Re: A warning to all who play Survive the Wild.
I don't know the parties involved, but I think that a discussion about harassment is in order. I could only stand to read a couple of pages of all of this, and I've come to some conclusions.
First of all, I don't care who you are or what you've been through, if you can't manage to show some basic social etiquette when it comes to how you treat people online, you can find another pool to play in. I've been in various online communities for years and years. We're taught to accept that if there are wandering hands, overtly sexual comments, etc, that we should just grin and bear it. After all, the person/people are just joking/teasing/showing you that you are special etc etc. Spare me.
Secondly, there is no way on this good green Earth that I would ever play a game where the administration gleefully tossed private info from skype/email/PM on an open forum for all to see. That says a lot about ethics.
Third, s ome people are so cute the way that they seem to think that these forums are some sort of democracy. You don't have to like a moderator's decision, but that's when you write constructively to said moderator about it. In any event, they don't have to change their mind just because you want them to.
Finally, the way that a developer of a game responds to this or other unpleasantness when it comes to their game community is going to say a whole lot more than any other response. It's either going to make or break your community.
Once upon a time, a more passive and less assertive me played an rp game. I was so excited to start this new character and dig in to those features. I was new to how the whole rp concept worked as it came to muds, but at that point, I'd been playing those play-by-email games for years. Someone started roleplaying raping my character. I was horrified and had no idea of how t o handle the situation. I didn't emote back, but I sent them a tell saying that I felt very uncomfortable. Uncomfortable didn't even cover it. I was frozen there, unsure of what to do, feeling panicked and sick to my stomach and shaking uncontrollably in my chair. The person sent a tell back saying that they could do whatever they wanted to my character, regardless of my feelings, and I was a female and needed to just take it. I then realized an invisible staff member was in the room because they lost their link. This sent several messages to me in about two seconds. The player had zero respect for me as a person. Yes, those types of games can have some bad consequences for your character, but if a player says 'Hey I am uncomfortable with this, can we come up with an alternative/fade to black', then the other person should do just that, unless they are some sort of bottom-feeding unfeeling troglodyte. The other message was that the staff w as okay with it, even when they could see that I was upset.
That is the first and last time that I have ever cried because of actions someone took in a game. I cried. I'm embarrassed to even say that, but the emotions that churned up in me were awful. Even just writing about it makes my stomach churn.
I logged on to the game the next day to talk to a higher level immortal about what happened, and they brought down the ban hammer. They banned the player, fired the immortal that just watched after they did admit that they'd seen the logs of my tells asking this player to please stop, and they had a come to Jesus talk with their playerbase and expanded their policies. Because of the actions of the rest of the staff, and after a lot of thought, I stayed on that game for seven years. So your response matters.
So, I hope that people do the right thing, and please, please be good to each other. The community is a healthier, more vibrant place for it.
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