MU Peeves Thread
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@Rinel why sit and wait? Why let it simmer? Iirc sometimes that starts to make problems of its own. Especially if there’s anxiety or discomfort over it. I understand the impulse, but I hope you consider not having this creep in to ruin stuff. If you are going to feel guilty no matter what might as well err on the side of helping preserve your comfort long term maybe? In either knowing that yeah you did spot something deemed inappropriate! Or knowing that your radar and the game’s are two different things. Imo its valuable info either way. But also I know how hard it is.
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@Rinel said in MU Peeves Thread:
I’m being very vague on purpose here, and I’m not going to elaborate.
I play on a game where someone is playing a minority character. The way they are playing that character strikes me as not quite right. It feels stereotyped and almost offensive. It does not feel natural to me.
I’m not a member of that minority. I definitely don’t have the breadth of knowledge to even guess as to whether the player is a member of that minority. I have very vague vibes that make me uncomfortable, and because I’m not directly affected by the portrayal I’m unwilling to get others involved.
“But Rinel then why are you talking about it here—” Because this is venting and it’s a situation where I feel guilty for any action I do or do not take and I want to vent about it.
There’s been a long history of people playing what comes across as ethnic caricatures in this hobby and it’s more jarring nowadays because people in the hobby aren’t really drinking from the firehose of 90s WoD sourcebooks (This is a whole topic all its own) anymore. Sometimes they’re just innocently ignorant or a pose comes off wrong, but sometimes it’s a fucking minstrel show. This is a “know it when you see it” sort of thing. Plenty of us have acted out of ignorance in the past and a reasonable person will try to do their best when calmly taken aside and told “Hey, this comes across as demeaning or stereotyping because <X>.” Some people are more reasonable than others.
So anyway, Why feel guilty? I’m not asking this in a negative way, but IMO at the end of the day, the responsibility for maintaining a game’s environment falls upon the shoulders of staff. If something bothers you, bring it up to staff and gauge their response. If they’re on top of their job, they’ll at least make some attempt to address it, whether it’s clearing up confusion or correcting someone else’s behavior.
Now, staff may not be aware of a problem. Or the bad actor in question may have a history of doing this particular thing but is tight with staff, in which case, lolllll good luck. I personally wouldn’t touch that particular poop but now I’m starting to sound like someone with an axe to grind.
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@Rinel As someone who is white as a sheep in a snowstorm and somewhat frequently plays minority characters, and as someone who has looked at how someone was playing a minority character and felt very sketchy about it, I echo @mietze’s advice. It’s entirely possible that someone else has shared their concerns about the portrayal with Staff, and hearing it from two, three, or even four folks can let them know that it’s not just one person’s feeling, that there really is something wrong with the portrayal.
At that point, hopefully Staff can be diplomatic enough to find out if it’s an honest mistake, or the minstrel show that @SpaceKhomeini mentioned.
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Ugh. Y’all are right.
I just feel like a fucking cop.
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I might add that a cop has the power to go over to someone they don’t like and tell them to knock it off and utilize force to make it so. You have neither that power nor the authority, as a player.
Would you report a potentially dangerous or problematic environmental concern (leak, damage, wobbly stair) that you had no way of correcting yourself to maintenance? Personally that’s how i’m starting to choose to view things like this.
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@Rinel telling someone in authority how you feel about something someone else is doing is the opposite of being a cop. being a cop would involve going to the person and getting in their business about it, with extreme prejudice.
If staff thinks it’s actionable, they’ll action. If they don’t, they won’t. Telling staffers about an environmental issue on their game is always preferable to not in my opinion. Even if they just note your concern in the file, if someone else raises the same concern later, it’ll corroborate. So basically what Roadspike just said half an hour ago.
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This is reminding me of someone somewhere currently using Anna Taylor Joy for their Chinese character.
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@catzilla I almost felt a self conscious ping using her for one of my chars. But that char is definitely presented as white. Damn anxiety.
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@Rinel If it makes you feel better about it, I still grapple with my reflex to police how people are allowed to play certain political minorities; and I do it in ways that, if someone outside the group did it to me, I’d be correctly disgusted at them for doing because it presents us (whichever “us” is in question) as a monolith.
It sucks growing up a racist/sexist/classist/whatever-ist society. They really oughta pay our therapists’ bills to deprogram us.
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There was one person who joined Silent Heaven to play a Korean vtuber who spoke in broken English. And not the kind of English one would pick up naturally, but the stereotypically offensive caricature of broken English.
I messaged her player, letting them know that being immersed in English for months should show an improvement in her language, and that she needs to have a better, less stereotypical grasp on English now, with improvements over the coming weeks. They agreed to that.
They stopped logging in shortly after the talk.
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@Jumpscare I wonder if this was the same person who also played a stereotypical Asian character on LA2042 that was very off-putting. It sounds like the same vibe.
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The issue has been addressed and is out of my hands!
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I got bitched out 10 years ago for ‘unfairly’ greeting some people and not others on a public channel (because I’m not watching the channel 24/7!) and people are stiiiiill doing it.
I don’t mind that they do it. I mind that I got bitched out and they don’t.
eta: not saying I want them to get bitched out, I want me to NOT get bitched out.
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@Snackness hi snackness
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@Snackness I’m just gonna say you posted this 4 minutes after I greeted some people on channel but not everyone so this is definitely about me
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@Rathenhope No, it’s about the people who bitched me out 10 years ago. I think everyone should be able to greet who they want without worrying about getting dinged for it. Maybe I’m the only one who ever got dinged, that would be nice.
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@Snackness i’m sorry but we had a meeting and you were the sacrificial lamb
thank you
you are braver than the troops
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@Snackness said in MU Peeves Thread:
Maybe I’m the only one who ever got dinged, that would be nice.
oh don’t worry, you’re definitely not
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