Please give me advice!

[HaplessForumWanderer]

Hello Paradise Community, 

 

My name is X - and thats the problem.

I actually play on a different server, and I have an IC/OOC problem, and I hope that by me posting anonymously, I can get some good advice here. Outside of my usual bubble as it were.

 

The issue is that I have an immensely popular character on the server I do play on, to the point that this sort of cult of personality / pseudo metagang has formed around this character without my intention for any sort of thing. I honestly do not know what to do.

 

There have been some allegations of my character having a lot of people defending them / metaganging over them the past few months, and I honestly thought it was an uncommon one off thing that would happen every other month or so. It was until I had a recent round where I witnessed something very, to me, blatant - that I took a step back. I am typically very dense irl, to give you an idea of how blatant this round was. An antag essentially swapped identities with me, and there are tells that make this obvious that the antag was not me.

The station's response involved multiple people trying to RDM this player, and I was present for one of these encounters that totaled between four to seven. The antag was insulted by some of the crew so fiercely, that I honestly think there was some OOC intent behind it.

Eventually the round ended, and the antag and I DM'd saying we enjoyed the gimmick we did a lot, but both agreed that had this antag taken any other player's identity, there would have been nowhere close to the level of RDM attempts and nasty insults that we encountered.

The worst part, is that some of the people involved, I do not believe I have ever met IC or OOC.

 

What do you think I should do? Honestly I feel like a blob getting close to that 400 tile mark, almost ready to hit critical mass as it were, almost beyond control. Looking on it, there are probably too many people in this sort of cult of personality to reach out to them one by one, and the total strangers worry me because I have no idea how many people I would have to talk to.

I absolutely love this character, and the only thing I can think of is to permanently retire them unfortunately. It is my only static, and I have 900 hours on them.

If you got this far, thank you so much for reading this. 

All the best, 

X

 

[Sirryan2002]

My recommendation? Temporarily retire the character (a month or two minimum). You don't control how other players act but as long as staff don't step in and stop this shit, by continuing to play this character you will be enabling the behavior you just witnessed. It sucks ass to make a character change but it may open up some new front in which to roleplay/enjoy the game differently than you did under you 900 hour character.

Frankly, as an admin, if I saw players harassing/targeting someone because they're not doing a great job at replicating another players IC persona as a changeling I would be immediately warning them. Toxicity isn't cool and that's not the kind of community we're building here. That being said, this seems like a community issue and you either need to talk to those involved and ask them to cut this shit out or to work with a staff member to make a community announcement.

I do not know what kind of rules you have on the server you play on, but if this were to happen on Paradise and I witnessed it, bans would be handed out.

Edited February 9, 2022 by Sirryan2002

[HaplessForumWanderer]

I was thinking similarly for taking a break on the character. As much as I love to play them, I guess I ought just put them away for awhile. 

 

I have tried to think about what I could do between temp and permanent retirement, and those really seem like the only options. I have been told that I also roleplay in a very distinct way that is easy to pick out, so the unfortunate path that I see is no longer being able to play a static for a very long time. That would offset people trying to recognize me I think, but isn't very satisfying of a way to play unless I devote my attention to learning deep mechanics. Its bittersweet, but those are the only two options I can think of, permanent/temporary retirement and playing a dynamic character. It is certainly heavy on the heart, to say the least.

 

I know I could try to work with the administrative team for an announcement of sorts, I think this was just one of the rare rounds where coverage was spotty.

I'm not keen on the idea of leaving the community I've exclusively played with for the past two years, but it might just be the reality as well, if I ever want to play a static again after attempting to resolve this

[Pckables]

It also may be good to do some introspective on WHY you've gathered a following that acts the way they do.

- Do you tend to hang around the same spots/jobs of the station?

- Who are most involved in your typical interactions? Anyone that's around you? The people who are looking to roleplay? The entire station?

- Do you feel like you're contributing to the round and enjoyment of others? If so, is it widespread or only those who choose to engage with you?

- Follow-up to above: How do you think you improve people's rounds?

- Do you believe this is an issue that can be solved ICly? (e.g. telling people following you that you wanna talk to others or do other things that day.)

- Do you defend or get revenge for other people you roleplay with in rounds?

 

Remember that the core of the issue isnt "Being too fun", rather it's "Other people might be ruining the fun of others in my name".
And sometimes you can't always stop that. If you meet a person for the first time, chat with them for an hour, you get killed by an antag, and that person maxcaps the antag in revenge unprompted, you can't act like its your fault that other people do stupid things and/or break rules.

Edited February 9, 2022 by Pckables

[HaplessForumWanderer]

I spent a lot of time thinking about it today while at work, while also reaching out to the community for their takes on it. Friends who are staff on other servers were also happy to give me their takes on the situation.

 

Without going into too much detail and potentially giving anything away that is too easy to find, these are what community members responded with in the medium I asked on (roughly 30):

- This character is very likable and just has a lot of IC friends

- This character puts a lot of effort into RP, so players that want to RP (even new) gravitate toward them and the other heavier RP players.

- Some of the abuse this character faces IC is likely based on simply being this character

- This character typically always does their job, and stays in their work area unless the particular job is done and there is nothing left to do. They return to their work area if requested or if there is a need in-round for it (Ex: Cargo technician returning from the bar because someone placed an order, Engineer pausing their conversation on a book with the librarian because a part of the station has become spaced) Several people I do not know well IC or OOC have mentioned this.

- Some people believe this character can get help from others that they have not interacted with during a round, if yelling over the radio

- Conversely, some people say that they leave any issues like that to security

- This character is hard to kill as an antagonist, because they are often talking to and RPing with a variety of other people (E: Some also said this extra challenge was enjoyable)

- Metagangs of some level always form around popular characters

- If there is a metagang, it is probably just based on the fact the character RPs well and is willing to RP with anyone who comes up to talk to them

- Accusations seem to be from players that are not known for RP, but more validhunty / viewing winning as the ultimate round goal as antag.

- I may be over analyzing this

Many thought that retiring the character might be the only way to resolve this, or to give up on static characters in general. Another popular theme that kept popping up was that the character simply had a lot of friends IC, and that I get along with everyone in the community very well OOC.

_________________________

In response to @Pckableswho had some very good questions for me to think about - and many thanks for some of the angles I hadn't considered!

1. Because of some of the aspects of this character, they literally cannot mechanically play some of the jobs in the game. Out of, lets say for example 30 jobs, I would say this character is regularly seen in 8 of them across various departments. I could probably bump it up to maybe 20 jobs but there is a considerable difficulty spike, against due to some of the aspects of this character.
2. (In this order:) Typically I'm most involved with the characters in my immediate work area, those that visit to ask for something or chat, those that want to simply RP, and those that I interact with outside of the department for reasons such as getting food from the chef. It is very easily to talk to someone or a group of people for about 5-10 minutes. 
3. I have been told OOC over the past year by many people that I have really improved the RP level in this community, and that getting to talk to me IC is usually enjoyable. Some players who have left the community for different servers over the past year that I regularly or barely interacted with, have told me in LOOC before that they returned every once in awhile to visit because they enjoy getting to interact with me character.
4. I think I help to liven up rounds, and have been told I or mentioned as usually having good gimmicks by many members of the community.
5. Honestly for ICly, I am unsure. If it came to that, one of the only things I could think of is to LOOC when I recognize a situation is happening.
6. No, I do not typically defend or get revenge for characters I RP with in rounds - this again is related to aspects of the character that mechanically lock me out of certain jobs. OOC I will rarely step in when I see a random person disparaging another random person - this is usually something where the initial person is making a claim I wholly do not believe to be true.

_________________________

Staff have been very accommodating. Higher level staff have told me that I simply have a popular character because I RP very well - I know who these staff generally play as IG and do not honestly think I have ever interacted with them IC. I have been told my influence on the server has been essentially net and gross good for increasing RP, and that I just have a lot of friends IC. This includes friends who are admins+ / staff on other servers, but play on this one. 

As of the last few days, I have had many brand new players talk to me, telling me that I am one of the few people they know.

I think for the moment I am looking at locking the character away for a few weeks to see if things change. It seems as though it is mostly players that are bad apples, working this angle, but I am too close to really think clearly about it.

Edited February 10, 2022 by HaplessForumWanderer
Informational addendum

[Pckables]

Doesn't sound like the issue is specific with your character.
But if you want to spice things up; like you said, instead of just permanently retiring the character, you might instead want to make two new characters and swap between the three on occasion. It'll give you a chance to try out some new quirks/gimmicks. You might even find you end up liking a new character more than the old!

I've seen similar complaints about occasional "cliques" on Paradise, but it's just server regulars who roleplay well, and thus are always talking to people in common roleplay areas (Bar, front of bridge, dorm, medical lobby sometimes).
Roleplayers are going to stick together, because that's how talking works. What else would you do? RP over your PDA?

As for antag complaints,
If you don't do this already (I assume you do), if you see a likely antag stalking you, give them a chance to "trick" you into an unsafe situation via RP, rather than huddling up with others. Giving antags a fair chance can lead to fun situations, even knowing you're likely to die afterwards. For the others that never attempt; if they don't want to make their own opportunities, they aren't likely to get one and have to deal with it.

Edited February 11, 2022 by Pckables

[HaplessForumWanderer]

After a lot of discussion with various members of the community, I think things have worked out well. There was a big public discussion, and the admin team also stepped in to chat with me and help me out.

 

Quote

As for antag complaints,
If you don't do this already (I assume you do), if you see a likely antag stalking you, give them a chance to "trick" you into an unsafe situation via RP, rather than huddling up with others. Giving antags a fair chance can lead to fun situations, even knowing you're likely to die afterwards. For the others that never attempt; if they don't want to make their own opportunities, they aren't likely to get one and have to deal with it.

I wholly believe in this, and the nature of the character actually makes it happen often. I have been told I'm probably the only person that has ever gotten RP from nuclear operatives, angry sentient wildlife, and xenomorphs - multiple times.

It really is a fun thing as long as you let them have a chance and don't try to scream over the radio automatically, etc.

 

___
As for the fate of the character - Recently there were a few days of Valentine's Day events, which I think really refreshed the community for RPing more. I got to meet many other characters I had not met before, and made new friends - which I think helped to assuage the metagang / metafriend fears of some of the accusers. I have a new, very chaotic evil character in mind now (that will be painful to RP as because of how over the top / cringey they'll likely be), that I will likely be playing while my main is on ice for a time. I also revived my original static (now lost to the sands of time, very very few remember), and have been playing as them for a bit. 

 

Hopefully playing these two characters while my beloved main is away for a bit will help to develop my RP even further.

 

___

 

Thank you again all that chipped in advice and perspective - though I am not a member of the Para community, already it has a place in my heart just for the help I've gotten

[Trekkie27]

Hey X!

I understand how you feel, i was in the same boat several years ago, which led to me stopped playing for a while. This isnt always necessary though. I think as people have written before in this thread, that a temporarily removal of the character could be a thing. Another thing you could do is to speak with these people OOC, and tell them your worry. You could also reach out to the servers admins and ask for advice. 

/Autumn

 

[HaplessForumWanderer]

 

I thought it would be good to give a brief update to my adventures (spurred on by the fact I was chatting with a friend about the situation, and just saw Trekkie's reply!)

 

I did end up making a second character, who was figured out near instantly as being my character based on my RP style. The good news is that this character is akin to Napoleon Dynamite in that people either instantly love or hate Character 2(tm). I have introduced a new, terrible subculture to the server revolving around aspects such as selling essential oils, horoscopes, and so on. Justifiably, Character 2 only has two ic friends and most people want to kill them.

 

I have not had any issues with complete randoms trying to rally around this character either, which has been fantastic. I still play Character 1, and the community still makes a ton of art of Character 1 (I swear on Affected that there may actually be more Character 1 than Peppermint art now), but now it seems as though things have shifted community wise. I'm well liked as a player, and my identity is no longer seen as 1:1 Me : Character 1, which I think has certainly helped to resolve the issue.

 

On 2/21/2022 at 1:46 PM, HaplessForumWanderer said:

I have been told I'm probably the only person that has ever gotten RP from nuclear operatives, angry sentient wildlife, and xenomorphs - multiple times.

Character 2 has gotten a lot of antag RP as well, from ckeys that are brand new, or just wholly unrecognizable, that are players I do not interact with in any fashion. Things have turned out very well!

________________

As always, much love for the Para community, and I hope you are all well! :)