Things Have Been Rather Slow Lately

I have no issue with highly sexualized characters, be they ANY sort of sexual orientation. Some people are just driven by their hormones and a universe with out that is unrealistic. HOWEVER... With enough time it becomes clear when that is the difference between the character and the player. Even when it is the player I don't think there should be cause for complaint to moderators unless their RP is against the rules. In my opinion, at that point you should just avoid that player or tell them OOC that you don't want to participate in that shit. I remember Kaz posting something, and forgive me if I get this wrong but he basically says take the high road and handle it maturely. If it becomes excessive, take to a mod.
In the end I think the main issue is people not being able to make their characters believable. So long as people can represent their characters in a way that gives them merit in this server without just being a clear representation of their personal OOC desires, I think we'll be in good shape.

RICARDO, OOUUUT!!!

 

Your current set of characters are completely fine aiko, i've never saw anything wrong with them so please don't feel bad about them being 'gross' because they are not.

TD. I loves ya and I'm sorry if any of my characters grossed you out but I'd like to point out shaun here, he had a great storyline, loved everything about it, but he was gay, you dressed him around in tutus even. By Felix's logic wouldn't that be objectifying men? Even though we didn't rp much in the past I still could have told a mod that shaun made me uncomfortable and he grosses me out, but I didn't because I didn't care, not one bit.

Can I remind you that Cass and Blaze were a thing?

 

hugbox

 

honey, take this from a gay men that likes to wear skirts, that is far from objetification. more even so, it was refreshing to see a character that was,
you know. Me, in a way.
if you called him out because it made you uncomfortable (that you thankfully didnt even tought of) im going to have to straight up tell you that is homophobic and even with a big deal of transmysogny. these girls are calling your characters out because they ARE objectified, with their sexualities
and whatnot being part of it, but not especifically because they ARE lesbians and like to wear idk only a bra and booty shorts, feel?

that you didnt see anything wrong with aiko's character aint meaning that they arent. Aiko has a huge set of flaws on his character roster that arent particulary the 'good' kind of flaws, and they arent gross, you know, but they are definetely something that needs a lot of work

bless that aiko at least recognizes it

 

which of my characters wear only a bra and booty shorts? Asiding that, you still can't count shaun out, not trying to be a dick to TD. here either, I'm just saying, you can't count shaun out because he wasn't 'objectified'. Also, us 'objectifying women'. SOme women actually act like sluts you know, wearing tube tops and being over sexual. To be frank it seems like people are being overly sensitive and are bringing feminism into games because they don't like what we do with our characters.

 

dude, girls are telling you that your character are objectified, SEVERAL times, and they perpetuate harmful stereotypes
also girls acting like sluts? they have a life apart from that? dude, if you are man, you dont get a saying in what isnt harmful
towards women, the same way someone without allergies cant tell how someone with allergies how 'sensitive' they are being

its as simple as that, and if you actually dont want to get these people that have endured the shit you are pulling their entire lives,
and are actually trying to HELP you not being a gross brodude, but you just wanna continue crying on about feminists are attacking
your harmful characters and use girls that act sexual in real life in certain contexts as your shield,
then just outright say that you dont care?
we dont have to deal with you, and you can continue with your own characters free of guilt roaming through a flower praire, instead
of trying to defend yourself.

easy, uh?

and the bra with booty shorts was just an example, not one of your characters especifically. and for gods sake, why does everyone
try to argue that TD's character was somehow problematic? he was not, and if someones ass got uncomfortable by a men with a
goatee that liked to wear a piece of fabric then just spare me from this pain

 

Relevant posts restored.

Something to point out here is that usually in real life, there is a central authority that handles these kinds of things. Antares, as it stands setting wise, is essentially a frontier. There is no central authority to assert this; each colony has it's own laws and authority, and while presumably most would follow common sense, we've all seen how the characters are here. People are basically running around trying to kill anyone else.

This leads to a domino effect that has a habit of enforcing IC mentalities along with OOC ones. People realize this is a frontier. People make characters for a frontier. People realize that, in a frontier, anything goes. People proceed to make more deadlier, edgier, or intense characters. People see that other people are making these characters. People proceed to build on that while making theirs "deadlier". Etc, etc.

There's a reason we avoid the proactive approach more often than not, and the bottom line is subjectivity. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the community is devised of various cliques. Some of these cliques have varying levels of RP quality than others. We try to enforce the rules through an objective lens, i.e. "x is breaking these rules, therefore x will be dealt with", but when things such as what everyone has lovingly called 'mansbians' happen, they fall under a grey area. With what was mentioned previously, they're not actually breaking any rules when roleplaying those kinds of characters, as distasteful as they are. Since we can't be proactive with someone who isn't actually breaking any rules, we simply leave them be.

But then comes the OOC harassment you stated. Now that is breaking the rules. That we can no doubt work with, and form a plan of action around. Except there's just one catch, which makes talking about detailing reports night after night a bit laughable, to be frank.

We barely get reports that address these things.

Now, I don't blame some people who don't do reports. There's a lot of flaws to reporting:

• Before the private report forum, there was no central location to report things. It was all dealt with privately in staff PMs, which was honestly sorta dumb.
• Starbound is godawful with logs, and the only way to properly convey what someone is doing sometimes is through various screenshots, which is tedious.
• Some things happen outside the jurisdiction of the community (i.e. skype chats and steam groups), so they can't really be used unless they're incredibly relevant.

But keeping things secret like OOC harassment for race, gender, sexuality and the like will only make things worse in the long run, especially when they're done privately on the server. Believe me when I say that we keep these complaints in mind, but the only way I feel we'll actually reach to some form of change is if the following occurs:

• More reports about the harassment that occurs
• A complete restructure of the setting which establishes a central authority to which characters need to answer to in the event of abuse or crime (doesn't have to be an RPed entity, could just be background)
• Changing the application system to make sure that these kinds of people enter the community as little as possible (something we've already done to an extent, and can probably pursue further)
• Making it clear who these people are and establishing how their behavior is not cool. Alternatively, if you feel you are one of these people, make a thread in the character discussion subforum and consult with your peers on what you may be doing really, really wrong.

Pretty much, except supplement that with other people coming up to defend them and pointing out that they're not breaking any rules to which, unfortunately, is fact.

 

ever wondered why do ppl like me, TD, Felix and god knows who else leave this community?
ya just said it honey!

this community is not safe for people other than white straight men.
it just isnt.

 

Yes because i want over sensitive people and feminists to tell me how to better myself as a person.
TD.s character wasn't problematic to me at all, I just think its unfair that you're only pointing out the women when clearly people somewhere in this world would have a problem with Shaun because he in fact can be seen a objectified, and before you continue saying he can't, what makes your jurisdiction true? When a woman calls objectification everyone loses their shit and starts defending them, but when a man points out something character wise like shaun he's instantly wrong about it because its not true because you said so.

or you're overly sensitive

 

Yeah. We've failed you in that regard, and for that, I am truly sorry.

Also, Gramps, just to be clear, you're digging yourself into a hole.

 

Ah, yes, the ever-useful and totally relevant "grow thicker skin" argument that completely ignores the issues at hand and treats the opinions of people who might be more sensitive as inherently less valuable, all because "if you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen". It's always fun to see it when people who are very clearly coming from a position in which they haven't faced any sort of prejudice or challenge in day-to-day life simply because of how they are, and then claim that all the OTHER people in the world simply have to "tough it out".

 

shaun aint problematic because see, he acted like a real person. i act like him, people can RELATE to him, but are you a gay man doe? a gay men that likes to wear skirts? what is the problem with him wearing skirts and being gay if someone was supposedly going to point out this doe? no shit that can be seen as objetified, but thats coming from a straight man, how can we all take any sorta ground to that if you dont experience what we do and see what we see?

i mean, when you say that a man points out something character wise.

im a man.

did someone hear me out when i talked about how my main, Leon, was consistently shit on because he liked pinked and wear cutesy stuff? on about how very much unrealistically he was followed up a hallway with NO reason to have his nose broken for being precisely, gay and for not fitting the disgusting standars for how a men should be like?

yall saying that people are rushing to defend the girls here, but they wont listen to men either when we point out this crap. SURPRISINGLY.

ya got it honey!

 

Alright. Is that a threat for being banned or are you just saying people are going to hate me more? Because frankly I know how my friends are, they accept me for who I am an see nothing wrong with the way I act.

I'm going to cut my losses as cut it here and keep doing what I wanna do, because in my social circle it isn't hurting anyone. No one is forced to partake in or view my rps, I do what I do to have fun and in todays day and age someone somewhere is gonna be mad about something someone does, in this case people think I'm overly sexualizing women and see them as tools. I do not but words over a forum mean little to someones social standpoint in whatever they believe in. Go on with this argument should you wish, I'm done trying to convince people to not be angry about a fantasy rp world that certainly does not reflect my personal views on anything.

 

I don't really know if you consider me a friend, but I do kind'a think that even if those people were "sensitive" that doesn't mean they should "man up". I mean you said it yourself, you're trying to have fun, but you have to remember that everyone is. If quite a bunch of people think a character of mine is taking the fun out of their RP, I'd stop playing as that character, or at least change them, knowing that they'd do the same.

 

I do consider you a friend Cold, there are several people on this rp server that i chose not to affiliate myself with because they take the fun out of my rp. Can I have examples? Because I know for a fact many people would NOT do the same if i changed my character to please them, there are many examples right now that SHOULD have changed or even stopped playing them but haven't.

 

Neither.

Except they have, as noted by the people who are posting here.

Except most things you do are in public, and are interacted with in public, and by interacting in public, people have to acknowledge what's going on with you one way or another unless you're completely ignored. From what I hear, that can range from sexual advances to attacks to hostility to hunting people and beyond. Those have ramifications. Those ramifications echo. Since I know for a fact that people compulsively try to get involved with other people to RP with them (since what's the point in RPing if you don't have anyone to RP with), that means that while no one has to roleplay with you, those that want to have no choice but to embrace your views on RP, which in turn perpetuates said view and creates the problems here now.

To note, this can happen with anyone, which is why we make sure that if it does, we check the rules to make sure they're being complied with.

Except they do. Psychologically speaking, everyone puts a bit of themselves into their characters whether they want to or not, in some way or form. The implications this carries over each roleplayer varies, but unfortunately for you, you're following the mentality of one of your more infamous characters; digging your head in the sand and failing to acknowledge that this is a problem, instead of realizing that this problem involves you, acknowledging it, not taking it personally, and making an effort to improve.

Make no mistake. You will not face moderator consequences because you have not broken any rules. But by not acknowledging the problem, you have become a part of the problem. This means that, when we put down the effort to rectify this dilemma (already planning things even as I type), you will either have to address this and change, or the next best case scenario for you, leave.

But by all means, keep going.

 

You don't want to change your characters to make SEVERAL PEOPLE happy, but you want SEVERAL PEOPLE to change and "man up"?

 

I've suggested that they shouldn't be so sensitive to fantasy rp dilemmas such as this. I can point out that you yourself have had offensive characters, some which don't exist anymore while some, like Orchid, still do.

 

Yes, I have had offensive characters mainly "Phoenix" which dear God I don't even want to remember I played as her. And, Orchid's dead, because yeh, I realised she's a dingus too.

Also, you shouldn't be insensitive to RP dilemmas, because as you can clearly see, RP dilemmas affect people OOCly, I personally don't get offended much over the internet, so I can't really relate to people that do, but I still understand they do, and try to not hurt them or cause unease, do I fuck up? Yeah, but I try to change it when I realise it.

 

Gramps, my god do you take it far with your bullshit, to put it bluntly you have zero rights to call anyone here overly-sensitive since you are THE MOST SENSITIVE PERSON ON THE SERVER, with your constant whining and complaining, seriously. Leave this where it is, shut down your computer, lie down somewhere and think about your bullshit, Gramps.

Not only that but all you are doing here is justifying your ERP, guess what, you don't need to, noone wants to read all that shit, just take a breather and never talk about this again, leave it as private as you can, just make it so that noone has to deal with your annoying overly-sexualized characters.
Good night.