[Resolved] Character Complaint: Julian McCoy

[AllyBearsley]

BYOND Key: AllyBearsley

Game ID: Multiple Rounds

Player Byond Key: Frenjo (?)

Staff involved: Currently None

Reason for complaint:

Let me start this off by saying I don’t think Julian is a terrible character or that his player is a bad person. This is a problem with how they play the character, not a character assassination. I originally wasn’t going to do anything like this, but upon finding that others share my opinions on this matter I decided I should voice them.

Julian McCoy forces himself to be involved in every event that happens on the station, whether or not his character should feasibly involve himself with them. If a character he is friends with is injured he will run from one end of the station to the other to demand to be involved with the medical procedure to help them, when he is not apart of the medical team. If someone is sabotaging the station he demands access to pursue potential culprits. One time he came to the station as a bartender and forced himself into the Medbay to help others out as a medical professional while being a bartender.

Julian seems to have the skills he needs when he needs them. He apparently has skills in Science, Medical, Engineering, and EVA training so high he feels he can demand the AI to let him into EVA to handle engineering problems. I feel it is absurd for one character to be so gifted, and usually only play the “chaplain” role.

Julian’s player has said things like, “Is Julian the main character?” numerous times in OOC. The more I see this the less I think it is a joke. I believe that Julian’s player wishes his character were the protagonist of the server. He constantly forces himself into situations he shouldn’t be involved with, he has a large skill set that makes him invaluable, and he’s such a nice guy. I really don’t think this server needs a single protagonist, and jokes are fine but I feel this joke is going way too far.

Now all this being said, what do I actually think of Julian as a character? When he’s not forcing his will on the AI or crew to be a part of every issue that happens on the ship, I think he’s an acceptable character. He seems very humanitarian and generally seems to take his Chaplain duties rather seriously. The problem is Julian busting into every situation, especially ones that should not involve him directly. A quick fix would be to tone Julian back just a bit and have his player accept he’s not the hero that needs to save the ship every time an APC goes blue. Helping is fine. If Julian sees an issue he can report it to the proper crew to handle it. I wouldn’t even mind if he tried to do things to make the job easier. It’s the fact that he feels he must be the one to do every job that needs doing. Why have a crew at that point?

I’m not stupid. I know Julian isn’t the only character to do something like this. He might not even be the only character to do things like this right now. He is, however, the one with whom I have had the most direct experience with.

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

No. Originally I felt this was a personal problem. The way many characters seemed fine with how Julian acted, I thought I was just being grumpy or maybe rude. As time went on I started realizing that this might be affecting others. I have since talked to some of the others and while, yes, it is affecting some people negatively, we generally don’t see this directly as an Admin issue. We see this as more a player issue and are simply trying to get our opinions heard.

Approximate Date/Time: Basically from the time this character was created to now.

NOTE: As I wrote this I had others come to me with their own opinions and experiences with Julian McCoy. Some are less favourable than mine. Also it was recommended by a friend that Julian’s player split the knowledge he gave Julian into multiple characters and to have each one able to handle specific emergencies. I think this is much better than having one character to handle every emergency on the station.

[Ezuo]

Alright, I'll try to keep this as saltless as possible. Forgive me if I make a few slips.

I find Julian to be a bad character, for all of the points listed above, plus a few of my own. Not only have I personally witnessed him having a very expansive skill set, but his inclination to try and insert himself into every drama wears thin quickly. As an example of the skill set: Julian is trained enough in EVA to wear voidsuits (Like the security and medical models), can wire the solars, acts as a doctor a lot of the time, AND has made offhand comments about going into chemistry to make peridaxon (By all rights, something only chemists/CMOs should be able to do).

Now a few problems with how the character acts, and their disposition towards command figures and the regulations. Julian is always one of the first to jump the gun when something around the station isn't right. He, almost immediately, inserts himself as a defacto leader and tries to get into places above his access (EVA, notably). He seems to think that as soon as things are not working as they should, he should insert himself into the situation to fix it. An example of this is him getting into medbay and starting to act like a doctor, even without anyone asking him to, or asking permission.

And now onto his attitude towards regulations. From my experience watching and interacting with Julian, he doesn't care about regulation one bit. As an example, here is a situation that played out very recently, only a few days ago.

It is an auto-traitor round. The antag has been discovered quickly by security, and lashed out with lethal's in response. Many are dead or injured. I join as a captain after the initial discovery/killings, with Julian having joined as a bartender at shift start. I go into medbay to investigate the situation, and try and delegate work/keep things flowing. I notice him walking around medbay with the shotgun on his back. I tell him to go stow it in the bar, since that is where he is allowed to have it, and he disregards the order. I then ask him this.

Do you think you are above regulation?

His response?

Yes, because it was an emergency.

I cut this situation short, telling him very clearly that he is not above regulation, and that I will have him detained if he continues how he is currently. What does he say?

You're a bitch, but fine.

TLDR; Directly ignores lawful orders from the captain, and insults them when the captain reminds them who has the authority, how SOP and the chain of command flows. This is not on, in my books. You would NEVER, EVER say that to your actual boss if you were in a office/corporate environment, and really brings me out of the game.

Which brings me to my final point, the worst of all IMO.

Julian gets outright TOXIC when you tell him to pull his head in. He will threaten, insult, argue and blame to try and get his way. Multiple times when I have tried to get him to leave emergencies to the professionals, or to follow orders, he lashes back out at me. Calls me incompetent, a bitch, bastard, etc. He is MUCH too aggressive to people that rightfully tell him to go do his actual job. I have suggested to him a few times that if he wants to be a doctor, then join the round as a doctor. But he doesn't. He plays as a civilian role, and just inserts himself into whatever is going on.

[Ornias]

I was playing as the Head of Personnel Luka Brala about an hour ago, when Julian McCoy was an assistant.

He says that he's helping make food for the crew, and I see no issue because a cyborg is watching and helping and such.

Then he says that he's serving diona nymphs. That's horrific enough, but whatever, ICly I'm sure there are cultures and people out there that eat nymphs. So I order over the radio to the effect of "That's horrific. Don't do that. Don't do that ever again".

And they go ahead and do it anyway. Dumb, yes, stupid, yes, but whatever. So eventually I pass by and see him serving deep fried diona nymphs. So I pick it up, emote being disgusted by it, and say "This is disgusting. Put this in disposals and get out from behind the counter". He and the robot (and bear in mind t hat I don't begrudge the robot, because they were playing it comedically) insist that because I said "ever again" it was alright this time.

I say "You know what I meant, get out from behind the counter". He (very angrily) complies, climbs over the desk, walks up to me, pokes a finger in my chest, and insults me. I say I'd take him more seriously if he wasn't wearing his silly robe (inquisitors robe) and he says that he'd take me more seriously if I did anything productive rather than sit behind my desk all day, and marches off.

The idea that ANYONE would treat their superiors like that in a workplace, would act with such wilful disregard for their employment as to insult their superiors for telling them not to DEEP-FRY A SENTIENT SPECIES not only wouldn't have been employed but wouldn't have stood a chance of passing med-school to become a doctor at all.

I don't know him OOCly, but I do know that ICly his character needs serious changes. Maybe a complete change of character, but that's not for me to say.

[Hepatica]

Holy hell I thought I was the only one. Between watching him work as anomalist and make a big deal about there being xenomorphs on the asteroid when there was no such thing (Telling the miners to get off the asteroid via PDA message), and forcefully inserting himself into every single tiny situation on the ship, despite his character being a Chaplin, I'm just convinced he's desperate for attention. I know it's a rude thing to say, but... it's true. Really hope this is acknowledged.

[ShameOnTurtles]

Here's a note that I'll be taking over this complaint. The subject of this complaint has been notified of it.

[Pratepresidenten]

McCoy to me, is an odd character with a knack of wanting to help out a bit too much at times, getting pissy at people for saying no to his (Sometimes forced)requests to aid.

What annoys me the most though, is that McCoy has a blatant disregard for the chain of command and the station crew. As most antag rounds go, you're allowed to interact and even be conscripted by the antags, if its reasonable to do so.

But I feel that more often than frequently, he will do what is within his power to side with the antag, even if they've murdered and mutilated his coworkers., which.. To me, seems a bit insane.

All in all, McCoy is an alright dude, he just needs to tone it down a bit.

[AllyBearsley]

The point of this complaint, for me, and I hope for others is just that: Have Julian tone it down a bit.

[edit] His mannerisms and attitudes is actively ruining RP for me and others. Something needs to be done, and just letting it be known that there is a problem is a good way to come to a solution.

[edit] Maybe in some cases toning it down 'a bit' is an understatement.

[Scheveningen]

Prior to this complaint being opened, I had already spoken to Frenjo in regards to one particular situation that was a bit of a shining example of multiple scenarios we've been the unfortunate bearers in witnessing: McCoy forced themselves into a scenario wherein security was investigating a crime scene at the research outpost. McCoy sneaks in with security to be involved with what was happening. The outpost soon gets vented and McCoy is still present, insisting on finding the person that apparently insulted the honor of his IC friend.

The conversation that was undertaken did not go in a direction in which Frenjo understood that there are consequences to some actions and that some things are not worth taking the risk over in IC. I asked them to tread very carefully because their insistent meddling and forceful insertion of their involvement in IC issues would absolutely lead them to more trouble than they bargained for, both ICly and OOCly.

To me, I've seen enough to make the hunch I had into more of a educated guess with substantiated evidence that McCoy is a character that engages in rather aggressive clique-like behavior, and attempts to force their own involvement upon other characters. The interaction rarely seems or feels organic, if McCoy is being played on the server you can bet that McCoy will find a way to either generate or be a large part of the on-going round-related drama. Whether due to antagonism or conflict between crewmembers, it doesn't matter, it's been observed to be so much of an overarching issue at this point that the moment we try to judge this case-by-case, we end up with a flood of evidence that points to McCoy being a very aggressive and RP experience-invasive character.

Another part of the character is their attitude to authorities. As listed above by Ezuo, McCoy doesn't get just very defensive when questioned about any of their actions, they downright defy authority and they detest being told what to do. They react accordingly in the sense that they act like an uppity dick in response and they get surprised when they're arrested. This gets really tiring the 14th time you've been insulted by McCoy over something existentially tiny in IC.

And finally, my last issue that I absolutely hate that is a problem; McCoy has a very suspiciously wide skillset and has been seen doing a multitude of jobs. This includes one situation where they stole a blind doctor's ID and then proclaimed themselves to be the CMO. Another situation where their skills doubled as an engineer. And there's the meddling in security affairs as an unofficial civilian investigator of which really pisses me off. Nothing undermines the work of security more than a person who has no records to suggest he has ANY expertise in ANY field trying to pretend to be an uppity pretend-head-of-security with their head so jammed far up their posterior that their relative pivotal balance as a bipedal being would directly influence their ability to be impartial.

And yes, that is correct, you did read that right earlier. We have checked McCoy's skills and records, in terms of records there is no written justification for the cross-class bologna. If the issue with the skills was off my list of grievances I would significantly care less about the behavior of the character though still enough to want the character to tone down. In this case, Julian McCoy is a character that is played in a very toxic manner and their influence on other characters is beginning to affect the enjoyment factor others experience while playing on the server. These issues had best be recognized by their player and sorted out as soon as possible if they would like to continue playing their character without further admin intervention. I don't speak for the rest of the staff but we've discussed this at length and many of us had things to say on the matter. Many of my points made were those that were addressed by the other staff members.

[CampinKiller]

I got beat to the punch, as I was considering making a character complaint as well.

Regardless of that, I will detail my experiences and views of McCoy. To put it short, they, at 32, are a trained Doctor, EMT, Chemist, Engineer, Investigator, and Psychiatrist, who also possesses EVA training. To put that into perspective, it takes 7 years to get through medical school, and 4 years before that of undergraduate study. That's 11 years. Assuming McCoy started at the age of 18 in college, he would be 29 by the time he was a licensed doctor. Adding all these other things in 3 years is impossible. To me, especially with his constant behavior and butting in on everything, screams Mary Sue to me. I'm not sure what faults McCoy has, if any.

I cannot remember the last time I played a round and didn't have McCoy try to overstep his bounds as an assistant. I see him constantly running around as an assistant and claiming it's okay for him to butt in over trained personnel because "he's an assistant, and he's assisting." The other night, he broke into Chemistry to make medicine for someone, when there was medical staff online (though no chemist) and a medical borg. When confronted and told to leave, he stormed off to cryo and logged off.

Another example of this sort of behavior comes earlier this week, when I, as an EMT, responding to a call in Cargo. McCoy came sprinting for his friend when I arrived, and actively tried to drag him off while I treated him to stabilize the victim. He insisted that he knew more than me, as I had to forcibly get him away. Later that same day, McCoy came into Medical during a viral outbreak and demanded that we clone his friend, Uswavn Guwan, over the HoP and dealing with the influx of patients, nearly assaulting two doctors in the process. He also used his access to get into the Morgue and drag Guwan's body out before we finally had Security force him to leave.

I (thankfully) haven't had to control him much as the HoS, because he hasn't been in the round when I've been HoS anytime recently, but I have seen how he becomes a vigilante mob member, and yells and screams about how he will take down the person that dared looked the wrong way at his friend, or the traitor who dared to attempt to harm their friend. That in itself isn't so bad if it isn't some constant round of insults and screaming. What's terrible is that he will go to great lengths to obtain weaponry and armor, and then actively hunt for this person, interfering with Security in the process. I believe I've seen him accidentally shot by Security once because he threw himself into a confusing situation armed with a weapon he made or found.

[Korinra]

I was there in the round where he served the nymphs. I remember seeing the HoP complain about them over the coms. I thought, that's kind of sick, but to each their own. I enjoy exotic food, maybe this is exotic in some place, but I'd never try it as they're intelligent beings. I ignored it for the most part, as I was a Xenobotanist that round, it had nothing to do with me. Later on I found out he ordered Exotic Seeds, which at the time I didn't put together he was trying to get more Diona seeds most likely, but when I went down there I found a dead Diona plant to confirm the HoP's story. A lot happened between me an a Cargo tech, but the Quartermaster assured me that the Exotic Seeds were denied.

My department was overrun with carp just outside, and the Security team stopped responding (later I found out they had died to the carp onslaught). Because my department was no longer safe, I went to act as a normal botanist. As a Xenobotanist, I thought it would make sense to offer my work in the botany lab which was unattended by a botanist. So for some reason, the borg bolted open the doors to botany so that an Assistant could pull double duty as a chef and a botanist, that understood not only how to use complicated botany equipment, but how to cook like a master chef.

I don't have a problem with an Assistant growing basic plants in the public growing area and providing the fruit to the chef or service borg, but growing exotic plants like diona, knowing how advanced equipment like the plant scanner works, knowing how to cook exotic food (IE the Diona), I mean... he's an Assistant. The reason he shouldn't have been in botany is that he shouldn't have known how to use sophisticated botanist equipment. My character was my Xenobotanist character, so it would make sense that I could use regular botany equipment to grow normal plants, that's something that's done often in Xenobotany when splicing genes, but for an assistant to know how to use that equipment one would wonder, "Why are you just an Assistant then?".

I'm sorry, while he was generally a decent RPer, and a comedic character, it did bug me that he both had access to and knowledge of the departmental specific equipment. If he was in the kitchen whipping up soup and basic foods from simple plants grown in the public area without the aid of Botanist equipment, that would be different. An Assistant is very specifically a general worker who is basically a gofer. "Go down to Cargo and pick up my crate", "Hold these while I work on this", basic instructions kind of worker. Someone who could be able to do simple jobs like, "Here's a mop, clean up the med bay lobby of all the dirt".

While I don't see him super often, I will agree with Ornias as I saw most of that round taking place. I think the Captain even came in late to the round, and got mad that the borg opened the door for him (which honestly I don't blame that at all), but she didn't bother since nothing was damaged and a shuttle was coming for end-of-shift. I never have been a department head where he tried to butt in, but he did seem to want me to leave the botany lab despite me being a Xenobotanist. He made a comment that I was "getting in his way", even though out of the two of us my character was the clear expert in plants. If anything, he was in MY way, despite me being polite to him. I mentioned something about how he was growing his plants and he spoke with authority that he knew the extremely specific details about botany, such as optimal light levels for specific plants. Sorry but that is not something your garden variety Assistant knows. That's botanist/xenobotanist/RD knowledge. If I were HoP and he did all that, I'd have his ID terminated for the round and have him restricted from entering any department without permission.

[Faris]

There's very little for me to add other than the fact that most of what is written here is experienced by myself, especially regarding his conduct toward his command.

[Chada1]

I have had multiple direct experiences with both the player and the character of Julian Mccoy. I like both, but I have already spoken to him, warning that he has too high of a skillset. He referred to Xenobotany and Xenoarcheology as 'Hobbies', when they literally require a PhD degree to work in the fields believably, or at the least, allowance from on-Station staff. I warned him this would inevitably happen if he didn't put more thought into his character skills/etc, and it inevitably did.

I would suggest helping him curve this 'Can do everything' playstyle. I've also seen him demand access to Chemistry, as a Chaplain, when actual Doctors refused to mix Thermite, because they were afraid they'd make a mistake and cause the Lab to go up in flames, due to no training.

I'm all for a Chaplain having skills, but to have PhD level skills in multiple fields, that is not... believable... Maybe a hobby in Gardening, some Nursing experience developed off-Station and unofficially through Religious duties, but nothing this extreme.

[HumanRev]

I have to agree.

My most recent experience with the character was during a situation completely IC to do with a rogue borg and a dangerous book. As I was outside atmospherics breaking through the borks defensive barrier to retrieve the book (as per Captain Salvo's orders), who do I see above me in Atmospherics as a Chaplain dressed as a clown?

Julian McCoy.

He refused orders telling him to vacate the premises and generally seemed intent on just being where the action is even though he had absolutely no business being in that location.

Keep in mind, I was having to cut my way into the phoron chamber in order to retrieve this, which could've potentially blown us all to kingdom honk.

Additionally, for what it's worth, I'm pretty new to Aurora and because of my interactions with him around the station my first impression was that he was a pretty important dude being willingly invited into all this ongoing stuff and I wasn't enjoying it so much.

I only realized different with this complaint being posted, hence my input.

[AllyBearsley]

I've had a moderator come to me to change this to a player complaint so that they are able to comment directly on something that Frenjo does when antagging. I am not against this; however, I wonder what the use will be if Frenjo does not comment. I made this to have a discussion and hopefully come to a peaceful conclusion in fixing an obviously wonky character.

Can we expect a comment from Frenjo? Has he made private comments? How long is the wait supposed to take?

[ShameOnTurtles]

Can we expect a comment from Frenjo? Has he made private comments? How long is the wait supposed to take?

 

They've contacted me privately saying they have nothing to add. I'll wrap this up later today.

EDIT: With this in mind, please make any additional comments as soon as possible.

[AllyBearsley]

I got'cha.

[Faris]

Going to add that from what I've seen, his antagonistic gimmicks appear to be a rinse and repeat things when it comes to Wizards. Where he'd call himself McCoy the Great or something along those lines and act like he's the crew member.

[AllyBearsley]

What Sharp said, plus today 7/5/2017 Julian McCoy entered the station as a Psychologist and immediately had people back him up with all the authority he has. I don't like this at all. The character feels absolutely forced to be in that position, and quite frankly I don't like a person who knows they have a char complaint and refused to comment on it, stepping in any position of power. I especially do not like the passive aggressive "I won't be brought down" attitude I've seen and heard displayed IC. I don't have logs but people have told me Julian McCoy has IC said things along the lines of "They'll see what they get for not having me involved."

I am now in full support of changing my complaint from character to player complaint as I was asked by another moderator to do. Quite frankly the attitude displayed by Frenjo stinks.

[ShameOnTurtles]

Alright. Apologies for the late conclusion.

Before I get into it, a notice to all the people who posted on this complaint. Please adminhelp these things when you take an issue with them, rather than letting it fester and all come out in a complaint. It's obvious there was an issue, so adminhelping would have stopped it at the root.

Frenjo has been talked to about their character's skillset and mindset, and has been instructed to adjust them to be in accordance with the rules.

They've been issued a severe warning for:

• Unbelievable cross-departmental knowledge in regards to the character Julian McCoy.
  
• Frontlining, or a general 'protagonist mindset' which has resulted in them forcing themselves to the front of situations outside their role, shoving others aside, and involving themselves in dangerous situations with antagonists or otherwise.
  

 

I will be marking this complaint as resolved. Please PM me if there are any further concerns.