Random quick updates

[chipotle]

In no particular order…

• Work is kicking my ass recently. It’s been an interesting experience, in the oh, yes, I am at a startup, aren’t I? sort of sense. It’s made writing difficult and driven out enthusiasm for personal coding, though, and also rather cut down on my time online.

• On a not entirely unrelated note, I’m about ready to throw in the towel with the Excursion Society MUCK. I’ve had little time for it over the last year and honestly not all that much enthusiasm, even though I appreciate the diehards who’ve stuck with it; it’s mostly still around just because of them. I may think more on other systems to do in the future, like an MU* set in Ranea. (After I get my other programming projects back on track. After I’m willing to do programming on my own time again.)

• I keep starting and stopping other blogs around the web, because I’m just like that. It occurred to me that if there’s any topic I really should be writing about somewhere, it’s not politics or programming or even fiction writing, it’s cocktails. If this thought goes anywhere, I’ll let you know.

• I contemplated the “blog like it’s the end of the world” zombie thing that’s going on today, but ya know, it seemed like it would be too much effort for today. (And besides, I already wrote an apocalyptic plague story recently.)

• Speaking of cocktails, I’m really tempted to go to Elixir tonight or the weekend, but probably won’t. Probably.

Comments

[kynn.livejournal.com]

I contemplated the “blog like it’s the end of the world” zombie thing that’s going on today, but ya know, it seemed like it would be too much effort for today.

Plus, zombie day sucks.

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

No, I think vampire day would suck. Hahaha! Ha... ahem.

To make zombies particularly interesting to me (i.e., enough to write about), I'd need to give them enough of a different spin that it'd require too much effort for today. And, as I suggested, it's kind of a been-there-done-that thing for me anyway -- the last story I wrote, "Carrier," is as close to zombie fiction as I expect to get. (Unless I expand "Carrier," which could be done, but that would be less about throwing buckets of gore at the reader than at getting into, as Erma Felna might say, all the sociopolitical ramifications of the story's premise.)

[aliasisudonomo.livejournal.com]

Mega's player, here.

While it'll be sad if you close ESM, I certainly understand why. (With permission, though, I might get inspired to write a short story or two. I'd have to get in touch with a couple other folks, of course, but I wouldn't want to touch the IP of Bandari/ESM itself without an okay.)

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

I doubt I'll close ESM, at least any time soon; there's not a lot of effort required to keep it up in its current state. I'm mostly just facing the fact that I'm, well, not putting a lot of effort into things there, save for occasional bursts of short-term energy. I expected by this point in ESM's life that it'd probably regularly get at least a dozen people connected and several adventuring areas built (along the lines of Bandari, i.e., ones that theoretically would be there for ongoing things rather than purpose-built like the town of cannibal villagers), but -- for a variety of reasons -- some things never really came together. I'm not ruling out trying another push with ESM, or to go forward with a vague idea to prove I never learn do something based on Ranea, a fantasy setting I've written a dozen stories in and which multiple people told me years ago would make a good role-playing environment, but I know that during the timeframe I have brain cells to rub together for most of the rest of this year I need to give writing, both code and fiction, higher priority, which leaves ESM in continued stasis unless someone else wants to jump in.

I don't have any problem with someone writing stories set in ESM's world; I'd just like to be able to give it a once-over and offer suggestions before it's published (or otherwise made available).

[silasmouse.livejournal.com]

I had some fun on BandariMUCK and ESM, but I'm afraid I don't see ESM ever really going anywhere. If you try a Ranea MUCK I'll be the first to tell you "No, bad coyote!" Tempting as it may be, I haven't ever seen a MU in that "genre" that seems to work. The only populous MUs that I know about are very open-ended like Taps and FurryMUCK. Get the Claw & Quill done instead! And write more stories. Heck, make a RPG setting supplement out of Ranea and publish it as a PDF. That'd work out better than another MUCK, in my opinion.

---> Silas

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

I'm also not sure what you see that's particularly limiting about Ranea in comparison. No, you probably can't have the half-dragon kitsune godling, as Mega put it, but it's a world with magic, technology and even a long-standing concept of a "trade gate" between worlds that would allow a fair amount of leeway in character types. I wouldn't expect any RP-focused MUCK to get to Furry or Tapestries' player counts, but I don't think a couple dozen or so is unreachable. And bluntly, if I ever did this it would be using pretty different technology than Fuzzball; I wouldn't bother unless I could use it as a testing ground for ideas I've been kicking around.

An RPG supplement for Ranea is not out of the question, as that's been talked about half-heartedly for well over a decade.

Claw & Quill and the rewrite of "A Gift of Fire" are the priorities I have that make it unlikely for me to really give ESM the attention it would need to be revived. I don't really plan on starting any other major projects, RPG supplement or MUCK or coffee bar, until those are both out the door in some fashion.

[silasmouse.livejournal.com]

That's good; I'd agree. Claw & Quill is what I'd like to see done the most out of all of those things.

---> Silas