Posts made by surreality

@auspice I want to see a sketch some day now of a 'welcome to the team' party of all the evil queens from disney flicks welcoming the alien queen to tea.

Sincere question for the folks who want everything accessible on the game and the wiki, I swear to fucking gods I am not being a smartass even though you will doubtless think I am:

Would you want all of the 'how to work with the wiki' guides, how-tos, and things like wiki walk-throughs, how to work with forms, css hints, etc. to be accessible on the game, or can that just stay on the wiki alone?

My personal take on this is that if it's game-relevant, it needs to be on the game and wiki, but if it's wiki-specific how-to-fu... that can safely just stay on the wiki because the wiki is where it's relevant and where you'd be using it as reference anyway. (Basically, 'keep it where it's needed, some specific corner-case tightly-focused things are needed one place and not the other, and vice versa.)

Opinions? I realize my take on it is common sense to me but I could very easily be overlooking something.

@shelbeast I think that's more or less what @faraday is doing with Ares. I think.

@thatguythere said in How much Code is too much Code?:

Note I am not anti wiki at all besides being too lazy to keep my character pages up to date i love them, but I happily use them before and after scene not during.

I think this probably describes most folks. I am known to be a wiki junkie, and I'm like this, too, re: brain switchover.

Too intense for the peeve thread. Not anger, but... not a peeve.

• Very close friend. Has suicidal ideation and has had a brutally hard few weeks. Never goes incommunicado longer than 12 hours or so. Vanished for 2 days at this point.

• Very close friend, currently deployed overseas. "We think you might have lung cancer." On a plane to another country for a biopsy. His brother in-law was discovered to have terminal cancer a few days ago. His wife hates me (and all of his female friends) but I still want to hug her really a lot right now.

These two people are the closest friends I have in the world other than my husband. They are far from perfect people, but that doesn't matter for shit right about now.

It is not a good day.

(Please keep these folks in your thoughts if you are inclined toward such things.)

@ganymede said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Yes, there's some bitterness in me. (I've been turned down three times because I didn't fit into predominantly white shows.)

While not the same, I have a serious pang of empathy here.

"You nailed the audition, and blew everybody else out of the water! <nervous chuckle> We just... <stammering> can't cast you as a teenager with those... <hand waving in circles in the air> uhm... uh... <points directly to my chest> endowments of yours, dear. <nervous chuckle> <sudden perk> Would you like a role in the chorus instead?"

I was 13, and the chorus was composed of crassly portrayed prostitute characters.

( ...and that would be the day I started to focus primarily on technical theater... )

Not for the same reason, or anywhere near the same scale, but in a much smaller way, I grok that wince-and-stifle-the-urge-to-punch vibe.

OK, holiday season. This was supposed to be the start of my time off to chill officially an' shit, now that show season is over. I realize I'm not going to get those 36-hour days from Santa I keep requesting, or that extra pair of arms, but this is getting ridiculous.

P.S. Never in my life did I think something regarding my business plans may have been interrupted by a volcano, because I live in frickin' Delaware, and we don't do volcanoes here. They tend to not occur to us in these parts very often.

P.P.S. Same thing about the earthquake. Really? Because it's fucking Delaware, come on.

P.P.P.S. I really, really hope the volcano is not the reason I'm not getting a reply on that inquiry yet. I mean, I realize this might indicate a bigger long term problem with the supplier, but still really hoping it's not the volcano, because while somebody being slow to answer email may be annoying, they are not deserving of death or devastation by volcano under any circumstances.

@thenomain said in System dealbreakers:

@auspice said in System dealbreakers:

YOU TOO COULD BE A WASTE MANAGEMENT PRINCESS.

I have my next WoD concept.

...mafia don's daughter? Legit.

@auspice Ditto this. I just picture this closet full of fluffy bastards falling all over themselves with the occasional confused '...mew?' as they keep being brought out into the light.

This has been linked before elsewhere on the forum, but it is to funny to not link again here.

FWIW, I have a whole pinboard full of 'something about that person is story cool'. I'm always happy to pass it along to folks if they are desperately searching for 'not seen everywhere all the time'. Sadly, most of them end up being hair models for some fool reason and finding out the name or ID on those is... it strains even my image-dig fu.

I am clearly drawn to awesome hair or something. And freckles. There are freckles frickin' everywhere all over that board.

I never mind if someone grabs one from there and heartily encourage it! ...unless I handed them that link and am currently using the same person they pick off of it on the same game, at which point I don't get mad, but I do get a really strong case of the ' ...really?'s 'cause that's just disheartening and a bit jerky.

I have no idea who this is really, but her face tells my imagination stories to fill in that gap that really want to be tragically noble and epic in some way.

Started a character with this one back on TR, never finished it. her face. A friend of mine calls it 'reeks of surr alt'-ness. She does.

I watch the news and such on the regular, read articles in the (digital) newspaper, etc. when I want to think about politics, and more often, when I really don't, but know I need to be paying attention. That's a daily thing.

This is the daily thing I come to do that's ostensibly about the M* hobby, we crazy bastards playing in it (or taking breaks from playing in it, you know what I mean, y'all), and is about a bunch of us (usually) adults who still like to engage in a more grownup version of cops and robbers/etc.

These things are not chocolate and peanut butter. They're more like strawberry ice cream and sardines, which I really doubt is a combination you're going to find in the local candy aisle any time soon (don't y'all go digging through Japanese limited edition 'dare ya!' snack foods to prove me wrong, people, I'm onto you!!!). I appreciate that there's a politics forum I don't have to read so I can keep them on their respective sides of the mental energy plate.

@mietze said in How much Code is too much Code?:

I admire strongly coded systems but honestly it’s very intimidating and stressful for me as a player. I could lie and say it’s bevause I’m old and tired and the learning curve is steep but even in my young pup days I couldn’t get into firan either.

I'm the same way about this, 100%.

To me, it feels like homework and paperwork work-work.

When I play, I want to be creative. I want code that gets the tasks that get in the way of being creative out of my way, not code that is another hoop to jump through before I'm permitted to jump into the being creative part.

I also don't think 'isn't fond of putting up with a bunch of code for side-functions' makes somebody a lazy non-contributing casual, either, since that came up somewhere along the course of this but I'll be damned if I can remember who said it at this point and need to be out the door, so not gonna dredge.

@arkandel (The dreaded!) ...yes and no?

I do see how it's relevant in this context, since some people are describing how they are choosing <disadvantaged/discriminated-against group membership> wholly aware, because the story they want to tell involves overcoming that obstacle, and the struggle along the way.

Waving a magic wand to erase that struggle steals that story potential from them just like 'poverty doesn't exist in this world' or 'money isn't a thing' does, and how 'sexism has never been a thing' would for someone interested in playing through the struggle of overcoming a sexist environment.

I mean, sure, in that specific scenario, it's possible to find ways to roll with it -- but generally they don't work really well. 'No thanks' IC or OOC doesn't tend to go well, and a perfectly human-reasonable IC suspicion (even a mild one!) regarding the stranger that just handed you a billionaire lifestyle for no apparent reason really just doesn't go over well at all, in my experience.

@ganymede I agree with this, though there are some instances in which there really is no middle ground to be had that doesn't involve 'just don't interact with that person'. That's a valid option, in my view, but there are folks who will simply not accept anything but their way all the way, and nothing in between, and will be very aggressive about it.

There are also folks who will take this very aggressive approach, and force the other party (who may have been happily willing to compromise as described in a middle ground) into the 'avoidance is the only means of peace' territory, then orchestrate things in such a way as to ensure that person is forced out of play in a much broader way.

And by 'folks', I suppose I mean 'Spider', but she's not the only one who has been known to pull this kind of crap.

@thenomain I think that's part of the question, really; all the systems on a game are interdependent. You can go further re: what's permissible in the world if you have policy that addresses how such content is to be handled, for example, and OOC community standards that foster a cooperative and communicative environment. These things go necessarily hand in hand.

Innocent ignorance is a thing. And it's a thing that should be generally accounted for under 'benefit of the doubt'. Someone with decent intentions is, by and large, going to react exactly as you have: apologize, feel bad for the offense, and revise behavior. In a way, it's really not hard to tell good actors from bad on this.

As for 'how far down', I think that's up to the individual game to define. Where I often get wordy is that I would rather spend the time (and words) to do that as clearly as possible than hope everyone is on the same page with a generality, because more often than not, we're really, really not.

The basic generality is good to put in place, because it's ultimately the 'spirit' of the rule. Linking to included examples and supplemental information provides players with expanded detail if they're curious about why, or are not sure how that generality comes up in the first place.

Ex:

Don't be an obnoxious asshat.

• Snarky metaposing is not OK. (Link to examples of this with an explanation of why this is obnoxious.)
• Slut/Prude-shaming is not OK. (Link to examples of this with an explanation of why this is obnoxious.)
  ...etc.

@thenomain There's also the authenticity argument. Bear with me a sec on this, because it's not the authenticity argument that's been used thus far in this thread, namely, 'the setting includes X so authenticity'.

It's the 'if you are playing something different from yourself, how much information should you need to have/understand to make that portrayal something other than a (potentially very offensive) stereotype' authenticity argument, which also has some validity to it worth considering, because it's another way inherent biases can surface in ways that make fellow players very uncomfortable or hurt.

@thenomain Even I'm on board with 'nine miles of warning re: every potential subject' as excessive.

While the focus requested here is just for one specific theme -- homophobia -- there are so many equally valid forms of discrimination and controversial content that if a login screen has to list them all out, it's... not going to fit in the buffer, or you're going to have the appearance of only prioritizing warning/concern for one subject above all the others.

@collective said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:

And when I asked if people were willing to put a notice like that in theme, the reply was variations on 'No'.

A deliberately single-focus warning about something that might potentially happen? No, nobody's gonna do that.

It has nothing to do with trying to trap someone into enduring abuse.

It does have to do with the practical reality that were someone to write a disclaimer that listed all of the potentially controversial material that may appear on a M*, that login screen would scroll so far beyond the buffer limit that your connection would probably time out before you reached the part explaining how to connect.

Most games with any sort of controversial content will include some form of generalized disclaimer about mature and/or controversial content.

It may be more theoretically practical to spell all of this out on a wiki? And I think people should endeavor to try to list things like this there, along with how they expect people to handle them IC and OOC on the game.

But among a bunch of pedants who understand the actual technical limitations of what you're asking, and further know how many other people have sensitivities that should be similarly clearly identified if this is going to be put into practice? That specific request is not going to get very far.