North East Somerset wrote:I mean it's not complicated. It's IC if the content of the "prolonged & sustained flaming and baiting" is an IC matter. Like the example you just gave about how Tim treated new TSPers
running for Office, sounds like classic IC politics by very definition.
But you can't have the Admin team taking IC flaming and baiting, and saying it is OOC harassment and thus defaming someone's RL character, over their actions in a game.
This is demeaning real harassment. Tim as a player can be be my worst enemy in this game, but I can have respect for him as a person. You just don't seem to fundamentally get it.
Well, no, it apparently is pretty complicated. Because there's only one Tim. The real person. Who spent months, along with Escade, targeting specific people to the point where one quit the game and several more took long leaves of absences. Neither were roleplaying their attacks. They didn't create a character, construct a setting, develop a plot, and it just happened to be a story of hostility. Their targets weren't just playing along and continuing the roleplay narrative. This IC/OOC distinction, as laid out this way, is stupid. People are responsible for their actions whether or not they're attacking somebody for an NS-political position, or they're attacking them for personal reasons.
What's demeaning about this whole dramatic saga that you guys want to build about the bans, is that there were and are very real people on the other end of Tim's and Escade's behavior.
Their experiences have been constantly dismissed by every one of you.
Definition of harassharassed; harassing; harasses
transitive verb
b (2) :
to create an unpleasant or hostile situation for especially by uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct What part of what's been described does not fit that definition? Harassment is the word at least one complaint
specifically used to describe their experience. But you, and pretty much everyone in GP who has commented thus far, is so twisted up about the word.
Your definition of harassment is wrong, plain and simple. When people feel so regularly attacked in a hostile environment, even over "IC" things like in-game politics, to the point where they quit the game or take breaks
citing mental stress and losing all enjoyment for playing, they are experiencing harassment. What is hard to understand about that?
Are you going to tell all these people and Moderators that they're "demeaning real harassment" in all these mod reports? No, because we all know what this is.
It's not my problem that Gameplay sees the word "harassment" and thinks "evil, immoral, disgusting, perverted behavior." Like I said before, that's on you. Your hangup doesn't change the definition of a word, and it doesn't get to invalidate those who dealt with it.
Here's the official NationStates rules saying the same thing I've been saying:
One Stop Rules Shop wrote:Flame/Threats: Personal attacks against other players, expressed via OOC (out-of-character) comments; insults, swearing and anything posted with intent to offend. In-character remarks can be interpreted this way as well; watch what you post if other posters are unaware you're not serious. Erudite slams while maintaining a veneer of politeness can also be considered flaming. Repeated instances of flaming directed at the same player can be considered harassment, a more serious offense.
Are you going to accuse [violet] of "demeaning real harassment?" Do I need to go on?
Misconduct can run the gamut from barely actionable to real-life criminal. Everyone involved in this whole thing is a grown ass adult, capable of understanding granularity of language. What went on was harassment-- repeated instances of flaming directed at the same player can be considered harassment. Is it something the entirety of GP needs to get involved with, and shun those players as if they committed unforgivable sins? No, and again, everyone here knows that. If it was, a) they would've been banned permanently, and b) admins across the game would've received a dossier and calls to enact a unified ban, just like we've all done with previous cases of extremely problematic behavior.
So stop trying to make this something it's not. At this point, if you have anything else to say, formally contact TSP admins over Discord. We're applying the same rules to our community that NS applies here. We'll be happy to explain everything again.