Best posts made by surreality

@Ghost @TNP No collection of horrifying slash is complete without this.

@Tinuviel I can browse a WoD wiki and turn up my nose plenty, sure.

Image links in Shang +finger remain to date the #1 source of 'I will never unsee that' in my life.

"It is my own stupid fault for clicking the link," I can say, because I know it's an image of a thing. A random page of nightmare fuel loading up after clicking a name? No thanks.

@Aria I know, right? It's like watching the world's stonedest puppy.

@Ghost said in Cyberrun:

@surreality Here is what I'm implying.

That many of this people have severe levels of 'not okay' with slut shaming, racism, homophobia, sexism, and creeping,

Accurate!

but when it comes to actually using the word 'pedophile' to describe people on these games whose kink is simulated child fucking, I think too many people break out the 10 foot "dont rock the boat" pole.

Not remotely accurate.

This has been presented in a variety of ways already. Like the 'playing a racist/sexist character on a historical game must necessarily be doing so to engage in RL racism', the insistence that someone RPing this must be an RL pedophile is simply false.

Is this -- and any other permutation of 'they RP it on a game, thus they must really in RL' -- sometimes accurate? Probably. They are still not implicit.

Is there a bit of "*WHOA, HEY NOW I...have a friend of a friend who...plays on that place. How about you just leave m-

Yeah, again, more 'asking for a friend' shade being thrown directly at everyone. I don't play on either of these games, have never played on either of these games, and have no interest in doing so.

that friend alone!*"?

I don't actually know anyone who does, either.

Yea, a little bit.

...a little bit?

Regardless, the priority balance between actually keeping pedophiles out of the community versus regimentally keeping an eye out for slut shamers is a bit askew, in my opinion.

The only person who has been railing about slut shaming in this thread is you.

Now, I ignore plenty of threads around these parts, but it hasn't been a recent topic of conversation in any that I follow for some time, either.

Let's be adults.

Some people in this thread are behaving like adults. You have consistently not been one of them. Please knock it off.

There's no grandiose high school pep rally election going on here,

This has nothing to do with anything.

and not that there's any leadership here,

The mods here actually do pay attention to issues on the board. I don't agree with all of their calls over the ages, but having seen them work to protect the board directly, I'm not going to throw shade at them, either. I see no reason for you to be doing it, either. This is from out of nowhere, so far as I can tell.

I dont derive validity from my opinions based on whether or not people like you judge them a 9.5.

You shouldn't. Also, what's a 'people like [me]?' Please elaborate.

The difference between myself and some others is that I'm willing to call it 'simulated pedophilia', which I gather is an inconvenience to the people on this forum who partake in it, as is the suggestion to contact a watchdog service.

I do not know a single person on this forum who partakes in it. Not one.

Have I seen people do it on Shang, years ago, when it was permitted? Yep. Are any of them on the forum? Not that I know of. Am I still in touch with a single one of them? Nope. Did I ever partake in it with them? Nope. Did I distance myself from them when I found out? Yep. Did any of them express a view other than disgust and horror over the notion of someone doing any of these things in real life with an actual child? Nope.

In the end, there's really no middle ground. There are people who do not approve of pedophilia (simulated or not), and people who are fine with providing sandbox space to partake in it.

So the person prosecuting a pedophile, who doesn't share your views precisely, is a supporter of pedophilia. The survivor of a pedophile online who does not share your views precisely is a supporter of pedophilia.

This is what you're saying. It is a repugnant claim.

Clearly, my opinion is that it would be proper and positive for the community to do their part to keep pedophilia out of it,

Considering the volume of games that do not permit it, this is the standard attitude. It is not revolutionary or novel. It is not rare. It's not uncommon. It is already the standard default. It is so much the standard default that it is big news -- see this thread as evidence -- when a game permits it at all.

but if they choose not to

See above. The vast majority of games prohibit this content.

I guess that's just one more consideration as to why the hobby isn't keeping new people for long.

...so this doesn't hold water and is another rallying cry/strawman/conflation of things that don't conflate.

Pistachio pound cake is a thing that exists, and it is also green.

@Tinuviel This.

I don't see anyone supporting the game here. (Maybe Pandora? But frankly I don't really see her going on about how great it is, either, and am not going to put those words in her mouth.)

Again, we're seeing conflation of 'condones and supports pedophilia and is clearly ignorant in regard to it' being directed at people working in legal cases regarding it and survivors of it, and similar, simply because they're not screaming bloody murder at the same volume as Ghost.

Sorry, but that isn't how logic works. That's not how anything works.

@Auspice What ever our differences, I'm really sorry to hear this, and that is some serious bullshit you absolutely do not deserve.

If karma is indeed a thing, you will find something kickass soon that is not a nightmare to deal with day to day, and they will lose a lot more people over that crap.

Can we stop accusing everyone who isn't singing the same song at throat-ripping volume of playing on these games and secretly wanting to get their pedophilia on now? Is that something we can do?

Because it seems like that's something we should also fucking do.

@Admiral ...I am completely out of evens to can't with. Holy fuck.

The only thing I can really suggest here is how I'd handle it:

• If a player is missing something IC that I, as the person leading the plot, know they would know in character, I'd page them with something like: "As the cryptozoologist on the team, you'd recognize the sound you just heard from recordings you've encountered over the years purported to be of a bigfoot." This comes across as less 'you're a dummy, player, and missing this!' and more as intended: 'As a GM keeping your character's specialty in mind, this is extra info that's tailored to your character. Here's a good place for your IC specialty to come into play!'

• Ask at the start of the scene if people want some nudging, or not. For instance, per the example given with the well, an OOC comment of, "The well appears to be normal, but X seems more out of place/unique/unexpected for this environment."

@Roz I just send them the links to whatever alt-right memejunk he's referencing now. I guess Malignant was too subtle, and he had to change it.

ETA: I'm almost sad to see that post go. Rick pretending to be a Chad was probably the closest thing we ever had to action in the play-by-post department on the forum.

One of the big ones is something the board has touched on briefly in other threads over the past year or so: have a mission statement.

Have one summary sentence. Give it a paragraph or two explaining what this means.

Everything else -- on game, wiki, or wherever this information can be found -- should support this statement, be it code, policy, RPG system, grid design, etc.

This is not the same as theme. Most games have multiple themes at play at any given time. Making a list of these concepts -- again, a single summary statement and a brief explanation is most useful here. This is where you talk about the kinds of stories you want to tell.

Policy should make sense. If your game is PvP, policy should support this. If your game is strictly collaborative and consent-based, your policy should be structured to support this. Policy is not one size fits all. This is where you talk about the way you want the community to behave in relation to one another.

The RPG system should do what you want to see on the game, and not do the things you don't want to see on the game. This may require house rules if you are using an existing system; make them clear and explain why they're there. If you're making a system from scratch, don't set it up to do things you don't want happening on the game.

The grid is your playground. If you're cool with people holing up in small groups, provide for this in some form. If you want to make every scene publicly accessible to all at any time, build the grid in that way instead.

This is all a matter of making choices, explaining those choices and what they will mean for the players, and maintaining consistency regarding those choices.

So minor, but:

Finally, finally nailed a method for making tapioca pearls for bubble covfefe at home that works for me.

Naturally, I'm now out of them, but... <shakes a fist at the sky> I KNOW WHERE AMAZON IS AND I CAN GET MORE.

@Rinel Jill is a very unique login to get. She logs in as a guest, and never has any intention of making a character. She will then try to strike up conversations with various players -- usually with female-seeming names -- at which point she'll segue into discussion of how things go with high school sports physicals and the coaches or examiners touching her extensively where her bathing suit covers.

In detail.

She's appeared on various games for over a decade doing precisely this. If you say, "Hi, Jill!" she usually logs out and vanishes again.

Monday is over.

@Rinel It's one of those things that proves that bit of wisdom: "The world is not only stranger than we know, but stranger than we can know."

Sleep dep resulting in random rants like this:

Because I mean lottery crazytown house.
I yearn for a walk-in pantry.
A spice rack of the gods.
possibly just a whole steel wall with the magnetic spice tins all over it, only sometimes arranged to spell out rude words
I MEAN COME ON YOU KNOW...
Spice wall arranged all FUCK THIS OUT OF SAFFRON
Though they make magnet boards out of the chalkboard stuff now? That you can use the chalk markers on then wash down? And I would totally.
Little arrow pointing to a tin all 'this is where the pink himalayan salt goes <HUSBAND>'
Another little arrow 'GODDAMMIT <FRIEND> how does one person even use that much sage'
It would be best kitchen
'FUCK YOU <ME> STOP HIDING THE SPICY SPICES' 'no'
not sure if I am describing heaven or hell right now but I know that is where I deserve to be living and so do all of you

^ Not sure if this means too little or too much coffee, but definitely way too little sleep.

@mietze said in The ethics of IC romance, TS, etc:

I wish we did better at allowing people those emotions without shaming it, while being less tolerant of explosive /behavior/ towards other players.

^ This needs to be bronzed.

Every time I would go to a certain club in Atlanta, GA, I would run into a friend of mine from the PA Renaissance festival. It was the same for him.

Every. Single. Time. For. Three. Years.

Neither of us even lived in Georgia.
I lived in Delaware.
He lived in PA.

Every.
Single.
Time.
For.
Three.
Years.

We just knew the other person would be there, after about the... sixth time?

Not the trippiest shit in my life, but it's up there.

@Thenomain said in Privacy in gaming:

The idea that “it’s possible therefore it’s allowed” is what makes me angry.

I'm not reading this (thus far at least) as saying 'it's possible, therefore it's allowed'.

I'm seeing a lot more 'it's possible, therefore you must be aware that it may occur, whether it's allowed/advertised/disclaimed or not'.