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Old 08-07-2002, 06:11 PM   #11
Brody
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: North Carolina
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Brody originally wrote: The yourself in that context was the generic anyone reading this. It's accurate enough that if you forbid IC rape but don't forbid other forms of potentially traumatic violence, a player can deem your policies hypocritical.

However, in your case, it sounds like you're forbidding rape and certainly making it difficult, although not impossible, to inflict harm of other kinds. That's a balance you're striking and it works for your game, and that's all that matters, ultimately. I would not presume to second-guess your choices.

We're both guilty of rationalizing the allowance of violence - every game operator who lets any act of violence occur must rationalize it somehow.

I don't like rape. I don't like it at all. You'd never see one of my characters doing it. Honestly, I'd like to never see it happen. But. I think you run the risk of overlegislating yourself if you create policies based on political correctness. Sure, it might feel good initially to have a policy against rape, then the next bad thing that happens with traumatic consequences will come up. Will you forbid that too?

I make it very difficult to accomplish rape. I make it easy to escape - just save a pool of XP, which is handed out like candy on OtherSpace. I don't need a policy against it, because most players won't do it, staffers have to get involved, and it can't be done through a coded means, which guarantees it will be rare.

For me to condone and encourage rape, it would take more than a failure to put words in a text file on my server saying "Don't rape people." It would require me to have a coded +rape <name> command, and perhaps even add "sexual assault" as a skill.

The column was quite clear in the closing paragraphs:

I believe it should be policed. It should be rare. If it happens, it should be done with great care and deliberation. The victim's OOC sensibilities should absolutely be taken into account, because - as I acknowledged - it may cause harm to the player behind the character.

We really aren't that far apart on this, Mason. While I think it doesn't require a blanket statement forbidding it, I do think it needs to be extremely difficult to accomplish - discouragingly so, to the point that a potential IC rapist might not even bother.

It's also worth noting: One reason I wouldn't forbid this is that any character who commits this, or any other crime, on OtherSpace, must face the consequences of their actions. The Demarian in question will probably end up with a bounty on his head, or the Timonae will kill him herself. Who knows? If the victim and her friends had no recourse to avenge the act, then it really should be forbidden. But they do. And if they decide to rape the Demarian noble with an umbrella while extracting his vital organs and listening to him scream, I'll happily let them do that - with a referee present - whether the Demarian likes it or not.
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