Huskydogg

The current rule is a small mention at the end of "Characters must be named following a Firstname Lastname model...", which states, "In general, avoid reference/famous/joke names, please.". The problem with this is that it creates a fair amount of ambiguity because of the word 'general'. This could imply that there are exceptions, which means it's down to the interpretation of the admin/mod and the player. I think the rule should be changed to, "No playing characters who are cameos of famous/fictional characters and/or joke names such as 'Mike Hunt'." which makes it very obvious when someone is named that way just to break immersion. For example, somebody could be playing as an security officer called 'Johnny Silverhand' who has black hair and a cybernetic arm (Cyberpunk). This shouldn't be allowed as it breaks immersion. If the character is called 'Johnny Silverhand' and is a chef, who references the character in no other way, this should be allowed. Reasons for this changing: -There are probably millions of names that are 'referenced' from books/movies that characters use. The issue with this, is that what each person knows is different, so some people may recognise the character's name and some won't. -Cameo creates an obvious difference between just a name and playing an embodiment of that character. -This allows the players who are actually on the server to role-play as their character to freely name them without issue. -It makes the rule less ambiguous, because it won't be purely down to the admin/mod's interpretation. However, there are some issues with this rule change; -It would allow massively popular names like 'Donald Trump' to be used, which would obviously break immersion no matter the theme of the character. The same issue as mentioned before with this is that names which are considered 'famous' changes between person-to-person so it's impossible to create a rule for this perfectly. -Staff members may disagree if a name is acceptable or not. To minimise the conflict between this; I would propose that from the staff members online; -if there is only one staff member online the complaint will have to be held until another can agree. -If there are two staff members the vote has to be unanimous (So that it's obvious that the majority of people agree the name is clearly a cameo/joke.). They can also choose to wait for another staff member. -If there are more than two staff members, then three of them have to decide if the name is clearly there to break immersion, the number three is chosen not to involve too many people, whilst meaning that there can always be a majority vote, and that vote will be final. -If it is very clear that the server is being raided by people abusing this rule, such as multiple people showing up with major names at once, then the admin online can speak to them immediately. If any of these steps have been taken, and the player still has a complaint; then they will be informed to take it to the forums so that their personal counter-arguments can be given and a final ruling can be done. Notes: Of course, this is just a suggestion of someone who isn't a member of the staff team so I was just trying to put the last ideas out there as a solution to the problems that my change in policy presented. If someone can come up with a system that would work better for staff and remove ambiguity, I will be for that.

BYOND Key: Huskydogg. Character Names: Joel Hardings. Species you are applying to play: Vaurca Worker. What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Dark red, (RGB 41, 0, 0). Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question. Why do you wish to play this specific race: I want to play the Vaurca because I'd like to play a race that isn't particularly common, especially on other servers. They have a well established backstory as a race, so there is opportunity for interesting discussions and interactions with other characters. I want to play an unbound worker because I feel it provides me a lot more room to have an interesting personality for my character, whilst also giving some flexibility with the way he acts. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: A major thing is that they are split into castes with a lot of variety in the same race, creating big physical differences unlike humans, who are pretty much on a level playing field, bar a few exceptions. Vaurcae are a eusocial society, so they also share a lot of values with their respective hives. They also have to deal with different styles of speech, having impediments like exchanging S's with Z's which would have to remain consistent to make sure the character is believable. As a Vaurca, I would also have access to the hive-net, which cannot be heard by other organic races and can be used to transmit thoughts and ideas as well as speech. Roleplaying as an unbound worker also means that I would have to be aware of the fact that my character is going to be specialised pretty much entirely in one department, and is likely only to know a few random things due to his nature as an unbound. With sentience comes curiosity. Another thing which is important is being aware of my physiological differences (aside from just being a big ant-man), having four digits, an EVA sealed carapace, breathing plasma gas etc which could lead to some interesting interactions such as turning down being given a pair of gloves since they wouldn't fit. Vaurca also have fairly different religious structures, having some based on queens being deities and some based on technology essentially being a gateway to a heaven (Virtual Reality). The idea of being a part of a hive also changes how they act significantly, having a mentality where the popular idea is most likely right, and given that they're a worker, they'd leave the job of fighting to a warrior, whereas humans vary greatly in how aggressive they are. Hives also have a different government each, (excluding the Lii'dra who are a complete hive-mind), which is different compared to humans who are generally under one government depending on where they are from. Character Name: Ka'Akaix'Vex Zo'ra. Hive: Zo'ra. Queen/Brood: Vaur, The Liminal. Place of birth: District 9. Height: 6ft 2inch. Colour: Dark red. RGB 41, 0, 0. (I'll probably change the shade a little bit.) Eye colour: Glossy black. Please provide a short backstory for this character: Being hatched in District 9 as an unbound type A under the Vaur brood, Vex was immediately cared for from birth. Spending the majority of his early life in virtual reality, being given K'ois whenever hungry and having his outside view of the world jaded. Being from a colony plagued in famine however, has it's downsides. Eventually, Vex realised that he was going to have to find himself a designation and as a worker, he decided that physical labour was probably going to be his strong-suit. Growing up around access to virtual reality has led him to love technology, to the point where he regularly tinkers with electronics as a hobby whilst his main job remained helping to construct lattices. Eventually, this led him initially to working in electrical construction, handling the maintenance of grids and installing lights. As he grew older, his interests grew and he eventually began self-researching robotics, regularly studying the work of the past Xakat'kl'atan. Most of the time, occasionally installing augments and building small synthetics on the side as a hobby, finding curiosity in something that most would ignore. Given that he cares deeply for his hive, he absolutely disgusts the idea of interacting with anything that opposes it, whether that is a member of another hive, or an ignorant human spouting racist nonsense, especially because of their history of exploitation. Eventually, he was contracted to work for NanoTrasen as part of a deal to increase the wealth of the Zo'ra. Due to his position as an unbound Vaurca though, he has been given some funds in order to live by himself on the colony. Under scrutiny by NT employment officers, Vex has been given the temporary role of science intern until deemed that he is competent enough to work as a roboticist. If this fails, he could always just become an engineering intern given his background in working in electrical engineering, otherwise he'll be forced to feel the shame of failing his queen. Prior to being transferred for work on the Aurora, he had one troubling event in the colony where a group of humans was mocking him following a discussion about VR, where as a devout believer of the Pilot Dream, Vex was convinced that they are living in a simulation. This resulted in an argument occurring where he remained adamant that they were being ignorant, which led to him being kicked in the stomach. He then fell to the ground without much attempt at a resistance, where he was then repeatedly kicked for a few seconds by the group. Whilst he remained mostly unharmed by the event, they damaged the screen of his modular wrist computer, leaving him with a sour taste in his mouth regarding the human species as a whole. Right before his employment too... What do you like about this character? I like that I've kept his backstory fairly open-ended and vague so that the character can grow naturally based on interactions with other people on station. I feel like he has a good motive for wanting to work, and he has potential for some really interesting interactions with his alien crew members, whether it's a political rant or someone asking why he eats weird yellow mushrooms. The ending of his backstory section also leaves me with a good negative side of his character with chance for some character development. How would you rate your role-playing ability? 8/10. Notes: I didn't put my rating particularly high because whilst I have roleplayed a lot in SS13 over the years, I also haven't played the Vaurca race before so I feel there is likely to be a few slip-ups early on. I have spoken to a couple of the lore team to try and clarify questions I had to counteract this a little.