HMD meme

[arielmods]

HMD

It's that time finally! Here's our How's My Driving? post. This sitewide meme will go up on the 20th of every month and it's encouraged that everyone post! Please post a list of your current in-game characters as a reference for other members to use for comments or critique.

Remember to keep it civil. Outright flaming will not be tolerated and we will deal with any hostile comments as soon as possible. Critique should be constructive. Offer ways a player can improve their characters, solve any problems you might have, etc. rather than just telling them they're horrible with no examples or pointers.

Likewise, this isn't a love meme. It's great to tell someone you think they're doing a good job or you love playing with them! Just give reasons for why you think they're awesome or what they're doing well. We're not discouraging positive comments. Love is great, but so is hearing why you are so you know what to keep doing.

Anon comments are enabled and IP logging is off for those who'd prefer a little anonymity, but please don't abuse this feature to be rude to other players.

If anything comes up, please visit the concerns page to let us know or contact us through any of the other various ways listed.

Form:
<b>Character Name</b> | <i>series</i> | <user name=JOURNAL NAME> | <a href="URL HERE">Journal HMD</a>

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

First of all, anon here knows this is probably a bad time for critting. I had some advice for you before the changeover, but in retrospect it's pretty obvious that the stresses you were going through impacted on your ability to play Dean, and I don't want to unfairly hold that against you. That said, I do have some comments on your characterisation, but if you'd rather I hold onto them until the next HMD, or just post to your private HMD for you to ponder over the next month, I wouldn't hold it against you. You deserve a break and a chance to have fun without complications.

On that note, I just want to thank you again for all the hard work you put into making this game. Having to put up with the awfulness and judgement from anons was understandably wearing, and there's no shame in admitting that you were overburdened having to deal with all that as well as RL stress factors. Having to hand off the modship to people you didn't know very well also must have been difficult, but I think you and Chi chose well and this anon really appreciates it.

So thank you, for bringing this game into life, and for letting it continue on the way it was intended to.

[pulledfromthepit]

Hey, anon. I appreciate you taking the time to post! I'm open to hearing crit now and, yeah, I do think that stress was having a pretty big impact on my playing lately. Bigger than I was aware of at the time, to be honest, but I also don't want to try and cop out on excuses. Particularly if I'm playing in some way that's glaringly off-putting.

Also, I know I haven't been playing as much as I should/could be. I'm still sort of finding my feet in this game now and in RP in general, so I'm aware my tagging rate is an issue. I don't know if that was going to be part of your crit or not, but I'm definitely aware of it and I apologize to everyone whose threads I'm holding up.

And thank you for the kind words. It really wasn't easy to decide to let it go, but I think it was the best thing for everyone and I'm still really proud of the part I played in making it happen. :)

[(Anonymous)]

I wasn't going to comment on your activity. You've been on hiatus, and you're perfectly entitled to a break considering what you had to deal with. :)

One thing I will ask, though, because it'll change the structure of my crit...have you had Dean go into re-education at all since coming to Ariel? I hadn't thought so, but I may have missed it, since I haven't followed every log of yours.

[pulledfromthepit]

No, he hasn't been in re-education. He's had a couple temporary doses of heavy compulsion from the chip, but nothing that intensive.

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, then I'll tell you honestly that I think your characterization issues probably would be better solved if you did have Dean put into re-education, because I can't really see much other explanation for how relaxed Dean has been about this change in circumstances; arriving in Ariel. I'll just dot-point the issues, but I think you really should have a thorough canon review. In particular, I would recommend watching the episode...I don't recall the name or which season, but it's the one where Sam and Dean take on a Djinn and Dean gets put into the fantasy world of what his life would have been like without the tragedy. And see how hard he fights that fantasy, because everything in his life has taught him to do so.

1. Basically, I can't see anything of a Hunter in Dean, and it should be there because Ariel is exactly the kind of too-good-to-be-true fantasy that Dean has been canonically shown to reject. There's no fight in him, no distrust, no pro-active attempts at investigation, no need to understand this new place he's in.

2. In particular, I think this -- http://cityofariel.dreamwidth.org/15223.html?thread=1543287#cmt1543287 -- is a very OOC response for Dean. There's no way he would trust someone he was so newly introduced to to just agree to something like that with no questions. No asking who the other person involved would be? No stating limits to be sure he knew what he was getting in to?

Although here's where I concede that part of the influence was probably from the troubles you were having with modding, and wanting to shortcut to the fun sexy times without putting in the effort to justify it with better characterization, and from a certain standpoint, I can't blame you for that. You deserve to have fun too. I just want to point out that it was pretty OOC for Dean, who should be a hell of a lot more wary, and definitely not so willing to put himself in a vulnerable position.

3. Now in discussion the log between Sam/Dean -- I'm not objecting to the incest, because hell, those kind of kinks are what this game are for, and I have no issue with it personally -- but it really should have affected Dean a hell of a lot more in regards to sex because he would interpret that as hurting his little brother which is something Dean would revile himself for. That alone should have prompted a really violent reaction from him, because Dean is extremely protective of Sam, and regardless of who instigated, he would blame himself and he would also blame the city/the powers that be for screwing him up so badly to do something that he should consider really taboo and damaging to his little brother. The fact that he pretty much continues after that as if it's business as usual just feels really off, and frankly, it's sort of a let down to put him through that with basically no interesting or profound consequences. Again, it feels like short-cut roleplaying.

I would actually recommend that you ret-con some re-education for Dean, perhaps for right after things happened between himself and Sam, because that would at least partially explain why the incest didn't provoke a stronger reaction from him (pleasure is pleasure, etc) and have taken some of the fight out of him in regards to not being more demonstratively against the city. Otherwise, his ambivalence and acceptance just don't feel in-character at all.

[pulledfromthepit]

You bring up some very good points. There's one I don't quite agree on, but ultimately the failure was still mine since I know I have what I think are good reasons for it, but if it didn't translate in the playing then that's still an issue.

1. I really can't argue with this. Honestly, I think some of this comes from my also playing a S7 Dean in another game where he's kind of "fuck it all, who cares?" and I kind of got my wires crossed a bit. He really should be more questioning and mistrustful and I failed to put that in like I should have.

2. This is the one I don't entirely agree on. He's been with Thrawn a few times by then and started to develop some trust there and I sort of see Dean as the type of person who, once it's given, trust is pretty solid until he's given a reason to withdraw it.

Still, I probably could have either made that more clear or had him be a little more curious about it. You're right that this one was my trying to jump ahead to the fun and that's no excuse. I should have put more effort into that response.

3. Again, it feels like short-cut roleplaying.

Pretty much exactly right. Chi and I had plans for how it was going to affect them and be a big deal, but I pretty much dropped the ball on that. I put all my focus on the "avoid it, forget it, pretend it didn't happen" coping mechanism they've got going on and neglected to play up his guilt and anger.

Honestly, I think I was avoiding thinking about it a little myself, since we started to get the "omg that's so disgusting, you should be ashamed, you might as well be playing OCs if you play wincest" kind of wank and I just think I was trying to minimize my wank exposure. It's still me dropping the ball, though, so you're totally right.

Some ret-conned re-education might be the best solution, definitely, since despite my screw-ups, I really do love some of the CR I've built and would hate to ret-con it instead.

Thank you, again, for taking the time to do this and pointing out specifics I can work on. It's very helpful and I will try my best to correct the issues. :)

[(Anonymous)]

2. With a bit more development, I probably could see Dean conceding to someone like Thrawn on the basis of his strength as an authority figure (the way Dean instantly obeys his father, for instance), but as I've mentioned with other parts of your characterization, it feels like any trust was given far too soon and too easily for that. I also think Dean's trust is a little more selective, because after all, with people like Bobby and Castiel and even Sam, Dean usually puts up a bit of resistance if there's anything he has qualms about, and this scenario definitely should have raised a few flags.

3. I can kind of see how that would have an impact on your playing, and it's a shame you didn't quite get to play it out as intended. For future, though, stick to your guns, because this is a game for extreme kinks whereby the only problem with incest should be playing it badly. Moar delishus angst and horror and self-recrimination plz. :9

Anyway, thank you for listening. I appreciate being able to get it off my chest, because I do like the idea of Dean in this setting. I just want to see him reacting more true to canon, and hopefully now that you don't have to deal with the additional stresses of the game you can throw yourself into fleshing him out a bit more.