It’s like…the solution is right in front of their noses. Just treat people better/not like robots

I've been saying this in response to a lot of things lately, but.. people are emotional. It's an emotional problem. Management feels a way, mostly contempt, and any studies about how treating people better would be cost-effective don't matter. Studies show that a 4-day workweek is good for productivity and profits? Nope, feels wrong, can't be true.

Essentially, people are stupid and I don't know how to fix it. Can't just bop a CEO on the nose with a newspaper when he's being bad, unfortunately.

I've tried this a couple times with limited success.

• Hacking something remotely was a default Very Hard challenge. Very difficult to do without spending fate points.
• Hacking something on the same network was hard. Could maybe hit it with a lucky roll, but still would probably require a fate point
• Hacking something with physical access was in the realm of "the PC who specializes in this can likely do it without trouble"

Those were then bumped up or down depending on if it was "budget", "consumer grade", or "corporate grade". Hacking into some nobody chump's security system from across the street is something the hacker PC get done for free with a little luck. Hacking into the ASI Corporate HQ maglock door subsystem from across town would be a feat of legend, not something someone can likely do just off the cuff.

I do like that Fate encourages players to do some preparation for hard tasks. Have someone use their talky skills to talk up some junior workers, and learn something about the network. That's an advantage you can invoke. Have someone spend resources to bribe someone, that's another advantage.

A problem that's come up each time I've tried this kind of game is not having a shared understanding of what "hacking" can do. Fate kind of helps here because the actions are kind of agnostic about what skills are creating them. If you're trying to remove someone from the scene, that's likely an Attack whether you're using "hacking" or "fight" or "intimidate". The hacker might fake a text from the boss telling the bouncer he's fired where the bruiser might just deck him, but they go down the same kind of mechanical funnel. The tactical considerations for the players comes from like "what looks like a softer target: his face or his phone? is anyone going to see?"

People are emotional. All of us, more or less. Some people also sometimes have other ways of engaging with the world.

But cars are emotional for people. So was 9/11. Facts don't really matter.

So when you tell someone something bad about cars, they have an emotional response and that's game over. Especially if they see you as out-group.

I don't know how to fix this but I think it's the root of all of our problems.

Maybe if we can get people to see experts as in-group again?

As I said at the root of this thread, my ire is mostly reserved for rich people who refuse to tip. If you're struggling, you have to make your own decisions and compromises to get by. But the guy who makes more money from interest than the bartender makes all night, when they don't tip they're an asshole.

The problem you're describing, that people aren't paid enough and CEOs are too rich, is a very real problem.

No one should rely on tips, but they do. Refusing to tip now just hurts people , real people, immediately. You have to live in the world as it is while trying to improve it.

The bartender can't eat your idealism nor find shelter from the elements in it.

Your experiences are different. My friends who work for tips tell me they rely on that money. Losing those tips would have an immediate and real adverse impact on their health and safety.

Have you ever worked for tips or been a close friend of someone who did?

I accidentally made a rom-com subplot in one of my games... Twice... And the players loved it both times.

The first time there was a divorced smith lady who sort of had a death wish, and the timid tavern owner who had a massive crush on her. Of course the players wanted to set them up.

The second time, the players had to infiltrate a masquerade ball. Sadly I'm starting to forget the details. I think there was tension around meeting them while masked and, like a rom com, trying to figure out what they thought about the PC. And then they tried to get the NPC involved in their heist, because they just happened to have a skill they needed. And of course it wasn't a clean heist, and the NPC had some trauma.

Mergers and acquisitions should be a lot harder than they are. Maybe even prohibited in nearly all cases.

Those people aren't a good match for you (or maybe anyone).

My work uses python and it hasn't been bad for new code that has tests and types. Old code we inherited from contractors and "yolo startup" types is less good, but we've generally be improving that as we touch it.

Some people probably know them in real life. Like, you might have a friend who's like "Yeah this [slur] wouldn't update her mod so i posted [hateful thing] on her insta". You could talk to them. People listen to their in-group more than randoms online.

But then again, the worst sort of people probably mostly have the worst sort of friends, and reinforce their bad behavior.