Log of OOC Meeting 2018-06-23

[The_Last_Good_Dragon]

I do not believe it's a broad misconception, moreso that it's an opinion based on all those who came before Farra. The Order, and by extension the Inquisition, has a history attached to it, both oocly and icly. That history kind of dictates a Review of Faith being somewhat of a death sentence, and more a formality than a actual chance to be proven innocent. And even if proven innocent more harm done to the reviewed, be it mentally or physically.

This history is perhaps what lead to the belief that Farra conducting a review of faith on Roland would result in such. Hell knowing Farra was content to stab someone outside of a review also lead to my own view of a review of roland would not end well for him, not mention other tidbits that are not publicly known.

I'm very much fine with the IC misconception of Farra's actions — I very much encouraged them in the way I wrote execution posts, despite Farra being very much validated in the actions. I do mind the OOC misconceptions: a Review of Faith should absolutely not have people OOCly assuming the Inquisition is going to kill someone, and if that's been your experience with Reviews in the past then I feel kinda bad. I've had two characters go through a Review, neither of them entirely innocent, and neither was executed as a result of those Reviews. One got off scot-clean, in fact, without formal penance, after being proven innocent of the initial accusations.

Also, if you (or even really your character) is extrapolating that because Farra gave a superficial cut to someone accused of poisoning a priest that she was willing to harm politicians she had recently defended, then I dunno what to say. People seem to be very quick to forget how Farra defended Roland's innocence of the murders of the Vavardi when the Tenebrae accused him of such, and most of those involved in this thread weren't around for a council meeting where she was far, far, far from the most critical voice against him.

[Taunya]

We're kind of drifting again I think.

My initial concern was hearing a rumor that OOC pressure was being applied by staff in relation to the plot, and hoping that if it were the case if things could be handled more ICly in the future. Hearing both sides, I think a few mistakes were made by a few parties, and plenty of misunderstandings happened, but it's all a learning experience.

If I might make a suggestion: we should perhaps make a new plot advance how-to, with some guidelines on what should be included and what shouldn't be included in an advance, and a little more explanation on how everything is decided. Temi has a guide, but a few more examples and an explanation on how they're processed and such could help clear things up.
On the staff side of things, I do think more of it could have been handled ICly rather than by OOC communication, but that goes the other way as well.

This has blown up a bit more than I expected, but I have been enjoying the plot, and I hope this doesn't leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth about it. Let's have some fun now, mmkay?

[The_Last_Good_Dragon]

Just to go ahead and put a final punctuation on this topic — I think everything that I intended to say was well-expressed — it was clearly not the right move to mention liquidation as the result of certain possible choices. I did it from a place of holistic interest: I would hope that those who know me could vouch that it certainly wasn't done from a place of malice or manipulation; lacking anyone's knowledge of me, I can only plainly say that it wasn't the intention to try to back those responsible for the plot into their own kind of corner. The results would still be the same, and it's probably healthier for me in general to have removed myself from the important position. Frustration with elements of Staff was only increasing over time, and I face an increased school load once summer is over that would have probably necessitated me stepping down anyways. Again, I still disagree with Kinaed's representation of the situation at the OOC Meeting (and am frustrated that she brought it up without first double-checking that my character was present, but mistakes can, and do, happen). It wasn't my intention to bring up these underlying issues of Farra's liquidation; if I could go back, I'd have just let the issue slide underneath the table, but I'm a bit (understatement) pugnacious at heart.

I'm not content with the state of Staff and the way things are presented. There's no possible way anyone could read this thread and think that I was, and I'm not going to try to butter up a stone and call it a scone. That isn't to say that I think they're terrible or shitty. Its frustrating that same complaints seem to crop up over and over again without a serious effort shown to improve on them. Its frustrating to voice an opinion or concern and be accused of cheating, being terrible, or just told "No ur wrong." If I thought TLI's staff was outright terrible, I wouldn't play here. Ultimately, my frustrations have come from a place of wanting to see this place prosper — there's a lot of negative opinion surrounding this game for the past few years, and frankly I do think that a lot of those opinions are validated by Staff's choices as to how to respond to criticism. With my new character, I won't need to be as involved in those stressors, I hope. Others can fill that position and hopefully effect change and promote RP in ways that I ultimately wasn't able to do, much to my sadness.

I think that a quality of a healthy game is the willingness to frankly discuss things both players and Staff see as issues. Just because one of those elements doesn't think that some specific thing isn't an issue shouldn't mean that discussion doesn't happen. Generally those discussions are allowed to happen with regards to code and theme, but those discussions never seem to honestly materialize where it's pointed towards specific staff behaviors or actions.

In any case: cheers, and happy RPing!

[Kinaed]

It's easy to sit in judgment when you're not actually running a game, trying to keep the peace between multiple player perspectives, balancing multiple priorities, and also have a day job.

The qualities that make me frustrating to deal with are also frequently necessary in an implementor. Being bullheaded and assertive is one of them for many, hopefully obvious, reasons.

I agree this thread got out of hand and a lock is appropriate, thanks Niamh.

[Niamh]

I think with Taunya's/TheLastDragon's/Kinaed's concluding addresses I'm going to opt to seal the thread, and hope that no one is upset by that decision. We seriously just did 4 pages on an OOC Meeting thread you guys. I think we've collectively won the forums.