As for the description question I honestly don't think we can stop it fully, it was more of a provocative term. Today I had to start a party chat with someone, messaging them before that they would be accepting to an OOC conversation. I did a party because the victim was there as well.

I won't go anywhere near the details as they arn't relevant to the overall plot of this post, but suffice to say that this person had revealed their OOC life to the victim in such a way that the victim felt very sorry for them. This person used that over their victim, this pity, to keep them close and this victim had tried to break away before from their relationship. At the end of the last, successful, attempt this person has, completely OOC, with no regards to plot or dealing with this fully and SOLELY in character, harassed the victim viciously, sending barded tells, the full 'you broke my heart works' but.not.in.character, because the soul of the character was declaring his/her soul loved them.

I don't want to do a case study example. I'm not asking for your advice in how to deal with the above case, it's just another example of OOC harassment. I wanted to use it in this post in the hopes that it could lead to some commentary/ideas on the overall policies of Achaea's role-play and how we can better protect the games victims of harassment, whether it comes from juveniles who can't show sensitivity or someone much much worse.

There's no doubt Achaea does a good job of keeping most people like this out, playing a text MUD requires patience and I suspect introspection, which probably wouldn't appeal to these sorts of people generally, but we still need to protect Achaea from them as best we can, finding ways to ween this damaging behaviour out. I'm really hoping we can keep on topic with this as it's an important issue, we know minors play these games and not only should we help as players, but as fellow human beings because we have the duty to protect any at risk from emotional abuse, it can and does destroy lives, even those of the perpetrators.

I don't understand this post


While everyone should consider carefully when and with whom they engage in OOC conversation and how much they want to reveal about themselves, OOC harassment is both snubbable and issueable. What's this have to do with roleplay, though? I don't understand the question.

You're right, that's a very hard situation to deal with, especially with someone who is unused to that kind of behaviour over the internet (because it doesn't just happen here).

It's like the idea of harassment in the work, school, or related environment. Kids need to be educated that it isn't okay and they can go to someone else about it. Most schools are really good about making this an important issue, and I think most kids these days know what it means to be harassed in their everyday lives. However, a lot of people, especially in the situation you describe where someone else uses a pseudo or real problem to try and hook the sympathy of the other player or uses a confession to force that person to feel guilty about abandoning them - a lot of people don't initially see this as harassment and fall into the trap of it. That's a problem.

There really isn't a way to deal with this ICly - it's an OOC issue that needs to be dealt with OOCly. However, I think what we can do, especially if we don't know that a situation like this is happening, is to keep our eyes open and to make sure that, newbies especially, understand that they can come to us if they have a problem. Or, that they have the option of issuing if it becomes serious enough.

I don't think it's anyone's job, as a player, to deal with this kind of situation on someone else's behalf. It's not our responsibility, and it's not in our power to do so. However, we should be there to help the victim get the help that they need, by issuing and talking to an administrator, then letting the administration take care of it.

That said, I don't know if this really is an issue that needs addressing because it's rampant in Achaea, or if it's just something to discuss, think about, and remember. I ran into one problem along these lines when I was Imperiate, as they brought it to me to try and fix, but I haven't seen it otherwise. (Not that it isn't happening, just my experience of it.)

EDIT: @ Alaiea: I don't know if there really was a question, or if it was just a topic to bring up for discussion. Either way, I don't know what else to say on it.

This doesn't sound like a roleplay issue at all, to be honest. IC is IC. OOC is OOC. OOC feelings being brought to a character does not make them in-character.

Sounds more like a people problem. Roleplay isn't a factor!

lol. As many have said, there isn't a way to deal with this IC. If anything like this would happen to me, I'd remedy it with a snub.

Yo play the -ing game and have fun.

Shhhhhhhhhh! Emo-e-drama!

Thanks Jhaeli I appreciate your thoughts. In terms of this being a proposal/question/discussion. I suppose it is more of a discussion I'm leaning towards. I placed this in the roleplay forum because it is about breaking roleplay in damaging ways, I felt it fitted. I'll leave it to those in charge to decide whether to move it or whatnot. Not pushing for this to be a major discussion, I was just hoping for some commentary and discussion about it and how it can be dealt with, shrubbing a character is after all supposed to be a last resort, execution at the end of patience.

It's people like you that are accepting the retards in society. People don't need to be coddled. They need to get taught lessons in life, and acting like a yellow-bellied bitch is just going to teach you that it's ok to be a little whiney fellow because you can just run to someone and sob and cry, and that person is going to tell you it's ok and punish someone for hurting your sensitive little feelings. I hate that -. So much

This really isn't roleplay at all, or anything to do with it other than the fact that if someone I don't even know randomly tries to tell me about how their mommy beats them and their boyfriend knocked them up, I'll just ignore them.

Something I've learned from real life and is applicable in Achaea - the worst friendships/dates/relationships originate from feeling sorry for the other person. They hold it over your head with the implicit threat of suicide/doom and it's not particularly good for you either because it's vexing to put up with their -.

Personally I think this is one situation where you should just let them know that you don't really care and if they persist just snub them. If they're creating multiple characters to bother you with their sob story it's grounds for issuing for harrassment. The internet's full of screwed up people and just because this is a 'roleplaying game' doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your enjoyment for the sake of staying iron clad in character for their benefit.

The -only- thing I will issue for is OOC harrassement. I don't go OOC with, in messages, more than a handful of people. I've been ooc harrassed ooc though, and I don't dig it.

Each person is different and needs to be handled differently. Coddling doesn't work for some people and does work for others. Nothing is set in stone and works every time for every person. Maybe if you had heard the pop, you'd understand.

You hate that -? Bullying, hazing, etc is one thing. Kids eventually need to learn to deal with it, because that kind of crap doesn't go away, even when adults are involved.

But harassment that gets more severe, involving sexual abuse or violence - you're the one who is messed up if you think that it's okay to just let slide. I don't even want to get started on a rant about it, so I'm just going to leave it at that.

If this kind of discussion is just going to continue, better to close this thread now. I don't think there's any purpose to it anymore.

I've seen a situation like this. One player had become ooc attached to his in-game wife (my in-game daughter), to the point that he was insanely jealous of her ooc relationships, threatening suicide if she didn't commit to an ooc relationship, etc. It was hard for her to see it coming because he seemed perfectly normal at first. I don't think it's a problem unique to Achaea, the same thing happens in all Internet communities.

People can try to encourage roleplay, but I don't think it'll do any good to fix this particular problem. Not to be pessimistic, but the people who would engage in emotional manipulation and the people they target don't have the self-control or emotional maturity to keep things ic when they're roleplaying a close relationship, no matter what the rest of us do.

Just snub them. I generally disagree with snubbing, but if someone is acting like a head case (or an internet addicted, socially-awkward sixteen-year-old girl) in a totally OOC fashion, then ignoring them is appropriate. Snub, block them on instant messengers, mark their e-mail address as spam, block them on all social networking sites, block their phone number, and just pretend that they don't exist.

People who pull this sort of nonsense are just looking for attention. The best way to shut them up is not to give it to them.

Say what?
It has been a long time since I have seen a post where the reply seemed so little related to the snippet that it replied to. )
Maybe it has been a long night, and that is why...

Looks like someone needs a naptime!

No, Kameron's just swell!

Euch, you are not wrong.