@helvetica all the @Alveraxus account does is shamelessly self promote their game and how they do things Different.
also this is all conjecture and rumor but there’s a suggestion that @mangosplitz and @Alveraxus might be the same person in which case it’s kinda gross that they’d use one account to bash Concordia and another to promote how their game does it better >.>
I would like the record to reflect that I just threw what I felt was some well-earned shade. I didn’t come for anybody’s neck. That said, people are on these streets making @bear_necessities and I agree on things.
Yeah, point taken. Wasn’t my intent, just thought it was an interesting discussion on a topic relevant to my interests, but I see how it could be taken that way looking back at the comments. My apologies.
(sorry for the late reply to this, it just felt like a big question to answer)
I think there is a mix to be found?
Speaking from my experience as a gay man, I played on a lot of RPI MUDs before I found MUSH games, and many of them would say something like “We allow LGBT characters! We have no rule against it!!” but would leave out the context that the IC world was heavily biased against it and that whenever an LGBT character became known, they would be swiftly murdered in short order, as an example.
TW: Transphobic violence
In fact, in one game I played on, killing a player would leave that player’s corpse as an object, which players could leave a pose/status on for anyone who walked through the grid space subsequently to see. It was meant to be used as a bit of immersive worldbuilding. Walking in on the corpse of one of my character’s friends (a trans woman) and seeing exactly how (and how apparently gleefully) my fellow players had chosen to describe mutilating her body was one of the most disturbing experiences I have had on any MU game and put me off the genre completely for a number of years.
So, discovering MUSH games which seemed largely to have moved past that was a revelation. I am happy almost every MUSH I have played was happy with me wanting to play a character who represents me, for example. I would not want to play on any game which centred real world themes of racism/homophobia/misogyny and other issues like that, because I ultimately MU as a form of escapism.
If a MU game wanted to incorporate other elements - L&L games for example, almost always deal with issues of classism to some extent, though in a far more high fantasy setting than we might experience day to day. Or a fantasy game where there was a racial prejudice between elves and dwarves, or something. I think for me those are much more deal-able with and tend to be slightly less visceral because there is an added layer of separation.
Obviously as players we all have prejudices and blind spots that we can’t help but bring IC with us, but in terms of my MU games I would generally prefer the common modern prejudices not to be there, even if the world is flawed in other ways.
But then that is also just my subjective feelings on the subject. So someone else might feel differently (and rightly so).
In fact, in one game I played on, killing a player would leave that player’s corpse as an object, which players could leave a pose/status on for anyone who walked through the grid space subsequently to see. It was meant to be used as a bit of immersive worldbuilding. Walking in on the corpse of one of my character’s friends (a trans woman) and seeing exactly how (and how apparently gleefully) my fellow players had chosen to describe mutilating her body was one of the most disturbing experiences I have had on any MU game and put me off the genre completely for a number of years.
Mild Bummer Peeve: Introduced idea of Thing to Do, got undermined with this “ok, but” attitude and the moment passed. Which is what it is… like, if someone isn’t interested in doing what you’re doing, that’s life. Except the vibe shift almost took permission away from other people to show interest? I know that gatekeeping was not at all the intention. Which is all me overthinking the sentiment: this was disappointing and getting that momentum back during a hard work week didn’t happen as naturally as I would have liked.
Side peeve: why do games insist that they are in beta for years?
Agreed. I wish that MU*s used the alpha/beta/gold terminology like most video games do. It would make it much clearer what stage of development the game is in and what sort of experience to expect.
Alpha: Hammering on theme and systems, making sure there aren’t any obvious bugs.
Beta: Testing with a wider audience, looking for anything that a smaller alpha group didn’t find.
Gold: Ready for full release to the public – changes can still come when necessary (patches!).
everyone wants to take down The Man! everyone has different ideas for how to do it and wants the credit
Everyone wants to take down The Man, until they themselves are The Man, at which point everyone else has to be delighted with the idea and nothing can ever go wrong ever again…
Feeling like … I can only scene with you as long as I am very polite and mindful and watch my step and am on my best behaviour. Which is a very reasonable thing to expect of anyone. But also I don’t like feeling tense like that, so if RP always feels like a first date or a job interview, I think I would rather just avoid and hang out with friends who take themselves less seriously and let me fart around.
Feeling like … I can only scene with you as long as I am very polite and mindful and watch my step and am on my best behaviour.
This is death to me and any kind of interesting RP interaction. Also just…human interaction. Because when this happens it doesn’t feel like these people want courtesy or basic consideration, it feels like they want me to prioritize them at all times and edit my behavior to some moving goalpost that’ll please them and…no.
If it feels like someone is constantly on a hair trigger waiting to flip out about the smallest thing, I wish them well and get the fuck out of there. Life is too short to walk on eggshells. And as already stated, the goalposts always seem to change.
Mild Bummer Peeve: Introduced idea of Thing to Do, got undermined with this “ok, but” attitude and the moment passed. Which is what it is… like, if someone isn’t interested in doing what you’re doing, that’s life. Except the vibe shift almost took permission away from other people to show interest? I know that gatekeeping was not at all the intention. Which is all me overthinking the sentiment: this was disappointing and getting that momentum back during a hard work week didn’t happen as naturally as I would have liked.
but also taking a break is valid if you need one
, got undermined with this “ok, but” attitude and the moment passed. Which is what it is… like, if someone isn’t interested in doing what you’re doing, that’s life. Except the vibe shift almost took permission away from other people to show interest? I know that gatekeeping was not at all the intention. Which is all me overthinking the sentiment: this was disappointing and getting that momentum back during a hard work week didn’t happen as naturally as I would have liked.