Posts made by surreality

@Swaggot Leaving because someone is told no is actually one of the most sensible and stress-free 'not ideal' scenarios, really.

People scream and hurl invective for hours -- or sometimes hours at a time over a period of months -- at the staffer or everyone in sight. People decide to try to monkeywrench the game for anyone there. People start crazy conspiracy theories and rumors, or spread outright lies until the OOC atmosphere starts to go toxic.

I'd take someone leaving over a 'no' over any of those any day, truth be told.

@ThatGuyThere I agree with this, and it's not an easy thing for one big, big reason: some people simply will not accept a "no", no matter how it's delivered or how reasonable it is. (Worse are the people who simply won't accept a no from a female staffer, but will the first time a male staffer utters it, and they are unfortunately out there.)

@Warma-Sheen Werewolf did the same with rites. Much screaming. All rage. <Reno PTSD eyetic from the rants about potential twinking she was subject to for months on end>

Considering how much more powerful the mage effects generally are by comparison, my fingers are crossed this won't be a nightmare to navigate, or result in the spread of the eyetic to other innocent staffers out there.

@SG said in RL Anger:

My work building has mice in it. A few years back we returned from christmas break to find everything covered in mouse poo (there was a scheduling mix up and the wet garbage was left over the 2 week break), so the facilities people put out bait traps so we could have green mouse poo everywhere, I guess it's festive or something.

...I cannot help it, I know this is awful, but the way that was phrased, I laughed. Hard.

Hopefully they'll be able to figure it out. It does sound rather like a scam, though, so maybe if you know the name of the exterminators, take a peek at their better business bureau ratings or similar. If other clients have similar issues, they may be noted there and you'll have something more concrete to bring to your boss about it.

@tragedyjones I skipped that one, believe it or not, but yep, that's one of his others.

@Cupcake He's one of the folks behind American Horror Story, too, which has frustrated me in one way: Scream Queens is going to be sequential/continuing story, but... dangit, I would have loved to see them do the genre-hopping time and character swaps with that same cast.

(I mean, can you envision Emma Roberts as perky-neurotic bouncy sunshine 1970s camp counselor doing the 'time for arts and crafts!' denial thing in the midst of a 70s summer camp massacre parody? Because I can, and it makes me cackle uproariously whenever I picture it.)

@Auspice That... wow.

But it had a sidebar link to this, and anything that in all seriousness includes the phrase 'Solar powered cameras were strapped to five sheep' is almost like the Pokemon hunting humans right back.

@Cupcake Scream Queens has to be my favorite new show from last year.

Very little has made me laugh quite so hard; it's rather like Archer that way. You don't want to laugh, sometimes, but some of the characters are such horrible people it becomes thoroughly hilarious.

It reminded me of another show that no one ever seems to have heard of from years back, and I later found out it's due to sharing a creator with that one. It is, of all things, a teen comedy/drama that was called Popular and it was charmingly weird enough that after just leaving the channel on whilst working on a project... I ended up watching it on purpose after that. It's not horror (beyond 'all things set in high school can be horror to adults'), but it has the same over the top funny-charming weirdness factor.

@mietze That. So very much that.

The game I am waffling around on maybe making a thing? World-wide grid. Without modern travel and communications options, in an alternate history setting. Sure, there are some equivalent travel and communications options that ameliorate the ouch factor, but they aren't available to everyone and they come at a price.

Somebody who only played one character could get along fine choosing the character type best able to navigate that if they want to engage in storylines in various grid areas, or if they just wanted to develop a specific character in one grid area (and there are tools in mind to help people expand and foster unique territories that could make this viable).

Realistically, though, the spread and IC complications there make having a few regional PCs a valid and productive choice that's beneficial on the whole. A player could make their rarely-played niche regional local, which adds to that area's potential options, and a globe-trotter to go everywhere else, etc. Further, when you have the whole world as your potential stage, sure, you can be the darling of the Paris social scene and develop that persona without preventing someone else from being the darling of the London social scene/etc., and both players in such a case have unique traits that make for dazzling rivalries and competition or collaboration between them, and each serves as a key point for other characters with a social focus when they're traveling through that region.

It's not a game that would function well without the ability to create more than one character.

I'm waffling around 3 max (with a 'maybe up to five absolute max?' depending on how things flesh out in terms of the system/number of actual options and areas available and playerbase which can't be known until its done; 3 is the initial target for start).

@ThatGuyThere Except, again, the thread begins with endless 'any more than one character'. 'Only one character should be allowed', etc. Repeatedly, for pages. With a megalist of negative traits ascribed to, specifically, players who have more than one, explicitly.

@Lisse24 said in [How Many Alts Would An Alt User Alt If An Alt User Could Use Alts]

they've maintained a one-alt policy and that's something that works well for them and breeds activity.

@Lisse24 said in How Many Alts Would An Alt User Alt If An Alt User Could Use Alts:

So here is why I like a restrictive alt-policy: It means that the players I see on the grid are as invested in their characters as I am in mine. I think it cuts down on having alts idle away in bedrooms and apartments because people who want RP only have one char to do it in. It cuts down on conflicts where a PC with one char is ducking me because they want to play with me on another alt. It stops PC-churn, because people are less likely to create a neat concept just because when they know they'll have to give up on their other concept.

@Pyrephox said in How Many Alts Would An Alt User Alt If An Alt User Could Use Alts:

I have also been kinda stalked in this way, with certain other players taking every character type I thought sounded interesting to play off of, creating an alt, and then approaching me with the character without being honest about its altness. Largely, as far as I could tell, to keep me from playing with people other than them. It was kinda creepy.

(I empathize, I do!)

You could not just make "you and your buddies" RP spheres in every single covenant and keep to yourselves.

if they're "scratching their itch" in two+ ways on THIS game, then that's one (or more) fewer roles for awesome new people to fill, and ultimately, fewer people for me to play with. And,

it's a lot easier to avoid a player who you just don't play well with, if you only have to know about their one character, and there's little chance of them trying to create a secret alt and cozy up to you.

@Arkandel said in How Many Alts Would An Alt User Alt If An Alt User Could Use Alts:

They don't play the alts consecutively... they are usually played simultaneously.

...and I could really go on and on. That is what I'm responding to, and it's explicitly directed at any more than one.

@ThatGuyThere The uncool actions I'm describing are the examples from the early thread, which were claims that with any more than one character on a game, people were overtaking spheres in groups, flaking, stalking, swallowing staff time by the truckload, or always making a giant pile -- these things are the 'uncool actions'.

Those things are patently untrue.

Multiple isn't just 'more than three'. 2 or 3 are still 'multiple'.

@Haven No, it isn't. Not by a mile. Because what you are describing is not remotely in any way a game if there's only one player on it.

Wait -- user pages, ok, I see what you're saying. Yes, that would be stupid, to my reckoning. I'm not going to stop someone from doing it on a game where that's allowed, but generally, no, I'm not going to consider that person a pillar of stability or depth or wonder what the heck they're making that they're churning through them that fast.

I would also not call that remotely typical behavior. That's on the extreme end of the scale, and limiting everyone based on the extremes just never, ever ends well.

I actually expect to see more inactive PCs listed on a game that only allows one character at a time, since the only option the player has in that case is 'leave game/replace the PC that is not working for whatever reason'.

Since 'whatever reason' encompasses everything from 'got killed IC' to 'creepy psycho hounding them' to 'this concept is too niche', it forces the player into the position of 'you have to give up your character if you want to continue to play here'.

• Considering the glacial pace at which many games handle creepers/stalkers/psychos, this compounds the suck. You can sometimes outlast them on an alt that's outside their radar without having to completely sacrifice everything you've previously worked for/built/were otherwise enjoying.

• Got killed IC, well, y'ain't comin' back from that one, time for a new PC!

• 'My faction died because they're all off playing WoW' -- this one happened to me. I don't play WoW. They would be back in a few months, but were I limited to one alt, my option would have been 'give up great RP while the game is totally fucking dead because it's not just my faction doing this' or 'scrap my character and the potential for future RP when folks return so I can do something other than sit here with my thumb up my ass'. When 'make a character that jives with the remaining game population during the <whatever reason> lull' is a damned fine and reasonable option for people to have and does not inherently lead to or indicate flaky bullshit.

@Haven Except that your math is ridiculous, because you're assuming only 8 players have ever played on the game over the course of that three year period.

@Haven For a small game that's been around 3 years, 8 current and 38 retired wouldn't surprise me a bit, nor would I find it remotely unrealistic or off-putting as a demonstration of people coming and going. What you're describing could very easily happen in those circumstances even if the game only allowed 1 character at any given time.

@Lotherio I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the terminology, just that what people have been talking about here re: 1 alt? They are talking about one login only. They are specifically referencing games that in your terminology would be described as 'no alts permitted' as per the explicit policy on those games.

@Lotherio Generally, games that talk about a 1 alt policy don't mean you get two characters, they mean you get one and only one. (Which is only really relevant in this convo in the sense that the folks talking about 1 alt have been talking about one login/character only so far as I can tell.)

@Sunny Er, most folks I know who have multiple characters don't designate one as a main and the others as secondary. They're just all alternates to one another.

This thread is an amazing, productive, helpful thread. I wish I could be more articulate in a contribution to it at the moment, but I did feel the need to say: more like this, and thank you for making this thread, for now, at least.

Had been working on original system/theme Victorian setting. Dropped it when someone else seemed to be going down that road. Decided, 'Fuck it, I'mma do this thing, it'll still be different!' Then crashed on the electric fence of I can't even with this hobby a few days ago with extended twitching.

This is pretty typical of my creative process. There might be a thing, no projected date, but the best I can say at the moment is that a well-shaken magic 8-ball reads: answer hazy, try again later.

Realistically, I will likely get back to it once the twitching stops, but that's far from certain.

@Jennkryst That really has been addressed repeatedly at this point in the thread.