Nov 6, 2019, 9:04 PM

@Arkandel @Jeshin

You are both making similar points (cousins to the 'hey, we RP murder all the time, why is <insert sexual crime> a big deal?' question that gets asked occasionally), so I'll answer them together.

You're right. There are and will be many forms of bias and favoritism, and advantages that can be found by players by appealing to staffers (or other players in power, as may apply to PrP runners).

There's two things to say about this. One, as has come up in some of these prior arguments, sex is different. We know this, its just a fact of being human. We know it creates drama and crazy. Pretending equivalence is a bit head-in-sand.

Two, and more importantly: is a form of bias being blatantly obvious a reason to give it a pass? That seems ridiculously backwards. If we know that TS frequently results from or engenders bias, is it not a good policy to say that staff NPCs will not engage in it, and that romantic interactions (for instance) might be limited to Seduction mechanics? It wouldn't snuff out the favoritism if Player A and Staffer B are secret online SOs, but in a more average case, might it not give some players, especially those inherently uncomfortable with TS, the feeling that they might be safer in pursuing romance or sexual quid pro quo with an NPC without the expectation that they'll need to TS. Heck, it would even make social dice meaningful.