Okay, you can comment here now, because Facebook's interface makes me hate life and also because it's not like I can't keep track of two separate sets of comments
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My input from beyond the veil of timeunclejamAugust 24 2011, 21:48:40 UTC
Hello. I used to be Samael on VL. Sinistar will remember me I am sure, although neither of you two other folks were around.
I was probably one of the longest running staffers there, mostly beaten out by, well, Sinistar and also by Rubius (I can't even remember his admin handle right, haha).
Here is my advice.
* Stop using Facebook. I do not want to join a facebook group about a MUSH that exists or uses licensed properties. Use LJ instead. (Google+ or something as an interest group might work, I don't know their deal.) This is actually a mild concern for a lot of folks; I know for damn sure I wouldn't have wanted to give people I didn't want to talk to an aditional venue to try and bug me when I was trying to do something else.
* De-emphasize factional conflicts. If I had a dollar for every time I heard complaints about Fac-Palace, my great-aunt wouldn't have had to pay my college tuition. This should be a situation where, in fact, like a video game, you can get into arguments and even fights with just about anyone for completely stupid reasons. You can keep the Palace of Power and the like, but I would encourage trying for a situation where people are in these groups by choice or that there is some background ur-group which is sponsoring various iterations of the Great Lakes Avengers. This group can also provide a bboard (I would STRONGLY ADVICE against recreating Fac-Palace, hoo boy).
The bad guys can be somewhat more organized, but only somewhat.
Alternately, go for a RED/BLU model of organization. You can say that 'most' villain types who join up tend to be on BLU, and 'most' good guys who join up tend to be on RED, but...
Have comm channels be based on affinity groups, soem of which would need or want IC/OOC channels and some of which (GMs, TF2 guys) might just have O-channels.
* Encourage character distillation. By this I mean that people should be aiming at their character, so to speak, appearing in a crossover environment; they should figure out the broad strokes and stick mostly to that. This does not mean removing the fine details, it means that you are going with a crossover portrayal. The fine details can come up in plots using your content.
This is probably a clumsy way of saying it, but basically I am saying you probably want to encourage people to think more in the vein of 'the Smash Brothers/MvC version of their character' as their daily face. This also handily means that, for instance, whoever's apping Samus doesn't have to scream "KILL ME!" if Ridley escapes a battle or lick Adam's boots if she don't wanna.
* You can use complex details of your canon and the like for a plot, and it should of course always be fair to say 'I expect you not to cause permanent effects on my theme without my involvement or approval.' I will underline 'permanent.'
To make an analogy using a topic from VL's own lengthy history: It would be wrong for the TF2 guys to roll up to a Symphonia Human Ranch and blow it up, as these locations are the major bases of some big dudes who are 'distinctly appable PCs'. This would be a permanent change.
It would not be wrong for BLU Spy to be breaking into a human ranch's office as a set piece for having a knife fight with Solid Snake and causing dramatic explosions.
This is probably where I imagine you're going to have the most arguments, based on experience.
Re: My input from beyond the veil of timeunclejamAugust 24 2011, 21:50:58 UTC
since no edit:
It would be wrong for the TF2 guys to roll up to a Symphonia Human Ranch and blow it up, as these locations are the major bases of some big dudes who are 'distinctly appable PCs'. This would be a permanent change.
This would of course not be wrong if the guy owning that Human Ranch is down with having it destroyed; I mean here doing it in a vacuum. The converse is that if you're going to rub dudes' snouts into a thing they might want to do something about it, so, be prepared to do something about it; for instance Heavy and Medic might pop an uber and liberate a caravan of shackled humans, thus making a distinct blow but not destroying Halfelf-Birkenau out of nowhere.
Re: My input from beyond the veil of timecrossbone_xAugust 24 2011, 21:57:18 UTC
Facebook was never my idea, I hate and loathe it with all that I am. My coder talked me into it and within ten minutes of futzing with it I decided I didn't want to touch it ever again, hence me opening comments here.
Because god if it isn't awful. It's remaining up for the curious, but it's not going to be my primary means of talking.
As for factional conflicts:
I guess I'll just put up the next post, and start talking about what we have planned there, since that seems to be a big hot fear topic. It may clear up a lot of issues, I should hope.
As for encouraging character distillation, yes, that's also kind of a thing we're working on. The problem is that *forcing* something down a player's throat never works; a player who is given a character will put their own spin on the character no matter what.
You can lead a horse to water, yadda yadda.
And frankly, that's fine with me. It's not my job to tell people *how* to have fun. It's my job to encourage fun, and to make sure that nothing steps on that fun, but it's certainly not my right to tell people how to play, and I would never want to do so. All I do is provide the tools; it's ultimately the players' sandbox.
With metaplot running through it, of course, but you get the point.
I was probably one of the longest running staffers there, mostly beaten out by, well, Sinistar and also by Rubius (I can't even remember his admin handle right, haha).
Here is my advice.
* Stop using Facebook. I do not want to join a facebook group about a MUSH that exists or uses licensed properties. Use LJ instead. (Google+ or something as an interest group might work, I don't know their deal.) This is actually a mild concern for a lot of folks; I know for damn sure I wouldn't have wanted to give people I didn't want to talk to an aditional venue to try and bug me when I was trying to do something else.
* De-emphasize factional conflicts. If I had a dollar for every time I heard complaints about Fac-Palace, my great-aunt wouldn't have had to pay my college tuition. This should be a situation where, in fact, like a video game, you can get into arguments and even fights with just about anyone for completely stupid reasons. You can keep the Palace of Power and the like, but I would encourage trying for a situation where people are in these groups by choice or that there is some background ur-group which is sponsoring various iterations of the Great Lakes Avengers. This group can also provide a bboard (I would STRONGLY ADVICE against recreating Fac-Palace, hoo boy).
The bad guys can be somewhat more organized, but only somewhat.
Alternately, go for a RED/BLU model of organization. You can say that 'most' villain types who join up tend to be on BLU, and 'most' good guys who join up tend to be on RED, but...
Have comm channels be based on affinity groups, soem of which would need or want IC/OOC channels and some of which (GMs, TF2 guys) might just have O-channels.
* Encourage character distillation. By this I mean that people should be aiming at their character, so to speak, appearing in a crossover environment; they should figure out the broad strokes and stick mostly to that. This does not mean removing the fine details, it means that you are going with a crossover portrayal. The fine details can come up in plots using your content.
This is probably a clumsy way of saying it, but basically I am saying you probably want to encourage people to think more in the vein of 'the Smash Brothers/MvC version of their character' as their daily face. This also handily means that, for instance, whoever's apping Samus doesn't have to scream "KILL ME!" if Ridley escapes a battle or lick Adam's boots if she don't wanna.
* You can use complex details of your canon and the like for a plot, and it should of course always be fair to say 'I expect you not to cause permanent effects on my theme without my involvement or approval.'
I will underline 'permanent.'
To make an analogy using a topic from VL's own lengthy history:
It would be wrong for the TF2 guys to roll up to a Symphonia Human Ranch and blow it up, as these locations are the major bases of some big dudes who are 'distinctly appable PCs'. This would be a permanent change.
It would not be wrong for BLU Spy to be breaking into a human ranch's office as a set piece for having a knife fight with Solid Snake and causing dramatic explosions.
This is probably where I imagine you're going to have the most arguments, based on experience.
Reply
It would be wrong for the TF2 guys to roll up to a Symphonia Human Ranch and blow it up, as these locations are the major bases of some big dudes who are 'distinctly appable PCs'. This would be a permanent change.
This would of course not be wrong if the guy owning that Human Ranch is down with having it destroyed; I mean here doing it in a vacuum. The converse is that if you're going to rub dudes' snouts into a thing they might want to do something about it, so, be prepared to do something about it; for instance Heavy and Medic might pop an uber and liberate a caravan of shackled humans, thus making a distinct blow but not destroying Halfelf-Birkenau out of nowhere.
Reply
Because god if it isn't awful. It's remaining up for the curious, but it's not going to be my primary means of talking.
As for factional conflicts:
I guess I'll just put up the next post, and start talking about what we have planned there, since that seems to be a big hot fear topic. It may clear up a lot of issues, I should hope.
As for encouraging character distillation, yes, that's also kind of a thing we're working on. The problem is that *forcing* something down a player's throat never works; a player who is given a character will put their own spin on the character no matter what.
You can lead a horse to water, yadda yadda.
And frankly, that's fine with me. It's not my job to tell people *how* to have fun. It's my job to encourage fun, and to make sure that nothing steps on that fun, but it's certainly not my right to tell people how to play, and I would never want to do so. All I do is provide the tools; it's ultimately the players' sandbox.
With metaplot running through it, of course, but you get the point.
Reply
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