Best posts made by wanderer

@Lithium said:

The bad book thing, that's just a narcissism thing, I know I can do better than the drivel I am reading, so I do it.

Yeahhhhh, I'm guilty of this too. At one point I went and read all the urban fantasy books I could find. Most of them were terrible. Some of them were kinda bad, but catchy and fun. I appreciated those. One book, I swear it must've been written by a musher because she used the common desc tropes. But the biggest surprise was when I opened a book without reading the title first. I started reading through the beginning, and was laughing my ass off. I thought how my vampire RP was so much less cringeworthy than that.

Turns out that was Anne Rice. >.<

@silentsophia said:

I thought depressionquest was good as a look into what someone with depression could go through, for people without depression. It seemed more like a useful experience than a game.

It seemed preachy and pointless to me. It didn't give me new insight into depression, it was condescending and patronizing, especially to anyone who's suffered from it. The medium is interesting, but the writing would have to be much better, the underlying concept better developed, for it to work. Also, I've made games like this as a kid in QBASIC, but I wouldn't think that merits being called a game developer. It's a glorified "choose your own adventure" story.

What it all reminds me of, is socrealist art and literature in communism. Art had to serve a purpose, and that purpose was extolling the values that the ruling regime approved of. In modern democracy, it seems that people have decided to do this of their own free will.

@bored said:

I think there's also something to be said for getting at a character's emotional or mental state in the text of a pose beyond 'Name frowns' or so on, to facilitate accurate interaction (this gets at the classic characters are better than their players trope). Players are generally good at neither typing out the specific nuances of facial expression nor at interpreting them from others' texts, while characters might be good at these things.

I share your approach to RP as a writing exercise. Really, how would one describe specific emotions without resorting to some degree of metapose? I've tried and found it impossible in some cases. In real life, we sense that a person is sad, bothered, upset, without consciously going through the physical clues (unless one is on the autistic spectrum).

Most people will claim this is because we pick up facial micromovements on a subconscious level. I personally think that's a bullshit explanation on the level of homeopathy. I have weird views on this, but I'll refrain from going off on that tangent. There is a podcast which goes into it, here's a link:
http://podbay.fm/show/953290300/e/1422586800?autostart=1 (About a woman with a debilitating disorder that makes her feel, directly, what people around her are feeling. A type of super-empathy, apparently hereditary.)

I use metapose as a tool to build mood and atmosphere. I'm not going to describe in minute detail how someone's eyebrows and eyes are positioned in order to describe that they're sad. I'll say something like, "she's sad, it's in her expression." Even if it's an outright thought-pose you can't react to, if it brought a sense of mood, or a creative spark, it has contributed to the scene. With the caveat that it has to be well written.

Mainly, if the pose I've written feels like an awesome piece of writing, I'll send it in without regard to any unspoken rules. RP is often a constricting medium for writing, and I welcome good opportunities to break out of the mold.

One of the best characters I ever played with was Ike@HM, whose poses were full of metaposing. He played a film noir detective.

I've long lost the desire to engage with this community, and I suppose this subject only confirms my decision. But here goes, for whatever that's worth.

The current materialistic paradigm is blind to the reality of the world. Materialistic science will never find answers unless it accepts that these areas of research require a radical shift in paradigm and approach.

I've had plenty of experiences with the paranormal or supernatural, enough to be convinced to a surety that these things not only exist, they're much closer to the foundation of reality outside of this material pocket of existence.

For me, that's 2+2=4, not something one should be "keeping one's minds open about" or "remaining skeptical." I feel no desire whatsoever to convince anyone of this; there's tons of proof out there, there's exercises you can do for yourself to check and see, it's actually fairly easy if you're motivated enough. Less effort than masturbating daily, if you try something like astral projection. So I have no understanding for those who choose not to. I pity them.

Convincing others is a fairly futile task, no matter how many credentials one has, because they'll be swallowed and spit out by the dominant materialistic paradigm. There was recently a neuroscientist who had an NDE experience, they ruined his career and completely discredited the guy instead of listening to what he's got to say. I'm disinclined to cast my pearls into such an atmosphere.

Those who truly have the proof of something existing on the other side, will shy away from the public eye, or from proving anything to the skeptics. It's almost an evolutionary survival trait, because that's the kind of people who were burned at the stake or crucified in the past.

Vampires, werewolves and fairies, those are obviously imaginary. Just so someone doesn't quote my post with "so you think vampires are real, you just said so!!!1"

Kundalini, though. Kundalini is some serious shit. Ghosts exist, life after death exists. Various types of non-corporeal entities exist. Sleep paralysis is only a fancy term for "we don't fucking know what's happening here but putting a name on it makes it all tidy and sciency." Astral projection is real. Existence beyond the material world is a vast, enormous spectrum of various degrees of subtlety and being. The material world is a tiny speck of shit somewhere at the bottom of it all. Knowing this, I pity those who are closed off from such knowledge.

I am not particularly interested in discussing any of this, but I thought someone should fucking say something that isn't "we all nicely agree, sensible chuckle." Especially when the view everyone's agreeing with is so closed-minded and shallow.