Player Complaint - Unionguy

[evandorf]

BYOND Key: Evandorf

Game ID: cGv-aaM2

Player Byond Key/Character name: Unionguy/Bishiop Sterling

Staff involved: NA

Reason for complaint:

During this round I late-joined as CMO and was made aware of the fact that Sterling, the shift psychologist, was being arrested for vandalism. He was only being fined, so interruptions to the department would be minimal but at the same time we were hosting the survivors from the previous round's event in the recovery ward. I looked up Sterling's records, which included a number of similar arrests over a short period of time, and my CMO bristled at the idea that Sterling was ignoring possibly traumatized patients to indulge in whatever it is they were doing which led to the arrest. When Sterling came back to the department we spoke in the CMO's office, and I basically told them that I expected them to do their job, to be professional, and that further incidents would result in suspension. They proceeded to argue with me, jumping from excuse to excuse saying they were doing their job, they had other patients (Miguel Garcia), that the survivors didn't need to be looked at right now, ect. I asked if they could show me reports or anything related to the work they claimed to be doing, to which they responded that full psychological notes/reports were not kept in the medical records system, but in another system which I had no access to due to privacy laws.

All of the above is IC context, but it leads to the reason I created this complaint; engaging in LRP behavior and then trying to shield his character ICly behind non-existent systems. I have no issues with characters who cause problems, but you have to deal with the IC consequences when they eventually arrive. Saying that proof exists of your doing your job only in some inaccessible system cuts the legs out of under any meaningful RP we could have. It ignores in-game reality and leaves me only with the option to pull rank and suspend you. When asked about his arrests he attributed it to him being "something of a comedian" but if he's trying to play some kind of psych who heals with laughter it only comes off as annoying at best, and unprofessional/unemployable at worst. In hindsight, I should have ahelped at the time, but instead I'm making this report.

Did you attempt to adminhelp the issue at the time? If so, what was the known action taken by administration/moderation?

No, at the time I thought pulling rank and suspending them was enough. Thinking further on it though, it only addresses the IC events of that round, and it does not address any OOC aspects.

Approximate Date/Time: July 15th at 20:15 CST or July 16 02:15 UTC

[CampinKiller]

Myself and @dessysalta will handle this. 

@StewardsCap please post your side when able.

[StewardsCap]

I figured that at some point this was going to happen, surprisingly I have a good reason for why bishop did what he did. Even though I think most people knew I played him, I tried to keep it a secret and go with the "This guy is some rando" aspect given the gimmick. This, coupled with his fake personality, makes him I guess sort of an "enigma" and without knowing his intentions or the player behind him yeah, I can see it as LRP. 

I can understand where you're coming from here, but I don't think denying a recently arrived non-SCC patient under the guise of "I am busy, I am currently doing psychology things, they will need to slot in for next week" is LRP, I actually think it's the most realistic thing sterling could've done in the situation. Besides of course him goofing off with a toy wand, he was genuinely discussing Garcia's issues over cigars, his reasons for why he made threats, and then after that putting him on a plan. This is pretty much as "doing his job" goes for sterling and given that I was going to record a statement after the session I wasn't really interested in figuring out the actor's trauma; since the investigators were already doing that. I know in the past I have, amusingly, denied visiting patients, but at the slightest resistance I'd abdicate. The vandalism thing was breaking the already broken floor light on a misclick, but given the character, I just kind of rolled with it. Going back to the negligence, no I didn't ignore the patient, he had actually visited the ward three times after garcia, checking in and seeing the investigators talk corporate to them. He actually gets told to leave the ward because he goes in and starts shooting the toy wand at guwan as a joke.

Now, the shielding thing with MAPPA is an old psychologist trick, but I did have good reasoning. You had made a lot of wrong assumptions when you pulled me into your office. 

1) You said that I was lying about garcia being put on watch, and that he wasn't discussed about in the relay, then I asked you to pull up the console that had his record set to "Watch" under mental status, which I then pointed out to you ICly. This, to sterling, showcases that your CMO didn't do a lot of digging. 

2) You said that because of me "failing to do my duties", Usul Guwan had to conduct the pysch evaluation in my absence. Now first, I knew ICly that this wasn't true and that Guwan was just watching the patient in the ward with a coffee cup in her hand. As I mentioned before, I also noticed ICly that two investigators were talking with this survivor, so pulling them away would not only interrupt security procedure but take away from their roleplay. Secondly, if you knew that guwan was conducting an illegal evaluation, why didn't you stop her? This was something I brought up to you in that office like three times, which your angerly brushed off before confronting by making guwan stand witness to say that she didn't do an eval. This again showcased to him that you weren't really here about his "negligence", you just didn't like him. Given that after I defeated your points, you'd just say, "Well yeah but getting arrested isn't professional", which is fine, but it seems OOCly you weren't trying to go for that. 

3) You absolutely misunderstood the "excuses" sterling was giving, saying "Doctor, I think the survivor should get acquainted with the vessel before I conduct an evaluation" or "Doctor, I can't just throw my schedule away to attend to a patient not assigned to me this week, and who isn't in a emergency situation." aren't excuses, and you playing it that way just made him believe you had no idea what you were talking about when it comes to how he does his job.

So, with these reasons, ICly sterling had good inclination to believe that you were bluffing and exercising a bias against him. This is reasonable, given sterling's black sheep status he is used to people wanting him gone and left for dead. However, your incompetence when it came to the psychological field, is the real reason I did the shielding thing. Sterling figured that because of your lack of knowledge, he could pull the MAPPA bluff and get them off his back. Assuming that the CMO takes a Chief of Surgery/ Chief of Medicine in practice, generally you can't just dig through their files.... to share them (The part I conveniently forgot to mention). Yes, your CMO was right in general, and the whole "oh so how do you know my scheduling plans?" was just him bluffing, as realistically yeah, you could see it off shift.

 

23 hours ago, evandorf said:

I have no issues with characters who cause problems, but you have to deal with the IC consequences when they eventually arrive.

You've not gotten the chance to really meet sterling on a high pop medical round, because I think you would've seen these consequences for yourself. He is absolutely hated, isolated, with some of the staff not even looking him in the face. He was arrested three times that round, the vandalism charge was purposely exaggerated by the player of othurr (who I had a good laugh with about the situation) for good reason. Security literally called me playing with the toy wand (which shoots a beam) Infront of Rrashs as me literally shooting her. Again, for good reason! Due to how he has acted, security and medical don't like him at all. He has done things that are more personal, unknowingly maiming a certain dionaes nymph, who confronted him at gunpoint about it. He had a toy gun, so he pulled it out and figured it was a joke given the pistol the dionae was using was the experimental sci-chipped one. Yet right now oblivious to him, that dionae is planning on hurting him and getting their retribution. Trust me, he is not getting away scot-free for all the things he's done. 

 

 

23 hours ago, evandorf said:

. Saying that proof exists of your doing your job only in some inaccessible system cuts the legs out of under any meaningful RP we could have. It ignores in-game reality and leaves me only with the option to pull rank and suspend you.

Again, as I showed you, he did actually do his job and the "in-accessible system" that he mentioned was just a bluff on MAPPA law. I didn't leave the patient without the chance of RP, much better roleplayers who were around for when the survivor was picked up gave them really good moments like them getting to pray at the chapel and just generally talking in the ward. I also think denying the patient can serve to strengthen RP in certain circumstances, it shocks both the patient and the entire command/medical department. It also showcases something that is a little rare as far as I have seen; people betraying their core virtues. Sterling acts like an agent of emotion and unprofessionalism, but when it suits him, he falls back to corporate policy and becomes socially sterile to the obvious moral issue. It also isn't FRP, again, it's not insane for a psychologist to ask for a reschedule on a walk-in. When ordered too, like with Pitra, he abdicates and is forced to conduct the psych examination. 

 

 

23 hours ago, evandorf said:

When asked about his arrests he attributed it to him being "something of a comedian" but if he's trying to play some kind of psych who heals with laughter it only comes off as annoying at best, and unprofessional/unemployable at worst.

The "something of a comedian" comment isn't serious, it's him dodging his recent history since time and time again he cannot come back with his dignity after explaining the context. The "pysch who heals with laughs" isn't his intention, more so a cover. Sterling was, before I deleted him after a burnout, my first ever character for this server. If I'm allowed to connect him back pre-deletion, he has been around with the SCCV Horizon since 2464, and he has seen his fair share of incidents. If you read into his history, I believe under his medical records, it mentions an incident with a Unathi patient in his previous job working for corporate prisons. In short, the young bishop believed that he was making a breakthrough with a guwan, when in reality this wasn't the case. The guwan lied to him so that he could lower the medical teams guard, which would allow him to take its own life without being stopped. On a spacewalk with just it and sterling, it overpowers him, jumps off the vessel and dies quickly to exposure. At first this incident was added to compliment his standoff nature with aliens, and his personal lack of confidence, the events of the horizon turned it to a deeper wound. When I had played as him, trying to be sincere and sane, people would brush him off saying "I don't need to be shrinked" or "I am all good." Most of these folks, a month or so later, would either lose their mind or take their own life. Hell in a few cases, sterling almost lost his to these supposedly "sane" spacers. After trying and failing, using things from bribery to literal command orders to get people to seek therapy, he was absolutely devastated. He figured that people didn't want to seek help because it made them feel week, and an upper-class posh fellow conducting an evaluation on you would signal to your fellows that you were not okay. After spending a lot of time in the residential wing, he gained a epiphany, if he didn't take himself seriously, people would be more comfortable going to his sessions, being able to play them off as a joke which he could then get them to confess in private. He figured if he came off as an unprofessional clown, no-one would be afraid of him. 

Is this the solution? No, in reality it has been only semi-successful at the cost of him being a major pain-in-the-ass. but I think it's pretty funny and allows for wacky things to happen, like me cursing a tajaran with a wand while failing to do a backflip. Stuff like that lightens the mood, and I think he fits the gimmick okay at least in my eyes. 


Look at the difference with him pre-deletion and post-deletion. You can tell that there have been some exaggerations in grooming style, as well as a lack of personalization of their uniform.