problems

Firstly I would like to apologize for the time it took to form this. A lot went into it both from people I spoke to and from my effort to find a way to reword all of this so people wouldn’t be known as my sources. Also I became sick and that didn’t help. I also apologize for any confusion, there were many points that were the same but specific so I have tried to organize it properly.

 That being said this is my presentation of people’s feelings on the current state of the RP. Mine are excluded as I am a voice for others in this respect. Keep in mind that if I was able to I attempted to find evidence of this before I included it. None will be cited as that can in some cases cause names to be given. Also keep in mind that my information from the GM side is LIMITED, not non existent.  But if GMs wish to give their side of things without giving names I am happy to receive their words as well.

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I am going to get right to the heart of the issue and say that out of everything I was told the biggest issue that exists here is the separation of GMs and Players. The GMs are thought to be holding themselves above the players and to be frank the actions of the GMs have reflected this as of late. I will go into more detail below.

The chorus of voices I spoke to stated in not so many words that the GMs don’t seem to care about the players much at all on the majority. They don’t make an effort to really change any problems that have been small, large, or a long time outstanding. (I acknowledge that the GM team is currently tackling the Training issue but that comes with it’s own points and problems) When they do make an effort it seems token or poorly executed. It is felt the GMs feel superior to Players and treat them as if they don’t need to be listened to or involved. An example of this is the Training issue. It was announced that the team was working on a solution and then outside of info dumps no information was really given until a survey was released, calling for players to pick an option or come up with their own. An amount of people believe this was a poor decision as it doesn’t really involve players in the process so much as “pick one of our creation or make your own from scratch right now”. If players had been involved as idea had come about maybe more options would be available. A good deal of people are heavily subject to the game and have a good idea as how it turns out when in play.

Players feel as if they have no voice at all so many don’t think it is worth the time to try and fix anything. Numerous are on the verge of leaving the RP, only staying out of spite or due to loyalty to their stories, friends, and characters.

GMs seem to be against players in various ways to the point where people are scared to speak up. This should be evidence of that enough. Players are afraid if they speak up action will be taken on direct, indirect, or otherwise. Staff go against the players often and just as often refuse to hear criticism even from their own ranks. Discussions on matters like this being more or less echoed thoughts or repeating lines drowning out the opposition instead of hearing it out.

Negative forms of behavior from GMS is often seemingly ignored despite players noting this in the open. The ignorance is shown by the continuation of the behavior.

GMs being openly rude to veteran and new players alike. Mostly seen in public but there are moments when ‘send me a PM’ makes people nervous for the players that receive the message. It makes people worry especially for newer players who don’t know anyone they could talk to if that PM is hostile in any form.

GMs sometimes targeting one another for various reasons and internal promotions of staff just giving the same problems more power due to a simple increase in the same things.

Concerns of favoritism/discrimination in both soft and hard RP. This can take the form of roll results an attention given with roll results being noted at least once by myself. It can also take the form of decisions made in the RP.

Biased GMs are a fairly notable problem. From multiple occasions of GMs becoming heated and lashing out at GMs or Players, repeatedly targeting players in multiple ways, belittling questions or comments, to being blunt to the point of being outright rude or insulting. These are only a few examples. It is fine for any person to have their biases but when a person is making a decision with power behind it that can change things for others they have to leave that behind and that is something that isn't seen enough.

GMs seem very disconnected from one another, not like a ruling body and more like a group of people with similar attitudes and a single hat they share for power. This disorganization leads to problems like steps being taken against one person when another simply forgot they had okayed something. One GM addressing an issue and leaving it and then another GM hearing of that same issue and going after the same player with more aggression, believing the situation wasn’t handled quickly.

Past metagaming issues have been noted and while that was Origins not enough time has passed to show proper evidence that similar things are not possible. A few small moments have already been noticed where things were just perfect for a certain outcome or previous statements were changed without notice.

The often shifting system controlling the current mechanics of the RP doesn’t have players confident in it’s build.

The system/community is thought to be varying levels of toxic, as well as cliquey by structure.

Owner status. Our owner is never present in the RP anymore and the lack of an owner having an interest in what they own throws some people off because at that point it is up to the GMs to handle everything with no form of control. How can players have confidence in the RP if the owner doesn't have enough to be around?

“Open ICs” were a mentioned issue where people believe that not ALL scenes should be open for just anyone to jump in due to the comfort level of the players.

Lastly, it was noted that the recent romance RP decision was made to dull down content that doesn’t want to be seen or makes players uncomfortable when there are various GMs that seem to just ignore limits on content for their arcs.

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Overall i am sure the biggest point is the interaction between GMs and Players as a whole. GMs don’t seem to ever be players anymore and this is reflected in how Players are treated. In summary, I want to point out that my own point are withheld to keep myself as an unbiased voice between the two sides if it is needed. All my sources are private and will not be named or hinted at in any form. I also remind that there was a promised no retaliation against any complaints (yes people feel that is very possible and that's why I had to do this).