1 dismissal Remove the art of the Tajara getting domed from the Lobby Art Rotation

[Myphicbowser]

What the title says, it was discussed in the OOC round before it got pretty heated with accusations of shoving personal moral beliefs on others and was shut down, but it did get out of hand and I'll admit the way I was being treated made me get a little heated as well, I'd like to open this with an apology to @not-a-gonk.

But thats why I'm bringing it here, so people can discuss and we can have a polite conversation on if people think it should be in the lobby.

To start us off, I think the art is VERY good, it shows the tone of Adhomai and its also just really cool? Like god damn, thats some nice stuff. But I don't think it has a place as Lobby Art, the conversation comes up in OOC somewhat frequently, enough for people to be tired of the discussion which is why I'm coming to the forums to discuss it. I generally think that its jarring for new people, which is understandable, and I've heard people complain about it several times, which since no important thread has been made went absolutely nowhere. So I'm hoping this can be discussed, and shown why its either beneficial or negative for the server.

[Fluffy]

We are a SS13 server where people get shot, drugged, beaten, stabbed, burned, hanged and what have you

Voting for dismissal

[dessysalta]

I'm not really sure about this one. Compared to all the things that can be experienced in SS13 proper (as in, the gameplay and plots) being domed with not even a particularly comical spray of blood seems par for the course; we have much, much darker themes and real events that occurred in lore or events and if anything I personally think it's a good primer for what's to come. Otherwise, they're going to be more surprised when they see slavery, drug trafficking, public executions, sexism, speciesism, xenophobia, genocide, police and military brutality, transphobia and homophobia, supremacy, class disparity- the list goes on and on, and we see and experience all this either in-round or in canon events. I personally witnessed a guy get hacked apart during the New Blades, Old Wounds arc, live execution style.

[Dreamix]

Generally agreed. I don't think lobby art should show drastic stuff like this. Because:

• Yes, in game there is bad stuff. But it's pixellated and not detailed at all.
• It is opt-in. You can always cryo, avoid joining high-intensity rounds, etc.
• And 90% of gameplay is boring corporate job stuff anyways, it's not killing and stabbing 24/7.

So basically it just feels edgy. Haha murder, get it guys? SS13 so edgy.

...

What does a new player think, when they first join Aurora and see lobby art of a cat getting fucking headshotted with a smile on their face?
What's the first impression?
Will that first impression hold up when they actually join in game, and it's just a boring old corporate ship?

Edited Sunday at 00:31 by Dreamix

[Outboarduniform]

I think it should stay. Someone worked hard on that and I think it shows a really cool part of the lore, which is Tajara lore. I don't think that it's an edgelord thing to have art like that up flashing by every now and then in the lobby. I personally think that having one specific artpiece of a cat getting schwacked in a trench isn't going to convince new people to not play aurora or to think that they're joining Colonial Marines. 

[Tex-Mex]

Incredibly sovlful artwork that should get someone interested in why Tajara, in the 2400s, are fighting what looks like WW1. If you're offended at the sight of a little blood, you shouldn't be playing on a server with the themes others have listed above. Hard agree with dessysalta in that regard.

[NewOriginalSchwann]

I can log onto the server, right now, and suffer a dozen fates far more horrid than getting shot in my head in a trench. My last death was getting my leg broken by a sword and burning alive, while screaming, in a phoron fire that followed it. It happens.

 

The art is incredible and is an easy way to get someone invested into the setting. Like Outboard, I don't think it's edgy or, "haha murder, guys." To say such discounts it as a piece of art.

[CourierBravo]

I wasn't there for whatever discussion there was for it, so here's my unbiased two bits.
I don't like it being a title card because its not very tasteful. I'd personally prefer it to be removed, but I also don't think its the end of the world. Take a chill pill y'all, this is not that deep.
Its difficult to say *exactly* what makes it distasteful because distasteful as a concept relies heavily on one's own personal preference. I'm struggling to find a way to articulate exactly why I find myself objecting to its placement in our lobby art.

Edited Sunday at 06:12 by CourierBravo

[Sniblet]

I haven’t seen it, but it sounds like a harsh tone break from the rest of the lobby. If you want to show off WWI cats, 80% of existing tajaran art is here for you. In this other corner, we have a robot with sunglasses and a smoke, and over there is a bug doing some welding. Oh and here’s gore.

Not an 18+ server by the way. Strictly family-friendly by the way. Always be considerate to the many children in our community by the way. But let’s also maybe show all new joiners a cartoon of a furry being headshotted before they’ve gotten to finish character creation.

I guess S.P.L.U.R.T. is no better, in fairness?

I don’t know if I’d agree with comparing this to ingame proceedings, either. Shoot a tajaran in the head ingame and he’ll duck behind cover, gauze himself, say “O-ow.” and trudge to medbay for a regeneration serum injection that sounds like “pssh” and looks like the doctor’s giving him a kiss, with complementary instant scar revision. Shoot him three times and his face gains a flat abstract red blob decal that doesn’t quite fit his skull shape, and then he still goes “O-o-ow.” on the ground about eight times before getting automuted and PM’d the mature and dark-themed words, “laugh at this user.”

We can get dark, but I would not call it consistent or defining enough for a title splash.

Edited Sunday at 08:14 by Sniblet

[FlamingLily]

35 minutes ago, Sniblet said:

Oh and here’s gore.

This might sound rude, but an in-game arterial bleed is more bloody and visceral than the piece of art is.

You can attack someone with a surgical saw and listen to an extremely pronounced snapping sound as their tendons are severed. Is it abstracted? Yes. It's still more graphic than the image is, because the image is not gore.

 

In my opinion, the real problem with this piece of art is that it's SO prevalent. And that's because we don't have many pieces of lobby art yet. The only solution here, imo, is to get more lobby art. Not necessarily violent, but just more. More art to show off more variety. This is something that'll take time, because we need people to make them, and that's a slow process.

[dessysalta]

I'd like to say that while I mentioned in game mechanics and events primarily, I mentioned lore first and that counts news articles and the like. Yeah, the game is abstracted enough that torturing or killing a guy isn't that awful, can be pretty comical sometimes, but if you want to know where that guy's from you'll probably read an arc or set of articles that aren't exactly something you'd show to your boss.

Even the more "removed" instances of it like IPC zombies on BitByte are pretty harrowing given the implications and way they're written. What about when the DPRA or SRF genocides or executes people in lore? When the TCAF canonically beat the hell out of civilians? Do we gloss over that because it's not a mural of blood and guts? I don't even think the argument can be made about it being "gore" because it's at best a spray of blood, not cat brains and eyeballs and teeth hitting the other side of the trench—if I remember correctly it's not even blood, but an orange flash of the bullet going through the helmet. It's at worst Call of Duty cover art.

I understand this is subjective, but considering all the arcs past and present, major themes in lore, player subplots and newscasters, especially when all of those are written off as being "realistic" and requests to change them are denied with the exact argument we see here ("we have darker stuff so who cares", or less related "conflict is good", which I agree with broadly), I think drawing a line at this is more a headache than anything progressive.

That and I really do agree with Lily. If this was one of 40 artworks we'd have a very different perspective and I doubt we'd be having this conversation. 

E: Schwann and Outboard are also correct in the sense that it's not a picture or idea translating directly to someone getting brained, it's a piece of artwork with composition and emotion behind it. You can't look at the focal point of the image and reduce the piece to just that (or worse, in this case, to just the idea). Why is there a catperson here? This is a futuristic setting, how come they're in a trench? Who are they looking at? Why might they be smiling? Why are they getting shot in the first place? Where would they have to be to get shot like that, how did they and maybe even their species get there? Those questions are what get people to look it up and have the confidence to make a whitelist, potentially going on to write lore for them. Can we do it in a softer way? Maybe, but it lessens the impact, dampens the message, and at least in writing there's been darker stuff chosen to be included.

Edited Sunday at 09:07 by dessysalta

[Fluffy]

1 hour ago, Sniblet said:

Not an 18+ server by the way. Strictly family-friendly by the way. Always be considerate to the many children in our community by the way. But let’s also maybe show all new joiners a cartoon of a furry being headshotted before they’ve gotten to finish character creation.

You need to be 13+ to register to byond, and consequently play

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is PG12 rated, it has an human sacrifice on an altair complete with close caption of the hand of the shaman going into the ribcage of someone (blood included), pulling the heart out, before - while still alive - being lowered into flames and burned alive. The movie is PG12(A), 1 year less than what you need to even register to play SS13, and that's for the standards of 40 something years ago

8 hours ago, Dreamix said:

It is opt-in. You can always cryo, avoid joining high-intensity rounds, etc.

Most rounds are secret, most of the intensity of them is up to what the antagonist(s) want to do with it, you can have peacemercs that at some switch and decide to engulf you and all your friends with flames from above, or do a purge of the ship because the negotiations didn't went as they wished, or they were double agents, or the traitor decides to lure you in, put you to sleep and remove all your limbs or whatever else he pleases, you can do nothing to avoid it; you opted in when you joined the round, just like you opt in to see our lobby arts when you join the lobby

8 hours ago, Dreamix said:

And 90% of gameplay is boring corporate job stuff anyways, it's not killing and stabbing 24/7.

Neither are our lobby arts 100% about being killed, not even the majority is; so we should be set

8 hours ago, Dreamix said:

What does a new player think, when they first join Aurora and see lobby art of a cat getting fucking headshotted with a smile on their face?
What's the first impression?
Will that first impression hold up when they actually join in game, and it's just a boring old corporate ship?

What does a new player think when they first join aurora and see lobby art of bayonet hand, a serial killer wielding a bloody bayonet on a casino? What about the two cats with rifles, smoking, in a destroyed house? "For the king victory or death" one? The zora one with a high power sniper rifle? I guess we really are IS12 with aliens after all, to the new players, strange noone said anything about those... (and no, we're talking about impressions, what they are referring to to us, that already know the lore, has no bearing on the impression, which is the argument I'm disproving)

1 hour ago, FlamingLily said:

The only solution here, imo, is to get more lobby art.

I'm not sure it could be considered a solution, but more variety usually is better (up to a point) so I don't see anything to lose in doing that either way

[MattAtlas]

On 09/03/2025 at 08:25, Sniblet said:

Not an 18+ server by the way. Strictly family-friendly by the way. Always be considerate to the many children in our community by the way. But let’s also maybe show all new joiners a cartoon of a furry being headshotted before they’ve gotten to finish character creation.

The 18+ rating on SS13 is strictly intended as NSFW/not-NSFW content which is what actually gets you in extreme legal trouble if you expose minors to it. If we want to get really pedantic, PEGI allows you to show realistic violence starting from the 16+ rating.

I personally like the lobby art, and I don't get the complaints about it being dissonant - the point of lobby arts is to be an introduction or a hook to what you might find in the game (and, more specifically to Aurora, the lore). It isn't dissonant at all to go from a fairly tame lobby screen to a Tajara getting headshotted, because that shows the depth of lore we have. There are good elements in Aurora as well as bad elements, and it's good to expose people to it. As for what new players might think, I imagine they are not squeamish, considering that in every server you can drink water+potassium and explode into tiny bits and organs all over the floor.

 

[OolongCow]

I feel like the people against it's concerns are valid, but that the art provides a greater positive than it does a negative. It's not a spectacular goresplosion, there is not stomach-turning and defined viscera, it's an honestly very tasteful but still shocking show of death. Saturn Devouring His Son is a much gorier piece of art that is highly-regarded and commonly shown without a content warning. Ivan the Terrible And His Son Ivan is about equivalently as bloody as the lobby art, yet is shown uncensored in its entirety and has even become a widely circulated meme with its edits. Coalf's art is art. It is tasteful and respectful of the subject matter. It should not be censored even if it might be interpreted as upsetting.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 06:59 by OolongCow