How was I to know there was a party going on?

[austin_dern]

A quiet night (my time) on Spindizzy with no one around; what else to do but actually wander around, looking at all the publicly accessible rooms? (The user interface guidelines make a lot of the muck easy to access.) I never get to do this when there are people around; I end up talking instead.

To my surprise, things are generally pretty good. There are rooms that lack the building code's out;exit;leave exit name, but relatively few; and everyone follows the rule of leaving obvious exits on. I don't like the convention that's developed that an exit named `[B]ack to [L]obby' means the short name is `BL'. But it does make some sense, so the goal of being easily navigable holds up.

I'm also surprised at the number of hot tubs and jacuzzis people have built. I guess it's something a lot of people long for. Also to my surprise is that people build a lot of rooms -- both logically present (like bedrooms and living rooms), sensible if you want to simulate the whole world (like bathrooms and cellars), and what I'd think are infrastructure (like hallways). My habit is to just build one or two key rooms, and let the rest be placed by implication, such as a reference to the kitchen, bathroom, linen closet and storage room for the books.

But then I've noticed lately that on mucks I end up writing radio scripts. They're heavy on dialogue; poses are almost an afterthought. It's probably telling that the rooms I like best that I've built have noises that add ambiance and distractions to the environment. I build my rooms with Foley. I didn't realize how far out of tune I was with the community. But I'm ready for The Jack Benny Program to break out.

Trivia: The border between Georgia and Florida was not settled until 1819. Source: A New History of the United States, William Miller.

Currently Reading: Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories Volume 2, Isaac Asimov. blither inspired me.

Comments

[queenofstripes.livejournal.com]

S'weird, I'm almost the opposite with roleplaying online. I've actually played four or five characters who are mutes (or speak in some bizarre fashion that's easily generated by MPI :> ), without consciously realizing at first I was doing it so I didn't have to have figure out what they'd say...

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

So if we ever see one another on a muck, you can be Harpo and I'll be Groucho. Fair enough, though Harpo gets the better home life looks like.

It occurs to me in my quest for the perfect secret alt I've tried mute characters a couple times, but they crashed down around helpful and well-meaning sorts giving them the power to speak, Just Like Everyone Else (or effectively so, with telepathic signaling or handy keyboards or whatever); so either the uniqueness fades away or the character starts not talking because he doesn't want to or hasn't got anything to say, and that doesn't feel natural to me.

The one partial exception is playing Amalfi, Spindizzy's dbref #1 character, which is an old, battered plush rabbit that can't speak and barely moves. It dominates the scene by force of personality alone, but since it only wakes up to promote or demote a wizard, or similar ominous tasks, it gets a presence that wouldn't be there if someone were to play it more than once a year.

[blither.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Coati's are so good for blither egos.

Hey. We should do a hot tub/tour/party bus.

[oliver-otter.livejournal.com]

Do my lakes count as hot tubs? They're cold, but wet.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I wasn't thinking of them, but they could certainly count.

A hot tub/swimming pool tour could be fun, though. Maybe something to shake winter blues off, and say farewell to summer, for all you non-equatorial folks?

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Hot tubs rooms are popular for the reason you cited, yes.. they're an RL desire, they're a romantic (and/or sexual) setting, and they offer good chances for posing that's a break from sit/stand/etc.

I think the general necessity for furry homes is a bedroom and a living room; They may fall under different names or styles but there tends to be a public-home and a private-home room. I've noticed the categories you mentioned in infrastructure and 'RL room simulation'.. also there are storage rooms for objects you might not want in public display, but you want to keep around - for me that's a Den, for [alt X of mine] that's a closet.

--Chiaroscuro

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

That's true; hot tubs are something easy for people to fantasize about and understand pretty well, and they do suggest things to do. It just seems kind of ... mundane, ultimately, for a world in which you can have literally anything you claim to have. I've had a few other observations about the cliches people fall into, and may go into them the next time it's a slow day.