Nov 19, 2020, 6:57 PM

@Pyrephox said in Emotional bleed:

Or, worse, the bleedover that assumes that 'oh, you play a sexist/racist/classist/whatever character, so you must looooove these things as a player'.

I concur with this, but also contend that this goes in the other direction, too, and is almost more problematic for doing so.

Character 1: Says something jerkass.
Character 2: Calls jerkass out for being a jerkass.

Player of Character 1: Hey, that's not cool. It hurts my feelings and I want you to stop.

...then maybe work toward that IC? You don't get to excuse what happened based on the fact that it hurts your feelings. And more and more, staffers are siding with Character 1, in these situations, and letting the player get away with things IC because they say they don't like the consequences OOC. There was a game where this recently happened, and before that, an entire conversation about the need for real consequences for IC actions, in which some vocal people here disagreed.

Bleed is happening, and IMO, it's becoming worse. It's also running both ways, and we should really take steps to remember that IC and OOC are distinct things, and what happens in one shouldn't dictate the other in either direction.

Granted, feelings are real, and some things can make people uncomfortable, but you very much need to maintain at least the idea of healthy separation. Otherwise you're gonna get into real weird territory where IC = OOC and that's supremely unhealthy for anyone involved.