Experiment: Civilian for a day

[Cassie]

Hey, to cut to the point - I have this deal.

I'm suggesting everyone step aside from their known characters and make a totally new one. This new character has to be totally anonymous and you can't speak in LOOC at any point to confirm it is you; you can't tell your friends it's you or anything remotely similar.

Leave out flavourtext and choose a civilian department like Assistant, Cargo, Service, Chaplain or Librarian. I want you to play a round or two and post your results on this topic in this format. You must play a whole round.

So, to sum things up. Here's the experiments, you can choose any one and do them as many times as you like:

EXPERIMENT A:

• Join as a civilian character.
• You can use flavourtext
  
• You can emote and do complex RP to your own natural standard.
  
• You can NOT let anyone know your OOC identity
  
• Try to roleplay with people and see if anyone reciprocates your RP (IE: Emoting back, making a conversation)
  
• Try to have an enjoyable round overall
  
• Post the results in here.

 

EXPERIMENT B:

• Join as a civilian character.
• You can NOT use flavourtext
  
• You can NOT emote and do complex RP to your own natural standard (but keep your spelling and grammar to the best of your ability).
  
• You can NOT let anyone know your OOC identity
  
• Try to roleplay with people and see if anyone reciprocates your RP (IE: Acknowledging your presence, making a conversation)
  
• Try to have an enjoyable round overall.
  
• Post the results in here.

 

EXPERIMENT C:

• Join as a civilian character.
• Please do use flavourtext.
  
• You must emote and do complex RP to your own natural standard.
  
• You can NOT let anyone know your OOC identity
  
• Commit a minor roleplay fluff crime (IE: Not assault or any form of grief), with a strong RP reason behind it. (You might need to brainstorm before joining the round or find a good IC reason to do this.)
  
• Allow security to catch you and see how they roleplay with you, if not at all.
  
• Post the results in here.

 

For your own use, you should log the conversation. You can do this by right-clicking and pressing "Log..." in the SS13 chat window at the beginning of the round.

Here's the form (URGH PAPERWORK I KNOW):

 

Experiment? (A/B/C):
How many interactions did you get?:
How was your experience with other civilians? Departmental workers? Heads? Sec?:
How does this compare to your usual playing role?:
If you were new to Aurora (as someone new to RP) would you come back?
If you were new to Aurora (as someone experienced in RP) would you come back?
Did you enjoy the round? (y/n)
Notes:

[VoltageHero]

It seems (to me) that Experiment A would be able to be a control group, seeing as this is how most people on the server RP. From, B and C could be used to determine how more or less people interacted with the new character.

I'm suggesting that both A and B to have to also commit a crime, or none of them have to do one at all. With C having to commit a crime, it throws another factor into the experiment, that isn't being highlighted by either A or B.

[Cassie]

Here's the actual idea.

Experiment A would reflect how experienced RP'ers who join Aurora experience the server.

Experiment B would reflect how an inexperienced (with a good potential to learn) RP'ers will experience the server.

And experiment C is a somewhat a completely different experiment unrelated to the other two. Since I get a lot of security saying "Oh, we don't get a lot of roleplay, it's just shitty baldies screaming 'sec is griffing meh!' and just griefy crimes", I wanted to see how they'd act with an actual roleplayer potentially giving them an option to do more complex RP for the role and see how it utilized from a roleplay angle.

[Guest]

Just for the sake of scientific principles I have to state that the result will be less representative of the real situation the longer it goes. More people know about regular players going around pretending to be newbies, the nicer the they will be. That, and all test groups are mixed together with the control group, which is self-explanatory.

Optimally, you should delete this thread, gather people you know and ask them to do this, then post their experience. Just my two cents.

[SgtSammac]

Or rather than do stupid experiments that change nothing considering we all know whats going on, we all collectively look at our selves, and improve our own behavior.

I'm sorry but I am sick and tired (berate me if you wish) of people posting about "oh the server is so hostile" or "lets look at the community" and just creating a thread full of whining and self-satisfaction instead of actually doing something about it by changing their own behavior.

No I do not condone hostile behavior, yes there is an issue with hostility within the community, but experiments like this and the numerous threads now up do nothing to help, the only thing that will help is actually taking action to change it, don't let other people do it, take action yourself.

[Guest]

Or rather than do stupid experiments that change nothing considering we all know whats going on, we all collectively look at our selves, and improve our own behavior.

I'm sorry but I am sick and tired (berate me if you wish) of people posting about "oh the server is so hostile" or "lets look at the community" and just creating a thread full of whining and self-satisfaction instead of actually doing something about it by changing their own behavior.

No I do not condone hostile behavior, yes there is an issue with hostility within the community, but experiments like this and the numerous threads now up do nothing to help, the only thing that will help is actually taking action to change it, don't let other people do it, take action yourself.

 

On the other hand, this gives a chance to counter the argument. What if all of the people who get the shit here deserve it? What if there really is no real problem and all those newcomers are complaning for no reason other than their own ignorance of our server conventions?

[Cassie]

Sgt. I am doing my part. Many people are. When I go on the server I roleplay with anyone who approaches me, and I approach other people. I've never prejudged anyone for a lack of flavourtext and the like, because I've improved as a person since two years ago. I've made friends on the server but even now I try to roleplay with new people every day/week/whenever I play. When I can, I make RP scenarios. I even play as a bartender simply because the role allows me to interact with new people and even my non-bartender characters do this.

This actually helps to gauge where problems are, and perhaps, find solutions to the problem. Maybe even give a bit of compassion/sympathy if you play in the shoes of a character you've often not played as.

[Sentient Bowtie]

This actually sounds very interesting.

I'll do a couple runs tomorrow night and see what happens.

[Flamingo]

I actually do something like this quite often. I have a bald character that I've played with on multiple occasions. He's an atmospheric technician, but he wears a grey jumpsuit and ALWAYS [budget] insulated gloves. I have him say hello to absolutely everyone (with obvious exceptions like if the station is on fire) in the halls and try to make conversation. The rules I've placed on him are that he speaks in broken Tau Ceti Common, and OOC wise I never emote, or use punctuation. While he has no flavor text, he does have some outstanding records, including 11 years work experience, many years of volunteer work, is an organ donor and donates blood whenever possible.

What I've found? He's constantly shadowed by security, searched randomly for doing non-antagonistic things, etc. Additionally, no one wants to stand there and talk to him, with few exceptions. Generally the people who have tried to make friends tend to be the "outcast" members of thee station, who don't make friends easily, or people who were forced into speaking with him in the first place.

However, it's not ALL bad. Due to his (pretty awesome) records, the Head of Personnel I've interacted with have been willing to give him additional access to areas without too much fuss. The only downside is being searched whenever he's seen going in or out of those areas, or having to confirm with the HoP that he does indeed have access so that security doesn't get upset.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

What are we supposed to do after we do this? What do we do with the perspective we gained? The people who actually do this aren't usually the problem. This seems like a way to feed into a self-feeding cycle of self-gratification, because this doesn't do anything to curb hostile behaviour or clique behaviour except re-re-reconfirm that the problem exists to the people that already know that.

[Cassie]

Jackboot, that's one way it can be approached. This topic isn't to actually name or shame anyone, opposite really. In fact, it can be used as praise and a way of encouraging people. I use to find good players on this server.

Another way it can be approached:

"Oh wow, okay, that's what it's like. Knowing this I think I can be more empathetic to new players, before I disliked them but this has shown me it can really frustrating to be them."

"Oh right, this is what my friends are like when they don't know people. I should encourage them to be friendlier and more open to new people."

"Hm, it's a bit boring playing as a chaplain. I wonder how we can fix that?"

"From an OOC perspective this security member seems to be not caring about making the investigation RP interesting. If I am to become a security officer I am going to make sure that my RP scenarios are really good."

All these conclusions are from what I've gathered this month. These are actually my own. So, these are the noteable things that happened this week that I've improved and/or made me smile/made me sad/gave me hope:

[GOOD] My character asked to be permabrigged and actually pretended to do a crime staged with another person as a victim, this was purely acting and it got very interesting. I was expecting security to declare my character insane, and straightjacket them in solitary or something. Props to detective Kane Dewitt for being goodcurity, and the HOP for playing along and actually expanding the RP to levels that surpassed my expectations.

The detective actually investigated the IC motivations of the character and solved the issue, we all left with a handshake and all was well. The situation actually got resolved with me having to stretch the nature of my character (untrusting) which was really good. Got at least five people who all didn't know each other involved in the roleplay, which was really good.

[bAD]Another character of mine was a snooty posh robophobe, only played her once. She committed an IC crime. She believed a player who had mentioned "animal fetish" on their medical records was a zoophile and leaked the medical records and distrubuted them on paper as well as accusing her of being a risk to animals (which by several whispers extended to "she fucks animals"), causing IC drama which got her fired. This was purely IC and my character's actions did not reflect my OOC thoughts, she's not a self-insert in the least because I love IPCs and I don't have an issue with anyone's records having weird stuff.

Caused a huge plethora of IC reactions and a sort of IC event that triggered the entire round into a mini-event (ERT was called wow). However uh, the reception to this was mixed, some people -loved- the round, some people took it personally. As I found that players got OOC'ly offended that she leaked the info due to the popularity of the OOC player who was affected rather than IC situations, and my character ended up harmbatoned several times despite never physically harming or trying to escape, possibly because of OOC assumptions of the OOC player. That was bad.

[GOOD] My new character I had never played before met a CMO (Tina Kaekel) and two other people (PARAGON and Silviza) who actually spent some time in the lobby to interact with my character while nothing was happening in the Medbay, my character could've easily been dismissed as a stereotype but I actually had a lovely talk with them IC. It was really nice and I hope I get the time to do it again. Props to these two for entertaining my flamboyant assistant. I want to adopt PARAGON so badly.

These are only a few examples, but yes. In my opinion it can be used as a tool for self-motivation, entirely up to the type of person you are. Take it as you will.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Guest

[Tablespoon]

I am not Jackboot

[Cassie]

My bad. Well, I'll update that. This is what you people get with your fancy compound names. Geez.

[Loow]

I believe this would be a fun thing to spend a few rounds doing every few weeks or so. At the very least, these experiments offer up a chance to try out some new RP and possibly gain some OOC appreciation for characters whom you may not have noticed.

I made a character for the Engineering department in a way similar to Experiment A, and I had a great time getting to meet characters and players from a different perspective. I also became somewhat attached to a civilian character whom I had only intended to play as for a few rounds, so I highly recommend giving civilian life a shot now and then.

Who knows. You may decide to keep playing as your "experiment" character. Either way, it's all good fun, right?

[Guest]

I can actually offer insight I think. One round I decided to play a bald, female assistant. I played this character as ignorant and a little unintelligent, using short sentences and poor grammar. At one point she found herself in the hands of an antag. The antag dragged her into a fire closet, said "I'm sorry." and murdered her. When this antag was later found out and arrested, he instead shared a long speech about his motives and his schemes, which made for an excellent story. While this character is well role-played and multi-dimensional, what my bald assistant got was two words and chopped to bits.

[Erik Tiber]

Jeez Sammac, it just looks like a fun activity to me. Why so hostile?

Anyway, I think I'll try this out. It should be fun.

[Tenenza]

I've seen this experiment run a few times, from various angles.

Here's my take:

Go ahead, whatever, just don't be a dick about it, and you know what I mean.

If you're in this for a little broadening of perspective and self improvement, fine.

But if you're in this to bitch at people for being hostile to newbies, please remember to not be a dick about it.

[SgtSammac]

Jeez Sammac, it just looks like a fun activity to me. Why so hostile?

Anyway, I think I'll try this out. It should be fun.

If you actually knew me, and the way I speak, you would know that my post was far from hostile.

I am not stopping anyone from doing anything, I just fail to see what these "experiments" and "let's look at the community" threads achieve other than whining and self satisfaction when instead the members posting could actually be taking action and making themselves better and setting an example.

If you set the example, and become what you want people to aspire to be then people will aspire to be it and standards will change.

If you just talk about it, nothing. Will. Happen.

[Cassie]

I just fail to see what these "experiments" and "let's look at the community" threads achieve other than whining and self satisfaction when instead the members posting could actually be taking action and making themselves better and setting an example.

 

But if you're in this to bitch at people for being hostile to newbies, please remember to not be a dick about it.

 

I think you both need to step back and just re-read what you're typing.

Perhaps the real reason you're labeling the people critiquing the issue as "whiners" is because you're very embarrassed of how this looks and it makes you uncomfortable. Forget how the people being hostile to newbies feel, here's a different angle; How about the people who are actually on the receiving end the abuse? What about them?

Also, even with the 'improve yourself' part it sounds like 'shut up and go away' and it's heavily implied and really rude, so I beg the question of who is being a "dick" here because if you see my first post it's very clear cut and simple and actually quite impartial. Anyway, getting back on topic, can you guys either contribute to the experiment or refrain from importing drama onto this topic; it's derailing and very unnecessary. Why even?

[Tenenza]

I just fail to see what these "experiments" and "let's look at the community" threads achieve other than whining and self satisfaction when instead the members posting could actually be taking action and making themselves better and setting an example.

 

But if you're in this to bitch at people for being hostile to newbies, please remember to not be a dick about it.

 

I think you both need to step back and just re-read what you're typing.

Perhaps the real reason you're labeling the people critiquing the issue as "whiners" is because you're very embarrassed of how this looks and it makes you uncomfortable. Forget how the people being hostile to newbies feel, here's a different angle; How about the people who are actually on the receiving end the abuse? What about them?

Also, even with the 'improve yourself' part it sounds like 'shut up and go away' and it's heavily implied and really rude, so I beg the question of who is being a "dick" here because if you see my first post it's very clear cut and simple and actually quite impartial. Anyway, getting back on topic, can you guys either contribute to the experiment or refrain from importing drama onto this topic; it's derailing and very unnecessary. Why even?

 

Because people are being dicks about this and other issues. There is a very fine line between providing constructive citicism and just citicism. Also, the improve yourself part doesn't mean 'shut up and go away'. It means to change yourself before even trying to change others. Because, frankly, it's hyprocritical to ask others to do what you yourself are not willing to do.

Suggesting people do something is fine.

Making personal attacks against people is not. (And I /have/ seen this happen, and had to talk to people about it before.)

The don't be a Dick rule is indeed, a Rule, that's all I'm trying to remind people.

[Cassie]

Getting a bit tired of repeating myself and dealing with these condescending statements and assumptions.

 

Sgt. I am doing my part. Many people are.

 

I have working on this issue within my behavior /before/ I joined the server because this too was a big deal on other RP servers, it actually means a big deal to me.

I didn't mention anyone's name or make a personal attack on people on this topic. In fact, people are coming here with their nonsense and not contributing anything at all, in fact, your very presence here coming in and mentioning this is actually quite baiting which is something as a staff member you should be reflecting on. Fair enough people having opinions and concerns, but it's showing a lack of respect that they're coming over to practically throw rocks at it and put it down before it even starts. I'm like, "Excuse me? Do you mind?"

You're talking about "don't be a dick" and "have respect", and I roll my eyes at that sentiment because why am I going to give something that's not given? No thank you. It's a two way street. At the same time, I am not someone who attacks everything I see for no reason and bellows fire to torment the community for self-satisfaction because I am a mean and evil monster. Now can this topic breathe?

There was more to this topic than "self-reflection" and "newbie prejudice", like, "gameplay mechanics of non-department roles in a HRP environment" and how civilians are left out of gameplay and how we can collectively find ideas fix that. Admins should actually be doing this themselves if you ask me, but you know, whatever.

[VoltageHero]

I am not stopping anyone from doing anything, I just fail to see what these "experiments" and "let's look at the community" threads achieve other than whining and self satisfaction when instead the members posting could actually be taking action and making themselves better and setting an example.

 

 

And how do you know players are not already attempting to use themselves to set an example? You are assuming they are not.

From what you're saying, discussions should not be raised about issues because it's whining, correct? I don't think in either of the threads was self-satisfaction used, unless I misread and mistyped something that came across as self-gloating. Saying "the community needs to look over it's behavior" is not saying "I am better than you", which I am assuming you're saying, by going off of what self-satisfaction would be.

[Erik Tiber]

Jeez Sammac, it just looks like a fun activity to me. Why so hostile?

Anyway, I think I'll try this out. It should be fun.

If you actually knew me, and the way I speak, you would know that my post was far from hostile.

I am not stopping anyone from doing anything, I just fail to see what these "experiments" and "let's look at the community" threads achieve other than whining and self satisfaction when instead the members posting could actually be taking action and making themselves better and setting an example.

If you set the example, and become what you want people to aspire to be then people will aspire to be it and standards will change.

If you just talk about it, nothing. Will. Happen.

I am pretty sure you are being hostile by making rather blatant bad faith assumptions about people and being so quick to jump on an utterly innocuous idea. It is very silly for you to talk about how there is no major problem with hostility when you are yourself jumping down someone's throat over literally nothing.

[SierraKomodo]

Don't think Tenenza's trying to shoot the idea down, just trying to get people to be nice about things (Though still be honest, too) OOCly when they do this experiment.

[duck]

hi so i saw all this arguing and not doing the experiment so i thought, 'well gee, i'd have to be a triple stack baby sundae supreme to post in this thread without taking the challenge.'

in the interest of not being a triple stack baby sundae supreme, here is the story of cassie cook, named in honor of the cassie challenge. and also because i needed a name and my first name was cook, so like alliteration. i am doing option a. no flavor text, emotes and whatever else i want.

the first thing cassie does is touch all the doors. unfortunately, it is extended, but i think 'touches all the doors' is a good flaw for a character. cassie touches all the doors. while doing this, she runs into nasir hakim, space cat, sleeping, and stares at him for a solid 5-10 minutes while i get into a writing mood. an officer passes by. a lizard passes by. she stares with cassie at nasir. an officer comes by. he is bald. cassie feels a kinship with the officer, for she is a grayshirt. but she is not very good at speaking common, being from a backwater sector. so she explains that the cat-- she and the officer are corrected by ms lizard-- tajaran-- is not a cat, and that what they are saying is offensive. cassie finds this agreeable.

ms lizard drags away cassie's cat. she has been catnapped, but such is the life of a foreigner. at this point in time, a preacher arrives. she heads off to the chapel to meet him, and runs into him while touching the bridge doors. he waves. she lifts a hand in greeting. they do not speak, but they understand each others' pain.

she heads to the chapel and waits for the chaplain's return. he does not return while i type all this out. she hides in one of his potted plants, and then stops. this is suspicious. she gets tired of being suspicious and heads to the chef, who is talking to the botanist. she resolves to find someone lonelier to speak to, like the bartender. the bartender is swamped by people. she climbs onto a stool and sits there like a quiet antisocial assistant while i type this, occasionally looking around.

the bartender finally gets tired of being stared at. he asks what she wants. she introduces herself as Trustworthy Assistant Cook. she is a trustworthy assistant. but he does not need help. she is shoved out of her seat by pun pun, and asks the bartender if the mammal is really sanitary. mammal. the irony is lost on her. finally, after watching the monkey shove the preacher around a lot, she acquiesces to a drink. the bartender drops a bottle of vodka in front of her. this is no drink she recognizes. she does not touch it.

some minutes go by. there is a very tough assistant there. he is so tough he can watch the lion king without crying. even the part where mufasa dies. she is impressed, and after sitting quietly, tries to speak to the only other person as quiet as she is: the janitor.

he says hello, gets up, and leaves immediately. he did not need a trustworthy assistant. cassie and the detective stand next to each other for a long time. the detective does not move a muscle, but i know she is active. they stand next to each other for a very long time. neither speaking. the detective leaves without a word. her preacher is unconscious on the floor. she is now alone. but she has always been alone, and so it is nothing different.

the bar deserted, she goes to cargo and speaks to the cargo tech. the officer there pretends she does not exist and takes his things, walking away. the cargo tech is very careful about closing doors around her, but finally, she has stood around for long enough that he feels obliged to say something. cassie is an expert at this. he asks if she is new. she says no. he says okay, and tells her to fill out a form if she needs anything. she then meets the qm, who she greets. he pretends she isn't there while he explains things to his tech, and then tells her he will be in the back. she nods and leaves.

the botanists do not pretend to care enough to even respond. she stares at them for many minutes, says some things, and waits for many more. and then leaves.

cassie contemplates asking cargo to order her some friends, but opts to head down to engineering instead. there, she is greeted by an engineer at the front desk. she stares at him. he says hello and asks if he can help. she tells him she is just looking, and continues staring. he pretends she isn't there for a while. she stares. there is no relief. he asks if she went there to stare at him specifically. she nods yes. he says huh. okay. she asks him what he does. it is time for the hard sell. he tells her he fixes things. she says she fixes things too.

then he asks if she has training. at which point she says no, and introduces herself as Trustworthy Assistant Cook, which makes people uncomfortable enough to stop talking for some time. they eventually both establish they are Not Very Busy. she manages to ask him how he managed to get a job with NT. he asks how she got to work here.

cassie recounts her tragic history as a space immigrant: she was from a sector far, far away. a man asked her if she wanted a job. she said yes. and then she was here. that is it. that is her history. and then she learned common and they told her to introduce herself as a trustworthy assistant. the most trustworthy assistant. little does she know she is part of the hit new space reality tv program, cassie's civilian challenge, where cunning space explorer corgi the bounty hunter finds people from backwaters and gets them employed in a top notch space station for your viewing pleasure

he also does a poor job of teaching them common and misleads them for extra hilarious. this is cassie's life. her name isn't even cassie. you did this. this is your fault.

cassie explains her plight to the engineer, who tries to help. unfortunately, she is clueless and also not very good at speaking common, and his efforts stall. i wish i bothered to make up an imaginary language at this point because he asks her name so cassie warbles something. they talk a while.

the engineer points out that someone actually wants an assistant over the radio. cassie volunteers. this is her time. her time to shine.

the cargo crew has ordered like thirty billion chickens. now those chickens are dead. she helps the hop throw them onto the cargo shuttle. there are many chickens, their necks snapped like twigs. she feels a brief moment of nostalgia and homesickness for her chicken coop back home, and flossie, her chicken. she will never see them again. flossie is already dead at this point. flossie died while they freighted her from the fringe colonies to the station.

the hop finds out that cargo shuttles do not accept organic lifeforms. she is distraught, but cassie is the most trustworthy assistant ever. she lathes a knife. they both get knives. it is chopping time. there is blood everywhere. an admin spawns gibs. it does not deter us from our grim work. by the end of the day, probably thirty some chickens have been sliced into meat. and some of that meat has been sliced into strips, perfect for rolling in bread. praise nanotrasen.

the hop throws cassie ten credits and they never see each other again. she now has 560 credits ever. she speaks to the engineer a little bit. the shuttle is here. it is 2 am and i am tired, but it was not an overall terrible round. probably.