[Accepted] Kaedwuff's Masochistic Robot App

[Kaed]

BYOND Key: Kaedwuff

Character Names: 

Ssalashtar Intesski
Tazhir Kra'xis
Esisshesi Ssreshkor
+ a bunch other lizzars
Hraahzau Muhurrha
Njadrasanukii Rrhakaslav

Species you are applying to play: Robot Filth

What color do you plan on making your first alien character: I don't know, green I guess.

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 don't think I've ever made much of a secret of how much I dislike synthetics as a playable race. It is possible that my long history of maining unathi has colored my views, as roleplaying spiritualist lizard people who had soulless automatons might have colored my views a bit.  However, I have some dislike for the mechanics of having to face them in combat in the game too (have EMP or lots of lasers, or largely get fucked), but most of all, I strongly dislike the direction the lore has taken in-server.  The way synthetics have become coddled and protected by new laws and 'social creep' with nothing negative for quite some time grates on me a lot, making it harder to play other races who are anti-synth AS anti-synth.  And that isn't even detailing at length how irritating I find some of the synthetic players overly 'quirky' personality choices.

However, I have always been an advocate for trying and learning new things, and don't feel right simply never checking out synthetics as a playable race despite my numerous distastes towards the server culture and race themselves.  The idea of being an oppressed synthetic in a society that does not value them as individuals appeals to me as a fan of grim storylines, and as much as we seem to be trying to move away from that into most synthetics being free happy friendbots.  As I sat here pondering what I would want to play, I found myself intrigued at what sort of behaviors I could consider to be improperly humanlike.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:

Until today, I had not so much as opened up the wiki pages on synthetics and the most I knew about them was that there were approximately three trillion different models of IPC that I see and don't click on every time I open up the race selection window to pick Unathi when making a new character.  Having read the lore now, I know that each of these races covers a different aspect of specialized robot chassis, because unlike humans, who can only specialize their traits over several thousand years of natural evolution, synthetics can be built and modified for a specific purpose.  Industrial frames come in several generations and models from big companies like Hephaestus and Xion, Zeng-hu makes speedy but frail robots, there's shells who can pretend to be humans with slave tags on, and Bishop makes the fancy expensive designer models. Blah blah blah.

Of much more interest to me in the lore was the variety of different factions involved in the synthetic lore, most of which I did not know existed because I have never once seen them reflected on station. I had never even HEARD of Purpose until I read the lore page, because no one talks about it.  I think I remember vaguely one event with a bunch of gold plated robots that I think might have been related to the Golden Deep, but not once have I seen someone coming onto the station playing a robot merchant representing them.  The only faction I have ever heard of until today was the SLF, but apparently they all died in some event that got cancelled partway through???  Why do I hear about ATLAS and all the Cat Planet factions constantly, see Aut'akh and unathi differences of ideology, and there's even that fear of Lii'dra still going on.  Meanwhile, we've got all this super cool synth lore floating around with just enough detail to open up fascinating storylines and no one ever does anything with it! All I ever see is synthetic players focusing on maintaining a specific Weird Robot Personality and handling station-based plotlines. WHY??

Where did Purpose fuck off to? Who is Null?  Where the shit did Sven Karlsson vanish to?  Why has no one ever spoken of Bubble or SUNSHINE ICly in my presence, or expressed their fanboyism for Lemmy and the ClockWorks or PBU-9551's latest race?  Why does no one talk about  what happened to Neopolymus?  Why have I never seen a Trinity Perfection priest?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

If I had known synth lore wasn't as vacuous as it seems to be portrayed in-server I would have gone for this whitelist months ago and probably applied to be an IPC dev!  So I might as well get started here!

Character Name: ZH-3283

Please provide a short backstory for this character 

ZH-3283 is a product of Zeng-Hu's Kyūkyoku manufacturing facility, and like many of of its kind was created by a bunch of sloppy underpaid workers in what amounts to a futuristic sweat shop. Despite the many manufacturing mistakes that are made by the engineers at the facility, ZH-2283 was deemed nominally functional enough to pass inspection before being shipped out with other models of its like past the oppressive military force surrounding Kyūkyoku.

Following its chassis being placed into the general market, ZH-3283 was one of several similar models purchased by a small courier company who wanted to take advantage of their unique speed and endurance capabilities to run deliveries in a metropolis. Despite being deemed functional enough to be sold to the public, ZH-2283 suffers from several minor personality defects only discovered post-purchase, most likely caused by superficial damage to his positronic brain during installation into its chassis. It suffers from an inability to properly form self-identity, and despite being given designations by several owners since its purchase, it is unable to designate itself by anything other than its manufacturing code.  Despite this issue, it had no issues performing its duties, but the defect made it unappealing as a company front for the courier business, and it was later resold several times before ending up in Nanotrasen's employ due to the discounted rate his defects offered.

For the most part, NH-3283 does not live a life of deep introspection, and is not highly motivated to seek self-actualization or freedom. He is generally utilized in positions that require fast delivery of items or minor menial labor, such as cargo or assistant positions.

What do you like about this character? The fact that writing his bio will be the gateway to making other, later concepts that will probably interest me a lot more.

How would you rate your role-playing ability? Very good.

Notes: aaaaaaaaaaaaa whyyyy

Edited October 29, 2019 by Kaed

[niennab]

If you hate IPCs, why apply for the white-list? I must admit opening with that claim doesn't give me a positive impression of the application. Nonetheless, I have a few questions:

Can you expand on how IPCs differ from humans?

The backstory of the character is a bit bare bones so what I mostly want to ask is with this concept, since there is a focus on a lack of identity, other than opposable thumbs, what makes this character different from a station-bound?

[Kaed]

58 minutes ago, niennab said:

If you hate IPCs, why apply for the white-list? I must admit opening with that claim doesn't give me a positive impression of the application. Nonetheless, I have a few questions:

Can you expand on how IPCs differ from humans?

The backstory of the character is a bit bare bones so what I mostly want to ask is with this concept, since there is a focus on a lack of identity, other than opposable thumbs, what makes this character different from a station-bound?

-As I said in my longwinded application, I wanted to try something new, and have never felt "I don't like how that looks" to be a good reason to never check it out myself.  Further, I had hoped the implication for the application would come off as the intended 'I thought I hated IPCs, but then I realized that they have cool lore and it was the players I interacted with that left a bad impression'? It was much the same with me and tajarans, because with a few notable exceptions, a lot of them behave like overly emotional manchildren ICly, which grates a lot on me. Reading the lore pages (for both those races) helped me realize that I don't have to play a happy friendbot (or a gay catman who has a tantrum whenever things go badly) whose only notable trait is that they don't use contractions or Use: colons a lot in their: statements

-IPC are created largely as a simulation of the human brain using questionably obtained logical skrellian algorithms, allowing engineer to jump the gap to actual sentience in their AI.  However, making an artificial human-like brain does not necessarily mean they will behave exactly like humans.  They can simulate emotions to varying degrees but are still limited to input-output processing of information they receive from their surroundings.  IPCs who behave 'erratically' are therefore rare because spontaneous changes in behavior for no reason (insanity) are not generally possible in the way they are capable of thinking.  Positronic brains value self preservation over anything else, but what constitutes self preservation can vary by IPCs.

Mechanically speaking, they don't breathe eat or sleep, nor do they need atmosphere to survive, but due to their cooling systems functioning on convection concepts, they require a cooling unit in certain circumstances where they have limited or no air to use to maintain their internal temperature.  They 'eat' from sources of electricity, and cannot repair themselves without nanopaste, don't feel pain, and are vulnerable to EMP.  There are numerous other differences between the various models that I'm not going to list at length.

-The character is bare-bones because he is mostly a proof in concept that I read the lore, and I'm not sure how much I actually intend to play him, but sure, I'll answer this perplexingly specific question.  Stationbounds are not the same as IPCs because they are not created to simulate thought with the complexity that IPCs do.  Many of them are sentient, and while perhaps some people play borgs or AI as being nearly sapient, the vast number of stationbounds lack the ability to properly reason - their behavior is wrapped around a set of behavioral laws and they do not really have the ability to reason why they should or should not do things, they simply act the way they are programmed/lawed to do.

This character's lack of identity does not inhibit its ability to reason or make choices, it is more a glitch in its ability to self designate itself or disassociate from its manufacturing code.  Think of its 'identity' being in read-only format, it cannot modify it or differentiate itself from the manufacturing code or (as of yet) create what amounts to an addendum file that "NH-3283 is also RobotNameHere" Typical speech pattern thus would be in the format of a lack of first person pronouns. "NH-3283 would be happy to assist you with that task." as opposed to "I would be happy to assist you with that."  This is an unappealing trait in a forward facing company that wants their IPC employees perhaps to have names that make customers feel more comfortable with them, or talk more like a human. And, unlike a stationbound, it would likely decline if commanded to walk out an airlock without a compelling reason or preparation to do so, it still seeks to preserve itself.

Also, I dislike writing purely positive stories about characters, so the idea of his personality flaws causing him be shifted around between companies like a broken piece of luggage that works just well enough to not throw away but still is embarrassing to be seen owning really appealed to me.

Edited October 29, 2019 by Kaed

[Doxxmedearly]

Quote

Character Name: Does it matter?

You really don't seem to care about this. Even advertising it in OOC you said you didn't like IPCs. It seems like an application out of spite like your "Kawaii" captain was, rather than an earnest attempt to explore something. Additionally, you've consistently been a unfriendly presence for at least as long as I've been on the server, and it shows in this app. -1 from me, for however much it matters.

[Kaed]

29 minutes ago, Doxxmedearly said:

You really don't seem to care about this. Even advertising it in OOC you said you didn't like IPCs. It seems like an application out of spite like your "Kawaii" captain was, rather than an earnest attempt to explore something. Additionally, you've consistently been a unfriendly presence for at least as long as I've been on the server, and it shows in this app. -1 from me, for however much it matters.

The robot's name doesn't matter because there is no naming scheme for robots. They don't have a 'format' for names that we have to adhere to, like other races  that have a distinct culture. It was my impression that the purpose of that section was to demonstrate that you know the race's naming format, and thus, it did not seem to matter to me, so I literally pulled one out of a hat, a shorthand for Zeng-Hu Robot #3283, and wrote a short story about it.  The "I don't know, does it matter?" was more train of thought writing than 'I wish to be disrespectful to the robots lololo"

As I've explained several times so far, my dislike is largely rooted in my impressions from IPC players and how frustrating it is to deal with them mechanically.  I"m sorry that you've gotten an unfriendly impression of me.  I tend to be very blunt and forthright about things.  Neither this 'kawaii' captain you speak of (which has since had their name changed by request) nor any other character I created has ever demonstrated spiteful behavior that is disruptive to the server in general.  You may think I am a rude, terrible person, but that problem exists largely OOC, not in the characters I make and I'm not sure it has any bearing on my ability to play an IPC.

During my tarajan app, I asked "am I required to play the character I use as an example character?" and I was told "no, you aren't".  From this, I extrapolated that this application is about proving your understanding of the whitelisted race, not about creating a deep, complex character that you necessarily want to play.  It is very hard for me to get invested in writing a backstory or character I strongly enjoy before I know I will be able to actually play it.

Thus, this very basic robot bio that I am not particularly attached to.  I expect, much like the character I made for my tajaran app, I most likely will poke at him a couple times then abandon him for a new character idea I enjoy much more. At the end of the day, I think the application is supposed display your understanding of the lore involved, not be a popularity contest or show how psyched you are about the character concept you wrote up to show you read that lore.

Edited October 29, 2019 by Kaed

[BoryaTheSlayer]

Despite the attitude you have approached writing the whitelist with(at certain parts it reads like a rant, and at certain parts it feels like you didn't put an effort in), you are incredibly passionate about this and obviously have read the lore.

This is not a definitive +1 or -1 but I just wanted to throw this out here. Good luck!

[Itanimulli]

This app seems about right for something I'd expect from you. Not in a bad way, just oozes with...kaedness?
Anyays you:
Read the lore? Yes.
Come up with a good concept? Yes.
Appear like you're actually going to make use of this? Yes.
Are exploring the less emancipated side of IPCs? Yes.

Good enough for a +1 from me. I already know you're capable of rp, even if you sometimes come off as...extremely spiteful. Which is how a lot of people perceive this app, including me, but oh well.

[Kaed]

1 hour ago, Itanimulli said:

This app seems about right for something I'd expect from you. Not in a bad way, just oozes with...kaedness?
Anyays you:
Read the lore? Yes.
Come up with a good concept? Yes.
Appear like you're actually going to make use of this? Yes.
Are exploring the less emancipated side of IPCs? Yes.

Good enough for a +1 from me. I already know you're capable of rp, even if you sometimes come off as...extremely spiteful. Which is how a lot of people perceive this app, including me, but oh well.

The distilled essence of Kaed, in robot app form. 

Anyway, any other questions?

Edited October 30, 2019 by Kaed

[niennab]

Your application demonstrates a good understanding of IPCs. Application accepted.

However, on the basis of how the application was presented, I am a bit worried in regards to the player to player interaction outside of roleplay. In the event of unwanted behavior, rules will be enforced regarding the whitelist. Though I remain optimistic.

Enjoy the whitelist.