We Should Have a Talk of the Current State of Aurora

[Hartburry]

Now before I begin let me preface this with a bit of an introduction to those of you who don't know me. My name is Hartburry, I am an Aurora regular of around 7 months now. The characters you might recognize from me include Hakra Drat, an Atmos Tech and Eddie Clark a Head of Personnel/Quartermaster. I love Aurora, I play on it everyday and I love it. I want everyone to understand that this is not a complaint, it was not posted in the complaints board and if it is moved there I will delete it. I want the people who are mentioned in this post, specifically Nightmare and Nibbles to know that I love playing with them everyday as Hakra and that this could have happened to anyone. I pick on you two in this because I feel like I have an almost unmatched idea of how your character's interact with others.

Now with that over you are probably asking yourself, "Why is Hartburry telling us all this? I thought this was a post about a server, not about some random dudes credentials." Well the reasoning for that is because I recently experimented with making a brand new Byond account and logging into the server as a new player. What did this character look like you might ask? Well he was bald as a bat. I made a bald player to try and test out the waters and see what it would be like if I saw this server and randomly wanted to try it out. I played a total of one and a half rounds and let me tell you this. We need to /change/ our attitude.

My rules for this experiment were as followed.

1. I would fill out my character's sheet to the entirety that was possible besides his appearance. My character would have to have full records, skillset and flavor text.

2. My actions would only be something Hakra Drat would do. I would not edit my play-style at all. My character was going to be a Hakra without body fur. My playing of Hakra has been praised and is probably my most well known character. People like the character, I can name many who have personally said that they enjoy the character.

3. I would not use emotes. This was a little test, I planned on having proper grammar and spelling but I wasn't going to emote. I was doing this under the assumption that a new character would not always know how/when to emote.

The first round I joined was at the end of dead-hour, if I remember correctly it was around 1 PM EST. Not many people were on and I basically just went around the station, trying to make friends. I actually got a bit of decent RP in, people were a little bit ruder than normal but for the 30 minutes or so I thought it wasn't the worst experience.

However it is in the second round that things get a bit interesting. I join around 10 minutes into the round, my role is originally Engineer but I planned to immediately switch to Atmospherics to see what it is like going through the bureaucratic process as a bald. I head by the HoP's office and ask for a transfer form, the HoP checks my records and gives me the form, asking me to get it signed by Chief Engineer Nasir Ha'Kim. I go down to Engineering and ask Nasir for a signature, he tells me to come to my office and checks my records, also asking why I want to shift. I tell him I would be of more use to the team in Atmos and he finds that to be reasonable and signs/fills out the paperwork for me. I actually liked how this played out. It gave me some RP and allowed me to get to understand the way paperwork is used on the Aurora.

Now here is where things get a bit tricky though. To preface, the other Atmos Tech on-board is Oliver Stefan, now I know the character of Oliver Stefan incredibly well. I have played at least 20 rounds with him as my co-worker in Atmos so I know how he normally acts. There are a couple other Engineers on this round, including Milton Schrader, a character, along with Stefan, which I personally love and have praised multiple times. There is also some chatter on the radio currently about some people using rolling chairs and extinguishers. Remember that, it comes in handy later on.

The first thing I did as an Atmos Tech was something I do as Hakra Drat /every/ /single/ /round/. I head to the bar and ask for a bottle of Liqour, Hakra usually asks for Drambuie but for this character I asked for a bottle of Whisky. The Bartender, who is new, doesn't know you can pull actual bottles out of the vending machine so I ask with my character (who has worked part-time as a bartender) if he could have a look and see if there were any. The bartender lets me behind the bar and hands me his ID. I take the ID and remove a bottle of Whisky, then returning the ID and going on my way. Now mind you, I do this regularily with Hakra without any problems. However Nasir sees me showing the bottle off in front of Medbay and says that I need to keep drinking to the bar, I tell him not to worry and that I will not get drunk at the office. Nasir then decides to give me one strike.

I go back to Atmos and proceed to do a few things, all of them heavily watched. I actually do some good work and prove that I am somewhat knowledgeable to Stefan at Atmospherics. However the rolling chairs and fire-extinguishers are brought up again over the radio, I then decide that is something a new player to the game would want to try out. I go out into a hallway and try it out. At that point Milton Schrader sees this and grabs me, calling Nasir. Nasir comes by and reprimands me saying he won't have his department embarrassed. I respond by saying that I was going to put the chair back and he tells me that I am wasting fire extinguishers, I then respond that Atmos itself has over 6 fire extinguishers just to themselves and that I was planning on refilling it. Nasir doesn't take that as an excuse and while he is polite and doesn't call me names he says I have another strike. I accept this and proceed to go about my duty however I KNOW that if I had done this stunt as Hakra it would just have been laughed off because if the majority of these people tried to reprimand Hakra about something as small as this he would have the IC knowledge to turn it around and call them a hypocrite because /everyone/ in the engineering department has goofed off before with no consequences besides the /occasional/ demotion which are few and /far/ in between.

In fact I can say that as playing as Hakra Drat I have /never/ been demoted and what comes next in this story baffles me and if Hakra Drat had been treated like this you sure as hell know that the players involved would not hear the end of it.

So as the shift begins to quiet down for me I notice that most of Engineering is off with a minor issue, I forget what it was. I decide to test something out. I place an empty fire extinguisher and a rolling chair in the hallway next to Engineering, I DO NOT USE IT AT ALL. I then head to the library to bide my time, sure enough a few minutes later I hear Oliver Stefan over the radio saying that "Whoever used the fire extingusher and rolling chair stop, you know who you are." I then head back to Engineering and Nasir stops me. After coaxing my name out of Stefan Nasir says that I am very close to a demotion. I tell him that it isn't fair and that I hadn't done anything, Nasir then replies with "Why would Stefan lie to me?" Nasir proceeds to walk away, I chase after him and tell him to stop, I say "I am here to work, not kiss your furry ass." This was outside Atmospherics and Stefan hears this, he comes up to me and whispers "If you continue to badmouth Nasir I will hurt you." Nasir then says that I will be demoted and he calls security to escort me to the HoP's office. I tell Nasir that he isn't being fair and that he has only been going after me, I even tell him what Stefan just said to me. Nasir says he will talk to Stefan, which he doesn't besides a short Stefan stop after Stefan threatens violence over the Engineering radio for the second time.

Now let me say something right here. In all my shifts as Hakra Drat I had never been demoted. It took me ONE shift as a new character to be demoted. Also, not a few shifts ago Hakra was sat down by Nasir and talked to because Hakra raised his voice to a new Tajaran Atmos tech, yet Nasir was allowing Stefan to threaten severe violence against someone all because the player was not one Nasir/Nightmare cared about.

Back to the incident, after some back and forth with Security and Nasir I am cuffed and am taken in the direction of the Head of Personnel's office. I was nonviolent the entire time, the only time I ever came close to violence was when I walked away from the officer's cuffing attempts. However when I arrive at the HoP's office the Officer (named Victor Kaipov)/Nasir change their mind and I am taken to the Brig. While on the way to the brig we witness an assault with a toolbox. This person is also picked up and brought to the brig. While in the brig I have all my items, including backpack and PDA taken into a locker by Nasir and he informs me that I will be demoted to Assistant. I am then given an EIGHTEEN MINUTE sentence for charges that I was denied when asked. The officer ignored me when I asked for my charges. Total time spent in the brig, including processing was 37 minutes and 16 seconds. At around 4 minutes left in the sentence the Warden comes to my cell and says he is releasing me early because he doesn't know my charges. He says that Nasir has my ID/PDA and I have to walk out of the brig to the laundry room naked, because all of my items had been taken. Eventually I find my PDA/ID and attempt to get a backpack however I had access denied on all lockers in the locker room. At this point I was essentially out of the game, no one would talk to me, I had no work to do, and everyone else who I had sustained RP with were not interested in RPing with me. I eventually begged the HoP to give me another job which ended up with me being given Cargo access however I did not have a proper title switch so I was almost arrested numerous times for trespassing.

I mean no disrespect to the players I mention in this wall of text, I want you all to understand that I love this server and that I wouldn't trade it for any other server out there. However we need to understand that we have a problem. What happened here could happen to any of you. Just try it out. This is definitive proof of an elitist environment on the station and is something we definitely need to change.

One note, to Nightmare and Nibbles. I know I pick on you two in this piece but I mean absolutely no disrespect when I write this piece. I think most of the regulars in this server fall into this trap and I by no means want to get either of you in trouble. Understand that I was merely testing this in a controlled environment which were you two and your reactions to the same play-style but with a different name.

Finally I want people to understand this last point in all my playtime on this server I have never been demoted as Hakra Drat, it took me one try playing as a character without hair. We need to change this, I don't know how but I want people to start seriously thinking about this as a legitimate problem facing this server.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I'm extremely glad you've posted this. This is a problem I've noticed and have been trying to find ways to adjust - outside becoming loathed by the community by endlessly posting player complaints based on ancedotes and "I feel"s.

I feel, even now, the hostility that the 'cliques' of the station develop for outsiders and intruders. I purposely avoid falling into this trap (as well as I can) by doing my best to treat people based on their merits and behaviour - I adminhelp when I see a bald scientist or someone else with 'dangerous' access, but it's just to let the admins know that there's someone they may need to observe. I've caught myself making bald jokes, and have made an effort to cut down on that recently.

People need to keep in mind that while it may be enjoyable to see the same faces every shift and expect the same things to happen every shift, it's not sustainable or fun for anyone else. We need to tone down our hostility and aggression (where unwarranted) towards other players - especially new players - because our community suffers for it. I've been a regular player for quite a long time and still feel like an outsider sometimes when one of my characters intersects with a clique and gets accosted for it - that incident where literally all of engineering (Nasir and Roy specifically) assaulted an officer doing a silly arrest while my unathi Saisairot stood there telling them to calm down - then being threatened by engineers when I grabbed and hurled one of the engineers down the hall to try to get him out of there. (I'm going to assume the officer was new, because the arrest was a tad silly.)

Moving all of this back to my point: Aurora has festered a hostile community. Outside harsher admin rules over IC misconduct or a spontanious introspection by the people (I concede most of it is probably inadvertent) causing this, I don't really know how to fix it; but others I know are solving this problem by playing Aurora less and less, or migrating elsewhere.

[nbielinski]

Upon reading this, I find myself totally disgusted. At myself and my actions to Hartburry. But allow me to place this into context. While on one hand we have Drat, a rather lovable character that Stefan sees a more friendly version of Roy Wyatt. And after many rounds of working with Drat, has grown to like the company of the Tajaran, even going as far as to call him a personal friend. Now, on the matter of the round, this new character that you created. While perhaps experienced, was someone Stefan had never seen or interacted with. And I think Nightmare can attest to this. And when this new character started to make a fool of himself. Well, imagine it this way. If Drat and Stefan are working in atmospherics, and suddenly a new person comes in, throwing pipes around and acting a fool. I feel you and I would have the same reaction to him, negative. So, I hope you are able to see my point of view. It was not because I had never seen the name, it was not because the character was bald, and it most certainly was not because he was a "new character" but it was because this character, this random person that has never established himself in any way among the crew of the Aurora, most specifically to the engineering department. Arrives and begins to act as I said, like a fool. I would like to take a moment to apologize though, recently I believe many of the rounds and individuals within them have begun to anger me and as I recall at that moment I was rather angry at something ICly, so you can imagine how a character reacts to a negative person in a negative situation. I do not commend my actions and this is not a plea to see that Hartburry is wrong, indeed if all new players are treated like this its a very big problem. I simply want Hartburry to realize my point of view in this. Drat is a peer that Stefan can relate to and even like. The new character though, seemed to be trying to take the place of Drat, minus the fur, and emulate his actions without even introducing himself to the engineering department. It is like attempting to use a AAA battery in a 9-Volt slot. The two do not add up, as the new character had failed to gain any admiration from engineering what so ever. And I expect if a player were to join now and begin to waste fire extinguishers, drink on the job, and make a fool of himself, he would be treated the same. I am also not saying that somehow you gain seniority by being around. But Drat had time to slowly grind in who he was. This new character, was not as much slowly grinding in as he was chainsawing in his mannerisms. Again, I apologize to hartburry for any misdeeds. And hope he remains with atmosia onward.

[Nightmare]

Im not going to do a huge wall of text, because I don't feel like it. So i'll just post a few things. Any time I've been CE, anytime I've seen an engineer or atmo tech, walking around with a bottle outside the bar, I tell them to keep it to the bar. This isn't just baldy, its anyone. So don't lie and say it was just you. Second, again, anytime I've been CE, and I see engineers or techs rolling around with chairs with fire extinguishers, I tell them to knock it off. Again, so don't say it was just you, because it wasn't. When Oliver threatened you, not only did I not hear it because it was a whisper, but when you start demanding that I do things, and start calling me a fool, telling me that i'm just going after you. crying that im not watching all the other engineers (which, I actually was, thank you.) yes, im less likely to care about your opinion. It has nothing to do with you being new, or being a bald character, because i'm 95% positive, that I try to make an attempt at including new players in things than a lot of other people, bald or not. So honestly, I really don't care that you're crying about this. Everything that happened that round, you brought on yourself due to your actions. Not the fact that you lacked hair. And on the note about your ID/PDA, it was given to the HoP and you were to be made a Janitor. I don't know exactly where the mix up with that happened, but the moment the ID was given to the HoP and the officer took you, it was out of my hands and I left it alone, as neither was my department

Edited January 29, 2015 by Guest

[Hartburry]

I do not want to make it about this specific incident, I feel like I should summarize my points.

While playing as Hakra Drat over countless shifts the number of times I have been demoted have been zero.

While playing as this new character not only was I demoted but I was brig'd for 20+ minutes and had my backpack taken from me.

There is a clear difference here. I hate that this post is being thought of as a complaint against any individuals. I just want to make this server a more friendly place for people to come onto if they are new.

[Nightmare]

Its not my problem, if you were never demoted. I do things pretty equally, as far as what I allow people to do and not. If people come to me, I talk to them. I don't care about their hair style. If people ask me for favors, I do them. If people drink outside the bar, they get strikes. There is no difference here

[Hartburry]

There is a huge difference, I mean no disrespect but playing as Hakra I have done much worse things in front of you. But as this new player I was given 30+ minutes of brig time and then had my backpack taken from me. I was unable to gain a second one. This was doing behavior that me as a regular player on this server thought was regarded as normal.

I don't want to get caught up in the specifics, what you did here Nightmare was something almost every other regular would do if they were in the same position. You are not to blame, it is the product of social stigmas that are being reinforced by our server's community. I don't mean to make this seem as a personal attack. I just want to try and show that there are two sides to Aurora, the one that all us regulars know and love and the one that new players experience.

[Nightmare]

Doing much worse things like what? If you are going to accuses people of things, then you need to get caught up with the specifics. And nothing you did that round, was regarded as normal. If Hakra was being an idjit and rolling around with a chair and a fire extinguisher then he'd get the exact same treatment. A few rounds ago on a mutiny round, I gave a bald character (connor something) a pretty big role in what was going on. Granted, that didn't work out because he took a toolbox to the head of the HoS, so saying it was because you were bald is false. Its because your character was annoying and wouldn't stop

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Doing much worse things like what? If you are going to accuses people of things, then you need to get caught up with the specifics. And nothing you did that round, was regarded as normal. If Hakra was being an idjit and rolling around with a chair and a fire extinguisher then he'd get the exact same treatment. A few rounds ago on a mutiny round, I gave a bald character (connor something) a pretty big role in what was going on. Granted, that didn't work out because he took a toolbox to the head of the HoS, so saying it was because you were bald is false. Its because your character was annoying and wouldn't stop

 

Why Nasir is suddenly CE is an issue I'm going to save for another time. Currently the problem is: Nepotism, and hostility to outsiders.

Nightmare you say you treat people equally. You say that Hakra is treated just the same as anyone else. Anyone can say things, and blindly deny them - but the actions here that targeted Hartbury are a direct counter to your statements. Actions are what define character, with words being secondary.

In this situation you had a baldie - what to you was a new player - brigged and punished extremely harshly for little more than goofing off and having a bottle of whiskey. The behaviour isn't consistent at all - I've been in security and have seen you give free passes to regular engineers so many times. Hell, you've even joined in a mob that attacked a security officer over her making a silly arrest of two other engineers along with Roy Wyatt - and when Saisairot was new, you were extrodinarily hostile to him when he was asking basic questions, or admitting that he couldn't do certain things outside his job description as an electrician.

[Nightmare]

The fact that he was brigged had NOTHING to do with me. I called security to escort him to the HoP office. In no way, shape, or form did I want him brigged. When they decided to, I didn't stop them, because that wasn't my concern. And when I joined that 'mob' that attacked that sec officer it was because she came and attacked me first, I was one of the two other engineers, it wasn't as if I jumped in. I hit her, /after/ she harm batonned me, yes. And yes, Nasir doesn't like Saisairot, yes this is correct.

[Hartburry]

Nightmare, I think you are getting too hung up in trying to be defensive. It is not your actions which I am trying to criticize here it is the SERVER'S actions. I want us to move past the specifics of Nasir's actions and focus on what is important.

[Nightmare]

When you state actions of a persons character, why would you expect them not to get defensive about it? You brought up issues about my characters, and are stating that he did things that didn't happen, so yes, im going to defend those actions, and when accused of something, I'll defend those also, especially If they are incorrect

[Susan]

Hartburry, I like you, I do, but this is a skewed perspective.

You: Drank on the job, wasted supplies racing around in a chair with wheels, and told your boss you aren't here to kiss his 'furry ass', which would be like telling your boss you aren't there to kiss his 'nigger ass'.

I would have fired you too. I'd have fired you even if you were Hakra, because that behavior is inexcusable, and you can be damn sure I'd arrest you for it, too. Neglect of duty and hooliganism are valid charges here. To be honest, I can't quite find what the problem you are purporting there to be is. Favoritism? You said yourself Nasir was polite to you about your strikes before you got on his bad side, so... what, did he hate you because you were bald? That's not the impression I'm seeing. You were given chances and you blew them. How is this a bad thing at all?

Are you attempting to imply new players shouldn't be held to the same reasonable standard as everyone else? If a new guy calls me a spic that my Spanish character shouldn't take offense to that? That orders I give are questioned and I should just let it go? I do think our server has this dumb bald fascination and should lay off of it, but what I see here isn't abuse of a new player, what I see here is an annoying character getting his just deserts. Just because a character isn't immediately nice to someone they don't know isn't a 'clique'. If you're trying to say we need to forgo IC circumstances and be super cheery and chipper to every new player, I find that ridiculous.

Welcome to work in reality. Bosses can be Hitler. Coworkers can hate your guts. And on the other side of the coin it can all be happy cheery. It isn't workplace simulator for characters to react differently to other people, that is basic human interaction.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

When you state actions of a persons character, why would you expect them not to get defensive about it? You brought up issues about my characters, and are stating that he did things that didn't happen, so yes, im going to defend those actions, and when accused of something, I'll defend those also, especially If they are incorrect

 

Your behaviour with Nasir hating every single one of the engineer characters I've made ~2 rounds into their creation is a symptom of the wider issue - engineering is an unattrative department to me because behaviour like this is widespread. If you're not a known player, you're treated worse than a regular player. It's a difficulty curve revolving entirely around the challenge of becoming well enough liked by people to not face hostility and rudeness on a constant, clockwork basis.

[Nightmare]

That's untrue. Your engineering Tajaran and mine got along just fine, there were no issues and they hung out regularly, from day one. So again, false. Yes, Nasir can seem to dislike some people from day one for no reason, but that is a thing that happens in real life. Im not required to like, or to pretend to like anyone. Being the new guy at work is hard, again, even in real life.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Guest

[Hartburry]

I never once opened the bottle of liquor, I only went on the office chair/extinguisher once. If you read my full response you can see that I detail it all in there. How many times have people walked in on Hakra drunk off his ass in Maint? I have never once been fired playing as him and I can give over 20 instances of other characters in Engineering breaking what would be the rules of a standard workplace. I play a new character where my only true crime is using a rolling chair/fire extinguisher once and I am taken out of the game for 30+ minutes and am released from jail with no possible way of being able to RP. I think people forget that I wasn't even charged with anything, I was just placed in a jail cell and had all my belongings confiscated.

This is not a complaint against Nightmare.

[Nightmare]

I don't care if its not a complaint against me. It has to do with me, so i'll defend myself all the same. I've seen Hakra drunk a few times, when I was an engineer. I've never seen Hakra do anything wrong when I've been CE. And the one time I did, I spoke to him in the office to find out why he was acting that way. And you seem to think that when other engineers do something wrong when im CE I let it go. No, that is false. Just because you don't see it, and don't find out about it doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. I don't always have office sit downs, but I don't just go "ok, you're my friend, see ya." no, I always say something in some fashion

[Guest]

Not to peanut gallery, but I find it amusing this was brought up. I myself was actually planning on multikeying, creating a completely new, human, bald character and test them out in a certain department. With certain rules that would bar them from doing things veteran RPers would do. To assume the facade of being a new player on the server.

Having seen Skull/Scopes' posts earlier this week about their discouragements about 'discriminating against the balds', I thought a great deal about the social experiment I could cook up and take for a test drive. To gauge the reaction of a high-maintenance department, I was definitely thinking security. I speculated I would get the biggest reaction out of it. For obvious intents and purposes of not wanting to get banned, I would not be shitcurity on purpose. Rather than focus on the roleplay aspect, focusing on gameplay and how people react to said gameplay.

Funny how you beat me first to it. I found your results more than a little bit interesting.

But, however, to sort of agree with Sue on the part where people allegedly have an issue with the balds.

The thing is, there really aren't any cliques that have been let rampant for awhile. The staff do an excellent job of curbing stupid IC-friendship behaviors (if not downright discouraging it to begin with) and other forms of, pardon my french, shittery.

Hell, a few days ago a well-known character strapped an electropack to someone's back because that person DNA locked a RIPLEY. The well-known character persisted in torturing them. The captain comes along, not really giving a fuck. They go on their merry way, for some reason? The person who was getting tortured decided enough was enough and he stated plainly in LOOC, "Yeah, I'm done. Reddit was right about this place." and then goes SSD, preventing access to the mech. In hindsight, it probably would have been better to ask nicely? "Hey, you DNAlocked the mech. Can you fix that issue for us, please? It was meant for cargo."

Having witnessed this ICly, and having been extremely confused OOCly as well, I made the decision not to report the incident. I knew the person was perhaps on their last straw before being banned, and I really didn't want to ruin it for them as well.

Yet again, in hindsight, perhaps I should've said something. Even if I were to recount what happened in the round, I don't think I could recall every detail. It's saddening, to see this kind of behavior happen. I honestly felt like I was part of the problem by not reporting it, and I ended up making a worse decision, imo. I couldn't fix that guy leaving out of anger, and telling on that well-known player would be like taking a sledge to a sturdy pillar of the community. Yet, I still had my doubts of how sturdy that pillar was.

The current state of Aurora is... not good. Not bad nor terrible either, but it needs improvement not only in terms of how the staff handle things, but how the community as a whole is expected to communicate with the staff on issues. It seems really unhelpful that I realized this a little too late, eh?

Edited January 29, 2015 by Guest

[Cassie]

He's not actually attacking any of you personally, he's addressing a systematic issue where he used your actions as an example. Anyway, to be constructive I do recommend more people who are in denial of this problem to do the same thing that Hartburry did and maybe join under a new ckey no one knows about and play a new character.

Perhaps then you'll have a deeper insight of where things can go wrong and resolve a few issues that the server has. Denial has never fixed any problems, the fact that this current complaint shows up quite often is a sign that perhaps maybe you shouldn't attack Hartburry and focus on the better issue to address here. In a roleplay environment, if something isn't working out, you have to intervene and fix it. For example, yes, old frequenters can be very cold and standoffish, nevermind being bald or new to RP - you can be a fully customed character who knows how to emote well and still get shunned/treated badly.

For example, I'm the kind to dip my toe into the pool. I've had instances, with five different characters mind you, where people have straight up walked past me in hallways, you've directly talked to someone but they walk past you, etc. Security has a habit of being stressed and overwhelmed, when in reality they make their job harder by being very aggressive and using more force than is necessary.

Security officers; keep in mind, they're not the police, and are actually employed to not only protect and uphold regulations, but to also diffuse situations and prevent them from happening. In some cases the offenses are so minor all you'd have to do is report the misdeed to a head so the head + the HOP can manage it. If more officers did this, they'd be less on their plate if they didn't bite off more they can chew with excessive force or domination. I really do get that you guys do have non-rp'ers griefing you sometimes, but I see this happening to RP'ing prisoners too. From there it becomes a power struggle and then you'd have to battle out the wits - that's tiring as fuck.

Police brutality and prison toward people who aren't known or liked is ridiculous. Some of the stuff I've witnessed IC'ly happening to me and other is actually shocking because you come to realize, "Hey, this isn't just IC roleplay, this person is venting their OOC anger and prejudice at me.". In that sense, you start to build a bit of OOC resentment for the people who play on the server - which is bad. Yes, I am kind of rude, but jesus I have to admit I get a bit annoyed with how things are. Keep in mind any offenses my character does are non-griefy and don't result in any harm to other characters, ie, (verbal fights, taking a drink outside the bar, smoking in medbay). The joke is that, for example, if someone is taking alcoholic beverages out of the bar, they don't need to be arrested. In real life they wouldn't be arrested unless it was hooliganism and they were drunk, in that case they'd be put aside shortly in a cell until they sober up and given a warning.

I could change my character to be more cooperative with security, but that's not very realistic. I don't think I should change, security should change tbh. My character is very easily managed, you could say, "Hey, could you kindly put out that cigarette, we have patients who are sensitive to cigarette ash.", and she'd be like, "Okay, fiiiiine.", and put it out.

But when a special snowflake hyper-aggressive security comes in and says, "PUT DOWN THAT CIGARETTE. NOW." (which is a terrible way to roleplay security and whoever does this should feel bad), and she's going to be like, "You coming at me like that? Who do you think you are?" Because that's how people of her temperament in real life would react to being talked like that by a security guard, who are usually polite irl. And then it becomes an amusing little verbal IC tiff until I realize it has escalated to the point where my character has been flashed/maced, usually 98% of the time not initiating any physical contact repeatedly and chucked into the shutter.

[Hackie]

We just need to understand that we're all /human/, we're all /people/. If someone is new to the game, don't antagonize them. The best you can do is push them away if you're in a bad mood, or, help them in LOOC. Some of the players on this server started off as balds, doing stupid stuff we taunt people for. We need to take a few steps back sometimes and realize, this is a game about 2D Spacemen, who fight wizards, slugs, and terrorists who dress in blood red. We're all nerds, we need to love this community where we're immersed in instead of making drama and venting our anger into OOC. Think of the, 'every hour take a fifteen minute break rule'. It'll help, just make you a better person Out of Character, and In character.

[Skull132]

Nix. Click here to read the original post being referred to!

 

I'm just going to put my foot behind this, because I like the point of it.

I will add this: players should not be getting burnt out at the idea of balds. And yet we still get adminhelps, legitimate adminhelps, from senior players that go along the lines of, "Bald chemist." To which we usually smile, nod, and say that we're tracking (do note, we usually don't even adminghost around people like that. Unless they have an invalid name, we don't pay second thought to them). But, the fact that this is still happening is ridiculous. And it's a nice showcase of the issue present.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Nix. Click here to read the original post being referred to!

 

I'm just going to put my foot behind this, because I like the point of it.

I will add this: players should not be getting burnt out at the idea of balds. And yet we still get adminhelps, legitimate adminhelps, from senior players that go along the lines of, "Bald chemist." To which we usually smile, nod, and say that we're tracking (do note, we usually don't even adminghost around people like that. Unless they have an invalid name, we don't pay second thought to them). But, the fact that this is still happening is ridiculous. And it's a nice showcase of the issue present.

 

I'm embarrassed to admit that remember doing that for awhile, after we had that period of griefers besieging the server. I've stopped now, and have been trying to give baldies the benefit of the doubt - conditioning myself out of being conditioned to be paranoid about balds is difficult.

[Conservatron]

make a new company policy that all employees must be clean shaven on both the head and the face due to the dangerous nature of work done on Aurora Station.

[Baka]

This is my view on it.

I am the person who been in the chemistry lab when the bad balds came in. The bad balds who mix water and potassium. The bad balds who made acid grenades which melted the entire lab with myself in it. The problem is a few things: the bad balds who does this shit and ruined the reputation of new players by not having hair meaning they may be a griefer, and us shaping the clay of this community to always be shifty of bald players and their intentions. We all had a hand doing this, either directly or indirectly.

I had joined the game before as a bald assistant, with a tool belt, tool box, and constantly speaking on comms asking if people needed assistance. I went to cargo to ask for a simple multitool from the autolathe and I was met with "You're going to use this for bad shit aren't you." It took me 20 minutes to get a multitool and afterwards an officer came up and started to question me about where I got it from. Granted, a few people I interacted about this multitool are known regulars.

With that experience in mind, and while I have been guilty about it, how about instead of pointing fingers at others, we do the correct thing and give the person a chance? Try to speak to the person especially if their new that a first job shouldn't be in chemistry or science but tell them there's easier jobs like cargo tech or janitor to learn the basic of game mechanics? Don't you remember when you were new and starting out? Just a shove in the right direction may make people gain interest in the game, and a possible new member of the community.

[Frances]

The only instance of this problem I've seen is security sometimes being utterly stupid. Arresting people for taking tools out of tool storage (bald female chef had a screwdriver, security arrested her because ?)

I played a variety of characters who were not recognized throughout my time on the server (in fact I'm fairly certain most people have no idea what most of my characters were besides some regular Tajarans) and I have to say that while socializing was difficult at times, I mostly faced the hurdles that any new employee would face. (People don't trust you, some people are going to be asocial dicks, but not everyone is and some people are gonna be pretty welcoming and helpful once they see you attempt to roleplay decently).

The crux of this issue is not the server's overall behavior, but small cliques of people who enable each others' toxic behavior, for example heads engaging in blatant displays of favoritism (most often towards other characters they are romantically engaged with) and people shying away not from socializing ICly, but from roleplaying OOCly with people they don't know. (Come on guys, I know meeting new people is scary, but make an effort.)

And like, of course you shouldn't act like an idiot towards a new player (for example breaking your own RP by assuming a new character is there to grief), but characters have no obligation to be friendly to newcomers. Favoritism is the issue.