Posts made by Warma Sheen

@ganymede said in Mourning a character, how do you do it?:

I get fussy when my PC is killed or rendered unplayable by someone else because they are having a snit.

This is how I felt recently when the sphere wiz made the sphere environment toxic to me and I had to choose between giving up the character and languishing in a sphere that was hostile to me.

It feels very much different on handling losing a character based on whether it was because of legitimate IC circumstances or OOC pettiness.

I was telling great stories with great people and that all got cut off in an unpredictable snap. I handled it by just focusing my time and energy on other things, despite the loss and messiness of another person's nastiness.

But that's a danger of the hobby and I was aware of that going in, so it softened the blow. Also experience. I've lost or had to give up characters before and it has become easier the more times I've had to do it.

@misadventure said in Races in fantasy settings:

#party goblin

Party goblins are the worst and deserve to be discriminated against... They ruin lives, they ruin relationships, they ruin people... Evil is an understatement.

@tnp WIth the amount of feels that have been expressed, I find it hard to believe any amount of trust would be able to be retained. It is very difficult to come to a place like this where you want to be able to express yourself when you have to worry about whether what you say gets you isolated from the people you came to commune with.

So I get that part.

This has never really been a "safe place" in terms of not having really harsh negative things said to you if people disagree. But it has generally been a place where you've been free to express yourself, even if all that comes from it is that people tell you how dumb you are. I don't know any situation where people will be able to feel that again. But I sure hope that someone smarter than me will be able to find that way in moving forward.

But in terms of voting with feet... would there be anywhere else to go? Or are people stuck with here or nowhere?

@ganymede Wizard of Oz. He's saying Tinuviel plays with ignorant witches. I don't know why, except that he really needed to get a shot in.

There's probably more than one way to moderate anything. And like with the MUs we all play, what is acceptable versus what is not comes down to a difference of opinion between people. And people are all different.

Also, like MUs, people can vote with their feet and go elsewhere if it gets to a point that they don't like it anymore. I've had my share of headaches here from people and there have been times where I have stepped away or did not engage for long periods of time. Frustrating feelings of helplessness can be pretty dark and devastating, when you have something you need to talk through but have no one to talk to about it - at least not anyone that understands. It just compounds the problem not being able to have a voice, or worse - having a voice and not being allowed to use it. I'm dealing with it on the MU I'm playing right now. It. Is. The. Worst.

But at the end of the day no one has a right to these boards, whether they have a valid point or not.

So while a discord moderator academy sounds nice, I feel like those tips and practices aren't nearly as useful as they seem.

@insomniac7809 said in Good TV:

@ganymede said in Good TV:

Is it?

Maybe, maybe not?

There's a difference between the actual impacts of Netflix not seeing the growth it wants and expects and the impacts of Netflix's reactions to the less than expected growth and its results on the user experience.

So even if it is a market overreaction (which seems likely) the fact that Netflix is responding by cutting anticipated shows, cracking down on password sharing, and talking about plans to introduce ads seems like this might be the start of one of those shifts where the company stops trying to build business by attracting more customers and starts trying to extract more revenue from the customers it already has, and that's a shift that can spiral really quickly.

It is indeed a sign of a larger problem. Sometimes you can be right, but for the wrong reasons. This seems to be the case for the media.

The market... maybe not so much. Netflix has always overspent and carried huge debt. It was only a matter of time before it all fell down. They tried to pull an Amazon and throw money at the problem until they became too big to fail, but online entertainment is the wrong market for that business model. Also that strategy only works if you see it through to the end. If you can't go the distance, your outlook is grim. Changing programming strategies was and will be their downfall.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/netflixs-big-wake-up-call-the-power-clash-behind-the-crash-1235136004/

Naomi Judd, 76

@greenflashlight said in Good or New Movies Review:

I think I like the Matrix: Resurrections. It feels like an extremely meta movie and I kinda lost the thread of the metaphor in the middle, but if I'm reading it right, it's basically a story about accepting that the struggle never ends and the same fights will always be on loop so the best you can do is fight for what you have to fight for and accept the happiness you can make of it.

Oh, I did not like. I felt like I got what they were going for, but it did not hit the mark for me. It felt very clunky and too heavy into itself, like it was too wrapped up in its own legend to see where it was going astray.

That franchise is one of my favorite ever and I expected amazing things. I did not get anywhere near that. But even from a more neutral perspective without so many expectations, I don't think they did a very good job of telling the story they wanted to tell. Way too convoluted. Way too many distractions.

@arkandel Backslider...!

Loving The Big Leap on Hulu. It is one one my favorite shows. It was everything I wanted Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist to be, but wasn't.

It probably isn't getting a 2nd season, but I love this show for everything that it is. Best dancing I've seen on a show for a while, especially in terms of variety. And it isn't just the dancing that has variety. It has a little something for all types of people. Granted, the lack of focus is probably one thing that some people didn't like, but for me it was amazing.

@arkandel said in Dead Celebrities 2021 Edition:

Bob Dole passed away.

I remember when he ran for president. I remember a time when you did not root for a person to win simply because you agreed with his opponent's positions more. Not because that guy was the scum of humanity. I remember when, if Bob Dole had won, I'd have been disappointed, but wouldn't have dropped into a visceral despair because the country was going to be sent screaming into a searing political, social, and moral hell.

Bob Dole will be missed. No both sides of the aisle.

@ominous said in The Desired Experience:

Nope. Disagree entirely. For your premise to be correct games like Dune, Twilight Imperium, Cosmic Encounter, 1830, Republic of Rome, etc. where you play as the head of factions, stellar empires, or robber barons should all suck, since no one is playing the little people. They're fucking great board games. Now take that and add fluff and roleplaying. Done.

Those are good board games, I'm sure. I've only played two, and not very often. But the experience of a MU* is vastly different than that of a boardgame. Boardgames discount internal politics completely, as well as cross-factional politics, which provide huge amounts of intrigue and excitement in RP. Those are just some of the many vast differences that make MUs far more interesting than simple boardgames - which is why MUs last for years and board games last minutes. A three year long boardgame of any of those would get boring quickly and turn to torture shortly thereafter.

What you look for in a MU* and what you look for in a board game are usually very, very different.

@arkandel said in New WoD digital toolset coming in 2022:

I honestly don't know why more companies don't embrace the digital playfield more fully.

I've heard the profitability margins are really small. I don't know anything about the business, but when I was fully into Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 during the start of the pandemic, that was what I kept hearing from people that at least sounded like they knew what they were talking about.

I guess supposedly there's not enough buy in from people. Hopefully, these companies can find a way to be more efficient online so that the profitability is there and more people are drawn to it.

On Fantasy Grounds D&D was popular, while WoD was practically non-existant. D&D had an established base so people wound up there if they were looking for that initially or not, cause that's where the players were. That just perpetuated the D&D base even more. Rinse and repeat.

One of the things that helps D&D is the availability of a ton of established modules. It makes it easier for DMs to run stuff and you can go a long time before running out of things to play. Now to me that isn't as fun as freeform gaming (in theory) but it does make it easier for things to come together. It also has the benefit of keeping relatively consistent play/fun expectations. You know what you're getting. Whereas with WoD, as a lot of us have experienced, your fun at a session is heavily dependent on the people you're playing with, not the content.

@derp said in The Desired Experience:

I want to find a game where I am not forced to engage with things I don't want to engage with. Where staff is cool with my boundaries and my level of commitment, or usually lack thereof.

Yeah, that's really something that would be nice to have. I don't have time to RP nearly as much as I did 15 years ago so I want that RP to be fulfilling to me when I do it. Being able to avoid crap and be able to engage in only the RP I want without being penalized outright or passively would be wonderful.

@mietze That would be nice. Unfortunately, I've never had that experience on a MU*.

That sounds exactly like what I got in tabletops and LARPs, which is why when I stopped being able to go to those I started MU*ing, to get the same experience. That was a let down. Not always. But inevitably, the bad would jump up and outweigh the good.

I'm in the RPs for the supernatural adventure. I like the action and the danger. I like investigations and mysteries. I like social positioning and political intrigue. And I love all the crazy powers. I generally want to play something with powers.

What I don't want is a Second Life on MU*. If I can do it in real real life, I probably don't want to RP about it. I want a separation from my reality, as much as possible.

I'd welcome anyone to try to make a living by running a MUSH. If they can do that, then anything is possible!

I don't think any kind of pay model is intended to solve any current problems except to help pay for the cost of hosting a game.

I think a tip jar model would be the best way to go about it, especially if it was anonymous so no one felt any particular pressure to pay or feel beholden to anyone in particular.

A very clear, overly blunt statement about the fact that donations don't entitle you to anything should be attached to any donations page, along with a site policy that anonymous donations are to remain anonymous with any hints or comments about donating being incredibly bad form. Possibly subject to disciplinary action.

I don't think the concept of crowdfunding a game site is a bad idea. I don't know what it costs to host a game, a wiki, or a website. I doubt anyone should or would expect to make a living out of it. But for a lot of the reasons listed in the thread, it shouldn't be allowed to affect the game.

@arkandel Really? I've had a very different, more complicated experience. But I'm in Mage sphere so there may be different policies in each sphere.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/06/entertainment/michael-k-williams/index.html