Alright, This has happened a few times now, and it's starting to get on my nerves. Now, it's not surprising a few people have assaulted Skarti, and that guards/lawkeepers who are then approached by him may be somewhat reluctant to apprehend the perpetrator for doing so. maybe even letting them off somewhat easy, and that's perfectly ok. But what isn't ok, is when seemingly lawful characters outright ignore, deny or disbelieve Skarti's accurate recount of events for the sole reason of "It's Skarti" A few too many times now I've seen utterly ridiculous displays of law keepers ignoring the painstakingly obvious simply because skarti was involved. When questioned ooc, they say they're acting off Skarti's "Reputation", Which is odd, because quite often I have had little to no interaction with these characters at all. Yes, Skarti is a jerk, I wrote him that way, he also upholds incredibly ethical morals, he's not one for lies, revenge, violence, etc. The goal with Skarti was to be the antagonising voice of reason in any situation. You probably don't want to hear him talk, but he'll usually be saying the right things. It just saddens me to see people ignore this conflict of ideals and pick the simple (And extremely lazy, from a writer's point of view) "Shut up Skarti" approach. I'm not saying you can't take this approach, but it has it's limits. A few weeks ago Skarti was thrown out of a bar for deciding not to purchase a wine bottle after it was uncorked for him, while just today, a human pointed a gun as Skarti's head and essentially said "I am going to kill you", but was ignored because "The offenses were not serious enough" IC bias is all fine and dandy, but it has it's limits. You can't say you're playing a "nice guy" when said niceness only applies to those of your choosing. I guess I'm writing this for a few reasons. One. I'm a little tired of "Skarit's reputation" influencing characters who I've never/barely interacted with. OOC rep and IC rep are two different things Two. I'm totally fine with playing a hated character, but I am not willing to play a punching bag. I've had several people ask if they can assault/wound Skarti with the literal reason being "Because it's Skarti" Heck, some don't even ask. Three. If you're having fun IC bonding with friends over the hatred of another character, you should be grateful for that character's player for playing a hated character, right? This is different from playing a villain, however. Four. IC bias is totally acceptable, but it has limits, outright denying the obvious is a pretty big step, and you can't really say you're playing the "good guy" after that. Anyway, wall of text is over now. Just had to get that out of my system, it's been bugging me for a while.
The problem is that a majority of characters are what the modern world classify as psychopaths. Alarming when you consider they are also self inserts.
Skarti is almost cartoonishly dickish. I would recommend checking players for EDGES before interacting with them. Homies ain't used to getting a face full of reality, even when it isn't real.
I feel like this isn't necessarily a rare issue, characters acting towards one another based on an OOC reputation. Other than asking people to stop (which you're doing with this thread), I can't think of a viable solution, other than reporting those that go a bit too far with the metagaming and/or even powergaming simply due to you or your character's reputation.
People rarely get targeted "at random" like a homing beacon was attached to them and certain people around them were missiles for the biases of a meta-being controlling their every action and personality.
Only thing you can really do at the moment is either ignore these people or contact moderators about it. Technically you can't harm people without permission, but people will go and do it anyways. Personally I've never really cared. It's realism for me. I can't control if my character is hurt or not. Now this case is different since it's more directed as OOC hate. That's something completely controllable on both sides. Mostly just ask yourself who you think the people are or what you may have said and done to make these people want to blindly murder your character. It wouldn't be the first I've heard it. I've been aware of people plotting behind my back to put away a character of mine for good without even getting permission. While I wouldn't care I would have allowed it, it's still pretty rude. For one - Characters can inform others of "Hey there's this asshole called Skarti who we should go kill" or something like that. Just because you haven't met them doesn't mean they won't know about your character. For two - I love playing hated characters (hated in the sense that they're hated ICly). It's fun. As long as people don't try to murder it on sight it's enjoyable for everyone. As far as your point three goes, that's pretty normal. Because drama brings people together if they're on the same side. After all, I recall yourself, Sen, etc dissing and such the Wolves during and after their exsistance. Long gone so oh well. We can't do anything about hate, it's best to ignore it and seek out your friends for comfort in the matter or just to talk to one another about it and how silly it all is. Four - Morals don't really mean much. Chaotic Good is a thing. Believing your cause is just when you're really just batshit insane. I wouldn't let it all bother you too much Kirby. People are naturally cunts. We can't change that. Most we can do is point it out, by doing so their actions are going to have consequences. Personally I wouldn't want to RP with these people, seeing as if I made the slightest comment OOC they didn't like, they could just turn around and stab me in the back. If we know who we are, we know who to avoid. Roleplay is about telling a story, no one's the main character, we're all working together to tell a story. If you let your OOC hatreds get involved your just ruining the experience for everyone.
I've seen him lie more times then I can count and I assure you I use both my fingers and toes for such a task.
Lets face it. The server is filled with characters who are chaotic evil. Only chaotic evil characters believe the most appropriate response to insults is murder.
Not really. Chaotic Evil would be more inclined to inflicting pain in the form of torture. They want to get the most out of it.
Ultimately this is less about Skarti being who Skarti is and more about Meta-Information pervading into IC interactions. Even on a base level there will always be meta. There is a constant miasma of player knowledge independent of character knowledge that is floating around. Especially with multiple characters in play at any given time to any given person. There will always be a player-character knowledge leak. However, this is a player-character bias leak. Something like this is far easier to stop. And maybe it's as simple as playing only atheists because that's the easiest thing for you to relate to. That's fine. Or maybe it's as blatant as automatically hating a character despite having only ever heard of them, or even never having heard of them; due to out of character reasons. That's not fine. Jim Bo should not shoot/target Garth just because Jim Bo's player dislikes how Garth is written or the person who is playing Garth. Especially if they have never met/hardly know the guy. And if it does happen, it's still a serious act. Not policing it IC would be sad to see. Even if that "policing" is just dragging the guy out of the bar, slapping their wrist and sending them on their way. A lack of reaction is the issue.
When you've based a character around intentional "being a jerk" then you can expect to be treated that way. Especially when you then make a character that satirically plays off of the fact that people hate Skarti, IE Skarticus, which kind of melts together Skarti as an OOC concept of being a jerk and an IC character who is a jerk... then continue to play Skarti expecting to be treated in a realistic manner. So if people treat you like a jerk IC then that's fine, but if people hunt you down OOC because of any reason then that's meta and is strictly against the server rules.
Just to restate this, I'm totally ok with Skarti being disliked, the thread is more about when people take the "Because it's Skarti" thing too far. It's true Skarti was originally designed to irritate edgelord characters by insulting their cliché attire and then seeing if they thought petty insults justified murder, but he quickly grew beyond that and developed a complex story of his own, mainly due to the actions of other players. He was both entertaining and challenging to write for, and it's just annoying to see that more and more he's being lazily written off with a "It's Skarti, don't take him seriously." mentality by other players when presented with a complex moral situation. I just feel that his current "reputation" doesn't justify some of the ridiculous IC bias I've experienced in several situations. Yeaaah. I was pushing it with that one... at least it's usually about trivial things.
Since I feel like this thread was partially in reaction to some of my interaction with Skarti IC, I feel it's worth noting that with tribal florans, a verbal insult from ''meat'' is more than enough reason for them to want you dead. Hell, if a floran offers you a gift out of kindness, and you refuse, then to a tribal floran that justifies killing you. That's official lore. OOC I love the character of Skarti. I find him very entertaining and I think he is roleplayed well, but from an IC perspective he is very easy to dislike, and when it comes to tribal florans, that can mean them wanting you dead.
I see what you're getting at, and Kirby, I agree with you. IC hatred and dislike is all well and good, but OOCly decisions to regard Skarti with an attitude of "oh it's Skarti, fuck that guy" due to OOC knowledge and reputation is just shitty. As others have said, your best bet when dealing with OOC stuff taken IC is to either ignore it, or if it goes past the boundaries of the rules, report it. TL;DR I parrot what everyone else in support of you has said.
I'm fine with that, I just find it annoying how you have a tendency to home in on me whenever I do something, it feels pretty meta. Yes. Get out. Now. Yay woo yay. Not going to file a report though, don't care thaaaat much.
