Posts made by Wizz

@bored said in Regarding administration on MSB:

Sure, in a very chain-of-consequences kind of way. But I don't think the average (again, sane) person writes a * yelp review thinking 'ahhaha I'm taking these fuckers down!'

I will be honest, it really does seem to me that a lot of us are working at cross purposes here, there are a lot of people who are not here with an average yelp reviewer attitude, come on. WORA had the reputation that that is where you go for "justice," and "throwing back the curtain," which in our community played out a lot like throwing a screaming, crying tantrum a lot of the time.

I've seen that less here, but that attitude still exists - shoot first, ask questions later, make as much noise as you can to wallow in the chaos OUT THE EVIL THAT HIDES AMONG US!!!! and all that. I am not pointing fingers or trying to call anyone out, but it seems to me like there's a prevalent attitude or perception that conflict resolution is about making the conflict as public and ugly as possible as the very first step, which turned this place into such a goddamn dumpster fire for a few weeks, with people gleefully squirting gasoline on it because that is just what they come here to do.

I personally think what would benefit everyone here, myself included, is to stop treating forum posts like a race. Go back two-three pages and look at the response times, people are firing off with a mounting sense of panic within minutes of each other and then the mods are trying to stomp down harder and harder to slow it down and everyone should...just...stop.

Like, this is a forum. There is literally no reason to post your first response to something you see, give yourself a minute to breath.

Or maybe, and this is just a suggestion, everyone should just chill for at least an hour and then come back to this discussion after a nap and a nice bath or something.

@thenomain said in Magic, The Earth Way:

The Egyptians had magic. The Turks had magic. The Greeks had magic. Even if these things weren't actually real, these are magics that make sense for Earth, and make sense depending on the religions and regions of the time.

So aren't you kind of answering your own question?
Those are all valid answers but they're...also the inspiration for Vancian/Faerun/WoW magic. I guess I still don't really get what it is you're looking for either.

@ganymede
I can appreciate that, but it's also kind of the attitude I feel like a lot of us are trying to highlight, it's the hemming and hawing that frustrates us.

"Well, this post is against the rule we posted, but the OP hasn't told us they want it moved. Well, this poster just went off for six pages about the other poster's ancestry and upbringing and general moral fiber, but I know they had a bad week so..."

Why does it matter? You told us it's against the rule, so it's against the rule. Tell us what the rules are, and then enforce them. If we knowingly violate them, how are any of you then to blame?

Also, I'm not sure if I'm reading you correctly here so absolutely feel free to set me straight, but:

Obviously, you don't want things going off the rails, like, let's say, if one of us threatened a long time poster with banning because she evidently had her panties in a knot, or something.

I really can't disagree more with the idea that that would be "going off the rails." There should not ever be different rules for different posters, tenure here should not matter. A violation is a violation is a violation, it doesn't matter if I've been here since 2015, if I call someone a racial slur in the heat of the moment in anger it doesn't matter, I should be put on Strike 1 Of 2 Before Banning (or whatever y'all choose) just like someone who made an account yesterday.

@ganymede

So, again, make it not the same violation by adding more things that are clear violations? Because, again, of course it is if there is only one rule that everyone then has to interpret and assume the implications of. Nobody should have to be making assumptions, spell it out for us.

@ganymede said in Regarding administration on MSB:

For example, if someone refuses to comply with the "PLEASE REFRAIN FROM USING RACIAL SLURS" implied rule for the Mildly Constructive area, do we: (A) delete his posts; (B) move all posts and related responses to the Hog Pit; or (C) ban the offender? We haven't talked about it, but if all actions are potential remedies, then each of us might select a different one.

Exactly what I am asking for when I say the community guideline should be clear and extensive.

Not just "This is against the rule," but also "This is against the rule, and this is what will happen. These are the options you have to appeal an action." Write it like a policy file on a MU*.

@ganymede said in Regarding administration on MSB:

We can provide clearer guidelines, but that doesn't guarantee consistent enforcement.

I mean...it does, though. Or at least it guarantees more consistency, to err is human, yadda yadda.

RIght now, all three of you can already quote The Rules of Engagement if you're moving an ad hominem attack to the Hog Pit.

"Hey, this post where Tempest calls Ganymede a useless pile of shit was moved because it's in violation of Rule 1, which states personal attacks are not kosher on this board."

It's that that's literally the one and only rule that seems confusing to me, at least.

ETA: Like, to @tempest's point, how about:

1a. "Being facetious is not an excuse to break this rule. This is a constructive discussion board, if you create a post with a contentious or controversial title that is an attack you are still violating the spirit of the rule."

I just want to float this out there but @Arkandel I think you're more afraid of backlash against active moderation than you need to be, and it's this hesitation that is frustrating people. I'll actually echo @TNP here, either moderate or don't.

In addition to deciding who does what on the Mod Super Awesome Team, please present us with a clear and extensive community guideline, hell open it up to feedback first if you really want, but set expectations in stone.

@sunny

I think @faraday's agreeing with you, just saying that it's not our call to make.

Earth magic, as opposed to...Martian magic?
Or are you saying Earth like one of the classic elements, or Earth in the sense people mean when they say "Mother Nature," or...? I'm not quite sure what you're asking.

When I think of magic in my own fiction I think of it in terms of a universal force like gravity or electromagnetism, it doesn't really "come from" anywhere. I guess I'd interpret the question as what is Earth's "style," or how do people on Earth use it, but that's like asking how they use language. It's...like a lot of things. Like really, really a lot. It's too big a question.

80's VAMPIRE YES

@arkandel
I am not being at all facetious or hyperbolic when I say that was the incident that made me rethink my life up until that point and go apply to another industry.

But I hate to say, it really wasn't that unique. It was definitely the worst one I ever personally had to deal with, but working retail was fucking awful. People just act like animals, treat the properties they shop in with absolutely no respect, and treat you like you are not another human being.

@rnmissionrun said in RL Anger:

You'd think he would have had the common decency to say something to alert me to the problem on his way out but I as I recall, he left the store without even saying "thank you". To this day I have not let another customer use the employee restroom.

I worked at a K-Mart for a while because I clearly make great life decisions and one of my fondest memories was...similar. There was a family that came in pretty frequently, maybe every other day for a few months, a couple and their teenage daughter; they'd have these big explosive arguments in the electronics section I worked in basically every time they came in to shop. I was never really sure what they were arguing about because it would start outside and they'd bring it with them.

Anyway, one day the mother scrambles up in a panic asking me where the restroom is and I point it out, at the other end of the store, and she just runs in the direction I point. A couple of minutes later they call me to the front and point out that she has left a literal trail of poop behind her, flung out of the bottom of her pant legs. We followed the trail and it ended...I shit you not...in a pile of shirts the lady had pulled off the rack, to cover a massive dump she'd taken on the floor. We COULD NOT FIND THIS LADY, she was not in the bathrooms or anywhere in the building, she had basically just shat and fled. We never saw that family again and that was the last retail job I ever worked.

@sunny said in RL Anger:

Fucking inability to sleep. I have been waking up 1-2 hours early every morning (or more) for weeks now, regardless of what time i go to bed. This morning it was sleeping in to wake at 5. I am so tired.

6:30 AM. Doesn't matter when I actually go to sleep, I keep waking up at 6:30 on the fucking dot and then I can't go back to sleep. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Man, I'm not even sure what my first computer game was. My dad had computers in the home for work and I spent a lot of time on them as a little kid with my friend, who was a little older and very geeky and lent me his floppy disks. Probably King's Quest 5, or Space Quest 5. I fuckin' loved adventure games.

@ganymede
Eh, "better" is subjective, it's more what kind of play experience you're looking for. I've put roughly three hundred billion hours into Witcher III and I love it, I love the characters and the story and the world, but the quests and fights started to get extremely same-y after the two hundred billionth hour and the absolutely ridiculous inventory/item system made me feel more like one of those weird junk collector ladies from the Labyrinth than Geralt.

I really miss Dragon Age's tactical combat, just thinking about it makes me want to boot it up again.
I've only ever rented Zero Dawn but it seemed pretty fun!

@tempest said in General Video Game Thread:

@auspice said in General Video Game Thread:

I've tried playing the first Dragon Age so many times. In theory, it should totally be my kind of game... But I just can't. It doesn't capture me at all.

Same. I have played through about half of it a couple times. Something about it just doesn't click. IDK what it is.

When it first came out it was the silent protagonist thing, for me. I played Mass Effect and it ruined silent protagonists in RPGs for me for fucking ever, it just seemed so weird and off-putting to go back to one and I couldn't get into it.

I tried to play again several years later and had a lot of fun, but accidentally went to some DLC content too early and didn't have an older save, so I got stuck, frustrated, and gave up.

God's Demon by Wayne Barlowe, about a rebellion in Hell against Beelzebub.
I found the book through his art, which is just fucking cool, and it is a really good read. Souls are a tiny bit reminiscent of oWoD Wraiths in that they get turned into building materials and such, there's body horror and hints of gore and Hell honestly feels like Hell. There's enough grimdark and hope in equal measure without getting too weirdly religious and preachy, which I've noticed a lot of fiction set in Christian mythology gets. He's been working on a sequel fooooooooreeeeeeever and I am still waiting for it as anxiously as I was when I first read the book years ago.