(Anonymous) 2024-08-17 01:16 am (UTC)(link)
interesting! what if the game is old like duplicity or clearly had the height of popularity already? if no one's apped that character after many years, and the player is active.

what if the character is so obscure there might be 1 or 2 other players out there, at most? or other players only seem to have this character in memes?

would any of those factors influence your thoughts? just curious because i have seen this discussion a few times and people generally drop pretty set opinions that allow for x element (private games) but not y (no one plays this character anyway). but i was hoping to start a discussion with input on variables that might be overlooked.

you seem to be focused on the unfairness to other players of said character, is your answer impacted by the idea that others might have had a chance at this character? there's still games that have been around long enough people have tried them and decided they aren't for them.

(Anonymous) 2024-08-17 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
if someone is in a game for more than two years, they seem to be comfortable and in it for the long haul, active or not, so i don't really see them moving. that said, they're still active in a game, and while duplicity had a height of popularity, it's still something new people/chars are apping into, because it's still established. guaranteed play with someone. newness/age of game doesn't really matter. the availability to enter does. if me and a group of people i know want to make a game specifically designed around a canon (let's say firefly), then clearly it would involve canon characters and if we didn't have all the characters among us, i could see putting out a call for xyz to come in. but that doesn't mean the inara shouldn't play in other games if they have the energy for it. no one's fighting for their spot since it's theirs based on them being part of the core group, and 'i' built this game for me/my friends. games like that don't count as real games, because the metric for entrance is different than open games with multi-canons.

obscure characters are kind of a ymmv basis. sometimes there's a weird resurgence for canons i see when one person throws a barely seen canon char out there on memes and suddenly i see a scattered cast cropping up around that time.

most of my opinion is based on the fact that i'll see someone posting about playing their (still relevant and popular) character in game x then game y, then trying for game z and also game a and hey, game b looks fun. i think there should be an argument for game rotation. been in the game for a year/three? maybe move to a psl with close cr and open up the spot(s).

honestly, i think a lot of people are in this weird nostalgia view where they remember when they were in six games and could manage. but the landscape's changed, and now there's less games and more stress and it's like 'you could be getting all that fomo out of you by just playing in memes', because i cannot tell you how many times i see 'sorry guys, i need to drop all my threads and start anew rl sucks' plurks on my timeline from people. the same people. the ones that want all the old activity they had, but can't keep up. then they get anxious, can't tag, then burn out.

app in a game. app in two games. app in two characters if you want 'more'. but if that's not enough, then the issue isn't the games. it's fomo and need for constant distractions and it's unfair to take up spots when it feels like they're grabbing them because they're popular and they want 'all the tags', but don't actually have the follow through with it. games became disappointing to me when i was surrounded by people doing this. i'm much happier in memes. i'm leaving the game bitching to the people with the energy to bitch. i can barely eat my crackers.