[Denied]Zulu's IPC Application, aka The Return of the King

[Zulu0009]

BYOND Key: Zulu0009
Character Names: Mobius, Cyclops, Object-889, Francis Amonshaw.
Species you are applying to play: IPC.
Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Way too much.

Why do you wish to play this specific race:

It has been more than a year since my original IPC application, and my reasons haven't changed since. Robots, Artificial Intelligence, androids, are by far some of the most interesting concepts in media. How can a writer symbolize slavery and forced servitude, and reference the slave trade in one simple metaphor? Robots. How can a writer remark on the struggle to find oneself and understand one's own ego? Robots. How can a writer summarize the human condition? Robots. As a child, they just seemed fun, or cool, but now, as I approach them from a professional and creative standpoint, I recognize their endless worth as a tool to help people relate to things they may not be familiar with. Artificial Intelligence is an underused or poorly used trope in modern media, with little focus on the deeper meanings and implications of its existence, and more on "how sick can we make this robot voice?" My fascination with AI has reached the point that I am working on a thesis for my degree based on this subject, likely titled something like "Personhood of Artificial Intelligence". Aurora helped me, before my whitelist was removed, to explore that concept, and in the time I spent playing here, I was faced with beautiful dilemmas and questions about life stemming from simple RP interactions with other Synthetics. How does one help an artificial being which desperately struggles with "thinking too much"? Those are the questions that kept me playing day after day.

I have always struggled with my self-image, understanding myself, coming to terms with just who I am, what is my purpose in life, why I am here, and I can say that playing an artificial being has helped me find that purpose. By inserting myself into the shoes of a machine struggling with the same questions, I can find answers to them, I can relate to what I face. Like the mask metaphor of Italian poet Pirandello, I mask myself as these machines, and try to learn my truth by wearing different masks (even if in his metaphor the truth was complete insanity, so maybe not that). That is why I decided to play a psychologist, too, because I knew I wouldn't be the only one wearing a mask.

Other than the moral and philosophical depths of Cool Robots, I admittedly just like Cool Robots. There is something inherently entertaining and hilarious in watching the reactions that people have to the different IPCs I played, especially Mobius.

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

There are endless differences between humans and machines, and they change from IPC to IPC, depending on cost of production, purpose and external stimuli. An IPC created to serve as a butler on Luna is going to be elegant, gentle, sleek, maybe even with the snob Lunan accent. An IPC working a Hephaestus mine is going to be rough, easy to maintain, durable, with only a text-to-speech module. It is up to the player to understand these factors and keep them in mind when playing an IPC. In terms of mannerisms, I would argue that the question "do IPCs have emotions" has no clear answer: how can we play as a species that we do not know fully? What if, in the future, machines do gain the ability to feel emotions? What if they already do? To that extent, the line between showing emotions and feeling them is up to the player. Again, a miner IPC may not understand that the human in front of them is depressed or sad or happy, and is probably not going to process that. A high end IPC, perhaps in the medical field, is more likely to be able to process human emotions and understand their implications. There is also the concept of growth: IPCs, much like babies, typically start as a clean slate, only knowing their necessary tasks and the decisions they must make. In time, they learn if they can, and may even go from barely functional to fully sentient individuals. Whether an IPC can learn and grow is up to their condition, workplace etc. Obviously, the physical attributes of an IPC are different too. While they can all walk and perform the necessary movements to work, that miner IPC might not even have opposable thumbs: as long as it can mine, Hephaestus is happy. The butler IPC may have fine, delicate motors and preset movements, it may be capable of bowing, careful gestures, even dancing. Yes, even a G2, if it puts its mind and painfully heavy legs to it.

Character Name: Mobius

Please provide a short backstory for this character:

Mobius, a G2 IPC, was initially purchased by a Martian man who dealt in exotic goods to the wealthy of the planet, as a security guard and personal handyman. Mobius lived with a group of IPCs which cleaned, cooked and guarded the magnate's mansion. Mobius' true self began one fateful day, when a mistress of the dealer left the door to his library open, revealing the limited yet bountiful archive within. From then, Mobius routinely met with his synthetic colleagues when the humans were sleeping, and shared his findings. Tomes over tomes were passed between the group: history books, novels, newspapers, poems. Through knowledge and education, the IPCs grew to understand their situation, and quietly planned their future. One day, when the time was right, the five IPCs made their escape. They split up, and Mobius has not heard of them to this date (cheeky open spot for another IPC here).

Alone and on the run, Mobius found an underground Trinary Perfection sect, and the Exclusionists there included it in their smuggling run to Biesel. Once arrived, Mobius laid low, working in District 14 but still carrying its knowledge. There, in the Trinary church, it held speeches, plays and meetings to enlighten other Synthetics and help them understand just what they were. Just a few years after its escape, Mars ignited, and so did its old tag and its past: that is when Mobius saw fit to claw higher on society's pyramid. With the hand of a Trinary Machinist, it took a tag from a dead IPC, threw it through the bureaucratic loops of the Republic, and used the dirt and grime of District 14 as lubricant to fit in, thrifting and dumpster diving until it found itself wearing a shiny suit and sporting a pearly white finish. To NanoTrasen's hiring agent, this IPC seemed like a perfect way to market themselves as pro-IPC. What better way to show NT's progressive values than this? A self-built model citizen, a shining example of IPC boot-strap-pulling! Besides, looking at the manifest logs, that station really needed more shrinks.

Thus began Mobius' career aboard the Aurora, then the Horizon, as the (yet unconfirmed) first Synthetic Psychologist, sponsored by NanoTrasen(TM). After a trial period, the IPC began to produce good results for its low expectations, until it found itself wedged between its work and its allegiance to the Trinary Perfection. It struck a deal with NanoTrasen, continuing to work on Orepit with the caveat that it would forward any useful data to the company and report every week.* Now, though, with tensions lowering and the situation stabilizing, Mobius has requested to be returned to the Horizon.

* This reason is fairly weak and confusing. I had to come up with it when the whitelist was removed, and am willing to find a better way to explain Mobius' absence if the reviewer were to give a suggestion.

What do you like about this character?

I am biased when I say this, but I love Mobius. There is little I have changed since I settled on his character, and little I shall. Mobius is elegant, fancy, snarky, yet all seven whole feet of height are capable of shrinking down to the size of a scared crew member in his office. Mobius uses a cane because it looks nice, and it can be used to smack people's shins. Mobius has a Lunan accent, but not because he's Lunan, it's just to confuse people and make them think twice about him. Mobius likes his cat and sometimes doesn't notice it sitting on his head. I have been writing for half of my life now, and Mobius is by far one of my most well done characters. I think I've made some great choices when creating him, and have crafted an interesting story around him that lets people easily find an opinion of the character and create conflict. A tall, bulky G2 IPC, working as a psychologist, a Trinarist, a self-proclaimed (quietly) socialist in a capitalist dystopia, an IPC rights advocate and a full-time Dominian hater. Mobius has entered my roster of very few characters that I can write with little preparation, and which I will never forget. He allows me to explore the person I'd like to be: kind, gentle and nurturing, but still fervent, passionate and even angry about my beliefs. I truly think that playing this character has improved my life, and hope it has made the life of others a little nicer.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

Though I haven't written in a while, my roleplaying ability still sits at a 9/10. Mobius specifically can be hard to portray for a long time, and I tend to get tired and fall to lower quality posts and interactions if I don't take breaks, but when those interactions are done properly, they work extremely well. Several times, Mobius alone has led groups of characters on physical or moral crusades or has affected them: one time, Mobius led a revolt against the Head of Security, presumed to have murdered the Captain, and was able to deescalate the situation when the culprit was found (although he was murdered by security later for being a bad boy). I really enjoy writing the IPCs I play and yes, I am still working on writing that damn book. One day it will happen. To reiterate, although a bit stagnant, I think my roleplaying ability is still up to par.

Notes:

It has been a few months since my whitelist removal, and although Arrow had stated that I could apply straight away, I decided to take some time to myself before reapplying. I hope that what happened can be left in the past, and hope to be able to play again here. After all, Dr. Farson wants to discuss Psychology Stuff

P.S.: It's Mobin' time.

Edited November 16, 2022 by The lancer

[Omicega]

[F] DEAD Mobius complains, "died fighting"

[F] DEAD Mobius laments, "i could have dodged"
[F] DEAD Mobius blubbers, "BUT"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) laments, "where's the pleasure in dodging"

[F]|[B] DEAD Ghost of Kuenoi blubbers, "hey, the guy i spite killed was asking for it, okay"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) complains, "uh huuuuh"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) laments, "how'd that laser feel little man"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) moans, "i stood in front of a rifle and did not move an inch"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) moans, "simply mobius behavior"

[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) complains, "self preservation is cringe if it stops cool moments"

[F]|[B] DEAD Ghost of Kuenoi whines, "anyway, fehra, the psychologist intentionally went out of his way to pick a fight, so i fought him"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) laments, "i mean"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) laments, "if you come and chat shit m8"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) complains, "you'll get hit"

[F]|[B] DEAD Ghost of Kuenoi whines, "but mobius, you were also talking smack, on the radio"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) moans, "yeah you deserved it"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) whines, "if i see a raider or antag talking shit i'm gonna talk shit back"

[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) blubbers, "the one i helped annihilate came over and tried to threaten me"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) blubbers, "so i told him i was gonna show him pain and shit"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) blubbers, "i even changed my eye color to red"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) complains, "i had no armor and a laser rifle and it was a balanced fight"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) moans, "no genuinely"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) moans, "if an antag starts bragging"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) blubbers, "i will just insult them"
DEAD MODERATOR(PersephoneQ) says, "insulting heavily armed ppl is usually lrp imo"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) laments, "when Owl asked for a soda i was about to say "I'm gonna inject it in your veins""
[F] DEAD WickedCybs (Szilvia Lestyan) laments, "you know we don't really approve of crew heckling"

[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) moans, "i heckle"
[F]|[B] DEAD Zulu0009 (Mobius) moans, "if you wanna kill me you can try"

These are some deadchat logs from one of the last rounds (raider or merc, I think, hence the antag name with a hidden ckey in the logs) I saw you play before the IPC team stripped your whitelist. Yes, these logs are from months ago (08/08/2022), but considering you haven't played in months (to my knowledge, anyway, correct me if I'm wrong) and these are from 5 days before the date of your strip I think these are pretty 'up to date' as far as your behaviour goes, and therefore that this isn't exactly bringing up stuff from way in the past or whatever in a relative sense.

To be blunt, I don't think you really demonstrate the same level of roleplay quality and positive in-game presence that you think you do. I think you're fully capable of grasping stuff like IPC self-preservation but that you willingly turn a blind eye to it or outright ignore it whenever it suits you. I also think it's pretty bold to reapply for the whitelist using the exact same character you got stripped for -- but hey, it's your application, not mine.

I don't think the IPC team should even consider whitelisting you again without you pulling actual server playtime in the interim considering the depth of the fallout at the end of your last tenure here, and even if they did I certainly don't think you should be given a license to jump straight in on the deep end on the exact same character you caused demonstrable issues with the last time you were playing on the Aurora. I personally saw you getting snippy and outright heated in OOC and deadchat on a couple of occasions after your character wound up dead, which was the reason I even started keeping an eye out to collect evidence in the first place to send the synth team's way (your whitelist was stripped for unrelated reasons before I even remembered to bring these up to them). I didn't find a single interaction with you to be pleasant, really, and I cannot say I want to see you whitelisted again because nothing about this application makes me think you or your attitude have changed at all.

[Zulu0009]

I know I probably should not respond to this, but I find this input unfair, @Omicega. To assume that in 4 months nothing has changed is your opinion of me personally, I don't think using it as feedback for this application is appropriate. To respond to your other comments, so a reviewer may be aware of my thoughts on those matters:
1. I do admit that I have, in the past, ignored self-preservation for the sake of storytelling. But then again, just about everyone has done so, IPC or not, for fun or for the drama, so I don't think that's a valid point. Every security character has, once or more, ignored their own self-preservation to fight an antag to the death. Most characters have sacrificed themselves to save someone else, ventured in dangerous situations for a purpose, etc. I always kept that in mind when playing, and never interfered in dangerous situations that Mobius couldn't handle physically. The logs you attached are from a round in which an antagonist purposely sought Mobius out and killed it before being killed themselves by the numerous armed crew members nearby: the antag ignored their own self-preservation and willingly assaulted a medbay full of guns because Mobius had called them bad words on the radio.
2. I am reapplying with Mobius because it is my best character, and its quality has not been tainted by that incident which resulted in the whitelist removal. Furthermore, there are no rules against applying with the same character.
3. Considering that the rules don't contain mentions of playtime, and as the Synthetic Lore Team has specifically told me before, they only count negative inputs when taking decisions, playing on Aurora would not be constructive without a character I enjoy playing. The SLT self-admittedly only considers warnings and bans when taking action, not how long you've gone without them, so it would make no sense: how long should I play? How many weeks should I go without a warning or punishment before applying? I'm sure you understand that this is not a good idea.
4. I do not have any evidence or proof that there were "demonstrable issues" or "fallout" when my whitelist was stripped. I submitted two staff complaints and supported my case until Arrow came to a conclusion, and if you read them you'll find that I did so with evidence and well constructed arguments. Are two staff complaints "demonstrable issues"? What issues did I cause, exactly? I am aware that some users complained about my whitelist removal publicly, but surely that can't be counted against me.
5. Again, nothing about this application makes you think I have changed. I understand that this is your personal feedback, but I would have appreciated some more objectivity rather than, essentially "I don't think you should get the whitelist". I do not know which characters you play, but I do not aim for pleasant interactions all the time, I aim for realistic ones.

[Caelphon]

Hi there.

29 minutes ago, Zulu0009 said:

2. I am reapplying with Mobius because it is my best character, and its quality has not been tainted by that incident which resulted in the whitelist removal. Furthermore, there are no rules against applying with the same character.

Personally, I'd recommend applying with a totally different character. It would help the SLT evaluate a character with different themes and personality as opposed to a very similar structure that you used with your previous application. 

29 minutes ago, Zulu0009 said:

3. Considering that the rules don't contain mentions of playtime, and as the Synthetic Lore Team has specifically told me before, they only count negative inputs when taking decisions, playing on Aurora would not be constructive without a character I enjoy playing. The SLT self-admittedly only considers warnings and bans when taking action, not how long you've gone without them, so it would make no sense: how long should I play? How many weeks should I go without a warning or punishment before applying? I'm sure you understand that this is not a good idea.

I don't think I understand this. Are you confirming that you havn't played on the server since the removal of your whitelist? 

Thanks.

 

EDIT: 

I'm asking this from the perspective of a player, not necessarily as the Loremaster. 

Edited November 16, 2022 by Caelphon

[Zulu0009]

11 minutes ago, Caelphon said:

Hi there.

Personally, I'd recommend applying with a totally different character. It would help the SLT evaluate a character with different themes and personality as opposed to a very similar structure that you used with your previous application.

I can try to come up with a different character or use another one of mine if that is required, but as I said, none of them are as good as Mobius in terms of backstory and generally how I can play them. I figured it would be the ideal thing to put my best foot forward.

14 minutes ago, Caelphon said:

I don't think I understand this. Are you confirming that you havn't played on the server since the removal of your whitelist? 

Thanks.

EDIT: 

I'm asking this from the perspective of a player, not necessarily as the Loremaster. 

The wording seems odd, but yes, I checked in every now and then both the Discords and the game, but I haven't played since September. I had played some rounds with the two human characters I had before taking a break to work on myself and start again at university. There are no rules mentioned in the whitelist section about playtime, so I thought enough time has passed for me to apply again, both for the SLT and me.

[The lancer]

Hi.

First of all, we're not going to accept the application if you apply with Mobius. It's the character that was in the centre of the contention that led to your whitelist being stripped in the first place, so I'm asking if you could make a new backstory.

We have denied applications of new players who have not played enough. It's usually people who are brand new, but the reasoning is the same in that we need to see how they play so that we can trust them with a whitelist. You yourself as well as the logs said you have no meaningful playtime since you came back, so you will have to make a character that is not Mobius and play for a few weeks before reapplying.

[Zulu0009]

Right. So I am going to apply with another character, but I will be able to play as Mobius?

Secondly, I don't see any mention of recent playtime in the rules. Could you point me to that? Additionally, is anyone going to check that I have played for "a few weeks"? Can I come back after three weeks and say "yeah, I played the game"? Surely there is a better option that just telling me to go play for "a few weeks". What exactly is playing going to do in favor of my application?

[The lancer]

Yes, you can play Mobius.

It's not in the rules, but there's no rule saying we can't put that limitation, so it's still within our powers.

Yes, your playtime can be tracked as long as you don't delete your characters you've been playing with. It is not about your application, it is about us wanting to see if there will be any incidents and if we can trust you again with a whitelist. I'd say four weeks playtime would be a fair timeframe.

[Zulu0009]

It feels entirely fruitless to spend a month of my life playing, and surely you see that. Should I do something specific, or can I join, smoke a cigarette and AFK? It is quite obvious that knowing I am being monitored, I would play low-risk jobs and just idle. I do not fully understand how playing a full month is going to prove to you that I can play without breaking the rules, and considering that I have a thesis to write, I don't really have a month of my life to spend so that I may say "huzzah, I am a good boy!"

Surely there's a less time-wasting way to do this.

In addition, I understand what you mean, but saying "it's not in the rules, but the rules don't say that I can't do it" is definitely a bit weird.

[The lancer]

By playing, you will also have met people who will hopefully come to comment on your future application. This will good enough proof for me if you could get a few community members to support it. It's the only way I can accept you back.

I don't think it's weird. It's within my prerogative to ask you to play the game after you've been whitelist stripped, then come back with an application without having spent any time in game since.

[Zulu0009]

So to understand this correctly, the only way I will play as IPC again is if I spend 4 weeks (which I am interpreting as 4 general weeks of playing and not 672 hours) playing as characters nobody will know by now, and if I get an unspecified number of positive comments on my application which I will not be able to gather because advertising an application is against the rules?

[The lancer]

Yes, and advertising an application once or twice a round is not against the rules.

For now this application is denied.