@64bitjedi said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

All she said about me that is defensible is that I also shared concerns about some asshattery–Which I did/do still have as opinions. But I’m not going to equate those to being the same things as sexual harassment.

This is the problem. It’s not asshattery, locker room talk, jokes, or floating the grey area. It’s toxic vitriol targeted at a group of people. Even if we pretend that it’s for humour, the punchline is still ME or people like me.

From my perspective, the majority of the players are great to play with.

I would not recommend the grid to new players.

There is a sex pest problem. It’s severe enough that I worry about who I play with. Although they are not the majority, they are there and it makes life difficult. Select members of staff have been publicly hostile towards players in the past.

Yes. I have been harassed.
Yes. I know other players who have been harassed.
Yes. I have notified staff.
No. I don’t feel like anything was ever done.
Yes. I have stopped making reports because I am worried about retaliation.

@CuriousGamer said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

I’m not sure if anything has actually hit the game in terms of consequences, but it looks like 5-10 less chars are connected at most times.

You shouldn’t expect any massive consequences. Life is incredibly unfair and the cycle of abuse is extremely difficult to break. Should the game wither away, it will likely happen over a lengthy period of time. Immediate repercussions are unlikely to occur.

I haven’t been on in a few days, but if I had to guess, the majority of the RP that is happening on the grid is driven by/related to those mentioned in this post and their sycophant followers. It’s been this way for a little while now.

Those that choose to play there without being part of the primary cliques may be able to continue to ignore the transgressions of the administration for some time. It’s hard to let go if you’ve been playing there for years. That said, with Cujo’s frequent attempts to quell the situation with on-grid announcements, it’s going to be very hard to keep turning a blind eye to the division.

@Das-Auto said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Cujo has just fired the only staffer on the game that put any effort into combating sexual harassment.
It looks like two other promoted-RPAs have also been canned, reasons unknown.

@kopecup said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

The main staff member “Z” who was removed (and who was outspoken about all this behavior being inappropriate) was staff for 5 RL years at least, maybe more.

It is not clear why the other two (people promoted to staff at the same time as Hadrix) were removed, the ‘official’ explanation is probably that they did not contribute enough and the ‘real’ explanation is probably that they are friends with Z.

They can remove as many people as they like, but it isn’t going to change the fact that the players which log in regularly are already aware of the toxic attitude towards the player base. It extends into the public forum frequently and has gotten substantially worse over the past year and a half.

There are sex pests that have been playing there for years. From my perspective, the majority of them have not been removed. Of those that have, it’s difficult to tell if they left on their own volition or were forced out by administrative action. I would like to say that I am surprised it took this long for a post to have this much public scrutiny, but coping with assault is difficult on its own. It’s even harder to put your story into the prying eyes of the peanut gallery.

The removal of Zephyr only continues to add to the mountain of evidence against the game’s leadership. Only one conclusion should be made:

If you play on Age of Alliances, you will not have a voice.

If administrators can be removed, you can be removed. If you are removed, you should expect to be mocked by your abusers on the game’s public channels. There is no justice.

@Pyrephox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Wow. It’s been a while since a game’s admin have melted down quite this unproductively because of a series of forum posts.

It’s easier to block everything else out when you’re forced to confront the mental jungle gym you’ve created to justify your own trash behavior. Most people are able to just step away, thus avoiding the more active and highly visible approach to burning everything to the ground. It’s the price that the administration is forced to pay for deciding that supporting sex pests is a core part of their personality.

@DarthSmegma said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Little do they know they can get 600 XP by playing Duolingo for like an hour, and they can learn Mandarin.

You can’t use the Duolingo XP to upgrade Charm: Seduce to 100 and force other players into extremely uncomfortable situations.

Experiences vary, but for me BarRP has always been more recycled small talk and less “I’m funny, how?”, “Jabba put a price on your head…”, or “How do you like them apples?”.

I have had great scenes where the set was in a bar. I just had one not long ago. In my experience though, it’s best to facilitate what both characters can get out of the interaction. Something beyond what I’ve done a few hundred times before. I have limited time and if I’m logged into an MU I don’t want to feel like I’m going through the motions. It’s the difference between BarRP and RP in a bar.

Experiences vary, but for me BarRP has always been more recycled small talk and less “I’m funny, how?”, “Jabba put a price on your head…”, or “How do you like them apples?”.

I have had great scenes where the set was in a bar. I just had one not long ago. In my experience though, it’s best to facilitate what both characters can get out of the interaction. Something beyond what I’ve done a few hundred times before. I have limited time and if I’m logged into an MU I don’t want to feel like I’m going through the motions. It’s the difference between BarRP and RP in a bar.

Obviously, this is an extremely complex issue. Animation studios have been using computer aided art for quite some time, but the technology is now becoming accessible to the everyday person. If you want an excellent example of ‘AI’ assisted art being used as a tool by artists, take a look at the interviews with the creative team that produced Klaus.

This technology is currently putting people out of work and it won’t be getting better as developers continue to refine these programs. Concept artists are the most endangered by this as the companies that utilize their services have already begun trimming departments down. A couple of artists with a few machines can turn out as many (if not more) works than an entire team could.

There is a bit of solace to be found. Even if you ignore the legal precariousness, these programs are far from perfect. It takes time and effort to prompt the computer to get exactly what you want. Even after the ‘art’ is generated, it still requires a degree of touching up. Not everyone has the skill set to do this, but… the gap between semi-professional artists and everyone with a computer is beginning to close.

The threat of automation is here and it isn’t going away. Professions that people assumed were safe are not. We’ve needed to have a serious conversation about this for years, but we won’t see anything actionable until it’s far too late. Much like a number of the other extremely predictable assumptions that academics have been warning us about for decades.

If you want to do something against it, make certain not to buy into companies that are trying to run a profit on these programs. Not only will you be slowing the progression of digital art automation, but you’ll also be saving yourself cash. The majority of those paid ‘programs’ are really just a branch of Stable Diffusion…which is a program you can download to your machine for free.

@DarthSmegma said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Little do they know they can get 600 XP by playing Duolingo for like an hour, and they can learn Mandarin.

You can’t use the Duolingo XP to upgrade Charm: Seduce to 100 and force other players into extremely uncomfortable situations.

@CuriousGamer said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

I’m not sure if anything has actually hit the game in terms of consequences, but it looks like 5-10 less chars are connected at most times.

You shouldn’t expect any massive consequences. Life is incredibly unfair and the cycle of abuse is extremely difficult to break. Should the game wither away, it will likely happen over a lengthy period of time. Immediate repercussions are unlikely to occur.

I haven’t been on in a few days, but if I had to guess, the majority of the RP that is happening on the grid is driven by/related to those mentioned in this post and their sycophant followers. It’s been this way for a little while now.

Those that choose to play there without being part of the primary cliques may be able to continue to ignore the transgressions of the administration for some time. It’s hard to let go if you’ve been playing there for years. That said, with Cujo’s frequent attempts to quell the situation with on-grid announcements, it’s going to be very hard to keep turning a blind eye to the division.

@64bitjedi said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

All she said about me that is defensible is that I also shared concerns about some asshattery–Which I did/do still have as opinions. But I’m not going to equate those to being the same things as sexual harassment.

This is the problem. It’s not asshattery, locker room talk, jokes, or floating the grey area. It’s toxic vitriol targeted at a group of people. Even if we pretend that it’s for humour, the punchline is still ME or people like me.

@Pyrephox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Wow. It’s been a while since a game’s admin have melted down quite this unproductively because of a series of forum posts.

It’s easier to block everything else out when you’re forced to confront the mental jungle gym you’ve created to justify your own trash behavior. Most people are able to just step away, thus avoiding the more active and highly visible approach to burning everything to the ground. It’s the price that the administration is forced to pay for deciding that supporting sex pests is a core part of their personality.

@Das-Auto said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Cujo has just fired the only staffer on the game that put any effort into combating sexual harassment.
It looks like two other promoted-RPAs have also been canned, reasons unknown.

@kopecup said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

The main staff member “Z” who was removed (and who was outspoken about all this behavior being inappropriate) was staff for 5 RL years at least, maybe more.

It is not clear why the other two (people promoted to staff at the same time as Hadrix) were removed, the ‘official’ explanation is probably that they did not contribute enough and the ‘real’ explanation is probably that they are friends with Z.

They can remove as many people as they like, but it isn’t going to change the fact that the players which log in regularly are already aware of the toxic attitude towards the player base. It extends into the public forum frequently and has gotten substantially worse over the past year and a half.

There are sex pests that have been playing there for years. From my perspective, the majority of them have not been removed. Of those that have, it’s difficult to tell if they left on their own volition or were forced out by administrative action. I would like to say that I am surprised it took this long for a post to have this much public scrutiny, but coping with assault is difficult on its own. It’s even harder to put your story into the prying eyes of the peanut gallery.

The removal of Zephyr only continues to add to the mountain of evidence against the game’s leadership. Only one conclusion should be made:

If you play on Age of Alliances, you will not have a voice.

If administrators can be removed, you can be removed. If you are removed, you should expect to be mocked by your abusers on the game’s public channels. There is no justice.

From my perspective, the majority of the players are great to play with.

I would not recommend the grid to new players.

There is a sex pest problem. It’s severe enough that I worry about who I play with. Although they are not the majority, they are there and it makes life difficult. Select members of staff have been publicly hostile towards players in the past.

Yes. I have been harassed.
Yes. I know other players who have been harassed.
Yes. I have notified staff.
No. I don’t feel like anything was ever done.
Yes. I have stopped making reports because I am worried about retaliation.