Posts made by surreality

@Sunny said in Making a MU* of your own:

The big one for me was learning when to just take the silence at 'really, whatever is good' and NOT letting it hold up my whole process until I could drag an opinion out of people who would have to COME UP WITH ONE so they could give my pouting ass the input I desired. It's become a LOT smoother of a process if I just toil along and assume that people are on board until they say otherwise (it's happened, and it's led to a few rewrites, but doing it this way keeps things moving for me).

I would offer to throw opinions at you if I wasn't buried myself. (I usually have too many. @tragedyjones can confirm, I'm sure. It sounds like we'd balance each other out!)

Truth be told, though, I would take this as a sign that you're doing something very right. It doesn't sound like the crowd you're working with is remotely apathetic -- so if there was an issue, it'd get mentioned.

@Sunny That's pretty much exactly it, IMHO.

Generally:

Another thing to keep in mind here, and especially on this point: know your weaknesses.

I can be very good, or very very bad, at explaining any given thing.

Sometimes, this is going to mean 'time to crawl off to the dev cave and write the whole thing up because it's easier to point to it than to half-assedly explain the same thing a dozen times to people who ask before the draft is done'.

This doesn't make it carved in stone or impervious to input. It's just what more or less my entire life has shown me to be the case: sometimes, the example needs to exist before the concept can be most easily understood.

(Also, I get extremely frustrated when half a dozen people ask for info on something that isn't even a rough draft yet, and I know the above principle is going to kick in hard. I end up spending the hours I should spend writing up the draft explaining the same thing over and again to casually curious folks that the draft would answer ten times more clearly and allow them to direct their questions at specific aspects of it rather than as broad and nebulous concepts, and that gets to be a monumental waste of time on all sides. )

@Ganymede It goes beyond just PK, too. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I've run across people who act in ways that would have some kind of consequence, but they flip their ever lovin' shit the moment someone so much as says 'boo' to them about it. (The character that mouths off constantly to everyone, the character that never stops acting like a complete brat/idiot, the character that can't seem to stop themselves from whining like the won the gold medal in the first world problems olympics, etc.)

It's also worth mention -- and maybe this is just me thinking too much in 'what I wanna do' terms here -- that I think games continue to be fleshed out more and more the longer they exist.

For example, I want this process to become a part of the game itself, in the current project. I want people to be able to develop unique areas and territories. I'm looking at a variety of means of encouraging this, too, not just before the doors open, but as an active and ongoing process, as a part of normal game operation and play. (Worldwide grid. There's room for this to happen. That choice alone has changed more than a few dynamics from square one, and giving people the freedom to create spaces of their own to whatever extent is a huge one.)

I like the idea of building these things into the game itself -- not just before it's open. I've seen various takes on this, but the amount of it that's most common is still somewhat limited.

Tangent alert: In part, I think people hate on building more than they once did; I 'grew up on' games where you could build a wee sprawl of your own as a territory and develop and encourage play there much more than the typically hyper-restricted and limited stuff I see a lot of in recent years. I also know how much people actively enjoyed that, and it was partly because they were contributing something to the larger reality of the game, but also because it was something that was uniquely theirs.

@ThatGuyThere ...not to mention the people who act obnoxious as hell in a way that is seriously begging for some kind of reaction.

The level of that I dealt with the last time I was playing was so over the damn top I almost walked for good.

@Admiral said in The Descent MUX:

Games with PvP allow you to avoid PvP by simply avoiding conflict with your fellow player.

If only it was that simple, that might be true. Sadly, it's just not.

For many, sure. But there are also many that don't give a fuck that you have no interest in PvP, and will take the part of a very persistent aggressor.

....my actual favorite is in Virginia.

I can only imagine that this town is chock full of wankers.

I really think this is -- and this may just be a matter of terminology -- how I see an alpha/beta stage for a game. I may not be thinking of that in the same way as others do, or I might, I really couldn't say since I haven't been around on a game in alpha/beta.

I think you need your bones first.

Major organs -- that's alpha. Invite people in to get started.

Muscle and flesh, that's beta. More people, more open call.

You still need some bones first, or you're going to have a flopsy mess.

@Ganymede What I love the most about it, admittedly, is that all of those are smack dab in the middle of Amish country.

@Ganymede Randomly, when in Italy in 2001, my folks and I went to one of the places that was historically rumored to be one of the entrances to the River Styx. (No, really!)

Not only was it pretty dang neat, but I got to tell my friends, "My parents dragged me to the gates of Hell for summer vacation," and mean it. (Which is one of those things that should be in the 'RL things I love' post, for real.) It also featured a tiny little old man who handed us actual torches to carry through the caves while he led the tour; his family had owned the land for years and whatnot (you can see him in a write-up of the place here).

PA has nothing on that. Nothing.

@Auspice Time for that random road tour of Pennsylvania, I guess.

After 12 years, I finally got to order more tiny anodized titanium jump rings to play with for the jewelry business.

Oh hells yes. YES. ALL THE SHINY. Or specifically not shiny in this case, which is kinda the point.

@Thenomain I think of this kinda like the alpha/beta thing. Or a soft open -- when the basics are in, but everything needs testing and the flavor factor still has room to grow/expand/be fleshed out and people can have a real impact on shaping it.

By basics, I mean the following has been chosen: core type (MUX/Penn/Rhost/etc.), game system, general setting (target mood/era -- location can actually be more hazy than the other two but there should be an idea of what kind of location it should be, ex: big city, region, world-wide, small town), primary intended play style (PvP focus? Consent/non? etc.).

I don't think I'd, personally, drag a bunch of people into something and do the MUX equivalent of the old movie classic of, "Hey, guys, let's put on a show!" -- because a lot of the games I've heard pitched and brainstormed up amongst a crowd that no one's ever heard of because they never got past the brainstorming/creation stage started off the same way. (I've been involved in at least a dozen or so of those over the years.) No one's ever heard of them because they never got past that stage of development and died before they were known about more broadly.

Basically, it's just as easy for things to explode/implode this way as succeed, I'd think. Which is unfortunate, but thus far the record I've seen on this is 0/? against it working out. (I've never been on one of the ones where it worked in that stage to see what, exactly, they were doing or not doing; the one I was working on that may have survived was my old mortal/+ one, but I tabled it consciously/by choice when BITN emerged.)

I think this likely worked a little better before the entitlement and paranoia booms we've seen in more recent years, which is even more sad, when you really think about it. It kinda shows how pervasive 'we have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us' can be. As to the entitlement factor, just watching how much some folks flipped their biscuits over Echoes is telling. On the paranoia front, there are a lot of very vocal folks who instantly question 'how much was GrudgeBaitPlayer involved in the creation of this stupid policy/faction/etc.?! How do I know they didn't unfairly influence the development of this thing for their benefit?!?!?!' -- and such. It doesn't matter how irrational the complaint, or how ultimately ridiculous, because that shit breeds so much more needless paranoia and is ultimately draining as hell on the creativity and motivation in the end.

I go with "I don't share that information," on that one, personally.

I have heard both the "What's your email?" and the "Would you like to sign up for <stuff> with your email?" and other permutations. It's similar to the way a lot of places would ask for a phone number, and the answer was the same then: "I don't share that information."

They used to ask the latter (phone number) regularly at one place we shopped a fair bit, and asked: "So... why are we constantly being asked this? It's invasive." The salesperson sighed and nodded and actually knew what they were using the info for at the time, for their store, and she told us. They send out mailers regularly, and before they had custom UPCs that would mark which address that particular mailer was being sent to (which they apparently do now, similar to the custom 'text it to yourself' coupon things some retailers use now on websites), they used that information to geographically track which local areas had the highest customer concentration. The end result in that case is relatively harmless, but once they have that information, they can do anything in the world with it -- it's not like they get rid of it, so even if they only use it for that focused and harmless purpose today, tomorrow might be different.

We're seeing the email tracking now in part due to the volume of mobile phone use, which makes geographical tracking by phone number a lot less reliable. (My husband and his mother share an account; they both have New Jersey numbers while he lives in DE and she lives in FL, for instance, and a fair number of the folks I know have mobile numbers in a similar position if they've moved and kept the number, etc., which a lot of folks do.)

@Apos said in RL Anger:

@surreality said in RL Anger:

I used to have people page me out of the blue and ask if they could masturbate for me on Skype on my Reno staff login, no joke. I was in a whole world of: "I don't know you from a hole in the ground and just did an app for you, I... where is this even coming from?!" (Even my chars were a bitchy artist and a dorky folklorist, so it's not like I had a pile of TS-bait chars or something to suggest that's what I was there for.)

In my heart of hearts I want to believe they were immediately site banned. I want to believe. I really do. I don't get how behavior that if someone did that to a clerk in a gaming store would likely get their ass kicked becomes 'well, shrug it off, the creeper will go away on their own. What can you do, the internet amirite' in a MU.

My response was totally sincere:

"Was that a mispage?"

When the answer was 'no', I just... guys, seriously, take the opening to save face, at least, I mean come on, now.

@Insomnia We're not far from Intercourse, PA, with the most stolen road sign ever. (Intercourse, next 3 miles.)

@Insomnia We should road trip that, with a stop at the Penns Penis Grove Winery for rations.

@dontpanda said in Chrome help:

@Arkandel said in Chrome help:

@dontpanda Try incognito mode as well just in case? ctrl+shift+n to make a new window from within Chrome.

I tried this and it didn't change. Good suggestion, though. One I wouldn't have thought of, myself.

I didn't think of this one either and it's come in handy at times. (I can't get to my digitalocean droplets without incognito now for some reason, to give you some idea, as of about six months ago.) Other times, not so much. I've had sites randomly blocked out of nowhere with a random Chrome update, too, though.

The ghostery plugin apparently does this a lot; you may want to give that one a look if you use it.

@VulgarKitten said in RL Anger:

Well. I met him through my cousin two weeks ago. We chatted about possibly going out on a date. He texted me 'hi' last week, to which I responded 'hey'. And then yesterday he sent me a clip of him masturbating.

Share it with your cousin when next you see them. When they get the look of baffled disgust on their face, point out you had the same one. This may drive the point home about the kinds of dudes to recommend. (Or, if nothing else, give them the heads-up to tell said dudes, 'Look, she is not into dick pics.')

@Haven 33 years and thus far, I have not encountered unasked for and unwanted masturbation videos! #lifegoals

You really are lucky, not even kidding.

I used to have people page me out of the blue and ask if they could masturbate for me on Skype on my Reno staff login, no joke. I was in a whole world of: "I don't know you from a hole in the ground and just did an app for you, I... where is this even coming from?!" (Even my chars were a bitchy artist and a dorky folklorist, so it's not like I had a pile of TS-bait chars or something to suggest that's what I was there for.)

Apparently, the land of Dicktopia exists. (In fairness, if we drive by the signs for Penns Grove or Pennsville too fast RL, my brain now reads them as Penis Grove or Penisville; I have to wonder if this is somehow related.)

Dear penis-havers: really, if we wanna see it, we'll ask if we may.

@Arkandel Depending on where you live/etc., it may be a matter of 'tiny apartment' or similar. (We live in a house small enough that there's no space for any of it here, for instance.)

Could also be 'get away from persistent kids' and such, too.