Ares: Client or Portal?

[Roz]

I’M CURIOUS. On Ares games, how do you engage between a client and/or portal? For the sake of the poll, I’m focused on the stuff you’d generally be doing on the Play page of the portal: scenes, pages, channels, etc. Stuff like looking up character pages, theme files, etc. – things that you’d also do on a game wiki for MUX or MUSH – you can disregard.

This is entirely just out of random curiosity after starting on an Ares game again!

HOPEFULLY I GOT ALL THE OPTIONS PEOPLE NEED THIS TIME.

ETA: Wow sorry about the order of the poll options, I originally wrote them in an order that made sense!!

[Clarion]

Entirely portal, even when doing F3 combat. The portal is kind of terrible for that but TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE and so I stubbornly persist.

(A lot of work has clearly been done to make F3 combat stuff work on portal, which I’m very appreciative of! It’s just, uh, clunky.)

[Third Eye]

I’m almost always logged in on both. I prefer to pose, read bbposts, and check jobs on the portal but for most other stuff I’m in client. Part of it’s old habits, I’m sure, but I also just think it’s more user-friendly for channel chatter and +rolling/combat.

[Testament]

On both. Easier to talk on chans on client, pose in scenes on portal.

Speaking of, the next poll may want to see if people prefer live scenes or slower ones. Because the more Ares games I see, the more I notice how a lot of the scenes are a lot slower.

[Roz]

For me, I do most things on the client still. If I’m scening in a portal, it’s usually because I’m already in a scene on the client.

@Testament said in Ares: Client or Portal?:

Speaking of, the next poll may want to see if people prefer live scenes or slower ones. Because the more Ares games I see, the more I notice how a lot of the scenes are a lot slower.

Anyone can make a poll!

[Ashkuri]

@Roz said in Ares: Client or Portal?:

If I’m scening in a portal, it’s usually because I’m already in a scene on the client.

Same for me. Prefer client, but may be using portal if I’m trying to operate in two lanes. I also use the portal if quickly responding and don’t want to log in and let myself get distracted by channels and things.

“Text” scenes are much easier for me in portal for whatever reason. Combat is far far easier for me in client.

I almost always have portal and client up at the same time.

[bear_necessities]

@Testament I can’t find it now but I am 100000% sure we have had the “async or no” poll/thread/conversation before.

I’m almost exclusively portal except for a few very specific situations like combat where I feel more comfortable using Beip. But TBH I’ve been getting more and more used to combat on the portal.

[KarmaBum]

I still play combat on a client just 'cause I type faster than I click buttons, but that’s so rare that it’s functionally just the portal for me.

The only reason I login to the MUSH anymore is to test roll/private.

[Faraday]

Client for RP/chat, portal for everything else. Browser notifications are not compatible with my ADHD. I rely on the dock icon too much.

@Clarion said in Ares: Client or Portal?:

(A lot of work has clearly been done to make F3 combat stuff work on portal, which I’m very appreciative of! It’s just, uh, clunky.)

OMG it’s so clunky I’m amazed anyone even can use it, lol. It didn’t evolve much past the “huh I wonder if I can make this work” stage.

[Pavel]

I’m in the ‘mostly client but if I’m in more than one scene I’ll portal it up’. With one exception: I always CG on the portal. It’s just so nifty.

[DrQuinn]

Both. I haven’t figured out how to multitask in the portal yet, so I missed a page once and felt REALLY bad about it, so I keep the client open for pages/bboard stuff and do everything else in the portal.

[Polk]

I’d probably like Ares more if more players did as I do: using telnet for everything but the occasional sheet/profile update.

[Twinkle]

@Polk I’m not trying to be a jerk for asking this, I’m genuinely curious, but what does it matter what other players do? If they’re comfortable with using Ares, why do they need to use telnet to access it?

[Coin]

@Polk said in Ares: Client or Portal?:

I’d probably like Ares more if more players did as I do: using telnet for everything but the occasional sheet/profile update.

@Twinkle said in Ares: Client or Portal?:

@Polk I’m not trying to be a jerk for asking this, I’m genuinely curious, but what does it matter what other players do? If they’re comfortable with using Ares, why do they need to use telnet to access it?

For reals, this seems like a really strange take, at least without some serious context.

[Faraday]

@Twinkle said in Ares: Client or Portal?:

If they’re comfortable with using Ares, why do they need to use telnet to access it?

I don’t want to speak for Polk because I don’t know what they meant, but I can say that for many folks:

• web RP = async RP
• telnet RP = sync RP

You can do either form of RP with either technology, but in practice you do see more async RP from portal and more sync RP from client. So that can lead to some different perspectives.

[Raeras]

I primarily play on the portal. Clients have always stressed me out so I latched on to the Web Portal pretty quickly xD. But sometimes I’ll use a client to eye chat or, if I’m at work, to keep up with when it’s my turn to pose

[Roadspike]

I use portal for everything except combat and if I’m RPing in a big scene. If I’m in a big scene, I want to be able to focus everything on one ‘window’ so I can keep my head in things. And while portal combat is functional, I’ve learned the commands well enough that client combat is just so much quicker and easier for me.

I //have// noticed that it’s easier for me to miss a PM on the portal than the client, but I usually notice them in time. Usually.

[Pavel]

One solitary thing I’d change on the portal? When I get a notification (either the pop up or in the notification feed section), I’d like to be able to click it to be taken to wherever that notification points to.

But my coding ability ends at being able to make my computer produce the magic smoke whenever I try, so, I’ll leave that as a suggestion and not a demand.

[Polk]

@Twinkle The reason it matters is that when the majority of Ares players are doing async scenes in the web portal, you really can’t play Ares in a telnet client the traditional way.

The whole grid-immersive-pickup-RP sort of style goes out the window. Even if Ares supports it, the player base doesn’t.

And I like grid-immersive-pickup-RP.

[Pavel]

@Polk said in Ares: Client or Portal?:

The whole grid-immersive-pickup-RP sort of style goes out the window.

Honestly, that kind of RP, outside of a small handful of places, seems to have waved to the dodo as it wandered deep into extinction. At least from my anecdotal experience.

So it’s less of an Ares problem, and more of a changing tastes situation.