isn't as hard as the word-twisting, hyperbole-spewing folks want it to be.

Sex and romance are a valid type of story content.

If a storyteller is otherwise ethical and includes these elements in their plots, there are no problems with it.

If someone objects to an ethical staffer including a sexual element in their plot because it is a sexual element (or romance, or mini-golf) and behaves in a petty, jealous fashion over it, and leaves my game, that's fine. They don't want to be on a game with sexual elements included in storylines, and I don't want someone who is going to react to sex with petty jealousy on my game. Thus, winning.

The problems with sex and romance that are being used to object to sex and romance in plotlines are not actually problems with sex or romance. They are problems with unethical staffers behaving unethically. That sex is the topic is irrelevant.

It's fine to prefer that sex and romance elements (or mini-golf) not appear in plots. However, it IS a preference, not an absolute, and presenting it like people using sex and romance in their plots are unethical or bad for using them? Nah.

@Ghost said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

@krmbm said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

The? No. It shows that it is A way to get story.

That's your opinion as a person that thinks inter-personal RP via staff NPCs is fine.

Mine (as someone who does not think it's fine) is that I just saw Sue get a cool new weapon because she went 18-holes with StafferBob, and I did not get anything because I don't enjoy that particular flavor of RP and didn't jump on StafferBob's putter.

I may be completely wrong and pettily jealous, but now I'm completely wrong and jealous over here, on a game where I'm more comfortable with how staff uses their NPCs.

Why is this being presented as if it's a problem? If someone is going to be completely wrong and pettily jealous -- and behave in accordance with those feelings -- I don't want them on my game anyway, so it sounds to ME like in this scenario, literally everyone is winning.

Just wanting to understand, so I'm asking to clarify.

Are you saying that if Bob is upset and jealous that Steve got a shiny cool weapon with great stats after 18 sessions of TS with a staffer (and that Bob has not had this opportunity made available to him), that Bob's behavior is petty and that if he is removed from the game everyone wins?

If that is what you are saying, then I disagree.

It's not what I'm saying.

@krmbm said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

The? No. It shows that it is A way to get story.

That's your opinion as a person that thinks inter-personal RP via staff NPCs is fine.

Mine (as someone who does not think it's fine) is that I just saw Sue get a cool new weapon because she went 18-holes with StafferBob, and I did not get anything because I don't enjoy that particular flavor of RP and didn't jump on StafferBob's putter.

I may be completely wrong and pettily jealous, but now I'm completely wrong and jealous over here, on a game where I'm more comfortable with how staff uses their NPCs.

Why is this being presented as if it's a problem? If someone is going to be completely wrong and pettily jealous -- and behave in accordance with those feelings -- I don't want them on my game anyway, so it sounds to ME like in this scenario, literally everyone is winning.

@Auspice said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

There is a teeny tiny part of me wondering how much plot I've missed out on over the years because I've never flirted with / tried to bang an NPC.

FOMO is one of the biggest drivers for drama/problems/issues on Mushes these days.

@krmbm said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

And now we're back around to the optics: You, as a staffer, just made it appear that a relationship with a staff-run NPC is the way to get story.

The? No. It shows that it is A way to get story.

@bear_necessities

Romance plots are an enormous staple of storytelling and have been since the dawn of storytelling. Sex and romance is an enormous driver of the human species. Much, much, much drama in entertainment revolves around sex for this reason. Bringing it into our pretendy fun-time games as a plot element should not be surprising or weird, considering that it shows up in every other type of entertainment media.

FFS, in video game RPGs now, you do romance/sex with NPCs as part of the story. Dragon Age. Even SWTOR, the MMO, lets you romance an NPC.

Not weird.

Thank you for posting this.

That said, I've seen you do this before. There are a few people you gave a similar apology to and then turned on a few years ago, and I watched a couple of people get hurt over and over. When I can see it from the distance that I've had -- I've never actually been on one of your games -- it's pretty bad.

I am skeptical, but I'm also willing to wait and see, to give you the opportunity to walk the walk you're talking.

@Derp said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

So while I don't think that it's shaming, I do think that telling someone that what they want isn't what the game wants (and thus isn't gonna happen there) is perfectly reasonable.

Nobody anywhere here is disagreeing with this.

@Derp

There is a difference between 'being disruptive' and 'doing something I don't like'. Wrongfun revolves around the latter; rulebreaking and enforcement is where the former comes in. YOU are using the word incorrectly for rulebreaking / being disruptive / being a problem, and that's not what it means. Just because 'wrong' and 'fun' are used doesn't mean that it applies to every instance of someone's fun being wrong. It's not 'wrongfun' to harass somebody -- it's harassing somebody. And so on.

@Wretched said in Incentives for RP:

So, alternative currency, maybe use it to play an antagonist for a specific time and plotr, to skip[ PRP justifications, to create a side economy of trifles and gewgaws and other limited one use items from across the spheres. Cash in for a personal plot about your past. Theres a lot of ways to use an alternate currency that isnt directly related to inflating your character's stats more.

I am a huge alternate currency fan. There are a LOT of things that you can do that will motivate people just fine, starting with "fate points" and wiki badges and going from there.

It is an interesting thought to me: what if you made said alternate currency tradable between players, as well? So like, you earn some, and you can pay Bob 5 of it to do something for you, and then Bob can use it to buy whatever from staff (or someone else). If you did it right you could encourage all sorts of things.

Examples:

How do I reward people for interacting with new players without using character advancement?

Every new player (important: player, not character) that hits the grid gets 2 'newbie points' to bestow on whoever the hell they want, be it the friend that pulled them to the game or the person that walked them through chargen. Those points can be used to buy badges for your wiki page to show off how much of a newbie helper or new player recruiter you are. Yay! People like being recognized as helpers.

How do I reward people for playing in public rather than being squirreled away in their private places all the time?

Get into the habit of dropping NPCs into public scenes and giving out plot information in them.

How do I --

And on and on. You have to start with the specific behavior you want to encourage, to find a solution for that behavior that is not character advancement.

I feel like there's a fundamental breakdown somewhere along the way here for some folks in this discussion.

'Incentives for RP' does not mean incentives for just any ol' RP. Some games used them that way, but that was because they were copying the games that came before them, not because they understood it.

Votes -- and other incentives -- have always been about rewarding the specific behavior you want to see.

Some games made them worth more for new people, some games made it so familiar people couldn't vote you once in a while, some games pooled them all together and split the rewards amongst the playerbase, some games capped how much a given person could spend, some games -- it goes on, and on, and on. But it's never been just 'we have to bribe people to play at all'.

So the question isn't actually 'how do I reward people for roleplaying when I do not want to use XP?' because you're right, it's stupid, and nobody's actually doing that. The question ACTUALLY is:

'how do I reward people for <a particular behavior I want to see, such as helping new people> without using xp?'

That's an easier question to answer, because it's specific, and it shows us all what we're actually trying to accomplish.

@Snackness said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

I was pretty bummed to realize elsethread how many people hate scheduling. It’s an extremely rare case in which I can just do pickup rp. I don’t like it either, but it’s kind of schedule or nothing for me at this point.

I do not think it's a majority of people that don't like to schedule, but instead a very vocal minority, if that helps.

@egg said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

Is this just me getting old or cranky, or is there some legitimate pattern here I'm picking up on? Have RPers become less spontaneous and more specific about who or what they will RP?

To answer this original question, there is legitimately a pattern that has changed. The hobby is very (very) different now than it was 25+ years ago, and so are all of us that are still doing it.

I think because it kind of reduces amputees to just being that, like it's the thing that defines them, rather than it just being a character trait. People aren't their disabilities, and anything that leaves the impression that they are can be uncomfortable. Absolutely do not think that this was intentional or is malicious or bad in intent or anything, but I do think it's a little insensitive.

Inspiration on crafting after a long dry spell of blank stare and nothing.

I do so love Boggle the owl.

@Wolfs said in Empire State Heroes Mush:

@Sunny Because it makes it a personal matter, rather than speaking on behalf of someone else. There is an inherent bias in that, whether recognized or not.

It being personal has no bearing whatsoever on the actual issue being discussed. I asked why it was relevant, not why you said it.

@Wolfs said in Empire State Heroes Mush:

But, it remains that your initial post about this was low on detail led to others having to ask for more information about what you were talking about. You didn't even say it was about you.

Can you explain to me why this is relevant to the issue that @ShelBeast is discussing?

@Thenomain said in WoW Classic:

A bunch of young kids at work are going crazy about this “Magic the Gathering” thing. What the hell is going on in the world? Are we grasping for nostalgia so hard even people who never lived through these things are pining for it?

I think it's called 'we are getting old'. This happened with Bell Bottom pants, too.