Privacy in gaming
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I seriously DO NOT think we will ever actually change stances on this one, because imnsho, this is a moral issue. AAAH. Not that one viewpoint or another is more moral, but the value of our privacy is a moral. It's not an ethic (in my second not so humble opinion, the only 'ethic' involved in mushing is 'do what your policies say you are going to do'), it's an intrinsic value that is a basis for how somebody views the world, and debate on a forum of this sort is really unlikely to have any real impact. The best thing we can hope for us to understand fully and make informed decisions to include as much room for everyone as possible.
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@Pandora Under that kind of a policy, I certainly wouldn't play there. And I would emphatically and tumultuously call it stupid and argue against it here. There's a difference in accepting that it is policy and accepting the policy itself. So the policy itself would be problematic for anyone with nothing to hide, just not anyone still playing the game.
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Our policies so far are about -- eightish pages in google docs. Maybe on the long side, but they cover a lot of ground.
On that note, as a staffer, here is my thoughts on 'have the ability to see everything':
- Probably a good thing for various purposes BUT man, I really have better things to do than to paranoid micro-manage every little thing.
If someone is doing something grossly unthematic, I probably want to be aware of that so I can correct it a bit. If someone is doing something grossly unthematic in a private space that doesn't actually make it onto the grid? Meh. Whatever gets your rocks off. So long as you aren't trying to bring it into the rest of the game, I have better things to do than police the sarlacc pit you wanna pretend is on the Dune game because it makes your TS hotter and riskier. You might as well have dreamed it, for all I care.
You bring that shit somewhere on grid, or try and claim some kind of in-game benefit from it, and we're gonna have a chat about it. Because it's gone from 'personal fantasy' to 'canonically problematic'.
ETA: But if you wanna keep it to yourself and do it on your own time, I'm not gonna go tracking you down, either. Good lord, that would be a full time job in and of itself, and I already have one of those.
Racism isn't Tinkerbell. It doesn't need you to believe in it for it to exist.
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@Derp said in Privacy in gaming:
If someone is doing something grossly unthematic in a private space that doesn't actually make it onto the grid? Meh. Whatever gets your rocks off.
In this instance, if I were to hear of it as staff, I'd try to quash it as politely and quietly as possible. Generally such things... find their way out of their cage, and by then it could have inadvertently affected so much that changing course is more like trying to do a u-turn on a major highway in rush hour than a simple lane change.
I don't drive.
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@Derp If whatever it is happens between consenting adults in a private room, it can't by any means be your problem. Or at least it shouldn't be.
http://keys.aresmush.com -- Come to Chincoteague, we have ponies.
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@L-B-Heuschkel said in Privacy in gaming:
it can't by any means be your problem
Unfortunately, this isn't true. If it's happening on your game, it's your problem. Some of the time it won't be a problem, but if it becomes one it's all yours so it pays to know at least a little of what's going on for when you have to deal with it.
He/Him
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@Tinuviel Aye, hence the tacking on of 'it shouldn't be'. Because of course it will be, if that something private somehow explodes in public.
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"Do what you want in your own little corner without oversight."
Seems nice in theory, til you have a group of <insert special race/class/faction here> or whatever over there making up their own elaborate alternative history via Discord with the caveat 'this is just backstory stuff for our own interest' but then the group grows and they pull in new people and the line blurs and a year down the line you have an established <whatever> stating emphatically that they're the first person in their long family tree to speak <insert language every character speaks>. At that point, the mess is much bigger than smacking Bob and Jane's wrists for their dumb incest plot, it's a whole theme breach you had no idea about.
Tinuviel about 9 hours ago
I hate you with the power of a thousand Pandoras. -
He/Him
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@Tinuviel It's called being HOPEFUL.
Tinuviel about 9 hours ago
I hate you with the power of a thousand Pandoras. -
@Pandora I didn't know you had that setting.
He/Him
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@Tinuviel I keep posting here, so.
Tinuviel about 9 hours ago
I hate you with the power of a thousand Pandoras. -
@Pandora That's masochism, love.
He/Him
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@Pandora said in Privacy in gaming:
"Do what you want in your own little corner without oversight."
Seems nice in theory, til you have a group of <insert special race/class/faction here> or whatever over there making up their own elaborate alternative history via Discord with the caveat 'this is just backstory stuff for our own interest' but then the group grows and they pull in new people and the line blurs and a year down the line you have an established <whatever> stating emphatically that they're the first person in their long family tree to speak <insert language every character speaks>. At that point, the mess is much bigger than smacking Bob and Jane's wrists for their dumb incest plot, it's a whole theme breach you had no idea about.
Realistically? They're gonna do this one way or another. I can't police what someone wants to do in their private Discord sandbox. All I can do is make sure that when on the game itself, they adhere to the policies.
That said, we did explicitly include a policy that if you want it to be game-canon, it has to happen in a public space on the game. Whatever you do in private is on you, but you aren't gaining any sort of benefit from it and we absolutely will not be treating it as written in stone. We'll just treat your PC as if they've had some sort of delusional episode if need be.
Racism isn't Tinkerbell. It doesn't need you to believe in it for it to exist.
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@Derp said in Privacy in gaming:
it has to happen in a public space on the game
And how do you define public space?
Say two people made some agreement in their room or an office or something, does that count?He/Him
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@Tinuviel said in Privacy in gaming:
@Derp said in Privacy in gaming:
it has to happen in a public space on the game
And how do you define public space?
Say two people made some agreement in their room or an office or something, does that count?Given that this is Ares, 'public' means 'happened in a public scene'. You want us to take it as game-canon, there'd better be an available log of it, and if your log violates our theme, we'll chat about it.
Racism isn't Tinkerbell. It doesn't need you to believe in it for it to exist.
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@Derp Rule of thumb I went with when I was a game admin went something like, public scene, public log, audience of at least two other people.
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@Derp Even logs from private scenes can be made public. So perhaps 'public log' rather than public space?
He/Him
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@Tinuviel said in Privacy in gaming:
@Derp Even logs from private scenes can be made public. So perhaps 'public log' rather than public space?
Sure, I'm good with that. I can't remember what the exact policy wording is at the moment.
