Best posts made by Thenomain

@Apos said in When To Stop Listening To Those Voices:

It's just the simplest things can be very difficult to do

I am partially kidding. Things that are simple to analyze can be very hard to accomplish. “Excuse me sir, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?” / “Quite simply, son; practice!”

On the other hand, if the analysis seems simple then it’s possibly too simple and ignoring, on purpose or through simplicity, important steps.

“Try harder” is often used as a solution, or “relax” or “don’t do that” or “get a job”. As solutions they are demeaning, but there’s a way for the anxious and depressed to make it work: These things aren’t solutions, but they are goals, they are steps. And the thing about goals is that you’re not a bad person if you don’t reach them, as long as tomorrow is better than today.

Not even good. Better. Better is good. Shine on, my fellow crazy diamonds.

Everyone at Bethesda's E3 showcase is wearing a rainbow ribbon pin.

God bless you, Bethesda.

@Coin said in RL Anger:

That disappointed feeling when someone otherwise reasonable says something ignorantly racist right next to you and you just sort of... sigh.

You can't shake the devil's hand and say you're only kidding.

@SkinnyThicket

My characters are alive in my head in the same way that some worlds are alive in my head. They have motivations, internal consistencies, desires, and other things like that.

I don't believe they are real things outside the construct of my head, no.

There is this thing I call the "IC/OOC Split", which is the gray area between thinking like your character or not. I can get upset if my character is hurt or abused. This is a sense of ownership that I have, of familiarity, not that this is a living thing that exists through me.

There is a TED Talk that I wish I could find about the depression that sets in after you're successful. The speaker, who I believe may have been Anne Lamott of Bird By Bird fame, talks about how the Greeks used to have the Muse, and Household Gods, and other such things. These would allow them to externalize their successes and failures, to have a place to put such thoughts that weren't squarely on their own talents. She argues—I believe successfully—that having an external allows us to accept what happens because it's not strictly our fault, nor our responsibility to repeat the act.

Spirits are nonsense, of course, but so is putting all that pressure on yourself, which was her point. The thought of a "tulpa" is not surprising, and if it helps then that's good. If it hinders then it's not.

@Darinelle said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

Everyone should have equal access to the main plot.

I'm going to quibble. Or maybe agree.

It's impossible edit: incredibly challenging for everyone to have the same access to the main plot on games that aren't structured like Greatest Generation or HorrorMu*. There are not enough hours in the day to give equal time and access to everyone, even if they are more proactive in engaging staff for it.

This does, of course, depend on what the "main plot" is. I'd consider a main plot well-crafted if your statement is correct. A mage, a werewolf, and a vampire walk into a plot. What happens next tells us a lot.

@Arkandel said in State of Things:

To me the "All People Matter" peeps sound as absurd as following cancer awareness campaigners around trying to hijack them with all-disease awareness slogans.
Like, dude, what are you doing?

Because we can sympathize with cancer. We know what a disease is by experience, and we can extrapolate.

What many of us can't do is know what it's like to live as a different human being. This is a social engagement that we can't just walk into a different neighborhood and go, "Holy smokes, so this is what being discriminated against is like!" No, what the human mind seems to do is to respond with, "Man, those Others, they're such jerks!"

The "Others" are those who look different than you. We're wired that way; it's a survival tactic. Stay away from the person who acts different because it could be a disease, it could mean they don't understand our ways and are going to hurt our ability to survive. Thanks to Fucking European Fucking Colonialism, we didn't give it up until a scant 152 years ago.

Er, sorry, I meant 72 years ago.

Shit, I meant 63 years ago.

Maybe two years ago?

Wait, I meant ... maybe never?

Point here is that it's easy to sneer at the people who are for something you think is Wrong(tm), but until you understand their position I don't think it's possible to argue against it or resolve it.

@Ganymede said in X-Cards:

remind players that they can always opt-out.

Or in mushing terms: It is always okay to fade to black.

I cannot stress “always” enough.

@faraday said in Forum Factions:

Smiling happy construction workers unite.

I ... just realized that I am not a smiling happy construction worker.

Wait...

NO WAIT!

... Now I'm smiling.

@Wretched said in X-Cards:

Is this too hard?

It's not as easy as telling someone, "This is the World of Darkness, not the World of Fluffy Kittens."

It's not hard, but it's also not universal. When people disagree or slip up because they're running a plot as well as managing everyone's personalities—and people will slip up—then others will feel empowered to complain. And we'll be right back here on Soapbox reacting to gray-area situations like they were black-and-white.

Patience and Understanding are the things that make any of this work. From the people who are running things, from the people who react to the mistakes, from everyone.

I personally think we should start there.

@RnMissionRun said in Good TV:

Only in the world of Wrestling are hot chicks in bustiers and leotards slapping the hell out of each other considered a "sport".

Why not? It used to just be ugly men in leotards slapping the hell out of each other.

Wrestling Isn't Wrestling taught me how to appreciate this non-sport fictional reality show that is professional wrestling.

@GreenFlashlight

I didn’t realize until quite late that Terry Pratchett almost never described anyone except for the purpose of the narrative.

Every character ended up looking like exactly like I imagined.

This is a mild peeve of mine, but very mild: I have never had problems separating the book version from the TV show version from the movie version from the comic version of something.

@tragedyjones said in What MU/RPG opinions have you changed or maintained?:

@Alamias Do you think OOC masquerade was at least in part because of the technology of the times?

I can speak from (specifically WoD) history: OOC Masq was pushed because on mixed-sphere games players were using the information about who's where to flash-mob attack players of the enemy factions.

There was also a long-lasting layer of the same philosophy applied to what anyone can know about anything. One game (Tartarus) infamously changed what Werewolves took aggravated damage from silver to platinum then yelled at anyone who claimed they knew.

I do think that the ease of availability of wikis gave people an easy reason to change.

I had played on several games—AetherMUX being the most notable in my mind—where the lack of OOC Masq was a selling point and almost everyone was always careful about keeping IC and OOC separate enough to keep everything fun.

@admiral said in RL Anger:

@Aria I hate to be 'that guy', but men are sexually harassed and assaulted as well.

Yeah, well, right now we don't get to be the victim about this. Right now is the wrong time for that. We step back, be supportive, and know that when it's our time we can ask the same.

Look at what has just killed the final season of House of Cards. This is a sexual harassment case that wasn't predicated on a woman, so if you want to not be That Guy here's your chance. Sympathize with all children who are abused. Sympathize with women who are abused. And when you are cornered in a situation, over and over again from all quarters, where you are overpowered then you can ask for help on those account.

For instance, while not being That Guy, I am utterly horrified at the groups who pick on men for asking for this kind of help, men who were abused, men who don't know where to go or how to start. I can note that these groups are women, but who cares? They're acting on bad information and need to stop, re-focus, and find people who really deserve their ire. As it is, they're bullies, and that's just another phase of the problem.

These men you're talking about are an exception and should get the help they need, but it's nothing compared to the wave of abuse the overwhelming majority an entire gender garners. At the small-picture scale, everyone who needs help should get it. At the big-picture scale, we can wait for our own big issue.

@Joyeuse ...

I think the only time I saw problems with anyone’s sexual identity have been when they were flagrant about it being about their sexuality. I believe this was less about their sexual identity and more that they were pushing their agenda harshly on bystanders.

So only jerks being jerks.

I haven’t seen a clique for a while, in the sense of a clique shutting people out for being new or different. There are a lot of opinionated people around here, but we are a bunch of nerds after all.

Well, most of us are.

At least some of us.

Well, I am.

Things that make us just kind of a little baffled. Nothing big, or earth-shattering, but things that bring light confusion into our day.

--

Email title: Atlas Games has sent you a package.
Me: I...what? Did I Kickstart something and completely forget about it?
USPS Tracking Info: December 23, 2017 — 12:50 — IN TRANSIT TO DESTINATION
Me: I...what?

I can't wait to see what it is. Happy Christmas to me?

@Auspice said in Getting Young Blood Into MU*'ing:

This doesn't, however, disagree with his premise that 'tech is not the answer to getting new blood.'

Then I'll say it:

Tech is part of the answer to getting new blood.

Responsible staffing is part of the answer to keeping it.

Along with responsible staffing, here is a short list of things I have observed to keep people playing, not all of which are needed and some may repeat or even counteract each other:

Interested staff, interesting events, support of player creativity, supported setting, supported theme, whatever you—the reader—personally think you'd like to play with other people about.

Pick your mix. Add whatever you'd like.

Grilled cheese and tomato soup.

Shit, I'm going out to do this right now.