Best posts made by Thenomain

@SunnyJ

You're preaching to the choir, but in trying to read the room that's what people here seem to be saying and upvoting the most often. I do keep in mind that we--Soapbox--are a large but not majority population of the Mu* world right now, Soapbox is our audience for this discussion.

That's not to say that I don't think there are ways to make it happen:

• Staff must be clear as to the intent of the game.
• All of their actions should support that intent. (Within reason; even rational humans can create toxic situations.)

It helps if you already have a circle of people to start the game; people who will support the game culture so you don't have to build it from scratch.

But yes, it comes down to "I want to enjoy my time on this game", which is unhelpful but is also a truism. What you enjoy will dictate what kind of game you want to play, but there are not infinite choices and so threads like this one are put forth to get the temperature of the room.

Someone doesn't want to spend time making a character for a game that will have little chance integrating with the game might ask, "What character types are needed?" (Or check a census, or whatever.) This isn't usually to follow what's dictated, but to get a feel for things.

If you're going to spend a lot of time making a game for people you don't know, you're going to want to know what kind of things they want to play as a part of deciding if you want to put in the effort.

Because our time is also much more finite since we were kids. And so I'm going to rate "staff who maintain the game culture" as critical. Even if that culture is "steel-fisted wacky-ass".

@Tyche said in RL Anger:

@Coin said in RL Anger:

@Tyche And that says a lot more about you than anything else.

Yeah, I like girly girls.

Yeah yeah, we know you're a narcissist.

@Arkandel said:

The point of games is to have fun playing them.

Yes. Yes. But. But no.

No, the point of a game is to have fun within the constraints put upon you. Maybe you think throwing the Monopoly money into the air and stuffing the pieces up your nose is fun, but you're not playing Monopoly.

Who benefits from forcing players to play out a particular aspect of the game they don't find enjoyable?

You might as well ask, "Who benefits from forcing players going to jail when they draw the 'Go to Jail' card?" The question does not, to me at least, have a connection to what a game is. The benefit is that you agreed to it, you made a social contract to engage in the game and therefore tacitly agreed to follow the rule.

If I can find it, I will link to it, but one of the classic ludologists, one of those people who made a point of running statistics and exploring what makes a game a game, says this of a game:

First and foremost, a game must be voluntary. You cannot force someone to do something and still call it a "game". If you don't find something enjoyable, you don't do it. If you are forced to do it, it's not a game.

Finally, this is not meant to be a thread about Eldritch. You guys want that, there's a thread about it. Or get a room and hate-screw each other already. My question is basically: How do you know what a game (edit: a game line, a specific set of rules in the RPG sense) is about?

@Lisse24

The reason is creates a job is to create a paper trail and allow staff to manage it how they want. Since it's giving people XP (or one fifth of an XP) every time they engage it, max once per scene, I didn't want people to just tick it over whenever they wanted.

This is the explanation, at least.

I'm a little surprised that people are seeing "creates a job" as "this is a big deal". A little, but not terribly surprised; no design survives first contact with the end-user.

--

@Coin, et al. , here is what I'd be afraid of making a "(post-)scene Aspiration validation system":

+vote/scene

This is the shorthand that came about because people would, instead of giving xp votes to people they thought were exceptional, to give free love. I wasn't a fan of it...ever, but this is how things evolved in the social sense.

Two years from now it will be:

+asp/validate all

When left in the hands of the users, bureaucracy is just as much of a nuisance as to staff but without the oversight.

@Wizz said in Good TV:

@Goyim
I'd also accept a singing contest where the judges throw raw pork at the contestant if the audience loves them. The stakes couldn't be higher!!!!!!!!

Make it proper cuts of meat. Then the steaks couldn't be higher.

@Kestrel

I would be okay with that second meta pose but a lot of people would bristle at it. It's entertaining and probably accurate. If you had posed how you thought he was a jerk but would never say so out loud, you are denying the other player retort to an insult. That is not okay.

@kanye-qwest

Just in case the question wasn’t a setup for a hilarious picture (hey, I laughed!), a MOO was a kind of TinyMUSH with a built in console for coding locally in ... C, I think? Like MUCK, it could do some amazing things that haven’t been seen on the Tiny side until Ares and Evennia.

Sometimes we don’t follow the better path.

@TNP said in RL things I love:

@Ganymede said in RL things I love:

@Arkandel said in RL things I love:

"Why didn't these people vote?" he asked.

Who said they didn't?

Exactly. They took the time to travel to DC (and all the other cities), stand forever, and march to protest. Almost certainly they took 10 minutes to go vote. But saying they didn't - based on no facts whatsoever - is a good way to make them not count.

Which is a thing that bugs me: Voting is not the only way to be heard. Being heard is another way to be heard. Ignoring 175k people parked on your front lawn is pretentious at the very kindest.

@Ominous said in Cultural differences between MUDs and MUSHes:

@faraday said in Cultural differences between MUDs and MUSHes:

• Ask before joining a scene in progress.

This is the most asinine rule I come across in this hobby, particularly if there are private rooms to use. I am fine with people saying "We're on a dinner date, so, no, you can't sit at our table," but to deny my character being allowed in the room at all? No, I'm going to pose my character striding over to your character's table and pouring the glass on wine on your head. Take it to a private room if you want to control who can join the scene.

Dude, chill. We have already established that there is no single answer, and some people have refined this as "wait a round of poses before posing in" or "ask/wait for a sitrep (situation report)". The answer works for @Faraday's part of the hobby. Maybe instead explain why it's not a good idea.

A single room can have multiple scenes in it, and it happens all the time. They are interlinked by proximity, but nobody is throwing you out of a room by saying they're not willing to include you in their interactions. There's no reason to be a jerk because you feel slighted. There's certainly no reason to feel slighted.

@kumakun said in Fate Development Thread:

Once a scene's log reaches a certain level of 'votes', it gets elevated to the featured scenes page of the website, representing the caliber of RP on the game.

Great, this makes me conflicted. Here are the two conversations going on in my head:

• This is a great idea! People get involved and read the awesome things, and people are more likely to be awesome to get attention! Positive activity between players is always good. Go go go!

• Okay, so what you're saying is that you want to let the bigger cliques dominate the cultural dialogue. Hell, you're saying that if the players decide the game is about a certain thing and upvote that thing enough that this is what you want your game to be known for.

I think the idea is great and mostly harmless and I'm far more excited to see an implementation than worried how poorly it could go.

@ThugHeaven said in RL things I love:

We're in the age of "alternative facts" now

We've been in that age for over a decade.

@Ominous said in Cultural differences between MUDs and MUSHes:

@Thenomain said in Cultural differences between MUDs and MUSHes:

A single room can have multiple scenes in it, and it happens all the time. They are interlinked by proximity, but nobody is throwing you out of a room by saying they're not willing to include you in their interactions. There's no reason to be a jerk because you feel slighted. There's certainly no reason to feel slighted.

I am referring to people who have told me before "No, you can't be in here at all," when they are RPing in a public room. It's incredibly rare, but it has happened.

Oh, then yes. I don't read "ask before joining a scene" to be the same as "the room belongs to those in it", but I'd agree that those people who want ownership of a room should be smacked. Anyone who enters an existing scene and ignores the situation also need smacked. While there's no call for telling someone to scram from a room, I'd say that first come first scene-set too.

I think we're agreeing.

@faraday said in A New Star Wars game? (Legends of The Old Republic (Name pending)):

Witness TGG's ever-shifting campaign settings.

This is a game where you can lose a character because it's Tueseday. Starting over is baked into its genes. This is what's important.

However, @Mr-Johnson has their goal: Ongoing Changes. A++ for this plan.

I'd be willing to continue talking about Reset Games in another thread and let the poor man have his thread back.

To those who have helped, you have my undying gratitude. I've been thinking of what I could do for those insanely amazing people who have donated $100 (and higher, holy shit!), but short of baking cookies or code services, I can't think of anything.

Thank you.

@Miss-Demeanor said:

you can very much play a Vampire without engaging overmuch in the politics

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

everybody plays. Or gets played.

That these two statements are not exclusive nor contradictory means I think you two are onto something.

@coin

Very little Steampunk describes a societal impact of technology. You know, the "punk" part of this. That which does is done well, but is a very small subset of what people call Steampunk. I'd rather it be called Vernian. Or Shellian. Or Space 1889...ian?

The Difference Engine does do steampunk very well because it's two cyberpunk authors re-imagining Neuromancer in the 1800s, and one of those writers has their very livelihood based on viewing sociology through the lens of science-fiction. Gibson pretty exclusively writes stories about people's interactions with a larger world. Two punk writers being anachronistic.

But otherwise most of Steampunk isn't really punk, and except for having grounding in Victorian era, barely even steam. Firefly is more Steampunk than a lot of what's out there. Western Steampunk, but very punk. So yeah, we'll be talking about this for a while.

@Jennkryst

I don't want anyone to feel that they need to match some of the insanely amazing numbers other people are donating. I was honestly expecting a long trickling parade of $5, which would have still warmed my soul.

@Warma-Sheen

I feel the same way. Actually, I feel a real connection to the hobby in a way I haven't in decades. Even for people who quietly wished well for Cobalt, I wholeheartedly thank you.

@surreality

This is sometimes called "going from zero to one", which involves effort and is often difficult.

@coin

The Tick’s punch has a SKILL of 20 but a PRECISION of d2.

Hitting a mook is Difficulty 5, making his Skill Overflow 15. He rolls a Precision of 1 on 1d2, so while he still hits because Difficulty 0, but he has 15 points of Too Successful to deal with on the precision failure.

You are only Too Successful when your Difficulty is 0 but you fail a Precision roll.

The building is toast.

Arthur has a fly SKILL of 5 and a PRECISION of d8.

He’s getting shot at by The Beehive’s beehive-hairdo canon bee gun. Difficulty is 6, minus 5 makes it 1. Arthur rolls a 1, but simply fails and has to make a crash landing in the middle of a sting barrage.

Yeah, I can go with this. If the lack of critical failure bothers anyone, make it the difference between the Difficulty and the roll.

@Bobotron

I may even be arsed to start cooking again. Yes please.