Updated Policies Regarding Harassment and OOC

Eukelade

Starmourn is still a brand new game, and many of our systems remain in a 'fledgling' state compared to the other games in IRE's ecosystem.  This includes things like our customer service infrastructure, and the policies we have in place for properly monitoring and supporting players. To that end, we are working on building and reviewing a framework of behavior and rule enforcement that will serve the playerbase better in the future. Going forward, we hope to have a better understanding of how best to help out community thrive and grow.

Our HELP HARASSMENT and HELP OOC helpfiles have been updated to incorporate the following policies. Please review these helpfiles carefully, as our policies will be enforced.

- Players will be civil and respectful to each other out of character. In character, feel free to be a mean supervillain, so long as you are still capable of being kind to others OOC.

- OOC platforms are not avenues for roleplay. To be specific, they are not a place to pursue character development or interaction. Feel free to post logs and quotes if everyone agrees, and feel free to express appreciation for play you enjoyed, but in general, keep IC happenings IC. That means absolutely NO IC mudslinging or interaction on the forums or OOC chat channels.

- Justice for OOC grievances should be pursued through OOC means, and NOT through IC gameplay. If you are OOC upset or uncomfortable about something that happened IC, try to come to an OOC resolution with your roleplay partners, or use the IGNORE function. If you continue to experience problems, ISSUE. 

- No trolling the newbie channel or faction channels, or posting inflammatory things in on the Forums or in News simply to get an exciting reaction from others.

- When in doubt, ask yourself if someone could construe what you are about to say or post as hurtful. Don't be hurtful. Follow the golden rule.

Vega

Thanks Eukelade, you are so right. I'm going to be the best super villain ever. Dominion Empress #2 coming right up! But on a serious note, you are right specifically because so many people don't realize that just because you are being mean IC doesn't mean you're being mean OOC, and a lot of people also try acting mean OOC just because they're being mean IC. Character and player separation is important for getting the most out of the roleplay experience. 

Conflict can lead to some of the best character development when done right. I'm really happy you went out of your way to clarify. Thanks for the hard work!

Cubey

I'm sure everybody who had to witness the drama 'bout a month ago will agree with me when I say:

THANK YOU

I wanted to put some swearing or wittiness in my response (it's what the cool kids do) but honestly I'm just relieved. I really hope not to see a repeat of that bullshit ever again.

Eukelade

Please read news announcement #44 in game for more on this.

Kestrel

Thank you very much for the steps taken by staff to address certain issues that had fallen to the wayside. I had departed Starmourn in disgust and was not thinking of coming back, but myself and a few others who left at around the same time, for the same reasons, have all expressed a great deal of appreciation for the sincerity this has been dealt with and countermeasures enacted, especially the new HELP GENDER. It gives me a renewed sense of hope for the game's trajectory in future, although I was dismayed it did not happen sooner and some of the damage was already done.

Chi

Wow.  You are shortsighted and also a complete jerk.

Kestrel brought these issues up in a way that could have been handled better than she handled it.

But also, she is not "the only people bringing social issues into Starmourn"

I was harassed three different ways by male players, and ZERO of them have had to leave their faction or basically stop playing their character over this.

People like you make this game unfun and unsafe.

Yimh

- Players will be civil and respectful to each other out of character. In character, feel free to be a mean supervillain, so long as you are still capable of being kind to others OOC.

I'll just leave this here! It's probably my favorite part of the whole thread! -of the whole forum!

Any questions, feel free to contact your helpful staff and volunteers! We're excited to hear from you!