Kyuden Shika

Kitsu Moshumaru wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 25, 2021 4:57 pm

There are two big ways I can think of to reduce stress levels in a game:
A) First is to think of your character as "the NPC I'm playing", as opposed to one's personal character.
B) Set out some kind of story goal which doesn't require dice before you play.

With A), this kind of detachment makes it easier to get along and enjoy the game despite losses. This is because in this mindset it is not you losing because of a bad roll, it's (in my case) Kitsu Moshumaru suffering because he couldn't bring himself to succeed. By making this distinction, it's also easier to let yourself not worry about things such as filling every time slot,

With B), it means you can almost guarantee some kind of forward momentum, even if the dice don't work out. If your character has a goal of telling people about their home town, for example, then they can advance that goal win or lose.

I want to strongly second all of this, especially putting a divider between yourself and your character. I try really hard to, for example, when sending PMs to other players, double-check that I'm not using "you" to refer to their character, because the accumulation of all those little things makes a difference. For myself, I even do silly little things like, right before clicking the button to roll dice, saying to myself, "Come on, [character name]." Because there's no "I" can do this. I am a person with an electronic device and great imagination. My character is the one who has to do whatever it is that we're rolling for.

I also 1,000% agree about talking to other players directly, OOC via PMs, to address questions or concerns. Or just bond with them, because we're all part of the same big production here and can make life better for everyone by communicating honestly and openly. If you want your character to do something really impressive but improbable, you can probably find a player who can help make it happen. Don't spring big stuff on people in threads without warning them first that it's at least possible. I would suggest that the more PMs showing up in your mailbox over the course of a game, probably the better, because you're talking more and to more people and you're probably, even if getting tired, still feeling happier about it because you know what people are trying to do.

And it's often nice to end with a self-effacing comment, for your mental health as well as others. So, since I know y'all have heard more than enough from Ishi and me, we out.

Since this thread went up shortly after I had a blow up in discord over my D9 event rolls I guess I should say something. Being upset about something going poorly for your character isn't a bad thing, it means you are invested. I failed a roll I had a 98% chance of succeeding at and I was furious, it's been nearly 12 hours and I'm still mad. But don't let that frustration ruin the rest of the game for you. Step back and try to separate your character from yourself and decide how THEY react to the situation. I am pissed that the universe has decided Soyokaze can't catch a break, I am a very competitive person and when I see points awarded based on placing I want to win. The points mean nothing to Soyokaze because he knows he's a failure and every time this happens it reinforces that belief. So yeah I'm still annoyed but my character is just resigned, he will retreat into his shell for a bit and we go on from there. Getting upset is OK but blaming things like the dice roller that Mitsuki has worked hard on or the event structure that Saibankan has worked hard on are unfair to them. Try not to carry your anger into the game unless that's REALLY how your character would react and do whatever you do to destress out of game. In the end there is no winner take all element to this game, the points don't really matter.

I flopped badly at my roll, and that gives me a plot opportunity.

So, F YOU SAKKAKU!

Please don't associate that thread with one event in particular. It's the consequence of a growing pile of alarming signals over the one month since the game has begun (including D0), not of one act of one person in particular.

Also, you can 200% complain all you want about Sakkaku as an abstract entity of malevolence. Seriously, if we can't vent our frustrations on something that don't exist, what are we going to do with it? My remark was more about what the increase in these complains was symptomatic of.

(however, if you have an issue with Sakkaku the website, send it to me; I'm just not going to stalk Discord for offhand enigmatic comments about maybe a problem maybe not)

Moto Mitsuki wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 25, 2021 8:25 pm

(however, if you have an issue with Sakkaku the website, send it to me; I'm just not going to stalk Discord for offhand enigmatic comments about maybe a problem maybe not)

Are you involved with the development of it?

If so, I love the opportunity list that comes up depending on what approach you use.

Oh. No complaints about the software. Just the legacy of Orokos.

Seppun Yuzu wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 25, 2021 8:27 pm

Oh. No complaints about the software. Just the legacy of Orokos.

If Orokos is the Fortune of Dung, I nominate Sakkaku as the Fortune of Torture...

Also, as a Discord Luddite, I DO seem to miss all sorts of OOC drama... HUZZAH!

Shiba Raizo wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 25, 2021 8:36 pm

I nominate Sakkaku as the Fortune of Torture...

Seconded.

Moto Mitsuki wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 25, 2021 4:02 pm

Well, I've muted the game Discord's channel for a start.

While Discord is useful when setting up a game, I find it just toxic during the game itself. It encourages (including from myself) immediate, raw, emotional responses that one would never have written down if they had taken a little more time to think about them. Plus, due to the constant flow of new, unfiltered messages, any piece of actually useful information, will quickly be lost at sea, sometimes mere minutes after it has been given, certainly after any long period offline (sleep, work, real life...). Likely by design.

In other words, it feels like half the time spent on Discord during the game is to fix issue occasioned by the use of Discord itself (Ask. Your. Questions. On. The. Forum), with a bunch of stress offered as a bonus.

That does cover some of the anxiety-inducing elements that keep me from tapping into any large Discord spaces. Or Twitter. The firehose of information and notifications is just not for me. I use Discord more for individual chat these days and trust that folks will tell me if I'm not being respectful of their time. It fills a space that I'd been missing since MSN went away since I hated Skype and FB Messenger is not remotely the same experience.

That said, pre-Discord, a certain amount of the same strain tended to settle in the OOC chat threads. So 1. some of it appears to be endemic to human interaction around PbP. 2. I'm with Raizo in celebrating the reduction in personal tension that comes with so much of it moving to a space we're not in. XD

I will note that naming the diceroller Sakkaku was practically telling it that trolling was its purpose! XD
Me today: "I'll go ahead and use my distinction to reroll the opportunities because another success would be nice." Reroll to two blank dice. *throws up hands* XD It is apparently how miai work for me--find a match, rely on the other person to be good at actually finding points.

Note: For my own sanity, I've fully left the Discord server until the end of the game. So PM here are the only way to contact me anymore.

EDIT:
Before this gets overinterpreted, this is not related to one clash in particular or likewise conflict. After a period of helpful low presence on Discord, I made the error to leave it open most of the day to help with the duels, and I ended up being lost to the Discord madness, answering messages before my brain had fully processed them simply to keep up with the flow, saying dumber and dumber things as time went on.

Since I don't trust myself to not to do that again as long as there's only a one-click barrier between me and the channel, I've left the server temporarily to put up a... well, three clicks barrier between me and that worse version of me.