mehtastic
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Post by mehtastic on Oct 16, 2019 20:02:50 GMT -5
Also to address the idea that staff are anti-pk. That is ludicrous, in fact I would argue quite the opposite. I think I love seeing some pk battles go down between 2 skilled players. What I think the majority don't like to see his griefing-style pks where you are clearly doing it just to satisfy your own ego or to grief the player on the other end because you know who it is and dislike them oocly. I don't think that anyone in this thread has said that staff are anti-PK in general, though I do agree with you that they generally don't like griefing style PK when they notice it and care to do something about it. If anyone has said that staff are anti-PK, it's a gross oversimplification. However, staff are, and have almost always been, indifferent to PK as long as it doesn't negatively affect them or players under their protection. Staff engage in the same OOC ego-stroking and rumormongering you allude to and are often the source of rumors about who plays whom. |
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Jeshin
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Post by Jeshin on Oct 16, 2019 20:13:49 GMT -5
Did anyone forget about this post where he basically goes players have advantages yada yada, I'll go make an NPC that does XYZ. Seems like staff or at least one staffer was discussing the changes that have come down the pipe for non-PK reasons.  |
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mehtastic
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Post by mehtastic on Oct 16, 2019 20:38:23 GMT -5
Did anyone forget about this post where he basically goes players have advantages yada yada, I'll go make an NPC that does XYZ. Seems like staff or at least one staffer was discussing the changes that have come down the pipe for non-PK reasons. This is the first time I saw that post, I think. Just one of those things where the only thing that's surprising about it is that it's admitted out in the open. |
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Post by jcarter on Oct 16, 2019 20:47:50 GMT -5
A thinking persons game lmao
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jkarr
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Post by jkarr on Oct 16, 2019 21:08:33 GMT -5
I'm not going to put anyone in particular out there ... but there seems to be a lot of code changes coming down the pipe which are specifically related to some things particular players are doing.  well what pk strategies are players doing and what code changes were made to affect those 1. Is it even possible that a particular character can become so buff or meta in the game as to create a negative influence across the gameworld? i dont know about negative but i heard they took out sorcs because they could become too powerful for staff to want to have to manage all the time with realistic gw responses 2. Is this even a bad thing if it drives code changes which (arguably) improve the game? well why would they be correcting it with code if they thought it was good 3. Why would administrators make code changes to curtail player activities instead of just addressing activities with one or more players? i want to hear more about what happened to fix what |
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mehtastic
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Post by mehtastic on Oct 17, 2019 5:58:37 GMT -5
A thinking persons game lmao The reason why Shalooonsh's post is so stupidly laughable is because it shows a few things: 1) Staff think that Arm is a "thinking person's game" when the majority of discussion around Arm has never been about story, but about which X-day class can beat what Y-day class in a toe-to-toe fight, or vaguebooked reactions to IC drama rather than thoughtful discussion about what the game's story should be and/or what direction to take it in. Mostly because there is no story to take in a direction. 2) Staff don't have an overarching design plan; they are just "winging it" as things happen. As PCs show certain coded feats to be possible, the staff judge whether it should be possible, and if they think it shouldn't be possible, they correct it so it's never possible again. 3) The staff bureaucracy is designed to ensure posts like that are made by actual policy influencers, the Producers, but the Producers are letting Shalooonsh, a storyteller now (and never more than that if the players are lucky), swing his dick around on the GDB, ensuring that the staff body continues to remain mismanaged and disorganized. |
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Post by lechuck on Oct 17, 2019 12:29:48 GMT -5
Also, he fires shots at players who complain when they're met with animated world responses, as if these should always be cherished. I think 95% of my world responses have been varying degrees of animated scoldings, even when I wasn't doing anything particularly questionable. You're out there fighting a random gith by yourself and suddenly it gets animated and starts yelling for friends who come running, or something like that. I'm not sure if staff realizes it, but their world responses are nearly always punitive. It's been quite a few years since I had a benign one when I was RPing my ass off and doing something they'd want me to do. Nowadays it's always a "caught you derping" thing. They behave not like GMs but rather like RP police, unless you're on an officially sanctioned Byn patrol or some shit.
No wonder people get annoyed when they see others farm some critter to extinction for weeks with no apparent response, and then when they go and try to kill one, it gets animated and hulks out because some staffer happened to glance over at that moment. This isn't an adventure game, people don't hunt kryl because it's an exciting and novel experience. They do it because they want materials or skillgains. There's no satisfaction in seeing an animal bray with fury because you dared to fight it in the apocalyptic desert wasteland where everything attacks everyone on sight. It's just an annoying experience of "well, someone spotted me doing something that I'd rather just do on my own and be a bit lazy." You can only emote the act of fighting an animal so many times before you stop bothering.
Staff's world responses are often less realistic than the mob AI. They routinely approach things from a modern-day point of view. Killing animals is immoral! Fighting the indiscriminate murderers in the 'rinth warrants a lynching! Breaking into any place that isn't an apartment results in the arrival of a soldier SWAT team! We're told again and again that this is a destitute world where life is practically worthless and everything's out to kill you, but if staff catches you doing anything that could possibly raise an eyebrow, you'll be treated the way you'd be treated if you did that thing in real life. It usually feels like they're just trying to catch people doing anything remotely unusual and then heavily insinuate to them that they shouldn't have done it.
Since staff can't find it in them to actually provide an overarching story for the game, it's best played without any of their involvement. If random animations were commonplace enough to encourage everyone to make a 100% effort at all times, that'd be fine. Since it happens only once in a while, and is basically always a finger-wag because someone caught you half-assing something rote and boring, it's not desirable. World responses are mysteriously absent when they would help the player. Never in my life have I had an NPC spare my character, but I've lost many to that irritating brand of "how dare you!" animations that staff loves to impose on players who do anything that could possibly be interpreted as slightly controversial. I think it's a symptom of the underlying "us vs. them" mentality that exists on both sides of the fence. It's quite well known that a number of staff members go out of their way to fault-find players, and when you can monitor someone's every action all day if you want, it's easy to find faults in anyone.
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vex
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Post by vex on Oct 17, 2019 17:52:10 GMT -5
... it's best played without any of their involvement.
This is my view, as well. However, it isn't due to animations or world responses.
It's better to avoid being involved with staff and animations, because of the metagame. Some players receive the easiest routes to success, and nods of approval even when being idiots, because they're popular with one staff or another, and for whatever reasons. Others, not so much, and it isn't like you can ever really know.
The reason to avoid staff animations is, imo, not simply because they are sometimes totally ridiculous (and they are, sorry), but because there is always a chance they're out to rescue or protect some other pc and it isn't readily apparent. Being involved may not only get your pc ruined or killed, but may also put you on an ooc shitlist, when all you're doing is responding to a 'world response' going on.
The other reason is that, tbh, most players become complete retards when they see a staff animation. It's like a regular Gaj scene, instantly, becomes Armageddon RP Pagent 2019, and even pcs who are usually non-responders to interaction, or disagreeable generally, suddenly leap to the side with the favorable animation. If not that, they start hamming it up, and really just being... out of character, I suppose. This, too, can end up hurting you, because quite often its clanned socials, especially AOD socials, doing the flip flop, and they'll either punish you for going against the holy staff animation to curry (hopefully imaginary...) favor, or punish you for making their pc, and by extension them I guess, look bad in front of staff, even if it's all entirely an ic happening to you, with no ooc motivations beyond having a good scene.
My experiences with animations have been, mostly, relatively positive and other than some (really, REALLY) crazy behavior from a now departed staff early in my 'arm career', as it is, most of my negative interactions have simply been differences of opinion when looking back at them. I haven't really had any of these crazy, zany experiences so many of you have, and most I can at least dismiss as the world being wacky, or at least no more wacky than some of the ridiculous behavior a lot of players put on display.
Even with mostly positive recent experiences, though, the awareness of the metagame and the numerous accounts of people being, or at least feeling, unreasonably persecuted, is enough to make 'avoid staff animation' good advice. It's why I only send in reports when requested, or when it is directly required as part of what my pc is doing, and avoid rolecalls and other such things. My opinion of staff, generally, has improved since my run in with the now-departed crazy guy, but I'm also much more aware of the 'game within the game' that so many people indulge in.
The less interaction you have with staff, and people out of the game, the more enjoyable it is, and the safer you are from the worst aspects of the game. Not to say there aren't plenty of well-meaning staff, or that every or even most social players are also a metagaming dastard, but when death is indefinite and any kind of character advancement requires obscene investments of time into tedium... is it really worth the risk?
I say, no, no thanks.
I prefer to take my risks ic, over ic things, not... pointless ooc bullshit.
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mehtastic
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Post by mehtastic on Oct 17, 2019 19:50:41 GMT -5
The thing is, staff animations come to you. You can't effectively avoid them without just walking away from them as soon as you notice they're starting. And since staff don't have a story to push, they are resigned to making "mini-stories". Sometimes these are just flavor animations, and sometimes they're just done to bully a player by harassing their character or straight-up killing them. Staff should be cognizant of the fact that some players don't want them around, and the "review" flag should be repurposed into a consent to animation flag, so that players who don't want to be bothered by staff can request as much. Otherwise, players' only option is to just walk away from the game.
It's really no surprise that the more hostile animations are directed at characters that are codedly powerful, or taking actions to become such.
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