Re: Numetal/Retromux

I may not have used the right command to reply.?we will see when I post.

I play on retro a little bit, but I am not very active as life is busy. I get along fine with the staff there, but I am not close friends with them.

The game has its problems. There are pros and cons to playing there. It isn’t perfect by any means.

I am Jewish with close connections to Israel. I have been open about such and my character is openly Jewish as well.

My family and myself have been experiencing increasing antisemitism in our lives.

While mush community has some issues I very much appreciate that my interactions with the mush community have been safe from antisemitism, including my interactions with retro and with the staff of retro.

I understand that just because I have not experienced antisemitism doesn’t mean others have not.

That being said, I didn’t like what I understood to be a passive aggressive and bad faith implied allegation of antisemitism in the thread.

First of all it trivializes real antisemitism. Second it is a horrible thing so it better be true or at least have some real evidence imo. It also if believed could scare people away from retro and pokes at the antisemitism free safe place that retro and other games have been. It also doesn’t make the Jewish people look great to say this dishonestly and can actually increase antisemitism. It can also discourage people from reporting when it really happens or believing people when they report.

I understand he claimed the implied allegation was an accident and said he isn’t going to waste his time pondering if his ban and the antisemitic comment were linked, but unless I missed it I didn’t hear an apology to retro staff. I don’t really believe it was accident so much as a passive aggressive poking to see if people will be more on his side or think maybe staff banned him out of racism.

In addition he still said not going to waste my time pondering the link, which to me read like was still
Implying there could be a link.

Anyways, I was ready to believe staff was too hard on him and character generation was ridiculous until I read the casually dropped and maybe maybe just maybe but I won’t say it directly or provide any evidence staff is antisemitic.

With all the real dangerous scary antisemitism going on to use it flippantly as a card to pull in petty mush issue about character generation is lame.

I realize this is beating a dead horse, I been stewing on this I read his posts and finally got the nerve to comment.

@Kestrel

I believe that my post was partly emotional and was not worded well. I should have let this rest. I also think Kestral was coming from a good place and made good points and I appreciate Tek’s input in changing the name.

I have no problem with kid npcs in moderation on games. Less is more when it comes to children on games and brief occasional appearances are imo better than frequent drawn out appearances. The brief appearances can make the world feel more immersive and realistic.

I have had a few negative experiences with on screen kids and even fully quit a couple games over how kids on screen were handled.

One game an adult pc never went anywhere without her young daughter. The player was frequently online and joined most plots and gatherings so the child was constantly around even in very dangerous situations. She played her adult pc very minimally and mostly as a quiet background character and focused the bulk of her effort on role playing the child whose beauty and magic specialness was emoted about constantly. The child was pushy for attention and overly cutesy giving everyone pet names and trying to grab in people’s hands and etc She didn’t like it when role play wasn’t focused on her and would get more and more pushy if people lowered their interaction with her.

She especially was fixated on getting attention from my character and I felt like this child showed up wherever I was role playing with a frequency where I started to feel stalked. Then the child started to flirt with my alt. I was grossed out by the flirting and also completely uninterested in daily roleplay with a child npc so I left the game entirely.

This is a decision I do not regret at all.

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.