Sexual Harassment, Religious Zealotry, Racism-A Definitive Guide to Stopping it in SOTA

Dude.... really?

That wooooooshing sound is your argument flying out the window. You could absolutely take your own advice here and call it a day.

 

How about being considerate of those around you? Is there any room in your plan for that?

 

I think your post is neither clever nor funny.

There are trainings on harassment because harassment is a serious matter and nothing to make light of.

Harassment is targeting a player (a real-life person) with the intention of affecting that person in a negative way. The other stuff you mention is make-believe. In my eyes, by making such comparisons you merely weaken your argument.

 

It's not about the game's rating as a magic answer, it's about the unspoken guide of common decency for a game community and knowing when that threshold has been breached. There are literally millions of other topics to talk about that are just as emotionally engaging and "juicy", including lighter romance. If you're a good writer, you'll be able to find those stories in your mind and put them on paper.

This community and game is not built around "Freedom of Speech" = "Say whatever the hell I want", it's "Freedom of Speech" = "Act with common sense and a grain of decency to the spirit of the game". The ignore filter in the game is not meant to be abused in this way either. It's meant for a variety of other reasons to ignore someone as well. Saying that one should turn away is like saying they should "wait until its over". Doesn't work that way, nor should it. I seriously doubt most of the hardcore PvP community expects it to work as egregiously as that either.

People listening to Howard Stern expect that from Howard Stern. People playing Shroud of the Avatar do NOT expect that. We don't spout extremely offensively language with personal attacks in mind, or sexually explicit graphical text in the manner of the book, and expect everyone to just ignore it. I can't even give you a good example of the graphic nature of the book, because I would be violating our own rules here. It's that graphic. Does the book have its place somewhere else on the interwebz? Sure, it's called erotica or porn sites.

We are not going to overreact and remove the ability to write your own books, nor are we going to lock up the system with unnecessary moderation. Moderation won't occur just because someone is upset, or is trying to get back at someone, there has to be a greater reason behind it before we would take action. It is ultimately up to the community to understand when a threshold is crossed. If we can't tell the difference, then guidelines will be written to help clarify.

Also, just ask us if you are unsure of your writing!

 

Oh so much this. If a person says "hey, please stop, that's bothering me", then STOP. Roleplay is a great and wonderful thing, but don't confuse the IN-character world with that of the real life one that has the player behind it. Be considerate of each other. It's also not attention seeking to speak up about a problem that potentially can affect the entire playerbase, since this type of thing happens all too often in online gaming.

 

Single Player Online or Friends Player Online is no protection from offensive material. It only stops you from seeing other players, not items that they create.

 

I PvP a lot and like to leave my body parts in peoples public chests just for the fun of it to let them know I visited. I sure hope someone doesn't take offence some day thinking that I left my hand in their chest to sexually harass them.

 

Im offended by this foul language. lol.

 

Being offended by someone being offended seems ironic.

Launching a counter attack of public shaming vs. unwanted sexual advances seems clever.

Subtly requesting that people keep their sexual harassment issues private is dismissive of the greater issue.

This thread is attention seeking so again... ironic.

Creating a social justice league is a conversation tactic whereby a person tries to preemptively diminish someone elses retort by labeling them something they are not before they even get a chance to speak.

Kvow Triumvir, White Knight of the Social Justice League of Carebears? Not.

I don't have anyone on my block or ignore list. My feelings are not easily hurt. I don't wan't censorship.

 

Blake I abhor political correctness for political correctness' sake. And I think in many ways we've become too soft and squishy as a society. I'm with you.

But SOTA players (and in most other contexts outside of SOTA), should take the responsibility as individuals to act with some sense of decency and at least not tread into areas of obvious offense to others (sexual harassment and racism being good examples). I mean, we can cut up a little bit, but let's all think twice about whether something we say or do is likely to offend someone.

The value of "let's not be too sensitive" is not more important than the value of "let's try to be sensitive to others, in our best judgment". Hopefully those values can co-exist. It's what we call a Decent Society.

I have no patience for whiners and meritless victims. Nor do I have patience for mean people who think they can do whatever they want, and say whatever they want, under a perversion of the sacred banner of free speech. Common sense is a good guide.

 

Reread what you wrote.

"Political Correctness" is a label created to mask what is really being complained about... Simple respect for others.

 

Sure then this also includes lude acts at public events that includes devs sponcered events.. see its a slippery slope indeed. Based on that true statement they are condonig it by not enforcing it, Scary stuff imop here.

Im not disputing your statements im just having a conversation here so dont get all angry. I actually agree with you but I have bery (lol bery acidental) thick skin and im not bothered by much.

 

I have to say, I really like how Berek handles these threads in the forums. I think this has been a great change over the past month. He lets discussion happen up to almost a perfect point. I think the closing of that last thread was done terribly (not by Berek) and was typical pre-Berek in a more draconian way (I was warned on things that I completely disagree with). Well done Berek. This thread here has topics on it that sure do cross a line but he has let people talk and express opinions (I suspect he will at least clean it up a bit).

 

Thumbs up emote

 

"Political Correctness" IMHO is doing and saying things that you don't really believe in an effort to go overboard to spare the feelings of people you don't know and who may be overly sensitive, in your judgment, to certain issues. I reserve the right to say what I want, even if it offends you, if I personally don't find it offensive. You don't get to superimpose your values over mine (or vice versa).

I live in Washington, which may be the Political Correctness capital of the world. Sometimes it wears you out walking on eggshells. Which expression hopefully doesn't offend the chicken-lovers lobby.

 

I personally don't think we should penalize graphic content just for being graphic...

To give an extreme example: SotA own lore includes a faction basically described as Mage-Nazis called the Obsidians who performed Menguelesque experiments on innocent kidnapped children. Just the mere concept of it can be already objectionable, but let's leave that aside for a moment. It's quite plausible that an Obsidian mage, being researchers as they were, kept a diary describing with all sort of detail all the horrible mutations, pain and other results their experiments are creating on that 10 year old they kidnaped from a caravan in the verdantis forests. Would a book like that, which would be completely in-lore and relevant to the RPG story, but at the same time horribly graphic and surely offensive for many people, be ok or a bannable offense?

Of course, we have to draw a line between having graphic content and using it to harass others, but most times that depends more on the circumstances than on the content.

 

Perfect Anology. I am in one of the most liberal places in the USA and I am as liberal as it gets and I am utterly tired of having to walk on eggshells myself on every single topic that any random person holds personal. I dislike the fact that my favorite comedians cant even tell jokes any longer in certain places (like colleges). for example, I've been litterally attacked by vegans for saying that I like to eat.. well eggs (since we are on the topic). They called me nasty names and asked me why I eat Chicken periods. I reserve the right to say that I am perfectly happy eating eggs and feel the right to say that I like to eat eggs anywhere I chose without being attacked. This stuff is really killing society right now.

 

Context is the bottom line - your example is a good one, and one I would welcome as macabre as it may be..

 

Avoiding sending obscene sexual material to random people is not being forced to 'walk on eggshells' or to be 'politically correct'.

Don't send graphic sexual messages or material to unsuspecting recipients.

 

This is an excellent point. But it's not the point that the OP is making.

The OP is saying that anyone that gets offended by player created content has no one to blame but themselves. That's wrong, that's grossly wrong.

But back to your example, I know for a fact that there are things in the official story line quests that will and should offend a great many people. Bad things are bad. That's another issue though, that's Portalarium created content, and I have no doubt that based on stuff I've heard there will be a serious reaction. The question though is not if that content is right or wrong, it's should players be allowed to express their offense for it or not. I would say unquestionably yes they should. This should be a different thread though.