Liberty Navy [LN] Feedback Thread

[Jihadjoe]

Because when words like 'retarded' (yes i am an uncle to a special needs child, i find this OFFENSIVE beyond measure...) 'a-holes', and others, (yes i could add another five or six, truthfully, but that horse is dead...) are placed in a thread, directed at other people's characters, who reads them?
Fictional characters or real people?

Now forgive me for this, it's a merely personal opinion... But frankly you, in character, could call my character the very worst insult you can bring to mind, and I would understand that even if the terms and so on would offend me personally, that is not who it is directed towards. Instead it is directed towards a fictional character. One of my creation, but importantly, that character is not me. I do not feel offended no matter what is said to my characters.

Are you seriously saying that if someone had the total lack of class to insult your 'character' thusly that you yourself would not feel ANY emotional response?

Correct. I personally would not feel any emotional responce. My character however would.

These are PEOPLE playing roles here, i know it's easy to forget that, but it's true.

Now... I write plays for the stage, and act in them at times. My main way of making a living is working in theatres. I understand the seperation between the actor and the character. When I am acting, I am aware that the other cast members around me are not interacting with Joe, but they are interacting with the person I am pretending to be. The same is true in a roleplay game. Acting is little more than scripted roleplay. You learn a character, form the character's mindset, learn how they would react to things, and then act it out, allowing your mind to work how that character's mind works... For a time.

The important part is what happens when you drop out of character once the performance is over. All those things which you said, and all those things which were said to you while you were in-role, become irrelevant to you as a human.

On stage, I had my current girlfriend hitting me and hurling abuse at me for ten minutes. Why? Because she was in character and I was as well. In that scene, we had to say the most spiteful and hate filled things to one another. But both of us understand that none of that is relevant to the person behind the character.

When that behavior is allowed it is, by proxy, condoned. the entirety of the [LN] has to take the blame for it.

Given the above statement I made, I see no issue with roleplay insults. It's acting. Do you think film actors leave the set hating one another for things which were said in role on camera?

Hawk polices the Junker's Congress like his namesake, and if one of us even comes close to insulting another player, we are chastised and asked to change, repair, or apologize for it.
I know this from personal experience.

If a player had attacked another player personally in their capacity as an LN member, then I would deal with that very seriously. However an in-character insult is not the same thing.

For example.

Character A: "Oh Character B, you are such a scum licking douchebag nutsack. I hate you and your family. they all have rabies and stink like rotten fish."

Character B: "NO YOU!"

That interaction is acceptable. It does not contravene the rules of server or forum and is entirely in character. There is no personal malice behind this action, and as such, in the interest of fiction being fiction, I would allow this to occur. However I would (as I did in the example you are upset by) ask the player not to try and find ways of dodging the bad-word filter on the forum (again).

The following interaction is not acceptable:

Player A: "Oh Player B, you are such a scum licking douchebag nutsack. I hate you and your family. they all have rabies and stink like rotten fish. I say this as an [LN] player. You total butthole."

Player B: "I'm deeply offended by that."

Player B would be rightly offended by that situation. It's an attack against him/her as an individual. This is something which I would deal with very very quickly and very seriously.

I find that it is incumbent on you as an Admin, the leader of an Official Faction, and an the single most visible NPC faction as well, to not only adhere to this type of behavior, but to exemplify it.
Unfortunately, your positions within server hierachy almost require you to be even more vigilant than most would be.

My position as an admin in this capacity is null and void. I cannot, and will not, act as an admin regarding any faction I am a member of or lead. That much is pretty straightforward and easy to understand.

As to how this relates to myself as a faction leader, your concern is an obvious one, however the difference in opinion we hold is somewhat tricky, especially since this is a touchy issue.

Now perhaps I am being a little optimitsic about the population of discovery's ability to distinguish between personal insults and in character insults. That is open for debate, but there is NO doubt in my mind as to the fact that Maximo Valeri's comments were in roleplay and not intended to offend you as a player.

EDIT: Furthermore, I would argue against anyone who regards there to be a server hierarchy. I am no more important than you are, and my opinion should hold no more weight, based on arbitrary lines drawn between players such as the "admin" and "faction leader" ones you drew above, in a discussion like this.

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