[Balthie]

Due to the attitude of certain players in private, the way they choose to treat fellow players and events, and the potential fallout of targeting behaviors shown, this post has been written to address the ongoing situation.

As part of an ongoing effort to readdress how we as a team respond to OOC hostility and toxicity in the community, we GMs have been undergoing an investigation behind the scenes for the best part of a month.
This post can be considered a precursor post to a larger address regarding policy changes in the works.

Unfortunately, some of the backlash occurring following recent events has indicated that involved players may end up on the receiving end of hostile OOC treatment, prompting this early post and clarification.
Please treat one another kindly. Any hate, hostility, or harassment sent to any involved parties, including those redacted in the logs, will be met with harsh punitive action.

To upcoming new hire Eventmins, please don't let these logs dissuade you.
To the player base at large, know that we treat your reports of mistreatment very seriously, and strive to improve the OOC atmosphere of the game to best keep Korvara free of harmful behavior.

Here's the doc.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PXhV...TtpqNmp9ks

We want the player base at large to be able to enjoy Korvara in the vision that Dev intended, divorced from OOC politics and hostility.
Lately, the sheer quantity of evidence the team has had to read to the contrary has been kindling for severe burnout.

Feel free to use this thread for open discussion, we'll be monitoring any discourse here for feedback.
Keep. Things. Civil.

[Snake]

I dunno if my word here will be taken as civil but that's the reason why we can't have fun things in Korvara, this heavy skepticism and toxic mentality for things "that are not inherently of X Y Z's bubbles". This heavy scrutiny and judgement for the slightest of things that aim to bring motion to a generally stale-by-design game of cooperative RP that wants us to hold hands and ignore every ounce of bad while frolicking happily on a field of sunflowers.

Kinda rough and honestly, sad. Back in muh days ™ we called this elitism and those people elitists, but look where we are now, if we can see that the premise of that behavior is more prominent in our community now, festering in closed off groups.

If the game is becoming Eternia, all I gotta say is that I'm glad I'm not among the ones contributing to it, nor are the GMs, nor is Dev, nor the players who just wanna play the game and have fun doing whatever they want within reason.

Food for thought.

[Kyratio]

I hate to say we told you so.

Like, genuinely, I wish I had more to add to this conversation, like I'm sorry this is happening to you all and I feel bad, but genuinely.

We told you so.

[Dezark]

I hate to say we told you so.

Like, genuinely, I wish I had more to add to this conversation, like I'm sorry this is happening to you all and I feel bad, but genuinely.

We told you so.

Might just be my personal experience.. but nothing got given for a 'told you so' given it, but take that as you will. Not the first time the community been toxic toward people if previous interactions from past parties who've quit have shown anything.


That said, and of course apologies and no offense regarding it, apologies you and the other GMs are going through with that and such Balthie on that end, hopefully things can get settled out and taken care of a sensible matter without further issue.

[Kyratio]

Rather than move on and play a character, many people take OOC grudges and force it into their IC. They hate a character because of who it's played by. They suddenly do something drastic and make a situation much bigger because of who a character is played by. I've literally seen it happen the moment some of these people realize certain characters are this person, and it's really, sad. 

Everyone is going to be incompatible with certain people, everyone is going to hurt other people be it on accident, or on purpose. Everyone will inevitably make someone else angry. You can be the kindest person in the world, and someone will resent that. You can be the angriest person in the world, and someone will respect that. The problems comes when people aren't willing to forgive, or even give someone a chance to be forgiven, or to apologize. The problem comes when people split off into small groups and spread rumors, or opinions that suddenly turn into facts amongst a little group, which then becomes more rumors. The problem is when people get angry about genuine things people have done, and then brood over it rather than trying to understand why someone did something. Of course, if you hate someone, yeah. Most people aren't going to try to understand. But everyone goes through terrible times in their life, everyone does things they'll regret sometimes. That doesn't make them unredeemable. That doesn't mean they need to be treated like some sort of BBEG that needs to be "shown humility" or "put in their place." 

Here you go, pulled from the last post I made prior to today.

[WaifuApple]

Two points I wish to bring up. The first is that there are some parts of these logs that make incredibly obvious certain participants - more so for one in particular, though I'm not name dropping. Perhaps certain parts should have been redacted harder to avoid this, because even with names censored, these logs literally do tell you who they are. Still, this is probably a better way forward than name dropping because you think everyone already knows their names at this point, which is a relief to see.

The second point is not directed at the main post. Moreso... I don't think it contributes to the conversation to come back and say "I told you so". Sure, things may have been said that were similar to this post, now, but that's not at all constructive, and in the end, in spite of public opinion, the GMs gave a lot of leeway that wouldn't have came if they'd bowed to public pressure. The community, for what it's worth, is at the very least self aware about this, even if not much changes for it. It's generally in the nature of this community to talk shit or vent privately, whatever we all call it. It's when that breaks through and becomes public action rather than a chance to calm that it becomes a serious issue.

Things are a little different here. Community backlash isn't the source of that verdict. It's also not the source of what happened back there. Maybe it could have aggravated things, but what happened back there would have happened IC regardless - this post about community behaviour should not call that into question.

[Bylamir]

So I'll preface this with myself being Dark Green.

I am here solely to shed light on my side of things. I talk for no-one else or their motivations. You know the drill.

The majority of the blame game at the first part I didn't take part in past idle theorising so I can't talk on that either.

So the background of this discussion is due to the start of the chain regarding the youkai statues being destroyed. When it was brought up regarding them being guarded, I was of course annoyed. Since it'd leave behind a larger trail that just what sign originally mentioned for investigations. That being that it was the work of a Youkai. This has as of present been talked over in the geladyne OOC but at the time it had not. It did not occur to me at least that contacting the GMs is the way to go for a more in-depth investigation. As well as I admit I did run with the point of it being guarded without thinking of how someone is supposed to know that as I myself was unaware it was guarded until I was informed during the conversation and while hindsight is 20/20, thinking instead of taking things at face value is probably is PROBABLY a habit I should get into.

The screenshots at the end do provide a relative amount of context with some parts which were not really relevant getting excluded from the images.

I will say that if anyone has any questions then feel free to ask. I will answer them to the best of my ability so long as it doesn't compromise the anonymity of the others.
I trust you all enough to be civil, we're all on the same side here. Or at least I am. That being the side of fun. So of course, just ask if you want something cleared up. And if you don't want to ask on the forum, feel free to DM me. It's always open so long as I'm awake.

Know it was a bit of a long read combined with the doc, so thanks for looking over it.

[lalchi]

This kind of put in a ceritude my feellings i had recently about SL2 on those days.

I'm here, just playing, enjoying the game and the characters other players set in to what the characters are.
At the same time thinking and putting effort to propose contents to the players.

But on the mid of all of that, I see tension and "paranoïa" growing among the players, not to an IC extend, but an OOC extend.

At a point where, anything that happens becomes a game of looking out for OOC purpose. Overthinking it that if it was targeted OOCly against someone or for someone. If there's favoritism or grudges. Which in the end eventually happens, but has it really been started by the one you think of ?
OOC reasoning becoming more important than the IC itself. Which is very ironic.
"No, we're not going to investigating in character why this specific thing is happenning. Instead, we're going to blame it on OOC relation."

Either it's true or not. The present tension I feel would be in game or any discord server. Makes it me feel that's what's happenning.
And seeing the screen here on the doc, kind of renforce my feeling.

At a point where, when i do something on Korvara. When I interact with my characters. When i take request for events. While still doing so, i have that sick worrying there will be a target pinned on my back from people thinking i'm doing it for an OOC reason, would be favoritism or grudges, while all i wanna do is giving out content and stories for players to play on.

And i feel sad to see that Balthie and anyone involved to the youkai statues are having that exact target pinned on them for whatever reason. Reasons I don't want to know, cause whatever it is, it doesn't makes it okay.

And I'm pretty sure, that hasn't been the first time.

P.S :
"They get threated with the same shit i'd give anyone else" is a sentence that REALLY makes me angry.

You don't do that. You just don't.
You threat Balthie and GMs with the same RESPECT you'd give anyone else. And hopefully that respect isn't low, or else i'd be worry.
The F*'s wrong with you ?

[Anhita]

We told you so.

I dont think coming into the thread like this is the way, young padawan. Do you even know the specifics of what is being talked about?

Two points I wish to bring up. The first is that there are some parts of these logs that make incredibly obvious certain participants - more so for one in particular, though I'm not name dropping. Perhaps certain parts should have been redacted harder to avoid this, because even with names censored, these logs literally do tell you who they are. Still, this is probably a better way forward than name dropping because you think everyone already knows their names at this point, which is a relief to see.

Hello, Totally corrupt:tm: leader here who is pretty obvious to anyone with any degree of critical thinking after reading those logs

This is pretty much my biggest complaint about this, as this has done no favors for my current slow burnout.

Outside of the otherwise callout-nature of the post, as if that server didn't have a GM present (Out of respect will ALSO remain nameless - They dont really participate in any of the conversations posted.. or any conversation whatsoever, really.) who could have probably stepped in at any time to simmer things down. Which - to an extent, I'd assume isn't their job to police that server. But if we are going to be pulling logs from other servers as evidence of anything, I feel as if there is that specific aspect not being mentioned here.

That being said, I do believe there are some people who could be better. The most I can say for myself is I was frustrated at the time. I'd litterally gone to sleep early because of physical health issues only for certain events to transpire while I was asleep. Events I'd figured the GMs themselves would be aware of and be able to communicate to the antagonist in question the potential issues or drawbacks of their actions - or that the GM would atleast reach out to me for clarification on certain aspects around our nations statues, seeing as the action was GM approved. Its not even as if all of them were guarded. But that was one of the ones that was

It does also mean the people who were guarding the statues failed because they weren't on at a specific point in time. Which feels kinda..shitty? This kinda stuff is why I always direct people towards certain players should another breakout occur. Because they are usually in charge of the defense efforts and would probably be an active participant in stopping them. And this does matter in my opinion

Especially in a militaristic nation where success and failure mean alot for your career, in addition to the way you carry yourself.

It can be argued that I should have placed signs, though I am not a huge fan of this approach to things. Especially considering the reason they were being guarded was for event related things seperate from the antagonist who targetted the statues. Who would have probably been made aware of this by the people writing for the eventline, presumably.

I didn't exactly anticipate someone would just walk right in, break the statue, and leave. A thing that has been around for 200+ years with the mystical power to create contracts for summoners. An event that is mechanically "yeah okay sure" but ICly a rather important thing for summoners. - Esspecially since as it currently stands - no one should actually know how to rebuild them - My character specifically is supposed to teach people about that Youkai. Among other characters aswell - and this severely inconvieniences new summoners ICly. This would be effectively like if I said I went around and destroyed the Nemalyth crystals around the world ICly. Somthing useful for everyones progression. But no one knows how the fuck these things work.

Usually when I see people writing eventlines or villians its usually to provide - And to an extent, it does. But it feels like cleaning up rather than what it should feel like. And now theres a precedent in which a main source of a characters class progression can be outright destroyed. Which will probably lead to more cleaning down the line. Which might sound fun the first time. But probably alot less fun the next ten. Currently it feels as if the eventline takes more than it provides upon first impressions.

Overall my source of frustration is still there - as I figured a built in part of GM approval would have been proper communication. But I have bite my tongue, recover from stress-headaches and deal with it ICly after the fact. And apparently put up signs.

Feel free to drop some DMs to try to witch hunt me or whatever. I dont think anything I said in the logs were extremely wrong.

But I am incredibly tired at this point, and frustrated I even have to worry about the possibility to begin with.

[Poruku]

Wait, this is still about the statues? I thought we already went over this. The person who did it came into the public chat and we talked it out and people's frustrations were made clear and we reached an understanding, with a conclusion of "let's be better next time". It was even made clear that they could be rebuilt and investigated, and people have been trying to look into it.