Liberation Drama!?
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LiberationMUSH: Announcements
Message: 1/69 Author: Siren Wed Sep 9 2026
Player Ban: Addison/Bartok 18:14:56Hello everyone,
These are my least favorite posts to write, but I believe strongly in transparency throughout these high staff-escalation actions.
Today, the Liberation team made the difficult choice to permanently ban Addison and Bartok’s player from our game. This was not a decision made lightly, or easily. Addison was a motivated player, and both extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the game.
But on the opposite side of the coin of that passion, was also a series of problematic behaviors and interactions between staff and players alike. While it’s certainly not against the rules to have disagreements with the direction of the game, or staff’s decisioning, discussions with Addison would often turn volatile and personal, with him repeatedly ignoring our wishes to stop the discussion. They would also often be accompanied by personal insults, accusations, and an overall lack of respect. You are always welcome to share constructive criticism with the Staff of this game, and your Director, but it’s important to understand that sometimes, a staff member is just not going to agree with you. Taking ‘no’ for an answer, and making the decision yourself to stay or leave the game is the healthy response.
Furthermore, Addison’s behavior began to spill over into impacting other player experiences. In the past few months, I’ve received a number of reports about him discouraging fellow players from RP in private communications, and complaining so much about our direction that they didn’t want to log on. There’s nothing in the rules about complaining to one another. God knows, we all do it – but when those complaints begin to negatively impact those around you it is, again, the healthy decision to make the choice to stay or go.
Addison had been warned about all of these behaviors in the past. This has been a lengthy and difficult decision for us as a team that’s spanned multiple months, but in the end, we felt it was untenable and unsustainable for ourselves and the player base.
Please reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns. I’m always here to talk. Well, unless I’m on a work meeting, or somesuch.
Siren, Kraken, and Typhon
Who has the tea?
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@Gashlycrumb Honestly, not much tea to this one. Pretty much what it says on the tin. He was rude, abusive and confrontational to players and staff with no provocation for…years. The only surprise is that it took this long for him to finally hit the last straw and be shown the door.
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@Wyrmsign Likely he finally upset the wrong subset of people.
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@Wyrmsign Likely he finally upset the wrong subset of people.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a single event. It can be the culmination of many smaller incidents over time. It happens that way more often than we probably think it does.
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@Wyrmsign Yeah, but not any more so than any of the other kewl kids. I supposed it had to be something spectacular. But maybe it’s more likely he just got his Kewl Kid card revoked and has been subjected to a standard.
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Aw man, I already microwaved my popcorn.
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Ah, yes, another active player who was running things for others removed.
AddisonPlayer could be annoying. We butted heads on a few things, a few times. But he did a lot for the game, and a lot for other people.
The writing for this one was on the wall. I hope Siren and co enjoy the empty shell of the game they stole from Sundance and are busily driving into the ground.
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AddisonPlayer could be annoying. We butted heads on a few things, a few times. But he did a lot for the game, and a lot for other people.
Would you say your experience with AddisonPlayer is uniform to everyone that interacted with AddisonPlayer?
Proud Member of the Pro-Mummy Alliance
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I wouldn’t say that, at the point when Siren & co. took over for Sundance*, they would be able to “drive the game into the ground.” If Liberation were an airplane, then it’s been taxiing to the terminal for at least two years now, if not more.
* who is on a hiatus that she, herself, has mentioned more than a couple times -
Crazy the amount of validation I feel reading recent sentiments and secondhand stories about that place. Wish I could bottle and sell it. Also wild to see folks feeling like someone has found out how to do a worse job than the previous wiz.
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Ah, yes, another active player who was running things for others removed.
AddisonPlayer could be annoying. We butted heads on a few things, a few times. But he did a lot for the game, and a lot for other people.
I mean, idk the specifics of this game and this player, but. That is the story for plenty of banned folks who definitely deserved banning. I really don’t think “they do a lot for the game” should be a variable in this sort of equation at all; it implies that a certain level of wrong-doing can just be made up for if you’re active and productive enough. That’s how you end up with the classic “coder we ‘can’t’ get rid of.”
And “players show different faces to different people” ought to go without saying.
The game may still be a trashfire being run into the ground or whatnot! I don’t know. But whenever people react to a ban with “but they do a lot for the game” or “they weren’t that bad to me” it makes me sigh a bit.
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Yeah, I didn’t say it was a good standard.
My mental translation of the bbpost is: Addison bitched about the game, criticised the current gamerunners. (I know this to be true.) He bitched to somebody who, instead of telling him that they didn’t want to hear it, squealed to staff (presumably in the hopes of getting the brownie points). Offended, they banned him and made this post implying that it was to protect players.
Also wild to see folks feeling like someone has found out how to do a worse job than the previous wiz.
It really is impressive.
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@MisterBoring I would say on my personal experience that mine vastly differs from @evilgrayson. On more than one character I have had him tell me how to play, go on rants on channel about how something was wrong only to be corrected with facts including references that backed them up, only for him to continue the argument and change the avenue of attack to something that is utterly his personal point of view. Is this high on the list of grievous sins one can commit on its own? No. But being that he’s been doing it since the game was in Beta, I can see a tally getting rather large to a point where staff just feels this isn’t the game for someone.
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@Wyrmsign But I can think of seven, no, eight others who do/have done the very same and have remained treasured and protected. Right down to players getting yelled at for typing things like, “p staffer=Hey, Special Guy is yelling obscenities at me and won’t stop, please help.”
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@Gashlycrumb I have no control over who they choose to ban or not. I had bad experiences with the named player, I shared them.
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Addison writes beautifully, is deeply intelligent and was a huge part of Liberation for a long time. He knows a massive amount about game theme and has very strong opinions on how things should go. He is a passionate and talented role player.
He also pages people too often ooc, complains too much ooc, can be bossy and controlling ooc towards other players.
Staff probably didn’t enjoy banning him and I don’t envy their position.
While Addison had a lot to offer, he didn’t always know when to back down and chill.
I’m not familiar with the details and events leading up his banning, so my insight is limited. That being said as much as I admire Addison’s writing and passion for the game, I can absolutely believe he crossed a line and deserved the ban.
I feel bad for staff being in this position and despite very much believing he truly earned the ban, I feel a little bad for Addison. The game meant a lot to him. He isn’t a bad person imo. That being said sometimes for good of the community hard choices need to be made and sometimes someone is a bad fit for a community or needs a break from mushing,
I hope he is doing well and finds other outlets for his creative talents.
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