MU Peeves Thread

Coin

@Coin My current mush project that I’m working on is kind of taking the idea of blending tabletop groups with a main storyline for a small group of players (as in between 8 to 12 players) which is done live and then the players can do whatever between those events.

So like, one weekly or bi-weekly event that pushes the game narrative and then players can do whatever in between those sessions.

Granted, I think this is only something that can be done pointedly on smaller size. But it’s the current format I plan on experimenting more with. And this was done solely as a way to try and find some kind of middle ground. If it works, well, we’ll see I guess.

The problem I’ve found with tabletop-style games among MUers (especially with a text medium) is that they lose interest and a lack of a bigger world around them with more players to interact with more consistently makes it hard for them to keep motivation. But I hope you can tackle that hurdle successfully!

KarmaBum

@Coin said in MU Peeves Thread:

a majority of scenes on, primarily Ares, games tend to be asynch or long-running and slow-paced, pose-wise.

This depends on the game.

18/30 recent scenes on Zombies wrapped in “real-time.” Looks like Shattered has an even higher ratio. Keys and Network tilt the other direction and have more async than traditional scenes.

Different games, different philosophies.

Testament

@Coin I also think smaller games are going to be more a trend we’re going to see. Especially as the larger mushing playerbase continues to age.

Speaking from my own experience anyways, I’ve found it’s been better for my patience and the ability to get involved if there’s an active GM not having to wrangle 40, 50, 60 players.

Tez

@KarmaBum

Definitely agree with this. I think it is more an issue of games than servers. Different game cultures skew in different ways. I do think that Ares has enabled the asynch crew and made it easier for them, but I don’t think that using Ares necessarily leads to that.

Selira

@Wizz As others have said, it tends to be a thing in the Ares games I’ve tried. And again, it’s fine! Just means those ones probably aren’t ones I can commit to, even as much as I love the premises, because they don’t work for my brain.

Third Eye

@Tez said in MU Peeves Thread:

@KarmaBum

Definitely agree with this. I think it is more an issue of games than servers. Different game cultures skew in different ways.

This has been my experience as well, though as Ares gets ‘older’ (was looking at my BSU logs from 2017 and thinking about how that was like 6 years ago at this point, oh time) I feel like games have to do more expectation management about this with players and I’m not sure what the best way to do that is. Beyond clearly stating whether real-time or async play is the norm/what’s done by GMs in staff scenes, but it takes a while to internalize that even if people read it.

I’m sorta curious if other codebases like Evennia will adopt ways to do something resembling async (I know Arx has flashbacks but in my experience they never worked super well and were definitely never a focus), but it’s possible RPers who want that experience are more apt to drift to Discord or journal games if they can’t find what they want in an Ares box.

Pavel

@Third-Eye said in MU Peeves Thread:

2017 and thinking about how that was like 6 years ago at this point, oh time

THIS IS NOW MY PEEVE THANK YOU

Roz

@Selira said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Wizz Meanwhile a peeve of mine is how widespread asynch games are, and that I really don’t have the brainspace or capability of doing them well, or the ability for that kind of long-term focus on one scene.

I’m the same way. I know the best solution is to have a balance of games focused on different styles, but I do still get a little twinge when folks talk about async saving the hobby re: folks getting older, because if async takes over the hobby, I’ll pretty much be out.

Ashkuri

Real-time scenes that are easy to pause and then pick up again is where it’s at

shit-piss-love

I just can’t maintain an interest in async scenes but I also don’t really have a life that allows time for real-time so that’s really why I have not played a game in five years.

icanbeyourmuse

I don’t care if scenes get paused and continued. I’ve done that. But the scenes done on websites I forget they even exist most of the time. So, I prefer ‘real time’, even if it is paused and what not.

KarmaBum

I just like to play.

I have a preference for pacing, but enh. Whatever works.

Cobalt

@mietze God, I saw this so much on xWoD games. It felt like every time I had someone as an admin to my sphere who wasn’t already a friend of mine that was male I had to fight with them one everything. Back on TR there was a staffer who literally quit working in spheres if there was a female spherewiz. I was out right told once “blah won’t work with you because you’re female, and he doesn’t work under females”.

I get that staffing for MU is a volunteer gig and not the same, but image saying that to your manager in an RL work place?

Cobalt

@Wizz said in MU Peeves Thread:

Common peeve but I kinda wish there was a paradigm shift and live scenes stopped being such a focus on most games. I just can’t do three hour blocks anymore, for a lot of reasons, and it’s hard not to feel like I’m somehow being rude when people ask for them on channels and I can’t jump in.

Meanwhile, my peeve is when I do carve out time to do a “live action” scene and people take an hour to pose. I don’t have a lot of time and my attention span isn’t great anymore.

I’m 100% ok with async or slow pace scenes.

But if I’m trying to actively storytell and there is a person who its their time to pose and the last person hasn’t posed in half an hour I start to think about all the other shit I could be doing and start to get antsy.

Wizz

@Cobalt said in MU Peeves Thread:

I was out right told once “blah won’t work with you because you’re female, and he doesn’t work under females”.

What a dick, I’m sorry.

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Polk

@Cobalt said in MU Peeves Thread:

@mietze God, I saw this so much on xWoD games. It felt like every time I had someone as an admin to my sphere who wasn’t already a friend of mine that was male I had to fight with them one everything. Back on TR there was a staffer who literally quit working in spheres if there was a female spherewiz. I was out right told once “blah won’t work with you because you’re female, and he doesn’t work under females”.

I get that staffing for MU is a volunteer gig and not the same, but image saying that to your manager in an RL work place?

Sheesh. If someone like that were on a game I ran, I’d excuse that person from playing on the game entirely.

Straight To Jail.gif

If you can’t be respectful to women in authority, then I don’t trust you to be respectful of women as peer players or STing you, either.

Snackness

At this point, I’ll play at whatever pace someone wants to play.

tsar

I left my job of many years for a much better job but holy shit am I tired all of the time now. I just want to not be tired. I want to feel like I’m not scraping the bottom of the barrel for my creativity. I want to feel like I’m not falling into the FOMO pit.

I know it’s temporary and that by September I’ll probably be in a good groove and things won’t be as draining, but GD. I have so few hobbies and this is one of them, lol.

Cobalt

@Polk Back in The Reach times people weren’t as willing to call others out on their bullshit. Or maybe it was just he was someone’s friend? idk.

I much prefer the games we have these days, where shit like this doesn’t fly anymore.

Faraday

@Third-Eye said in MU Peeves Thread:

I feel like games have to do more expectation management about this with players and I’m not sure what the best way to do that is. Beyond clearly stating whether real-time or async play is the norm/what’s done by GMs in staff scenes, but it takes a while to internalize that even if people read it.

I don’t really see why this is on the games or game-runners.

Players just need to communicate. If you like live, quick scenes - say so. Find like-minded players on the game. If there aren’t any, that’s probably not the right game for you.

It’s no different than people liking different kinds of RP. If the majority of players on a particular game like big bar scenes and I prefer one-on-one, that’s not a problem with the game - let alone the game server.

Async RP on MUSHes has existed for as long as MUSHes have; it just wasn’t as visible because it was happening in Google docs, across livejournal posts, emails, etc.