@peasoupling
Yeah I can see why the ME3 ending would be a letdown but coming to it 2 years after all the freakouts about it being The Worst and after all the patches and DLC (including the Citadel)...it was aite. Kinda reductive, but I was almost disappointed by how eh OK I guess it was after all the build-up.
@thesuntsar said in MU Things I Love:
I saw my alt's name mentioned in a scene today and I thought the
was over but it's not. But that's kind of nice in a way. BITTERSWEET.
It's lovely in that, it really feels like they were small parts of a bigger story, and that story's continuing. It's so rare to get this out of the hobby, because so many characters just kinda fade away or get cut off when the game they were on ceases to exist. I've only gotten real closure that feels like ending a chapter in a good book a few times, and I'm incredibly grateful for @Darinelle for giving me one of those that still reverberates now and again.
@Coin said in A bit of trouble on Firefly:
I have always felt that the whole "well they haven't done anything here and until they misbehave within the bounds of the game we can't do anything" was absolutely ridiculous.
It's worth noting he actually DID do wrong things on Spirit Lake (being creepy on public channels, wandering into people's rooms and saying creepy non-sequitors there, paging staff and being a weirdo) which got him kicked off the first time. He just didn't do THOSE EXACT SAME THINGS again after being kicked off and returning via roster.
I've had dreams about MUing and dreams where I am typing text on a screen, though thinking back on them I don't feel like I'm 'reading' when I'm dreaming about that stuff. The white text on black, scrolling screen is like a lot of other dream imagery that my mind interprets as it will, if that makes any sense.
@Snackness said in A bit of trouble on Firefly:
It seems like he’s hitting every active game right now. Be alert.
I'm side-eyeing every roster that gets taken, ngl. I hope whatever seizure of asshole energy he's on right now passes quickly .
I think there are a lot of aspects of writing that are both skill-based and habitual, like most other things, and you can teach and nurture those. I 'got into' writing in third grade when our teacher made us journal for like 15 minutes as part of class every day and I certainly got better at it in more structured environments where I was forced to stretch into different aspects of it. IDK, I've worked in journalism and technical writing and I feel like I use different muscles for those than when I try to write creatively (largely for myself), but they've made me a better writer all around.
@TNP
Of the fast food chains, Burger King is one of my lesser favorites, so when I say 'I found the Impossible Whopper about comparable with the actual Whopper' it's kind of damning with faint praise, but it also feels like a huge deal commercially. Replicating 'it's perfectly OK for lunch I guess' meat that's consumed on a massive scale by millions of people every day is probably more promising than replicating gourmet burgers. I do try to pick one up every few weeks now, which is more than I've eaten at Burger King in years.
What I always want as a player is //variety//, as it makes it a lot easier for me to mentally split my time. Which is really hit and miss, as popular genres seem to come and go in waves (or based on what kind of code is easily and readily available).
Aunt Robin on HIMYM is still one of my TV avatars, even if I Don't Love some of what they did with her character in the last season (and yes, Stumptown is good stuff and utilizes one of my former character faces!).
@Seraphim73
Yeah it's almost like...you can disagree with someone's game philosophy decisions and still like and respect them. ZOMG. Anyway, yeah, Fara always exemplifies that.
4srs Ares is allowing a lot more people who want to try and run a game to try and run a game and play in a 21st-century manner, which is pretty laudable.
@Autumn said in The Savage Skies - Discussion Thread:
@lordbelh said in The Savage Skies - Discussion Thread:
Furthermore, clearly while the character worships the Emperor, she blames the higher ups in the military for the actions of Imperial Japan at present. We can argue how much blame Hirohito deserves (seems a decent amount), but that's really besides the point.
I wanted to go back to this post for a minute, just to think through the more general question of how informed we should expect characters (not just this specific character) to be in the context of their time. The abovementioned hypothetical Russian Communist character in 1938 might very well be ignorant of a lot of horrifying things that have been done at Stalin's behest; probably the great majority of actual Russians at the time were. As far as this brawny Russian lad who wants to go and shoot some fascists in Spain is concerned, Stalin is the warm, benevolent, fatherly figure who protects the Soviet Union from fascists and counterrevolutionaries, not the guy who had the kulaks rounded up and shipped off to Siberia.
Is that problematic? Is it less problematic if the character finds out about the horrible stuff that's happened in the Soviet Union since the revolution, and, revulsed, abandons their loyalty to Stalin? Conversely, is it more problematic if the character finds out about them and refuses to believe it, remaining convinced that Stalin couldn't possibly do those things and it must all be the fault of counterrevolutionaries? Or if he finds out and believes it, but supports Stalin anyway, because sometimes hard measures are necessary to stamp out the cancer of fascism? Does whether or not that character continues to profess adherence to Communist principles make a difference?
I played on TGG MUSH (and occasionally ST'd!) there when we did a WW2 Stalingrad campaign and I'm struck that this...never came up. Changing times or smaller playerbase, I guess, IDK. And this was actual, historical Russia under Stalin (my character was an electrician who knew the Party sometimes made people Disappear but also knew it was better to keep your head down) rather than a more fantasy equivalent. Really don't envy any staffer trying to parse what players want/need now.
@krmbm said in The Savage Skies:
@Arkandel @Ganymede @The other admin whose name I always forget (sorry) - Could someone maybe lock this ad thread and push the discussion over to the discussion parts of the forum?
Yeah, for real, like I think it's a legit discussion but THERE CAN BE OTHER THREADS.
The fact is, while I enjoyed Lovecraft stories in high school, he's not an author who's ever held much attachment to me. Same with Orson Scott Card. I liked Ender's Game when I read it as juvenile fiction but it's not part of my personal canon.
I own "Thriller" on CD, it was one of the first albums I owned, and I think it's a work of great 20th century art. It was formative to me in a lot of ways and those are still some awesome tracks that there's no way to divorce from what pop music is today.
Still think Michael Jackson is a child molester who was hugely enabled and protected by the music industry throughout this life.
Not sure what to do with this, ultimately. I had experiences of Michael Jackson music that really are imprinted on my psyche in that way music gets with people when they hear it when they're young, particularly high school-age. I can't divorce it from this and it's probably the "art from artist" thing I most struggle with.
I guess my point is, there are a lot of artists it's very easy for me to "cancel" on a personal level. I'll never give Woody Allen money again but I only kinda liked "Midnight in Paris" and never got his appeal otherwise, so whatever. I'll never pay to see a Michael Fassbender of Sean Penn movie again but that's no great loss to me, I don't view them as culturally necessary and they don't speak to me in any particular way.
I have a lot of sympathy for the peopel to whom Lovecraft was formative and who're trying to reconcile his being a racist asshole, I guess is my point, because I'm stil trying to work out what I feel OK consuming and having genuine affection for and what I don't anymore. I'm still trying to separate what I think of Michael Jackson as a human who I think did awful things to other humans versus what I think of what he created and will probably continue trying for awhile. This does not feel easy with a thing that has large cultural and personal impact.
To my knowledge, my RP has never been spied on in a situation where I wasn't aware of it (ie on games where there were public rooms or commands that allowed watchable rp for various reasons). I'm certainly aware it's possible through various means, though. Mostly I feel like watching my rp would be a really boring and unproductive use of a staffer's time.
I mostly don't see what this accomplishes as a practice that using the SUSPECT flag doesn't do better for a player you've had the kind of complaints about to make it seem necessary, since you can't monitor pages or mails or stuff that occurs when you're offline by sitting DARK in a room. I guess I'd rather have it stated upfront if it's going to happen, though.
@saosmash said in The Savage Skies:
I wish I had the juice for another game right now.
Same, same. Looks very cool, though. Awesome to see more and more variety in the Ares games space.
I have many. Spotify holds all my sins. Here's a variety sampler, some of these PCs are long gone but I never delete this stuff:
My Dumb Bro Knight from Steel & Stone: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5BqVINpDhy9r8ly0cZTzug?si=pEL3Y9a3SLyRvdIRRqvo8Q Lots of Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys, some stuff like blink-182. It was a mood.
My Fire Mutant from X-Factor: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6rNbRv80fJeziP3uAquHvA?si=mtmCjoS4QIubxrw2DNFjzA Lots of R&B, go back to it more than the others just because I like the music.
Smashy Barbarian Knight from Arx, which became very 1980s lady rock: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5KpAqwSojUZLTG7fACP4Sz?si=OkFF_WITTiquqvxlT6QkFg
Current Mechanic Mage Dude at Spirit Lake, heavy alt-country: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7cmD2ikHj4CuGqVw9d9aBw?si=LfUoh0oeQsakIr-Zo9xQHw
These things help me with characterization a lot, and give me stuff to listen to at work!
@silverfox
Oh Kenna Scarecrow, I think i miss you most of all 