Addressing Metaplay

[Josh3738 3137]

 

Metaplay is the most important issue plaguing our community. In the past two weeks, I was made aware of an ongoing case of metaplay. After consulting with the other admins, we believe it's important to address this with the community.

 

We’ve begun conducting an investigation based on a significant amount of submitted evidence that implicates players and staff from several groups, alting banned players, and players from other servers. Thus far we’ve issued 20 bans for metaplay and other such bad faith actions, examples of which include:

 

• Organizing group relationships OOCly, far beyond that which was RPly represented
• Organizing those relationships RPly and OOCly, with the explicit goal of gaining the upper hand in future conflict
• OOCly directing in-character decisions of others to preserve certain relationships RPly
• Mass recruiting off other servers for PVP
• Writing whitelist applications for recruits
• Screensharing RP to discuss responses for favorable outcomes to overall OOC plans
• Screenshotting to consult with offline players on how to respond IRP for favorable outcomes to overall OOC plans
• Organizing personas for war and as scapegoat personas with nation affiliations

 

We are continuing to investigate the extent of this incident as well as the involvement of members of staff.

 

Participants in these kinds of activities will continue to be actioned wherever found, and those who are aware and fail to report it, especially if it benefits them not to, will face similar consequences.

 

— Josh and the Administration

 

[HogoBojo 4725]

Howdy,

 

Metaplay is something that has been plaguing our server for quite some time. The term itself was not coined until somewhat recently, with definitions, rules, & guidelines denoting such being made by myself &  the rest of The Administration. When our internal discussions first started, stemming from a very public community situation, I was fully onboard with the development of our implementation of the Metaplay Guidelines. I worked hard alongside my greatest ally Squak, as well as the other Administrators to help develop & enforce these policies. When I caught wind of a different situation that I believed to be Metaplay, I made sure to report it with all due haste. 

 

In-terms of the Vinovia situation, particularly the Metaplay aspect– I was added to the Discord by LobsterLarry, someone I consider to be a good friend of mine, and the Leader of Vinovia. When talking to him, he seemed to be ambitious and eager to get this project running, and talked quite enthusiastically for ages about it. When tossed an invite to the Discord, I happily obliged. I very rarely peeped the Discord, with me checking it less as more time came to pass. Different Discord Roles were afforded to me as courtesy by Larry as his friend– although they were removed and added several times, most notably when the Vinovians caught word of a report & knew they were cooked. Just to be perfectly clear– I did not check that Discord often, and was unaware of the Metaplay that transpired. 

 

In-terms of the application monkeys– I was reached out a few days ago by a team member of mine who expressed deep concern about how Vinovia was getting applications reviewed. For those unaware, a group of already whitelisted players would grind out full applications for their friends, to get them whitelisted quickly & without issue. Upon hearing such, I informed the team member to deny any & all applications they are aware of that were made using this procedure. In addition to this, I informed said team member that I would investigate & look into taking further action. I received this message on the 10th of this month, so four days ago. Fully writing applications for others is something I’ve always been strongly against, and believe it just acts in complete bad faith.

 

This takes us to now– Metaplay was discovered, as well as bad-faith actions in general. I’m appalled to see such, especially by people I consider to be close friends. I myself although was unaware until the report- I failed to carry out my duty as an Administrator to enforce the policy, despite it transpiring right under my nose, and by those quite close to me. To ensure that trust is still held, and so none can loft false accusations towards The Administration, I have decided to tender my resignation. This decision was solely mine to take, and one I take to show that you’ve all already been warned– and you will face the consequences should you break our Policy. Administrators are to enforce this Policy with self-initiative & haste– and by me being unaware of such actions & my free time drawing thin, I’m unable to perform the duty expected of me by myself, and by others.

 

Thank you to my fellow Administrators, and The Community Team for the opportunity to serve as Administrator. I'm proud of what my team has accomplished, and what I have personally accomplished in my role– especially for our strides in our Safety Policies. I wish the best of luck to my successor when they are selected. A special thank you to the Community as well– I'm honoured to have gotten to serve as Administrator, and gotten to interact with all of you. I'll still be around, although not on staff, for those of you who still wish to talk– you may reach out.

 

— Hogo

Spoiler

 

[Telanir 6975]

In case you're wondering, no we didn't make him step down.

The way I see it, it is a noble decision. All of us on the team, and especially Hogo, understand that if metaplay continues to run wild we are sitting on a pile of shit. It's the spontaneity and autonomy that we earn with our good nature, our self-restraint, and our creative integrity that allows this place to be worthwhile.

The way you make your friends along the way speaks to your character. Metaplay is obnoxious, manipulative, and harmful. It is not right to make "friends" here through joint scheming. There is a wrong way to play this server. It has no winners.

Thank you Hogo.

[Daisy 9731]

Our goal as the Administration is to create the best possible experience on Lord of the Craft, and we firmly believe in our Roleplay Leadership Guidelines, we will uphold roleplay first, and we will take action against those who degrade this for the rest of us.

I am disappointed to see that despite our very clear stance, reinforced by the bans we had handed out in the fall, that some folks continued to put OOC first. We’re making ourselves clear again. We told you not to metaplay.

 

At the same time, I am very proud of the progress this community has made towards a roleplay-first culture. I’ve seen more and more people avoiding OOC discussions, and taking both important and trivial things to roleplay, the medium where the development of our characters and storylines is meant to take place.

 

Hogo, it has been an honour working with you. You have been a phenomenal administrator and a great friend.  We’ve made a lot of great progress on major issues like Community Safety and Player Conduct, and I am glad to see the place that the Community Team is being left in. Beyond anything else, you have incredible integrity. o7

[Josh3738 3137]

The aim with Roleplay Leadership Guidelines was always to promote a roleplay first attitude, taking a stance on the consistent issue of folks planning everything in OOC to the detriment of other groups on the server. I’m disappointed to see that stuff like this continues to go on despite continued enforcement, especially to this extent.

 

It’s up to each of us to maintain the RP-first mentality that we want for this RP server of ours, and it’s our responsibility to continue to do better. I’m pleased to see how far the community has come despite all of this, and I’m proud of the folks who came forward. 

 

Hogo, You’ve been a big help to me as I’d been learning how to do admin things from day 1, and you’ve been an excellent admin and friend on the team. The work you’ve done and the policies you’ve helped set up speak for themselves, and your efforts have brought big improvements to the server. This is a really unfortunate situation, but you have my utmost respect for handling this all in the manner that you are. I’ll be sad to see you go.

[wowj 9747]

nothing ever happens;

Admins, making something happen;

[Malta 2811]

the server as we know it just died

[LobsterLarry 1514]

I did not write anybody's application nor did Pancho

[chacmul 358]

lmfao

[annanicole__ 2802]

Thank you Hogo for everything. 

[ScreamingDingo 20568]

[molly molly molly 1329]

:O

[Reckless Banzai Screamer 15456]

[Wyrvun 1808]

My only worry, even as a non-pvper, what does recruiting off of pvp servers mean in the long term? Obviously it is clear here, and I agree it ought to be enforced if that's the president we're setting.

How do you plan to differentiate between people joining the server during war time and getting roped into a war, and people joining specifically for pvp until after the war is concluded? 

[xo31 3979]

I ******* love you HogoBojo.