Posts made by WTFE

Calling the game's setting the "theme" is something that still baffles me to this very day.

@surreality said in Getting a sense of what sort of MU* ads are okay:

@Sunny On the plus side, if people are picking at something that's really just not reasonable to pick at (I'm thinking of the Flights n' Tights one here), people will call that out pretty quickly, too.

IIRC there were two criticisms of Flights'n'Tights. One was the invalid "ew, gay superheroes!" one. The other was calling out the "we're inclusive" thing paired with the "no girls!" thing juxtaposed with it. That latter one is valid, IMO.

@Dumb Article said:

Many of them are fierce warriors who likely do not have time for waxing, bleaching and meeting society’s modern beauty standards.

You know, if you're going to directly or indirectly make arguments based on historicity, it may be a good idea to learn a bit of history. Or do the Spartans not count as fierce warriors? Because they TOTALLY FUCKING GROOMED THEMSELVES like, to, pretty fucking insane levels.

It wasn't even a dumpster. It was like an office's circular file. This was supposed to be a big, intriguing mystery: "WHO STARTED THE FIRE AND WHY!?"

I know I criticized an ad here before. I laughed at an ad designed to generate interest in a plot happening on a game where the "interesting" event was a ... trash bin fire.

You will get people commenting--in varying degrees of acidity--on the efficacy of your advertising approach (especially if the ad is terrible like that one). And if your ad is filled with spelling errors or formatted in ways that make eyes bleed that will be dumped on as well.

If you're advertising someone else's game might I recommend clearing it with them first, though?

@Ganymede said in MU Things I Love:

@WTFE said in MU Things I Love:

I bet you I have as many Chinese family members as you do!

You sure you want to play this game, bro? My dad had 11 brothers and sisters, and several cousins. (They were from Macao.)

Uh... nice weather we're having.

@Ganymede I bet you I have as many Chinese family members as you do!

@Ganymede D'aw! Love you too, sweetcheeks!

Seriously, though, while we don't always agree with each other, I've never found a reason not to respect your opinion. (And I'll swear this to be a lie under oath if challenged, but you have changed my mind on a few things over the years too.)

@Roz said in RL Anger:

@WTFE said in RL Anger:

@Roz said in RL Anger:

@WTFE said in RL Anger:

It's the only social media I use from the western world because, frankly, social media in the west is toxic sludge and I only have X amount of energy to spend wading into the slime pool to find the drain.

do you realize what this website is

Better by at least an order of magnitude than any social media site out there?

sure but this website is also social media

Oh, I see where you're going.

OK, you got me there. I meant more the popular social media that attracts, you know, people outside of "statistical fluke" levels. So, you know, not Google+ or MU Soapbox.

@Roz said in RL Anger:

@WTFE said in RL Anger:

It's the only social media I use from the western world because, frankly, social media in the west is toxic sludge and I only have X amount of energy to spend wading into the slime pool to find the drain.

do you realize what this website is

Better by at least an order of magnitude than any social media site out there?

@Arkandel said in Where's your RP at?:

Just as an example, as requested.

And it's a good example.

Wake me up when someone makes an economic system that can actually match that utility without being deeply, profoundly broken.

I have Facebook, set up because without it I'd be completely alienated from friends and family in Canada and Europe. It's the only social media I use from the western world because, frankly, social media in the west is toxic sludge and I only have X amount of energy to spend wading into the slime pool to find the drain. (I'm pretty sure my Facebook account is used as a stress testing tool for their blocking mechanism…)

I have, however, about a half-dozen social media presences on Chinese services and a few scattered in places like Korea, Brazil, India, etc. Because the people there are just not quite as toxic as Americans and the places that Americans have infected.

@Ganymede said in Where's your RP at?:

@WTFE said in Where's your RP at?:

0. What does an economic system bring to the table that enhances my fun?

What I got from your post is: I don't find any economic system, regardless of construction, to be fun, and I cannot identify what part of a system is flawed because, in general, I'm not that kind of player that would find such a system fun -- but go ahead and try to prove me wrong.

And I can understand that statement.

That's a fair summary.

I have never seen an economic system that enhanced fun in any way, shape, or form. The best ones were merely window-dressing that added a bit of pointless make-work for a short, inoffensive amount of time but had no real impact on game-play and don't do anything positive or negative. (The aforementioned "DICE" system someone touted falls into this category from the brief coverage given.)

I am, however, willing to be convinced otherwise; I'm not going to say "I'll never play in a game that has an economic system". I just can't really help come up with one because I can't even conceive of an economic system that would enhance fun.

@Ganymede said in Where's your RP at?:

If you can sell me on the value add, I'm down for anything. It's just ... a really tough sell given that I've never seen one that added anything I value.

That's sort of the point of asking you to help me conceive of one. You say there's something lacking in every system you've encountered. So, define it, and help me figure out a way to meet that need you perceive.

Well, the first thing I need is an answer to this question:

0. What does an economic system bring to the table that enhances my fun?

Because that's what any system added to a game needs to do: enhance fun in some way. I've not yet heard a convincing answer to this question. I'm open to the idea that such an answer is possible, however.

Now for ways in which economic systems interfere with fun, here are a list of conflicting forces at work:

1. Economic systems have a tendency to turn into grind-fests that are an end unto themselves as you struggle with them at length trying to get ahead (or, in some cases, just stay afloat). They turn into a boring, repetitive mini-game that starts to take hours and time away from actually doing things that are actively fun.
2. Economic systems have a tendency to reward people with no lives at the expense of people with lives. I have a very few hours per week to actively play. Aside from the #1 problem already chewing into that time, I'm at a horrific disadvantage in most economic systems when faced with someone who has eight hours a day to farm whatever it is that the economic system farms.
3. Not all economic systems have this farming thing. Or they limit it in some way that makes it so that the eight-hour-per-day-no-life-loser doesn't dominate. What then appears to invariably happen is that the economic system becomes pointless. It's just an extra command or ten you issue upon connecting and then never use again. It's a dunsel, pure and simple. The game would be largely identical without it; you'd only just lose a few commands issued at connection time.
4. Not everybody actually gives a shit about being an economist. Not everybody wants to do crafting/hunting/trading/whatever for money. So just like, say, someone not interested in combat will avoid combat, someone not interested in economics will avoid the economic system. But most games that aren't pathologically combat-oriented give you things you can do that aren't combat. Most economic systems (that aren't #3 dunsels) are all-pervading.

For an example illustrating these, I was on a Star Wars game that had an economic system. Out of the gate you could barely own a weapon. Armour? A vehicle? An actual SPACE SHIP? Not. A. Fucking. Chance. The game had what amounted to vending machines all over to buy things. After three months of playing I still couldn't afford a basic defensive vest. Why? Because I didn't do the #1 grind. Those who did the grinding highlighted problem #2.

Finally I hitched up with a player who had a suspiciously large number of resources. Like so suspiciously large that I'm pretty sure there was no way it was obtained using the game systems as-was. At that point I was just having money thrown at me whenever I needed it. The economic system became a #3 dunsel. It was nothing; less than nothing to me. If I wanted to buy something and it was even vaguely appropriate for my character, my IC patron just threw cash at me. The economic system was just window dressing; a series of commands I had to occasionally use to put a new piece of equipment in my kit.

And ... I'm not sure it's possible to make an economics system that doesn't exhibit at least two of the above problems.

@Ganymede said in RL Anger:

Not my generation. That's more of an American Gen-X thing that leaked outside of US borders slowly. By the time it became mainstream in Canada it was way beyond my generation's influence.

The fuck it was. I'm not that much younger than you, and my generation's teachers allowed it to continue.

Weird. I never saw medals for participation or "least best" prizes or the like until I was looooooooooooooooooooooong out of high school. I was positively gobsmacked when I read a report card that didn't have any marks in it.

@Ganymede said in Where's your RP at?:

@WTFE
Feel like working with me on an economy system?

If you can sell me on the value add, I'm down for anything. It's just ... a really tough sell given that I've never seen one that added anything I value.

Fair cop. Sparky was obviously not a techie.

@Nietzsche said in RL Anger:

@Tyche said in RL Anger:

@Nietzsche said in RL Anger:

The amount of butthurt in this thread over the fact that I said 35+-year-olds typically can't use computers is hilarious, as though this is some kind of controversial opinion, as opposed to an observable fact. Sensitive, much?

Apparently millennials think phones are for sending text messages and desktop computers are for talking to people. Clearly this is ass backwards.

Apparently Gen X/Boomers don't realize that unless they're still using that rotary phone they inherited from their parents, their phone probably is a computer. It's a common misconception among people age 35 and older that if the operating system was released after Windows 98, or there is no CRT monitor, that it doesn't qualify as a "computer."

It's so cute to watch the "techie" call his phone A computer…

I just hit the web site. It's a furry site, isn't it?

wincing

ERP?