Posts made by Thenomain

@taika

Have you played 'Vampire: Bloodlines'?

It's done entirely in the theme they build, but there is darkly camp stuff all over it. Especially if you play the Malkavian. Especially then.

Have you played Mass Effect 3 and the Citadel DLC? Almost nothing changes from the rest of the game except the situations they're in are comedic, and Shepherd plays the straight-man (or woman) and there's very light glancing at the fourth wall and it is the best DLC I've ever played because it's hilarious. But it's never not Mass Effect.

I think that a major problem is that most of us who RP are not writers and therefore don't have the talent or practice on doing things that are more subtle than engage whatever whimsy hits their mind at the moment. Many times, we all play whatever theme we want. We can only hope that we all play it close enough to the one established for the game.

@prototart said in Let's talk about TS.:

@thenomain said in Let's talk about TS.:

Whenever I see this thread pop up in my unread list, this conversation goes on in my head:

Thread: Let's talk about TS.
Voice in my head: Please god no.

It's kind of sad that the voice in my head is more sensible than I am.

does your head voice sound at all like droopy dog btw

No. Danny DeVito.

Whenever I see this thread pop up in my unread list, this conversation goes on in my head:

Thread: Let's talk about TS.
Voice in my head: Please god no.

It's kind of sad that the voice in my head is more sensible than I am.

@arkandel said in Earning stuff:

The other third is on players who watch others get screwed over and tolerate it because it didn't happen to them.

As long as staff is open, available, and willing, this will be minimized.

But so many people complain to staff that it's a challenge to determine which complaints need the most attention. And if staff doesn't give someone the attention that they think they deserve, they can be portrayed as shitty staff.

There is no right answer, only the best, most honest (and hopefully considerate) answer.

My problem with how this conversation has evolved is that it’s now an either/or consideration, when it is not either simplistic or complex. I think the the best rules are neither simplistic nor complex.

In my book ideally there is enough information to get the point across, and builds on that if necessary. But staff must understand and live these rules else now you have written rules with no meaning.

I cannot express how many times I have seen a game with some kind of “don’t be a jerk”rule, then a staffer is a complete jerk and nothing happens to them. Players see this, and they form their own set of rules for the game. Sometimes they talk about them on game and sometimes staff shut them down because they either don’t know or want the double standard to prefer them.

In the sense of players earning things, yeah, I think more information is better than less, as well as it’s organized.

@faraday said in Code Discussion: Ambiance Emits:

@thenomain If there's scene code that folks are already using to start a scene/log, then I wouldn't care, since I use that code automatically when I RP. But if it's an extra non-native step, then I agree with @Three-Eyed-Crow that I'd rather have a one-time "turn this stuff off" toggle.

Until someone else starts reacting to it, then it becomes annoying again. It's why the "just gag someone" answer to an annoying person often doesn't work in a group discussion like, e.g., a web forum.

More practically, though, I don't hang out on the grid unless I'm already RPing. And if I'm already RPing in a scene, then the emits would be disabled by the system you described. So there'd really be no difference between that and just turning them off completely.

My interest is in what's best for as many people as possible, tho. Because of the previous, I would far rather an "all or nothing" approach toward environmental emits.

@faraday

What about a system where if you say, "A scene is happening here," it turns them off, essentially making the room a local...temproom? Sceneset?

Turning on "I Am A Scene" is another hurdle, but it may work to have the game give RP cues when there's no direction, vs. telling the game I've Got This when the setting's direction is clear.

@alzie

So you are hating on Mage?

I'm asking for a friend.

@ganymede said in General Video Game Thread:

I'm going to embrace Fallout 76 when it comes out.

Even though nobody knows what it is, you can already pre-order it.

Move over, Apple, we have a higher bar to "shut up and take my money".

@surreality said in Earning stuff:

@Thenomain Bluntly, you're entitled to whatever opinion you like

I don't need anybody's permission to have an opinion, but thank you for the acknowledgement.

I have seen too many people get nailed to the wall for not knowing things they had no way of knowing

And I have seen too many people get nailed to the wall for not following the letter of the law, with no help from players, with no help from staff to know what the spirit of the law entails. That is, getting into great detail does not mean that anything you're talking about is going to be avoided.

I don't know why I'm getting this negative focus from you, but I would appreciate you backing off a bit please. Thanks.

@surreality said in Earning stuff:

@Thenomain I think you're making a lot of assumptions here.

And I don't think that I am.

Beyond that, I think you're forgetting the 'some people are new' problem.

Am I?

Hm, okay.

@warma-sheen said in nWorld of Darkness 1E v 2E:

I've only been around MU*ing for about 15 years or so so I don't know how it started.

People taking it too seriously.

@apos said in Helpful Spellcasting Flowchart:

@thenomain said in Helpful Spellcasting Flowchart:

But I've also coded similar systems all throughout WoD and people almost never get so touchy about them as they do with this.

People that have paid their dues in learning something unnecessarily complicated tend to be very protective of that.

Absolutely. The hue and cry when World of Warcraft made it easier to level up was legendary and repeated in song for generations after.

But I think what's happening here is that people who think the flowchart is fair or is unrepresentative are feeling insulted that what they enjoy is being called stupid for reasons of either misunderstanding (c.f., "this is a good tool once you know the system") or is misapplying the chart (c.f., "this chart is more complicated than it has to be").

It is a truly horrendous chart, but show a new programmer the breakdown of ANSI SQL's SELECT statement and see what they say. The thing is not a teaching tool, and should not be seen as such.

Nobody likes being misrepresented, and I think that several people are calling this out. The people being called out don't like the implication that they're being called stupid, either (whether they really are or aren't) and so the cycle of "You!/No You!" happens again.

In summary: Sometimes it's possible that you're on the wrong side of an argument and should have enough self-awareness and humility to accept it when it happens.

@derp said in Helpful Spellcasting Flowchart:

@surreality said in Helpful Spellcasting Flowchart:

The whole attitude was dismissive and condescending from the jump. 'Oh, sigh, that is a pile of garbage.' It's certainly not constructive, but the untouchables are freely permitted that, I suppose.

This.

And dragging the conversation down in how someone said something is constructive, you two?

I agree with you a great deal of the time, but I think it's time people stop using their personal definition of "constructive" as a way to dismiss others.

Yes, Cobalt was being catty. She also had some damn good points.

--

I find it the most interesting that the chart is so polarizing. I've heard that it was created to be condescending of Mage. I've heard that it was made to be a useful tool. @Alzie is known to be very snarky in his own right so that may have tainted some people's reactions from the get-go.

I find nMage 1e's spellcasting to be confusing as fuck, and this chart painful to even consider.

But I've also coded similar systems all throughout WoD and people almost never get so touchy about them as they do with this.

I honestly don't know what's wrong with you people.

You people.

(Not me, clearly.)

@surreality said in Earning stuff:

People need to know what they can report.
People need to know what they can ask for.
People need to know what they have to ask for if they want it.
People need to know what's off the table, period.
People need to know how their problems or questions will be handled.

And I know that your interpretation of these comes down to a very fine level that I personally think is overbearing and I would completely ignore, making me a problem on your games.

People need to know that they have agency and to accept when they ask for too much.

Staff needs to know how to communicate this without coming off as jerks.

@surreality said in Earning stuff:

@thenomain said in Earning stuff:

What actions lead to what rewards are both set down by news files and the unwritten rules implied by the actions of staff.

Another thing we should do is endeavor to write the rules down, not leave them unwritten. Especially when it comes to what is expected from staff.

Do we? Because there are many rules that once written down become shackles and are used to argue against us, which distracts us from the importance of play.

@arkandel said in Earning stuff:

TL;DR: This is a discussion trying to answer a simple question - should players have to earn their stuff?

In the sense of "does the player deserve this", yes. 100%.

It's what "deserve" means. You logged on and RPd: Here's XP. You've shown that you can organize 3 people with a common ideology: Have a faction. You've shown that you uphold the ideology of the game in your particular area: Have a larger faction leadership position.

None of this is a right, mind you. These come from social constructs, laid down by and lead by administration. What actions lead to what rewards are both set down by news files and the unwritten rules implied by the actions of staff. We can only hope that they are fair or at least consistent. We can certainly debate it, which we should and do.

@kanye-qwest

Eh, I find special snowflakes everywhere, regardless. And I find staff making what I think are foolish decisions everywhere. In the context of single- or multi-sphere WoD games, I'll agree you get less of it on single-sphere games, but I think people act irrationally about it on multi-sphere games because of the history of the WoD games in this hobby. Which is admittedly pretty terrible especially as long as staff react poorly to it.

e.g., My first character on Haunted Memories was rejected by a spazztastic staffer because the character's history involved a minor. How easy it would have been to say: As long as this minor does not come into play that's fine. Just: App rejected.

I think the lack of trust in this hobby, and the abuse of trust in this hobby, keeps too much fun from happening.

*Tweet!*

Anecdotal evidence masquerading as overarching summary on the field of play. Ten yard penalty. Third down.

@killer-klown said in nWorld of Darkness 1E v 2E:

GarouMUSH ran for a good number of years; but their mechanics were strange and everything was glacial in terms of advancement, so...

It was also run in the days where people would Mu* while they were doing ten other things, most of them studying and doing projects for university classes. Nowadays that is not a thing.

But yeah, GarouMUSH was...not a standard WoD Mu*. For good and ill.