@Wretched said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
But that's not the reality of the MUing community.
It's not reality, it's abuse. It's used for abusive stuff. When it happens it should be DEALT WITH. Every. Time. Because it is a problem every. time.
The comment hit home and as a result I did get emotional, and hurt, and I am withdrawing from engaging with you with a roll of my eyes. I'm not going to explain it because I don't owe that to you. That I'm bothering to tell you it hurt my feelings is a favor.
@Kanye-Qwest said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@Thenomain said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
Or maybe you're just getting emotional
wow
WOW
Right?
@Thenomain said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@Thenomain said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
I am actually really skeeved that TSing someone is being equated out to having an actual sexual relationship with them.
How long have you been on the internet?
I'm not saying I'm one (anymore), but your surprise confuses me with its naivety.
Skeeve =/= surprise.
Okay, so you're skeeved? So what? This is an honest question because I don't know how your discomfort changes what other people do or believe.
Not that you're wrong. Nor do I think you're right. I just don't know what this has to do with anything.
Because someone was trying to make the point that TSing with someone equates out to having a sexual relationship with them, OOCly. Calling attention to that premise as gross by my standards draws attention to the problem with the premise of the argument being made. It's an opinion though (that it's gross is, I mean), so I'm not trying to present it as more than that.
Could? Sure. Again, I refer back to the qualifier 'ethical'. If the staffer is ethical, the inclusion of romantic or sexual elements is fine. If the staffer is unethical in the first place, those elements being off limits is not going to save your game (or players) from their behavior.
@Thenomain said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
I am actually really skeeved that TSing someone is being equated out to having an actual sexual relationship with them.
How long have you been on the internet?
I'm not saying I'm one (anymore), but your surprise confuses me with its naivety.
Skeeve =/= surprise.
Edited: Inappropriate for mildly constructive.
I am actually really skeeved that TSing someone is being equated out to having an actual sexual relationship with them.
@Wretched said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@Sunny So you don't think that having a sexual relationship with a person in power over the community that you are invested in is a detriment to the rest of the community? That it doesn't undermine trust as an impartial staffer?
Nope, because it's not actually a sexual relationship. No sex is happening.
ETA: GM's girlfriend is a thing because the girlfriend is ACTUALLY FUCKING the GM.
I fundamentally disagree with your premise. I think you are not just wrong, but very wrong, and not just on a preference or a matter of opinion. You're straight up incorrect.
To FURTHER clarify, I do not believe 'making someone else feel jealous' constitutes harm.
@Pandora said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
Real people are playing these NPCs, and they have the right to whatever fun they can get on whatever characters they enjoy playing - and it's really just none of anyone else's business.
Bingo. Agree 100%. This is how I feel about it, too. As long as the staffer is not harming anything (and I mean that: if harm is being done, whether by favoritism or by some other mechanism, then that harm is a problem), it's OK, and also none of anyone else's business.
One of the absolute coolest scenes I have ever gotten to do, as a player, was the seduction and subsequent murder of a BBEG. Had my character not been able to seduce that NPC, she would not have been able to murder them. Were there rules against NPCs being able to participate in sexual/romantic roleplay, it would not have gotten to happen. That would have been sad.
ETA: There were MONTHS put into leadup RP for this, for the record. It wasn't like a scene in the bar. It was a long plot with a climax (ha ha) that was amazing.
There is a very wide gulf between what I am saying and 'CoI rules are stupid'.
If you think sex/romance roleplay elements are more significant/meaningful/important/powerful than others, that's a different conversation. I maintain that they are story/plot/roleplay elements just like every other story/roleplay/plot element.
ETA: I do not equate roleplayed sex out to real life sex, in the balance of power scenario, and find the comparison distasteful. A PC having sex with an NPC is in no way the same situation as a student having sex with their professor. This particular RL comparison is, to me, offensive. Sex as a story element? Fine. Sex as an abuse of power? Not fine. TS =/= RL Sex.
ETA2: I have an ENORMOUS eleventy billion sized problem with staffers having RL sex with players for bennies, for the record.
@Ganymede said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
What are "reduction of harm" policies?
It's not a thing beyond in that sentence, I was just trying to give an impression. Policies like 'NPCs can't have sex with PCs', because they're addressing 'some staffers do X' instead of being the good policy of 'I will fire people who abuse personal roleplay with players'.
@Ghost said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
One major issue in the hobby is that sometimes this happens on games where the site/server owner is unethical and/or the unethical staff are their friends.
Honest to god, I refuse to play on games any more where I think the site/server owner is unethical. Period, end of story. I will not play there. I also find 'reduction of harm' policies, where they are in relation to ethics, unacceptable. Staff policies need to be made with an eye towards supporting good staff doing good things and enforced in DRACONIAN fashion.
@krmbm said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
I object to staffers using NPCs - special characters with access to shit regular players can't get (whether that's abilities, connections, information, whatever) - as their personal PCs, and justifying it by saying "it's just an NPC."
I object to this, too.
@Snackness said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
Okay so what if you're just a player? Not all of us can fire unethical staff.
Leave the game, because it's being run by unethical staff?
I completely agree. I just have a different perspective than the community on it; I'd rather fire the unethical staffer every single time than make a particular plot element off limits.
ETA: Those people are BAD STAFF, and it's going to manifest in eleventy billion other ways on your game besides bjs for bennies. Hell, if they're doing bjs for bennies they're doing you a favor because it's so stinking obvious that you don't have to wonder if it's a right decision on firing them.
What I'm hearing, here, at the base level, is that it doesn't sound like people think that Staff NPCs should be used for Personal Plots for PCs. It's the personal that's the issue, not the content? Is this a better understanding?
@krmbm said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
If someone objects to an ethical staffer including a sexual element in their plot because it is a sexual element...
Do you think that's why people object? Because that's not why.
Then why do people object to an ethical staffer using the element? I don't understand, you're right. "Ethical" is the KEY part of that sentence.