unforum

[Asphodel]

Call to Define Community Standards

[FSURobbie]

It's an interesting conundrum and a testament to Funnel because you're right, I can't really think of a similar situation arising in the past. The price of blazing trails is having to chart unknown territory.

While I like all your suggestions I'm not sure they will cover the full scope of our problem here. We have two factions diametrically opposed to one another and even if we take our IG cap off when posting to uF the reality of it is that I think there will still be issues.

For instance, the use of spoilers and the admonition that certain messages are "Grotian only", can't really be enforced and while we might all agree that this is an OOG haven what is to stop players from the Proscript party from reading and using that intel to their advantage? The honor code? That would ideally be enough but I don't think it would work too well in practice.

It's an interesting dilemma because this game could have instances where, for instance, a Proscript puzzle that players are trying to solve being posted to uF could be counter-productive simply because while GU players may have their cap off, they will have still read and possibly helped solve the puzzle and therefore have "insider info", and despite their best efforts that knowledge will shape and direct their actions IG.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the problem. It's as complex as our story and I think it's going to take some teamwork to problem solve this issue. I agree that some standards would help, but defining them is going to be tricky.

What does everyone else think?

[Asphodel]

[PinkCloud]

Archie Rebel FB Fanclub

[Rosemarie_Weissenfeld]

That I do apologize for, I was trying to clear game stuff from my person Facebook page and had not had a chance to create it again on my ARG facebook.I was also removing all the people here that are on my personal facebook as well, so that when its all over I can just add you to my ARG facebook page. My family was getting confused and hurt by some posts on my facebook and I actually got yelled at by my sister for it because she thought that I was talking about her and it got ugly. So I will take responsibility for the removal of the group. I didn't inform anyone because other that doing that I was not on that much yesterday due to some RL issues. Again I do apologize for removing the group without warning.

Anyways so then lets get this game rolling again and see it to the end because well, we have all gotten so tangled in it that it is only right we all see it to the end. All bullcrap and issues aside, lets get this going again.

And as for the topic of this post. I do agree that we did get too IC in all the posts here in uF and maybe its because someone of us could not turn off the characters we got into, either way, we will have to learn to keep IC and IG things off here and just learn to work as a community again. I do understand the problem that comes from the blah blah blah side only and all that, but what we have to remember is that there is supposed to be a code of honor between us all. I ws told there have been other games where sides have been chosen, maybe not to this extent, but they managed to keep uF to be neutral and posted everything here and worked as a whole. Why was this game so different? Did we all really get that wrapped up that we forgot to be ourselves when it came to uF? I mean we all took a wrong turn somewhere, none of us are without our faults in this. And I think those of us who ae willing to admit we made mistakes and got wrapped up in our IG personas are the ones who will be able to put it all aside and work together again.

This has definitely been a learning experience for all of us, not just the players, but I am sure the PMs have learned something from it too, and hopfully the next time we all play something like this again we can remember what happened here and not let ourselves do it all over again. That being said, game on everybody!

[diszaster]

Probably the most basic thing the community needs to do is accept the distinction between IG/OOG (in/out of game) and IC/OOC (in/out of character). You can be out of the game and also be in character (posting propaganda on an OOG forum), just like you can be IG and be OOC (in an IG chat room being yourself).

This distinction is not relevant for "roleplay-enforced" games because the only in-game space -is- in-character. Here's what I mean. In an rp-enforced game, the only "actionable" knowledge a player has is the knowledge that his/her character has. Character X cannot accuse Character Y of something unless the character has learned about it directly through the game (IG). Just because someone told the player something in an OOG setting doesn't mean that the character knows about it in the game.

Of course, this is non-enforceable except through immortal/pm oversight, but for the most part, players in rp-enforced games tend accept this as the community norm because this is stated as the community norm at the outset.

I've found that ARG players rarely play anything other than exaggerated, slightly more obsessive versions of themselves, even in this game. (No, this is not meant as an insult or a put-down). So I guess this hasn't come up before. (but, honestly, I doubt it will come up again)

Anyway, if we can make the distinction between "-game" and "-character" then I think we'll at least be able to clarify the issue, and then make decisions about what is acceptable and nonacceptable behavior as a community.

Just my 2 cents.

Edit: Oh, and on making some information on uF "for X eyes only"--honor codes only work if everyone agrees to them. And I know I didn't, probably wasn't ever asked.

[PinkCloud]

[Rosemarie_Weissenfeld]

Pink Cloud, I think what Disza was trying to talk about was the whole, in this games case, Proscript and Grotian thing, we were not necessarily characters, but we did play our sides on the board with the whole x-group only spoiler tags. I do not think it was meant as the characters we took in as our game personas but more the playing sides on here.

Anyways the whole point of this topic is because the ToS does not actually touch on the playing sides aspect. That's why this topic was made, so we could better figure out how to go about posting on uF if another game ends up having to be played like this one, where everyone not only chooses sides but has to be respectful to the..uh..privacy of the opposing sides spoilers and such.

We need to establish rules for this type of situation in the future.

[Asphodel]

[diszaster]

[Asphodel]

[diszaster]

[Syncopal]

Well Opinions are like As#h@les and I'm a big one... so I'm going to chime in here and give mine:

(And Just a note... this is not directed at anyone in particular just something I feel I need to get off my chest.)

1. IG/OOG, IC/OOC whatever... some of you folks need to toughen up... seriously this is beginning to feel a lot like high school. If you cannot handle someone being a prick to you on the 'interwebs' then there are some issues you need to address in RL. Can you be offended? Yes... can you ignore those people? Yes. Can you throw it right back in their face? For Sure. But please stop whining about it.

2. I'm new to this and maybe its the way I came across uF originally that I feel this way, but I think its a valid point none the less. I view uF as a central communications place for these games. The way I read it as long as the PM is not guiding gameplay from here then anything posted here by the players of the game is valid and can be posted.

Having said that, I think anything thats said in these forums or on an IG site is fair game for either the players or the PM's to use for OR against you. THIS INCLUDES CHAT!! I sat for the first few days watching a lot of you in the GU chat discussing all kind of things about your real lives... and I do not have a problem with this... however if you are playing an 'Alternate Reality Game' you need to realize that those sites are 'Alternate' realities and those things might come back to haunt you. Perhaps you shouldn't be exposing yourselves like that. And yes I do understand the importance of community and how these games revolve around it and I look forward to forging friendships along the way... but I'm mainly here to PLAY the game. And there are MANY other venues for you to socialize at the are OOG and safe to do so.

AS for the spoilers and such, I have always thought it was a bit dumb but went along with it because it seemed the thing to do. And I always expected players from the other side to read them. If there was anything that I didnt really want people to see I PM'ed it.

Now having said all of that... I'm going to lay a lot of this at the PM's feet, when this thing started we were working as a group and things were going along well... then bam... we're split into two groups. Ok I like competition fine, lets get it on. Then my group the GU was split into four smaller groups... each with ther own directives and leaders. Not only that, but there was the need for extreme secrecy. SO now the player base is divded into tiny groups and no one trusts each other and each group is off doing their own thing. And I still have no idea what the ultimate goal is as we are fed info bit by bit and don't really seem to have a direction. And that's where my personal frustration started.

And this is not to say that I think we've played this game really smartly either as players. Communication has sucked and there has really been no central 'governor' who is guiding us in a direction where we need to go. I blame myself for not being able to keep up with all of the forms this game has taken... which is why I really came back here to uF and just started playing here the way I wanted to play hoping that it would become the central resource I thought it was... but that really hasnt happened....

Ok I'll now get off my soapbox... I feel better and just needed to get all of that off of my chest... this did seem to start off on the thread topic and then vear off.... so dear mods if you feel you need to bump it to another thread please do...

[konamouse]

Hey guys! uF is OOG. Period.

Be yourself in here. Please do not be a character. PMs often read the threads but are not allowed to participate in any thread of their own game. And they should not use info posted in here that has not been forwarded to any IG site.

This is a forum to allow the community to work TOGETHER to ENJOY a game.

The goal of any PM should be for players to ENJOY the game, and it should be in the manner each individual player wants to play the game. Some like to be completely immersed, others just like to lurk.

[ironnikki]

I haven't been around much lately, so I'm not aware of recent events that have apparently sparked this debate. To be honest, I feel that this debate should have nothing to do with the ToS. It really comes down to one simple thing: Don't be a jerk. We've all got the same goal, and that is to have fun and enjoy this game. Joking around with one another is fine, but it sounds like some "jokes" were either not very joke-like, or were not received as such.

I realize that this doesn't really concern me that much, and that it's all been said before, but I'd just like to see this game remain a game, and not devolve into a flame war. It's been pretty cool so far, and I expect that it's going to get even better.