As a reminder, discussions are now supposed to take place somewhere but the Advertisement thread.
Best posts made by Thenomain
-
RE: Intersectional MU* Community - Discussion
-
RE: Dead Celebrities 2018
I will miss her intelligence, her clarity, and her respect for the world.
-
RE: Sexuality: IC and OOC
I am constantly surprised at the antagonism that bisexuals get. Here is someone who is more open to physical encounters than most people. What the tribalism fuck is going on that this is a bad thing.
—
Gany: Would have hit on your female character if you were on more than once a week for twenty minutes.
Just sayin’.
-
RE: Awesome Youtubers and Videos?
@roz said in Awesome Youtubers and Videos?:
I really enjoy Lindsay Ellis's pop culture stuff.
I just finished watching her The Hobbit
dualitytrilogy and I thought she was a good, solid writer to begin with, but by the end I was agreeing with the core thesis of the hour and a half documentary that she made: Once you know, you can't go back.I'm learning far more about writing from her videos than I have in podcasts about writing because she is writing about concrete examples, and her style, tone, and structure make it almost entirely approachable to a layman like myself. (Some is a bit advanced film theory, but eh, I can learn through repeated exposure.)
I am also incredibly glad that I watched her breakdown of Bright which was a mix of writing theory and history of the film itself.
-
RE: SerenityMUSH - Discussion
@SerenityMush said in SerenityMUSH - Discussion:
We (Zoe and River, the newest admins on Serenity) have been following this discussion with great interest.
As a friendly warning: Don't take Soapbox too seriously. Listen and nod and stroke your chin, but if you give anyone here half a reason they will critique you to the ground if you so much as enjoy the same breakfast cereal as Inara's player.
-
RE: Favourite Quote (Inspirational or Otherwise)
'In winter,' Grandfather Trout said, 'summer is a myth. A report, a rumor. Not to be believed in. Get it? Love is a myth. So is summer.” ― John Crowley, Little, Big
That is, love is fake to those not in it, but entirely real for those who are there.
-
RE: If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP
@Ghost said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:
Don't wrongfun me
By logging into a game you agree to play the game. Not your game. The game that you logged into play.
Whether or not "your" game is fun is not in anyone's interest. Really, we all want to have fun, but the game that you log into is not your game.
--
But here's where I do the Theno game and throw some anti-establishment into it: Sometimes it's not staff's game either. Even staff should be beholden to the game. The rules, the theme, and the allowances that the game makes.
So as long as you, the player, fall within the allowances of the game—theme and setting and culture—and as long as staff does too, then this conversation becomes moot. Staff may ask you to tweak your behavior for the theme, setting, or culture, but the amount that a lot of us are used to staff doing things for their own whim, or for what appears to be "because I said so", then these staff are wrong.
It may get to that. It may get to that if a player is so oblivious, or stubborn, or trolling, that "because I say so" is the only answer left, but let's be reasonable and assume this kind of staff has also tried to be reasonable.
That is, without people giving other people the benefit of the doubt, none of this works. Not the help files, not the staff-player interaction, none of it. It returns to being the same kind of embarrassingly bad staff-player reactions that we in the WoD community and those from the Firan community and even players from the old Pern community have lived with for far too long.
--
Or in other words: I agree.
-
RE: Movie/TV/Whatever Mash-Ups
Harry Potter, but where Voldemort is Pinhead.
-
RE: If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP
That's if each sphere is its own game.
The good multi-sphere games (Haunted Memories for a time, Dark Metal if you have a sense of irony, Aether forever, probably every Babylon 5 game since I'm on a Bab5 kick) have the spheres mixing it up. Hell, we even managed it on TwoMoons, where each tribe was in a distinct and incredibly distant part of the game map. Some of them were antagonist clans, too.
The idea that a "sphere" is an "independent game" is one that can probably get out of WoD players' vocabularies.
That is: Totally Disagree (not looking for GIF).
-
RE: RL things I love
Once again, Tabletop Simulator with Discord chat is the shit. Hearing people I've Mu*d with laugh and swear at each other (at the same time) has amazing healing properties.
Bravo, you glorious jerks.
-
RE: If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP
@Sparks said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:
@Thenomain said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:
Tangentially: It never ceased to amaze me that people who staffed acted like they needed benefits.
Why? I mean, demanding perks—especially specific ones—rather than being offered them is super gauche, yes. But staffing is an unpaid volunteer position, and many real-world unpaid volunteer positions do offer perks or benefits to say thank you.
Like a support network, the ability to get an insider view of the entire game, fast-track for your ideas to get approval—and you probably will already have them formed in the most likely way to be approved because of the previous two perks.
Staff already get perks just as a side-effect of being staff, and I'm not suggesting that anyone take them away. I am saying that they don't need extra kudos that players themselves don't get.
Now the word here is "need". If they get extra benefits, well I did preface with the "Theno Antiestablishment Game" and now we're in the fine details of what each of us think is okay for staff to do or get away with.
Too many games already treat code of ethics differently between players and staff. If the game's staff honors it then they're not doing the game's culture harm by bending the rules for anyone.
But this is the thrust of my argument: The game culture can overrule what the staff wants to do. Hell, I think this @Sparks person has already mentioned this, and she and I already agree with each other on the topic.
@Thenomain said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:
And you have an organized support network, which is far more than non-staff players can say.
I disagree that this is even guaranteed to be true at all, much less that it's a benefit that only staff can claim
And I think you're starting to put words in my mouth. If I ever mentioned that staff were not entitled to benefits that were available to players, or that players couldn't also share benefits available to staff, then shoot me now because that's entirely the opposite of what I meant.
Staff better have the same benefits and responsibilities as players, except where their role implies otherwise.
I'm going to stand by my "instant social network" statement as I've yet to play on or staff for a game where staff doesn't have a private mode of communications with every other level of staff. Even if people don't use it that way, it's there, it's available, it's Godwin's Law or a sort of Chekov's Gun; the likelihood of someone using the tool as intended increases to "one" over time.
Staff just for the act of being staff have access to nearly the entire staff communications network and all the aspects of it—chat, jobs, bboards. Certainly a great deal more than players, and unless it becomes the new default, players do not get access to any of it.
This is a tool of necessity, but it's also a huge perk. I can think of examples, but I think I've defended my position enough for now.
ALL OF THAT SAID
If a game's culture allows something different, then do it.
If you want to see that you, as staff, can succeed at it, then try it.
Your goal as player, as staff, as coder, as plotter, is to make the game interesting and fun, and if I say anything that goes against that then throw it out the window. Throw everything out the window until you find what works for you.
...
(deep breaths)
...
I have had the exact same problem finding RP as the original poster, and like the suggestions about doing more work to entice people to open up to RP, but putting the work solely on the person looking for RP seems a little like a cop-out. As a coder, everything I do aims toward "will this facilitate game-playing?" Anyone who is encouraging and engaging to newbies needs a gold star, and Arx's "rp with strangers" bribery concept needs a gaming trophy.
Mr. VASpider once said that it's not anyone's responsibility to help anyone engage. While pragmatic and true, I think that goes against the best nature of this hobby. I think we want engagement, and most of us want to enjoy the engagement of others, but that is work, but a burden shared is a burden lessened.
Whatever we do to get there is okay with me.
-
RE: Random Oddness or 'Is This Normal?'
@admiral said in Random Oddness or 'Is This Normal?':
for months and months now
You know what is a sign is that you need to get something looked at?
This. This is a sign that you need to get something looked at.
Fingers crossed.
-
RE: Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?
@faraday said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
I think the main concern isn't really the nomenclature, but the troubling behaviors that result. Like when a staffer is clearly playing a character like a PC, but is doing so in some shady manner under the guise of "but it's just a staff NPC". Whatever you call it, shady is shady.
I completely agree with you and @mietze and @Wretched and everyone else that using an NPC like a PC is a problem.
But what does that mean, "like a PC"?
I kind of like what @bear_necessities did there, but as they and you and other say, the nomenclature is all fubar.
I like the idea that if someone is doing something with a non-PC, it should—must?—serve the game in some way, either to build atmosphere, be a living part of the setting, engage in plot, or whatever.
That is, staff should probably always be thinking: If it doesn't serve the game, it shouldn't be done.
And yes, hanging out on the river and encountering a Hedge Shark that suddenly bursts out of the water sending everyone screaming like excited school girls counts as "for the game". Well it was for ours. It was awesome.
I know this sounds like what other people have already said (tl;dr: I agree), but I think what is stated about NPCs should be considered a truism of everything on the game, not just NPCs and not just staff. Players, too, when engaging with the environment should take into consideration that the more people it affects the more they're taking staff-like actions.
That's one of the muddy things about Mu*s; players get a small token of staffliness too.
-
RE: Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.
Hey Steam, about your suggestions:
Fallout 3
Since you recently played Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition
Really?
-
RE: Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?
@saosmash said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@Thenomain Consider your words in the context of the discussion and what it means to dismiss anyone's point on the basis that you believe they are "getting emotional", and understand why so many people are reacting to this with "wow," "yikes," and etc.
And if I don't? Let's say I say, "No, I don't get it." At this point I'm putting my trust out there that I'm not going to get dogpiled for it.
Let's say I was thinking, "Yeah, I've said stupid things because I'm getting emotional, or certainly not thinking rationally." What would you say to this...entirely hypothetical...version of someone? Would you explain it? Or would you deride them?
You? I'd expect you'd be more in the former camp.
Your longstanding feud with KQ is really, really not the issue.
Which is why I added the edit. I will consider the advice from nearly anyone else.
I don't trust KQ to do anything but spit in the face of people if she herself thinks it's necessary, whether or not it is.
-
RE: Good TV
Disenchanted.
I didn’t care for it at first, and probably wouldn’t have kept watching past the first two episodes, but keep watching past the first two episodes.
-
RE: Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?
@Roz said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@Derp said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@Roz said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
"you're too emotional" is a common derailing tactic in debate used against women who express any sort of investment in what they're arguing about.
Which would be more valid if he implied it was because she was a woman, and not just a person getting emotional.
Telling someone you believe they are getting to emotional is perfectly fine. I think that people are reading some kind of sexism into the statement that Thenomain didn't put in there.
People, regardless of sex, can in fact be getting too emotional.
He wanted to know why people were reacting the way they were, and I was just explaining, since he asked for further explanation.
And he's questioning them in a logical manner.
I get it.
I've also backed off and apologized to the party directly affected, and thanked Roz privately for the consideration.
-
RE: Random links
@surreality said in Random links:
@arkandel It's interesting, to be sure. I suspect it could indeed be helpful for some. I'm not sure the worst offenders are going to think it applies to them -- but let's face it, they never think any given thing applies to them anyway.
-
RE: Our Tendency Towards Absolutes
@Arkandel said in Our Tendency Towards Absolutes:
@onigiri said in Our Tendency Towards Absolutes:
There is a definite tendency for players to dehumanize staffers
We dehumanize everyone we don't know. Maybe it's our community in particular but I don't know that's the case.
There is also a definite tendency for staffers to dehumanize players.
This is one of the Tendency Toward Absolutes that is a pox on this hobby.
-
RE: RL Anger
@darinelle said in RL Anger:
GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING CLIFFHANGERS I CAN'T EVEN RIGHT NOW I HATE THEM SO MUCH STAHP.
WE WILL KNOW THIS TUESDAY! (Vote.)