Metaplay

[ShinyB 567]

 

Metaplay.

(The working title that became the title.)

 

I hate this word, but I am in staunch support of its sentiment. Conflict should not be determined by who you are friends with out-of-character. More importantly, war should not be lodged at people you vehemently hate out-of-character for no other reason than your personal desire to destroy them. Unfortunately, the admins of this server may tout their condemnation of these actions, but their words are nothing but performative.

 

A report detailing willful, continual and targeted harassment, deceit, abuse of staff powers, harmful and inappropriate conduct towards minors, metagaming and metaplaying, as well as a slew of other general misconduct was submitted to admins April 11th, 2025. These actions were directed towards a former subsection of the Norland community (now known as Vansk), as well as associated individuals, over the course of a year, before and after the community split.

 

Admins have decided to do nothing.

 

We were explicitly told such. 

If anything in specific happened, we were never told.

 

They refused to punish those that have blatantly broken server rules. They refused to address the corruption and abuse of power within their own ranks. They refused to stop a war so obviously steeped in out-of-character hatred and retaliation.

 

I will let the evidence speak for itself and have you decide, is this really a server worth playing on? Is this somewhere you can feel safe when admins refuse to prosecute their friends? To what degree will roleplay be compromised by this conduct?

 

A History of Harassment

 

Will your community be next?

 

For me, all of these questions and more have already been answered. To have aggressors and instigators go unpunished and unchecked sacrifices the delicate safety a roleplay space should be providing. To have staff abuse their powers in favor of certain communities, and to the detriment of others, compromises the competency and integrity of staff as a whole. And to have admins so blatantly excuse the out-of-character manipulation of roleplay in pursuit of retaliatory ends, shatters any illusion that this server strives for good faith and collaborative roleplay.

 

Spoiler

This is the last I’ll be speaking on the matter, and the last I’ll waste another minute on this server.

 

[PCSwift 1422]

i think it was pretty clear to the playerbase at large when my report wasn't immediately closed because of metaplay for a 'roleplayer' doing the metaplay. If King Kunuk was replaced with Orlanth, he would've been banned immediately. 

 

This is nothing new, you just realized you're on the outside of the 'in' group and want something done about it.

It's too late, it's server policy to selectively enforce a purposely broad rule for a bad actor's Minecraft gains.

[Werew0lf 24181]

I don’t really care much for the report but you wrote something in this that particularly stuck out to  me.

 

Why are you portraying M1919 as some sort of domestic abuser in your report with poor connotations? lol 

 

 

Spoiler

• M1919 claimed that simpleglitchbro was being insulting to people that M1919 claimed he did not even care to talk to. (A common abuser tactic to gaslight their victim into believing that the victim is actually the problem)
• M1919 claimed that simpleglitchbro is attempting to “grand-stand a martyrdom over metaplay or some other nonsense”. (They continue to downplay and write off the IRP and OOC issues that led to this encounter as nonsense and grand-standing.)
• M1919 then offers for those who leave to come back and that nothing will change, and that all will be well, and to “stop while you are ahead.” (This is common in abusive relationships, the abuser promising that things will be better if the victim just gives them one more chance.)

[winterblood 11181]

a lot of the stuff in these docs don't really seem that deep and a lot like hearsay, plus those insinuations about m1919 are wild for "abuser behavior"

[Navigator 4260]

shadowz disliked a build, and bro got a part of the doc written on him 💔

[PCSwift 1422]

10 minutes ago, Werew0lf said:

I don’t really care much for the report but you wrote something in this that particularly stuck out to  me.

 

Why are you portraying M1919 as some sort of domestic abuser in your report with poor connotations? lol 

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

• M1919 claimed that simpleglitchbro was being insulting to people that M1919 claimed he did not even care to talk to. (A common abuser tactic to gaslight their victim into believing that the victim is actually the problem)
• M1919 claimed that simpleglitchbro is attempting to “grand-stand a martyrdom over metaplay or some other nonsense”. (They continue to downplay and write off the IRP and OOC issues that led to this encounter as nonsense and grand-standing.)
• M1919 then offers for those who leave to come back and that nothing will change, and that all will be well, and to “stop while you are ahead.” (This is common in abusive relationships, the abuser promising that things will be better if the victim just gives them one more chance.)

Outrage bait, not that it matters since everyone's made up their opinion about the matter before reading the document.

 

Claiming scheduling issues being the problem once is fine, but the issue ISN'T the scheduling. It's that it's ALWAYS a 'scheduling' issue. When you ask a chick out and she says she's busy, you might ask one more time before you get the hint she's not interested. Same thing here, they are using the OOC medium of 'being busy' to avoid conflict or irp interaction which literally fits word for word with the concept of metaplay.

"The use of OOC to decide IRP interactions." If you just avoid the roleplay by saying you're busy EVERY single time, then it doesn't happen. Again, being busy and having a life is alright, but these players have INSANE play times, and definitely are much more free than they let on. Do not let them fool you into thinking 'it's not that deep' when it's happened literally over years.

 

I will draw an allegory to the Veletz/Coalition war. M1919 had a memorial service to go to, and Mio took advantage of it to host a warclaim on that specific day. That IS metaplay.

 

Except, now there is NO memorial service, and the person being taken advantage of is the person who desires a roleplay encounter. 

 

The claim of domestic abuser is tactless, but you read the report specifically looking for something to make outrage bait over. The report is valid, these players are guilty of the crime of metaplay. Only, they're now on the 'inside' of LoTC, and the reporters are on the outside.

 

Oh, I'd also like to say I prefer the 'metaplay' side over the accusers who are cringe. I just wanted to point out they're right. I love you Milen ❤️

[Nectorist 12869]

Going to be honest, this report could’ve easily been condensed into like 20 pages, if that. Putting disputes over Discord roles, arguments about builds, complaints about Elrith being drunk in VC, complaints about Elrith not pming people back quickly, at an equal level of accusations of Hugh being a “domestic abuser” or extensive metaplay with the whole Norland-Vansk conflict, just makes the report feel very watered down.

 

This just reads like an extensive list of grievances that y’all have with Norland and Solgaard, which is fine, whatever, but pairing that with accusations of serious rule-breaking comes across as y’all trying to pad out this document to make it feel like there is just this overwhelming mountain of evidence against Norland/Elrith/Solgaard. In reality, the actual meat and potatoes of what y’all have provided as evidence of rule-breaking is legitimate but also pretty scant.

[don dada 579]

the calise11 chatgpt complaint and randomly including a numendil duel conducted in roleplay made me fall off my chair laughing

 

cant wait to see this post of mine be additionally added to the document to be likened to some abuser tactic as well

 

Spoiler

 

• Some members of Norland felt so uncomfortable playing in Norland that they saw no other option but to PK their character and quit/take temporary leave from LOTC because they felt trapped by Norland’s leadership.

 

 

it was all in your hands all along

 

Edited May 19, 2025 by don dada

[Karina 1883]

1 minute ago, Nectorist said:

Going to be honest, this report could’ve easily been condensed into like 20 pages, if that. Putting disputes over Discord roles, arguments about builds, complaints about Elrith being drunk in VC, complaints about Elrith not pming people back quickly, at an equal level of accusations of Hugh being a “domestic abuser” or extensive metaplay with the whole Norland-Vansk conflict, just makes the report feel very watered down.

 

This just reads like an extensive list of grievances that y’all have with Norland and Solgaard, which is fine, whatever, but pairing that with accusations of serious rule-breaking comes across as y’all trying to pad out this document to make it feel like there is just this overwhelming mountain of evidence against Norland/Elrith/Solgaard. In reality, the actual meat and potatoes of what y’all have provided as evidence of rule-breaking is legitimate but also pretty scant.

appreciate u summing up my views in a better way then i could. lots of vague testimonials with no proof is also pretty funny. reads more like a hit piece at ppls reputation then a report. 

[Kaiser 2347]

I cannot speak on any alleged harassment that the Vansk community has faced, either as an independent nation or to when they were subset of Norland, however, I do run the realms system and I just want to put in my 2 cents around Vansk. This is neither in support of nor against any side, just my own context.

 

1) I accepted Vansk as a nation. At no point did anyone pressure me to not accept Vansk from inside the Norland community. In fact many even said to me during the voting period that he would prefer Vansk get a fair deal, same as any other nation. The only dissenting voices I got were from people outside Norland who felt the Vansk community was not unique or would just fail outright.

2) I did tell the Vansk NL that they should prepare for or even expect a war. This was just a bit of advice, and wasn't reflective of OOC info, I just think all independent nations should have an army.  This was also because of the blatantly obvious RP implications of their history with Norland.

 

3) Nobody on the Imp team really expected Vansk to survive due to the roleplay climate of wars + their history with Norland + being a relatively nonmartial playerbase. Those of us who supported and pushed through Vansk's app mostly were just hoping to be wrong. I bring this up because I want to say, even if Vansk was not OOCly targeted (Not saying it was or was not!), it most likely would have had the same fate via RP. Therefor the war/death of Vansk itself isn't a sign of some scheme against them, and it's wrong to claim the war is unjustified

The following is a personal opinion now, rather than anything:

The Norland/Solgaard/Etc community can at times be extremely rude, crude, and lewd (it rhymes). It really is not uncommon for some pretty NSFW jokes or words to be flung in that community, and it is really not uncommon that that is seen in other communities. I am not saying this is good or bad, or should be regulated or not. But that community is pretty, uh, aggressive? Meanwhile the Vansk-esque community is extremely prudish and delicate from my experience. That also is not a judgement or insult.

My point is that I think a decent chunk of this is people with a more fragile sensibilities coming into contact with people who are more thick skinned and brutish.

For example... who cares if Elrith was drunk? What an extremely soft thing to become overly upset about. Or half of these pics are pretty clearly jokes, or so overtly banter. I haven't looked over every screenshot or post, but, c'mon... Orlanth saying they're goons? Shadowz dogging on a build? These are very petty.

 

 

[Unwillingly 18115]

 

2 hours ago, UnBaed said:

a lot of the stuff in these docs don't really seem that deep and a lot like hearsay, plus those insinuations about m1919 are wild for "abuser behavior"

I haven't read the doc in full but retweet on this specifically. you aren't a victim of "abuser tactics" because someone was mean to you on minecraft or said you're being irrational or silly, u ppl have no idea what these words and terms actually mean and its actually nauseating that ur citing abusive relationships because you got btfo in a discord gc

[Werew0lf 24181]

11 minutes ago, PCSwift said:

Outrage bait, not that it matters since everyone's made up their opinion about the matter before reading the document.

 

Claiming scheduling issues being the problem once is fine, but the issue ISN'T the scheduling. It's that it's ALWAYS a 'scheduling' issue. When you ask a chick out and she says she's busy, you might ask one more time before you get the hint she's not interested. Same thing here, they are using the OOC medium of 'being busy' to avoid conflict or irp interaction which literally fits word for word with the concept of metaplay.

"The use of OOC to decide IRP interactions." If you just avoid the roleplay by saying you're busy EVERY single time, then it doesn't happen. Again, being busy and having a life is alright, but these players have INSANE play times, and definitely are much more free than they let on. Do not let them fool you into thinking 'it's not that deep' when it's happened literally over years.

 

I will draw an allegory to the Veletz/Coalition war. M1919 had a memorial service to go to, and Mio took advantage of it to host a warclaim on that specific day. That IS metaplay.

 

Except, now there is NO memorial service, and the person being taken advantage of is the person who desires a roleplay encounter. 

 

The claim of domestic abuser is tactless, but you read the report specifically looking for something to make outrage bait over. The report is valid, these players are guilty of the crime of metaplay. Only, they're now on the 'inside' of LoTC, and the reporters are on the outside.

 

Oh, I'd also like to say I prefer the 'metaplay' side over the accusers who are cringe. I just wanted to point out they're right. I love you Milen

outrage bait, these guys getting creative with their terms. 

 

actually, what my comment was addressing is known as ‘fabulist malady’ (new term I just made up)

[PCSwift 1422]

2 minutes ago, Werew0lf said:

outrage bait, these guys getting creative with their terms. 

 

actually, what my comment was addressing is known as ‘fabulist malady’ (new term I just made up)

"these guys"

 

Because I disagree I'm with them?

I'd rather castrate myself than associate with those guys

[Tide1 4535]

I've written an extensive thesis on metaplay, called Tide1's ban appeal, for which I scoured every definition of the ruling. You will find that anything predating the implementation of said rules, which encompasses almost the first half of your document, is inadmissible as metaplay.

 

While I agree that you have witnessed what is essentially "competitive roleplay"—where your narrative is against theirs—a gaslighting match, that is not against the rules, it's simply uncomfortable to deal with. You are allowed to dislike communities and the people within, and while that should not solely influence your roleplay, ninety percent of people's negative opinions of other people on LotC are based on previous RP in-game encounters. In this case (because I have watched this conflict for a year now), this simply means that the players who had negative character interactions with your people are still pursuing your people with those characters.

 

While I have not particularly played in Solgaard (based on principle), I have been there as a founding member since its inception, and what they think of the group that became Vansk now is not what they thought of it back then. Additionally, the document does little to make this look like anything but an RP issue.

[Svyatgoroye 266]

this all started because of a seer plot ritual btw

 

vaseek's greatest little pranksters

 

Spoiler

(this is not a joke, jape, or jest)