I’m going to expand on a thought I had in the Neon Protocol thread.

I think it absolutely should be considered best practice for staff bits to have an Ares handle linked. I honestly don’t care if your average player has one linked, but staff feels different to me because of the power dynamic. It feels intentionally shady and I don’t see any legitimate reasons for it. To me, this feels like an entirely separate discussion from whether or not staff should disclose their PCs.

Apping into a game is an investment of time and energy, especially if you don’t half-ass it. People should be able to decide whether or not they want to invest that time and energy and if they are willing to have an unavoidable relationship with that staffer due to the nature of how games are run.

Why do I feel like I am reading a homework assignment from doomer accelerationist kindergarten

@Yam Absolutely. Blu and Road, I think, have a great reputation in that regard, as does Tat. Clockwork.

@labsunlimited Can you imagine how cool he felt writing that, dick in his hand, Dread up on a TOR browser so he can feel like a badass hacker when it’s really just Reddit for losers

Those ostentatiously self-impressed individuals who labor under the profoundly misguided delusion that composing sentences in this extravagantly baroque and needlessly loquacious fashion endows them with an aura of elevated intellect.

@Faraday Point absolutely taken. This conversation has, in a rare instance that I can’t recall seeing on the internet in many years, changed my understanding and stance on this.

I’d honestly take three months of good RP over a game that drags on and on past its expiration date

@Artemis I think you’re in good company, even if that’s not something people like to talk about.

While that ChatGPT Wikipedia guide is sort of okay, here are some really obvious tells that I’ve noticed.

“It’s not x. It’s y.”

“It’s x. And that matters.”

ChaGPT also likes the words “weight” and “pressure” a lot.

Here’s a style example:

It writes like this. Short sentences. And then starting a sentence with a conjunction. That’s why each paragraph has weight, and that matters.

@bnuuy That’s rich coming from a guy who makes multiple socks on a MU forum to upvote himself.

@NotSanni Ten bucks says this is the same guy who did this sad display a few weeks ago. This is totally alpha job-having behavior.

Seanan McGuire? Really?

How did I not know this lore? Fuck. I love her books, but the more I think about it, the more her October Daye series feels like stolen MU logs for the first few. The entire tone and scope of the story changes wildly after like book three.

@NotSanni Oh, for sure.

@Pavel There’s not even internal consistency, forget about citations.

@Ashkuri

I can see privacy reasons mattering more for players. Staff are different. They have control over the game and you can’t avoid having to interact with them and be subject to their decisions on their game. I honestly can’t see any good reason for staff to hide their identity, and to me, that’s a red flag and a reason to avoid a game entirely.

@Faraday Absolutely. I am always willing to learn and I am willing to admit when I don’t have the expertise to make a good call and adjust accordingly.

I’m in the planning process of making a game and I’ve been thinking of ways to keep everything smooth an and safe. The thread about tough calls had me thinking: who are some players that I should consider pre-banning to prevent trouble?

I understand if this comes off as uncool and I apologize if it does.

@Necro Nah. It’s the fact that the two accounts were made at the exact same time about fifteen minutes ago. Doesn’t take a genius. It’s really sad that you can’t find somewhere to scream online that has more than like ten active users. You’re basically the human equivalent of the stench of BO and crusty cum sock and it’s really funny that you think this is… anything.

Have your tantrum, I guess. Mwah.

@Pavel I think it’s part and parcel. The overinvestment is both one of time and emotional connection. You see it in LARP as well – when people choose the imaginary life and identity over their real one, you get the recipe for Chernobyl-caliber meltdowns.

@Tez Absolutely, and I don’t give it logs that I wasn’t involved in, either. It really has been great for “oh fuck, what was that NPC’s name again”, because it keeps an updated running list of both pc and npcs from my logs, and it automatically updates its analysis of their current relationship with my pc. my memory isn’t what it used to be and it saves me from me forgetting that i had, in fact, interacted with another pc in the past. if i can’t recall, i’ll ask it “have i had a scene with x” and if the answer is yes, i’ll ask it for a brief summary of the interaction.

Like I said, I use it as an extension of my brain, filling in the gaps that my own neurons don’t seem to be able to hold onto as well as they used to. I wouldn’t want to RP with someone who was just using a LLM to write their poses, either. I just was pointing out a utility that I’ve found.

When it punches up lines, it pulls on my own writing for inspiration, and yeah, it sometimes hallucinates, so that’s why I, an actual human being, use my discretion about what to take from its suggestions.

I’ll concede to Roz’s point about ethics. That can be a valid point, and it’s one I’ll think about.