Backstory Guidelines & Policy

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Ephemeralis
Posts: 87
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2020 10:29 am

Re: Backstory Guidelines & Policy

Post by Ephemeralis »

To close off my participation in this thread since I've made my stance on it abundantly clear (and anything further would probably not be productive), I had a moment to think of recommending this to a VI friend and then having to explain to them that they couldn't play a character angled off their own disability because of this policy. No matter the good will or intentions or extra context behind this choice (of which I contend that there is likely ample, given COGG's stellar record until now on that front), those people coming into the game fresh are probably not going to have any of the situational knowledge to understand why it is in play, and they're probably not going to feel very great about it.

That alone is going to dissuade me from recommending COGG to any more people going forward, which is a crying shame given how excellent the game is in most other regards.
Navi
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Re: Backstory Guidelines & Policy

Post by Navi »

As someone who contends with blindness every day, my immediate response to engaging in a world like COGG is not, "I wish I could play my disability in this world." In fact, the ability to play a character who does not have any disabilities is a major attraction for me.
Of course, I am only one blind individual. In addition, blindness is only one disability, and even among blindness, there are additional co-occurring disabilities. Your friend may very well feel disappointed at not being able to portray themselves in COGG's world, but as you stated before, roleplay is a chance to step outside ourselves to explore other avenues of existence. I am sure your input is valued by the staff all the same.
wander without wanting, thrust into lands unknown. the shadows shift and change, and the worlds with them.
I'm not a soldier but I'm fighting
Can you hear me through the silence?
I won't give up 'cause there will be a day
We'll meet again
artus
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Re: Backstory Guidelines & Policy

Post by artus »

At this point and as it stands, I wouldn't like to argue against the policy for any reason given it does have a lot of points many people, me included, may not have considered doing such, coming from one of the best gm teams I've ever seen on games/internet in general, no sarcasm. All I may say and hope, however, is that while there may be a lot of changing/altering/retconning of characters going on in those who still wish to continue playing them as may be a toned down or different version of what they were, people are at least considerate, and/or supportive, of the change and don't bring the old baggage back to make it difficult or awkward or induce discomfort both in themselves and affected players, as I previously said in my last post. It may be something else if it doesn't work, but I'm pretty certain some players who find retiring a char a stab to the deep gut may want to gamble luck on, most of whom probably can't even come up with anything yet at this point and still try to. I don't dare claiming I say it on behalf of anyone, as this is my subjective plee and opinion alone that I hope may be what a bunch of us want to say as well. There're a lot of us, folks. Please?
Firerose
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Re: Backstory Guidelines & Policy

Post by Firerose »

Tessa wrote: Wed Mar 08, 2023 10:20 am I must admit that reading this has felt like a blow to my confidence in playing my character. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or doing disability justice, but as someone who lives with multiple disabilities, representation and allowing it does really matter. Have there been NPCs who told my character to speak to a mummer to magically fix her disability? You bet. But I try to separate because I'd honestly would have rather tore into that NPC than try to remain calm for the sake of not being deterred. All this being said, I do not know where I stand and the idea of Kordelia posing such an uncomfortable threat makes me sad.
I agree, and I wholeheartedly second this. I have a character whose inability to speak much is due to injury. If ESP were not verbally spoken at all, this would be far, far less apparent, because she might only try to whisper with her closest friends. This is an area of contention for me. I don't understand how or why an occult system takes verbal speech and converts it into thoughts in another person's head. But my purpose here is not to debate how ESP should be run, so please don't launch into a debate about that here...
My point is: I've had to change how my character interacts because of how ESP is handled, and it feels disingenuous and like something is wrong, but I can't fix it because of game mechanics. I'm just stating this here, in case others have felt similarly.

As someone with several disabilities, it is very, very important to me that they be portrayed accurately. It's why certain portrayals in the media offend me so badly--no one gets it right, ever. There's only one movie where they got it right, but I can't recall the name of it, and even there I could be wrong, since I don't live with the condition being portrayed.

About vocal cords. If you don't want to read medical stuff, feel free to skip.
You would not have a full trachea if you had no vocal cords, unless you were born this way and the entire trachea was there, but the cords didn't work for one reason or another.

Mutism. This can be, as Rias said in part, mental/psychological, or perhaps other reasons related to trauma. Completely unrelated to this would be something like a vow of silence.

Other disabilities. In my opinion, asking the entire game to play fully sane, fully mentally sound people is impossible. Too many people have some form of reason that brought them to the Lost Lands, and some of that may have really messed them up mentally. I'm not saying that severe mental handicap should be allowed, or that certain scenes should be roleplayed surrounding trauma, memories, etc...that just gets way too intense, and could set someone else's real-life things off in a bad way. This doesn't mean we walk on eggshells, it just means we handle this whole gray area with a huge amount of care. Maybe sometime I'll actually ask where the line might be in terms of suppressed memory recollection, etc., but I hesitate to do it here.

My words may not be saying all I mean them to, but I am trying. There is so much to this policy, and so much room for looking at all sides of this thing.
I do not expect, am not asking for anything to be changed, and I'm not criticizing it, just making observations and admitting how I feel about my own situation with one of my chars.
I appreciate staff discussing this, and not just slapping down a rule and then never budging. And thanks, too, for not lawyering us too much :)
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Rias
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Re: Backstory Guidelines & Policy

Post by Rias »

We've read and heard everything in this thread and appreciate the discussion. There's been a lot of internal discussion over the weekend. As I mentioned before, this is not an area I have particular expertise in, nor would I feel qualified advising anyone else in other situations regarding any of it. I have done my best to discuss with others and get additional perspectives to know how to best handle the situation here in my project that I'm responsible for though, as have the rest of staff. As of now we don't feel there need to be any further changes to the policy, though it remains open to potential future updates as do all policies. Any updates will be announced.

I thought I'd summarize and share some of my thoughts:

- Calls for improved representation and advice on achieving that are a good thing. I don't feel giving players free reign to RP disabilities is the solution, but I'm happy to listen to other solutions. I don't feel vetting players in order to allow them to RP a disability is a viable option or expectation.

- Achieving representation through individuals RPing a disability without actually having or experiencing them IRL seems both disingenuous and likely to be viewed as distasteful by many who do have the disabilities or are involved in the care of those who do. There will be variance in opinion on this, but here in my personal project and community I've set up I am ready to stand by my own opinions. I am open to further discussion, but this is where I currently stand.

- COGG was having a slow but steady increasing uptick in disabled characters, and this has been commented on by multiple people both publicly and privately. I do not want COGG to have a reputation for being the game where people go to pretend to have disabilities. The more it happens, the more it becomes a gimmick and something people do for fun or to try and be more interesting, which I do not feel is a positive perspective of disabilities to be encouraged.

- A niche tiny-population game designed for people to play as a fun leisure activity seems neither effective nor appropriate for a concentrated focus on the cause of disability representation. It's a very worthy cause, and should be taken to places and platforms where the effort will be effective. I am happy to improve representation in COGG how I can and in a way that will be most comfortable for everyone, but the game was not built for that purpose nor as a vehicle to affect social change.

- Representation should be championed by those particularly suited to it, and I do not feel qualified judge the suitability of players in this. I do know that I don't feel representing a minority or marginalized group is something anyone outside that group can just decide they're going to do themselves. Support the members of that group and the cause, absolutely. Claim to be a worthy representative themselves, no.

- I don't wish there were people roleplaying the various neurological disabilities that have afflicted my loved ones. The only representation I want to see regarding those is the real world taking them seriously when they do happen and providing adequate care, coverage, consideration, etc. I don't feel having someone RP one of those conditions in a niche video game where people go to have fun would improve the situation or how comfortable I feel. I personally would not enjoy seeing it done; it would make me feel worse, not better. While I have not asked any of my loved ones specifically, I have never heard any of them opine that they wish their condition was seen more in fiction media. Only more attention given in the real world to the effect of improving study, care, and treatment.

I also wanted to point out that I particularly agreed with Maina's analogy of using disabilities like a costume to be put on or taken off at leisure. I know that not everyone is approaching their RP of disabilities this way, but it's very often how it comes across, particularly in a video game where people go to have fun pretending to be different than they are in real life. Despite the very best of intentions, I just don't think it's a good look, nor a good thing to encourage as a common practice in the game or its community.

We do not expect all characters to be pristine, untouched characters, but do expect respect when representing things like grief, depression, or trauma. As the policy states, we will reach out if it goes too far.
<Rias> PUT ON PANTS
<Fellborn> NO
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