Nug

^ what Disco said.

Back in the day, it could get seriously ugly with the sexism, racism, and homophobia I saw on this server. It’s not a coincidence that a lot of the “IC hate” was directed toward elves (who are often darker-skinned with a larger homosexual population than most of the human playerbase). A lot of the human playerbase back in the day OOCly flirted with some extremely toxic and harmful ideologies. I still remember people using swastika avatars here on the forums. A friend of mine who played a black woman character got bullied off the server for being black IC and OOC. There’s still some remnants of that floating around, although I will say I’ve seen a vast improvement in the way female and dark skinned characters are treated on the server.

You can’t look at that stuff and say “It’s all IC!”

People are very intimately tied to the characters they create and I would argue that every character is a manifestation of the player in some aspects. When you spend hours pretending to be a person, you’re naturally going to sympathize heavily with that character and that character is going to exhibit a lot of your natural behavior. 

I’m not saying that IC prejudices are wrong or bad. My current character, Tanith, is going through a big character arc where she’s trying to unlearn old prejudices and open her mind to different ways of life. 

It’s just that people who gleefully indulge in prejudicial and bigoted RP might be acting out some of their real life feelings in a “safe” environment free from IRL consequences. It has happened in the past and is still happening now, even though it’s gotten better.

Of course it’s going to seem like its OOC homophobia being projected into RP when u insist its “characters are a manifestation of people OOCly” as the only explanation as to why it’s being RP’d in the first place

It’s a lot easier to be less pressed about this stuff when u know how to separate OOC from RP and not misinterpret it as OOC because of the assumption that it is

Do high elven players OOCly enjoy torturing people or burning them in acid IRL? Do bandits OOCly enjoy mugging and robbing people IRL? 

Yes it’s a possibility that there are players who use RP to hide their OOC prejudices, and it’s even something I’ve mentioned many many months ago before this was even a concern. However, we shouldn’t be assuming every person who writes forum posts or goes on homophobic tangents or whatever in RP is just inserting their feelings into RP, because that’s how you REALLY start bringing OOC into RP, and it’s how every little minor inconvenience comes off as OOC actions. If there’s legitimate proof of someone who is being OOCly homophobic who is then projecting that into RP, bring it to staff and make a report. 

I intentionally play a character that’s racist, sexist, homophobic, you name it, because it opens up the door for a lot of potential character development and RP. This stuff isn’t inherently bad to RP, nor should people be expected to cater to the players who don’t enjoy this type of RP. 

the entire reason “rp =/= ooc” has become a saying is because people generally don’t separate their characters and themselves, lol. if I had a penny for every lotc character who’s a thinly-veiled author insert I could buy a sandwich

you don’t have to bend over backwards giving people the benefit of the doubt. this server is wish fulfillment for most of its players; people don’t play this server as some sort of detached philosophy experiment. if someone’s main character is a ripped punisher-looking crusader dude and they go around curbstomping dark elves, you don’t have to wring your hands and wonder “is this person just exploring the idea of committing a hate crime? do they enjoy curbstomping people IRL?” similarly, if someone makes a constant fuss about “egirls” and “simps” you don’t have to imagine a parallel reality where they have healthy beliefs about women and superimpose it on this one. you can take people at face value sometimes.

obviously people can play monstrous characters, villains, bigots, et cetera without being one of those things in real life. your character can have prejudices you don’t have. no one’s suggesting that killing someone in minecraft role-play makes you a killer in real life, but when you role-play the same themes over and over without really commenting on them it begins to reflect on your personality.