@Jumpscare Walkable cities is a whole 'nother can of worms.

@Trashcan said in AI Megathread:

There were about 6 million auto accidents in 2022. If the self-driving car (extrapolated to the whole population) would have caused 5 million accidents, it would be better.

Lol man, I have to agree. I realize that we’re generally anti-generative AI in art/writing here but I’ll be honest, if the computer drives the car better than my anxious ass, I’ll ride along.

Just to summarize, and please correct me, Trashcan thinks that SOME amount of false positives (1%) using tools is acceptable in the fight against AI and Faraday thinks that ZERO amount of false positives using tools is acceptable in the fight against AI? Am I understanding that you think its better to trust your gut here, Faraday?

@Jumpscare Oh my god.

I was just reminded by @Trashcan of the statue command. Also known as the toad command in other systems. Has anyone ever used these? What was the situation?

You’re SO GOOD

@hellfrog Yeah. You might want to be generous and lenient, but your playerbase still has to manage this person. Sometimes they manage to play around this person. Sometimes they just move on. Orrrr sometimes they get tangled up in this person’s nonsense and question why they even have this hobby.

Some thoughtful answers here, thanks gang. I always appreciate staff that take care in this regard. The wrong kind of player can absolutely kill your game, even if all they do is make your ass tired. Problem player burns your playerbase out, dead. Problem player burns YOU out, dead.

It’s true that it’s very easy to boot off someone that’s being inconsiderate. Like, it’s very easy to be considerate. Really! But it’s way harder to boot off someone that you KNOW is TRULY just having it rough and they probably shouldn’t really be on a game but here they are and now there’s problems and the OTHER side is being a bit shitty, perhaps understandably and it’s just… bleh. I don’t think people can really guard against it. Perhaps this is why I’m so eager to try to nip it in the bud in strangers.

@Pavel I guess at least I can be happy that I’m self aware.

@Pavel Eh I’m all talk. I make sad eyes at fellow staffers to do the dirty work, and if they don’t I just scowl about the injustices of everything. This is my attempt to vent to the forum instead of a friend discord where I thrash my pals mercilessly.

@Faraday You earnestly think it’s okay for people to address others this way? To be snarky? To be dickish? To accuse someone of maliciously ignoring jobs? It’s okay for them to expect some kind of service, and when they don’t get it, deride someone’s hard work, something a game runner poured their heart into? Do you think these people can be coached into acting like a model MUSHer with a gentle warning? A second chance? A strike system? Do you think they won’t cause problems down the line?

I know you, personally, have a very long fuse. I’ve seen you tolerate a lot of bullshit. I’ve seen people be real assholes towards you and your work. It sucks. I probably lack an objective view of this, as all I have are battle scars from people that were given second, third, fourth chances.

Game runners! You don’t have to tolerate this crap. It’s 2025. It is exceptionally easy to be respectful of other people, not some insurmountable task. We’re a dwindling community. There aren’t a ton of games left where this attitude will fly anymore. These tough calls suck to make, but you either curate your playerbase, or you end up with a very specific type of game.

Do we ever learn anything? Ever?

@catzilla Possibly. I have vague memories of folk coming out of the woodwork.

@Faraday Do you recall ol’ OnceWas?

Minus one Michelin star for “unclear help file” work.

If a system is supposed to work a specific way, say it is supposed to work that way. If it isn’t, update a file or something, maybe?

This was basically enough to get OnceWas banned. This person was freshly new. This is the most hair trigger case I can think of. He was immediately shown the door, although he was sure to kinda’ buckle down on his stance. Mild, probably, but no one wanted to deal with it.

I’m unclear of what your threshold is, as I recall you were not very approving of this behavior.

We do actually have data on how people say that want to be directly told things but then no one actually wants to do that apparently.

I have no idea what to make of it.

@Meg That’s valid. I don’t think anyone is actually all that hair trigger. Someone mentioned that there’s a lot the playerbase doesn’t actually see, as staff gets clues from the first login of the potential player, the application, the response to the application, etc. They build up a profile.

I’m not sure anyone is like… immediately banning people for brusquely asking questions. I can think of one player that began with a VERY bad impression on a game I helped run and I wanted them to be shown the door immediately. My fellow staffers told me to chill. This person stuck around for a bit and were more or less fine. Not a huge problem, not a huge asset. Just there. I don’t really think I would’ve missed them if they were nudged off. <<;

I do kinda’ feel like… as a hobby, we need a masterclass on how to take a hint through text.

For me, I look for enthusiasm and actual action. I give someone time to reach out to me. All it takes is a few instances of someone reaching out for me to understand that this person does indeed want to hang.

If I reach out and get a response, but it’s very lukewarm and they don’t actually follow up, or offer very little assistance in the way of actually planning a scene, I take the hint. Saves us both the trouble. I’ll ask twice, generally, and see if there’s any connection there, but no more.

If NO ONE engages with me after I put in some moderate effort to be fun and friendly on channels and offer to run scenes or Do A Thing, then I tend to write off the crowd as not a good fit for me and move on.

People offer public games because sometimes you get some really cool randos that turn out to be awesome. The tradeoff is that you may have to be firm with some of the bad randos.

I’ve seen folk get kindly shown the door during the CG process, so that is indeed a thing that can work, if the process is long enough for them to display their overall… vibes in public, I guess.

Like that whole PVP thing… I think people are fresh off of many years of “well they’re just being a little rude, no need to slam them into oblivion-- oh no. Oh no, they’ve spun out. They’re unpleasant to staff for, and now my players wont ask on the LFRP channel for fear of dealing with this person, but I cannot ban them now, we’re kind of friends :/”

@helvetica Lmfao ahahaha

ETA: TO BE CLEAR to everyone Tez abuses me with love, don’t worry. She’s not a forum despot.

HAVE WE GONE TOO FAR WITH BANNING??