Our "philosophies" are only different in that you would seek to forbid the activity outright and I wouldn't - although I would attach as many strings as possible and provide for the means for a potential victim to escape it.
I think it's a mistake to hamstring yourself or prove yourself a hypocrite by having a specific policy forbidding it, but I recognize it's your right - and any other MUD operator's right - to have such a policy.
The problem is this: If you forbid rape, but allow murder, then can you do so fairly? What if a player loses an IC friend or loved one to murder, and it turns out that they lost an RL friend or loved one to murder, and this causes them to re-experience that RL trauma?
That's what I meant by the slippery slope. You can't play therapist for people - that's not your job. And you also can't play parent - that's not your job, either. You can't protect everyone from everything, nor should you try. But you can put in safeguards that make it difficult for people to harm others and, if it makes you feel good, go right ahead and have a policy that forbids rape. But be ready to forbid everything else that might be deemed "traumatic" to a player. Don't be hypocritical. If you choose to protect their psyches from one trauma, be ready to protect them from all possible traumas.
I don't condone IC rape. I don't advocate rape. As I wrote in the column, I don't want to see it happening every day on OtherSpace. But I do believe that, although it can happen, it should do so only offscreen, with thorough OOC conversation in advance, and give the victim a chance to escape it.
I believe in balance. I think it's dangerous to have blanket provisions against one type of violence and not others. But I'm all for making it difficult to inflict any kind of violence on a player in a roleplaying environment.
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