@helvetica We might be thinking of anthology games differently? I was thinking more like HorrorMu or Network, where you had an identity during the “season” and a real persona during the downtime, and those seasons changed up every 3-4 months. So a 12 month game entirely would probably not be very satisfying in that sort of dynamic.

I really like the idea of games being self-contained. I.E. we are here for 12 months to tell this story, and in 12 months it will be over. I wish more games did that instead of open-ended “small / big town supernatural” esque sort of thing.

@helvetica Do you mean 12 months in a single “chapter” or “season” of the anthology, or 12 months in total for the game itself? I’d wonder if a 12 month “chapter/season” would kind of defeat the purpose of the anthology, but that could be because my personal fatigue over a setting sets in around the 4-5 month mark.

Do you feel like this puts extra work / fatigue on a gamerunner? From a GM perspective, as I sit here and ponder the likelihood of my running another game, I have thought a lot about the 3 month bubble but not from the side of potential players and more from the side of myself. I’m the type of person that regularly has 3-4 worlds building in her head at any one given time … for me personally, the idea of running a single world for months and months (or even years) is so uninspiring to me that I actually give up before I even put pen to paper.

It’s why I’ve thought a lot more about anthology games, because at least then I can switch it up every few months (cowboys today, regency tomorrow!) but then I get stuck on the question of downtime and wander away from that idea too lol

Because I thought @Ashkuri’s post was a good topic of discussion and one I was actually thinking about today:

@Ashkuri said in MU Peeves Thread:

Even with all that effort, people naturally lose interest in the game/story over time. Very few people are stay to the end people, which is the nature of the medium. I think persevering through the fatigue of “does anyone even care?” is another kind of staff work, perhaps one that doesn’t get talked about a lot.

What’s stopping you from being a stay to the end person? Or, alternatively, what makes/made you a stay to the end person?

I don’t think I’ve ever “finished” a MUSH in my lifetime, not even the MUSHes I helped create. I certainly finished storylines - Gray Harbor comes to mind, I feel like we told a story that was relatively complete but people wanted to keep going so we let them. But I’ve never finished a MUSH. Mostly because when I’m done with my character, I stop being interested in the game itself - my storyline is over, I’ve got my own head canon, and I am OK with that.

What’re your thoughts?

@sao said in Grid vs Web Scenes:

because apparently knowing where you are in rp is critically important.

this is why I came up with “Somewhere out there” and “Textlandia” as locations because I am, in fact, out there somewhere.

@Trashcan Oh shit! I stand corrected, that’s a pretty cool metric.

@Trashcan I’m not sure how you would be able to “see” it happening because there’s no indication one way or another if a scene was started from the grid or started from the web. I will say that in my very early Ares days, I would start scenes from the grid all the time.

It is only recently (when Ares got rid of their web portal thing) that I stopped logging into the game, because I don’t have a MUSH client. So now I just use the buttons on the website. But I know a lot of people that still log into Ares using a MUSH client and start scenes from the grid.

@Trashcan I think what is meant by starting a scene from the grid is that you can be on a MUSH client and scene/start in any room on the grid.

Theoretically, if connected to a client, you COULD go into a room on the grid and pose into the void. But without starting a scene, no one would know you have a scene there, and it would require pretty random chance for someone else to also be connected to a client and wander into your space on the grid at the same time.

I wonder if it would make a difference if scenes started from the web defaulted to open. I don’t know. I think when Ares games initially became a thing, open scenes were a lot more prevalent. But again, that also was a time where ‘live’ or traditionally-paced scenes were more of a thing. Now-a-days, I rarely see open scenes ever, and I usually don’t join them when I do see them because I cannot keep up with a live pace.

@Third-Eye said in RP Safari - Pacing Styles:

I’ve wondered recently how much of this is changing player expectations from the people who were always on the platform 5+ years ago, when the first Ares games like Spirit Lake and Gray Harbor were around,

So when I created Gray Harbor with KB, I feel like async wasn’t really as much of a thing? All our events were generally live, we would have a lot of open scenes going that were live, and I specifically was not a fan of letting scenes go for several days at a time. I could be misremembering, but async scenes at that time felt like they were more for people having 1 on 1s or for European players.

But I will say I have seen a shift towards scenes taking longer, lasting longer and longer, async being a “thing” moreso than ever. And I specifically just … don’t have the energy for live scenes anymore. I get too distracted, I don’t really want to sit at my computer for 2-3 hours at a time, and even though I still do a vast majority of my posing from work, my brain just always isn’t here for quick back and forths.

Maybe it’s a post-pandemic thing. I’m tired, man. I know a lot of people are. Maybe it’s a current state of games thing, because I really haven’t felt “energized” to play on public games like I have been in the past. IDK!

@Faraday said in RP Safari - Pacing Styles:

I’m not sure how you define “few” but there are 16 currently open public ones and that’s actually the majority of the open Ares games in total.

I’m actually sorry for saying that because I was definitely putting bias on it, I was really only looking at games with 4 or 5 stars.

ETA: And ignoring the comic book games admittedly

@Trashcan said in RP Safari - Pacing Styles:

I’m not saying we’re drowning in games where this is happening, but I am saying “none” is not accurate.

Yeah I’m definitely not saying none! Just was trying to answer Faraday’s question the best i can with the information that’s accessible.

@Pavel That’s sort of what I was questioning above.

Like seriously, if you are having live RP, where are you having it? Is it JUST Silent Haven for live RP? Is it in private Ares games? Discord? I’m curious.

@Pavel Point. Counterpoint: many of the recent scenes aren’t particularly recent, either, which again points to the conclusion I was able to draw from the active scene list.

It’s not a bad thing, it’s not negative at all to either of these games. It’s just a mismatch from what people say they prefer to reality, which was @Faraday 's question to begin with.

@Pavel OK well since I’m obviously wrong, please tell me how these games promote a live scene culture.

If a majority of scenes on the “active scenes” list began several days ago and are still ongoing, and nearly every single scene on the “recent scene list” are also several days old (versus, say, from yesterday or even two days ago), how does that say “live” to you?

The argument is that people prefer scenes that: a) are not async, b) are taking 7-10 minutes between poses, and c) end within the day.

Nothing in the active scenes or recent scenes list of either of these games suggest that’s what is happening.

@Trashcan said in RP Safari - Pacing Styles:

Empty Night and Aegis Company both have a heavy majority of ‘traditional’ pacing scenes listed in their 10+ active scenes. There are probably others.

If I had to guess, that’s a result of the play screen defaulting to traditional pacing rather than actual intention. Just looking at Empty Night, of the active scenes listed as “traditional” pacing, only one of them was started today. Many of them were started several days (if not a week+ ago). Aegis Company seems to be largely the same as far as scene date and last activity go.

To me, the active scene list on either of those games does not seem to promote a “live” scene culture.

@Faraday said in RP Safari - Pacing Styles:

If live is everyone’s preference, why aren’t there more live scenes? What’s stopping you? Ares, for example, lets you spin up a scene and mark the pacing expectation. Evennia/Rhost are still geared towards live RP overall. Where’s the obstacle? Is it just a scheduling thing?

If I had to guess, it’s happening on private games. There are very few public games on Ares, and none of them appear to have a “live scene” culture.

@Jumpscare if you’re doing that all in 4 poses, how are you reacting to the other person?

I can’t speak for KB as we are not the same people despite what some people may think, but I do have an easier time in async scenes where there is a purpose or a “bit”. If we’re robbing the 7-11 and chatting as we go about our relationship, I find it easier to engage in that vs us just … sitting in the living room, discussing our relationship.

Likewise, if I’m at an async dance party, I will have an easier time engaging in the async dance party if there’s an explosion happening. If we’re at an async dance party to stand around the refreshment table and talk about the Princess’s sparkly dress, Imma disengage fast.

@KarmaBum let’s go rob a 7-11!

Where are ya’ll playing that you’re finishing scenes in a day or less lol

@Roz Yeah I mean I’m not saying it didn’t happen. I definitely had 2 scenes going on Arx numerous times, plus probably a side scene in Discord. And I had a lot more energy back in my Arx days! But I do think that 3 scenes is vastly different from the scene counts I’ve had on Ares games, which could reach upwards of 5-6 on one game alone, all moving at various paces. At least my scenes on Arx were live-ish? Unless I was like LETS PAUSE AND RECONNECT TOMORROW AT 4PM.