(no subject)

[nny]

Okay. Anonymous meme. Feel free to point anyone who doesn't have me friended in this direction.

What do you think of milliways_bar?

This is mostly aimed at players, but not exclusively, if you have something to share.

Since some people are too cowardly intimidated to email the mods or ping them, how about you put your grievances here?

I will deal with what I can deal with. I will answer any questions you don't want to ask with your name attached. If there are flames, I will delete them. If there is victimisation, I will delete. I don't want people getting hurt over this.

I am not going to link this in the back room, but if anyone else wants to, feel free. I don't want this to be an OMG MOD thing. I just want people to tell me what I can fix.

If you don't say anything? YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO WHINE WHEN YOU DON'T GET YOUR WAY.

Okay?

Okay.

Comments

[nepheliad.livejournal.com]

Can I post non-anonymously?

Because I would like to say that there's no game I've ever had more fun in. The people and the mods are wonderful, and I've yet to have any conflict whatsoever. Period. Share the love.

(If you want me to post anon, I will.)

[villainny.livejournal.com]

You're totally welcome to post in public. :) Thanks very much for the kind comment.

Also posting non-anonymously

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

I love Milliways.

There are so many players that I have so much fun playing with and getting to know. I think that the game is fun, the people are mostly good people, and that the mods do a fantastic job with the insanity that they're given.

I have nothing but love for all of you.

I think that having a place where you can go and play out an infinity of situations is such an amazing thing, though sometimes wish people would open their eyes to see further than their noses.

And with four mods, I don't understand how people can justify not going to one of them and being logical with a problem they may have with another player or plot.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm in love with stewart_baxter

[the-gentleman.livejournal.com]

... who wouldn't be?

[minkhollow]

I think it's wonderful.
I think other people's plots are going the way they're going for a reason, and it's not my place to hold that against them unless I'm directly involved in the plot and can see another solution. (Example: The April flailing, which has now resolved itself.)
I'm very impressed by the relative lack of wankery we've had so far, especially since it's such a ginormous group of people.

[cantabile.livejournal.com]

I'm going to post publically too. I've only just joined Milliways, and to be honest joining could have been amazingly daunting. It wasn't though becuase everyone was so friendly and welcoming, and they continue to be so.

My first week has been fun. I've enjoyed meeting everyone, starting to place my character within a well formed group, and I'm loving it. Milliways rules to me!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm posting anonymously because I don't want people to be afraid to do so.

I love the game. It's my first online RPG and I adore it. Soemtimes i get annoyed at some players for nothing more than the occasional very mild god mod, but the mods are all approachable and I have no problems pinging any of them if I need to.

And you know what? The game is huge. If I don't like the way player X is playing pup Y, I just won't interact with pup Y. It's that simple.

So, yeah, whoever's causing this grief is a coward and an arse. I love the game, and I love the mods.

[tropes.livejournal.com]

Since, like, so few people are answering... -_-


You know I adore the bar. Otherwise, I wouldn't put so much time into it. WHat else can enrich my life so much and drive me fucking bonkers to boot?! :D

[(Anonymous)]

I think there are many aspects of the game which are well-run, well-played, and generally great fun. Everyone's pretty nice to the newer folks and the mods seem to be easily approachable.

One thing I find that has given me pause when I had a minor problem before, is that so many people are close friends with the mods, it's a bit daunting to approach them with a complaint about one of their buddies.

Not that I've necessarily seen any favortism exactly, but it's rather difficult to go to Mod A and complain about how their bestest friend in the whole wide world is playing something unfairly. Or causing one distress, OOCly. I'm just not sure it wouldn't be tossed aside in favor of the "friend".

I'm doubt this is even something that can be remedied, but it is a personal observation of mine.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

The only way people get to be friends with us is by saying hi.

I'm an insanely shy person. I never start IM conversations unless I have already spoken to the person. But on the other hand, I WILL talk to anyone who approaches me.

Also, I know this might be hard to believe, but I genuinely try to seperate my life from my modding. If there is a problem with one of my friends, I'd really like for people to tell me so I can have a word. If there is ANY distress caused, I will deal with it, regardless of who it is. IF, and this is important, the complaint is valid. I will not be swayed by personal gripes that have no basis in reality, whether they come from a friend or from someone I've never met before.

But it's a bit harsh to make these judgements without trying. If you have evidence of us tossing someone aside in favour of a friend, please let me know so I can sort it out. If not, please try and remember that we're here to help you. I genuinely want to keep everyone as happy as possible. But I can't do that if no one tells me what's going on.

[ms-ntropy.livejournal.com]

Hello.
My name is Princess Bing, and I'm proud to be a crackhead.

Serious, M_Bar is the first time in a very long time that I've been excited about rp and game in general.

Is it always a perfect walk in the park? No.
Why? Because LJ is not a perfect system for gaming. Sure you get the advantages of being able to pull off characters you couldn't play any other way...but there are fewer typos in say, LARP or table top.

[(Anonymous)]

I think there are some serious double-standards where some of the mods (not naming names, but it certainly ain't you, Nny) are concerned.

And that's about my only gripe.

I just do not like the double standards applied.

Other than that: bravo, those women!

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed. Definitely double-standards operating. In one case.

[notsoyoung.livejournal.com]

I have problems, but they're problems I have, and thus, I'm saying nothing about them.

I think the game is excellent, even if it is too big to keep up with everything nowadays. If I have a problem with a player, I'll address the player, not the mods. S'not your jobs to deal with a personal gripe.

Saying that, I haven't any problems I want to air publicly; if it gets the better of me again, I will say something.

For the moment, though, my lips are zipped and all that.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

If they are problems you have *with the game* then say something about them. That's kind of the POINT here. :)

[(Anonymous)]

I love the game to bits. I appreciate the huge effort you all put into it.

That said, the modding occasionally has a hint of "this is our playground and you're here only on our sufferance". I'm not sure how you could rectify that, if you even want to, because it is of course your playground. :) A personal gripe of mine is how cliquishly the four of you play, but eh. That's irrelevant. I think slightly more open modding procedures, less of a closed "fearsome foursome"? Again, I repeat, only my opinion, up to you.

Overall, I'm amazed at how pleasant and skilled 99% of the players are, and I'm really amazed that you manage to keep it all in check.

I considered posting this non-anonymously, but... I'm a coward. I may own up to it later. My principles will probably force me to.

[(Anonymous)]

Principles = wrong word. Conscience, I meant.

[oneechan19.livejournal.com]

Milliways is a great game. I love it. It's crack.

But because it is crack, I sometimes worry. I've made so many friends through Milliways, and some of them (or really, many of them) are spending a little too much time at Milliways. And I feel it's unhealthy for them. I know that there isn't anything you can do about it. But I just wanted to say it

Again, it's a great game. Thanks for allowing me (and others) to meet some of the awesomest people in the world.

(And I was going to post anon, but hey, what the heck.)

[oneechan19.livejournal.com]

Oh! And I just remembered something else after reading some of the threads.

The game is a little big. And that's partly because some players have sooo many characters. Players have sudden whims to play people, apply for them, and then don't do anything with them. I know. I'm guilty of it myself. Which is really sad, cause they could be awesomely played.

I dunno, but sometimes I think there should be a limit on how many characters a player has. Because it's easier to play 3 characters than to play seven or more. A lot easier.

That's just my input.

[fire-and-a-rose.livejournal.com]

I think Milliways is a brilliant idea.

I think it's a fun game.

I love playing there. I love interacting with other muns. I love crackchat and whitetext.

I love how people in RL know now what I mean when I mention these things.

Is it perfect? No. Milliways is not a perfect game.

Are the mods perfect? No. They are, well, human. Rather flawed design there.

But both game and mods are freaking interesting. And, in the second category, I think they do the best they can with the information they have.

So it's not perfect.

But it's still hell of a lot of fun.

[malachan.livejournal.com]

u all sux0rs!!!!!!

Obviously I love the game and I don't have a problem with any of you four. And in a game this huge, if there's a player anyone doesn't like? Play with the other 9000 billion of them.

Maybe appoint an ombudsman? Someone who is in no way involved in modding but players can email with a mod-type gripe, and they can pass the message on?

[(Anonymous)]

I vote for Mir as ombudsman. If she wants to be.

[(Anonymous)]

I love the bar. I love the people, I love the play, I love the sense of community and 99% of you I glomp with much yayness.

But there is the occasional player who ignores all sense of characterization, who has some weird vendetta against spellcheck(not Ginny-mun; I admit she's improved over the months) and in general make me feel pain when I read.

I'm not being overly picky; there are others who I look at and think they could do a bit more research, but they're cool, they play well, and I have no trouble ignoring the small flaws and have no doubt that even those will be polished off once they stop being newbies; I realize I was once a newbie myself, and wince at my early stuff, so I have sympathy. It's just that rare one that causes me pain to read.

But the mods rock, and by and large you're all wonderful.

[(Anonymous)]

There are a couple of characters who also cause me pain when I read as well. I'm considering applying to join, and it's a point of RPG etiquette that I don't really know how to deal with, if those characters who make me twitch want to interact with my character.

I think this inevitable in a game with as (apparently) open an admissions policy as Milliways, and I respect the mods' decisions to keep it that open. I'm impressed that the quality of play is as high as it is. I doubt it's worth the wank to tell players that they're abusing apostrophes or that the word they want is actually "discreet" rather than "discrete." But as a reader (yes, Milliways has them!), it would be nice if those few people could improve the way they present their characters.

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly, my only gripe at the moment?

The game is too damn big. I'm starting to get headaches trying to keep track of things, and those are just the ones I need to know IC. I'm starting to long for the olden days of yore, when one could keep track of things without Millichannel and lots of outside information.

That being said, I love the game and I've had a great deal of fun with it so far. I just want it to stay that way, without my feeling that trying to keep track and be a good mun involves more work than it's worth.

::snugs Nny and Sophie::

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I know, it is too big. But I don't see that there's anything I can do about it. People are welcome to start their own panfandom RPGs, it's not like I own the concept. But I'm not going to stop people from playing, if they want to.

[(Anonymous)]

This is anonymous, but if you want me to sign my name I will do so.

I used to be a regular at Milliways. I eventually became jaded by the style and intentions of most players.

Despite the problems I use to have, I think it's gone downhill majorly in recent months due to too many people in the bar. While I'm glad that "spring cleaning" got rid of so many unnecessary characters, that still leaves about 600 too many, IMHO. Milliways would benefit from a small player base.

Milliways would also benefit from examining what "crack" is and how "crack" undermines gameplay constantly even when it's kept to chat or milli_crack.

I am sad that I don't have fun there anymore.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I'm sad, too. But there are plenty of smaller RPGs around. I am not going to suddenly become elitist, because that undermines my intentions in starting the game.

I think that 'crack' is a problem when it is used inappropriately to draw people's attention. I personally think crossed out comments in otherwise serious threads are unnecessary. But I'm not going to take anyone to task for it because every individual's style of playing is completely their own. However, I think that in a lot of situations it can be fun. And the advantage of milliways is that you can choose where and with whom you play. There is a big enough player base that you can choose who to RP with, and if you have problems with a player or a mun you don't have to interact with them.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

As it's been said before, I love Milliways. I feel that the last ten months of my life have been well-spent, and in a period of my life that I had severe depression, this was the one place that brought me joy and could pull me out of my slumps.

I love the other muns, I love the fact that I've been dubbed Molly, I love how Millitunes has taken over my playlist and I love seeing my characters grow and develop. I love spurting out an oddly intricate essay that the bar has inspired me to do. I love the good chaos, I love most of the crack, though some of it still squicks me and I'll continue to use the glare icon when people bring up Roland/Bigby and so forth.

Though something that leaves me twitchy is just a rare IC issue, and one that grates me largely because Snow has become unofficial greeter. It's when someone from an entirely mundane background shows up and DOESNT REACT. They take it with way too much stride, barely even noticing the weirdness. Even Snow stares at the window, even she is taken by surprise by things, and her background prepped her more than most for the bar.

But I acknowledge that I've got about a half-dozen mental disorders fighting it out in my brain, depending on which counselor you ask, so this might be overly nitpicky and I can just ignore it.

[timsbooks.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on that one.

I mean, someone comes in,s ees thw window, and nothing? Now maybe, i could understand if they thought it was a TV or something.... Like someone from vegas coming in and thier thoughts go "Oh, special effects, cool" But most of them just wave it off.....

[saddle_tramp]

I've been RPing online forever, and lurking at Milliways for a year or so, maybe more. I've been in free-form RPs, AIM-only RPs, PBEMs (play by email), messageboard RPs, and yes, even parady RPs where the crack was the whole reason for the game. *grins* If it can be RPd, I've likely done it, from riding a dragon to delivering a baby, from impersonating a priest and marrying folks right on down to being a two year old with a fruit fetish... Been there, done that, dog ate the t-shirt. lol

In my considered opinion, Milliways is about as close as any person can get to the perfect RP. No matter what your fandom is or who you come into Milliways to play, someone in the maze of muns that are Milliwaysers will play with you. It may not be the bigtime movers and shakers, but you just might wind up having more fun for the fact that your threads aren't so public and zilla-y. At least, that's how it seems to me, sitting on the sidelines and reading the threads I have time for.

No, the mods aren't perfect, but y'know what? Neither is anyone else in the game. Every single mun is human. I helped run an RP, and was 'headwoman' (sort of like a bartender in Milliways, or maybe Security.) in another, and I know what mods go through... Milliways mods are among the best I've ever seen.

If anyone complaining can truthfully say they would never in a million years make even the smallest exception in a rule for any of their friends, then they ought to stop fussing and start running their own RP. lol

As a lurker who's been reading forever, I also have to say that you people tempt me WAY too much! There's like, twenty different characters I could play, but they would eat my brain and then I would have even less free time than I do now. *grins*

I still have the list of people I'd love to see in Milliways, though, and someday maybe I'll be able to talk my girl into it (we RP privately so much now that it's scary, but we both got burned running a group RP and we're leery. lol) and I'll get to app one of them. I know I'll love playing if I do-- that we will love playing -- because Milliways is the best RP I've ever run across. :-)

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

So much.

You have NO IDEA how much I appreciate that.

[faithful-slayer.livejournal.com]

In order to properly reply to this question, I feel I have to repeat, once more, the ‘How I Found Milliways’ story. Sorry. ‘Cause see, I was in this other RP. And Andrew-mun, whom I knew IRL, kept saying “Look at this fun game, doesn’t it look fun, don’t you want to play?” And I kept saying ‘STFU’, except, you know, more politely. And then I left the other RP. And she kept saying “We need a Faith.” And my resolve to never ever RP again weakened. And Lo, there was Faith. “Just Faith,” I told myself. “I’ll be Faith, and if I don’t love it, I’ll stop.” Well, guess what? I loved it. And so Faith was joined by Daniel, and then Doyle. And while right now I’m telling myself ‘Three is enough,’ there’s no telling how many I’ll end up with.
The game I was on before this, there were a lot of problems with people plotting things that involved other people’s characters and not telling those other people about it. And you couldn’t report those people to the mods, because, nine times out of ten, it was the mods. You had to post every two weeks or your character would be deleted, unless there was advanced notice (because, of course, everybody always knows about every bad thing that ever happens to them a few days in advance, and can plan accordingly). I left that game, in the end, because of things like that.
Milliways is different. Milliways is fun. Cracky, insane, why-think-about-family-problems-when-you-could-watch-Anthy-turn-Sawyer-into-a-cow-instead fun. Are there problems? Sure there are. Because the game is so open, there are people whose writing quality isn’t good, people who refuse to pay attention to characterization or spelling or anything. And it drives the rest of us nuts. But in a game with a population of…however many characters we’ve got running around, the fact that we have as few problems as we do is phenomenal.
As you might have noticed, I’m not afraid to approach the mods. I’m very fond of them, in fact. It’s good to be friends with the mods. It’s good to know them as people, to know that they are people instead of thinking of them as Great Scary Voices In The Box On My Desk. I don’t expect the mods to be perfect. That’s why we’ve got more than one. It’s like checks and balances, one’s having a bad day and wants to slaughter us all, the others go “Uh, no, dear, put the red phone down, go have a Hershey Bar.” I don’t expect them to be completely reasonable, understanding, sweet-natured angels. I expect them to be there, and they are, and they do their jobs, and they do them well. That’s all I need, that’s all I ask, and I’m satisfied.

(See? Faith's smiling.)

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much, lovely. Really seriously appreciated.

[key-youth-bert.livejournal.com]

First of all? I love Milliways to death. It's not perfect, and not without its problems here and there, but really, what is?

That being said, there are two things that tend to make me twitch which I consider big enough issues to mention here. Neither of them are problems with the mods, and I'm not sure either of them is enough of a problem to warrant mod attention, but I'll mention them here anyway, if only because a lot of people are likely to read this.

The first is what I'd simply call sloppy roleplay, and is mostly grammar and mechanics or lack thereof. Now, I know it's just a game on the internet and we're not being graded or anything, and everyone has typos sometimes, I'm not perfect myself, but still--there are posts that make me literally cringe with their abuse of written English. Capitalization, punctuation, and spellcheck--it's not that hard. And I can think of a few muns and players who I would be alot more willing to play with if their posts didn't strike me as being so sloppy.

The other thing has to do with an incident that I mentioned to some of the mods, wherein a player involved himself, without invitation, in a conflict thread with multiple players and did a woefully bad job of communicating with the other players as the thread played out, which I think had a detrimental effect on things. I mentioned this to the mods, as I said, and also to the player, and the IC consequences that resulted were dealt with, but I'll just say it again as a general statement here--if you're going to involve yourself in a thread with multiple characters, wherein your actions will have direct results that the other characters will have to react to, I think it's both smart and polite to communicate with the other players.

Now, with those two things said, I'm going to echo what some others have said here, which is that in an RP with so many people, a) there are going to be people that don't play the way you think they should and b) it's easy enough to avoid those people and play with others. So while those two things bother me, they don't stop me from loving the game and the majority of the people I've interacted with through it.

[shati.livejournal.com]

OT -- I'm selfishly glad the game's gotten so much larger; it's made a lot of RP possible for me that wouldn't otherwise have been. (It's weird sometimes having such a niche character. I can't do nothing but turn people into cows. I hear you go blind that way.)

[kenovay.livejournal.com]

Blind and furry.

[wickedtrue.livejournal.com]

I'm not afraid not the be anon. Hi, I'm Heather. In case you didn't know, I play Fleur. Please see icon.

I loved the old game that was small, and I miss it, but I love the big game just as much. I love it. That isn't going to change.


I've never had a mod problem. I mostly talk to Meg or Josie because I know them a little better, but I know that I could talk to you or Sophie if I wanted.

Only problem I've ever had was sometimes people just take the game too seriously. They make themselves the character, or they take character gripes out of the game into reality. In some cases, which I've had to deal with, people I don't even know take things that they've gleaned from RL journals and made it into their own soup opera. I think that might be why some people don't go to you guys, the mods, because they make things into what they aren't. I don't know. People are weird sometimes. I'm weird sometimes, so we can all be weird together.

Some people are never happy. I make my life in management. I know this well. The fact Nny and any of the other mods bother (yes, bother is the right word) to come out and ASK people to vent in a format where we can all be anon really says how hard they are work to please you. You've been asked again and again to help yourself by talking to them and when you haven't, they come to you. If you are still uncomfortable, there are several other older players that would happily listen to you and help you figure out a way to approach the mods. No one is against anyone here. We all want to help if we can.

As far as cliches are concerned, well, yes, they happen. I've been told before that I'm involved in a cliche with the mods which made me go "bwah?". (For those reading, I think I've spoken to Nny all of twice, Sophie and Meg a handful of times, and not that much more with Josie.) The game is huge. Yes, little cliches are there, mostly mutual canon characters, but not always. I like to play with Raph-mun and Death-mun a great deal, but I would play with anyone. Literally. You're all the same to me. I'll probably fan girl you in my quiet little, half-terrified way.

For crackness...I'm not allowed to talk. Have you seen my character? Sense of humor is like wine. Some of us like it dry. Others like it immature and flavorful. I don't read everyone's stuff partial because it doesn't appeal to me and partial because there is so much of it. I like the variety, though. I can go from dry, English wit to low class potty humor with a single click. I like that even if I don't always get the joke.

And just as a helpful reminder, remember I'm not the only here that's shy and more scared of you than you are of me.

Um, that's all I got. I'm gonna go be sick in bed again now.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Thank you. So much. :)

[forsaken-bard.livejournal.com]

I'll post by name. Because... I don't care.

First off, any complaints about the mods are pretty much groundless. The mods here are more fair and even-handed than almost any.

And not as if I haven't had mods sent after me (with the kind of characters I play, its a wonder not anymore often), for some reason it's usually Josie *shrugs*.

Here's the important part, I didn't give them shit. And guess what? They didn't give me any either. Problems discussed. Problems solved.

Yes, the game is enormous. That means there are always people to interact with especially and it never gets stale. You learn to avoid certain character who you don't like, and keep threading with ones you do.

I never claimed to be a master of the english language, and I try to keep grievous crimes against it to a minimum. As long as it isn't just heinous, cut people some slack. We are not all english majors here. That said, sometimes there is no excuse for some stuff I have seen. If you have a hard time with it, acquire a word processor, and type your posts in it first. Anything that Microsoft's crappy programs can catch shouldn't be in a post, but occasionally.

Next, I was originally inclined to believe that there were some cliquishness going on, and a bit of that is natural, but it is not rampant or a serious issue. (I'll be the first to admit that the DT people's speech patterns are sometimes a bit intimidating to someone not overly familiar with it). There are tight fandoms but it is not a caste system here. For instance, Nita Callahan has been somewhat adopted into the 24 group. Overall, not much of an issue.

All that said, the game is great (not especially for my Calculus III grade, but...). I've said my piece.

~ Rance (Forsaken-mun)

[campkilkare]

In defense :) a lot of the DT jargon is used by non-DT-muns. I hardly ever use DT speech patterns when I'm playing as Eddie except in dialogue, and even then he's leaning towards Brooklyn rather than Midworld most of the time. I'll use it in narrative if the moment is highly charged with... canonness, and I never use it in OOC stuff, that I can recall. It's just become something of a fad/joke.